Teachable vs Kajabi: which one wins for each feature, price point, and type of user?

Selecting the right learning management system (LMS) matters if you want to make an impact in online learning and optimize your training strategy to its full potential. Whether you’re an online mentor offering educational courses or a company training its global workforce, choosing the right learning management system for your platform is essential for outreach, goals, and the overall learner experience.

This article discusses the key differences between two major learning management systems, Kajabi and Teachable, both offering features designed for educators and businesses. Let’s compare their features to see which platform is better suited to different course needs.

Quick Verdict: Teachable Vs Kajabi

Teachable is the better choice for beginners, independent course creators, and users who want an easier and more affordable way to create and sell courses.

Kajabi is best for coaches, established creators, and businesses that need an all-in-one system for courses, marketing, sales, automation, and customer management.

In short:

• Best for beginners: Teachable
• Best for affordable course creation: Teachable 
• Best for course delivery and student learning: Teachable
• Best for marketing automation: Kajabi
• Best for coaching and memberships: Kajabi
• Best for established creators: Kajabi

The right choice ultimately comes down to whether your priority is selling and delivering courses simply or building a larger digital business around your expertise.

Teachable vs Kajabi at a Glance:

Feature	Winner	Reason
Course Creation	Teachable	More focused on straightforward course creation and delivery
Ease of use	Teachable	Better suited to beginners who want a simpler setup
Pricing	Teachable	Lower entry cost for creators primarily focused on courses.
Marketing	Kajabi	Stronger built-in marketing and automation ecosystem
Email Marketing	Kajabi	More integrated with the broader customer journey
Sales funnels	Kajabi	Better suited to creators who want built-in funnel functionality
Coaching	Kajabi	Strong fit for coaching combined with courses, memberships, and marketing
Memberships & Community	Kajabi	Better fit for building a broader creator ecosystem
Student Learning	Teachable	More focused on structured course delivery and learning
Third-Party integrations	Teachable	Good option for creators who prefer specialized external tools.
All-in-one business	Kajabi	Combines multiple business and marketing functions in one platform

Teachable vs Kajabi: Pricing

Pricing is one of the major differences between Teachable and Kajabi.

Teachable currently offers four pricing plans: Starter, Builder, Growth, and Advanced. Its listed monthly prices are $39, $89, $189, and $399, respectively, while annual billing reduces the first three listed prices to $29, $69, and $139 per month.

Kajabi is positioned at a significantly higher price point. Its Basic plan starts at $179/month when billed monthly. When billed annually, the effective monthly price is  $143/month, representing a 20% saving. The Growth plan costs $249/month when billed monthly or $199/month with annual billing, while the Pro plan costs $499/month when billed monthly or $399/month annually.

Pricing Factor	Teachable	Kajabi
Entry Price	Lower	Higher
Annual Starting Price	$29/Month	$143/Month
Monthly Starting Price	$39/Month	$179/Month
Annual discount	22%	20%
Best Value for	Course-focused creators	Businesses using multiple built-in tools

Which is more affordable?

Teachable wins on affordability.

If you are launching your first online course and don’t want an extensive marketing ecosystem, paying for Kajabi’s additional business tools may not make financial sense.

However, the comparison becomes more complicated if you would otherwise pay separately for an email marketing platform, landing-page builder, website tools, automation software, and community platform. Kajabi bundles many of these functions into one system.

Teachable vs Kajabi: Feature-by- Feature Comparison

Course Creation

Both platforms provide tools for creating and selling online courses, so neither is a weak option for course creation.

Teachable supports multiple content types such as videos, audio, text, images, PDFs, quizzes, and completion certificates. It also provides a mobile student experience through iOS and Android apps. Kajabi also provides course creation tools but places them within its larger business ecosystem. Courses can connect directly with email campaigns, automations, landing pages, payments, and other marketing functions.

However, Teachable takes the win because, for someone whose primary goal is creating and selling courses, its interface and features are more focused on course delivery and education. Kajabi becomes more attractive when course creation is only a part of a larger business.

Ease of Use

Teachable has a relatively straightforward interface, making it easy for beginners to set up their online school and start creating and selling courses without dealing with too many complex tools. Its more focused approach can make the platform less overwhelming for creators who are mainly interested in course creation and delivery.

Kajabi offers a wider range of tools within one platform, including website building, email marketing, sales funnels, automation, and course management. While having these features in one place can be convenient, the larger number of tools may require more time for new users to learn. Therefore, Teachable is the better choice for beginners seeking simplicity, while Kajabi may be more suitable for creators who are willing to spend more time learning the platform in exchange for its broader functionality.

