Key Takeaways: • Kajabi is an all-in-one platform for creating and selling online courses • It’s user-friendly but comes with a higher price tag than some alternatives • Kajabi offers robust features but has some limitations on lower-tier plans • The platform provides good support, though responses can sometimes be generic • You can try Kajabi free for 30 days before committing |
In today’s digital age, sharing knowledge online has become a big business. Whether you’re a fitness guru, a business coach, or a craft expert, there’s a market for your skills. But how do you package and sell that knowledge effectively? That’s where Kajabi comes in.
In this review, we’ll take a deep dive into Kajabi, exploring its features, pricing, and overall value to help you decide if it’s the right platform for your online course business.
What Is Kajabi and Who Is It for?
Kajabi is a comprehensive platform designed for creators who want to sell their knowledge online. Launched in 2010, it’s grown into a powerhouse in the e-learning industry. But Kajabi isn’t just for online courses. You can use it to create and sell various digital products, including:
- Online courses
- Coaching programs
- Membership sites
- Podcasts
- Digital downloads
Kajabi is ideal for:
- Entrepreneurs who want to monetize their expertise
- Established businesses looking to add an online learning component
- Coaches and consultants seeking to scale their services
- Content creators ready to move beyond free platforms like YouTube
The platform aims to be an all-in-one solution, offering tools for course creation, website building, email marketing, and sales funnels. This means you can run your entire online education business from one place, without needing to juggle multiple tools or plugins.
Fun Fact: Kajabi users have collectively earned over $5 billion through the platform!
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Kajabi Customer Reviews
To get a balanced view of Kajabi, let’s look at what real users are saying. On Trustpilot, Kajabi currently holds a 4.4 out of 5-star rating based on over 1887 reviews.
Positive feedback often mentions:
- Ease of use: Many users praise how intuitive the platform is, even for tech novices.
- All-in-one functionality: Users appreciate not having to piece together multiple tools.
- Quality of courses: The professional look of Kajabi courses impresses both creators and students.
One satisfied user writes: “Kajabi has transformed my business. It’s so easy to use, and my courses look incredibly professional. My students love the learning experience.“
However, not all reviews are glowing. Common complaints include:
- High price point: Some users feel the cost is hight, especially for beginners.
- Learning curve: While generally user-friendly, mastering all features takes time.
- Limited customization: A few users wish for more design flexibility.
A less satisfied customer notes: “Kajabi offers a lot, but it comes at a premium price. For someone just starting, it might be overkill.”
These mixed reviews highlight that while Kajabi is powerful, it might not be the perfect fit for everyone. Your specific needs and budget will play a big role in determining if Kajabi is right for you.
Kajabi Pros and Cons: The Good and Bad
To help you weigh your options, let’s break down Kajabi’s strengths and weaknesses.
Pros: Things We Like
- All-in-One Platform: Kajabi combines course creation, website building, email marketing, and sales tools in one place. This integration can save you time and reduce tech headaches.
- User-Friendly Interface: Even if you’re not tech-savvy, Kajabi’s intuitive design makes it easy to create professional-looking courses and websites.
- Robust Marketing Tools: From email campaigns to sales funnels, Kajabi provides powerful marketing features to help you promote and sell your courses.
- No Transaction Fees: Unlike some platforms, Kajabi doesn’t take a cut of your sales (beyond standard payment processing fees).
- Customizable Themes: While not unlimited, Kajabi offers a range of attractive themes you can customize to match your brand.
- Reliable Performance: It’s difficult to “break” anything in Kajabi. The platform operates exceptionally smoothly.
- Straightforward and Efficient: Kajabi offers the necessary functionality without being overwhelmed with unnecessary features.
- Solid AI Tools: Unlike other platforms, Kajabi’s AI generates coherent sentences and meaningful content.
Cons: Things That Could Be Better
- Higher Price Point: Kajabi is more expensive than some alternatives, which might be a barrier for beginners or those on a tight budget.
- Limited Course Completion Certificates: The options for creating custom certificates are somewhat basic compared to some dedicated LMS platforms.
- Restricted Features on Lower Tiers: Some valuable features, like affiliate programs, are only available on higher-priced plans.
- No Free Plan: Unlike some competitors, Kajabi doesn’t offer a free tier, only a 14-day trial.
- Customer Limits on All Plans: You can pay an extra $99/month for Kajabi Access to double your customer limit, but there is no plan with unlimited customers. What do you do after you get more than 40,000 customers?
