Kajabi vs Teachable: Course Hosting or Business Stack?

Teachable is the lower-cost starting point for a creator selling a first course with few supporting services. Kajabi can cost less overall when its website, marketing emails, funnels, community, and coaching tools replace subscriptions the creator would otherwise pay for. The choice depends on the monthly cost of the complete setup, including platform fees and outside software, as well as the limits each business will reach.

On monthly billing, Teachable’s pricing grid lists Starter at $39 with a 7.5% platform transaction fee, Builder at $89 with a 0% platform fee, and Growth at $189 with a 0% platform fee when eligible payment gateways are used. Kajabi’s pricing grid lists Basic at $179 and Growth at $249 per month, with no revenue share. Payment processing still costs money on both platforms, and Kajabi lists an additional fee for some third-party payment providers where Kajabi Payments is available. The comparisons below use monthly subscriptions and exclude processing, taxes, refunds, and optional commerce services.

Where a first course crosses the sales-fee line

Teachable Starter’s lower subscription helps while a course is proving demand, but its platform fee rises with sales. The fixed-price gap to Builder is $50 a month, so their subscription and platform-fee costs meet at roughly $667 in monthly sales: $39 plus 7.5% of $667 is approximately $89. Above that point, Builder costs less on this measure, assuming the same eligible checkout. The calculation does not predict how much a course will sell.

Kajabi Basic starts $90 above Teachable Builder in monthly subscription cost. To win on software spending alone, its bundled tools must replace at least $90 of services the creator would otherwise need. Someone content with a course sales page and Teachable’s included email tools may have little to replace. Someone already paying for a separate site, email automation, and booking system has a different calculation.

Product slots and audience size change the plan

Teachable Starter permits five published products, Builder ten, and Growth fifty. Courses, coaching offers, and digital downloads use those slots; memberships and bundles do not. Kajabi Basic permits five products and Growth fifty, while its plans list community capacity separately. A catalog containing courses and bundles may therefore use a different number of slots on each platform. Count the offers that will be published, rather than drafts or promotional packages.

The platforms also measure audiences differently. Teachable lists unlimited students enrolled through its checkout; Kajabi Basic lists 2,500 contacts and Growth 25,000. A contact list can include prospects who never buy, so a creator may exceed Kajabi’s Basic limit despite having relatively few paying students. A large group of paying students enrolled through Teachable’s qualifying checkout does not, by itself, generate a student usage charge.

Teachable’s usage-fee policy allows 100 students added outside supported paid gateways, then charges $0.50 per additional student per month under the current policy. Manual enrollments, imports, and zero-dollar checkouts can count; qualifying paid enrollments do not. Older schools may remain on legacy usage terms until their applicable renewal, so their account terms matter to the calculation.

Which bundled tools replace outside services

Teachable includes more than course hosting: its plans offer checkout, memberships, built-in email marketing, coupons, upsells, and abandoned-cart emails. If those features meet the creator’s needs, they add no outside-software cost. Kajabi combines a website, landing pages, funnels, marketing email, and community capacity in its subscription. Its value depends on which separate services a business can actually stop paying for.

Community is a consequential difference for a new school. Although Teachable’s pricing grid still shows Community, its community guidance says the feature is in maintenance mode and unavailable to new schools or schools that have not already created one. Existing communities continue to operate, but new feature work is paused. Course comments may suffice for discussion around lessons; a new business selling access to a dedicated member space should budget for a separate service on Teachable if Kajabi’s included community meets that need.

Live coaching adds another conditional expense. Kajabi’s coaching guide describes individual and group programs with a built-in scheduler and live video, alongside options for outside tools. Teachable supports coaching offers, but creators whose chosen workflow requires separate booking or meeting software should include its cost. A self-paced course needs neither expense.

Three creator budgets

A first course

Consider a hypothetical creator with one self-paced course, $400 in monthly sales, and no need for a standalone community or multi-step funnel. Teachable Starter costs $69 in subscription and platform transaction fees: $39 plus $30. Builder costs $89 and Kajabi Basic $179. The modeled outside-tool bill is $0 on either platform because this offer requires no additional service. Starter has the lowest cost here, though its fee becomes less attractive as sales approach the break-even point.

An established cohort

Suppose a cohort business has three published products, 1,500 contacts, live sessions, and $4,000 in monthly sales. Teachable Builder fits the product count at $89; Kajabi Basic fits both the product and contact counts at $179. Assume the creator specifically needs email sequences beyond its Teachable setup and budgets $45 for email, $15 for scheduling, and $20 for video meetings. These are hypothetical allowances, not vendor quotes. Teachable totals $169, just $10 below Kajabi if Kajabi’s included tools meet the same requirements.

If the cohort also sells a dedicated member space and budgets a hypothetical $30 for an outside community on a new Teachable school, its modeled total rises to $199. Kajabi remains $179 if its included community is suitable. Remove that allowance if course comments meet the need; remove the booking or video allowances if existing tools already cover live sessions.

A multi-product business

Finally, consider a hypothetical business with twelve published products, 8,000 contacts, 1,200 paying students enrolled through platform checkout, and $12,000 in monthly sales. Its product count calls for Teachable Growth at $189 and Kajabi Growth at $249; its contacts also exceed Kajabi Basic’s capacity. The Teachable students add no usage charge under the stated paid-checkout assumption. Payment processing remains outside this model.

Assume this business needs an email system beyond Teachable’s built-in tools, a separate website and funnel builder, a dedicated community, and coaching bookings. Illustrative monthly allowances of $90, $40, $50, and $15 put Teachable’s software total at $384, versus $249 for Kajabi if its included tools cover those jobs. The modeled $135 Kajabi advantage shrinks when an existing service already does the work or a bundled Teachable feature is sufficient. For this business, the meaningful saving is a subscription it can cancel, not a feature it never uses.