7 Best Kajabi Alternatives for Coaches in 2026 (Ranked by True Cost)

A message like this lands in my inbox every few weeks, usually a month or so before a Kajabi renewal. It goes roughly: Basic is $143 a month now, I don’t think I use half of it, so what are the real Kajabi alternatives, and would switching actually save me anything? I get more of them this year, because the cheaper Kickstarter plan is gone for new customers. Basic is the new floor.

I checked Kajabi’s pricing page on 3 November to be sure. No Kickstarter. The cheapest plan listed was Basic, at $143 a month yearly or $179 monthly.

But a lower sticker price is not the same as a lower bill. Some cheaper platforms take a cut of every sale. Some leave out email, so you pay for a second tool. One looks cheap at launch and costs almost as much as Kajabi by month twelve.

So this guide does the maths. I build the true monthly cost of seven options line by line, at three sales levels: $0, $1,000 and $5,000 a month. Then I rank them, show the break-even points, and run a 12-month timeline. At the end I name the one coach who should stay put.

What actually changed at Kajabi in January 2026

Kajabi overhauled its pricing in January 2026. The headline change: the cheaper Kickstarter plan was retired for new customers. If you already had it, you keep your rate for now. If you are signing up today, your entry point is Basic.

Here is what Basic gives you, from the Kajabi pricing page (checked 3 Nov 2026):

• $143 a month on yearly billing, or $179 a month billed monthly
• No Kajabi transaction fee when you use Kajabi Payments (check the surcharge if you plan to connect your own Stripe account)
• Email marketing included, for up to 2,500 contacts
• Website, funnels and community included
• 5 products, 1 website and 2 admin users

Growth and Pro sit above Basic. Growth is $199 a month on yearly billing ($249 monthly), with 50 products and 25,000 contacts. Pro is $399 a month yearly ($499 monthly). You can see them on Kajabi’s pricing page, and we break the plans down in our Kajabi pricing explainer.

That list is not bad value if you use all of it. The trouble is that most solo coaches don’t.

The sticky-note test

When a coach asks me if they’re overpaying for Kajabi, I give them one small job before we talk numbers. Write down, on a single sticky note, every Kajabi feature you’ve touched in the last 90 days.

The notes that come back are short. Think of a career coach I’ll call Maya, who stands in for a lot of them. Her note reads: course, emails, checkout. No funnel, no community, and her website lives on Squarespace, which she already likes. She pays for an all-in-one course platform and uses three pieces of it.

That sticky note is the whole point of this article. Before you compare Kajabi competitors, know which pieces you actually need. Then price only those.

How I build a true cost (the four lines)

Every option below gets the same four-line bill. This is the only fair way to compare a bundle like Kajabi with a stack of separate tools.

1. Platform fee. The monthly plan price, on yearly billing.
2. Platform transaction fee. Any percentage the platform keeps from each sale.
3. Email tool. If the platform can’t send marketing email, I add one.
4. Payment processing. Stripe or PayPal charge about 2.9% + 30¢ per sale on every platform here.

Line four is the same everywhere, so I leave it out of the totals. It doesn’t change the ranking. Just remember it exists when you plan your margins: at $5,000 a month in sales, it’s a real cost no matter which tool you choose.

Lines two and three are where Kajabi alternatives either win or quietly lose. A 5% fee is nothing at $0 in sales. At $5,000 a month it is $250. And “no email” can mean $0 or $33 a month depending on what you pair it with.

The 7 Kajabi alternatives, line by line

Ranked from cheapest to dearest at $1,000 a month in sales. Each one gets its four-line bill, who it suits, and when to skip it.

1. Teachable Builder + Kit Free (the $69 stack)

This is two tools doing the job of one. Teachable hosts your courses and runs checkout. Kit’s Free plan sends your marketing email.

• Platform: $69 (Teachable Builder, yearly), or $89 monthly
• Transaction fee: 0% platform fee
• Email: $0 (Kit Free, up to 10,000 subscribers)
• True cost: $69 at $0, $1K and $5K in sales

Builder allows 10 products, which is double Kajabi Basic’s 5. Teachable doesn’t cap students by plan; its plans are limited by products. Teachable dropped its free plan in 2026, so you’ll be paying from the start, but there’s a 7-day free trial and a 30-day guarantee. Many coaches find its course builder and checkout easier to set up than Kajabi.

