Full review
Kajabi review
Kajabi is the most polished course platform in this category and the most expensive, at $179 to $499 a month. Funnels, landing pages and email sends are unlimited on every tier, and there is a real 30 day refund. It scores 3.4 on Trustpilot across 2,337 reviews, and support is the complaint in 101 of the 168 low-star reviews we counted. Systeme.io is the cheap alternative.
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The author has not used this product. Everything here comes from six public sources: the maker's own site, its pricing and refund terms, its changelog, its support forum, counted complaints across recent public reviews, and a like-for-like comparison against the nearest alternatives. We never claim experience we do not have.
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The short version
- Genuinely the best student and course experience. That is what the money buys.
- Support is the dominant complaint, named in 60% of the low-star reviews we counted.
- A real, published 30 day no-questions refund, which most of this category lacks.
- Bringing your own Stripe adds 0.5% to 2% of every sale on top of the plan.
The verdict
The verdict
Kajabi is a good product with a support reputation that should genuinely affect your decision. If your business can absorb a slow support cycle, the platform itself is the best in this group at what it does. If you are the sort of operator who needs an answer the same day when a launch is live, read the tally below carefully before committing.
- Best for
- Established course businesses where the student experience is the product
- Entry price
- $179 a month, or $143 paid annually
- The standout
- Course delivery, communities and the polish of the whole thing
- The risk
- Support. It is the most common complaint by a very wide margin
What it does best
Kajabi is the only platform in this comparison built course-first rather than funnel-first, and it shows in the parts your customers touch. The course player, progress tracking, communities and the mobile experience are more finished than anything Systeme.io or ClickFunnels offers, and for a premium-priced course that polish is not decoration, it is the product.
The pricing model is also cleaner than most. Funnels, landing pages and marketing email sends are unlimited on every tier, so the only thing you buy as you grow is contacts. No email send caps means no surprise upgrade because your list started opening more.
| Term | Detail |
|---|---|
| Free trial | Disputed. Their pricing page says 30 days, their help centre says 14 with no extensions. Card required either way |
| Refund | Full no-questions-asked refund within 30 days of your first charge |
| After 30 days | Non-refundable. No credit for partially used subscriptions |
| Funnels and landing pages | Unlimited on every plan |
| Marketing emails | Unlimited sends on every plan |
| The catch | Using your own Stripe or PayPal costs 0.5% to 2% on top of the plan |
What owners complain about
Kajabi scores 3.4 on Trustpilot across 2,337 reviews. That is a materially different picture from the rest of this category, and the distribution is worth seeing before the complaint counts.
| Platform | Score | Reviews | 5 star | 1 star |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kajabi | 3.4 / 5 | 2,337 | 75% | 9% |
| Systeme.io | 4.9 / 5 | 8,426 | 94% | 2% |
One in eleven Kajabi reviewers gives it a single star. We read the low-star reviews and counted what repeats, because an average never tells you what will actually go wrong.
What the 1 and 2 star reviews are about
Counted across Trustpilot · across every retrievable low-star review, currently 168 reviews
- Support slow or unhelpful101
- Refund refused, or a billing dispute62
- Bugs and broken features36
- Price and value for money18
- Missing or limited features18
- Clunky or unintuitive to use15
- Account or data loss12
The support problem
This is the most lopsided complaint pattern we have found on any product on this site. For comparison, Systeme.io's most common complaint appears in 26% of its low-star reviews, and GoHighLevel's in about 22% of its G2 base. Kajabi's leading complaint is at 60%, and the second, billing disputes, is at 37%.
Those two are related more often than not. A large share of the billing complaints describe a refund or cancellation request that went unanswered, which is a support failure showing up as a money problem. That is worth knowing precisely because Kajabi's written refund policy is good: a full no-questions refund within 30 days of first charge. A good policy administered slowly still feels like a bad one.
None of this means the platform is broken. Seventy-five per cent of reviewers give it five stars, and people running successful course businesses on Kajabi are generally very happy. But if you are choosing between platforms and support responsiveness is something you would notice, this is the clearest signal in the data.
What works
- The best course and student experience of any platform in this category.
- Unlimited funnels, landing pages and email sends on every tier.
- A published 30 day no-questions-asked refund, which Systeme.io does not match.
- Communities and course delivery are genuinely well built rather than a checkbox.
- No email send caps, so list growth never forces an upgrade on its own.
What does not
- Support is the dominant complaint, in 60% of the low-star reviews we counted.
