Kajabi Review (June 2023): Detailed & Honest – by Miha Cacic

WRITER:
Mihael Cacic
EDITOR I:
Matija Laznik
EDITOR II:
Anja Jazbinsek
Updated date: July 5th, 2023

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Kajabi is the solopreneur’s business partner.

Instead of managing a whole team and running too many tools, it enables educators to grow infobusinesses on their own on a single platform.

In this review, we’ll talk about Kajabi’s full potential and why we believe it’s worth the hefty price tag.

So far, we’ve compared Kajabi to more than a dozen platforms and it still stands its ground. We are aware, however, that Kajabi isn’t for everyone. So, we’ll also highlight some of its shortcomings and suggest a few competing platforms that might work out better in certain cases.

✅️ 2023 Top performer on Capterra.com

✅️ Rated 4.6 out of 5 on Trustpilot.com

✅️ Spring 2023 Leader on G2.com

Our Rating

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 / 5)

Kajabi is the leading online course platform for digital product businesses. It offers the perfect balance between educational and marketing tools while simplifying customization to fit various fields. The platform is best for entrepreneurs selling their expertise to a professional audience while building a strong personal brand.

Try free for 14 30 days

(credit card required)

What is Kajabi?
“The solo educator’s business hub” 👨‍🏫👑

Kenny Rueter created Kajabi in 2010 to monetize tutorials of a PVC sprinkler toy that he made for his sons. He couldn’t have guessed that those videos were the seed of today’s most influential course creation platform.

Kajabi allows educators to monetize coaching sessions, communities, podcasts, and digital products with varying offers. Added to that, it simplifies marketing with pre-built funnels, pre-written sales copy, and website templates that can easily fit any brand. Still, because Kajabi is less focused on student engagement, it’s best for educators with a professional audience who can rely on self-learning.

The blue-colored angular logo complements Kajabi’s confident and professional character. In keeping with its brand’s standing, Kajabi guarantees the most professional and reliable outcomes for its customers.

Kajabi Review: Criteria for Evaluation

Pricing Sales and Marketing
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
30-day free trial. No free plan. The number of products, customers, and funnels scale as you upgrade plans. All functionalities are available for all plans. Uses marketing automation plus a built-in pipeline builder for marketing funnels. Includes pre-built funnels and sales copy templates. Provides advanced analytics for all plans. Integrates with 10+ tools.
Monetization Educational Tools
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
PayPal or Stripe. No native payment processors or tax handling. Provides upsells, downsells, order bumps, split payments, and membership sites. Allows monetization of all products individually or grouped in offers. Integrated AI hub for idea generation. Straightforward course-building process. Merges automation with quizzes and assessments and course compliance features. Offers podcasts, communities, live sessions, and coaching programs.
Customization and Branding Ease of Use
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Custom domain for all plans. Full website with a blog. The platform and the mobile app have no white-labeling features. Professional course and website templates. Allows customization of check-out pages. The Kajabi platform makes it easy to run several tools under one roof but it’s got a steep learning curve. Still, Kajabi provides its Kajabi University and professional support for all plans, to help ease into it.

Kajabi Review: Pros & Cons

Kajabi Pros Kajabi Cons
Marketing Tools
✅ All-in-one business hub ❌ Limited number of customers and admins
✅ Built-in email marketing tool ❌ No white-labeling
✅ Full website with a blog ❌ Steep learning curve
✅ Customizable website templates ❌ No coding for lower plans
✅ Advanced analytics for all plans  
✅ Funnel builder with pre-built funnels  
✅ iOS and Android app  
Educational Tools
✅ AI hub for idea generation ❌ No specific tools for raising engagement
✅ Professional course templates ❌ Forum-like community
✅ Podcasts, live sessions, and coaching ❌ Limited number of products for lower plans
✅ Built-in communities  
✅ Certificates and automated assessments  
✅ Course compliance controls  

Kajabi Review: Affordability & Pricing

Kajabi is one of the most expensive course creation platforms but it has the simplest pricing system and includes high-value features.

Starter Plan Middle Plan Top Plan
Pricing

$149/month

$119 annually

$199/month

$159 annually

$399/month

$319 annually

Admins and Customers

1 Admin

1,000 Customers

10 Admins

10,000 Customers

25 Admins

20,000 Customers

Products

1 Website

3 Products

15 Funnels

1 Website

15 Products

15 Funnels

3 Websites

100 Products

100 Funnels

Support
Live Chat (business hours) 24/7 Live Chat 24/7 Live Chat
Try free for 14 30 days

Kajabi has three pricing plans that scale up with the number of products and customers.

Kajabi offers three pricing plans: Basic, Growth, and Pro. The Basic plan starts at $119 per month, the Growth plan starts at $159 per month, and the Pro plan starts at $319 per month.

Most features are available for all plans but you’ll get more products, customers, admins, funnels, and contacts as you upgrade plans.

Still, a few features are missing from the Basic plan, including affiliate marketing and advanced automations. The top plan includes three websites and coding customization.

