Kajabi vs Teachable (2026): What a $49, $149, and $499 Course Actually Costs

Kajabi and Teachable get compared constantly, and almost always abstractly — “Kajabi is the premium all-in-one, Teachable is the simple course seller.” True, but useless when you’re trying to pick. What you actually need to know is what each platform costs at your price point and volume, and that math changed twice in the last year and a half: Kajabi restructured its plans in January 2026, and Teachable restructured in 2025 and killed its free tier.

So I re-verified both pricing pages directly — every number below is as of October 2026 — and then ran the fee math at three real course price points: $49, $149, and $499. I’ve evaluated course platforms for years, first as a college dean building online programs at scale, and the same mistake shows up in every batch of creators I work with: picking on sticker price instead of cost at volume.

Disclosure: some links in this post are affiliate links. I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you — it never changes my rankings.

Quick Verdict

Kajabi vs Teachable at a Glance

	Kajabi	Teachable
Entry plan	Basic $179/mo ($143 annual)	Starter $39/mo ($29 annual)
Mid plan	Growth $249/mo ($199 annual)	Builder $89/mo ($69 annual)
Top self-serve plan	Pro $499/mo ($399 annual)	Growth $189/mo ($139 annual)
Platform transaction fee	0% — no revenue share	7.5% per sale on Starter; 0% on Builder and up
Card processing	2.9% + 30¢ via Kajabi Payments (Basic, US)	2.9% + 30¢ via Teachable Payments (US cards)
Products	5 (Basic) / 50 (Growth) / unlimited (Pro)	5 / 10 / 50 by tier
Contact limit	2,500 (Basic) / 25,000 (Growth) / 100,000 (Pro)	Not contact-capped
Email marketing	Included	Not included
Funnels and website	Included	Not included
Free plan	None — free trial, 30-day money-back guarantee	None — 7-day trial, 30-day guarantee

All prices verified as of October 2026 at kajabi.com/pricing and teachable.com/pricing. Both companies have repriced since 2025, so confirm before you commit.

Pricing Today, Verified

Teachable (as of October 2026)

Plan	Monthly	Annual	Transaction Fee	Products
Starter	$39/mo	$29/mo	7.5% per sale	5
Builder	$89/mo	$69/mo	0%	10
Growth	$189/mo	$139/mo	0%	50
Custom	Contact sales	Contact sales	0%	Flexible

The 0% fee on Builder and up applies when you process through teachable:pay or Teachable’s Monthly Payment Gateway — that’s the default setup, but read the current terms on teachable.com/pricing. Certificates and branding removal wait until Growth; the affiliate program arrives at Builder. There is no free plan anymore; the 7-day trial replaced it.

Kajabi (as of October 2026)

Plan	Monthly	Annual	Products	Contacts	Admins
Basic	$179/mo	$143/mo	5	2,500	2
Growth	$249/mo	$199/mo	50	25,000	11
Pro	$499/mo	$399/mo	Unlimited	100,000	26

Three things worth flagging:

• Kajabi takes no revenue share — you pay card processing (2.9% + 30¢ on Basic via Kajabi Payments in the US; the rate drops slightly on Growth and Pro) and nothing to the platform per sale.
• The old Kickstarter plan is no longer on the public pricing page. For a while Kajabi offered an $89 entry tier (1 product, limited contacts) with limited availability. As of October 2026, Basic at $179/month ($143 annual) is the listed entry point.
• Contacts overage is real money: past your cap, contact capacity adds in blocks of 25,000 for $125/month. Basic’s 2,500-contact cap is the tier’s real ceiling, not the 5-product limit.

Also: if you use a third-party payment processor where Kajabi Payments is available, Kajabi adds a surcharge — 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, 0.5% on Pro (PayPal and Kajabi Payments are excluded). Where Kajabi Payments isn’t available in your country, there’s no surcharge. Fee structures at this level of detail change; the pricing page link above is the source of truth.

The Real Cost Math: Selling a $49, $149, and $499 Course

This is the section most comparisons skip. Per-sale fees, US cards, monthly billing, using each platform’s cheapest and its sensible plan:

Course price	Teachable Starter fees	Teachable Builder fees	Kajabi Basic fees
$49 course	$5.40 (keep $43.60)	$1.72 (keep $47.28)	$1.72 (keep $47.28)
$149 course	$15.80 (keep $133.20)	$4.62 (keep $144.38)	$4.62 (keep $144.38)
$499 course	$52.20 (keep $446.80)	$14.77 (keep $484.23)	$14.77 (keep $484.23)

How those are built: Teachable Starter pays 7.5% to the platform plus 2.9% + 30¢ processing. Teachable Builder and Kajabi Basic both pay 0% platform fee plus 2.9% + 30¢ processing. So per sale, Teachable Builder and Kajabi Basic cost exactly the same in fees. The entire price difference between them is the plan cost: $89 vs $179 monthly, or $69 vs $143 annual.

That makes the decision a volume breakeven, and here it is:

• Teachable Starter to Builder ($50/mo gap): the 7.5% fee costs $3.68 per $49 sale, $11.18 per $149 sale, $37.43 per $499 sale. Upgrade pays for itself at roughly 14 sales/month of a $49 course, 5 of a $149, or 2 of a $499. Starter is bait unless you’re validating slowly.
• Teachable Builder to Kajabi Basic ($90/mo gap monthly, $74 annual): identical per-sale fees, so Kajabi only wins if its included tools are worth more than $74-90/month to you. That’s the only question — and it has an honest answer, below.

