Verdict first: Kajabi is a great product with a steep entry price — $179/month, or $143/month billed annually, and no free plan. If you are still proving the offer, that is the wrong $1,700/year to spend. The best Kajabi alternative for most solo creators is Systeme.io: a real free plan (no credit card), $17/month when you grow, 0% transaction fees, and courses, funnels and email in the same account. If you only sell courses and want the most polished learner experience, Teachable ($29/mo annual) or Thinkific ($40/mo annual) are the better fits — and Thinkific currently pays the most generous affiliate terms of the three, though that is our problem, not yours. If you want the simplest interface on the market, pick Podia.
Who this is for: coaches, course creators, newsletter writers and consultants who want to sell knowledge products without committing to Kajabi's price tier, or who want to compare what they actually get at each price point.
Who this is not for: established businesses already earning well on Kajabi with a big list and heavy automation — the switching cost will outweigh the savings, and Kajabi's $499 Pro tier exists precisely because some operators genuinely need it.
Kajabi pricing in 2026 (and what it actually costs)
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | Products | Contacts | Admin users |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $179/mo | $143/mo | 5 | 2,500 | 2 |
| Growth | $249/mo | $199/mo | 50 | 25,000 | 11 |
| Pro | $499/mo | $399/mo | Unlimited | 100,000 | 26 |
Kajabi has no free plan — only a 14-day trial, which is not extendable, and during the trial some capabilities (bulk import, your own sending domain, parts of automation) are locked. Two costs sit on top of the sticker price: 0.5–2% fees on third-party payment gateways (2% Basic, 1% Growth, 0.5% Pro) and metered AI credits (Basic includes none; extra credits are sold at 500 for $15/month).
The four real reasons people look for a Kajabi alternative:
- The floor. $143/month before you have a single student is a lot of conviction to ask of yourself.
- Hard product and user caps. Basic allows just 5 products and 2 admin users. Hit either and you jump to $199/month — a 39% increase, not a gentle step.
- Metered extras. Gateway percentages and paid AI credits make the true cost higher than the plan price.
- Overkill. If you sell one course and send a weekly email, you will use maybe 20% of the platform.
The 7 best Kajabi alternatives at a glance
| # | Tool | Entry price | Free option | Transaction fee | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Systeme.io | $0 (paid from $17/mo) | Free forever, no card | 0% | Course + funnel + email on a starter budget |
| #2 | Teachable | $39/mo (annual $29/mo) | 7-day trial + 30-day refund | 7.5% on Starter, 0% Builder+ | Pure course selling with a clean learner UI |
| #3 | Thinkific | $54/mo (annual $40/mo) | 30-day trial | 1–5% on third-party gateways | Courses at scale, academies, client training |
| #4 | Podia | $49/mo (annual $42/mo) | 30-day trial, no card | 5% on Mover, 0% above | Absolute beginners, simplest interface |
| #5 | LearnWorlds | $29/mo (annual $24/mo) | 30-day trial | $5 per paid enrollment on Starter | White-label course schools and training businesses |
| #6 | Kartra | $59/mo (annual $52/mo) | 14-day trial | 5% on Essentials, 0% above | Marketing-heavy course businesses |
| #7 | ThriveCart | $47/mo or $444/yr | 30-day trial | 0% | Upgrade your checkout, keep your course host |
The alternatives, one by one
#1 Systeme.io — best overall Kajabi alternative for solo creators
Systeme.io is the only option here with a genuinely permanent free plan, and it is the one I have actually tested. I built a course shell, uploaded lesson material, set a price, and separately built a full email funnel with an automation rule — on the free tier, in one sitting, no credit card (Systeme.io review and the free funnel walkthrough).
The free plan: 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 15 funnel steps, 1 automation rule, 1 course with up to 500 students, 1 blog and 1 custom domain. Notably, email sending and file storage are unlimited on every plan — the two things most course platforms meter first. Paid tiers: Startup $17/mo (5,000 contacts, 10 funnels, 5 courses), Webinar $47/mo (10,000 contacts, 20 courses, evergreen webinars), Unlimited $97/mo. Annual: $170 / $470 / $970, which is two months free. Transaction fees: 0% on all four tiers.
