Kajabi vs. ClickFunnels (+ One Community App That’s Even Better)

If you want to find a platform where you can create and sell digital products, Kajabi and ClickFunnels are the two brands you must have encountered.

There is already a large number of reviews and comparisons. On the Kajabi website, they conclude that Kajabi is better. Meanwhile, ClickFunnels promotes its own product – both stances are understandable.

But how can you tell what’s right for you? Which platform should you choose?

In this unbiased review, we’ll break down the features of each platform and help you decide which is the best fit for your business.

But wait! There’s more!

A secret platform exists, created with one goal in mind.

It offers anything course creators need to build thriving communities and skyrocket their businesses – all in one place (but really, it’s all in one place).

Cannot wait to find out what it is.

If possible: skip the review and go right to it.

If not possible, then: be patient…let’s explore Kajabi and ClickFunnels first.

What is the difference between Kajabi and ClickFunnels?

Both Kajabi and ClickFunnels are for entrepreneurs, people who want to build membership sites, and online marketers, but they offer different possibilities.

Kajabi is best described as an online platform for building sales pages and making courses and membership sites. With Kajabi, you can turn your expertise into digital products, and it comes with marketing features to make sales funnels run more smoothly.

On the other hand, ClickFunnels is a software platform that focuses mainly on sales funnels. It can even be used for selling physical products (like supplements, books, drop-shipped items, etc.).

Even though ClickFunnels provides online membership and course-selling features, it’s not what you can reap the most benefits from.

Here’s what you should know about both platforms, starting with key differences.

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Difference #1: Users

Even though they both have the same target audience, there’s a slight difference between Kajabi and ClickFunnels users and how they take advantage of the platforms.

Kajabi’s primary focus is on digital entrepreneurs. Kajabi offers features to help them sell their digital products, like online courses and memberships. You don’t have to be tech-savvy to use it, and every individual can simply create and market their products.

On the other hand, ClickFunnels is more focused on sales funnels. And it doesn’t only work for digital products but also for physical ones. Even though ClickFunnels offers the option to create online courses and membership sites, most people choose to use it as a front-end page builder for their business.

Difference #2: Purpose

Kajabi was created as an all-in-one solution where you can host your online business. Since Kajabi is designed to help digital entrepreneurs, its purpose is to help people sell online courses and memberships and market their services online.

ClickFunnels’ core focus is sales and pipeline creation, but it is built for people with some IT knowledge. ClickFunnels sets the standard for bells and whistles on the technical side of building a funnel. It is way more customizable but requires tech experience.

Kajabi is built for:

• Digital entrepreneurs who want to create online courses and membership sites.
• Business owners who need a website, landing pages, email marketing, and sales funnels.
• People who don’t have coding experience.
• People who want more than a funnel platform.

ClickFunnels is built for:

• Business owners who need sales funnels and tools to tweak and modify them.
• People who want to sell physical products.
• People who want a deep analysis of their performance.
• People who know how to code.
• Business owners who want a funnel platform to add to their suite of apps.

Kajabi vs. ClickFunnels: Features Overview

It may seem like these two platforms are entirely different, but some features overlap. Both platforms provide sales funnels, CRM capabilities, email marketing automation, and affiliate systems.

But there are still some differences in how they work. Let’s compare their main features and see which platform wins in each category.

Funnel Building

The ClickFunnels funnel builder is the main feature of this platform and the best one. It comes with 22 different funnel blueprint templates in three categories depending on your goal: lead capturing, sales pages, and event funnels.

Some of these templates are free, while others you’ll have to pay for. They can be used to sell digital products, physical products, and courses, as well as coaching and other services.

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Kajabi also allows you to create sales funnels (or, as they call them, “pipelines”). But there is one condition: you can use them only for selling courses and memberships hosted on the Kajabi platform.

Similarly to ClickFunnels, Kajabi also offers pre-made templates for Pipelines.

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Who comes out on top?