Marketing

Kajabi has an advantage because it combines many of the tools that creators might otherwise need to access through third-party services. This gives creators an all-in-one ecosystem for managing their marketing and sales.

Teachable does provide useful sales features such as coupons, upsells, order bumps, affiliate marketing, and abandoned-cart recovery. These tools can be enough for creators who already have an audience or use separate marketing tools to promote and sell their courses. Kajabi takes this a step further by combining email marketing, landing pages, sales funnels, and automation. If a learner downloads a free resource such as an e-book, they can join the creator’s email list. The creator can then send them emails about promotions and new course releases, potentially leading to more engagement on the course creator’s platform. 

Email Marketing

Email marketing is an important part of promoting online courses and engagement with learners. Both Kajabi and Teachable incorporate email marketing, but here’s how they differ.

Teachable already allows you to send one-time emails to your students; these can be check-ins and daily reminders. For broader course promotion and to reach out to potential customers, creators can use email service providers (ESPs). This is because Teachable serves mainly as a course creation platform that does not have the same built-in tools for broader email outreach.

Kajabi functions as an entire business ecosystem, with these tools built into the platform, reducing the need for third-party services. When it comes to email marketing, Kajabi is more advanced than Teachable. Kajabi has two types of email marketing: email broadcasts and email sequences. Email broadcasts are a single email that promotes, announces, or shares something of interest to your audience. Email broadcasts are typically sent manually. An email sequence is a series of emails built in advance and sent by a trigger based on customer behavior, such as signing up for your lead magnet, joining your course, or submitting a form. If a student registers for a free webinar, then Kajabi automatically sends a confirmation email. If they attend the webinar, then they would receive a follow-up email regarding the experience or general questions. If they purchase, they receive a welcome email; if they don’t, they could receive another promotional email.

Sales Funnel

A sales funnel is a visual model that shows the journey a potential customer takes from first learning about a product to making a final purchase. Both Kajabi and Teachable offer tools that can help creators turn potential customers into paying students, but they take different approaches.

In Teachable, the course content is one of its main focuses. It provides creators with the necessary tools to help move someone from being a potential customer to making a purchase and then making additional purchases through upsells. With lead magnets that offer free content in exchange for contact information, and with SEO and tracking pixels that help attract people and measure marketing performance, Teachable provides its creators with a range of tools to market their courses to potential learners.

Kajabi takes a more integrated approach to sales funneling by allowing its creators to connect different stages of the customer’s journey within one platform. Creators can use landing pages to capture potential clients, email campaigns to nurture their interest, and offers and checkout pages to guide them towards the final purchase. These tools can be connected through automation, allowing certain actions to trigger the next stage of the funnel. This makes Kajabi useful for creators who wish to build a marketing journey without relying on several separate services.

Automation

Teachable can extend its automation capabilities through Zapier, which connects a creator’s Teachable school with other applications, including marketing automation tools such as ActiveCampaign and HubSpot, as well as tools for spreadsheets and team communication. Zaps are comprised of two phases: a trigger step and an action step. A trigger is an event that sets the Zap in motion, while an action is the task that is automatically completed in another application as a result. Zapier can also work in the opposite direction, allowing an action in an external application to trigger an action within Teachable. Teachable uses the addition of a new Sumo email subscriber as an example of an external event that can automatically create a new user in Teachable.

For automation, Kajabi takes a more advanced approach by using the “When”, “Then,” and “Only if” approach to help creators automate actions based on their customers’ behaviour. “When” refers to the action that triggers the automation, such as a customer submitting a form or purchasing a course. “Then” determines what happens next, such as sending an email or adding the customer to an email sequence. “Only if” adds a condition to the automation, allowing creators to specify when an action should or should not take place. 

However, not all of these automation capabilities are available across all of Kajabi’s plans. The Basic plan offers basic automation that lets creators set one “When” trigger followed by a “Then” action. The Growth and Pro plans include Advanced Automations, which allow creators to use multiple triggers and actions and create branching logic within a single automation. This makes the higher tier plans more suitable for creators who need to build more complex customer journeys.

Overall, Kajabi is the stronger option for creators who need more complex automation and want to manage their customer journeys within one platform. However, Teachable may be sufficient for creators with simpler automation needs, particularly those who are comfortable using third-party tools alongside their LMS.

Coaching

Kajabi has a stronger focus on coaching, particularly for creators who want to combine one-on-one coaching with courses, memberships, and other digital products. It allows coaches to manage their programs while using built-in marketing, email, and automation features to maintain communication with clients. For example, a fitness coach could offer a six-week coaching program alongside a workout course. A client could purchase the program, receive access to the course, and then receive automated emails with reminders or additional resources throughout the program. This allows the coach to manage different parts of the client experience from one platform.

