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With the online course and digital product space exploding in popularity in recent years, there has also been extensive growth and development in the platforms that cater to the needs of the creators.
Among these platforms, Kajabi has carved out a niche as an all-in-one solution, promising to simplify the process of course creation, marketing, and sales for online entrepreneurs.
The average income of a creator on Kajabi is approximately $40,000 annually, with one in three full-time content creators earning over six figures a year.
Kajabi creators earn significantly more than the average creator, with Kajabi’s lifetime GMV reaching $5 billion, showcasing the platform’s success in helping creators monetize their expertise and content effectively.
But does it live up to this hype? What else does Kajabi do besides hosting online courses?
While this all-in-one platform won’t satisfy the needs of everyone, it will absolutely change the game for some people.
After doing some extensive (and exhausting) research on community platforms, membership sites, and other online learning platforms, we ultimately decided to go with Kajabi.
In this comprehensive Kajabi review, we’ll dive into what this platform is, its key features, pricing, and more. We’ll dish out everything you need to know: the good, the bad, and the great.
What is Kajabi?
Established in 2010, Kajabi is an all-in-one marketing platform designed to empower creators to build, market, and sell their online courses, membership sites, and digital products.
Their software aims to simplify the often complex process of creating and monetizing digital content, offering a suite of tools and features to streamline every aspect of this journey.
The platform’s versatility allows users to create various types of digital products such as online courses, coaching programs, communities, membership sites, and podcasts.
At its core, Kajabi serves as a content management system, providing creators with intuitive tools to design and host their courses, but one of the key distinguishing features of Kajabi is its comprehensive set of marketing and sales tools:
- Course hosting and management
- Email marketing automation
- Communities and memberships
- Coaching services
- Website builder
- Sales funnel creation
- Landing pages
- Affiliate management system
- Podcast hosting
- Analytics and reporting
On top of all that, Kajabi stands out in its ability to prioritize the student experience, offering features to enhance engagement and support.
In essence, Kajabi is more than just an online course creation platform; it’s a comprehensive ecosystem designed to support creators at every stage of their online journey.
Key Features of Kajabi
Let’s explore each of the key features above in greater detail so you can understand what this platform is really about.
1. Course Creation
Kajabi’s online course creation feature is a cornerstone of its platform, offering a robust set of tools to bring your vision to life and deliver compelling and immersive learning experiences to your audience.
Easy Set-Up and Management
Kajabi has a user-friendly interface and intuitive content management tools to streamline the process of creating and organizing course content.
From uploading videos and documents to structuring lessons and modules, you can easily organize and manage your online course materials to deliver a cohesive and engaging learning experience.
Supports a Variety of Media Types
You can incorporate a variety of multimedia elements into your courses, including video hosting, audio files, embedded YouTube videos, PDFs, quizzes, and assignments.
Kajabi’s multimedia integration capabilities enable creators to cater to different learning styles and enhance engagement.
Customization and Branding
One of my favorite features of Kajabi is the freedom to customize every aspect of your course’s structure and design to suit your branding and instructional style.
With a variety of templates and themes to choose from, you can create a cohesive and visually appealing learning environment that reflects your unique identity.
Their drag-and-drop interface also makes it really easy to organize course modules, lessons, and resources.
Interactive Assessments and Progress Tracking
Kajabi’s built-in assessment tools allow creators to create interactive quizzes, assignments, and assessments to gauge student comprehension and progress effectively.
You can track student performance, provide and receive feedback, and adjust course materials based on customer feedback to optimize the learning experience.
Community Engagement and Support
We’ll get into the full community features in a minute but know that Kajabi offers a full suite of features to build a thriving community around the products that you sell.
Students and clients can access the community right from within their course if you choose to set it up that way, meaning that they can get the information and support they need when they need it.
Integration with Marketing and Sales Tools
One of the main reasons why we wanted to switch from Teachable is that their sales pages aren’t very customizable.
This is huge because low conversions mean lower sales and fewer customers and you should never be limited by the sales pages of the software that you’re using.