Building a course on Systeme.io's free plan — the free tier covers one course with up to 500 students.
Where Kajabi beats it: design polish, community features, CRM depth, and the maturity of the marketing automation builder. Systeme.io is a working tool, not a beautiful one — if the look of your course portal is part of your brand, that matters.
Best for: the creator who wants Kajabi's shape (courses + funnels + email in one place) at a fraction of the price, and who wants to start for free.
#2 Teachable — best pure course platform
Teachable does one thing with focus: it hosts and sells courses. Starter $39/mo ($29/mo annual, 5 products, 1 admin), Builder $89/mo ($69/mo annual, 10 products, 0% transaction fee), Growth $189/mo ($139/mo annual, 50 products, 5 admins), plus a Custom tier. There is a 7-day trial and a 30-day refund guarantee.
The number that decides your plan is the transaction fee: Starter takes 7.5%. On $5,000 of sales that is $375 — nearly the annual gap between Starter and Builder. Card processing is separate either way (2.9% + 30¢ domestic, 3.9% + 30¢ international, $15 per chargeback). Unbranding, certificates, student import and custom permissions are all Growth-and-above features.
Best for: creators who sell courses and do not need a funnel builder bolted on.
#3 Thinkific — best for academies and training businesses
Thinkific skews toward "school" rather than "personal course". Basic $54/mo ($40/mo annual), Start $109/mo ($82/mo annual), Grow $219/mo ($164/mo annual), plus a quoted Plus tier. Roughly 25% off annually, a 30-day trial, and student limits of 10,000 on every listed tier.
Watch the video traffic allowance — 100GB / 200GB / 400GB per month — because video-heavy courses hit that quietly. Digital downloads are capped at 5 on Basic, and community spaces at 1. The gateway fee is the classic gotcha: 5% on Basic, 2% on Start, 1% on Grow if you use Stripe or another third-party processor, waived if you use Thinkific Payments (2.9% + 30¢). A branded mobile app is an extra $199/month.
Best for: businesses and coaches training employees, clients or partners, where the course is a product line rather than a side project.
#4 Podia — best for absolute beginners
Podia is the friendliest interface here, and its trial is the most generous: 30 days free, no credit card required. Plans: Mover $49/mo ($42/mo annual), Shaker $99/mo ($84/mo annual), Earthquaker $179/mo ($150/mo annual).
Mover takes a 5% transaction fee and caps you at 100 email subscribers, 50 products and 500 videos. You get 0% fees and 500 subscribers on Shaker. Subscriber counts are hard limits — Podia says it will notify rather than auto-upgrade you, which means your list stops growing until you act. Annual plans are refundable only within 72 hours.
Best for: someone publishing a first course or download who wants the least friction and the longest free look at the tool.
#5 LearnWorlds — best white-label course school
LearnWorlds targets training businesses that want their own branded academy. Starter $29/mo ($24/mo annual, 1,000 active students, 1 admin), Pro Trainer $99/mo ($79/mo annual, 2,000 students, 5 admins, 20 SCORM packages), Learning Center $299/mo ($249/mo annual, white-label, 25 admins), plus Corporate pricing. 30-day trial.
The Starter tier charges $5 per paid enrollment — a per-sale cut that becomes painful exactly when you start succeeding, and is the reason most successful users end up on Pro Trainer. AI credits are capped per tier (300 / 500 / 1,000).
Best for: established course businesses and corporate trainers who want a fully white-labelled school rather than a hosted course page.
#6 Kartra — best if marketing automation is the priority
Kartra is an all-in-one marketing platform that includes courses. Essentials $59/mo ($52/mo annual), Starter $119/mo ($99/mo annual), Growth $229/mo ($189/mo annual), Professional $549/mo ($429/mo annual), 14-day trial.