The catch: Kit’s Free plan has no app integrations, one automation and one sequence, and it shows Kit branding. So buyers won’t flow from Teachable into Kit on their own. You’ll export and import them, or upgrade later. For a coach with one course and one welcome sequence, that’s fine.

Skip it if you plan to sell more than 10 products, or you want a community. Thinkific Start covers both for $13 more.

2. Paperbell (for 1-to-1 coaches)

Paperbell is not a course platform in the Kajabi sense. It’s built for coaches who sell sessions and packages. If Maya sold coaching packages rather than a course, this is where I’d point her.

• Platform: $80.83 ($970 a year), or $97 billed monthly
• Transaction fee: none from Paperbell
• Email: not its job; pair it with Kit Free at $0
• True cost: $80.83 at every sales level

You get scheduling, payments, contracts, a client portal, packages and group coaching support, all on one plan. There’s no free plan. Instead you get a 30-day money-back guarantee, so set it up with a real client in that first month. Our Paperbell review goes deeper.

Skip it if courses are your main product. It’s a practice tool first.

3. Thinkific Start + Kit Free

Thinkific retired its Basic plan in late October 2026; the cheapest plan is now Start. That changed Thinkific from the cheap option into the roomy one.

• Platform: $82 (yearly), or $109 monthly
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Email: $0 with Kit Free
• True cost: $82 at every sales level

Start gives you unlimited courses and students, communities, memberships and bundles, plus a mature course builder. If you run a group program with a members’ space, this is the like-for-like replacement for that part of Kajabi. Thinkific’s built-in email is basic; most coaches pair it with Kit or MailerLite.

Skip it if you sell under 10 products and don’t need a community. Teachable Builder does the course job for $13 less.

4. Podia Shaker

Podia is the alternative for people who liked Kajabi’s “one login” feeling but not its price. Shaker is the plan that makes sense for most coaches.

• Platform: $84 ($1,008 a year)
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Email: included
• True cost: $84 at every sales level

You get courses, email and a storefront in one place, with up to 150 products. There’s a 14-day free trial, no card needed. The thing to watch is email: check the subscriber allowance on Podia’s page before you count on it. Earthquaker removes the product cap but costs $150 a month, which is more than Kajabi Basic. Our Kajabi vs Podia comparison maps where that line falls.

Skip it if you already have a big list. Confirm Podia’s email allowance covers it before you move.

5. Podia Mover

Mover looks like a bargain on the pricing page. At launch, it is. After that, the fee does the talking.

• Platform: $42 ($504 a year)
• Transaction fee: 5%
• Email: included
• True cost: $42 at $0 sales · $92 at $1K · $292 at $5K

At $5,000 a month in sales, Mover costs more than double Kajabi Basic. Its 50-product cap is generous; the fee is the real limit. Mover is for testing an idea, not for running a business on.

Skip it if you expect more than about $840 a month in sales. I’ll show where that number comes from below.

6. Teachable Starter

Starter is the cheapest sticker price on this list. It’s also the plan most likely to cost you the most by the end of the year.

• Platform: $29 (yearly), or $39 monthly
• Transaction fee: 7.5%
• Email: pair with Kit Free at $0
• True cost: $29 at $0 sales · $104 at $1K · $404 at $5K

Starter allows 5 products, the same as Kajabi Basic. For a coach who hasn’t sold anything yet, $29 is a cheap way to get a course live. Once sales start, the 7.5% fee grows faster than any flat plan.

Skip it if you expect more than about $533 a month in sales. Builder is cheaper past that point.

7. Thinkific Start + Kit Creator

Same course platform as option three, but you pay for email from day one. This is the honest setup for a coach who wants real automations and integrations right away.

• Platform: $82
• Transaction fee: 0%
• Email: $33 (Kit Creator at 1,000 subscribers, yearly)
• True cost: $115 at every sales level

That’s still $28 a month less than Kajabi Basic, or $336 a year. Kit Creator adds unlimited visual automations and sequences, and you keep Thinkific’s unlimited courses.

Skip it if your email needs are simple. Start on option three and upgrade Kit when you hit the wall.

Side by side: true cost at $0, $1K and $5K

Here are all seven Kajabi alternatives next to Kajabi Basic. Totals exclude Stripe/PayPal processing, which is the same everywhere.

