Kajabi is the most expensive way to sell a course and, for a specific kind of business, the cheapest way to run one. Both statements are true, and which applies to you comes down to arithmetic you can do in five minutes.
This review is based on Kajabi’s documented capabilities rather than independent testing.
Do This Calculation First
List what you currently pay monthly for:
- Email marketing platform
- Website hosting and builder
- Landing page or funnel tool
- Course hosting
- Membership or community platform
- Checkout and cart
- Video hosting
Total it. Kajabi replaces all seven.
If your total approaches Kajabi’s plan price, it is consolidation — and you also remove the integration work, the seven logins and the failure points between them. If you pay for two of the seven, Kajabi is expensive and Teachable or Thinkific is the sensible choice.
People argue about Kajabi’s price endlessly without doing this, and it settles the question.
What It Includes
Courses and memberships
Course builder with modules, lessons, drip scheduling, quizzes, completion tracking and certificates. Memberships and communities run in the same system, so a subscriber gets course access, community access and the member area from one product.
Website and blog
A full website builder with themes, pages and a blog — not a landing page tool. Your marketing site and your course platform are one thing, which removes the usual awkward handoff between a WordPress site and a separate course login.
Email marketing
Genuine email marketing with broadcasts, sequences and behavioural automation, not a notification system. This is the component most people underestimate — it is capable enough to replace a dedicated tool for most course businesses.
Sales pipelines
Pre-built funnel templates covering opt-in, offer and follow-up as one connected flow. Whether that style of marketing suits you is a separate question; the capability is real and Teachable has nothing equivalent.
Checkout and offers
Order bumps, upsells, payment plans, coupons and subscription billing built in.
Coaching
One-to-one coaching products with scheduling and session management, native rather than bolted on.
Analytics
Revenue, offer performance, subscription metrics and email engagement in one place — which is genuinely easier than reconciling four dashboards.
Where It Falls Short
Every component is good, none is best in class. The email marketing is weaker than ActiveCampaign. The website builder is weaker than Webflow or Squarespace. The community is weaker than Circle. You are buying integration, not excellence in any one area.
It is genuinely expensive at entry. If you are testing whether a course sells, this is a costly way to find out.
Not merchant of record. This matters more than most reviews acknowledge — see below.
Lock-in is significant. Your site, courses, emails, funnels and customer relationships all live in one system. Leaving means rebuilding all of it, not just moving files.
Contact-based pricing. Your bill scales with list size regardless of revenue, which is uncomfortable if you build a large free audience.
The VAT and Sales Tax Point
Worth its own section because it carries real financial consequences and appears in almost no comparison.
When you sell a digital course to someone in the EU or UK, VAT is generally due based on where the customer is, frequently from the first sale with no minimum threshold. Similar rules apply to sales tax in some US states and GST elsewhere.
If a platform acts as merchant of record, it is the legal seller and handles that obligation. If it only processes payments, the obligation is yours — meaning registration, collection and filing across jurisdictions.
Kajabi has generally not acted as merchant of record, whereas Teachable has offered this on some plans. If you sell internationally, that difference may outweigh every feature comparison.
Verify current arrangements for both, and take advice for your situation.
Who It Suits
Established creators earning from courses. If courses are the business and you already pay for several tools, the consolidation is genuine.
Coaches and consultants selling programmes with community and one-to-one sessions alongside content.
Membership businesses where recurring access rather than one-off course sales is the model.
People who want one system. There is real value in not maintaining integrations, and it is easy to undervalue until something breaks.
Who Should Look Elsewhere
Anyone launching a first course. Teachable or Thinkific to test demand, then reconsider.
Anyone happy with their existing stack. If you like your email platform and website, Kajabi means replacing things that work.
Anyone selling heavily internationally who wants VAT handled for them. Check merchant-of-record status.
Anyone without an audience. No platform brings students. If nobody knows you exist, the platform is not the problem.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Buying Kajabi and keeping your old tools. The maths only works if you cancel what it replaces. Many people do not.
- Not checking merchant-of-record status. Determines whether international VAT is your legal obligation.
- Building the whole course before testing demand. Sell the outline or run it live once first.
- Underestimating the migration out. Everything lives in one system. Leaving is a rebuild.
- Letting your contact list inflate. Pricing scales with contacts regardless of revenue.
- Using funnel templates unchanged. Several ship with countdown timers and scarcity language. Resetting timers and fake scarcity carry genuine regulatory exposure under FTC authority in the US and consumer protection law in the UK and EU. Use real deadlines.
- Not exporting regularly. Keep your own copy of your student list and course content.
- Assuming it will market for you. The tools are there; the audience is your job.
FAQs
Is Kajabi worth the price?
If it replaces your email platform, website, landing pages, course hosting and community, the combined cost is often comparable and you remove integration work. If you pay for two of those, it is expensive.
Kajabi or Teachable?
Teachable for a first course or testing demand — cheaper, simpler, and merchant-of-record handling on some plans. Kajabi once courses are the business and you are consolidating several tools.
Does Kajabi handle VAT on international sales?
Kajabi has generally not acted as merchant of record, meaning international VAT and sales tax obligations sit with you. Verify current terms, and take advice if you sell into the EU or UK.
Can Kajabi replace my website?
Yes — it includes a full website builder with pages and a blog, not just landing pages. It is less capable than Webflow or Squarespace for design, and sufficient for most course businesses.
Is Kajabi’s email marketing good enough?
For most course businesses, yes — broadcasts, sequences and behavioural automation. It is weaker than ActiveCampaign or Klaviyo, and adequate enough that maintaining a separate platform is usually unnecessary.
How hard is it to leave Kajabi?
Difficult, because your site, courses, emails, funnels and customer data all live there. Content and student lists export; the system does not. Budget a full rebuild.
Verdict
Kajabi is a genuinely good consolidation for an established course or membership business, and the value of not maintaining five integrations is easy to underrate until you have done it.
The reservations are that no individual component is best in class, the entry price is high for anyone still validating an idea, lock-in is substantial, and it does not handle international VAT for you.
Do the arithmetic on your current stack. That single calculation tells you whether this is consolidation or duplication, and the answer is rarely ambiguous.
Key Takeaways
- Total your current tool spend first — that decides it.
- Consolidation only works if you actually cancel what Kajabi replaces.
- Check merchant-of-record status; it determines who owes international VAT.
- Every component is good, none is best in class. You are buying integration.
- Lock-in is real — everything lives in one system and leaving is a rebuild.
For the comparison, see our Kajabi vs Teachable breakdown and our guide to the best course platforms, which covers the marketplace option for anyone without an audience yet.