When Kajabi’s Extras Pay for Themselves — and When They Don’t

Teachable includes courses, students, and checkout. That’s it. Everything else you’d buy separately:

Tool Teachable doesn’t include	Typical cost
Email marketing	$0 at first (Kit’s free tier covers up to 10,000 subscribers), then roughly $25-49/mo
Landing pages / funnel builder	$49+/mo
Website for your brand	$15-25/mo
Community tool	$49/mo
Podcast hosting	$15-40/mo

Now the honest version of that table, because the stack math gets abused in every Kajabi review including some of my earlier drafts:

Kajabi’s extras pay for themselves when you were genuinely going to buy three or more of those tools anyway. A creator doing $5,000+/month who needs email automation, a launch funnel, and a community is paying $150-250/month for the stitched-together version — versus $179 for Kajabi Basic with one login and no Zapier connections to babysit. Consolidation at that point is cheaper and simpler.

They don’t pay for themselves when you need one tool (email at $0-25/month on Kit covers most creators’ first two years), you already own the stack and like it, or your revenue is under roughly $2,000/month. Paying $143/month (annual) for funnels and podcast hosting you don’t use yet isn’t an investment — it’s a donation to Kajabi. This is exactly the trap I warn about in my free and low-budget lesson: don’t pay for a business platform before you’ve proven the course sells.

Course Builder and Student Experience

Kajabi wins on polish. The course builder is intuitive, the templates are the best-looking in the category, and the student portal feels like a premium product — which matters when you’re selling a $499+ program. Kajabi’s mobile app experience for students is a real advantage Teachable can’t match.

Teachable wins on speed. You can build and launch a course in an afternoon. The curriculum builder is the simplest in the category, and the course player is clean and reliable. My Teachable review and Kajabi review cover each in depth.

Neither is the best pure course-delivery engine — for advanced assessments and customization, Thinkific competes with both, and I break down Thinkific vs Kajabi separately.

Ease of Use

Teachable is the easiest major platform to learn. First course live within hours, minimal decisions to make.

Kajabi is manageable but bigger. There are more moving parts — email, funnels, automations, community — and you should expect a few days to a week to get comfortable rather than an afternoon. It’s still far gentler than a true marketing platform; my GoHighLevel vs Kajabi comparison covers the steeper end of that spectrum.

Which Should YOU Pick?

Pick Kajabi if you’re an established creator (roughly $5,000+/month) consolidating tools, your brand needs to look premium at a $300+ price point, you want podcast hosting and community next to your courses, or you’re tired of five logins and fragile Zapier wiring. Start with the free trial and the 30-day money-back guarantee, and run your own stack math first.

Pick Teachable if you’re launching a first or second course under about $2,000/month in revenue, you already own email and funnel tools you like, or you genuinely just need a beautiful course host. Go straight to Builder ($69/month annual) — Starter’s 7.5% fee costs more than the upgrade at just a handful of sales per month.

Consider neither if you want all-in-one power at a lower price than Kajabi — that’s the case my Pick Your Platform course makes for GoHighLevel, and it’s an honest fork in this decision worth ten minutes of your time.

FAQ

Is Kajabi’s Kickstarter plan still available?

It’s no longer listed on Kajabi’s public pricing page as of October 2026. Basic ($179/month, $143 annual) is the listed entry point. If you find Kickstarter referenced in an older review (including my own earlier posts), treat it as historical.

Do Kajabi or Teachable charge transaction fees?

Kajabi: no platform fee on any plan — you pay card processing only (2.9% + 30¢ on Basic via Kajabi Payments, slightly lower on higher tiers). Teachable: 7.5% per sale on Starter, 0% on Builder and up when using teachable:pay or their Monthly Payment Gateway.

What about Kajabi’s old 0.7% subscription surcharge?

Older coverage (mine included) cited a 0.7% surcharge on subscription and payment-plan transactions plus 1.5% on international cards. That structure is not what Kajabi’s pricing page lists as of October 2026 — the published fees are no revenue share, card processing via Kajabi Payments, and a surcharge only when you use a third-party processor where Kajabi Payments is available (2% Basic, 1% Growth, 0.5% Pro). Verify current terms at kajabi.com/pricing before modeling subscription revenue.

Can I start on Teachable and move to Kajabi later?

Yes, and it’s a common path. Content and student lists export; funnels, email sequences, and pages get rebuilt. Expect a few weeks of overlap paying for both. My When to Switch Platforms lesson covers the full process — and the signs it’s not worth doing yet.

Which is better for a first course?

Usually Teachable Builder: cheaper per month while you validate, simplest setup, and identical per-sale fees to Kajabi. The exception is a first course at a $500+ price point where brand presentation drives conversion — there Kajabi’s polish can pay for itself immediately. My how to choose lesson maps this by scenario.

Final Thoughts

Kajabi and Teachable aren’t really competitors — they’re different answers to “how much business do you want your platform to run?” Teachable answers “host my course and get out of the way.” Kajabi answers “run the whole thing.” The fee math at $49, $149, and $499 shows the per-sale costs converge the moment you skip Teachable Starter — after that, you’re choosing whether Kajabi’s included stack is worth $74-90/month over Teachable Builder, and your current tool bills answer that question better than any review can.

Run your numbers, then decide once and move on to the part that actually determines your revenue: the course.

Want the full framework — including deep dives on Teachable and Kajabi, plus when to choose something else entirely? My free Pick Your Platform course walks the whole decision in about 30 minutes.