Alternatives
Kajabi alternatives
Every alternative is cheaper than Kajabi's $179 a month, and none of them match the student experience. Systeme.io is free and adequate, Teachable starts at $39 but takes 7.5% of sales on that plan, and ClickFunnels is $97 with a better sales page and a weaker course. What decides it is whether the course is your product or an addition to it.
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The short version
- Kajabi is the most expensive and the most polished. Both halves of that are true.
- Teachable’s $39 plan takes 7.5% of your sales, which costs more than Kajabi above $2,545 a month.
- Support is the largest counted complaint about Kajabi, and switching does not reliably fix it.
- If the course experience is what you sell, leaving is usually the wrong call.
Why people leave Kajabi
| Complaint | Mentions |
|---|---|
| Support slow or unhelpful | 101 |
| Refund refused, or a billing dispute | 62 |
| Bugs and broken features | 36 |
| Price and value for money | 18 |
| Missing or limited features | 18 |
| Clunky or unintuitive to use | 15 |
| Account or data loss | 12 |
Read the top two rows before you choose a destination, because they change the advice. Support is the largest complaint by a distance, and refunds and billing are second. Price is fourth, well behind both.
That matters because switching platform reliably fixes price and does not reliably fix support. Every platform we have counted in this category attracts support complaints, and a migration that takes three weeks to escape a slow inbox is a bad trade. If billing disputes are your problem, note that Kajabi at least publishes a refund policy, which Systeme.io does not.
The alternatives
| Platform | Entry | Platform fee on sales | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kajabi | $179 | 0.5% to 2% on your own Stripe | Course businesses where the experience is the product |
| Systeme.io | Free | None | Testing an offer, or a course that supports another business |
| Teachable | $39 | 7.5% on the entry plan, 0% above it | A single course with modest volume |
| ClickFunnels | $97 | None | When the sales page matters more than the classroom |
The transaction fee trap
| On | Subscription | Fee on sales | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Systeme.io Startup | $17 | $0 | $17 |
| ClickFunnels Launch | $97 | $0 | $97 |
| Teachable Starter | $39 | $150 | $189 |
| Kajabi Basic, own Stripe | $179 | $40 | $219 |
Teachable's entry plan is advertised as the cheap option and lands within $30 of Kajabi once you are actually selling. The crossover, counting Kajabi's own 2% fee on the other side, is about $2,545 a month in sales: above that, the cheapest sticker in the table is the most expensive bill. Moving to Teachable's $89 plan removes the fee entirely and is the right call above roughly $667 a month in sales, which is where the $50 extra costs less than the 7.5% it saves.
We work the same arithmetic in both directions on Teachable vs Kajabi.
What you give up
An alternatives page that only lists cheaper things is not being useful, so here is the uncomfortable half. Kajabi is the best course platform in this comparison and nothing here replaces that.
The student experience is the specific thing. The player, the progress tracking, the way a course feels to somebody who paid for it. If you sell courses for a living, that is not a feature, it is the product, and $179 a month buys a materially better version of it than any alternative on this page.
The second thing is the refund policy. Kajabi publishes a full no-questions-asked refund within 30 days of your first charge. Systeme.io publishes nothing, and refusal to refund is the single most repeated complaint in its public reviews, counted on the Systeme.io review. You would be leaving a written policy for no policy.
| On | Winner |
|---|---|
| Student experience | Kajabi, clearly |
| Published refund policy | Kajabi and ClickFunnels. Systeme.io publishes none |
| Price | Systeme.io, by a distance |
| Sales page quality | ClickFunnels |
| Cost per sale | Systeme.io and ClickFunnels, both zero |
| Support | Nobody. It is the top complaint across this category |
Picking one
The verdict
The honest summary is that Kajabi is expensive and good, and most people looking for alternatives are hoping something is both cheap and equally good. Nothing here is. What is available is cheaper and adequate, which for a course that supports a business rather than being the business is usually the right trade.
- Leaving over price, course is a side product
- Systeme.io. Free, and good enough for onboarding, bonuses and lead magnets
- Leaving over price, course is the business
- Teachable on the $89 plan, not the $39 one. The fee is the whole story
- The sales page matters more than the classroom
- ClickFunnels at $97
- Leaving over support
- Reconsider. It is the top complaint everywhere, and you would give up a refund policy
- The trap
- Teachable Starter at $39, which costs more than Kajabi once you sell $1,900 a month
The cheapest way to find out if adequate is enough
Build the same course on the free plan and look at it as a student would. If it feels fine, you have saved $2,148 a year. If it feels cheap, you now know exactly what Kajabi's price is buying, which is worth knowing either way.
Start free on Systeme.ioAffiliate link to Systeme.io, not Kajabi. We have no affiliate relationship with Kajabi. We earn a commission if you later upgrade, at no extra cost to you.
If the sales page is the weak link
Some people leaving Kajabi do not have a course problem, they have a traffic problem. ClickFunnels is $82 a month cheaper, takes no cut of sales, and has the better page builder. Its course module is the weaker one, which is the trade.
Start the ClickFunnels trialAffiliate link. We earn a commission if you subscribe, at no extra cost to you. 14 day trial, then $97 a month with a 30 day money-back guarantee.
The individual head-to-heads are on Systeme.io vs Kajabi, Teachable vs Kajabi and Kajabi vs ClickFunnels. If you are still deciding whether to leave at all, the Kajabi review counts what its own users say.
Common questions
What is the best Kajabi alternative?
It depends what the course is for. Systeme.io if it supports another business, since it is free and adequate. Teachable on its $89 plan if the course is the business and you want a dedicated platform. ClickFunnels at $97 if the sales page matters more than the classroom.
Is there a free Kajabi alternative?
Systeme.io has a permanent free plan that runs a course with unlimited students and takes no cut of sales. It is less polished than Kajabi and publishes no refund policy, but it is genuinely free rather than a trial.
Is Teachable cheaper than Kajabi?
Below about $2,545 a month in sales, yes. Teachable’s $39 Starter plan takes 7.5% of every sale while Kajabi Basic takes 2% on your own Stripe, so at $2,000 of monthly sales Teachable costs $189 against Kajabi’s $219, and the two cross over at roughly $2,545. The $89 Builder plan removes the fee and is the fair comparison.
Should I leave Kajabi because of support?
Probably not on its own. Slow support is the largest counted complaint about Kajabi, but it is also the most common complaint across this whole category, so a migration risks swapping one queue for another while giving up Kajabi’s published refund policy.
What does Kajabi do better than the alternatives?
The student experience, which is the thing you are paying the premium for: the course player, progress tracking and how the whole thing feels to someone who paid. If you sell courses for a living that is the product rather than a feature, and no cheaper platform matches it.
Can I move my Kajabi courses to another platform?
Content moves by hand and student lists move by CSV. Progress, completion history and community activity do not transfer, and no platform in this category exports courses in a portable format, so budget for rebuilding rather than migrating.
Last reviewed September 3, 2026