- Limited Websites: Only the Pro plan allows more than one website, which isn’t great if you manage multiple brands and products.
- Lack of Template Choice: While Kajabi’s templates are good quality, there aren’t many options to choose from.
- Poor Customer Service: They often give generic answers that don’t really solve your problem.
Recognizable Kajabi Customers
Kajabi has attracted some big names in the online education world. Here are a few recognizable Kajabi users:
- Brendon Burchard: A well-known personal development trainer, Burchard uses Kajabi to host his High Performance Academy.
- Amy Porterfield: This digital marketing expert runs her popular Digital Course Academy through Kajabi.
- Lewis Howes: The host of the School of Greatness podcast uses Kajabi for his online courses and membership site.
- Chalene Johnson: This fitness entrepreneur and lifestyle coach hosts multiple programs on Kajabi.
- James Wedmore: Known for his expertise in video marketing, Wedmore uses Kajabi for his Business By Design program.
These success stories show that Kajabi can handle high-traffic, profitable online businesses. However, remember that these are established names with large followings. Your results may vary, especially when you’re just starting out.
How Affordable Is Kajabi and Is It Worth It?
Let’s talk money. Kajabi offers four main pricing tiers:
Kickstarter Plan
Pricing: $55/mo (Billed Annually)
The Kickstarter Plan is perfect for those just starting out. It allows you to get your business up and running with a variety of essential features. This plan includes:
- 0% Transaction Fee
- 50 Landing Pages
- 1,250 Marketing Emails
- 1 Product
- 1 Funnel
- 250 Contacts
- 50 Active Customers
- 1 Website
- Kajabi AI Features
- Creator Studio
Basic Plan
Pricing: $119/mo (Billed Annually)
The Basic Plan is ideal for small businesses ready to expand their operations. It offers unlimited resources and additional products to help you grow. This plan includes:
- 0% Transaction Fee
- Unlimited Landing Pages
- Unlimited Marketing Emails
- 3 Products
- 3 Funnels
- 10,000 Contacts
- 1,000 Active Customers
- 1 Website
- Kajabi AI Features
- Creator Studio
Growth Plan (Most Popular)
Pricing: $159/mo (Billed Annually)
The Growth Plan is the most popular choice for businesses looking to get serious about growth. It provides advanced features and a higher limit on resources. This plan includes:
- 0% Transaction Fee
- Unlimited Landing Pages
- Unlimited Marketing Emails
- 15 Products
- 15 Funnels
- 25,000 Contacts
- 10,000 Active Customers
- 1 Website
- Kajabi AI Features
- Creator Studio
- Advanced Automations
- Affiliate Program
- Custom Branding
- 24/7 Support
Pro Plan
Pricing: $319/mo (Billed Annually)
The Pro Plan is designed for businesses and teams that require advanced features and multiple websites. It offers the highest resource limits and customization options. This plan includes:
- 0% Transaction Fee
- Unlimited Landing Pages
- Unlimited Marketing Emails
- 100 Products
- 100 Funnels
- 100,000 Contacts
- 20,000 Active Customers
- 3 Websites
- Kajabi AI Features
- Creator Studio
- Advanced Automations
- Affiliate Program
- Custom Branding
- 24/7 Support
- Custom Code Editor
Enterprise Plan
Pricing: Custom (Starting at $10,000/year)
For those seeking hands-on, personalized assistance and premium services, the Enterprise Plan offers tailored solutions. This plan includes:
- Custom Pricing Plans with higher limits for contacts, products, and more
- Seamless Migration Assistance
- White Glove Onboarding
- Dedicated Customer Success Manager
- Complimentary AI Creator Studio Tools
- Branded Mobile App
All plans come with:
- 0% transaction fees
- Unlimited landing pages
- Unlimited marketing emails
- Chat support
Is it worth it? That depends on your needs and budget. Here’s how Kajabi compares to some alternatives:
Platform | Lowest Monthly Price | Highest Monthly Price |
Kajabi | $149 | $399 |
Teachable | $29 | $249 |
Thinkific | $39 | $399 |
Podia | $39 | $199 |
Systeme.io | $27 | $97 |
Kartra | $119 | $549 |
Kajabi is pricier, but remember, it includes features that might require separate subscriptions on other platforms. For example, you might need to pay extra for email marketing or funnel builders with some competitors.
