The online course industry has exploded over the last few years. From $3.61 billion in 2018, it’s projected to grow to $25.33 billion in 2025. And that’s only one small segment of the total online learning ecosystem, which is valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars!
So, it makes sense that seemingly everywhere we go online now, there is some sort of course available. Whether you want to learn marketing skills, build a perfect sales funnel, or do anything else, there’s a course out there for you.
This is where Kajabi comes. Kajabi’s goal is to be an integrated platform that allows you to host your own courses, sell digital products, launch marketing campaigns, and engage with your users. The idea is that it can replace WordPress, WooCommerce, ClickFunnels, and MailChimp and do everything all under one dashboard.
Depending on your perspective, replacing all these services is either expensive or a serious bargain—Kajabi plans start $149/month or $119/month when billed annually.
The biggest question everybody has when it comes to Kajabi is whether it’s worth it or not. We’ll explore that and much more in this ultimate Kajabi review.
What Is Kajabi?
Kajabi is a content marketing platform that enables anybody to sell and market online content. We need to make this absolutely clear from the start, however. If you actually sell physical goods, then Kajabi isn’t exactly for you. While Kajabi does integrate with eCommerce platforms like Shopify through Zapier, it doesn’t make sense for most marketers to shell out such an expensive monthly cost.
Kajabi has been around since 2010 and has worked with 25,000+ users across 120 countries to serve courses to 41 million students and drive $1.1 billion in sales.
That’s a pretty solid track record, and you’ll see tons of testimonials of real users on the site who have had success with the platform.
Kajabi provides all the tools you need in a sleek, easy-to-use interface that allows course creators to transform content into digital products, build websites, create funnels, and launch email campaigns.
If it sounds like Kajabi is a bit of a jack of all trades, that’s because it is. None of the services it provides are best-in-class. Instead, they’ll all be either average or above average. The point instead is that Kajabi is the convenient hub that you can use to market your materials. And from that perspective, Kajabi does an excellent job!
Kajabi Features
- Website builder
- Landing pages
- Email marketing
- Funnel builder
- Collaboration
- Unlimited pages
- Course hosting
- eCommerce
- Memberships
- Mobile app
- Blogging
- Video hosting
- Upsells
- Automations
Getting Started With Kajabi
Kajabi offers a 14-day free trial on all of its plans. To take advantage of it, you sign up with your email address, set an account password, answer some basic questions, and provide your credit card number. However, if you decide Kajabi isn’t for you, it’s not difficult to cancel the subscription before you’re billed.
After choosing your main goal, whether that’s growing an email list, building a platform, creating funnels, or anything else, Kajabi will then take you to that part of its features. From here, you can watch the tutorial videos, or if you’re already familiar with similar tools, you can get started creating content.
Kajabi Pricing
Kajabi isn’t cheap. As mentioned, plans start at $149/month. This is definitely a commitment for the new marketers out there, especially for those who don’t have the resources to purchase an annual plan.
But you have to consider it an investment. Remember, it is replacing a whole suite of other tools, which is how it actually can save you money both in the long and short term. And don’t forget about skipping the hassle of having to learn how to use a bunch of other apps.
Kajabi has three plans, which all offer unlimited bandwidth, unlimited hosting, and no transaction fees (though you will have a 2-3% fee for Stripe payments though that’s standard everywhere).
The Basic Plan allows you to create 3 products across 3 sales pipelines. You’ll also get 10,000 contacts and 1 admin user.
Upgrading to Growth costs $199/month and offers all the same features plus 10 admin users, 15 products, 15 pipelines, and 25,000 contacts.
Finally, the Pro Plan is $399/month and includes many more pipelines, users, and contacts. However, the vast majority of users will fit into the first two options.
Check out the difference between the plans below:
You might be thinking that Kajabi seems expensive, but it’s important to realize there are not a lot of other platforms out there that do everything Kajabi does. Instead, you’d have to use some combination like Thinkific plus MailChimp for marketing. And when you do that, the price difference stops being quite so different.
The one thing that isn’t cool is Kajabi’s put their branding on all Basic level plans and don’t wipe it off until you’re on the Growth Plan or higher. We can understand that for free software tools but come on Kajabi. You can do better than that!
Kajabi Features
Kajabi has so many features that it’s difficult even knowing where to begin. The bottom line is that if there is something you need to do in either developing, marketing, or selling your digital products, you’ll be able to take care of it with Kajabi.
Here are some of the main Kajabi features you’ll find yourself often using:
1. Course Building
This is the primary feature of any online course platform, and Kajabi doesn’t disappoint. You can easily upload content and use the Product Blueprints tool to structure everything into place.