- The most expensive option here by a distance, starting at $179.
- Using your own Stripe adds 0.5% to 2% of every sale.
- Billing and refund disputes are the second most common theme at 37%.
- Overkill if you are not selling courses. It is not a general funnel builder.
What it costs
| Plan | Monthly | Annual, per month | Contacts | Products | Own Stripe fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $179 | $143 | 2,500 | 5 | 2% |
| Growth | $249 | $199 | 25,000 | 50 | 1% |
| Pro | $499 | $399 | 100,000 | Unlimited | 0.5% |
The transaction fee is the part that catches people, and the full arithmetic including what a $10,000 sales month actually costs is on the Kajabi pricing breakdown.
Test the offer somewhere cheaper first
Systeme.io runs a course with unlimited students on a free plan and takes no cut of sales. If the course sells, Kajabi's polish becomes a sensible upgrade rather than a bet.
Start free on Systeme.ioAffiliate link to Systeme.io. We have no affiliate relationship with Kajabi, so nothing on this page earns us anything if you choose it. We earn a commission if you later upgrade Systeme.io, at no extra cost to you.
Who should skip it
| Situation | Verdict |
|---|---|
| An established course business turning over real money | Yes. The polish is what you are paying for and it delivers |
| Selling a premium course where the experience is the product | Yes, and this is the strongest case for it |
| Launching a first course, offer unproven | No. $179 a month before you know it sells |
| Needing funnels more than courses | No. ClickFunnels or Systeme.io do that better for less |
| Running client accounts as an agency | Wrong category entirely. You want an agency platform |
| Anyone who needs fast support during a launch | Weigh this carefully. It is the leading complaint |
How it compares
| Platform | Entry | Email sending | Transaction fees | Genuinely best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systeme.io | Free, then $17 | Unlimited, every plan | 0% | Solo creators who want one cheap tool covering everything adequately. |
| ClickFunnels | $97 | 50,000 / mo on entry | 0% | Funnel-first businesses that want the deeper builder and bigger template library. |
| Kajabi | $179 | Unlimited, every plan | 0.5% to 2% on third-party | Course businesses that want the most polished student experience. |
| Teachable | $39 | Not a marketing tool | 7.5% on entry, then 0% | Course-only sellers who do not need funnels or email marketing. |
The three comparisons worth reading are Systeme.io vs Kajabi on price, Teachable vs Kajabi on course platforms specifically, and Kajabi vs ClickFunnels if you are deciding whether you are really in the course business or the funnel business.
One option Kajabi comparisons almost never mention: if you already pay for an agency CRM, you may have course hosting included. GoHighLevel bundles courses and memberships on every plan, including its $97 tier, which makes the marginal cost of a course there zero.
Three follow-on questions this review raises get their own pages: what the trial actually gives you, on the Kajabi free trial, where the product limit bites, on courses, and what to switch to, on Kajabi alternatives.
If funnels matter more than courses
ClickFunnels has the deeper page builder and the bigger template library, at roughly half Kajabi's entry price. It is the better answer when the funnel is the product.
See ClickFunnelsAffiliate 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.
Common questions
Is Kajabi worth it?
For an established course business, usually yes. The course and student experience is the best in this category and that is what the $179 a month buys. For an unproven first course it is hard to justify against a free or $17 alternative.
Why does Kajabi have a low Trustpilot score?
It sits at 3.4 across 2,337 reviews, with 9% one-star. Support is the reason: it is named in 101 of the 168 low-star reviews we counted, and billing disputes, often unanswered refund requests, account for another 62.
How much does Kajabi cost?
$179, $249 or $499 a month, or $143, $199 and $399 paid annually. Using your own Stripe or PayPal adds 0.5% to 2% of each sale depending on tier. Articles quoting $89 are out of date.
Is Kajabi better than Systeme.io?
At course delivery and polish, clearly yes. On price it is roughly ten times Systeme.io’s entry tier, and Systeme.io takes no cut of your sales. Kajabi also has a published refund policy where Systeme.io has none.
Can I get my money back from Kajabi?
Their terms promise a full no-questions-asked refund within 30 days of your first charge, after which payments are non-refundable. Billing complaints in public reviews suggest the process can be slow, so ask early rather than at day 29.
Is Kajabi good for beginners?
It is capable but expensive for a beginner, and the support pattern is a poor fit for someone who will have a lot of questions. Proving the offer on a cheaper platform first is the lower-risk route.
Last reviewed September 3, 2026