The 12 Best Kajabi Alternatives for Fitness Coaches, Compared

The best Kajabi alternatives for fitness coaches are the tools that do what Kajabi was never built to do: deliver a training block, record the sets a client actually lifted, collect a Sunday check-in with photos and weight, and book the next form review, all without a second login. Kajabi is strong at selling courses, memberships and funnels. It has no workout logging, no habit tracking and no daily client check-ins, so most trainers on Kajabi end up paying for a separate training app on top. The real question is whether you want one platform for the whole client journey or a cheaper pair of tools stitched together.

Our pick is Coachful, because it pairs the Kajabi side of the business (website, funnels, email, courses, community) with a fitness and nutrition toolkit, booking and payments under one login and one branded client app. We make Coachful, so weigh that, and check every claim below against what each vendor documents. Eleven other tools follow, each ranked by the specific situation it wins for a trainer, with honest notes on where each one beats us.

What do fitness coaches actually need from a Kajabi alternative?

Fitness coaches need a place to deliver training and nutrition between sessions, not just a place to host videos. Kajabi treats coaching as products and communities, which suits a recorded 8-week program, but it stops at the point where a client opens the app on Monday morning and asks "what am I lifting today?"

Here is the day-to-day work a trainer's software has to carry:

• Programming. Multi-week blocks with supersets, circuits, AMRAP, EMOM, intervals and tempo prescriptions, plus a way for the client to log weights and reps so you see set history and personal records.
• Nutrition. Calorie and macro targets, meal plans or recipes, and a food log the client will actually use.
• Weekly check-ins. Bodyweight, measurements, progress photos kept private, adherence and a short reflection, reviewed in one place.
• Form review. A private video upload you can comment on at the exact moment the knee caves.
• Booking and payments. Consult calls, monthly check-in calls, recurring subscriptions or 12-week payment plans.
• Marketing. A site, a lead magnet (a free 4-week plan, a macro calculator guide), email follow-up and a checkout. This is the part Kajabi does well.
• Group work. Challenges, cohorts and a community feed for accountability.

Kajabi's pricing makes the gap expensive. As listed in October 2026, Basic is $179 a month ($143 a month billed annually) with 5 products, 2,500 contacts, one community and 0 AI credits. Growth is $249 ($199 annually) and Pro is $499 ($399 annually); the branded mobile app is a Pro feature in the plan comparison table. If you use a payment processor other than Kajabi Payments or PayPal, Kajabi adds a fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth or 0.5% on Pro on top of the processor's own rate. Kajabi offers a 14-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, and its Trustpilot score was 3.4 from 2,347 reviews when we checked.

One scope note before the tools. Fitness coaching is not medical treatment. Use intake questions to screen new clients, and refer to a physician or physical therapist for pain, injury, chest symptoms, pregnancy complications or a diagnosed condition, and to a registered dietitian for medical nutrition therapy or any sign of disordered eating. None of the tools below make you a clinician, and none of the general-purpose ones are built for clinical records. If you are still sorting out your title and scope, our guides on fitness coach vs personal trainer and certification for fitness coaches cover it.

Which Kajabi alternative fits your fitness business? Quick picks

Ranking criteria: one login for the whole client journey, delivery between sessions (workouts, nutrition, check-ins), total monthly stack cost at your client count, and setup effort, including whether someone will build it for you.

The other five (HubFit, My PT Hub, TrueCoach, Podia and Thinkific) each win a narrower case, covered in their sections below. For a wider view of training apps alone, see our best fitness coaching software roundup; for Kajabi alternatives across every coaching niche, see the parent guide to Kajabi alternatives for coaches.

How did we choose and rank these 12 tools?

We started from what a trainer on Kajabi is actually paying for, then asked what replaces it and what fills the training gap. Every tool here either covers the training side (workouts, logging, check-ins), the Kajabi side (courses, community, funnels, email), or both.

1. One login for the client journey. Can a lead go from a free plan opt-in to a paid program, a booked call, a signed agreement, weekly check-ins and renewal without leaving one system?
2. Between-session delivery. Workout builder, client logging, nutrition targets, progress photos, habits and check-ins count most, because that is where online training results happen.
3. Total stack cost. We priced each tool at 5, 15 and 40 clients from its pricing page as listed in October 2026, including add-ons and platform fees where they are published.
4. Setup effort. Rebuilding a Kajabi site, funnel and course library takes weeks. A done-for-you build counts in a tool's favour.
5. Limits that bite fitness coaches. Client caps, contact caps, add-ons for payments or scheduling, and per-sale fees.

