If you're building an online business, you've probably come across both Kajabi and Kartra. Both have tools for selling products and building automations, but they each have a different focus. Kartra is mainly for making funnels and marketing automations, while Kajabi is an all-in-one option for running a coaching or course business.
Here's how to decide which one is right for you.
Throughout this comparison, we're also going to talk about Podia as a third option. Podia is an all-in-one home for your online business where your community is automatically connected to your courses, products, events, website, and email marketing.
If Kajabi or Kartra isn't quite the right fit, it's worth knowing about other options like Podia that can help you build a business you love.
Keep reading to learn:
- How Kajabi and Kartra's pricing compares
- What each tool does well
- Where the gaps are, and how Podia fits into the picture
Online education is projected to be a $199.03 billion market in 2026, and it's still growing. (Statista) There’s never been a better time to share what you know with the world, and the first step is finding the tools to help you do it.
What changed for Kajabi and Kartra in 2025–2026
Kajabi raised its prices in January 2026. The Basic plan moved from $149/month to $179/month, and the contact limit on Basic dropped from 10,000 to 2,500.
Recently, Kartra added a new Essentials plan for $59/mo ($52 annual) with a 5% transaction fee. This plan comes with 5 pages, 1 product, and 1 membership or course.
Kajabi vs. Kartra pricing
Here's a closer look at how Kajabi and Kartra's plans compare today. (Pricing verified July 2026.)
Kajabi has three plans and a 14-day free trial. There are no transaction fees when using Kajabi Payments. If you use a third-party payment processor, you’ll pay a fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, or 0.5% on Pro.
- Basic: $179/month ($143/month billed annually). Includes 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 website, 1 community, 2 admin seats.
- Growth: $249/month ($199/month billed annually). Includes 50 products, 25,000 contacts, 1 website, 1 community, 11 admin seats, affiliate features, and the ability to remove Kajabi branding.
- Pro: $499/month ($399/month billed annually). Unlimited products, 100,000 contacts, 3 websites, 3 communities, 26 admin seats, and a branded mobile app.
Kartra has four plans and a 14-day free trial, after which it defaults to the Starter plan unless you choose otherwise.
- Essentials: $59/month ($52/month billed annually) with a 5% transaction fee. Includes 500 contacts, 10,000 emails a month, 5 pages, 1 product, and 1 membership or course.
- Starter: $119/month ($99/month billed annually) with a 0% transaction fee. Includes 2,500 contacts, unlimited email and SMS, unlimited pages, unlimited products, unlimited memberships and courses, and 5 team members.
- Growth: $229/month ($189/month billed annually) with a 0% transaction fee. Includes 12,500 contacts, webinars, automations, affiliate management, and 10 team members.
- Professional: $549/month with a 0% transaction fee. Includes 25,000 contacts, real-time funnel analytics, and helpdesk live chat.
Only Kartra's entry-level Essentials plan has a transaction fee. Starter and above are all 0%.
Something to note here: Kajabi’s Basic plan limits you to just five products or courses, and Kartra’s Essentials plan comes with only one product and one membership or course. To grow beyond these limits, you’ll need to upgrade to their mid-tier plans for an additional cost.
That’s why some creators might consider an alternative like Podia, which has significantly more room to grow, even on the first tier.
Here's how Podia's pricing compares.
Podia has three plans: Mover, Shaker, and Earthquaker. Every plan includes your community, website, courses, and email marketing. There's a free 30-day trial on every plan, and free migrations are included on all paid plans.
- Mover: $49/month ($42/month billed annually) with a 5% transaction fee. Includes 50 products, storage for 500 videos, 25 community spaces, and email marketing for up to 100 subscribers.
- Shaker: $99/month ($84/month billed annually) with a 0% transaction fee. Includes 150 products, 1,000 videos, 100 community spaces, affiliates, upsells, and email marketing for up to 500 subscribers.
- Earthquaker: $179/month ($150/month billed annually) with a 0% transaction fee. Includes unlimited products, unlimited community spaces, unlimited assistant seats, unlimited video storage, and email marketing for up to 1,000 subscribers.
Podia includes some email subscribers on every plan, and you can add on more at any time as your list grows.
Let's look at the math for all three tools.
Say you’re earning $1,000 a month in sales. Here's what you'd actually pay at the entry-level plan for each tool:
- Podia Mover ($49/month): $49 for the plan plus $50 in transaction fees (5%), so $99 total.
