Ten course sales at $100 each. On Teachable’s cheapest plan, that month costs you about $136 in platform charges. On its middle plan it costs about $101. On Kajabi’s cheapest plan it costs about $175. Same sales, same students, and a $74 swing between the two platforms’ realistic starting points.
Most comparisons of these two tools line up feature checklists. This one starts from the bill, because for a freelancer or solo creator testing a first course, the bill is where the two products actually differ. Card processing is nearly identical on both; the difference sits in the subscription and in what the subscription includes.
All prices below were read from each vendor’s own pricing page on 19 October 2026: Kajabi pricing and Teachable pricing. Vendors change these often, so check before you buy.
Two different kinds of bill
Kajabi charges a flat subscription and, if you use its own payments, a card fee. It states that it takes no revenue share. Teachable’s cheapest plan works differently: a lower subscription plus a 7.5% transaction fee on every sale, on top of card processing. That fee disappears on its higher plans when you use Teachable Payments.
That one design choice means the two platforms are cheapest at opposite ends of the revenue range, which is why the right answer depends on how many sales you expect, not on which interface you like better.
The plans, side by side
| Plan | Monthly price | Billed annually (per month) | Platform fee on sales | Main limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kajabi Basic | $179 | $143 | None (card processing 2.9% + $0.30 with Kajabi Payments, US) | 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 website, 2 admin users |
| Kajabi Growth | $249 | $199 | None (2.8% + $0.30) | 50 products, 25,000 contacts, 11 admin users |
| Kajabi Pro | $499 | $399 | None (2.7% + $0.30) | Unlimited products, 100,000 contacts, 3 websites, 26 admin users |
| Teachable Starter | $39 | $29 | 7.5% per sale | 5 products, 1 admin user, unlimited students |
| Teachable Builder | $89 | $69 | 0% with Teachable Payments | 10 products, 1 admin user; adds affiliate program and live support |
| Teachable Growth | $189 | $139 | 0% with Teachable Payments | 50 products, 5 admin users; adds certificates and removes Teachable branding |
Teachable lists U.S. card sales at 2.9% + 30¢, the same headline rate Kajabi quotes on its entry plan. Teachable also lists higher rates for international cards and PayPal, plus a $15 chargeback fee. One wrinkle on Kajabi’s page: its own payments product is described for U.S. entities, and using a third-party processor instead adds a 2% charge on Basic.
Where the 7.5% stops being cheap
The Starter-to-Builder gap on Teachable is $40 a month at annual billing. A 7.5% fee equals $40 at roughly $533 in monthly sales. Below that, Starter is cheaper; above it, you are paying a penalty to stay on the cheap plan. Here is the monthly platform bill at three sales levels, assuming $100 courses, annual billing, and U.S. card processing:
| Monthly course sales | Teachable Starter | Teachable Builder | Kajabi Basic |
|---|---|---|---|
| $500 (5 sales) | about $83 | about $85 | about $159 |
| $1,000 (10 sales) | about $136 | about $101 | about $175 |
| $3,000 (30 sales) | about $350 | about $165 | about $239 |
These figures are my own arithmetic from the published rates (subscription + 7.5% where it applies + 2.9% and 30¢ per sale), not a quote from either vendor. Taxes, refunds and non-U.S. cards will move them.
The pattern is plain. If you sell fewer than about five courses a month, Teachable Starter is the least you can spend. Past that, Builder wins easily. Kajabi Basic never wins on price alone, and it is not trying to.
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What the extra $74 a month on Kajabi actually buys
Kajabi’s pricing page lists marketing emails, funnels, landing pages and access groups as unlimited on every plan, with a website, a community and a contact allowance included. The bundle is the product: you can run the course, the email list and the sales page from one login.
Teachable’s plan table, as I read it, centres on the course itself, checkout, student apps, upsells and cart recovery, and it counts third-party integrations by tier (one on Starter, three on Builder, five on Growth). If you already pay for a mailing tool, the Kajabi bundle may duplicate things you own. If you have been avoiding choosing an email platform altogether, it removes that decision.
One honest limit on Kajabi’s side: the Basic plan caps you at 5 products and 2,500 contacts, and extra contacts come in blocks of 25,000 for $125 a month. A list that grows faster than your sales will push you toward Growth before your course revenue justifies it.
Where Teachable is the better call
Teachable suits someone who has a single course to sell and an audience already on a list or social account. It is cheaper to start, it has no contact-based ceiling, and unlimited students on every plan means a successful launch does not trigger a plan change. Its Builder plan is the sensible default for most solo sellers who have crossed that first $500 a month.
The trade-offs: one admin user on the first three tiers (a problem if you hire a part-time assistant), certificates and branding removal gated behind Growth, and the 7.5% tax on Starter if your launch goes better than expected.
Three questions that settle it faster than a feature list
How many people are on your list today? Kajabi Basic includes 2,500 contacts. If your list is already larger, the plan jump changes the maths before you sell anything. If it is close to zero, a bundled email tool is a head start, but only if you will really write the emails.
Will anyone else touch the account? Kajabi Basic includes 2 admin users; Teachable’s first three tiers include 1 (Growth lists 5). A virtual assistant who uploads lessons and answers student questions is a common reason to pay more.
Do you plan to sell more than one thing? Both cap products at 5 on the entry plan. A course, a workshop recording, a template pack and a coaching call already use four slots.
Picking one
Choose Kajabi if you want course, email and landing pages in one place, you expect to sell several products over time, and you would otherwise pay for two or three separate tools. It also fits a freelancer turning a service into a productized offer, where the sales page and nurture emails matter as much as the lessons.
Choose Teachable if you are validating a first course, you already have an email tool, or your monthly sales will sit between zero and a few thousand dollars. Start on Starter only for the first few sales, then move to Builder before a launch.
Skip both if you are selling a single PDF, template or short video. That job costs far less on a storefront; our Gumroad alternatives comparison shows what a $29 sale leaves you on four cheaper options. And if you have not yet decided whether a course fits your income plan, the earnings math for going freelance is worth ten minutes first.
Kajabi, for reference, is a Newport Beach company founded in 2010 per its Wikipedia entry; neither platform’s pricing history is a reason to choose, only the numbers above are.
Before you pay for either
Teachable states a 7-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee on its pricing page; check Kajabi’s current trial terms on its own page before you commit. Use that window to build one lesson and one checkout, not to browse. If you cannot finish the course outline in a week, the platform is not your bottleneck.
For the rest of the stack around a course business, see our guide to the portfolio and site builders that pair with a course platform, and browse the rest of the money and business tools section.
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