Kajabi vs Teachable – Which Online Course Platform Is Better?

If you are in the market for the best platform to sell your online courses, you’ve probably found yourself struggling to choose between Kajabi and Teachable. There are a lot of factors that go into what will work best for your business, and what won’t. I’ll show you my detailed research and side-by-side comparisons so you can make the best decision for yourself.

Basic Overview

Kajabi is the only all-in-one platform with no need for 3rd party tools. Its major focus is on sales and marketing tools including its own built-in email management, sales funnel builder, and marketing automations.

Teachable is an intuitive admin interface which makes building your first course easy. It has the only built-in payment processing system, and it also provides a free plan to get you started.

Key Differences Between Kajabi and Teachable

Who is more popular?

While the numbers show that Teachable looks like the more popular site for course creators, Kajabi is accessed by more students and has generated more sales than Teachable – even with less course creators.

Who has the better pricing?

Teachable offers a free plan and cheaper prices, but does charge a transaction fee of up to 5% (for it's entry level plans). Kajabi does not offer a free plan, and has a higher cost up front, but they have 0 transaction fees across the board. Keep in mind, these plans also vary widely in the features they offer.

(You can find an in depth side by side comparison of the Kajabi Pricing Plan Guide and Teachable Pricing Plan Guide in our past posts.)

Who has the better features?

Teachable’s main features include an easy user interface, built-in course completion certificates, and their exclusive Teachable payments system. The payments system makes it easier for you to get paid through the site instead of having to go through a third party platform like PayPal.

Kajabi’s main features include an extremely customizable interface with a lot of sales and marketing help as well as an exclusive built-in sales funnel builder.

(You can find an in depth features list and side by side comparison here).

Pro’s and Con’s Overview

Kajabi Pros

• Extremely customizable designs and themes
• Can set the domain to appear as part of your website
• Built in email marketing tools and sales funnel software to drive customer sales
• Community platform to engage with students (you can also offer this as an upsell and even charge for it)
• Student payment options (ex. Subscription for ongoing access or monthly payment plan for more expensive courses)
• Targeted marketing automations (based on things like course completion or inactivity)
• The Kajabi marketplace offers a way for users to discover your course organically.

Kajabi Cons

• No free option and prices are considerably higher
• Steep learning curve to learn how to use all functionality
• Need a 3^rd party platform to offer completion certificates
• The course marketplace only offers a category filter search function

Read my full review of Kajabi

Teachable Pros

• Exclusive built-in payment processing option
• Very intuitive for new users
• Basic email marketing tools
• Offers course completion certificates
• Smart phone accessible through the Teachable iOS app
• Students payment options (ex. recurring subscription for ongoing access to a course)
• Handles EU VAT for you
• Free option to get started

Teachable Cons

• Not everything is customizable
• The 0% transaction fees only start on the Professional Plan ($99/month)
• Need to use a 3^rd party platform for a sales funnel builder
• No phone support
• No course marketplace

Read my full review of Teachable

Overall Winner

So who is better, Kajabi or Teachable?

Both have great features and friendly user interfaces, but in my opinion, Kajabi comes out ahead.

While it does cost more (except for the Pro plan), Kajabi's all-in-one platform comes with more features and built-in integrations that would require 3rd party integrations on Teachable.  If you factor those in, Kajabi ends up being more affordable.  So if you want the simplicity of having all your tools under one roof, Kajabi is the way to go.

Alternatives to Kajabi and Teachable

Kajabi and Teachable are both good options for online course platforms, but if you're looking for an even better alternatives read how we rank other online course software.