Kajabi has no free plan but offers a 14-day free trial of the Growth plan. You can also get a 30-day free trial if you sign up through our affiliate program! 😄

Kajabi Pricing Comparison to Competitors

Starting at $119 per month, Kajabi’s Basic plan is one of the most costly starter plans in the market. Additionally, its Pro plan is only more affordable than Teachable’s top plan.

However, Kajabi’s array of built-in features like funnels and podcasts, make it more affordable than other platforms that require (often payable) third-party integrations. The most valuable all-in-one alternative to Kajabi is New Zenler, but its user interface, funnels, and automation aren’t quite up there with Kajabi, yet.

Check our Kajabi Alternatives article for individual pricing comparison charts.

Kajabi Value for Money Assessment

Kajabi has the most value if you’re selling a limited number of high-ticket digital products because the product number is, in fact, limited for the lower plans. So, if you’re aiming for a large number of courses or customers, it’s better to go for platforms offering unlimited growth such as Mighty Networks or Teachery.

As for the initial cost, Kajabi promises that your online business can start making money within 30 days. The platform offers pre-written sales copy, ready-made frameworks for webinar funnels, lead generation, and product launches as well as Kajabi University and premium support to speed up your success.

So, if you sign-up for the 30-day free trial, you should be able to set up your digital product business without any risk.

Still, if you want to test the waters before committing to a paid plan, it may be better to start out with a free plan from platforms such as Teachable, New Zenler, or Podia. This way you’ll only pay when you make a sale, and you won’t be pressured by time.

However, keep in mind that there are certain disadvantages if you choose one of the free Kajabi alternatives:

  1. Transaction fees
  2. Relying on external marketing and sales tools
  3. You won’t have access to all premium Kajabi features on those platforms, such as advanced analytics and marketing tools

Kajabi Review: Key Features

Kajabi excels with its email marketing, simple branding, and automation. Its educational tools include courses, podcasts, and coaching.

Course Creation

Lessons in Kajabi are organized into modules and submodules for easy navigation. Each lesson can contain a video, audio, and/or text. You can only add one video per lesson. If you’re worried about video hosting, it’s all hosted on Wistia free of charge.

For customization, you can choose between seven themes for courses on Kajabi. They can be easily edited, exported in .zip format, and re-uploaded later, if needed.

All Kajabi plans have graded assessments and course compliance controls using the passing grade feature. Once your students complete a milestone, you can automatically notify your team or students about assessment results via email.

To reward your students, you can use the integrated certificates, which can be automatically emailed after completing the course.

Other Products

Kajabi offers more products as you upgrade plans. There are three products for the Basic Plan, 15 products for the Growth Plan, and unlimited products for the Pro Plan. Products include coaching, courses, communities, and podcasts.

The coaching program has several scheduling options, including a Calendly integration, built-in booking, custom links, and manual booking.

Kajabi’s communities are a simple alternative to Facebook groups, but you’ll have your community right where your content is – all in one platform. Communities have several features, such as circles, challenges, and live meetups but their post types make them less interactive.

There’s no dedicated digital downloads section in Kajabi, but you can sell files by setting up email automation.

Payments and Monetization

Kajabi makes it easy for course creators to set up and use payment gateways. It has native integrations with Stripe and PayPal, which can be set up in just a few clicks. You can also use third-party payment gateways by connecting them to Kajabi through webhook URLs or Zapier triggers.

Kajabi has order bumps, upsells, and downsells, which can help increase your average order value with no additional effort.

Sales and Marketing Tool

Kajabi’s leading features are its built-in email and WHEN-THEN email sequence automation. For instance, you can set triggers (WHEN) to automatically guide your customers after purchasing an offer or opening an email. You can then choose from an extensive list of actions (THEN), including tagging, granting offers, and unsubscribing from an email list if customers are inactive for a certain period of time.

For funnels, there are around a dozen pre-built templates, including frameworks for webinars, lead generation, and product launches that will help get new students closer to the checkout page. You can also connect several channels to form a seamless sales funnel.

Kajabi further simplifies the setup process of all marketing features with an interface that guides you using textual explanations and integrated video tutorials.

Compared to other platforms, Kajabi provides a limited number of third-party integrations because it has built-in alternatives to all needed tools. It offers more than 10 essential marketing integrations like MailChimp and ActiveCampaign, but what it’s missing is a community alternative, like Circle.co, for example.

Analytics and Reporting

All Kajabi plans have analytics features to track business growth and product performance. Its sales metrics include net revenue, opt-ins, and offers sold. Additionally, the product progress metrics allow you to assess your products and customer engagement, which helps with product development.

Kajabi provides granular insights for each category. For instance, you can view individual student progress and dedicate a coaching session to lagging students for support.

Branding and Customization

Kajabi includes a full-fledged website with custom domains, landing pages or sales pages, and a blog for all plans. Within the page builder, there are a few website templates to start with and the array of page blocks makes it easy to layout professional-looking pages in no time.

Some customization options on Kajabi are limited compared to other platforms. For instance, you can change the primary color and cover image of offers, but you’ve got a limited collection of fonts. This is because Kajabi makes professional design choices on behalf of its customers to free them up for other tasks.

