
Quick Summary
Kajabi raised prices by 25% in January 2026, removed its entry plan, and began reselling features that had been free. If you’re looking for the best Kajabi alternatives, this guide breaks down 8 platforms that do more for less, with real pricing, honest trade-offs, and a specific recommendation for every type of creator.
A lot of creators signed up for Kajabi because the promise of a single platform for all your courses, email marketing, funnels, website, and community sounded so perfect.
Then, in January 2026, Kajabi raised prices by 25%, removed the affordable Kickstarter plan, cut contact limits, and started charging $90 per month for a feature that had been free.
That’s when creators began looking for Kajabi alternatives.
And they’re spoiled for choice because some are cheaper, while others are more powerful in certain use cases.
I’ll break down eight of the best alternatives to Kajabi in this guide.
Along the way, I’ll show you what I’ve seen work, fail, and what creators wish they’d known before paying for a full year of the wrong platform.
Here we go.
The great search for Kajabi alternatives 2026 is mostly about a platform that changed the rules after creators had already built their businesses on it. So here’s what pushed people out the door.
| Platform | Best for | Starting price |
| GroupApp | Group programs, cohort delivery, coaching tracks where the community lives inside the curriculum | $0 (free plan) |
| Systeme.io | Creators who want funnels, email marketing, and course hosting at the lowest possible cost | $0 (free plan) |
| Thinkific | Course-first creators who need deep assessment tools and want 0% fees without Kajabi’s price | $49/month |
| Podia | Beginners who want a simple all-in-one platform to sell courses, downloads, and memberships | $39/month |
| Kartra | Marketers and service businesses that need advanced funnels, automation, and funnel simulation | $59/month |
| EzyCourse | Creators who want Kajabi’s feature set at half the price with a free branded mobile app | $69/month |
| Circle | Community-first creators where the social layer is the product and courses are a revenue add-on | $89/month |
| Mighty Networks | Live event-focused communities with strong mobile apps and social engagement mechanics | $95/month |

Best for: Coaches, trainers, and program operators running structured group-based programs where community and curriculum must work together
Price: $0 – $485 per month | Transaction fees: 0% on all plans
Many online community platforms (including the ones on this list) were built for creators selling to individual learners. Members buy a course, watch videos, and submit their work for review.
The community is often a side feature or forum where people can post questions if they feel like it.
GroupApp was built for structured group programs where a cohort of students moves through a curriculum together.
Over 1,100 programs run on GroupApp across professional certification tracks, business coaching cohorts, and structured training programs.
But the ones that last the longest have one thing in common: they take advantage of our course and community integration to drive higher completion rates.
Straight off the bat, courses on GroupApp come with an “Enforce Completion” toggle that locks each module until your members complete the previous one.

This ensures students move through your curriculum the way you designed it.
You can also drip content on a time-based schedule for cohorts that start at the same point.
Why do you need enforced sequential delivery? Because you’ll see 40% higher completion rates, which translates to more testimonials, referrals, and fewer refund requests.
Kajabi has content locking, but it doesn’t tie completion enforcement to lesson-level community discussion.
GroupApp, on the other hand, does both.
Now you can’t teach without tracking your students’ progress, so Kajabi shows you who purchased your course and how they’re progressing through it.
GroupApp does that too, but goes the extra mile to complete the experience.
You’ll see who hasn’t logged in for 14 days, which lessons have the lowest completion rates, and which assignments are missing, across every program, from one dashboard.

From there, a workflow automatically triggers when any member goes quiet for 7 days and sends a re-engagement message without you touching anything.
Simply put, the platform monitors your students so you don’t have to.
When it comes to cohort segmentation, GroupApp automatically sends your members who purchase Plan A to Segment A.
Each segment then controls which channels, events, resources, and workflows apply to that group, so your January cohort and April cohort never mix.
You also don’t need permission adjustments every time someone joins.
Kajabi has access groups, but they require manual setup for each group and don’t integrate with lesson-level permissions or workflow triggers.
GroupApp’s segmentation, on the other hand, is automatic, connected to every part of the platform, and self-managing once configured.
Where GroupApp stands out from Kajabi is with group subscriptions, because that’s the feature that closes corporate clients.
One manager can purchase a group subscription, and the whole team gets access immediately. Compare that to Kajabi, where everyone pays individually. Plus, you never have to touch the billing.
That’s the difference between a deal that stalls on procurement and one that renews annually.
If your target audience includes corporate clients, leadership development teams, or organizations running structured training programs, GroupApp handles this natively.