Two things jump out. First, five of the seven options cost the same at every sales level, because they charge 0% in platform fees. Second, the two plans with a percentage fee, Podia Mover and Teachable Starter, are the cheapest at $0 and the most expensive at $5,000.

The break-even points that decide your plan

A break-even point is the monthly sales figure where a percentage fee starts costing more than a pricier flat plan. Know these three and you’ll avoid most bad picks.

Podia Mover vs Podia Shaker: about $840 a month

Shaker costs $42 more than Mover. Mover takes 5%. 5% of $840 is $42. So once you sell more than about $840 a month, Shaker is cheaper, and it lifts your product cap from 50 to 150 too.

Podia Mover vs Kajabi Basic: about $2,020 a month

Kajabi Basic costs $101 more than Mover. 5% of $2,020 is $101. Past that point, the “cheap” Podia plan costs more than the plan you were trying to escape. It’s the easiest mistake to make when moving off Kajabi.

Teachable Starter vs Teachable Builder: about $533 a month

Builder costs $40 more than Starter. Starter takes 7.5%. 7.5% of $533 is $40. Above that, Builder wins. At $2,000 a month in sales, Starter’s fee alone is $150, more than Kajabi Basic’s whole price.

Teachable Builder vs Thinkific Start: no fee break-even

Neither plan takes a transaction fee, so sales volume doesn’t matter. Thinkific Start costs $13 more. The only question is whether you need more than 10 products, or communities, memberships and bundles. If yes, Thinkific Start. If no, Teachable Builder. Our Thinkific pricing guide walks through Thinkific’s side of that choice.

A 12-month timeline: launch, steady, then a good quarter

Single-month snapshots hide how costs build up. So here’s a simple year for a coach leaving Kajabi:

• Months 1–4: rebuilding the course, $0 in sales
• Months 5–8: steady sales of $1,000 a month
• Months 9–12: a group launch, $5,000 a month

Look at Podia Mover. It starts as the second-cheapest option and ends the year $12 short of Kajabi Basic. That’s the trap in one row.

Now look at the top of the table. Teachable Builder with Kit’s Free plan saves $888 over the year against Kajabi Basic. Thinkific Start with Kit Free saves $732. Even the paid-email stack, Thinkific Start plus Kit Creator, saves $336. Those savings hold whether you sell a lot or a little.

Want to plug in your own sales numbers? Our cost calculator runs the same four lines for you.

If you pay monthly, the gap gets wider

Everything above uses yearly billing, because that’s how most coaches buy once they’ve committed. But plenty of people leaving Kajabi want a few months on monthly billing first, just in case the new tool doesn’t fit. Fair enough. Here’s what that does to the maths.

On monthly billing, Kajabi Basic is $179 and Teachable Builder is $89. Add Kit’s Free plan and the stack is $90 a month cheaper, up from $74 on yearly billing. Thinkific Start plus Kit Creator comes to $148 a month, a $31 gap against $28 on yearly. So the case for leaving gets stronger, not weaker, if you like to keep your options open.

My advice: try the new platform on monthly billing for two or three months. Once your course is live and your first sales go through, switch to yearly. That small premium buys you a cheap exit if you picked wrong.

When your email list grows, the ranking can shift

The cheapest stacks lean on Kit’s Free plan. That plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, which is a very big list for a solo coach. But it only allows one automation and one sequence, and it has no app integrations. Most coaches hit that limit before they hit the subscriber cap.

So what happens when you need more than one sequence? You move to Kit Creator. On yearly billing that’s:

• $33 a month at 1,000 subscribers
• $65.83 a month at 5,000 subscribers
• $92.50 a month at 10,000 subscribers

Now redo the stack. Thinkific Start plus Kit Creator at 1,000 subscribers is $115. At 5,000 subscribers it’s $147.83. At 10,000 it’s $174.50.

Kajabi’s side moves too. Basic only covers 2,500 contacts. Past that, you need Growth at $199 a month on yearly billing. So at 5,000 subscribers the stack is about $51 a month cheaper than Kajabi, up from $28 at 1,000. At 10,000 the gap narrows to $24.50, but the stack still wins. Crossing 2,500 contacts helps the stack most.

Compare that with Podia. Email is included on every plan, but the subscriber allowance is set by Podia, so check it on Podia’s page before you count on it for a growing list. If your list outgrows it, you’re adding a separate email tool anyway, and Shaker stops being cheap. That’s why I rank Podia below the Thinkific stacks for anyone who plans to build a real list.

