5 Kajabi alternatives in 2026, compared on price, fees and AI access
People leave over the bill, not the product. What each replacement charges, including the ones we would pick over ourselves.
Why people leave Kajabi
- Current monthly plans. Kickstarter $69, Basic $149, Growth $199 and Pro $399.
- Contacts change with the plan. The current limits are 250, 10,000, 25,000 and 100,000 contacts from Kickstarter through Pro.
- 0% applies to Kajabi Payments. On new plans, using Stripe where Kajabi Payments is available adds 5% on Kickstarter, 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth or 0.5% on Pro, plus Stripe's processing fee. PayPal is exempt.
- The agent only drafts. “All write actions through Kajabi MCP land as drafts. You review and publish everything from the Kajabi admin UI” (kajabi.com/product/mcp).
The five, in one table
| Platform | From | Cut of your sales | Metered on | Agent access | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kajabi (yours) | $69 Kickstarter | 0% with Kajabi Payments; Stripe adds 5% to 0.5% on new plans where applicable | Contacts, products | Unlimited | Every plan, drafts only |
| AXL | $49 Starter | 0% | Eight usage meters, same overage rates | Included allowance by plan, then $0.0006 per email | Included on every plan |
| Kartra | $59 | 5% Essentials, then 0% | Contacts, 500 → 25,000 | Unlimited from Starter | No first-party MCP |
| Teachable | $39 | 7.5% Starter, then 0% | Active students | Reported basic | REST API from $189 |
| Thinkific | $54 | 0% on Thinkific Payments; 5% down to 0.5% with your own provider where applicable | Feature tier | No nurture sequences reported | Plus only, read-only, rolling out |
| Skool | $9 | 10% Hobby / 2.9% Pro | Flat | None reported | No public API found |
What each one is good at
AXL: if an agent should run it
CRM, courses, funnels, community, webinars and payments on one record, with ~1,100 operations open to your agent. From $49/month, 0% of revenue on 20+ providers.
The catch: no SCORM, no podcasts, no merchant of record for tax, no case-study library like Kajabi's. AXL vs Kajabi →
Kartra: the closest bundle
Pages, checkout, memberships, unlimited email from Starter, video, affiliates and a helpdesk on one bill. $59 / $119 / $229 / $549; Essentials takes 5% (kartra.com/plans-and-pricing).
The catch: contacts are its meter at 500 / 2,500 / 12,500 / 25,000; that is the trade you are leaving.
Teachable: the smallest budget
A learner app and BackOffice (2% to 2.8%) handling author payouts and international tax, which has no AXL equivalent. $39 / $89 / $189; Starter takes 7.5% (teachable.com/pricing).
The catch: active students capped at 100 / 1,000 / 5,000, and no REST API below $189.
Thinkific: course-first
SCORM on Plus. It is the one thing here AXL cannot do at all. Basic is $54, Start $109, Grow $219 and Expand $499 a month (thinkific.com/pricing, checked 21 August 2026).
The catch: reviewers report no nurture email to non-buyers; API starts on Grow; MCP is Plus only, read-only and still rolling out.
Skool: the cheapest sticker
One feed, a leaderboard, points that unlock content, and Discover putting your group in front of searchers. $9 Hobby at 10% or $99 Pro at 2.9% (skool.com/pricing): $5,000 of sales costs $509 on Hobby.
The catch: no public API, webhooks, email marketing or member tagging found (tools4skool.com).
Your reason for leaving, and where it points
| Leaving because… | Pick |
|---|---|
| The bill rises with your list, not your revenue | AXL: plans from $49, contact overage at $0.002 each and 0% of sales |
| You want the same bundle for less, on a stable list | Kartra Starter |
| You only want to keep selling one course | Teachable Builder, $89 and a 0% fee |
| Your buyers hand you SCORM packages | Thinkific Plus: AXL cannot host SCORM at all |
| A branded learner app is non-negotiable | Stay on Kajabi, or move to Teachable |
| Daily community habit is the actual product | Skool |
Where AXL fits, and where it does not
It fits a business that outgrew a course platform: a list that costs money to hold, graded assessment, webinars, a community, and a CRM under all of it.
It does not fit compliance training, a podcast-led business, or anyone who wants tax and author payouts handled for them.
Moving off Kajabi
- Contacts and fields CSV or XLSX
- Products and prices Carry across
- Pages Cloned from a URL
- Course structure Rebuilt: an agent’s fastest job
- Progress and posts Move nowhere, on any platform
What is the cheapest Kajabi alternative?
By sticker, Skool starts at $9, but its 10% fee makes $5,000 of sales cost $509 before payment processing. AXL Starter is $49 with included usage and 0% of sales. The cheapest sticker and the cheapest month are rarely the same platform.
Try the replacement before you cancel anything.
Import the contacts and rebuild one funnel while the old account still runs. Plans start at $49 a month, with included usage and published overage rates.
Also weighing something else? Teachable alternatives · Thinkific alternatives
Competitor pricing is verified against each vendor's own page. We re-check quarterly. Spot an error? Tell us and we will fix it within a week.