10 Best Kajabi Alternatives for 2024: Which One to Use?

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If you’re reading this article, you’re looking for an alternative to Kajabi.

Kajabi is a top option for creating and selling online courses and memberships. However, like any other platform, it isn’t the right option for everyone.

Some common reasons why creators look for Kajabi alternatives include:

  • Kajabi pricing is pretty steep, and it doesn’t work for creators on a tight budget.
  • Kajabi is an all-in-one platform, and it may be overkill for someone who already has a website and funnels in place.
  • Some specific tools aren’t as powerful (e.g., the community builder), and many creators want better functionality.

With this in mind, let’s look at some of the best Kajabi alternatives in the market, the key features they offer, and their strengths and weaknesses compared to Kajabi.

We’ve thoroughly tested each platform and will help you choose the best platform for your business depending on your requirements and goals.

Best Kajabi Alternatives

  • Thinkific: Best standalone online course platform
  • New Zenler: Most affordable all-in-one platform
  • Teachable: Best platform for free plan
  • Mighty Networks: Best for community-centric businesses
  • Kartra: Best all-in-one platform for sales and marketing
  • Podia: Best for simplicity and ease of use
  • LearnDash: Best for flexibility and extendability
  • ClickFunnels: More powerful sales funnel builder
  • Udemy: Best online course marketplace
  • Patreon: Affordable option for simple memberships

1. Thinkific

Thinkific is a standalone online course platform that, unlike Kajabi, doesn’t include a blogging platform, a sales funnel builder, or email marketing features.

However, Thinkific is one of the best options in the market for creating online courses and engaging your students.

The platform lets you create online courses with multiple content types such as videos, text, PDFs, quizzes, surveys, assignments, etc., deliver content through the inbuilt course player and even build a community area.

What is Thinkific?

On top of these features, Thinkific offers some powerful learning and engagement tools that are currently missing from Kajabi:

  • Live Lessons – Thinkific has direct integration with Zoom, allowing you to offer live lessons inside your courses.
  • Advanced Quizzes – Thinkific supports important quizzing features like importing from Excel and randomized questions. If you need even more firepower, you can integrate with Brillium, a full-blown exam solution.
  • Certificates – You can create and send course completion certificates to your students automatically.
  • Groups – You can organize your learners into cohorts for tracking and reporting purposes.

Apart from the course creation tools, Thinkific lets you build a website, process payments, create course bundles, sell subscriptions, etc.

Most importantly, Thinkific has an app store with dozens of third-party apps, which you can use to extend your platform’s core functionality.

Another significant edge that Thinkific has over Kajabi is its beginner-friendly pricing. It has a free plan that gives you access to all the core features and will work well if you’re looking to test waters.

Plus, the paid plans are super reasonable as well. Their Basic plan costs $49/month, and the Pro plan costs $99/month. Unlike Kajabi, there is no limit on the number of courses or students you can have in your online school.

Thinkific Pricing: How much does Thinkific cost?

Thinkific is ideal for anyone looking for a standalone online course platform and not an all-in-one platform. Plus, it is more reasonably priced, making it one of the best alternatives to Kajabi for beginners.

Want to know more about Thinkific? Take a look at our detailed Kajabi vs Thinkific comparison.

2. New Zenler

New Zenler is an upcoming all-in-one course platform that is quite similar to Kajabi in the sense that it is first an online course platform, and then everything else is built on top of it.

To start with, New Zenler offers best-in-class features for creating an online course. It allows you to add multiple content types, including video, audio, text, PDF, PowerPoint, custom code, quiz, live lessons, etc., to your courses.

It also supports important features like graded quizzes, certificates, prerequisite lessons, and community so that you can create an awesome learning experience for your students.

What is New Zenler?

On top of this, New Zenler offers all the features you’ll need to handle your sales and marketing efforts — website builder, product pricing options, the ability to create tiers, pre-designed checkout pages, EU VAT, payment processing, etc.