We will go into more detail about the full suite of marketing and sales tools, but Kajabi has very customizable landing and sales pages as well as marketing funnels and automations to help you sell your courses.
2. Coaching Products
In addition to its course creation capabilities, Kajabi offers a suite of features specifically designed to support coaches and mentors in delivering personalized and impactful coaching programs to their clients.
Whether you’re a life coach, business consultant, or fitness instructor, you can use Kajabi’s built-in messaging systems, video conferencing tools, and community features to engage with your clients and foster a sense of connection and accountability.
Kajabi provides flexibility and versatility for one-on-one coaching sessions, group workshops, or facilitating peer-to-peer support.
You can also leverage Kajabi’s content delivery capabilities to share resources, materials, videos, downloadables, and assignments with your clients seamlessly.
You can also create custom learning paths and curate resources based on your clients’ specific needs and objectives, ensuring a personalized and tailored coaching program.
3. Communities
Kajabi recognizes the importance of fostering a sense of belonging and connection among course creators and their students.
Their Communities feature provides a centralized hub to build and nurture thriving online communities where members can connect, collaborate, and support each other on their learning journey.
You can also create both free and paid communities (and membership programs) within Kajabi.
Customization Options
Creators have the flexibility to customize their community spaces to reflect their unique branding and style.
From customizing the layout and design of the community forum to setting up discussion categories and topics, you can tailor your community experience to align with your brand and target audience.
Engaging Interactions
Kajabi Communities can take the form of discussion forums, social media-style feeds, live events, or dedicated group channels, depending on your preferences and objectives.
Members can communicate through threaded discussions, comments, and even direct messaging with you or a moderator (if desired).
You can encourage participation by posing questions, sharing resources, and fostering meaningful conversations around your course content or other interests.
Community Building Tools and Events
You can leverage Kajabi’s community-building tools such as member profiles, badges, and leaderboards to recognize and incentivize active participation within the community.
You can also hold Challenges and live events such as office hours, Q&As, etc.
These tools help foster a sense of community identity, encourage member engagement, and strengthen connections among members.
Moderation and Support
Kajabi Communities offers moderation tools and controls to help creators maintain a positive and supportive community environment.
You can designate moderators, set community guidelines, and monitor discussions to ensure that the community remains respectful, constructive, and free from spam or inappropriate content.
4. Email Marketing
This is honestly one of the strongest selling points of the platform when it comes to additional features because email marketing software is expensive.
Bundling this in with Kajabi can save you hundreds of dollars a month on your email provider, depending on the size of your list.
Kajabi offers a comprehensive suite of email marketing features.
Forms and Landing Pages
You can create forms and very customizable landing pages within Kajabi to start collecting subscribers on your website or other social platforms.
The landing pages are particularly great and much more customizable than I’ve seen on any competing platforms.
Automated Campaigns and Sales Funnels
You can set up automated campaigns that deliver targeted messages to your audience based on predefined triggers and actions.
Whether it’s welcoming new subscribers, nurturing leads through sales funnels, or re-engaging inactive users, Kajabi’s automation capabilities streamline the process of delivering timely and relevant messages to subscribers.
Personalization and Segmentation
Personalization is key to effective email marketing, and Kajabi enables creators to tailor their messages to individual subscribers’ interests, preferences, and behaviors.
With advanced segmentation options, creators can divide their audience into distinct groups based on criteria such as demographics, behavior, or engagement level, allowing for highly targeted and personalized communication.
Drag-and-Drop Email Editor
Kajabi’s drag-and-drop email editor makes it easy to design visually stunning emails without any coding or design experience.
From customizable templates to flexible layout options, you can create professional-looking emails that reflect your brand’s identity and engage your audience effectively.
A/B Testing
To optimize email performance and maximize engagement, Kajabi offers A/B testing capabilities that allow creators to experiment with different email elements, such as subject lines, send times, or calls-to-action.
By testing variations of their emails and analyzing the results, you can identify what resonates best with your audience and refine their email marketing efforts accordingly.
Analytics and Reporting
Kajabi provides you with detailed analytics and reporting tools to track the performance of your email campaigns.
