Kajabi Pricing in 2026: True Cost, Fees, and Take-Home
Kajabi pricing starts at $69 per month on the Kickstarter plan (billed annually, or $89 monthly) and climbs to $319 per month on Growth. As of August 2026, the platform charges 0% transaction fees on customer sales, but you still pay Stripe or PayPal's roughly 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction. The real question is not the sticker price, it is what you actually take home after fees and what a comparable stack costs elsewhere.
Kajabi pricing at a glance (August 2026)
Kajabi publishes four public plans, each with meaningful limits on products, contacts, and admin seats. Prices below reflect the annual rate; monthly billing runs roughly 20-25% higher on every tier.
| Plan | Annual price (per month) | Products | Contacts | Admin users | Websites |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kickstarter | $69 | 1 | 250 active | 1 | 1 |
| Basic | $119 | 3 | 10,000 | 1 | 1 |
| Growth | $159 | 15 | 25,000 | 3 | 1 |
| Pro | $319 | 100 | 100,000 | 10 | 3 |
All plans include unlimited courses inside your product allotment, unlimited landing pages, unlimited emails, and Kajabi's marketing automation engine. Numbers verified against the official Kajabi pricing page in August 2026. A 14-day free trial is available on every tier.
The plan structure rewards concentration. If you sell one signature course, Kickstarter is enough. If you run a portfolio, the jump from Basic to Growth is where most creators land, and the jump from Growth to Pro is where the price starts to sting. Portfolio creators pushing toward seven figures should also read The Creator's $1M Year Stack before locking a tier.
The fees Kajabi does not advertise on the pricing page
Kajabi charges 0% platform transaction fees. Kajabi's 0% platform transaction fee is genuinely competitive. But three costs sit outside the plan price and creators routinely miss them until the first invoice.
Payment processing. Every sale runs through Stripe or PayPal, which take approximately 2.9% + $0.30 for domestic US cards per Stripe's published pricing. On a $500 course sale, that is $14.80 per transaction, gone before Kajabi sees it. Stripe and PayPal processing fees are unavoidable on any platform that uses these processors, not a Kajabi-specific charge.
Kajabi Payments (optional). If you use the built-in Kajabi Payments processor instead of your own Stripe account, the rate is comparable to Stripe's standard pricing, published on the Kajabi Payments help documentation. Verify the exact rate at signup because it varies by country and card type.
Add-ons. Extra admin users, additional websites, and higher contact caps require plan upgrades. There is no per-seat add-on, so hiring a second admin on Basic means jumping to Growth for a $40/month increase whether you need the other features or not.
Do the math on take-home revenue
Sticker price hides what actually matters: how much you keep per dollar collected. Here is a $10,000 month on a mid-tier Kajabi plan versus two common alternatives, using published rates as of August 2026.
| Platform | Plan cost / month | Platform fee on $10K | Processor fee (est.) | Take-home | Key limitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kajabi Growth | $159 | $0 (0%) | $320 | $9,521 | 3 admins, 25K contacts, 1 website cap |
| Gumroad | $0 | $1,000 (10%) | ~$50 (bundled) | $8,950 | 10% fee scales linearly with every sale, no email automation or course-hosting depth |
| Zanfia (billed annually) | $63 | $0 (0%) | $320 | $9,617 | Email campaigns still rolling out to workspaces, in-app community behind a per-workspace flag |
On this scenario, Kajabi and Zanfia deliver similar take-home because both charge 0% platform fees. The gap comes from the subscription itself: Kajabi Growth costs $96 per month more than the comparable Zanfia plan. Over a year, that is $1,152 back in your pocket for the same 0% commission model.
Gumroad looks cheap with no monthly fee, but 10% on every sale means you cross the break-even point at roughly $1,600 in monthly revenue. Past that, a paid platform wins. Gumroad is best for the first-time creator testing a single digital product who wants zero fixed cost and does not yet need email automation, a full course-hosting layer, or a native community. Kajabi Growth is best for the established course seller running a small team on one brand. Zanfia is best for the creator who wants 0% commission at a lower subscription cost and prefers voice or chat setup over menu navigation. Creators pricing a smaller catalog can pressure-test the numbers with 10 proven subscription pricing strategies before committing to a tier.
What you get for Kajabi's price
Kajabi's core argument has always been all-in-one: courses, email marketing, landing pages, sales funnels, and community under one login. Kajabi's all-in-one bundle delivers real value if you would otherwise pay for Teachable plus ActiveCampaign plus a page builder plus a community tool. The stack can easily hit $200-$300 per month for a fragmented setup.
Kajabi is best for the established creator running a portfolio of courses who values a mature marketing automation engine, and who is willing to pay for it. Consultants layering productized offers on top of a retainer practice should benchmark against consulting retainer pricing before doubling their monthly software cost. The limitation to state honestly: Kajabi's design and templates feel dated compared to newer platforms, and the learning curve on the automation builder is steep. Plan on a week to get comfortable.
The trade-off is depth in each module. Kajabi's email marketing is competent but not on the level of a dedicated tool like ActiveCampaign. Its funnel builder is solid but simpler than ClickFunnels. Its community feature exists but does not compete with Circle or Skool on engagement mechanics.