If you want to sell a variety of products on a tight budget, ClickFunnels is the way to go. It allows you to create better sales funnels, has more template options, and is not limited to digital products or the platform itself.

Courses and Membership Sites

ClickFunnels isn’t the best place for online courses. Sure, you can host courses in its membership space, but it’s not designed for course creation—it’s made for sales. If your main goal is creating and selling online courses, ClickFunnels likely won’t meet your needs.

Kajabi is much more oriented toward course hosting and delivery. With Kajabi, you can upload any kind of course, from mini-courses to training programs to full online courses.

Who comes out on top?

If you want to create and sell courses, Kajabi is a better choice than ClickFunnels. But don’t think that this option is perfect. We’ll go over this later, so make sure you’re aware of all of the drawbacks before deciding on Kajabi for your online courses.

Automation and Email Marketing

ClickFunnels has a tool for automation called Follow-up Funnels, previously known as Actionetics. This tool is separate from the standard email marketing feature and is used to help you automate your sales funnels.

You can use Follow-up Funnels to send automatic responses, create email lists, and use SMTP servers. You also don’t need a third-party CRM with this feature. However, it is not really budget-friendly. This feature is available for the Funnel Hacker plan, which costs $297 a month.

Kajabi comes with a built-in email automation tool. You can tag users, segment them, and use the autoresponder. Unfortunately, Kajabi doesn’t offer a scheduling feature for autoresponder campaigns. Every plan has email marketing available, but with limitations.

Who comes out on top?

As far as choices go, this one is the toughest. ClickFunnels’ superior automation and email features will have a significant impact on your business’s bottom line. Even so, it’s a bit overpriced.

If we’re just looking at features, ClickFunnels comes out on top, but it’s not the most amazing choice ever.

Affiliate Marketing

Both platforms allow you to sell your courses through affiliates, but not if you’re paying for just the Basic plan. We must mention again that with Kajabi, you can do this only for digital products, while ClickFunnels can be used for a wider range of products.

In ClickFunnels, the affiliate system is called Backpack, and it’s available under the Follow-up Funnel tool. With Kajabi, you have a full-fledged affiliate marketing program.

Both platforms allow you to add affiliates and track commissions and sales.

Who comes out on top?

Both platforms have up-to-date affiliate marketing programs. However, because of the extra possibilities for selling, the winner is ClickFunnels. This one was close.

Kajabi vs. ClickFunnels: Pricing

ClickFunnels Pricing

ClickFunnels offers three different monthly plans.

The Basic plan costs $147 per month. It includes one website, 20 funnels, one admin user, up to three courses, one domain, a maximum of 1,000 students, and 10,000 contacts. Basic has unlimited workflows, pages, products, and email sequences.

The Pro plan is $197 a month. It includes one website, 100 funnels, five admin users, up to 15 courses, three domains, a maximum of 10,000 students, and 25,000 contacts. The pro plan has extra features like an affiliate program, API access, ShareFunnels, a Liquid theme editor, and a CF1 maintenance mode.

Funnel Hacker is the name of the most expensive monthly plan, and it costs $497 a month (currently $297). With this plan, you can have up to 2 websites, 15 admin users, nine domains, 100 courses (now 200), 20,000 students, and 200,000 contacts. Funnel Hacker offers unlimited funnels.

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Kajabi Pricing

Kajabi also offers three different plans.

The Basic plan is $149 per month. It includes one website, one admin user, three products, three funnels, a maximum of 1,000 active members, and 10,000 contacts. If you choose the Basic plan, you will have unlimited landing pages and marketing emails. There is no transaction fee, and you have access to make webinars, events, and assessments (quizzes and surveys).

The Growth plan costs $199 per month. It offers up to one website, 15 products, ten admin users, 15 funnels, 25,000 contacts, and 10,000 active members. Additional features of this program are the ability to remove Kajabi branding, an affiliate program, and advanced automation.

The price of the Pro plan is $399 a month. This plan allows you to have three websites, 25 admin users, 100 products and funnels, 100,000 contacts, and 20,000 active members. Pro plan is the only one that has a code editor.