From open rates and click-through rates to conversion metrics and revenue attribution, you can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your campaigns and make data-driven decisions to optimize them.
5. Landing Pages
I already mentioned landing pages above regarding email marketing, but I felt that it deserved its own section because you can create landing pages in Kajabi for a variety of different purposes.
I’ve created several landing pages for my email sales funnel as well a resources page for my course community.
6. Podcast Hosting
Another cool feature of Kajabi that doesn’t often get as much attention is its podcast hosting features.
While we loved our previous podcast host, Buzzsprout, we switched our podcast over to Kajabi because it comes with all of the other features on the Kajabi platform anyway.
Why not save the money and switch your podcast hosting company over to Kajabi, right?
This also allows you to integrate your podcast with your course, community, or membership program, which is great if you have any exclusive member content on your podcast.
7. Affiliate Program Management
Another big reason that we switched over to Kajabi from Teachable and why we were able to eliminate Mighty Networks as a possible choice along the way is due to the affiliate program feature.
We run an affiliate program for our courses. Our students get success from our courses, they promote our courses, and we bring in more revenue. It’s a win-win!
This feature was a deal breaker for us with a new course software and Kajabi has it.
Kajabi’s affiliate program management feature offers creators a powerful way to expand their reach, drive sales, and increase revenue by leveraging the power of affiliate marketing.
Affiliate Onboarding and Management
Kajabi simplifies the process of onboarding and managing affiliates, providing creators with tools to easily recruit, onboard, and communicate with their affiliate partners.
From creating custom affiliate sign-up pages to tracking affiliate performance and commissions, Kajabi’s affiliate management feature streamlines the administrative tasks associated with running an affiliate program.
Customizable Commission Structures
You can set custom commission rates for different products or services, offer tiered commission structures based on performance milestones, or provide bonuses and incentives to top-performing affiliates.
Affiliate Tracking and Reporting
Kajabi provides tracking and reporting tools that you can use to monitor affiliate performance, track referral traffic, and analyze conversion metrics.
You can also access detailed reports on affiliate activity, track the effectiveness of promotional campaigns, and identify top-performing affiliates to optimize for maximum impact and ROI.
Marketing and Promotional Tools
Kajabi has all the marketing and promotional tools you need to support your affiliate partners in driving sales and conversions.
You can provide affiliates with access to marketing materials such as banners, email templates, and social media assets, making it easy for affiliates to promote your products and services effectively.
Payment Processing and Payout Management
Kajabi facilitates payment processing and payout management for affiliates, automating the process of tracking commissions, generating payout reports, and issuing payments.
You can set up automated payout schedules, choose from multiple payment methods, and customize payout thresholds to ensure timely and accurate payments to affiliates.
8. Website Builder
While this isn’t a Kajabi feature that we use because we’re really happy with WordPress and Agathon, our blogging platform, it’s definitely worth mentioning.
Kajabi really is an all-in-one platform because you can also build an entire website right in your Kajabi account.
Customizable Templates and Themes
Kajabi comes with a wide range of customizable templates and themes to choose from, allowing you to create websites that reflect your unique style and brand.
With intuitive customization options, you can personalize every aspect of your entire website, including colors, fonts, layouts, and more.
Drag-and-Drop Interface
Kajabi’s drag-and-drop interface makes it easy to build and design your own website without any coding or technical expertise.
You can simply drag and drop elements such as text, images, videos, buttons, and forms onto website pages, allowing for effortless customization and layout adjustments.
User-Friendly Navigation
You’ve also got user-friendly navigation tools that enable you to create intuitive and seamless navigation menus for your websites.
You can organize and structure your website pages into logical categories and subcategories, making it easy for visitors to find the information they’re looking for quickly and efficiently.
9. Kajabi Mobile App
If all these features weren’t great enough on their own, they can also be accessed from anywhere with Kajabi’s app.
Actually, they have two apps: one for course management and access and one for Communities.
You can access your business tools and your customers and clients can access their products – on the go:
- Course Management: Create, edit, and publish course content directly from your mobile device.