We have not run these platforms with our own clients. Feature claims come from vendor pricing pages and documentation, and ratings come from Trustpilot as seen on October 25, 2026. Notes marked as from an older profile were checked in September 2026.

1. Coachful: best overall for fitness coaches leaving Kajabi

Coachful wins when you want to cancel Kajabi and your training app at the same time and keep everything a client touches in one place. It is a coaching platform where one subscription covers booking, payments, contracts, program delivery with habits and check-ins, courses, a community, a website with funnels and email, and an AI assistant. The coach gets one login, and the client gets one app carrying the coach's branding.

The training side. The Fitness & Nutrition pack, included in your Coachful membership, adds a workout builder with an exercise library of illustrated exercises and support for supersets, circuits, AMRAP, EMOM, intervals and tempo. Clients log their workouts, and you see set history and PRs. Nutrition targets go down to calories and macros, with meal plans, recipes, food lookup and barcode scanning. Progress photos and measurements stay private, weekly check-ins arrive on a schedule, and clients can upload a private form-check video that you answer with timestamped comments. Challenges handle the 30-day push your audience responds to. One honest gap: the library is illustrated, not filmed, so you attach your own demo videos. There is no stock exercise footage. More detail lives on the Fitness & Nutrition page.

The program engine. Multi-week programs carry weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals with progress bars and streaks. A 12-week fat-loss block can mix workouts, a step-count habit, a daily water target and a Sunday check-in, and each client sees only their current week. Cohort groups are created automatically when someone enrolls in a group program, so a challenge cohort gets its own space without manual setup.

The Kajabi side. Courses come with modules, lessons, drip and completion tracking, and you can sell downloads, videos, books, events and bundles. The section-based website builder has a blog, custom domain, SEO settings and 30 designed homepage templates, plus an Import website option. Booking, application, lead-magnet and checkout funnels support pixels and UTM tracking, and a link-in-bio page can sell directly. Email lists, broadcasts and multi-step sequences run with triggers, delays, branching and A/B splits. The community has a feed, group chat, direct messages and video events.

Booking and money. Booking pages handle availability rules, buffers, minimum notice and time-zone detection, with two-way Google, Apple/iCloud and Outlook calendar sync and built-in video or auto-created Zoom, Meet or Teams links. Reminders go by email, and by SMS (24 hours before) and WhatsApp (1 hour before) once messaging is enabled. Payments run through your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account: one-time, subscriptions, payment plans, order bumps, coupons, refunds, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Stripe Tax. Since August 2026 there is a 0% Coachful platform fee, so you pay only Stripe or Razorpay processing. Coaching agreements with e-signature go out before the first call and stay on the client record.

Seeing who is slipping. Each client record holds goals, check-ins, habits, notes, intake answers, tags, payments and sessions, with a status of thriving, active, quiet or at risk. Michelle, the built-in AI assistant, works from that live data: it can brief you before a check-in call, draft a re-engagement email to a quiet client, summarize recorded sessions and build a program outline. Questions and planning are included in the membership; confirmed builds and changes use AI credits. You can also configure an AI Coach, an AI version of you that selected clients can chat with between sessions.

This short walkthrough shows how programs are built and delivered inside Coachful:

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. From Create, choose "We'll build it for you · FREE" and describe what you want: a website, a lead-magnet funnel for your free 4-week plan, a sales page for a 12-week transformation, a program, a course outline, an email sequence or a link-in-bio page. You can attach up to 8 reference links (your old Kajabi pages work well) and up to 10 files such as logos, photos, brand guides and existing copy. The Coachful team builds it inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours. Nothing is invented: no fake credentials, testimonials or prices, and gaps are left for you to fill. It does not cover filming your exercise demos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing. A somatic coach leaving Kajabi, for example, had the homepage and About page rebuilt and the contact form connected. Clients, programs and content are also imported for you during onboarding. More on how it works in our white-glove service guide.