Kajabi doesn’t have hidden fees. But, there is a standard Stripe merchant processing fee of 2.9% plus an additional 30 cents per transaction.

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The disadvantage of both platforms is that they don’t offer a free plan. They offer three options, all of which come with a 14-day free trial.

Who comes out on top?

ClickFunnels and Kajabi are similar when we compare their pricing. However, let’s say ClickFunnels is a slightly better option because it’s more affordable, and the top-tier plan has fewer restrictions.

Where does Kajabi struggle?

If you want to create and sell courses, you’ll be more interested in Kajabi. However, don’t ignore its disadvantages.

Kajabi looks similar to a Facebook Group

It’s all about message boards, liking posts, and consuming content within the Kajabi community. Sounds familiar?

The issue arises because there do not appear to be many upgrades or additional features. A thriving community is more than just scrolling through posts and messages, and Kajabi doesn’t provide many tools to help with that.

Kajabi is the old way of launching courses

There are two different kinds of courses, each based on a different way of learning. Traditional and outdated courses provide only materials for students to read and learn.

These courses don’t work because many students never finish them. Even if a student finishes a whole course, they are much less likely to be able to repeat, apply, and use what they’ve learned.

Why is the traditional way of learning less effective?

Simply put, because students are on their own. They have a lot of information, but that’s all they have. For many students, having to figure out when to learn, what extra materials to use, how much time to spend on each lesson, and so on can be stressful and unproductive.

They are more likely to give up and blame the author for the course “not working”.

Another huge problem with this course type is that people aren’t sure whether they have understood it correctly or not. We must focus on the community to avoid this ineffective way of teaching and learning.

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People who were studying in the community have shown incredible results. A much higher percentage of people successfully completed the course. Additionally, students who learned in groups were better at remembering, analyzing, and evaluating information.

And it’s not illogical. When people gather around the same interests, they will start sharing their experiences, asking questions, and learning from each other. People in the community are more motivated to learn and participate.

Support is one of the most powerful advantages of a group with the same interest. Community members will always have help and encouragement from their peers. Online communities have to allow students to be seen, heard, and understood.

Lack of completion certificates

When it comes to the usage of third-party tools, many users are dissatisfied. Firstly, Kajabi doesn’t offer completion certificates. Course creators have to use a third-party platform to provide completion certificates.

Integration of third-party tools can be challenging

Secondly, most users complained about integrating third-party tools into Kajabi. In their experience, integration can be difficult and glitchy.

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Pricey and doesn’t offer a free option

As we saw, Kajabi offers a 14-day free trial but doesn’t have a free plan. In addition, Kajabi is pricey when we compare it to similar platforms.

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Kajabi markets itself as a solution for online businesses of all sizes. However, some may consider pricing to be high, especially if you add other expenses for a small business.

Kajabi provides access to many useful features but nothing spectacular. With that price, people are expecting to get an outstanding experience – end if you do, you may end up disappointed.

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Inability to customize the website

This complaint was widespread among users. They overall like the themes provided by Kajabi, but they want and need more freedom to edit their templates. Compared to other alternatives, Kajabi is not as customizable.

Bad customization options also cover email templates, and a good design is a must if you want to pique the potential client’s interest.

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Lack of students’ engagement tools

Besides the gamification tool, Kajabi’s student engagement tools are lacking compared to other platforms. For instance, there is no option to randomize quizzes or assessment questions.

Furthermore, many course creators have noticed that quiz template options are limited. You can choose a template with only multiple-choice questions or a multiple-selection-style quiz.

What challenges ClickFunnels has?

ClickFunnels is not without flaws, too. Here is what you should know before buying a monthly plan.

Price

Similarly to Kajabi, it is not the most affordable option in the market. The cheapest option is $147, which is a disadvantage for many users, especially beginners.