If you’re just starting and on a tight budget, Kajabi might feel expensive. But if you’re ready to scale your online education business and want an all-in-one solution, Kajabi’s value becomes more apparent.
Tip: Kajabi offers 30-day free trial, so you can test it out before committing.
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Kajabi Features Review
Let’s dive into Kajabi’s key features to see what you’re getting for your money.
Course Builder
The Kajabi course builder is renowned for its user-friendly interface, making it a favorite among many notable course creators. From the outset, assembling your course is straightforward and doesn’t require any complicated coding. You can choose from several pre-built themes and then customize them to fit your brand and style. Courses can be enriched with video, audio, and digital downloads, allowing for an engaging learning experience. Additionally, you can test students’ knowledge by adding quizzes and awarding certificates upon successful completion. The overall look and feel of a Kajabi course from the student’s perspective is sleek and modern, crucial if you plan to charge premium prices for access.
- Pre-built themes customizable to your brand
- Multimedia integration: video, audio, digital downloads
- Quizzes and certificates to test knowledge
Community Builder
Kajabi’s community feature goes beyond the typical comment sections found on other platforms, providing tools for valuable engagement. Since acquiring Vibely in 2022 and incorporating it into the platform, Kajabi has significantly improved its community-building capabilities. While it might not be as comprehensive as a dedicated community platform like Mighty Networks, it still offers enough to build the engagement needed to grow your audience. In addition to the usual chat feeds, you can create events, hold challenges, jump into live streams, and use the announcement feature to promote new offers. When combined with a Kajabi course, the community feature becomes a powerful tool.
- Create events and hold challenges
- Live streaming and announcement features
- Improved engagement post Vibely acquisition
Podcasts
Kajabi’s podcast feature, though not outstanding, provides a convenient place to create and monetize podcast content. While you can’t record episodes directly in Kajabi, you can upload your podcast files and distribute them across major podcast platforms. This feature is best suited for those who want to offer podcasts alongside other learning products rather than as a standalone podcast platform.
- Upload and distribute podcast files
- Not suitable for standalone podcasting
- Ideal for combined learning products
Coaching
Kajabi’s native scheduling tool simplifies the setup of coaching products, a feature many similar platforms lack. After setting your availability, customers can automatically book their sessions, and you can use Kajabi live video to run these sessions, eliminating the need for Zoom integration. This seamless process makes setting up coaching sessions a breeze.
- Native scheduling tool
- Automatic session booking
- Kajabi live video for sessions
Website Builder
The website builder in Kajabi allows for quick and stunning website creation. You can choose from 11 website templates and use the drag-and-drop editing tool to customize them. However, it’s important to note that the Basic and Growth plans allow only one website, while the Pro plan allows for three. This limitation can be a stumbling block if you create digital products under different brand identities. On the positive side, you can add unlimited pages, including landing pages, funnel pages, and blog articles, and the templates for these pages are plentiful and visually appealing.
- 11 website templates
- Drag-and-drop customization
- One website on Basic and Growth plans, three on Pro plan
- Unlimited pages for landing, funnel, and blog articles
Marketing Tools
Kajabi covers all your marketing needs, removing the necessity for separate emailing and funnel-building apps. Emailing is streamlined and efficient, allowing you to create and send email campaigns without overcomplicating the process. Funnel building, often a complex area, is simplified with Kajabi’s approach. Just about anyone can build a funnel without frustration, thanks to the pre-built templates available for various funnel types. You simply select a template, customize it, and you’re ready to go.
- Streamlined email marketing
- Simplified funnel building
- Pre-built funnel templates
Automation
Kajabi’s automation functionality removes the mundane tasks associated with running an online business. You can automate tasks such as sending emails, promotions, and assigning leads to campaigns with ease. Creating an automation involves deciding the “when” (the trigger) and the “then” (the action). This simple yet effective system saves you a significant amount of time.
- Automate emails, promotions, and lead assignments
- Simple trigger-action setup
- Saves time on manual tasks
AI Tools
Kajabi’s AI tools assist with various features, providing a helpful starting point for content creation. By clicking the purple sparkly icon, you can ask “Ama” for help with tasks such as generating landing page content, video scripts, and course outlines. While the AI responses can sometimes be cheesy and generic, they often provide a good foundation to build upon, helping to overcome creative blocks.