For a full comparison of course-first platforms, our Kajabi vs Teachable breakdown covers where each tool wins. If you are weighing course tools against a broader digital-product play, our digital product pricing strategy guide shows how sticker price interacts with product mix. Creators selling ebooks alongside a course should also cross-check ebook pricing strategy to decide which tier the front-end sits on.
Where Kajabi's pricing hurts
Three scenarios where the plan structure works against creators.
You need more admin seats. Kickstarter and Basic cap admins at 1. Adding a second person means jumping to Growth ($159/month) or hiring a virtual assistant with your login credentials, which most creators do and none should. If you run a team, budget for Growth minimum.
You want to test a second brand. Kajabi allows only one website on plans below Pro. Launching a second product line under a different domain requires the $319/month Pro tier or a separate Kajabi account. This is best for the creator with one clear brand who plans to stay focused. It is a wall for anyone running multiple ventures. If your second brand is a coaching arm, our group coaching pricing guide covers how to set tiers that fund the extra platform cost, and how to price a mentorship program handles the 1:1 track. Creators moving into template sales should also compare their unit economics against selling Notion templates in 2026.
Your contact list grows faster than your revenue. Basic caps contacts at 10,000. A free lead magnet that converts well can burn through that cap in months without meaningful revenue attached. The next tier up is a 33% price increase for headroom you may not use. Creators who feel this squeeze often reach for 10 pricing psychology strategies to lift average order value before adding seats. Consultants can bypass the seat math entirely by switching to outcome-based pricing for consultants and charging per result rather than per user.
Alternatives worth comparing
Kajabi is not the only all-in-one platform, and the market has shifted meaningfully since 2024. Two categories worth weighing.
Newer all-in-one platforms. Zanfia is an AI team that runs the creator business, not another course builder. The Starter plan is $31 per month billed annually (versus Kajabi Kickstarter at $69), with 0% platform fees and 12 product types under one brand. The AI assistant handles configuration by voice or chat, so setting up a checkout, a workflow, or a landing page is dictation rather than menu navigation. Zanfia is best for the creator who wants the all-in-one benefits without paying legacy pricing. The limitation to state honestly: email campaigns are rolling out to workspaces (by the time you read this it may be live on your account, so check the current Zanfia pricing), and communities inside the mobile app are behind a per-workspace flag today.
Specialized tools stitched together. Teachable ($59/month) for courses, ConvertKit or Kit ($29/month) for email, and Circle ($89/month) for community adds up to $177/month, roughly the same as Kajabi Growth. You gain depth in each tool and lose the single-login convenience. This is best for the creator who has a clear reason to want the best-in-class tool in one specific category. If the site itself is the bottleneck rather than the course tool, our Squarespace vs Wix pricing breakdown covers the website layer of that stitched stack.
The bottom line on Kajabi pricing
Kajabi's plans are honestly priced for what they deliver: a mature, comprehensive platform with 0% commission and no hidden fees beyond standard payment processing. The problem is not that Kajabi is expensive, it is that the market caught up. Platforms that did not exist three years ago now offer the same 0% commission structure at half the subscription price, plus capabilities Kajabi is still building (native AI, voice-first configuration, MCP endpoints for agent access).
If you are already deep in Kajabi and it works, the switching cost is real and worth weighing. If you are choosing today, run the math on your expected first year: subscription cost plus processor fees plus any tools you still need on top. Whichever platform leaves you with more take-home revenue at your realistic run rate is the right answer. For most creators comparing today, that is not automatically Kajabi anymore.
FAQ
How much do payment processing fees actually reduce my Kajabi take-home?
Stripe and PayPal charge roughly 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction in the US, which Kajabi does not control. On a $500 course sale, that comes to $14.80 gone before Kajabi sees a cent. On a $10,000 month, processor fees run about $320 regardless of which Kajabi tier you are on.
At what revenue level does Gumroad stop being cheaper than a paid Kajabi plan?
Gumroad has no monthly fee but takes 10% of every sale, so it beats a paid subscription only until roughly $1,600 in monthly revenue. Past that point, Kajabi Growth at $159 per month plus 0% platform fees leaves more in your pocket. Gumroad remains the better fit only for first-time creators testing a single product with zero fixed cost.
Why does adding one more team member force a jump from Basic to Growth?
Kajabi Kickstarter and Basic both cap admin seats at 1, and there is no per-seat add-on to buy independently. Adding a second admin requires upgrading to Growth at $159 per month, a $40 increase whether you need the other Growth features or not. Creators who need a team member should budget for Growth from day one.
When does the Pro plan at $319 per month actually become necessary?
Pro is the only plan that lifts the one-website cap, so you need it to run a second brand on a separate domain inside a single Kajabi account. It also raises admin seats to 10 and contacts to 100,000. If you have one focused brand and a small team, Growth handles it and Pro is overkill.
How does Kajabi's total cost compare to stitching together Teachable, Kit, and Circle?
Teachable at $59 per month, Kit at $29, and Circle at $89 add up to $177 per month, close to Kajabi Growth at $159. You gain best-in-class depth in each category and lose the single-login convenience of an all-in-one. The stitched stack makes sense only when one specific tool clearly outperforms Kajabi's version of it for your workflow.