Teachable vs Kajabi: Course Platform vs Creator Business OS

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Teachable vs Kajabi is the fork between course-first simplicity and creator-business consolidation. Teachable optimizes hosting, checkout, and course delivery for instructors who want a focused learning product; Kajabi bundles courses with funnels, email, communities, and broader monetization at a considerably higher price point than it used to. That gap widened further in January 2026, when Kajabi restructured its pricing — pulling its old $89/month Kickstarter entry plan entirely and pushing its real starting price to $179/month. That single change matters enough to this comparison that it’s worth understanding before looking at either platform’s feature list, since it shifts exactly how large a gap you’re weighing against Teachable’s much lower entry cost. Read our Teachable review for course creators and confirm Kajabi features on its official site.

Quick verdict

Choose Teachable if your business is primarily courses (self-paced or cohort) and you want lower complexity and a genuinely lower entry cost — but model the transaction fee carefully, since it only disappears once you move off the entry Starter tier.

Choose Kajabi if you need email, funnels, products, and community in one subscription and will actually use those modules weekly. Given the January 2026 price increase, that “will actually use” qualifier matters more than ever — Kajabi’s cheapest plan now costs more than double what it did before the restructuring, so the case for it depends heavily on genuinely replacing several other tools rather than just wanting the option to.

Comparison table

The transaction-fee row deserves a second look on its own: Teachable’s fee only applies on its cheapest Starter tier, while Kajabi charges no platform transaction fee on any tier as long as you use its built-in Kajabi Payments. That’s a real structural difference, not just a pricing quirk — it means Teachable’s all-in cost narrows toward Kajabi’s the more you sell on Starter, while Kajabi’s cost stays flat regardless of sales volume.

Course delivery

Teachable excels at straightforward course player experiences, coupons, payment plans, and affiliate tools on eligible tiers — ideal for coaches launching one or two flagship programs who want the delivery mechanics to just work without a lot of platform configuration standing between them and a published course.

Kajabi wraps courses inside a broader product catalog — memberships, downloads, podcasts, and communities are all sold as first-class product types alongside courses, not add-ons bolted onto a course-first tool. For creators selling multiple offer types under one brand, that native product-type flexibility removes a layer of platform-juggling that a course-only tool like Teachable doesn’t need to solve, since it isn’t trying to.

Pricing and transaction fees, in detail

Teachable’s current structure runs four paid tiers: Starter at $39/month ($29/month billed annually), Builder at $89/month ($69/month annually), Growth at $189/month ($139/month annually), and Advanced at $399/month ($309/month annually). The transaction fee story is simple once you see it laid out: Starter carries a 7.5% platform fee on every sale, on top of standard Stripe or PayPal processing fees, while Builder, Growth, and Advanced all charge 0% platform fee. That 7.5% adds up fast — on $30,000 a year in course sales, it’s roughly $2,250 in fees alone, which is well more than the $600/year difference between staying on Starter and upgrading to Builder. In practice, this makes Builder the realistic entry point for anyone selling with any regularity, even though Starter’s sticker price looks cheaper.

Kajabi’s pricing changed meaningfully in January 2026: the platform discontinued its old $89/month Kickstarter plan entirely, without grandfathering existing users onto it, and its current three-tier structure now starts considerably higher. Basic runs $179/month ($143/month annually), Growth runs $249/month ($199/month annually), and Pro runs $499/month ($399/month annually). Kajabi charges 0% platform transaction fee on every tier when you use its built-in Kajabi Payments, though using your own separate Stripe account instead can bring additional processing considerations. Kajabi does not offer a free plan, only a trial period (commonly 14 days, sometimes offered as 30 days depending on the promotion).

Run the numbers for your actual situation rather than trusting either sticker price alone: a low-volume Teachable Starter seller pays a real percentage of every sale but a low flat subscription; a Kajabi Basic subscriber pays a much higher flat monthly cost but literally nothing per sale. The crossover point where Teachable’s fees would exceed the gap to Kajabi’s subscription depends entirely on your sales volume, so it’s worth modeling your own numbers before assuming either platform is “cheaper” in the abstract.

Marketing stack

Kajabi reduces tool sprawl when you run webinar funnels, email nurtures, and upsells without stitching together a separate email service provider, a dedicated funnel builder, and Teachable for checkout and hosting. Its native pipeline builder and email sequences are included from the Basic tier up, which is part of what justifies its now-higher entry price for creators who’d otherwise be paying for those tools separately anyway.

Teachable keeps monthly fixed costs lower for creators who already pay for Kit or MailerLite and only need solid checkout and hosting layered underneath an email and marketing stack they’ve already built. If you’re not planning to replace those tools regardless of which course platform you choose, Kajabi’s marketing features are effectively a cost you’re paying for without using.

Design, websites, and community features

Kajabi includes a full website builder as part of its core product, letting a creator run their entire online presence — sales pages, blog, course delivery, and community — from one platform without a separate website tool. Community is a native product type from the Basic tier upward, positioned alongside courses and memberships as something you can sell and manage without a third-party community platform like Circle or Mighty Networks.

Teachable’s design and website capabilities are narrower by comparison, focused on the course sales page and checkout flow rather than a full site builder — most Teachable users pair it with a separate website (WordPress, Webflow, Squarespace) and just link out to Teachable for the actual course purchase and delivery. Community features on Teachable are more limited and tier-gated; verify current availability and depth on your intended plan before assuming feature parity with Kajabi’s native community product.