In addition, you can also set up marketing funnels, create email automation and run your affiliate marketing program.

While New Zenler has a lot to offer, it can’t match Kajabi based on features. Many tools, such as the funnel builder and the email software, are kind of basic.

Having said that, what makes New Zenler a great Kajabi alternative is its unbeatable pricing. Its pricing is much more reasonable than Kajabi pricing, making it the most affordable all-in-one course platform.

The Pro plan costs $67/month, and the Premium plan costs $197/month. Both plans offer all the platform’s features, and the difference is mainly in the number of leads you can collect and the sites you can manage on the New Zenler platform.

So, if you’re looking for a more affordable all-in-one online course platform than Kajabi, New Zenler will be a great option.

Want to learn more about the platform? Read our detailed Kajabi vs New Zenler comparison.

3. Teachable

Teachable is another popular online course platform that, like Thinkific, is focused on offering only the core features of creating and selling an online course.

So you get more of a learning management system along with the essential tools for selling your courses. However, you won’t get email automation, or sales funnel creation features.

To start with, Teachable allows you to create courses with videos, audio, PDFs, quizzes, etc. and supports features like content dripping, graded quizzes, course compliance, certificates, etc.

Additionally, you can deliver your content to your members through its well-designed course player. The course player is mobile responsive, but you don’t get mobile apps for your students.

What is Teachable?

In addition, Teachable offers features for marketing and selling your courses – sales page builder, bundles, coupons, 1-step checkout pages, 1-click upsells, EU VAT handling, affiliate marketing tools, etc.

Finally, Teachable has a flexible pricing model. It has a genuine free plan (10% transaction fee) that offers all the core features and allows you to create unlimited courses and have unlimited students.

The Basic plan costs $39/month (+5% transaction fee), while the Pro plan costs $119/month (0% transaction fee).

Teachable Pricing Plans

While Teachable isn’t more feature-rich than Kajabi in any regard, it has a more beginner-friendly pricing. It has the most generous free plan, making it ideal for beginner course creators with a tight budget.

Want to learn more about Teachable? Read our detailed Kajabi vs Teachable comparison.

4. Mighty Networks

Mighty networks is quite distinctive from all other online course platforms on this list. It is basically an online community software, and then it also has features for online course creation.

While Kajabi also has an online community builder, it isn’t as feature-rich. In fact, it lacks some pretty essential community tools, making Mighty Networks one of the best alternatives to Kajabi.

So Mighty Networks allows you to create full articles, posts, polls, and questions, organize your content using topics, create one-time or recurring events, do live streams, etc.

As a community owner, you can create sub-groups inside your community and restrict access to them to specific users.

Your members can access the community either on the web or through the mobile app. Moreover, they get a personalized activity feed, connect with other members, send direct messages, etc.

What is Mighty Networks?

Along with this, Mighty Networks offers inbuilt course creation tools that include curriculum builder, video hosting, content dripping, user progress tracking, etc.

However, keep in mind that the platform lacks some key course creation features, such as quizzes and assignments.

Finally, Mighty Networks offers some handy monetization tools that include the ability to create landing pages, bundle your courses and community together, charge a one-time price or a recurring fee, etc.

So Mighty Networks isn’t your typical online course platform, and if you’re looking to build a regular online learning business, it won’t be the best option for you.

However, Mighty networks will be ideal for community-centric online businesses. So if you want to create a standalone community with or without online courses or even build a community-focused membership site, the platform will work great for you.

Want to learn more about the platform? Read our detailed Mighty Networks review.

5. Kartra

Kartra presents itself as an all-in-one online business platform and has emerged as one of the most popular Kajabi alternatives over the past couple of years.

Unlike Kajabi, Kartra isn’t just focused on knowledge commerce businesses, but it also caters to other models like eCommerce businesses, SaaS products, etc.