- Community Engagement: Interact with your audience, answer questions, and moderate discussions in real time.
- Marketing and Sales: Manage marketing campaigns, monitor sales performance, and track customer engagement.
- Analytics and Insights: Access key metrics, monitor student progress, and gain valuable insights into audience behavior.
- Notifications: Stay informed with real-time notifications for new enrollments, course completions, and sales.
- Ease of Use: Enjoy a user-friendly interface and seamless integration with the desktop version for productivity on the go.
With the app, you have the power to run your online business from anywhere, anytime, with ease and efficiency.
Why We Switched From Teachable to Kajabi
We sold our courses on Teachable for years and while we were mostly happy with it and feel that it’s a great platform, especially for beginners, we felt that it was time for a change.
Here are the main reasons that we switched from Teachable to Kajabi (aside the fact that we aren’t beginners anymore and it was time for an upgrade):
- Sales Pages: We needed a higher level of customization that Teachable didn’t provide in order to raise conversions on our sales pages.
- Membership Program: We’ve been running a Facebook group for our courses for years and it was time for an upgrade. We wanted a platform that could help us run a new membership program for our community.
- Cost: While Kajabi pricing doesn’t beat out Teachable pricing on cost alone, it can when you consider that you can eliminate the costs of email marketing software, landing page software, podcast hosting, and a website builder (if you want it).
- All-In-One-Platform: Sometimes it’s just nice to have all of your tools, analytics, and reporting in one place with seamless integration.
Overall, the Kajabi platform provides a lot more features and has a lot more customization than Teachable does.
Being able to create pages with high levels of customization allows you to optimize for visitors and conversions in the way that your business needs.
This, on its own, is a very powerful feature and worth mentioning.
The biggest drawback of many other platforms that market themselves as “all-in-one” is that they offer a lot of features but don’t do them well. This is not the case with Kajabi.
They excel at almost all of the features that they offer. Next, we’ll talk more about what they do and don’t excel at.
Kajabi Pros and Cons
We’ve already talked in great detail about the various Kajabi features, but the platform isn’t perfect and this is an honest review of Kajabi.
I’m going to be honest about what I love and don’t love with a list of pros and cons.
Kajabi Pros
- All-in-One Platform: Kajabi offers a comprehensive suite of tools and features, including course creation, website building, email marketing, sales funnels, affiliate management, podcast hosting, and more.
- User-Friendly Interface: Kajabi’s intuitive interface makes it easy to navigate and use the platform. Their sales page and landing page builder has a drag-and-drop interface that makes it really easy to create and design your pages.
- Versatility: Kajabi caters to a wide range of creators, from individual course creators and coaches to established businesses and organizations, offering scalability and flexibility to meet diverse needs and objectives.
- Customization Options: You can personalize your websites, courses, and marketing campaigns with customizable templates, themes, branding options, and more.
- Community and Support: Kajabi fosters a supportive community of creators through forums, groups, collaboration, and their resources hub.
- Analytics and Insights: Kajabi provides creators with robust analytics and reporting tools to track performance, measure engagement, and optimize strategies, empowering data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
Kajabi Cons
Honestly, I only have a couple here and they both relate to the email marketing features on Kajabi.
Email Opt-in Forms
While the landing pages on Kajabi are stellar, the opt-in forms are very minimal and I found them to not be satisfactory to my needs. They are very plain and not customizable.
They’re sufficient if you’re placing them on a landing page, which can be customized greatly. But if you are looking for customizable forms for your website like ConvertKit excels at, Kajabi isn’t going to cut it here.
But I’m happy to say that I found a great workaround here. I kept my existing email opt-ins on a free plan with ConvertKit and connected those forms to Kajabi with Zapier.
I find this to be a minor annoyance but it’s worth mentioning.
Email Marketing Campaigns
Honestly, the email marketing platform in Kajabi is pretty impressive, I must admit. I was really hesitant about leaving ConvertKit after years of happiness with them, but I was also conscious of that additional $320+ we were paying for it (we have a large email list).
Nonetheless, I set up all of our sales funnels on Kajabi to test it out and I will say that everything was very smooth.