Pricing philosophy

Teachable’s real cost is subscription plus transaction fees — see Teachable pricing for current numbers. High-volume sellers often upgrade tiers specifically to eliminate the Starter fee, since the math tips in favor of a higher flat subscription once sales volume passes a fairly modest threshold.

Kajabi’s real cost is a higher base subscription, now meaningfully higher since the January 2026 restructuring, justified specifically when you cancel other tools — an ESP, a funnel builder, a community platform — that you’d otherwise be paying for on top of a course platform. Run a stack total-cost-of-ownership comparison: Teachable plus a separate ESP plus a separate funnel tool, versus Kajabi as a genuine all-in-one, using your actual current tool subscriptions as the baseline rather than a hypothetical stack.

Payment processing and international selling

Both platforms rely on standard card processing fees layered on top of whatever platform fee applies, typically in the neighborhood of Stripe or PayPal’s standard rate (commonly cited around 2.9% + $0.30 per US card transaction), and these processor fees apply on every plan regardless of tier — they’re separate from Teachable’s Starter-only platform fee and from Kajabi’s platform-fee-free structure. Neither platform’s base pricing includes global tax compliance handling (VAT, GST, and similar) as a built-in feature the way a merchant-of-record service does, so international creators selling into multiple tax jurisdictions may need a separate tax compliance tool or service regardless of which course platform they choose.

Kajabi’s own payment processing, Kajabi Payments, is what unlocks the platform’s 0% transaction fee promise — using an external Stripe account directly instead can change how fees apply, so confirm you’re actually set up on Kajabi Payments if the zero-transaction-fee pitch is a deciding factor for you. Teachable similarly integrates directly with Stripe and PayPal for processing, with its platform fee (on Starter) charged as a separate layer on top rather than bundled into the processor’s cut.

Who should choose which

Teachable fits first-time course creators, course-only businesses, and coaches testing cohort offers who want to keep monthly costs predictable and low while they validate demand. Also compare Thinkific vs Teachable for more design control if Teachable’s page customization feels limiting.

Kajabi fits established creators running multi-product funnels who want one admin login covering courses, email, community, and sales pages, and who are confident they’ll use enough of those modules to justify the post-2026 pricing.

Neither — if you only need a PDF and a Gumroad-class checkout, both platforms may be overkill for what’s really a simple digital-download business rather than a course business.

FAQ

Q

Is Kajabi always more expensive than Teachable?

A

Headline subscriptions clearly favor Teachable at entry, especially now that Kajabi’s cheapest plan starts at $179/month against Teachable’s $39/month Starter tier. Kajabi can still win on total cost of ownership when it genuinely replaces three or more other subscriptions you’d otherwise be paying for separately — but that calculation only favors Kajabi if you’d actually be paying for equivalent tools anyway, not as a general rule.

Q

Can I migrate from Teachable to Kajabi?

A

Yes, though plan for it deliberately: student access continuity, payment rebilling for subscription-based courses, and content re-upload all need attention during a migration. Budget migration time during a low-sales window rather than mid-launch, since course platform switches tend to surface small formatting and access issues that are easier to fix without live students actively depending on uninterrupted access.

Q

Which has lower transaction fees?

A

Kajabi charges 0% platform transaction fee on every tier when using Kajabi Payments, which is simpler than Teachable’s structure, where the fee depends entirely on which tier you’re on — 7.5% on Starter, 0% on Builder and above. Compare your actual expected sales volume against both fee structures rather than assuming either platform is categorically cheaper on fees; on Builder or above, Teachable’s per-sale cost is functionally the same as Kajabi’s — the real difference at that point is just the flat subscription price.

Q

Did Kajabi’s January 2026 price changes affect existing customers?

A

According to third-party pricing trackers, Kajabi’s restructuring was not grandfathered — the old Kickstarter plan was removed and existing users saw increases across tiers along with the new pricing rollout, rather than being allowed to stay on legacy pricing indefinitely. If you’re an existing Kajabi customer evaluating whether to stay, confirm your current plan’s status and renewal pricing directly in your account rather than assuming your existing rate is protected.

Q

Does either platform charge extra for things like affiliate programs or a branded mobile app?

A

Feature gating varies more on Kajabi, where things like an affiliate program, advanced automations, and a branded mobile app are reserved for Growth and Pro tiers rather than included on Basic — a branded mobile app has historically been sold as a separate paid add-on on lower tiers before becoming included at higher ones. Teachable includes affiliate tools on eligible tiers as well, but verify current tier requirements for both platforms directly, since these gates shift periodically.

Q

Which platform is easier to switch away from later?

A

Course content itself is generally portable between platforms — video files and lesson text can be exported and re-uploaded elsewhere on both Teachable and Kajabi — but the deeper you build into either platform’s marketing and community features, the more that becomes locked into the platform you’re leaving. A Teachable-only setup paired with an external ESP tends to be easier to unwind, since the email list and funnel logic already live somewhere else. A fully built-out Kajabi setup, with email automations, funnels, and community all native to the platform, generally takes longer to rebuild elsewhere if you ever decide to switch.

Q

Does this article use affiliate links?

A

Yes. CTAs on this page use data-affiliate markup, and approved tracking URLs sync from affiliate-handoff.json via sync-affiliate-handoff.ts. The affiliate relationship does not influence which platform we recommend for a given use case above—our verdicts are based on how each tool’s actual feature set matches different buyer situations.

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