Another difference is that Kartra is first a sales and marketing platform, and so it offers a more robust and extensive range of features, including better marketing automation tools.

What is Kartra?

On top of that, some other features are either lacking or missing in Kajabi:

  • Checkout Pages – It has a much bigger library of checkout page templates, offers more flexible pricing options, includes sales tax support, and has more powerful affiliate marketing tools.
  • Video Marketing – Kartra lets you insert lead capture forms, display call-to-actions, and tag your viewers based on how they interact with your video.
  • Calendar Scheduling – Kartra has inbuilt tools for letting you schedule 1:1 sessions with your customers and clients.
  • Helpdesks – You can create a fully-fledged helpdesk portal with support ticketing and live chat features.

The only drawback of Kartra vs Kajabi as far as sales and marketing features are concerned is the lack of a visual funnel builder, which makes creating funnels in Kartra more complex.

Finally, Kartra also includes a membership site software, but its capabilities aren’t as good as Kajabi. It lacks some essential learning tools, you can’t create a standalone community, and you don’t get any mobile apps for your end-users.

What it offers is basically the ability to host your course content, create your course structure, and drip-feed content, so the Kartra membership site is kind of basic compared.

Overall, Kartra shines as an all-in-one sales and marketing platform. So, if your online courses/memberships are hosted elsewhere, or you just need basic features for them, Kartra will work great for you.

Want to learn more about Kartra? Take a look at our in-depth Kajabi vs Kartra comparison.

6. Podia

Podia is the easiest-to-use online platform that lets you sell online courses, membership sites, and digital products without any fuss. It has a user-friendly and intuitive interface, making it easy for creators to build and launch their products online.

In terms of course creation features, it’s kind of similar to Teachable. It has drag-n-drop course builder, a well-designed course player, and supports features like basic quizzes, content dripping, certificates, etc.

However, Podia doesn’t have much to offer in terms of learning and engagement tools. It doesn’t let you create graded quizzes, assignments, prerequisite lessons, etc.

What is Podia?

While Podia isn’t really an all-in-one platform, it does have more to offer in terms of sales and marketing tools than both Thinkific and Teachable.

It offers essential features like payment processing, bundling, coupons, EU VAT handling, affiliate marketing, etc. On top of that, you have a lightweight email automation system and a live chat widget.

Finally, Podia is very reasonably priced. You can start with their Mover plan ($39/month) if you just want to create online courses. Otherwise, if you’re offering memberships also, you can upgrade to the Shaker plan ($79/month).

Podia Pricing: How much does it cost?

So Podia doesn’t offer anything unique in terms of features. Instead, it stands out for its simplicity and ease of use and is ideal for anyone looking for an affordable solution to build a simple online course or membership.

Want to learn more about Podia? Check out our detailed Kajabi vs Podia comparison.

7. LearnDash

LearnDash is another popular learning management system, but it is a WordPress-based solution rather than a hosted platform.

Most hosted course platforms, including Kajabi, are closed systems, so you can’t easily extend their functionality. For example, Kajabi doesn’t have inbuilt gamification features, and there is no easy way to add that to your course site.

This is where a WordPress-based solution like LearnDash comes in handy. It offers a range of free/premium add-ons that give you unlimited flexibility in terms of the functionality of your LMS.

For example, if you need a robust gamification system for your online courses, you can easily do that with the GamiPress add-on.

Moreover, the core plugin is robust and includes all the essential LMS features like drag-and-drop course builder, graded quizzes, assignments, certificates, prerequisite lessons, content dripping, etc.

What is LearnDash?

LearnDash also offers an in-built shopping cart functionality, plus you can always integrate with third-party cart solutions like WooCommerce, ThriveCart, Easy Digital Downloads, etc.

The only thing you need to be conscious about is that you’ll need to be more tech-savvy to build your course website using WordPress and LearnDash. Plus, the more plugins you’ll add to your tech stack, the more complex your setup will be.