My biggest pet peeve was the email editor because you have to edit each email individually, which takes a few extra clicks and precious seconds of patience.
ConvertKit’s email editor is my absolute favorite feature because it allows you to edit all of your emails in one screen, which is super helpful for writing and also a time saver.
But that being said, it’s a rather small thing and not worth paying a lot more for if you have a separate email provider.
Ultimately, our plan was to downgrade our ConvertKit plan to a free plan just for the forms, but we’ve put that on hold temporarily to test out ConvertKit’s new Sponsor Network feature.
Kajabi Pricing
Kajabi can seem a little pricey at first glance, but it’s important to understand the full capabilities of a Kajabi account before you evaluate the price.
They offer a variety of pricing plans to accommodate a range of needs and budgets, and these mainly vary based on contacts and active subscribers.
You’ll notice that the number of contacts and active customers increases with each plan. Contacts are anyone who has purchased a product or signed up for your email list. Active customers are people who have logged in to access their accounts within 30 days.
Generally, you will need far fewer active customers than total contacts because most people won’t log into your products on a continuous basis.
All Kajabi plans offer a 14-day free trial, 0% transaction fees, unlimited landing pages, and unlimited marketing emails.
- Basic Plan: Starting at $119/month for 3 funnels, 3 products, 10,000 customers, and 1,000 active customers
- Growth Plan: Starting at $159/month for 15 funnels, 15 products, 25,000 customers, 10,000 active customers, affiliate program management, and the ability to remove Kajabi branding
- Pro Plan: Starting at $319/month for 100 funnels, 100 products, 100,000 customers, 20,000 active customers (plus additional features in Growth plan)
In addition to the free trial, each Kajabi subscription also offers a discount for annual billing (quoted above) and the ability to upgrade or downgrade at any point.
Is Kajabi Worth It?
I’m super happy with Kajabi and wish we had switched years sooner, but this decision will look a little different for each person depending on their needs.
When it comes to hosting an online course (or a few), I think Kajabi is hands-down worth switching to for the customization for the sales pages alone.
If you’re hung up on the cost, make sure you consider the cost of other software that you’re paying for and consider the costs you could potentially eliminate:
- Website hosting
- Course hosting
- Community or membership groups
- Email marketing
- Landing pages
- Podcast hosting
For us, the chance to deliver a better community group experience and eventually upgrade it to a paid membership program was another huge factor to move forward with Kajabi.
It’s really less about the cost and more about the performance of a software and what it can do to help you grow your business. It’s not about the money saved but rather the money earned.
Next, let’s explore how you can find success with Kajabi.
Building a Successful Business on Kajabi
Whether you’re starting an online course or considering Kajabi for a whole suite of product offerings, anyone can build a successful business on this platform.
Let’s explore some of the additional tools at your disposal.
Kajabi Resources Hub
Kajabi has an impressive resources hub that provides wealth of educational materials, tutorials, and resources to help you succeed on the platform:
- Blog: Stay updated with the latest news, trends, and insights in the online business world through Kajabi’s informative blog posts.
- Creator Stories: Gain inspiration and insights from real-life success stories and case studies shared by fellow creators who have found success on the Kajabi platform.
- Podcasts: Tune in to Kajabi’s podcasts to hear interviews, expert advice, and actionable tips from industry leaders and successful entrepreneurs.
- Webinars: Participate in live or recorded webinars hosted by Kajabi experts, covering topics such as course creation, marketing strategies, and business growth.
- Downloadables: Access downloadable resources, templates, and guides to streamline your workflow and enhance your online business strategies.
- Help Center: Get answers to your questions, troubleshoot issues, and access step-by-step guides through Kajabi’s comprehensive Help Center, providing support and assistance whenever you need it.
- AI Creator Hub: Explore AI writing tools to optimize your content creation process, improve engagement, and drive results.
Kajabi University empowers creators to master the platform and maximize their success in building, marketing, and selling their online courses and digital products.
Kajabi Communities Showcase
If you’re considering creating a community on Kajabi, make sure to check out the Communities Showcase.
