Kajabi vs Teachable: An Ultimate Comparison Guide

Feeling stuck in the Kajabi vs Teachable dilemma?

Then stick around.

Probably you want to get the first few sales. Or maybe your goal is to create a bestselling online course.

Either way, this comparison guide will help you make an informed decision.

Just take a nice look.

Selling online courses is, no doubt, one of the most profitable sources of passive income.

And the e-learning market size is only going to grow exponentially in the next few years.

Having made a digital product, there’s no limit to how much you can sell – as long as it delivers value.

Now ask yourself, who are you actually?

An artist. Musician. Influencer. Programmer. Yoga teacher.

Or perhaps a self-made dropshipper eager to sell secrets of making money from home.

Regardless of your skillset, both Kajabi and Teachable reduce your hurdle in creating and selling courses.

Especially when you ever come across some questions like:

I don’t have an audience,

I’ve no idea about what to talk about in my course,

I don’t even know how to sell the course.

It’s okay to not be famous. It’s okay if your friends have hundreds of social media followers but you don’t.

Because online course selling platforms like these put you on a pedestal with industry-leading support. Easy tutorials, knowledgebase, and a learning community.

So that you worry less about the platform. And spend more time creating and selling your products.

How online course selling platforms can benefit you?

Both Kajabi and Teachable are validated e-learning websites with thousands of users.

Of course, they both come with some pros and cons.

But the best thing is that you don’t have to build your course website from scratch.

Especially if you’re someone coming from WordPress. And not tech-savvy.

On either platform, you can share your years of experience and knowledge.

You’ll be able to establish your authority. Market your products. And build a loyal learner base.

What if you have a decent number of subscribers already?

Things can’t get better anymore.

It’s fun when you can educate your audience who wants to walk the same path of success as you. While earning a decent income out of it.

Now having figured out how their features stack up against each other, the winner is an easy pick for me.

It’s Kajabi.

Yet, Teachable can impress you in places that Kajabi couldn’t. And in this article, you’ll know there’s no single reason that you would like to bet on it.

This ultimately makes the comparison a rather interesting one.

What is Kajabi?

An all-in-one course creator website geared towards businesses like Edutech startups.  Or some influencers looking to step into online coaching.

Investing in Kajabi means investing in scalability and convenience. 

Because it not only helps you create a range of course materials. But everything you need to market and sell your products. 

Those products include videos, live coaching programs, podcasts, memberships, and downloadable files. 

There is no free or cheaper plan, however. And the monthly plan starts at $119 (when billed annually).

But when the feature stack comes with the ability to host your site, there will be little left to complain about. 

Kajabi Pros and cons

Pros:

• A multi-purpose e-learning platform that comes with a web hosting
• Includes a range of course products like videos, podcasts, coachings, memberships, community, and digital downloads
• Drag-and-drop page builder with over 40 blocks
• Built-in marketing automation which also includes cart abandonment
• A range of templates to create funnels for different pages
• Memberships and community features to engage your students
• Zero commission on all the plans
• Mobile app available on both iOS and Android platforms

Cons:

• It’s basic monthly plan is pricey 
• Doesn’t offer a free plan
• Kajabi branding is not available on the Basic plan
• Audience onboarding is set to a limit on each plan
• 24/7 customer support is not available for the Basic users
  

What is Teachable?

A budget-friendly platform built for individuals. Completely focused on teaching and coaching. 

Unlike Kajabi, you can’t create any other digital products. 

But the learning management system is just so good. That can help you create an unparalleled in-course experience for your audience. 

So that your students follow the course compliance. They watch lessons, take graded quizzes, or finish assignments. Only then can they progress to the next content. 

Teachable, however, lacks hosting and advanced marketing features.

But if you’re okay with spending extra bucks on integrations, you’ll have a great time creating and selling courses. 