What Coachful does not do. There is no Garmin, Fitbit, Whoop or Oura sync, and Apple Health sync is not publicly available, so clients enter steps or sleep themselves. There is no PayPal and no permanent free plan. The client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding, not under your own App Store account. It is not HIPAA-certified, so it is not the place for clinical records. The affiliate program tracks links, clicks, conversions and revenue, but payouts are recorded manually.

Price. Plans are flat and monthly; lower plans cap the number of clients, Pro is unlimited, team plans (Studio and Agency) add coach seats, and monthly plans cancel in one click. Current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients. A free trial is available. Coachful is based in Tallinn, Estonia, and holds a Trustpilot score of 4.5 from 21 reviews. Fitness-specific details are on the Coachful for fitness coaches page, and a direct feature comparison is on Coachful vs Kajabi.

Who should look elsewhere: coaches whose clients live in Garmin or Whoop data, coaches who must take PayPal, and studios that need their own App Store listing.

2. ABC Trainerize: the established training app for seat-priced growth

ABC Trainerize is the pick for a trainer who mainly needs a mature workout app and is happy to keep Kajabi, or a cheaper marketing tool, for the selling side. It covers workouts, habits, nutrition tracking and client messaging, and prices by the number of clients you coach.

As listed in October 2026, Basic is free for 1 client, Grow is $10 a month ($9 annually) for 2 clients, and Pro starts at $25 a month ($23 annually) for 5 clients, with further Pro tiers at 15, 30, 50, 75, 100 and 200 clients. We did not capture the prices of those larger tiers, so check the 15 and 40 client figures on the vendor's page before you budget. Studio Plus starts at $275 a month ($248 annually) for 500 or more clients and multi-location gyms, through sales.

The free trial runs 30 days with unlimited clients and no card, then reverts to the free 1-client plan with no charge. Add-ons are not included in the trial, which matters, because below Studio the pricing page lists scheduling, selling products, payments, video and advanced nutrition as separate paid add-ons. In-app payments need the Stripe Integrated Payments add-on, according to our older profile.

For someone coming from Kajabi, the gap is everything on the marketing side. There is no course builder, website, funnel builder or email marketing, so your free plan opt-in, nurture emails and sales page still need a home. Our September profile also noted that client data export is incomplete, leaving out messages, photos and attachments, which is worth testing during the trial if you ever plan to move again. Trustpilot showed 3.1 from 100 reviews.

The practical result is a two-tool stack: Trainerize plus add-ons for training, and Kajabi or a cheaper funnel tool for marketing. That can still work well if your programming is complex and you want a widely used client app.

Pick it over Coachful if your clients expect a long-established training app, you are only replacing the delivery side of Kajabi, and you would rather pay per client seat plus add-ons than a flat plan.

3. Everfit: start online training at zero cost

For the trainer moving their first five clients online, Everfit's free Starter plan is hard to argue with. It is a fitness coaching app covering workouts, habits, nutrition and messaging, and it charges by client count once you grow.

Starter is free forever for up to 5 clients. Pro starts at $19 a month ($16 annually) for 5 clients and scales: $29 ($24) for 10, $49 ($41) for 20, $95 ($79) for 50, $140 ($117) for 100 and $290 ($242) for 300. Studio begins at $105 a month ($88 annually) for 50 clients and reaches $430 ($358) at 500; Enterprise covers 500 or more. Those are the figures as listed in October 2026. A 30-day free trial with no contract and no card is offered.

The catch is the add-on list. Automation (Everfit calls it Autoflow), payments and meal plans are paid add-ons, so the headline price is rarely the final price once you want to take money in the app and send meal plans. Everfit also has no course builder, website, funnels or email marketing. A trainer leaving Kajabi keeps the same problem as with Trainerize: training lives in one app and selling lives somewhere else.

Trustpilot showed 2.7 from 16 reviews, a small sample, so read individual reviews rather than leaning on the score.

Where Everfit shines is cash flow at the start. A trainer with three in-person clients who wants to test online programming can do it for nothing, and the price only rises with revenue. Pair it with a free funnel tool and the early stack costs almost nothing, at the expense of two logins for you and a separate checkout for clients.

Pick it over Coachful if you coach five or fewer clients, want to spend nothing on software for now, and are content to sell through a separate tool until you grow.