Software Downtime

The ClickFunnels software goes down temporarily for one to four hours. It is rare, but it still happens. This can cause problems and even revenue loss because leads can’t check out when the funnel page doesn’t load during downtime.

ClickFunnels does not have a dedicated course builder

ClickFunnels provides the basic tools and features to build an online course. However, it’s not that exceptional. ClickFunnels is way better at marketing online courses than making them.

With ClickFunnels, you won’t get basic features for course creation like user discussions, quizzes, or certificates.

You can’t host audio or video files

ClickFunnels allows you to host files up to 3 MB. It’s enough for small files like Word and PDFs but not for video and audio files. So, if you want to use video with your courses, you’ll have to pay for an additional hosting platform.

Paying for a separate hosting service isn’t just an unnecessary expense, but it isn’t a simple process. It’s exceptionally inconvenient to manage videos if you have many of them. This can also cause technical difficulties.

You can’t track users’ progress

One of the key reasons we start an online course is to see progress. With ClickFunnels, users can’t track their progress, nor can you.

Features for tracking progress are essential for course creators to see the metrics and know how their course is doing and how they can improve it. It’s impossible to be a successful course creator without basic statistics like a course completion rate or an option to see your students’ progress.

Both Kajabi and ClickFunnels Don’t Feature Strong Communities

One major reason to avoid both Kajabi and ClickFunnels is that they have no strong communities.

Many of their users create a Facebook group to have a place for discussions with members. But that’s not an ideal solution because it is disintegrated. Facebook groups lack branding options and ownership.

Also, there are too many distractions – news, funny GIFs and videos, photos, and messages from family and friends. It’s impossible to be focused on being a member of a learning community while so much is happening.

Why we insist so much on communities?

An online community:

• Has shown better results in the learning process;
• Brings together niche people;
• Eliminates standard networking barriers;
• Builds your network;
• Supports you.

Without one, you need to revert to third-party apps and Facebook groups. Kajabi’s integrations are weak; therefore, choosing anything that isn’t a Facebook group doesn’t make much sense.

On the other hand, ClickFunnel doesn’t have an integration problem, but there aren’t any good options to choose from.

And in both cases you need to leave the platform. Strange, considering that they advertise as all-in-one solutions.

What’s the secret platform that beats both Kajabi and ClickFunnels?

We present to you:

GroupApp – the Best Community App

For experts and course creators who want to build an online community and sell their expertise through online courses, the number one option is GroupApp. GroupApp is the learning community platform that supports you in bringing your courses and community together in one place.

GroupApp offers the best features for creating courses

On GroupApp, you can create interactive courses filled with text, worksheets, audio and video files. For example, ClickFunnels doesn’t come with this variety of available file types.

However, building good courses isn’t just about the tools and files. It’s also about creating a good learning environment; something GroupApp handles very well.

We already talked about two different ways of learning. While Kajabi’s features are for an old and ineffective way of learning, GroupApp offers everything to support a new way – collaborative learning.

The old way of studying included giving students all of the course materials at once. It was inefficient because many learners skipped lessons, became bored, and never finished the course.

The main idea is to combine all of the best methods. One of the more interesting ones are cohort-based courses that use a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous learning.

Collaborative learning in a well-defined learning community can improve student engagement and course completion. And if the students are happy with what they learned, they’ll come back for your other courses.

GroupApp wins in creating collaborative learning communities and cohort-based courses against both Kajabi and ClickFunnels.

Drip Schedule

On GroupApp, you can use the Drip Schedule feature to control students’ access to new lessons. For you as a course creator, it’s beneficial because you can ensure your students understand and know the materials. Releasing content gradually is also proven to improve student engagement.

Track Student Progress

If you want to know whether your courses are good, and how the students are dealing with the material, you’ll need good analytics options. Unlike with ClickFunnels, GroupApp lets you see which lessons the students are struggling with, so you can help them out or improve the course.

GroupApp has advanced features to build a thriving community

Another crucial component of your booming business is building a strong online community around your product, service, or content. That’s impossible to do with Facebook groups or platforms that look similar, because they’re too distracting for students.