GroupApp has four pricing plans tailored to every type of creator.
All plans come with 0% transaction fees, so you keep 100% of your profits.
When comparing Kajabi vs GroupApp, the biggest difference is what each platform was built to do first.
| Feature | GroupApp | Kajabi |
| Starting price | Free to start | $179/month |
| Transaction fees | 0% on all plans | 0% with Kajabi Payments + 0.7% subscription surcharge |
| Lesson-level discussion channels | Built-in | Separate community section |
| Cohort segmentation | Automatic at enrollment | Manual access group setup |
| Enforce sequential progress | Enforce Completion toggle | Content locking without a lesson-level tie |
| Group subscriptions for B2B | All paid plans | Not available |
| Email marketing suite | Program delivery emails only | Full marketing platform |
| Sales funnels | Landing pages only | 5 blueprint funnels |
| Native live sessions | Via Zoom link | Native rooms for 200 people |
| Branded mobile app | Scale plan ($144/month) | Growth plan ($249/month) |
| Free trial | Free plan available | 14 days |

Best for: New creators who want funnels, email marketing, and course hosting at the lowest possible entry cost
Price: $0 – $97 per month | Transaction fees: 0% on all plans
If the reason you are looking for a cheaper alternative to Kajabi is purely about cost, Systeme.io is the answer most people land on. And for good reason.
The free plan gives you three funnels, one course, 2,000 contacts, unlimited emails, and a basic affiliate program, for nothing. That is more than Kajabi’s $179 Basic plan used to include before January 2026.
Where Kajabi gates its affiliate program behind the Growth plan at $249 per month, Systeme.io includes affiliate tools on every plan, including the free tier. Where Kajabi limits you to five products on the Basic plan, Systeme’s Startup plan at $17 per month gives you 10 funnels and unlimited email subscribers.
That said, the trade-offs are real. Systeme.io has no native community tools. No discussion feeds. No member profiles. No group chat. If you want a community alongside your courses, you will need a separate platform, which is the exact problem most Kajabi users wanted to solve in the first place.
The course builder is functional but basic. You can upload videos, text, files, and quizzes. But there are no assignments with written responses, no peer review, no grading rubrics, no enrollment enforcement. For a simple self-paced video course, it works. For a structured program with accountability built in, it falls short.
So if your business is funnels, email sequences, and selling digital products at the lowest possible cost, Systeme.io is a strong and genuinely affordable alternative. If your business needs real community interaction alongside courses, keep reading.

Systeme has four pricing plans, each with 0% transaction fees.
The Kajabi vs Systeme.io decision comes down to one simple question: do you need Kajabi’s marketing polish, or do you need a platform that’s free to start?
| Feature | Systeme.io | Kajabi |
| Starting price | $0 (free plan) | $179/month |
| Transaction fees | 0% on all plans | 0% + 0.7% subscription surcharge |
| Free plan available | Yes, 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course | No, 14-day trial only |
| Affiliate program | On every plan, including free | Growth plan only ($249/month) |
| Email marketing | Unlimited sends on all paid plans | Full suite with A/B testing |
| Sales funnels | Visual funnel builder on all plans | 5 blueprint funnels |
| Native community | None | Gamified community spaces |
| Course assessment depth | Basic quizzes only | Quizzes, assessments, certificates |
| Website builder | Included on all plans | More polished with 10+ themes |
| Mobile app for students | None | Customer app on all plans |
| A/B split testing | Built-in on all plans | Limited; Growth plan needed |

Best for: Course creators who need assessment depth, student compliance tools, and 0% transaction fees without paying Kajabi’s premium price
Price: $49 – $199 per month | Transaction fees: 0% with Thinkific Payments
Here is what surprises most people in the Kajabi vs Thinkific comparison. Thinkific is cheaper than Kajabi at every tier, and it beats Kajabi in depth of course creation.
Where Kajabi gives you quizzes and basic assessments, Thinkific gives you four assessment types: quizzes, exams, assignments, and surveys.
The AI quiz generator creates questions directly from your course content.