- AI assistance with content creation
- Generates landing page content, video scripts, and course outlines
- Useful for overcoming creative blocks
Sales Tools
Kajabi’s sales tools include its own payment gateway, simplifying transactions within the platform. Kajabi Payments handles all transactions, reducing the likelihood of issues. Currently, this feature is only available to subscribers based in the USA; those in other countries must use Stripe or PayPal. Kajabi also offers ways to increase revenue, such as adding order bumps, upsells, and creating coupon codes. There are zero transaction fees on Kajabi, and you can create one-time payments, subscriptions, or payment plans, depending on what suits your product best.
- Kajabi Payments for seamless transactions (USA only)
- Revenue boosters: order bumps, upsells, coupon codes
- Zero transaction fees
- Multiple payment options
Analytics Tools
Kajabi’s analytics provide a comprehensive overview of your campaign and product performance. The information is broken down into bite-size sections, making it easy to understand what is working and what isn’t. For those needing more granular detail, Google Analytics can be integrated, but Kajabi’s native analytics are sufficient for most users.
- Bite-size information sections
- Easy to understand performance metrics
- Google Analytics integration for detailed insights
Mobile Apps
Kajabi offers three mobile apps to manage various aspects of your business and learning content on the go. The “Kajabi” app is for students to access course content, the “Kajabi Communities” app is for engaging with communities, and the “Kajabi Creator” app is for managing your course content and business. While you currently cannot remove the Kajabi branding from these apps, a branded app capability is in beta testing and available by joining a waitlist for an additional cost.
- Three mobile apps: Kajabi, Kajabi Communities, Kajabi Creator
- Manage business and learning content on the go
- Branded app capability in beta for $199/month
Kajabi User Experience
Kajabi prides itself on being user-friendly, and for the most part, it delivers. The dashboard is clean and intuitive, with clear navigation of all major features.
Creating a course is straightforward:
- Choose a product blueprint
- Add your content
- Customize the look and feel
- Set your pricing
The website builder uses a familiar drag-and-drop interface, making it easy to design your site without coding knowledge.
Marketing tools like email and pipelines use templates and visual editors, reducing the learning curve for non-marketers.
However, with so many features, it can take time to fully explore and master everything Kajabi offers. The platform provides extensive documentation and tutorial videos to help you along.
Kajabi Customer Support
Kajabi offers several support options:
- Help Center: A comprehensive knowledge base with articles and tutorials.
- Email Support: Available on all plans.
- Live Chat: 24/7 on Growth and Pro plans, limited hours on Basic.
- Kajabi University: Free courses on how to use the platform effectively.
- Kajabi Assistant: An AI-powered tool to answer questions and offer guidance.
While generally responsive, some users report that support responses can sometimes feel generic or scripted. Complex issues might require follow-up conversations.
The lack of 24/7 live chat on the Basic plan is disappointing, given the price point.
Kajabi Review: Conclusion
Kajabi is a powerful, all-in-one platform for online course creators. Its strengths lie in its comprehensive feature set, user-friendly interface, and robust marketing tools. If you’re looking to create, market, and sell online courses without juggling multiple platforms, Kajabi is a strong contender.
However, it’s not without drawbacks. The higher price point may be a barrier for beginners or those on a tight budget. Some features are limited on lower-tier plans, and there’s a learning curve to master all the tools.
Is Kajabi right for you? Consider these questions:
- Do you need an all-in-one solution, or are you happy using multiple tools?
- Is your business generating enough revenue to justify the cost?
- Do you value ease of use and integration over maximum customization?
If you answered yes to these questions, Kajabi could be a great fit. If you’re just starting out or on a tight budget, you might want to explore more affordable alternatives first.
Remember, Kajabi offers a 30-day free trial. We recommend taking it for a spin to see if it meets your needs before committing to a paid plan.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I use Kajabi if I’m not tech-savvy?
Yes, Kajabi is designed to be user-friendly. While there’s a learning curve, most users find it manageable, even without technical skills.
- Does Kajabi handle taxes for me?
Kajabi integrates with TaxJar for US sales tax calculations. For other regions, you may need to manage taxes manually or use additional tools.
- Can I sell physical products on Kajabi?
While Kajabi is primarily designed for digital products, you can sell physical products. However, you’ll need to handle shipping and inventory management separately.
- Is Kajabi good for membership sites?
Yes, Kajabi offers robust features for creating and managing membership sites, including drip content and community features.
- Can I migrate my existing courses to Kajabi?
Yes, Kajabi offers migration services to help you move your content from other platforms. Some manual work may be required depending on your current setup.