Teachable pros and cons

Pros:

• Offers free plan with limited features
• Basic plan comes at an affordable pricing
• Flexible payout system on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis
• Better analytics and in-depth student reports
• Mobile app available but only on iOS platform
• Features lesson-based quizzes with compliance control
• Customizable course completion certificates
• No limit on onboarding your audience 

Cons:

• Lacks web hosting feature
• Includes a limited number of templates and customization
• Live chat support only on pricier plans
• Commission cuts on the Free and Basic plans
• Extra expenses on integrations for advanced marketing features

Pricing – A decision between convenience and compromise

Of course, pricing is the first deciding factor when you’re stuck in the Kajabi vs Teachable dilemma. 

Looking from the ground up, Teachable’s starting plans are affordable.

Because throwing a free plan with your product will never go out of marketing trend. 

It’s a welcome mat for beginners. 

However, you’ll be limited to publishing your course types and onboarding up to 10 students. 

Overall, it’s a good starting point to understand your product’s worth. 

There is a significant commission fee, though. 

But once it starts to pay off, a Basic monthly plan of $39 is a good next step.  

Why stick to the free plan when you could multiply your earnings on the Basic plan?

In addition, you’ll be able to access sales and marketing features. And also onboard an unlimited number of students.

However, it’s mildly disappointing that you’ll neither have access to upsells nor live support. 

And that brings your attention to Pro and Pro+ plans. You can see a huge price difference, though. 

Now things get interesting here. Because Kajabi’s Basic plan has the same price point as Teachable’s pro plan (when billed annually). 

However, no free plan.

Interestingly, you can also see Kajabi’s recent marketing ploy. Offering its Growth plan at $99 per month for your first 3 months.

Which would then retreat to its rather expensive $199/ month pricing.

But a 119-dollar question – which platform is better at this point?

On Teachable, you can upload more course products. Also comes with the advantage of unlimited enrolments unlike on Kajabi. 

Additionally, you’ll be able to set custom branding, and affiliate programs, and enjoy live chat support. 

On Kajabi, however, you’ll have these features on the Growth plan. 

But is Kajabi any better at $119?

It’s better if you wish to launch a podcast, webinar, and creative community along with your course. 

It’s an even better option for a marketing campaign. Which also includes features like customized landing pages, funnels, and cart abandonment. 

Result: No specific winner

For beginners, Teachable has an edge over Kajabi. Especially its $119 plan seems a better choice.  

But if you’re an Edutech startup, Kajabi’s Growth or Pro plan provides you with everything you’ve asked for.

Interface and Design – Kajabi has got some range

Why worry about coding when you’ve drag-and-drop site builder features built-in?

Both Kajabi and Teachable come with a customizable interface. That makes designing your site easier. 

Even if you’re not familiar with coding. 

So that you worry less about designing your website. And more about creating bestselling content. 

But overall, Kajabi has the upper hand, and here are the reasons.

Kajabi features over 40 blocks which you can use to create a custom website and landing page. 

You won’t have this luxury on Teachable, though.

The number of blocks is limited. However, they do provide public API access on their Pro plan.

Even the number of pre-made templates is limited to 3.

Whereas Kajabi stores 8 such templates that are rather diverse and professional. 

On either platform, the customization capability simplifies the way to present your content in a visually appealing manner.

As you go higher on the plan, you can also add logos and change colors specific to your brand. 

You can even remove certain sections. Or tweak the codes of your template to make it feel more personalized. 

But I do like Kajabi’s “Gamify” theme. 

As the name conveys, you can set automated badges. Which is a smart way to encourage your students to complete tasks. And engage throughout the course. 

However, it needs you to be a Pro plan user to access further customizations on gamification features.

What Kajabi lacks is the custom text feature.

Teachable, on the other hand, is more flexible. And you can customize fonts the way you like. 

For example, you can upload your licensed font file.

You can even set different font sizes for desktop and mobile app.

However, these 4 common features might make it trickier to pick any side:

Mobile responsiveness

Course-level customization

Page-level customization (Product pages, sales pages, etc)

Ability to host the site under your existing domain

Mobile app – Advantage for Kajabi

Can your students easily access your lessons while on the move?

With flexibility comes accessibility. 

Without a mobile app, you might miss out on a significant number of audience. 

This is where platforms like Kajabi and Teachable distinguish course creators – the smarter ones from the mediocre. 

However, Teachable is only available on the iOS platform. 