An integration with Brillium handles professional exam delivery with anti-cheating tools.
Completion certificates are automatically issued with the Start plan at $99 per month.
That said, Thinkific does not replace Kajabi’s marketing tools. There is no native email automation beyond basic three-email sequences.
No funnel builder worth mentioning.
No native live sessions, you schedule a Zoom link and embed it.
So if your reason for leaving Kajabi is the price and you want to keep the marketing tools, Thinkific is not the answer. You will end up paying for Thinkific, ConvertKit, and Zoom, and arrive at a similar monthly cost.
But if your priority is course quality and depth of student assessment, and you already have email marketing handled, Thinkific delivers a more structured learning infrastructure than Kajabi at half the price.

Thinkific’s 0% transaction fee applies only if you use Thinkific Payments.
Use your own Stripe account, and Thinkific adds a surcharge: 5% on Basic, 2% on Start, and 1% on Grow.
At $3,000 per month on Basic, that surcharge alone costs $150.
Also worth knowing, subscription transactions through Thinkific Payments carry an additional 0.7% fee as of March 2026, bringing the effective rate to 3.6% per subscription, not the headline 2.9%.
The Kajabi vs Thinkific comparison is the most common on this list, and the answer changes completely depending on whether marketing tools or course depth matter more to your business.
| Feature | Thinkific | Kajabi |
| Starting price | $49/month | $179/month |
| Transaction fees | 0% with Thinkific Payments | 0% with Kajabi Payments |
| Assessment types | 4 types: quizzes, exams, assignments, surveys | Quizzes and basic assessments only |
| AI quiz generator | Creates questions from the course content | Not available |
| Native live sessions | Zoom integration only | Native live rooms for 200 people |
| Email marketing | 3-email sequences only | Full suite with behavioral triggers |
| Sales funnels | 2 basic templates | 5 blueprint funnels |
| Third-party integrations | 90+ app store integrations | 12+ native, Zapier for rest |
| Branded mobile app | $199/month add-on | Growth plan ($249/month) |
| Community features | Forum with no gamification | Gamification, challenges, group chats |
| Free trial | 30 days | 14 days |
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Best for: New creators who want a simple all-in-one platform to sell courses, digital products, and memberships without a steep learning curve
Price: $39 – $89 per month | Transaction fees: 5% on Mover, 0% on Shaker
Most comparison articles list Podia as a Kajabi alternative due to its price. That is accurate. But the more honest reason to choose Podia is simplicity, and not features.
Kajabi has a learning curve. The funnel builder, email automation, pipeline setup, and product architecture all take time to understand.
For a creator who wants to launch their first course in a weekend without reading documentation for two weeks, Kajabi is overwhelming. Podia is not.
You can sell courses, digital downloads, coaching sessions, webinars, and memberships from one dashboard.

Built-in email marketing handles broadcasts and simple sequences.
A basic community lets members post and interact, while a drag-and-drop website builder gets your sales pages live fast.

None of these features goes as deep as Kajabi’s equivalents. The email system has no behavioral triggers or A/B testing.
The community has no gamification or live events, and the course builder has no assignments with grading rubrics or certificate automation. But for a creator at the beginning of their journey, none of that matters yet.
That said, Podia’s Mover plan at $39 per month charges a 5% transaction fee on every sale. At $3,000 in monthly revenue, that is $150 per month going to Podia above the subscription fee. The Shaker plan at $89 per month removes that fee, making it the minimum plan any creator who is actually selling should consider.