The Essentials tier is a decoy for anyone selling courses: 5% transaction fee, 500 contacts, 10,000 emails/month, and only 1 product and 1 course. Real course use starts at Starter ($119/mo). What you get for that is serious marketing machinery — affiliate management, helpdesk, and later real-time funnel analytics.
Best for: solo operators whose bottleneck is marketing automation, not course delivery.
#7 ThriveCart — when your course host is fine but your checkout is not
You do not have to leave your current platform to fix the money part. ThriveCart is a conversion-focused cart and course add-on: Standard $47/mo or $444/year (~$37/mo) and Pro+ $87/mo or $804/year (~$67/mo), 0% platform fees, 30-day trial. ThriveCart also lists a lifetime one-time licence, but the price is only visible via a checkout link and we are not quoting an unpublished figure.
Multiple order bumps, subscription dunning and an affiliate centre with automatic payouts are all Pro+. Annual billing is not a bargain at $444/$804.
Best for: creators already getting traffic who want better upsells and cart recovery without migrating their course content.
How we ranked (read this before you buy)
Weighting, in order: cost to a creator who is still validating an offer, then whether the platform covers the whole journey (page → payment → delivery → follow-up), then learner experience. All prices were read from the vendors' own pricing pages on 2026-09-14 and are in USD. Where a vendor does not publish a number — SamCart's annual equivalent, ThriveCart's lifetime price, Kajabi's exact trial card requirement — we have said so rather than guessed.
Honest disclosure about testing: only Systeme.io has been hands-on tested on this site (free account, real course shell and a real email funnel — see the review). The other six are assessed from their official pricing pages and published plan limits; we have not delivered a course on them or verified their checkout flows ourselves. Treat their entries as well-sourced research, not a hands-on verdict.
On affiliate links: only Systeme.io is our affiliate partner. The other six pay us nothing, and they are here because an alternatives list that omits Teachable, Thinkific and Podia would be dishonest.
FAQ
What is the best Kajabi alternative?
Systeme.io for most solo creators, because it covers courses, funnels and email from $0 with 0% transaction fees — and it is the only option here we hands-on tested. Teachable or Thinkific are better if you only sell courses; Podia is better if you want the simplest interface.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Kajabi?
Yes, substantially. Kajabi starts at $143/month billed annually. Systeme.io starts at $0, Teachable at $29/month annually, Thinkific at $40, LearnWorlds at $24 and Podia at $42.
Does any Kajabi alternative have a free plan?
Only Systeme.io has a permanent free tier (2,000 contacts, 1 course, 1 automation rule, no credit card). Podia and LearnWorlds offer 30-day trials, Thinkific 30 days, Teachable 7 days, and Kartra 14 days. Kajabi's trial is 14 days and cannot be extended.
Is Teachable or Thinkific better than Kajabi?
For pure course delivery at a lower price, yes — both are cheaper and both are solid. What you give up versus Kajabi is the tightly integrated email/CRM/community layer and design polish. See our course platform comparison.
Can I move my courses from Kajabi to another platform?
There is no automatic migration between these platforms. Expect to re-upload video and rebuild course structure, then re-import contacts as CSV. Budget a weekend for one or two courses; budget longer if you have heavy automation, because automation logic does not port.
Do these alternatives charge transaction fees?
Systeme.io (0% all tiers) and ThriveCart (0%) do not. Watch the entry tiers: Teachable Starter 7.5%, Podia Mover 5%, Kartra Essentials 5%, LearnWorlds Starter $5 per enrollment, Thinkific Basic 5% on third-party gateways, and Kajabi 0.5–2% by plan.
I'm an affiliate of Systeme.io: if you sign up through my links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I have actually registered and built with — the course and funnel screenshots on this site are from my own account. The other tools in this comparison are not affiliate links, and their pricing comes from their own public pricing pages.
Start free (no credit card, 0% transaction fees) → systeme.io
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Related reading: Systeme.io Review 2026 · Best Online Course Platforms for Creators · Best Funnel Builders for Solopreneurs · ClickFunnels Alternatives · The 2026 Solopreneur Tool Stack Checklist
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