GroupApp acknowledges that and offers features that are effective and straightforward. You can host your community directly on GroupApp and have an organized and quiet space designed only for learning. This way, GroupApp connects your courses and community to improve your online course business.

In a GroupApp community, you can create channels with different members. They can be based on courses, memberships, and other factors. Channels help you organize different topics, so it’s easy to navigate and find relevant information. You can set access levels and control what gets shared in each channel.

The crucial step in building a learning community is creating a space where students can contact each other, share ideas and start discussions about various topics. GroupApp offers you features for this.

Also, GroupApp lets all users send direct messages and create group chats. This way, you can help each member individually or organize a group chat where your students will discuss what they’ve learned and ask each other questions.

The library feature is an amazing tool incorporated into your GroupApp community that improves your course content by systematizing and storing files. You can store videos, PDFs, and any additional materials here, and students can access it easily.

The Events Calendar is a feature that assists you in coordinating your community events. In addition, this feature brings clarity to the community because everyone knows when the meeting is and has all the extra information about it in one place.

Let’s compare GroupApp to Kajabi and ClickFunnels when it comes to building a community.

Kajabis’ community is only for scrolling through content, not for establishing connections between peers, sharing knowledge, and learning in a group of people with similar interests.

With Kajabi, there is no engagement and activity between members, which is crucial for building a community. ClickFunnels doesn’t offer you an opportunity even to create a community.

So, GroupApp is a clear winner here. GroupApp supports you in every step of building a community – from designing it to launching it and improving your engagement.

GroupApp is cost-effective and gives more opportunities for growing businesses

One of the disadvantages that Kajabi and ClickFunnels have in common is high pricing. GroupApp isn’t on that team.

First of all, GroupApp offers you a free plan that isn’t time limited. Moreover, you can choose between four plans with a 14-day free trial.

• GroupApp Basic costs $39 a month and allows you to have a community with up to 1,000 members and unlimited numbers of courses and students. You’ll also have a custom domain, Zapier integration, and email support.
• GroupApp Pro is $99 a month and supports you in building a community with 10,000 members. You’ll have features for Drip Schedule and Post & Email Scheduling. Additional features you’ll have access to Segments and Single Sign-on (SSO).
• GroupApp Premium is $499 per month, perfect for brands and large organizations. The premium plan offers you Custom API Integration, Custom OAuth (SSO), an account manager, and 1:2 setup & onboarding. Your community can have up to 100,000 members.

Compared to Kajabi and ClickFunnels, GroupApp isn’t just less expensive and offers much more. With GroupApp, there is no need for other platforms. You have only one monthly subscription and everything you need for your online course business.

Making money with GroupApp

GroupApp values your hard-earned money. For that reason, there are no hidden fees. Moreover, GroupApp helps you monetize your knowledge as much as you can.

You can earn money in a few ways:

• You can monetize through membership subscriptions (monthly, quarterly, 6-month, or annual membership subscriptions);
• You can sell online courses;
• You can sell downloadable resources (templates, e-books, worksheets, etc.).

Therefore, besides being more affordable, you also have multiple ways to make a great source of revenue. And you won’t need to pay for additional fees or subscriptions!

What Are You Waiting For?

Kajabi and ClickFunnels are powerful marketing platforms for solopreneurs, membership site builders, and online marketers.

However, these platforms are unsuccessful in providing features to help online course businesses unite their courses and community in one place.

If you want to build a modern community and grow your business, you will be surprised by everything GroupApp has to offer!

You’ll have everything you need for a flourishing online business:

• Features for cohort-based courses, which is the future of learning;
• Features to create a thriving online community;
• Features to maintain community engagement;
• Opportunity to monetize your expertise;
• Freedom to improve your business and yourself.

There’s not a single reason why you shouldn’t try GroupApp.

Start in less than one minute!

Create a FREE account and start your free 14-day free trial, and we will help you set up everything on GroupApp.