Leaving without paying twice

The worst version of switching is running both platforms for months. Coaches have told me about paying for Kajabi and Thinkific side by side for a whole quarter because the move dragged. Here’s a short order of work that keeps the overlap small.

1. Find your renewal date. If you’re on yearly Kajabi billing, you’ve already paid. Use that time to rebuild, not to rush.
2. Export your contacts and buyers first. Your list is the asset. Get it into the new email tool before anything else.
3. Rebuild one course, not all of them. Start with the course that sells. Test checkout with a real card.
4. Tell existing students where to go. Send one clear email with their new login. Then a reminder a week later.
5. Move your sales page last. Point your buy buttons to the new checkout only once the course is live and tested.
6. Cancel Kajabi before renewal. Put the date in your calendar with a two-week warning.

If you have a community inside Kajabi, plan that move with extra care. Members notice when a space goes quiet. Thinkific Start includes communities, so that’s the obvious landing spot for a group program.

What these Kajabi competitors don’t replace

Cost tables make every alternative look like a clean swap. They aren’t. Here’s what you give up when you leave, so you can decide if it matters to you.

The biggest hidden cost of a stack is time. Two logins. Two places to update a price. A buyer list that has to be moved by hand on Kit’s free plan. If you value your evenings, factor that in. If you’re happy spending 20 minutes a week on admin, the stack is still the clear money winner.

How we checked these numbers

Every price here comes from the vendors’ own pricing pages, pulled between 1 and 3 November 2026. We re-check prices monthly, because course platforms change them more often than you’d think. Thinkific retired its Basic plan in late October 2026. Kajabi overhauled its plans in January. Teachable and Podia both dropped free plans.

I don’t run a coaching practice myself. My work for the last six years has been on the other side of the pricing page, helping SaaS companies decide what goes in which plan. That’s useful here. When a plan looks cheap, there’s nearly always a reason: a fee, a cap, or a missing piece you’ll pay for elsewhere. The maths above is just me finding that reason for each tool.

Where I couldn’t verify a number, such as Podia’s monthly-billed rates, I’ve left it out rather than guess.

The one coach who should stay on Kajabi

If you’re on a grandfathered Kickstarter plan, stay.

Think about it. You’re paying $69 for a bundle with email, a site and courses in one place. The cheapest stack I can build is also $69: Teachable Builder with Kit’s Free plan, and that comes with a one-automation email limit. Add Kit Creator and you’re at $102. You’d gain nothing in cost and lose the convenience. The only reason to move is if Kajabi ends the grandfathering, and “for now” is the phrase on that promise. Keep an eye on your renewal emails.

There’s a second, smaller group I’d leave alone: coaches who really use the whole bundle. If you run your site, funnels, community and email all inside Kajabi, the like-for-like stack is Thinkific Start plus a paid email tool plus a website builder. Once you add that up, the saving shrinks and the admin grows. One check first: count your contacts. Past 2,500, Kajabi means Growth at $199, and the stack wins more easily. Read Kajabi vs Thinkific for that exact scenario.

Everyone else, including Maya and her sticky note, should look hard at the options above.

What I’d do, by coach type

Here’s how I’d pick among these Kajabi alternatives if you were sitting across the table from me.

• One course, simple weekly email: Teachable Builder + Kit Free. $69. Move buyers into Kit by hand until it hurts, then upgrade Kit.
• 1-to-1 coaching packages, maybe one small course later: Paperbell. $970 a year, or $97 monthly. Add a course platform only when the course is real.
• Group program, a members’ space or lots of courses: Thinkific Start. $82. Add paid email when you need more than one automation.
• Want one simple login and a small list: Podia Shaker. $84. Check Podia’s email allowance first.
• Testing an idea with no sales yet: Teachable Starter ($29) or Podia Mover ($42) is fine for a few months. Move up before you pass about $533 or $840 a month.
• Grandfathered Kickstarter: stay on Kajabi.

For a coach like Maya, the first option is the one I’d suggest. She keeps her Squarespace site, moves her course to Teachable Builder, and puts her list on Kit’s Free plan. Her course, emails and checkout all still work. Her platform bill drops from $143 to $69.

Kajabi alternatives: questions coaches ask