Whereas, Kajabi is available on both Android and iOS platforms.  

Also, Kajabi features push notifications. But Teachable doesn’t. 

With Kajabi having a community feature, your students can interact on posts – just like social media. 

And talking about posts, they can even favorite them to access later. 

Content and Community – Kajabi dominates single-handedly

Content. 

This is all meat and potatoes. Both platforms help you lay out your course content for your learners.

Video lessons, mini courses, quizzes, course bundles, coaching, digital downloads, and surveys.

On either platform, you can compile each of them. And create a marketable eLearning product. 

Kajabi, however, distinguishes itself by providing live sessions, podcasts, communities, and memberships.

Talking of the live session, you can onboard up to 200 participants. 

Also, having a blogging section is an icing on the cake.  

Teachable lacks most of the bells and whistles, though. But you’ll have live sessions and drip scheduling feature – similar to Kajabi. 

Furthermore, features like note-taking and comments within video lessons make your course interactive.

But don’t think Teachable is left behind!

You’ll love setting up compliance controls on either platform.

So that your students, at each level of course, finish lessons or pass the quizzes before making it to the next lesson. 

On Kajabi, however, there is no built-in course certification. Whereas on Teachable, you can customize the completion certificate.

But when you talk about community, Kajabi has the upper hand. 

Your students can interact with peers. You can host online meetups or live streams. 

Or encourage them to participate in challenges and engage in discussion feeds. 

Feeds like social media. But not on any social media. Everything within. 

Now if you’re concerned about community features on Teachable, don’t worry!

You can integrate circle.co to access similar community benefits. Without having your students log in separately.

But that doesn’t come cheap.

Overall, Kajabi gives you more creative control. But if you don’t mind about community and stuff, Teachable can be good.

Marketing – Automation makes Kajabi more powerful

Discounts, coupons, upsells, downsells, and order bumps. 

These tried and tested call-to-actions not only draw your audience into the cheap thrill of saving a few bucks.

But also drive more profit. 

Both Kajabi and Teachable can help you lay out offers that your customers can’t refuse. 

But when it comes to lead generation features, Kajabi takes the lead.

Kajabi can be many things. Even a proper website builder like WordPress. Equipped with a great email builder. 

In contrast, Teachable’s email marketing features are basic. And lacks advanced automations.

Even no pre-designed marketing funnels which is… sad. 

Whereas, Kajabi features a range of templates and better customization capabilities.

But to have funnels on Teachable, you’ll, again, need to integrate with platforms like ConvertKit or ClickFunnels.

And while automation is nicely baked into Kajabi, you can’t think of anything else. 

Especially when you’ve to run a marketing campaign. And set up automation sequence for that number of days.

And while you’re asleep, Kajabi collects and builds a list of email addresses of your audience.

So that when you wake up, you can take the next steps based on what your audience subscribed to you for. 

Oh, you can even segment them and automate the series of emails. 

For example, segments on the basis of active customers, inactive customers, hard bounced, etc. 

But don’t get disappointed with Teachable quite yet! 

You can have the same fun (or even better) as you integrate with MailChimp or ConvertKit. 

And… What about affiliates? 

If you’re on the expensive plans, on either platforms, you can set commissions and permissions for your affiliates. 

Sales – Kajabi seems more hungry for leads

You can not only sell your products. But double and triple your profits as well. 

I really like how Kajabi automatically maps out the ways you can sell your products – as an individual course, bundled course, or coupons. 

Teachable, however, lacks this auto-recommendation. And features a rather basic Sales page, Checkout page, and Thank you page.

But on either platforms, you can go on customizing order bumps and upsells.

Which is a great way to optimize your audience’s checkout experience for better conversions. 

Also, you can create different pricing models for your courses on both platforms. For example, free courses, subscriptions, and one-time purchases.

Now as far as funnel is concerned, Kajabi gives you more creative control to make a great sales page from scratch. 

Or use pre-made templates based on, for example, product launches, coaching campaigns, or webinar invites.

Kajabi also gives you an advantage of bundling different course products. You can duct-tape your courses, podcasts, 1:1 sessions, and even memberships together at irresistible pricing.