The Mover plan at $39 per month looks affordable until you calculate the 5% transaction fee at real revenue levels.
At $2,000 per month in course sales, that fee costs $100 per month, bringing your real monthly cost to $139, not $39.
The Shaker plan at $89 per month removes that fee entirely, making it the only plan worth considering for any creator who’s actively generating revenue.
The Kajabi vs Podia comparison is really a question of where you are in your creator journey, not which platform has more features.
| Feature | Podia | Kajabi |
| Starting price | $39/month | $179/month |
| Transaction fees | 5% on Mover, 0% on Shaker | 0% with Kajabi Payments |
| Setup complexity | Launch in hours; minimal learning curve | Steeper: marketing system takes time |
| Email marketing | Built-in basic automation | Full suite with A/B testing |
| Sales funnels | Basic sales tools only | 5 blueprint funnels |
| Course assessment depth | Basic — no graded assignments | Quizzes, assessments, certificates |
| Native community | Basic forum — no gamification or live events | Gamified community with live rooms |
| Native live sessions | None | Native live rooms for 200 people |
| Mobile app for students | None | Customer app on all plans |
| Unlimited products | On all paid plans | Limited to 5 on the Basic plan |
| Affiliate marketing | On Shaker plan ($89/month) | Growth plan only ($249/month) |
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Best for: Marketers and service-based businesses that need complex funnels, behavioral automation, and funnel simulation, and care less about course depth or community
Price: $99 – $549 per month | Transaction fees: 5% on Essentials plans
If you are leaving Kajabi because the funnel builder and email automation feel too basic, Kartra is where you land. Not because it is cheaper, it starts at $99 per month and climbs to $549 per month for the Professional plan, but because it does marketing automation at a depth that Kajabi cannot match.
Kajabi’s funnels use five blueprints and auto-generate landing pages and email sequences. That is useful and genuinely saves time. But the logic is linear. You cannot build conditional sequences in which one audience segment receives email sequence A, and another receives email sequence B based on what they clicked, how long they watched a video, or whether they abandoned a cart.
Kartra can. The If-Then automation builder creates branching flows based on page visits, video views, cart actions, form submissions, and tag assignments. A lead who watches 50% of your webinar replay gets a different follow-up sequence than one who watched 10%. And a lead who clicked your pricing page three times gets an automated outreach from you, not a blast to your whole list.
Kartra also has a funnel simulator. You map out your funnel, input your conversion rates and average order values, and the platform projects monthly revenue across different scenarios before you launch. Kajabi has no equivalent.
The trade-off is course depth and community. Kartra’s membership portal for hosting courses is functional but clunky. The course creation experience feels dated compared to Kajabi, Thinkific, or GroupApp. And there is no native community at all, no discussion boards, no member profiles, no group chats. If your students expect any form of peer interaction, you need a separate tool.

The Essentials plan at $59 per month comes with a 5% transaction fee on every sale. At $2,000 in monthly revenue, that fee adds $100, bringing your real cost to $159, not $59.
The Starter plan at $99 per month removes the fee entirely and is the first plan worth considering for any creator actively selling.
The Kajabi vs Kartra comparison divides creators immediately: Kartra wins on funnel depth and automation logic, Kajabi wins on course quality and community design.
| Feature | Kartra | Kajabi |
| Starting price | $99/month | $179/month |
| Transaction fees | 0% on all plans | 0% with Kajabi Payments |
| Funnel builder | Advanced If-Then logic, split testing, funnel simulation | 5 blueprints, simpler logic |
| Email automation | Behavioral triggers, lead scoring, split testing | Strong, but simpler branching |
| Course creation experience | Clunky, no proper drag-and-drop curriculum builder | Clean drag-and-drop with AI outline |
| Community features | None, requires external tool | Gamified community with live rooms |
| Native live sessions / webinars | Webinar on Growth plan ($189/month) | Native live rooms on all plans |
| Affiliate management | Advanced tracking on all plans | Growth plan only ($249/month) |
| Mobile app for students | None | Customer app on all plans |
| Physical product sales | Supported natively | Digital products only |
| Learning curve | Steep, complex automation setup | Moderate |