- Kajabi Basic ($179/month): No transaction fee with Kajabi Payments, so $179 total.
- Kartra Essentials ($59/month): $59 for the plan plus $50 in transaction fees (5%), so $109 total.
At this revenue level, Podia Mover is the most affordable option, and it comes with room for 50 products, so you have plenty of space to try out new ideas.
What Kajabi does well
Kajabi is an all-in-one tool with courses, coaching, communities, and email marketing built in. Your products, email sequences, sales pages, and course delivery all connect, and Kajabi also has tools for hosting your podcast and selling paid newsletter subscriptions.
Kajabi's course builder supports self-paced and cohort programs, drip content, and assessments, and you can charge a one-time price, subscription pricing, or offer payment plans. Community is included on every plan too, with one community on Basic and Growth, and the option to make 3 communities on Pro.
You can build funnels, create landing pages, and send marketing emails on every plan, which is helpful if automated sequences are part of how you turn leads into customers. Kajabi has also added AI tools to its lineup, and you can unlock AI credits on the Growth and Pro plans.
The tradeoff is that there are tight product limits on the Basic plan, and Kajabi charges premium pricing across the board.
At their introductory tier, customers pay $179/month for just five products and 2,500 contacts. It’s a steep starting point, and to get more products you’ll need to jump up to Growth (50 products) at $249/month or Pro (unlimited products) at $499/month.
What Kartra does well
Kartra is built around funnels and marketing automations, and the tool is organized to help you build flows that point people to your products. Its funnel mapper lets you plan out a customer's path visually before you build it, and features like automated sequences and lead management are designed to move people towards your paid products.
While it’s possible to make and sell courses on Kartra, the focus is more on delivering gated content than teaching. Every paid plan includes checkouts, forms, and Kartra AI for drafting copy. Starting on Starter, you get unlimited pages, products, memberships, and courses, along with video hosting and calendars.
If you upgrade to Growth, you can also add on webinars, affiliate management, surveys and quizzes, and Professional adds real-time funnel analytics and live chat support.
The catch is that their introductory Essentials plan really limits you in what you can do, so a lot of business owners will need to jump to a mid-tier plan quickly after joining.
Essentials only has one product and one membership or course, and there’s no video hosting built in. You can also only make five pages, which could be limiting as you create a site to talk about your offers.
On top of that, Kartra doesn't have a true community feature. It offers membership sites, which work well for gating courses or paid content, but if you want an actual community space where members can connect, you'll need to integrate a separate tool.
Where both tools leave a gap
Kajabi's Basic plan caps you at five products and 2,500 contacts, which can feel tight if you're just starting to build out your offers. Kartra's Essentials plan is even more limited at just one product, one course or membership, and 500 contacts, plus a 5% transaction fee on top.
Podia takes a different approach by giving you lots of space to grow, even on the introductory plan. The Mover plan gives you 50 products for $49 a month, and your community, website, blog, and email marketing are included for everyone from day one.
To bring people into your business, you can build sales funnels, run email automations, share blog posts, and create free lead magnets.
Your community lives alongside your online courses and digital downloads, and members get a single home feed showing everything they have access to. You can bundle community access with courses, events, coaching, or any other product type, create resource libraries, offer group coaching, and even host in-person meetups and retreats, all from one streamlined dashboard.
As coach and Podia creator Casey Cole Corbin puts it,
“Before Podia, I had a hodgepodge of platforms, apps, and software duct-taped together. It was expensive, clunky, and honestly… it slowed me down. I looked at Kajabi, but it was several times more expensive and packed with features I didn't need. Podia helped me move with speed again. It's become my full-time income.”
What’s the best fit for you?
Kartra makes sense if your business runs on funnels and you want marketing automation, lead management, and funnel mapping all in one place. Just know that the Essentials plan has very limited products, and a lot of features stay locked until Growth.
Kajabi makes sense if you're an established business owner or course creator who wants courses, community, and marketing tools together, and you have the budget to invest in premium infrastructure from the start.
Podia is a great option if you want your courses, community, website, and email connected with lots of space to make different products, and community built in from day one. You can start small and grow into more space without switching tools, and your members will have a great space where they can connect with you and each other.
Start your free trial today to see what you can build.