The Communities Showcase is a series of videos that explore various types of successful communities run on the Kajabi platform.
Before I created our Kajabi community, I looked over a few of these case studies to get ideas and inspiration for our community.
Kajabi is full of resources like this to help you get inspiration for your business.
5 Ways Kajabi Supports Creator Success
Here are just another few reasons why we love Kajabi as a platform and feel good about the path that we chose to use it to grow our business.
- Direct-to-Creator Economy: Kajabi enables creators to earn directly from their audience, eliminating the need for intermediaries and giving creators control over their earnings.
- Creator-Centric Approach: – Kajabi’s founder emphasizes a creator-centric approach, focusing on serving their “Heroes” (customers) and helping them achieve success. This customer-centric philosophy drives all aspects of Kajabi’s operations.
- Revenue Generation: – Kajabi provides multiple paths to monetization, allowing creators to build sustainable businesses through digital products and reducing dependence on social media and brand sponsorships.
- Diversified Income Streams: – Successful creators on Kajabi diversify their revenue streams, with more than five sources of income being a key differentiator for those earning over $150,000 annually. This diversification includes passive income from digital products, coaching programs, consulting, and more.
- Platform Features: – Kajabi’s platform offers a variety of tools for creating online courses, designing websites, launching marketing campaigns, and building landing pages, streamlining the process of creating and maintaining an online business. This saves creators time and resources, allowing them to focus on creating content that resonates with their audience.
FAQs About Kajabi
What is Kajabi best for?
Kajabi is best known as an all-in-one platform for knowledge entrepreneurs, offering tools to create, market, and sell online learning products such as courses, coaching programs, communities, membership sites, and podcasts. It is ideal for individuals looking to monetize their knowledge and expertise by diversifying revenue streams through digital products.
Is Kajabi access worth it?
Yes, Kajabi access is worth it for creators and businesses looking for a comprehensive platform to build, market, and sell their digital products. With features such as course creation, website building, email sequences, sales funnels, and community engagement tools, Kajabi offers value and convenience for those seeking to streamline their online business operations and maximize their revenue potential.
How much is Kajabi per month?
Kajabi pricing starts at $119 per month for the Basic plan, $159 per month for the Growth plan, and $319 per month for the Pro plan when billed annually. The cost mostly vary depnding on the number of products and customers that you have. All plans also come with a free trial.
Is Kajabi app legit?
Yes, the Kajabi app is a legitimate tool that allows users to manage their online businesses on the go. The app provides functionalities like accessing purchased content for customers, managing business operations for creators, and engaging with communities.
What is the difference between Shopify and Kajabi?
While both Shopify and Kajabi are platforms for selling products online, they serve different purposes and target different audiences. Shopify is primarily an e-commerce platform focused on physical and digital product sales, whereas Kajabi is an all-in-one platform designed specifically for creators to sell courses, memberships, and digital products. Kajabi offers features such as course creation, website building, email marketing, and community engagement tools tailored to the needs of creators and entrepreneurs.
Can you use Kajabi to sell products?
Yes, you can use Kajabi to sell products such as courses, memberships, digital downloads, and coaching services. With its built-in features for course creation, website building, sales funnels, and payment processing, Kajabi provides a comprehensive platform for creators and businesses to market and sell their digital products effectively.
Conclusion: Kajabi Review
I hope that this Kajabi review has shed some more light on the platform’s capabilities as an all-in-one solution for course creators, coaches, entrepreneurs, or whatever you identify as.
With such a versatile set of features for course creation, marketing, and sales, Kajabi offers a comprehensive toolkit to streamline the process of monetizing digital content effectively.
It’s truly a very user-friendly and customizable platform to start, grow, and monetize an online business.
Whether you’re creating your first online course or taking your business to the next level, like we were, Kajabi is a great platform to take this first or next step with.
Ultimately, the decision of whether Kajabi is worth it for your online courses depends on your specific goals, budget, and requirements.
I decided to take it for a test drive with their 14-day free trial and I never looked back.
With its innovative features and commitment to empowering creators, Kajabi is your next best move.