Otherwise, LearnDash is used by some of the top educators, training providers, universities, and businesses. And if you’re looking to build a flexible and extendable course platform using WordPress, it should work well for you.

8. ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is primarily a sales funnel software that allows you to quickly build sales funnels with lead generation pages, sales pages, and checkout pages. While it isn’t a like-for-like replacement for Kajabi, it can still be an effective alternative in specific scenarios.

ClickFunnels sales funnel builder is more powerful than Kajabi’s pipeline builder. It has blueprints for more funnel types, and then for each of them, you have several templates, which isn’t the case with Kajabi.

So irrespective of what type of funnel you want to create, you’ll find a template that’ll meet your requirements, and you’ll be able to build funnels faster.

What is ClickFunnels?

ClickFunnels has inbuilt marketing automation capabilities as well. However, it requires you to integrate with a third-party SMTP solution and isn’t easy to use at all.

Finally, ClickFunnels has a membership site builder, but it’s extremely basic. It doesn’t support many essential features like video hosting, quizzes, user discussions, etc.

Plus, the membership area isn’t well designed from an end-user point of view.  It isn’t even mobile-friendly, which can be a potential drawback for many creators.

So I don’t recommend using ClickFunnels for your online courses.

But if you’re using a course platform like Thinkific already and looking for a Kajabi alternative primarily for the funnel side of things, ClickFunnels will be a great option.

Want to explore the platforms in more detail? Please check this Kajabi vs ClickFunnels comparison.

9. Udemy

Udemy is the largest online learning platform with millions of students. Any instructor can upload their course on the marketplace and make money.

It provides you the tools to host your content, build your curriculum, deliver your course, and engage with your students.

What is Udemy?

However, selling on Udemy is very different from selling online courses from your website. There is no monthly fee for selling courses through Udemy, but you have to share more than half of the course revenue with them.

It does give you indirect access to a huge audience, which means less sales and marketing efforts on your part. But keep in mind that you don’t get their email addresses or own the audience relationship.

So, if you want to build a long-term online course business, Udemy won’t work well for you.

Otherwise, Udemy is a good Kajabi alternative for beginner course creators who want to test waters or sell online courses just as a side hustle.

If you aren’t sure about selling online courses on Udemy, you should check out our Udemy review.

10. Patreon

Patreon is a membership platform for creative businesses. Unlike Kajabi, it doesn’t include a full-fledged membership site builder.

It offers only the essential tools like creating a landing page, communicating with members through posts, messages, and emails, creating membership tiers, charging recurring subscriptions, etc.

With Patreon, you don’t have native course creation or community-building tools. If you need these, you’ll need to integrate the platform with third-party tools like WordPress, Discourse, etc.

Patreon Membership Platform

Patreon also differs significantly from Kajabi in terms of pricing. Rather than charging a fixed monthly fee, it takes a share of your monthly revenue. It has three plans that cost you 5%, 8%, and 12% of your monthly income.

The biggest advantage of Patreon is that there’s no upfront cost. So, if you’re on a tight budget and want to create a simple membership, it should work fine for you.

Best Kajabi Alternatives – Final Verdict

In this article, we discussed the best Kajabi alternatives out there and talked about each of the platforms’ features, strengths, and weaknesses.

The right platform for you will depend on why you’re looking for a Kajabi alternative and what all features you need.

If you have gone through this guide, you should be able to choose the best alternative to Kajabi. However, if you’re still undecided, let me summarize my recommendation:

If you don’t need an all-in-one platform, but you just want a platform with best-in-class features for course creation and engagement, you should go for Thinkific.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for an all-in-one platform with more affordable pricing, you may want to try New Zenler.

If your main objective is to build a community-centric business rather than a regular online learning business, you should check out Mighty Networks.

Do you have any questions about any of these Kajabi alternatives? Or do you have something to share about these platforms? Please leave a comment below and let us know.

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