You open the invoice, and there it is again — a three-figure monthly charge for a platform you use maybe forty percent of. Kajabi is genuinely good at being everything at once, which is exactly the problem when you’re one person who needs three of its nine features. This is a small but expensive corner of the creator’s content toolkit, and the smart move isn’t just “find something cheaper.” It’s finding something that replaces the right part of Kajabi. Let’s figure out which part that is.
The verdict, up front (TL;DR). Before you switch, name what you’re actually replacing. If it’s the whole suite (course + email + funnels + site), look at Systeme.io (free to start) or Kartra. If it’s just the course host, Thinkific or Teachable cost a fraction and do that one job well. If it’s the community/membership, Circle or Mighty Networks are purpose-built. Pick by job, not by price alone — the cheapest tool that doesn’t do what you need is the most expensive mistake.
First, diagnose what you’re really paying Kajabi for
Kajabi’s price — starting around $143 a month billed annually, after its first increase in roughly a decade in early 2026 — buys you an all-in-one: courses, email marketing, sales funnels, a website, a community, and checkout, with no revenue share when you use Kajabi Payments. That bundle is a bargain if you use all of it. The squeeze happens when you don’t.
So before shopping, sort your actual usage into three buckets:
- The whole suite. You genuinely run your email, funnels, and site inside Kajabi. Replacing it means replacing all of that — a bigger project.
- Just the course host. You use Kajabi to hold lessons and take payment, and your email and site live elsewhere. You’re overpaying for eight features to use one.
- The community. What you value is the membership/community layer, and the courses are secondary.
Your bucket decides your shortlist. Switching cost — migrating students, rebuilding pages, moving your email list — is real, so you only want to do it once, toward the right thing.
The seven alternatives, ranked by what they replace
Here’s the shortlist, with the honest “what you’re actually swapping” framing next to each.
| Alternative | Entry price (annual) | Replaces | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Systeme.io | Free, then $17/mo | The whole suite (lean) | Basic UX; limited at scale |
| Kartra | $52/mo | The whole suite | 5% fee + 500-contact cap on entry |
| Thinkific | $40/mo | Just the course host | 1-5% surcharge if not using its payments |
| Teachable | $29/mo | Just the course host | 7.5% fee on the Starter plan |
| Podia | $42/mo | Course host + simple shop | 5% fee on the Mover plan |
| Circle | $89/mo | The community/membership | No free plan; stacked fees |
| Mighty Networks | $79/mo | The community + native app | Entry $49 plan discontinued in 2026 |
Now the detail that the table can’t hold.
If you’re replacing the whole suite
Systeme.io — the bootstrapper’s clean break. This is the one I point genuinely broke-right-now creators toward, because its free plan is real, not a teaser: one course, three funnels, 2,000 contacts, unlimited emails, and 0% transaction fees, no credit card. It won’t feel as polished as Kajabi, and it strains at scale — but for launching or relaunching without a monthly bill, nothing else here competes. Best for: proving the business works before you pay for infrastructure.
Kartra — the paid all-in-one at a third of the price. If you want Kajabi’s “everything in one login” model but not Kajabi’s floor, Kartra’s Essentials starts around $52 a month annually. The catches are a 5% transaction fee and a 500-contact cap on that entry tier, both of which lift as you climb. Best for: the creator who truly uses the funnels-and-email machinery and just wants it cheaper.
If you’re replacing just the course host
This is the most common realization: you’re paying all-in-one money for a shelf. Two course-first platforms do that shelf beautifully for far less — and I compare them head-to-head, alongside Kajabi and Podia, in best online course platforms.
Thinkific — genuine 0% fees, on one condition. At $40 a month annually for Basic, Thinkific is a course-focused builder that charges no platform fee if you use Thinkific Payments. Use your own Stripe and it adds a 1-5% surcharge, so commit to its checkout to get the value. Best for: the focused course seller who’s done paying for features they never open.
Teachable — the lowest sticker, with a caveat. Starter is $29 a month annually, the smallest check here, but its 7.5% transaction fee means you’ll want to graduate to the fee-free Builder plan once sales pick up. Best for: a first course on the tightest possible budget.
Podia — course host plus a light storefront. At $42 a month, Podia adds a simple shop for digital products and memberships alongside courses, with quick setup. Its Mover plan takes 5%, easing to 0% higher up. Best for: selling a small mix of products, not just one course.
If you’re replacing the community
Circle — the premium branded membership. If the community is the product, Circle is built for it — clean, branded spaces with courses attached rather than the other way around. It starts around $89 a month annually with no free plan and layered fees, so it’s a commitment. Best for: paid communities where discussion, not lessons, is the draw.
Mighty Networks — community with its own app. Similar territory, with a native mobile app as its signature. Note that the cheaper $49 Community plan was discontinued in 2026, so the real floor is now higher (around $79/mo annually). Best for: creators who want members living in a branded app, not a browser tab.
Don’t forget the switching cost
Every one of these is cheaper than Kajabi. None of them is free to move to, in the sense that matters: your time. Migrating students, re-uploading lessons, rebuilding checkout pages, and re-pointing your email list is a weekend of work at minimum. That’s not a reason to stay — it’s a reason to switch once, deliberately, toward the tool that fits the bucket you diagnosed at the top. Switching from Kajabi to a course host and then discovering you needed the community layer is two weekends you don’t get back.
The workflow it unlocks
Leaving Kajabi usually means re-assembling a couple of pieces it used to bundle. The big one is email — and if what you send is really a newsletter that builds an audience, a purpose-built publishing home like Substack, beehiiv, or Ghost will serve you better than a course platform’s bolted-on email. Your course visuals come from Canva, not a design suite, for most of us. Diagnose your bucket, pick the one tool that fills it, migrate once, and put the difference back in your own pocket.
Sources
- Kajabi pricing (Basic $143/mo annual; all-in-one; first increase in ~10 years, early 2026): https://kajabi.com/pricing — accessed 2026-09-26
- Systeme.io pricing (free-forever: 1 course, 3 funnels, 2,000 contacts, unlimited emails, 0% fees; Startup $17/mo): https://systeme.io/pricing — accessed 2026-09-26
- Kartra pricing (Essentials ~$52/mo annual; 5% fee + 500-contact cap on entry): https://kartra.com/pricing — accessed 2026-09-26
- Thinkific pricing (Basic $40/mo annual; 0% via Thinkific Payments, 1-5% surcharge on own Stripe): https://www.thinkific.com/pricing/ — accessed 2026-09-26
- Teachable pricing (Starter $29/mo annual + 7.5% fee; Builder 0%): https://teachable.com/pricing — accessed 2026-09-26
- Podia pricing (Mover $42/mo + 5% fee): https://www.podia.com/pricing — accessed 2026-09-26
- Circle pricing (Professional ~$89/mo annual; no free plan; tiered fees): https://circle.so/pricing — accessed 2026-09-26
- Mighty Networks pricing (Launch ~$79/mo annual; $49 Community plan discontinued 2026): https://www.mightynetworks.com/pricing — accessed 2026-09-26
