Kajabi vs Teachable 2026: Best Platform for Selling Online Courses?

Kajabi and Teachable are the two most popular platforms for creators who want to build and sell online courses. Both let you host courses, process payments, and deliver content to students. But they serve different types of creators at very different price points, and choosing the wrong one can cost you thousands in unnecessary fees or missed features.

Kajabi is an all-in-one business platform that replaces your course host, website builder, email marketing tool, and sales funnel builder. Teachable is a focused course platform that does one thing well and relies on integrations for everything else.

We built and launched a course on each platform to compare the full experience from course creation through marketing, sales, and student delivery.

Quick Comparison

Course Builder

Both platforms make it straightforward to create courses, but the experience differs. Kajabi's course builder uses a product blueprint system where you choose a template (mini-course, online course, drip course, coaching program) and it sets up the structure for you. You can add video lessons, text content, downloads, quizzes, and assignments. The builder supports drip scheduling, prerequisite lessons, and progress tracking out of the box.

Teachable's course builder is simpler and more flexible. You create sections and lectures, then add content blocks within each lecture: video, text, files, code, quizzes. The drag-and-drop interface is intuitive, and you can reorganize content quickly. Teachable also supports native video hosting with basic completion tracking.

For course creation alone, Teachable is faster to get started with. Kajabi offers more structure and automation once your course is set up, which benefits creators with larger catalogs or more complex programs.

Marketing Tools: Kajabi's Biggest Advantage

This is where Kajabi justifies its higher price. Kajabi includes a full email marketing suite with broadcast emails, automated sequences, segmentation by purchase behavior, and visual pipeline builders. You can create multi-step sales funnels, upsell sequences, and abandoned cart recovery — all without leaving the platform.

Kajabi's pipeline builder walks you through creating a complete sales funnel: opt-in page, email sequence, sales page, checkout, and post-purchase upsell. For a solo creator who would otherwise need to stitch together Mailchimp, ClickFunnels, and a separate website, Kajabi consolidates everything into one monthly payment.

Teachable's marketing tools are basic. You get simple sales pages, basic email capabilities, and coupon codes. For anything more sophisticated, you need to integrate with external tools like Kit, ActiveCampaign, or Zapier. This is not necessarily a dealbreaker — many successful course creators prefer best-of-breed tools — but it does mean additional subscriptions and complexity.

Pricing and Transaction Fees

Pricing is the most significant difference between these platforms and often the deciding factor.

Kajabi Basic starts at $149/month (billed annually) and includes 3 products, 3 funnels, 10,000 contacts, and unlimited marketing emails. The Growth plan at $199/month expands to 15 products and 25,000 contacts. The Pro plan at $399/month unlocks everything with 100 products and 100,000 contacts. Crucially, Kajabi charges zero transaction fees on all plans.

Teachable has a free plan that charges 5% transaction fees plus payment processing. The Basic plan at $39/month (billed annually) removes the 5% transaction fee. The Pro plan at $119/month adds advanced features like graded quizzes, course compliance, and affiliate marketing tools. The Pro+ plan at $199/month adds advanced customization.

The math depends on your revenue. If you sell $5,000/month in courses, Teachable Basic costs you $39/month total (plus Stripe fees). Kajabi Basic costs $149/month. At $5,000 monthly revenue, Teachable is clearly cheaper.

But factor in the tools Kajabi replaces: email marketing ($29–79/month), funnel builder ($49–99/month), website builder ($12–39/month). Suddenly Kajabi's $149/month looks competitive if you were going to pay for those tools separately anyway.

Community Features

Kajabi includes a built-in community feature where you can create a members-only space with discussion threads, challenges, and member profiles. It is not as full-featured as a dedicated community platform like Circle, but it keeps students engaged without requiring another tool.

Teachable offers basic discussion areas within courses where students can post comments on individual lectures. This works for simple Q&A but falls short of a true community experience. For a vibrant student community on Teachable, you would typically add a Facebook Group, Discord server, or separate community platform.

Checkout and Payments

Teachable handles payments through its own payment processing system (Teachable Payments) or Stripe. The checkout experience is clean and optimized for conversion. Teachable supports one-time payments, subscriptions, and payment plans natively. On the Pro plan, you can also set up an affiliate program for your courses.

Kajabi processes payments through Stripe or PayPal. Its checkout pages are customizable and support one-time payments, subscriptions, payment plans, and order bumps. Kajabi also includes built-in upsell functionality, so you can offer a complementary product immediately after purchase — a feature that can meaningfully increase average order value.

Both platforms support coupons and free trials. Kajabi's checkout is slightly more feature-rich with order bumps and post-purchase upsells. Teachable's checkout is simpler but reliable.

Student Experience

Teachable provides a clean, focused learning experience. Students log in, see their enrolled courses, and progress through content with minimal distractions. The mobile experience is solid, and the video player is reliable. Completion certificates are available on paid plans.

Kajabi's student experience is more integrated. Students get a portal that can include courses, community, downloads, and coaching all in one place. It feels more like a membership site than a course platform, which works well for creators selling multiple products or ongoing access.

Related Guides

Thinking about selling physical or digital products alongside courses? Our best ecommerce platforms guide compares Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and other storefronts built for online selling.

How We Tested

We created and launched a complete course on each platform, covering the full workflow: course creation, sales page setup, email marketing, checkout configuration, and student delivery. We evaluated the builder experience, marketing tools, checkout conversion, student interface, and total cost of ownership for creators at three revenue levels ($1,000/month, $5,000/month, and $15,000/month).

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links. If you purchase through our links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend tools we've personally tested and believe in.