What is a cheaper alternative to Kajabi?

Skool at $9 a month if you mainly used the community, or Podia at $39 if you mainly sold courses. Both are a fraction of Kajabi's $179 Basic plan, but neither replaces its email marketing or funnels.

Why is Kajabi so expensive?

Because it bundles five products: courses, community, email marketing, funnels and landing pages. That is good value if you use all five and poor value if you use two. Basic starts at $179 a month, or $143 billed yearly.

What are Kajabi's limits on the Basic plan?

Five products, 2,500 contacts, two admin users, one community and one website. The next tier up, Growth, is $249 a month and raises those to 50 products, 25,000 contacts and 11 admins.

Can Skool replace Kajabi?

Only for the community and light course delivery. Skool has no email marketing, no funnels and no landing pages. Creators who switch usually keep a separate email tool, which narrows the saving from $170 a month to something more like $120.

Does Kajabi charge transaction fees?

Yes. Kajabi Payments takes 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic, 2.8% on Growth and 2.7% on Pro. Using a third-party processor instead adds a further 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth and 0.5% on Pro.

Kajabi Alternatives in 2026: Unbundle It and Pay Less

Kajabi Basic costs $179 a month and bundles courses, community, email marketing, funnels and landing pages. Most people looking for an alternative only use two or three of those. Replace the community with Skool at $9 or Circle at $89, the courses with Podia at $39 — and keep Kajabi only if funnels and email are genuinely how you sell.

Prices taken from each vendor's own pricing page on 16 August 2026.

What you are actually paying $179 for

Kajabi is priced as a bundle, so the only useful comparison is component by component. Work down this list and mark the parts you opened in the last month.

Community

In Kajabi: One community on Basic and Growth, three on Pro. Added late to the product.

Instead: Skool at $9 or Circle at $89. Both are community-first rather than community-added.

Courses

In Kajabi: 5 products on Basic, 50 on Growth. Genuinely good course tooling.

Instead: Podia at $39 with unlimited products, or Skool if the course supports a community rather than the reverse.

Email marketing

In Kajabi: Unlimited marketing emails, capped by contacts: 2,500 on Basic, 25,000 on Growth.

Instead: A dedicated email tool. This is the piece hardest to replace for free, and the main reason to keep Kajabi.

Funnels and landing pages

In Kajabi: Unlimited on every plan, and the real justification for the price.

Instead: Nothing on this list replaces it. If launches are how you sell, Kajabi stays.

Checkout and payments

In Kajabi: 2.9% + $0.30 via Kajabi Payments; a further 2% on Basic if you use another processor.

Instead: Skool Pro takes 2.9% + $0.30 all in. Podia Shaker takes 0% on top of processing.

The limits that push people off Basic

The $179 plan is more constrained than its price suggests, and the jump to Growth is $70 a month rather than a small step.

2,500 contacts. A single successful lead magnet can exhaust this, and contacts are what the plan is really metered on.
5 products. Every course, download and coaching offer counts.
2 admin users. You plus one, before you have hired anyone.
A further 2% on third-party processors. Charged on top of whatever that processor takes, unless you use Kajabi Payments.

The alternatives compared

Kajabi and its alternatives compared
Platform	From	Platform fee	Best for
Skool	$9/mo$7.50/mo yearly	10% Hobby, 2.9% + $0.30 Pro	A paid community where the selling happens inside the community itself.
Circle	$129/mo$89/mo yearly	2% Professional, 1% Businesson top of processing fees	Teams that need the community to carry their own branding, with workflows and an API.
Podia	$39/mo$33/mo yearly	5% on Mover, 0% on Shaker	Selling digital products and courses cheaply, with community as a secondary feature.
Mighty Networks	$79/mo$950/yr yearly	2% Launch, 1% Scaleon top of processing fees	Community-first brands wanting gamification and a branded app on the top tier.
Kajabi	$179/mo$143/mo yearly	2.9% + $0.30 via Kajabi Payments	Launch-driven businesses that sell through funnels and email sequences.

The closest head-to-head is set out in full in Skool vs Kajabi, and the wider field in online community platforms.

When Kajabi is worth the money

If your revenue comes from launches — a sequence of emails driving traffic to a funnel, twice a year — nothing on this list replaces Kajabi. Skool, Circle and Podia have no funnel builder and no email automation between them. Assembling the same stack from separate tools costs more than $179 a month and takes work to hold together.

Leave Kajabi when the bundle stops matching how you sell, not because the number looks large next to a $9 plan that does a fifth of the job.

Kajabi alternatives FAQ

What is a cheaper alternative to Kajabi?: Skool at $9 a month if you mainly used the community, or Podia at $39 if you mainly sold courses. Both are a fraction of Kajabi's $179 Basic plan, but neither replaces its email marketing or funnels.
Why is Kajabi so expensive?: Because it bundles five products: courses, community, email marketing, funnels and landing pages. That is good value if you use all five and poor value if you use two. Basic starts at $179 a month, or $143 billed yearly.
What are Kajabi's limits on the Basic plan?: Five products, 2,500 contacts, two admin users, one community and one website. The next tier up, Growth, is $249 a month and raises those to 50 products, 25,000 contacts and 11 admins.
Can Skool replace Kajabi?: Only for the community and light course delivery. Skool has no email marketing, no funnels and no landing pages. Creators who switch usually keep a separate email tool, which narrows the saving from $170 a month to something more like $120.
Does Kajabi charge transaction fees?: Yes. Kajabi Payments takes 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic, 2.8% on Growth and 2.7% on Pro. Using a third-party processor instead adds a further 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth and 0.5% on Pro.

Test the community piece for $9

If the community is the part of Kajabi you actually use, Skool costs $9 a month with a 14-day trial. That is a cheap way to find out before cancelling anything.

Start your free Skool trial