4. PT Distinction: a branded app without Kajabi Pro money

On Kajabi, the branded mobile app sits on the $499 Pro plan. PT Distinction includes a custom-branded client app from its $59.90 Pro plan, which is the scenario it wins: a trainer who wants their own branded app experience on a modest budget.

As listed in October 2026, Basic is $19.90 a month with 3 clients included; extra clients are free for one month, then $6.00 each per month. Pro is $59.90 with 25 clients included and $2.40 per extra client. Master is $89.90 with 50 included and $1.60 per extra client. No annual pricing was shown. A one-month free trial applies, with the line "Cancel at any time in your first month and pay nothing."

The feature set is aimed squarely at online personal training: programs, nutrition, check-ins, automations and a client app. That is a fair replacement for the delivery half of your business. The pricing page does not show a course builder, community or website and funnel builder, so your Kajabi course library and sales pages need another home.

The overage model rewards some planning. At 15 clients, Basic would cost $19.90 plus 12 extra clients at $6, or $91.90, so Pro at $59.90 is the cheaper route. At 40 clients, Pro plus 15 extras comes to $95.90, slightly more than Master at $89.90. Run that arithmetic before choosing a plan.

PT Distinction showed 4.8 on Trustpilot from 297 reviews, a strong score from a meaningful number of reviewers.

Pick it over Coachful if a branded client app is your top priority, your selling already happens elsewhere, and you want automations designed specifically around training check-ins.

5. HubFit: a flat price for up to 50 clients

HubFit fits the trainer with a growing roster who wants a training app price that does not move between 5 and 50 clients. Its programs, nutrition, habits and check-ins cover the core of online training.

Standard is $39 a month ($33 annually) for up to 50 clients. Premium is $69 ($57) for up to 100, and Ultimate is $119 ($99) for 100, rising to $209 ($174) for 200, $289 ($241) for 300, $359 ($299) for 400 and $419 ($349) for 500, with 1,000 or more through sales. All of that is as listed in October 2026. Every plan has a 14-day free trial, and HubFit is free for clients.

Read the plan split closely. Branding and payments start at Premium, not Standard, so a trainer who wants to charge inside the app is really on a $69 plan. Team members and Zapier start at Ultimate, and a branded app is a $189 a month add-on. Our September profile listed no scheduling or booking, no video calls, no contracts and no website, so consult calls, agreements and your sales page all sit outside HubFit.

Compared with Kajabi, HubFit replaces nothing on the marketing side and adds everything on the training side. Trustpilot showed 5 from 390 reviews, the highest score in this list.

A typical pairing is HubFit Premium for training and payments, a booking tool for consults, and Kajabi or a lighter funnel tool for lead capture. That keeps training costs low and predictable, but it leaves you managing three logins and three places where client data lives.

Pick it over Coachful if your clients are almost all app-only training clients, you rarely book calls, and you want the same training price from client 6 to client 50.

6. My PT Hub: unlimited clients and built-in bookings

My PT Hub suits the hybrid trainer who still runs in-person sessions alongside online clients, because bookings come built in next to workouts, nutrition, payments, habits and check-ins. It is personal-trainer software through and through.

As listed in October 2026, Starter is $25 a month ($22.50 annually) for 3 clients, 50 workouts and 50 nutrition plans; a My PT Hub blog post says 5 clients, so confirm on signup. Premium is $59 ($52 annually) for unlimited clients, workouts and nutrition plans. Ultimate is $215 ($195 annually) for unlimited clients with 5 additional trainers included. The pricing page screenshot shows euro figures, so expect local currency at checkout. A free plan exists, and the 30-day trial needs no card details and downgrades to the free plan at the end. Payments run through Stripe.

Unlimited clients on Premium make My PT Hub one of the cheapest options here once you pass 20 clients. The limits sit elsewhere: a white-label app store listing is a paid add-on below Ultimate, and the pricing page shows no course builder, website, funnels or email marketing. A trainer leaving Kajabi keeps a separate tool for their sales page, opt-in and course library.

Trustpilot showed 4.4 from 2,557 reviews, the largest review base among the training apps here.

The Ultimate plan is worth a look for a small gym or a coach hiring two or three trainers, since it bundles seats that other apps charge for separately.

Pick it over Coachful if you run a busy in-person schedule alongside online clients, want unlimited clients at one price, and already have a marketing tool you like.