Kajabi Review: Ideal User Scenarios

Kajabi can streamline any digital products business but it’s best for solopreneurs with a professional, self-learning audience.

Use Kajabi If:

  • You’ve got a limited number of high-ticket digital products.
  • You can’t handle multiple separate third-party tools.
  • You’ve got limited design experience.
  • You’re running a business alone.

Who Uses Kajabi?

Kajabi is behind the success of some of the most influential thought leaders in the online sphere. Here are some of the most notable Kajabi users:

Justin Welsh

In November 2022, Justin Welsh announced that his one-person business made over three million dollars in revenue. He currently provides consulting services on audience growth, sells courses bundled with content templates, and publishes a sponsored weekly newsletter.

Michelle Parsley

Michelle Parsley had no email list when she started on Kajabi. However, she could grow her passion for digital artwork into a six-figure business by focusing on a specific audience and spreading by word of mouth. Kajabi has helped Michelle set up her website and automate her creative assessment process.

Dr. DB Palmer, Ed.D and Greta Palmer, MA

Kajabi courses aren’t limited to digital skills. Dr. DB Palmer, Ed.D and Greta Palmer, MA share 20 years of experience to bond parents with their children. They use Kajabi to sell a coaching intensive, a 12-week course, and women’s coaching sessions.

Kajabi Review: Customer Support

Kajabi provides a competitive support system and comprehensive training material.

Kajabi’s various support channels include Live Support Chat, Kajabi Access, Webinars, Facebook Kajabi Community, and Kajabi University.

Personalized Support

Kajabi offers live chat support for all plans. Users of the Growth and Pro Plan have 24/7 access to this feature, while the Basic Plan is only limited to working hours on business days. There’s always the alternative option of submitting a request, which is also available for potential customers without a subscription.

Community Support and Self-Help Resources

Kajabi offers comprehensive educational resources through Kajabi University. Unlike training courses on other platforms, Kajabi University is available for all plans, at no additional cost.

There’s also a dedicated customer training website Kajabi Learn with daily live webinars, Q&A sessions, and on-demand webinars.

Additionally, any customer with an active Kajabi account can join the official Facebook group. This engaged peer community started in 2015 and currently has over 37 thousand members from all over the world.

Kajabi Review: Real User Experiences

Kajabi has over 1,300 five-star reviews on Trustpilot.com.

Kajabi has more than 1,700 reviews on Trustpilot.com, 90 percent of which are above four stars. The platform is most valued by customers with previous course creation experience because they’ve been through the hassle of running multiple third-party integrations.

Kajabi Common Praises and Complaints

Praises Complaints
✅ Excellent customer support ❌ Expensive and overwhelming for beginners
✅ Sales and business growth results ❌ Lack of additional features
✅ High-quality courses ❌ Some bugs and glitches
✅ Simplifies running all tools under one roof ❌ Can’t be customized to meet specific needs
✅ Excellent customer support  
✅ Ongoing feature development  

Kajabi Review: Alternatives to Kajabi

Kajabi’s alternatives aren’t all-in-one solutions but they cater to other users and use cases.

Since Kajabi is an all-in-one platform, its alternatives include course and website builders, community platforms, funnels, and shopping carts. Each competing tool targets a specific user group by developing a more specialized solution.

Check our Kajabi Alternatives article for more details.

Recommendations for Different User Needs

We’ve reviewed over a dozen competing platforms and Kajabi still stands out to us. So far, the best overall alternative is LearnWorlds because of its diverse features and white-labeled app.

Check our Kajabi vs LearnWorlds article for an in-depth comparison.

If you need:

Kajabi Review: Conclusion

Kajabi is a one-stop solution for experienced professionals ready to grow their businesses.

Kajabi is a considerable investment for beginners, but it’s reliable for growing existing businesses.

Final Verdict on Kajabi

Kajabi has a hefty price tag but its bundle of built-in features make it more affordable than other LMS platforms that depend on third-party tools. Most importantly, Kajabi integrates all those tools together, making the process much more intuitive for educators running their businesses alone.

Although some of the customization options are limited, Kajabi’s templates and font collection guarantee a professional appearance, with no design experience required.

Recommendations for Potential Users

  • Use Kajabi funnels to guide your students through the pipelines with Kajabi’s email campaigns.
  • Use Drip Content feature to release course content over time to support structured learning.
  • Use live sessions in courses to engage your students through workshops and Q&A sessions.
  • Develop your content into high-ticket digital products to make the best out of Kajabi’s Basic and Growth Plans.

Click here to get started with Kajabi!

Author:

Mihael Cacic
Miha is a writer and an expert in comparative content. After graduating from Physics, Mihael left his job as a software engineer developing SaaS products and began writing about them instead. He gets a kick from writing in-depth, objective, and though through software reviews, knowing his readers will find the best software for their needs.
Author:
Mihael Cacic
Miha is a writer and an expert in comparative content. After graduating from Physics, Mihael left his job as a software engineer developing SaaS products and began writing about them instead. He gets a kick from writing in-depth, objective, and though through software reviews, knowing his readers will find the best software for their needs.