Best for: Creators who want Kajabi’s feature set: courses, community, coaching, email, and a branded mobile app, without Kajabi’s price or feature gating
Price: $69 – $479 per month | Transaction fees: 0% on all plans
EzyCourse is the closest direct feature-for-feature alternative to Kajabi on this list. Not in terms of polish or brand recognition, Kajabi still wins on those. But in terms of what you get for what you pay, EzyCourse covers the same ground at roughly half the price.
The most significant win over Kajabi is the branded mobile app. On Kajabi, a branded app with your name in the App Store requires the Growth plan at $249 per month. On EzyCourse, the branded iOS and Android app: your logo, your colors, your name in the App Store and Google Play, is included free on the Unlimited plan at $279 per month and the Elite plan at $479 per month. That is a significant cost difference for a feature that has a real impact on student retention.
The course builder supports 13 lesson types, including SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004, something Kajabi does not offer at any price. For corporate training programs and institutional clients who require SCORM compliance, that alone makes EzyCourse the more relevant option.
EzyCourse also has a Facebook-style community with posts, comments, polls, events, live meetings, leaderboards, and course tabs. The community connects to courses more naturally than Kajabi’s does. Members can interact before, during, and after sessions without leaving the platform.
That said, EzyCourse is not without limits. Native live streaming is locked behind the Pro plan at $159 per month and above. The platform is less polished than Kajabi and has a steeper learning curve than Podia or Systeme.io. And while it includes email marketing, the automation system is less sophisticated than Kajabi’s built-in email suite.

Running the Kajabi vs EzyCourse comparison shows one clear pattern: EzyCourse offers more features at every price point and includes the branded mobile app as a free feature that Kajabi gates behind its highest plan.
| Feature | EzyCourse | Kajabi |
| Starting price | $69/month | $179/month |
| Transaction fees | 0% on all plans | 0% with Kajabi Payments |
| Lesson types | 13 types, including SCORM 1.2 and 2004 | Limited, no SCORM support |
| Branded mobile app | Free on Unlimited plan ($279/month) | Growth plan ($249/month) |
| SCORM compliance | 1.2 and 2004 on all plans | Not available |
| Native live streaming | Pro plan ($159/month) and above | Native live rooms on all plans |
| Community features | Facebook-style with leaderboards and polls | Gamified community with challenges |
| Email marketing | Built-in with sequences and segmentation | More sophisticated with A/B testing |
| AI course creation | Up to 100,000 AI credits, depending on plan | Creator Studio for content repurposing |
| 24/7 human support | Available on all plans | AI-first, human support is slower |
| Sales funnels | Basic landing pages | 5 blueprint funnels with email sequences |

Best for: Creators and brands where the community discussion space is the primary product and courses are a supporting revenue layer
Price: $89 – $199 per month | Transaction fees: 0.5% – 2% depending on plan
Circle is not trying to replace Kajabi across every feature. It is trying to be the best community platform, and then add courses, events, and monetization on top.
The result is a platform that does community more naturally than any tool on this list, including Kajabi.
The interface looks like a modern Slack crossed with a branded member portal.

Spaces organize conversations by topic, cohort, or access level.
Members have profiles, direct messaging, and activity feeds.
Live events stream natively for up to 1,000 participants.
Gamification gives members points and badges for participating, the kind of engagement mechanics that keep communities active long after the initial excitement of joining wears off.

Where Circle separates from Kajabi is in what it does not include.
There is no email marketing suite. No funnel builder. No website builder beyond basic landing pages. If you need a full marketing stack alongside your community, Circle requires you to connect external tools, which is the exact problem Kajabi was designed to solve.
That said, if you are building a brand around community, a paid membership where discussion, connection, and live events are the value proposition and courses are occasional revenue adds, Circle is the best platform for that specific model.