On Teachable, however, you’re limited to bundle fewer items.

Payment Gateway – Teachable is flexible

This is the last but not the least part of the sales process. 

Both platforms accept standard debit cards, credit cards, and also Google Pay and Apple Pay.

In addition, they also offer proprietary payment gateways respectively – Kajabi Pay, and Teachable Pay.

A rather better option to avoid international fees.

Note that, Kajabi Payments is only available in the US and is currently in the beta stage. 

But with Teachable Pay, you can accept payments worldwide. 

Also, you can choose to receive payments on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis on Teachable. 

Cart Abandonment – Kajabi doesn’t seem to give up

It hurts when you find your products abandoned in the carts. As if they have no value. As if your months of hard work were all for nothing.

Thankfully, you can run a cart abandonment campaign on Kajabi. 

Most effective way to persuade your audience to return to the cart. And eventually, finish checking out your product. 

Kajabi eases the way you want follow-up emails to trigger.

For example, reminder emails to get them to take action. Or reward them with coupons for your other products upon successful checkout.

Just get creative. And let Kajabi take care of it. 

Teachable, however, doesn’t have this feature right now. So again, integration is the only option.

Analytics – Teachable sneaks ahead this time

As a management guru once said, what gets measured gets managed.

Both Kajabi and Teachable understand what it takes you to understand the criticality of your business. 

And how to best lay out the quirky analytics in a simple yet graphically absorbing manner. 

On either platform, you can peek into your course performance. And some of your thoughts like:

Can it hook your students until the end?

Where exactly are they dropping?

What could you do to make your lessons engaging?

What is the average watch duration?

On top of that, you’ll get performance reports. Some of them include landing page views, net revenue, churn rate, opt-ins, and stats on affiliate commissions. 

Even your email marketing stats like open rate and click-through rate give you enough insights. Enough to know if there’s something you lack. 

And oh, did I forget to mention that it gets you heatmaps ready for each of your videos?

If stopping by each of your videos, however, takes a lot of time, don’t worry.

You can segment-search the reports – by using tags. 

You can not only filter reports by using segments. But also the progress of individual members.

However, such advance-level reports are only accessible once you’re subscribed to the higher plan. 

But talking high about any one of them, Teachable’s in-depth course reports caught me off guard. 

For example, video engagement stats, retention reports, average quiz performance, heat maps, and many more.

Whereas, Kajabi seems a bit shallow in terms of reports that could be important to understand your students. 

But if you’re a stats-savvy person, you can integrate with Google Analytics – on either platform. 

Support experience

Support services often get a bad rap for leaving their customers disappointed. 

But not the case with Kajabi and Teachable. 

They do care for their customers by offering: 

Kajabi University and teachable:u to help you create bestselling courses. And everything around marketing and selling your products.

Kajabi Hero Community and teachable:hq to help you socialize with other creators. So that you never feel puzzled and always get your questions answered. 

And of course, a friendly live chat support if you’re on a higher plan.  

But what makes Kajabi special is its 24/7 live chat support. No matter where you are in the world. 

However, Teachable’s support team is only available around business hours from Monday to Friday. 

And you may need to adjust to the time zone, especially if you live outside the US.

Final Verdict on Kajabi vs Teachable

Still left with doubts?

No worries! Either way, you’re going to turn your knowledge into a product.

Either way, you’re going to cut the competition.

Both platforms are receiving healthy endorsements from distinguished people across the world.

Although, Kajabi may have all the perks of being a one-stop shop for online course creators. Pricing remains the biggest deciding factor.

So in short, Kajabi brings you more convenience – at a hefty price.

You will have a better focus on your creative work. And more energy for reaching out to your audience.

Sparing you from unnecessary concerns about missing out on some marketing or customization features.

Sounds very entrepreneur-ish, doesn’t it?

That’s where Teachable comes into action.

Unlike Kajabi, the concerns will be there. And you better be prepared for that.

The limited feature stack on the Free plan can be a good starting point. Considering your content is dope.

In the end, give yourself a chance.

Bookmark this page – as a useful reference in your research on each of these aspects.

And ensure your choice of platform turns out to be the launchpad for your bestsellers.