After selecting a Product Blueprint, Kajabi will create a sample structure and allow you to organize it into modules and lessons referred to as Categories and Posts.
It also has a bulk upload feature so you can fairly easily upload your entire course. The only downside is your limited to only one video per post.
2. Content Delivery And Player
Kajabi gives you over 10 Product themes to help you tailor how users experience your course. You get a little flexibility, too, because the themes are customizable, helping your online program stand out from what your competitors offer.
From inside this section, you’ll be able to add extra content such as text and images, PDF downloads, as well as create a comment section. And all the content is responsive so your students can enjoy it either on the computer or from the mobile app.
3. Automations
This is one of the most exciting Kajabi features. With Automations, you can easily set up When/The rules which facilitate actions across different triggers.
For instance, let’s say a student has been inactive for a week. You can then make an automation to set then a reminder to resume the course. Likewise, you can offer coupons or freebies or additional materials. The automations are one of the best ways to drive a high ROI from Kajabi.
4. Funnels
The Sales Pipeline Features enables you to quickly build funnels. You can either create one from scratch or use a pre-built pipeline.
Once you select a blueprint, Kajabi puts together everything you need, including landing pages, forms, offers, and more.
This is again where the real value in Kajabi is! For example, if you go with the Webinar blueprint, Kajabi creates the registration and confirmation pages for you along with the reminder and follow up emails.
5. Website Builder
Forget about Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress, because Kajabi both helps you build a site from scratch and hosts it too. The website builder may not be the most robust or have the largest variety. So, while you may not get extras like the widgets offered by dedicated website builder Duda, with Kajabi you will get a solid collection of templates you can use to quickly put together a great-looking site, including exit-pop ups and other helpful lead capturing tools.
Who Should Use Kajabi?
Kajabi is an excellent tool for anybody marketing digital courses and related products. It’s not only easy-to-use but includes everything you need under one convenient dashboard. These types of people particularly will benefit from using the platform:
- Entrepreneurs who want to offer premium courses and events
- Those looking for detailed analytics
- Marketers who want an all-one-on tool
- Established entrepreneurs who can already cover the Kajabi monthly cost
- People looking for an alternative to ClickFunnels or Kartra
If you want a no-mess platform, especially if you don’t have programming skills, then Kajabi is a great choice. But if you want a highly customizable, unique website, this isn’t for you. But you could get a lot of value from using Kajabi as a standalone funnel and marketing tool. So be sure to check it out!
Is Kajabi Worth It?
Yes. Those features above are just the beginning of what you can do with Kajabi. We didn’t even get into user management, quizzes, email marketing, landing pages, and more. It’s really powerful software!
The one thing you have to ask yourself is whether you have the resources to invest in Kajabi. It takes time to grow a successful platform. Do you have 12 months to grow your audience and really hone all the different ways you use these awesome features to your advantage?
If the answer is yes, then you should totally go with Kajabi. If not, set your sites smaller and use a more affordable combination of tools. Remember, Kajabi may be able to do just about everything, but it’s still on you to make the killer content needed for your platform to be a success.
Pros
- Tons of features
- Create automations which is a unique feature amount course builder
- All-in-one solution
- Great onboarding tools
- Tons of data
- Excellent support team
- Unlimited video hosting
- Accepts both Stripe and PayPal
- Replacing the need for other tools like Instapage and MailChimp
- Can build funnels
- Constantly improving software
Cons
- Basic plan is stuck with Kajabi brand
- Not super customizable
- One of the most expensive options
Kajabi Alternatives
It depends on what you’re looking for. Teachable is another popular course tool. With it, you can add multiple content types, create certificates and quizzes, and deliver content through a useful course player. But it doesn’t give you as many options for design, nor does it have funnels, landing pages, and automations. But plans are much more affordable, starting at $39/month, making it a good choice for the newbies out there.
There are a few other options out there like Kartra or building courses within ClickFunnels. Each one of these likewise has its downside, mainly in that they don’t offer nearly as robust functionality as Kajabi. Plus, since ClickFunnels starts at $97/month, it’s not that much cheaper than Kajabi anyway!
Kajabi: The Verdict
If you’re looking for one place to build and market courses, it’s hard to beat Kajabi. It’s packed with tons of features, has plenty of ways to drive a high ROI, and easy enough for anybody to master using in no time. Though it is one the pricey side, you should definitely consider it an investment since it can replace so many other tools and even save you money in the long run.
Kajabi Review
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Summary
Kajabi is a content marketing platform that you can use to market your materials. Kajabi’s goal is to be an integrated platform that allows you to host your own courses, sell digital products, launch marketing campaigns, and engage with your users. Kajabi has a large variety of features that includes course building, automations, funnels, and more. Learn more about this content marketing platform in our complete review of Kajabi.