10 Best Kajabi Alternatives in 2026

Systeme.io is the reason “Kajabi is too expensive” stopped being an excuse. It’s a genuine all-in-one — courses, email marketing, sales funnels, checkout, even webinars and affiliate management — with a free plan that lets you run a real business (2,000 contacts, 1 course, unlimited emails) before paying a cent. And unlike most “free” tiers, it takes 0% transaction fees at every level, free included. The trade-off is depth: no graded quizzes, no certificates, no student mobile app. But for validating your first course or running a lean info business, nothing touches the value.

If Kajabi’s automation feels like a checklist and you want a scalpel, Kartra is the upgrade. Its behavioral engine stacks conditions most platforms can’t — someone visited this page and watched 70% of this video and didn’t purchase — then fires follow-ups automatically. Courses, memberships, email, funnels, checkout, helpdesk, and calendar all live in one dashboard, and the page builder is genuinely good. It’s the marketer’s all-in-one: more automation depth than Kajabi, at a lower entry price.

Teachable is the path of least resistance out of Kajabi: upload your videos, set your price, and you’re selling — the course-first workflow feels instantly familiar. It handles the unglamorous stuff well too: Teachable Payments calculates and remits international VAT/GST for you (Kajabi doesn’t), and the student experience — progress tracking, quizzes, certificates — is polished. The catch is the Starter plan’s 7.5% transaction fee: it’s cheap until you’re selling, then it quietly becomes the most expensive option here. Most serious creators land on Builder.

Thinkific is the builder’s choice: the most customizable course platform here, with a proper site builder, custom domains, and an app store of integrations that Kajabi’s closed ecosystem can’t match. The fee story is the best in class — 0% transaction fees when you use Thinkific Payments, on every plan including the free one. It raised prices in August 2026 (Basic now $54/mo), so it’s no longer the budget play it once was, but for creators who want their school to look and feel like their brand, it’s the strongest Kajabi alternative on control.

Podia is what Kajabi would feel like if someone removed everything you don’t use. Courses, digital downloads, coaching, webinars, community, and email marketing in one clean dashboard — no plugins, no integrations to wire up, no 40-tab settings maze. It’s the friendliest platform on this list for non-technical creators, and the “sell anything digital” positioning means your courses, ebooks, and memberships live side by side. Just note the Mover plan’s 5% transaction fee, and that Podia removed its free plan — the trial is your only free look now.

ClickFunnels isn’t really a course platform that happens to have funnels — it’s a funnel platform that happens to host courses. If your business model is “webinar → order bump → upsell → downsell,” nothing on this list converts cold traffic like ClickFunnels 2.0’s rebuilt checkout: cleaner order bumps, faster upsell pages, and genuinely automated cart recovery. The course area (“Courses” app) is serviceable but basic — this pick is for sellers whose revenue comes from funnel mechanics, not course polish.

GoHighLevel started as an agency CRM and grew into a legitimate Kajabi alternative by accident — which is exactly why agencies love it. You get pipeline CRM, multi-channel follow-up (email, SMS, voice, WhatsApp), funnel and site builders, membership/course hosting, calendars, and reputation management under one login, and you can white-label the whole thing for clients. The course builder is basic compared to Kajabi’s, but if your real product is client acquisition and fulfillment — with courses as the delivery vehicle — the CRM-first model wins.

Kit (formerly ConvertKit — the rebrand is complete, though half the internet still searches the old name) takes the opposite approach to Kajabi: instead of bolting email onto courses, it bolts courses onto best-in-class email. The free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers — the most generous free tier in email marketing — and paid plans add visual automations, landing pages, and a built-in commerce feature for selling digital products. Pair it with a cheap course host and you replicate Kajabi’s core loop (audience → email → sale) for a fraction of the price. The course features themselves are basic, so think of Kit as the engine, not the vehicle.

ThriveCart is the anti-subscription pick: pay $495 once and own your checkout forever. It’s the highest-converting cart in the creator space — one-click upsells, order bumps, intelligent retry on failed payments — and the Learn module hosts full courses with drip, quizzes, and certificates. The math is brutal for Kajabi: one ThriveCart payment equals less than three months of Kajabi Basic. You give up the all-in-one suite (no email, no funnels, no community), but pair it with Kit’s free plan and a $17/mo Systeme.io account and you’ve rebuilt Kajabi’s stack for under $30/mo after the one-time cart fee.

LearnWorlds wins the category Kajabi barely contests: interactive learning. We’re talking clickable video overlays, in-video quizzes, SCORM compliance for corporate clients, interactive ebooks, and assessments that actually measure something. If you sell to companies, training departments, or anyone who needs proof of learning (not just video views), this is the professional-grade pick. The Starter plan’s $5-per-sale fee is the trap to watch — it evaporates on Pro and up, so price your volume honestly before choosing a tier.