Teachable also supports coaching, making it suitable for creators who only need coaching alongside their courses. However, Kajabi is the stronger choice for coaches who want to integrate coaching into a broader business.

Student Learning

Teachable offers quizzes, certificates, drip content, and other tools designed to support structured learning. Kajabi focuses more on creating an ongoing relationship between its users and their audience through communities, memberships, and automation. 

Completing a course does not have to mark the end of a learner’s interaction with the creator. The creator can offer additional content, membership, or community access after course completion, allowing the relationship to continue beyond its original course. Therefore, Teachable may be better for a structured course experience, while Kajabi is stronger for creators who wish to offer courses with an online community.

Memberships & Community

Both Teachable and Kajabi allow creators to build memberships, but Kajabi offers a broader ecosystem for creators who want to build an ongoing community around their content. Kajabi combines memberships with courses, communities, email marketing, and automation, allowing creators to offer different types of content and maintain engagement with their audience in one platform.

Teachable is suitable for creators who mainly want to add memberships or subscriptions to their existing courses. However, Kajabi is the stronger choice for creators who want memberships and community to play a central role in their broader online business.

Customization

Teachable offers creators a range of customization options that allow them to tailor their school’s appearance, branding, and organization to suit their needs. Customization is important for creating a consistent brand identity and making a course platform easier for students to navigate. Creators can customize elements such as their school’s logo, colors, fonts, background, and navigation, allowing the platform to reflect their brand rather than relying on a completely standard layout. Teachable also allows creators to customize individual pages and use custom domains, while those who want greater control over their site’s appearance can use custom CSS and, on eligible plans, more advanced editing options. These tools give creators different levels of control depending on how much they want to personalize their online school.

Rather than focusing solely on the course site, Kajabi gives creators greater control over the overall presentation of their online business. Its website and landing page tools allow creators to choose from templates and adjust elements such as fonts, colors, images, and page layouts to maintain a consistent brand identity. Creators can also connect a custom domain for their Kajabi site, while custom code and CSS provide additional control for those who want to make more detailed design changes. Because these customization tools extend beyond individual courses, Kajabi is particularly useful for creators who want their website, marketing pages, memberships, and digital products to form one cohesive online presence.

Integrations

Teachable allows its creators to connect with third-party services for functions such as analytics, marketing, and automation. This is useful for creators who prefer choosing specialized software for different tasks. Kajabi takes a more integrated approach by providing many of these functions within one platform. This reduces the need to manage multiple services but may be less appealing to users who prefer a highly customized technology stack.

Which Platform is Best for Different Types of Users?

The better platform depends on the creator’s goals and level of experience:

• Beginners and first-time course creators: Teachable, because of its simpler setup and lower starting price.
• Independent course creators: Teachable, especially for those mainly focused on creating and selling courses.
• Coaches and mentors: Kajabi, particularly for those combining coaching with courses, memberships, and marketing.
• Creators focused on marketing and sales: Kajabi, thanks to its built-in email marketing, sales funnels, and automation.
• Creators building a larger digital business: Kajabi, as its all-in-one ecosystem can support courses, memberships, communities, and other digital products.
• Creators who prefer third-party tools: Teachable, as it can connect with external applications to expand its functionality.

Teachable: Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
•Easy to use and beginner-friendly•More affordable starting price•Strong course creation and student-learning features•Supports courses, coaching, memberships, and digital products•Useful built-in sales tools•Good third-party integrations	•Less advanced marketing automation than Kajabi•Some advanced features require higher-tier plans•Less comprehensive for building an entire digital business

Kajabi: Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
• All-in-one digital business platform• Advanced marketing and automation tools• Strong sales funnels and email marketing• Website and landing-page tools• Supports courses, coaching, memberships, and communities• Well-suited to established creators and growing businesses	• Significantly more expensive• Steeper learning curve for beginners• May provide more features than a new course creator needs• Less suitable for users who prefer specialized third-party tools

Final Verdict: Teachable or Kajabi?

Teachable is the better choice for beginners, budget-conscious creators, and businesses focused primarily on selling online courses. If I were launching my first course today, I’d lean toward Teachable because it provides the core tools needed to get started without paying for a broader business ecosystem.

Kajabi is better suited to established creators and coaches whose businesses have grown beyond course sales and now require marketing, automation, memberships, community, and other digital products. Ultimately, Teachable prioritizes simplicity and course delivery, while Kajabi is better suited to building and scaling a broader digital business.