Both prices are billed annually (that detail isn’t laid out upfront on the pricing page).
The 2% transaction fee on Professional adds $60 per month at $3,000 in revenue.
Add the Email Hub at $99 per month for basic email tools, and you are at $248 per month before doing anything advanced.
That’s more than Kajabi Growth, which includes email with no add-on.
If the Kajabi vs Circle question is about community tools, Circle wins. But if it’s about running a full marketing-first online business, Kajabi wins by a wide margin.
| Feature | Circle | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $89/month | $179/month |
| Transaction fees | 2% Professional, 1% Business | 0% with Kajabi Payments |
| Community architecture | Built-in first, Spaces with rich engagement tools | Added-on, separate from courses |
| Native live streaming capacity | Up to 1,000 participants | Up to 200 participants |
| Mobile app | iOS and Android on all plans | Customer app on all plans, branded app on Growth |
| Gamification | Activity Scores, custom rewards, quality-based points | Points, leaderboards, challenges |
| Email marketing | Marketing Hub add-on at $99/month extra | Full suite built into all plans |
| Sales funnels | No funnel builder | 5 blueprint funnels |
| Course assessment depth | Basic, no graded assignments or certificates natively | Quizzes, assessments, certificates |
| Website builder | Basic landing pages | Full website builder with blogging |
| Member limits | Unlimited on all plans | Limited, 2,500 contacts on Basic |
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Best for: Community-first creators who want the best mobile app experience and strong live event infrastructure for large membership groups
Price: $95 – $215 per month | Transaction fees: 0.5% – 2%
Mighty Networks has one thing no other platform on this list can match: the mobile experience. The iOS and Android apps are full-featured, fast, and feel like a premium product that was designed for mobile first and web second.
Every other platform on this list treats mobile as an extension of the web app. Mighty Networks treats mobile as the primary interface.
That matters for community businesses where your members are constantly on their phones. Push notifications, live session alerts, direct messages, and content updates all reach members in ways that feel native to how they use their devices.
Mighty also has the strongest live event infrastructure of any community platform on this list. You can host live sessions for up to 500 members natively, without a Zoom link.

Members RSVP inside the platform, receive notifications, and join from within the Mighty app. After the session, the recording is automatically uploaded and remains in the same event entry.
That said, the trade-offs are significant compared to Kajabi or even GroupApp. The course builder has no advanced assessments, no certificates, and no enforcement of sequential progress.
Marketing tools are also minimal, with no email campaigns, funnel builder, or affiliate program. And transaction fees of 0.5% to 2% apply to the lower plans.
Mighty Networks is the right Kajabi alternative for creators whose primary product is a live, interactive community, with mobile engagement and large live sessions as the delivery mechanism. For creators who need courses with real assessment depth or marketing tools to drive sales, other options on this list serve them better.

Mighty removed its $49 plan in 2025. The entry point is now $95 per month, billed monthly, or $79 billed annually. That 2% transaction fee still applies on Launch: at $3,000 in monthly revenue, that is $60 extra per month on top of the subscription. Your real cost on the annual plan is $139, not $79.
The Kajabi vs Mighty Networks comparison is the most straightforward on this list: Mighty wins on mobile and live events, Kajabi wins on everything related to marketing and course creation.
| Feature | Mighty Networks | Kajabi |
| Starting price | $95/month | $179/month |
| Transaction fees | 2% Launch, 1% Scale | 0% with Kajabi Payments |
| Native mobile app quality | Full-featured, built mobile-first | Student app solid, admin app is separate |
| Live streaming capacity | Up to 500 on Scale plan | Up to 200 on all plans |
| Community architecture | Spaces-first design with daily engagement tools | Community added on to course platform |
| Email marketing | Not included | Full suite built in |
| Sales funnels | No funnel builder | 5 blueprint funnels |
| Course assessment depth | Basic, no sequential enforcement or certificates | Quizzes, assessments, certificates |
| Branded app in App Store | Mighty Pro, custom enterprise pricing only | Growth plan ($249/month) |
| Gamification | Points, levels, and badges built-in | Points, leaderboards, challenges |
| Group subscriptions (B2B) | Not available | Not available |
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After testing, reviewing, and helping over 1,100 programs choose the right platform, here is the honest breakdown of the best alternatives to Kajabi for each specific use case.
Choose GroupApp if you run structured group programs, coaching tracks, certification cohorts, or professional training where students move through a curriculum together with community discussion tied to each lesson.
Starting at $24 per month with 0% transaction fees on every plan, it delivers what Kajabi cannot: lesson-level community integration, automatic cohort segmentation, and group subscriptions for B2B sales.
Choose Systeme.io if you want the cheapest Kajabi alternative with a real free plan. Funnels, email marketing, affiliates, and basic course hosting at $0 to $97 per month. The trade-off is no community tools and a basic course builder.
Choose Thinkific if your priority is course quality and student assessment depth at a lower price than Kajabi. Four assessment types, AI question generation, and 0% transaction fees with Thinkific Payments, all without paying $179 per month to start.
Choose Podia if you are building your first course and want to launch fast without a steep learning curve. The simplest setup on this list. Not the most powerful, but the fastest to a live, selling product.
Choose Kartra if your business runs on advanced marketing automation and you need funnel logic that Kajabi cannot match. The course creation experience is dated, but nothing on this list beats Kartra’s If-Then automation depth.
Choose EzyCourse if you want Kajabi’s full feature set without Kajabi’s price. Courses, community, coaching, email, and a free branded mobile app on higher plans, at significantly lower cost. SCORM compliance is a bonus for corporate clients.
Choose Circle if your primary product is the community itself, a paid membership where discussion, connection, and live events are the value. The best community UX on this list. Just be aware of the transaction fees.
Choose Mighty Networks if mobile-first community engagement and large live events are your delivery mechanism. The best native mobile app experience in this category. Not the right choice if course depth or marketing automation matter to your business.
Systeme.io is the strongest free Kajabi alternative. The free plan includes three funnels, one course, 2,000 contacts, unlimited email sends, and an affiliate program, all with 0% transaction fees. GroupApp also offers a 14-day free trial with full feature access before you commit to a paid plan.
GroupApp, Systeme.io, Kartra, and EzyCourse all charge 0% transaction fees across all plans. Kajabi charges 0% only with Kajabi Payments, and adds a 0.7% surcharge on subscriptions, plus 1.5% on international cards that most creators do not discover until they read the help center.
GroupApp. It is the only platform on this list built around cohort delivery where the community discussion lives inside each lesson. Enforce Completion locks sequential progress. Cohort segmentation runs automatically. Group subscriptions enable B2B sales. Starting at $24 per month with 0% transaction fees.
Yes, for course creation depth and student assessment. Thinkific offers four assessment types, an AI quiz generator, and 0% transaction fees with Thinkific Payments, making it a stronger course platform at a lower price. But it lacks Kajabi’s email marketing, funnels, and native live sessions, so creators who need those tools still need external subscriptions.
Podia for the simplest setup. Systeme.io for the lowest cost, including a free plan. GroupApp for creators who know they want to build structured group programs from the start and want to launch on the right architecture rather than migrate later.
Systeme.io, Kartra, and EzyCourse all include email marketing with sequences, automation, and segmentation. Systeme.io and EzyCourse are the most affordable. Kartra has the most advanced automation logic. None of them match Kajabi’s level of polish in the email builder itself, but all three remove the need for a separate email marketing subscription.
Kajabi removed the Kickstarter plan from public pricing in January 2026. The entry price is now $179 per month, billed monthly or $143 per month billed annually, the highest starting price in the mainstream course platform market. The Kickstarter plan technically still exists, but requires a specific link to access. It is not the right starting point for serious program delivery.
EzyCourse includes a free branded iOS and Android app on the Unlimited plan at $279 per month. GroupApp includes the branded white-label app on the Scale plan at $144 per month. Kajabi includes it on the Growth plan at $249 per month. Thinkific charges $199 per month as a separate add-on on top of any plan.
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