7. TrueCoach: when the programming is the whole job

Strength coaches who write detailed programming and want little else tend to like TrueCoach. It is a strength and fitness programming app priced by active-client cap, and the narrow focus is the point.

The prices we captured in October 2026 are annual-billed monthly rates: Starter $26.34 for up to 5 active clients, Standard $57.99 for up to 20 and Pro $136.99 for up to 50. Custom covers larger rosters (the page says 50 plus, the FAQ says 250 plus). We did not capture monthly-billed prices. There is a 14-day free trial with no card, and first-time annual subscribers get an unconditional 90-day money-back guarantee, with "restrictions apply" noted.

Payments are automated through Stripe with no extra TrueCoach fee per the FAQ. Our September profile noted that in-app payments work only for coaches banking in the US, UK, Canada and Australia, which rules it out for many coaches elsewhere. The same profile listed no video calls, contracts, courses, community or website, and scheduling did not appear on the pricing page feature list.

That makes TrueCoach the opposite of Kajabi. Kajabi has the course, community and funnel side and no programming; TrueCoach has programming and none of the rest. Replacing Kajabi with TrueCoach alone would leave your marketing without a home.

Trustpilot showed 2.4 from 19 reviews, a thin sample.

The jump from 20 to 50 clients is steep, from $57.99 to $136.99 a month annually, so a coach at 21 clients pays more than twice as much as one at 20. Plan your roster around that step.

Pick it over Coachful if you coach athletes on detailed strength programming, bank in one of the four supported countries, and want a programming tool with nothing else in the way.

8. Systeme.io: the cheapest swap for Kajabi's marketing half

If you like your training app and only resent paying $179 a month for Kajabi's funnels, email and courses, Systeme.io is the budget answer. It is a low-cost all-in-one marketing suite with funnels, email, courses, community, a blog and an affiliate program.

The free plan, as listed in October 2026, includes 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course, 500 students, 1 blog, 1 affiliate program, 1 custom domain, 1 automation rule and 1 email campaign, with no card required. Startup is $17 a month (5,000 contacts, 10 funnels, 5 courses), Webinar is $47 (10,000 contacts, 50 funnels, 20 courses) and Unlimited is $97. Every plan charges 0% transaction fees; you pay only Stripe or PayPal processing.

For a trainer, the free plan alone covers a lead-magnet funnel for a free 4-week program, a short nurture sequence and a single paid course. That is most of what many coaches used Kajabi Basic for, and it compares well with Kajabi's 2,500-contact cap.

The limits are on the coaching side. Our September profile found no native 1:1 scheduling with client records, no habits and no check-ins, and described the community and course features as basic with no branded mobile app. You still need a training app, a booking tool and somewhere to keep client notes.

Trustpilot showed 4.9 from 8,696 reviews.

The common pattern is Systeme.io for acquisition and a training app such as Everfit or PT Distinction for delivery. Clients buy in one system and train in another, so expect some manual work moving each new buyer into the training app.

Pick it over Coachful if you are committed to a separate training app, want the lowest possible cost for funnels and email, and are fine linking the two by hand or with automation.

9. Stan Store: selling from your bio

Fitness coaches who sell mostly from Instagram, TikTok or YouTube often want a storefront more than a website. Stan Store is a link-in-bio storefront for digital products, courses, memberships and paid calls, and it is built for exactly that traffic.

Creator is $29 a month ($25 annually) and Creator Pro is $99 ($79 annually), both with unlimited products and customers, as listed in October 2026. A 14-day free trial applies to either plan, and the first month is charged when it ends, per the help center. Stan charges 0% on sales; Stripe or PayPal processing still applies.

The split between plans matters for coaches. Email marketing, upsells, discount codes and affiliates are only on Creator Pro, so a trainer who wants to email their buyers or add a meal-plan order bump is really on the $99 plan. No team seats are advertised.

What Stan does not do is coaching delivery. There are no contracts, invoices or client records, and no programs with client tasks, habits or check-ins. A client who buys your 12-week plan through Stan receives a product, not a program that tracks what they lift. Most trainers pair it with a training app, which brings back the two-login problem Kajabi users already know.

Trustpilot showed 4.7 from 2,205 reviews.

Stan works best as the front door for low-ticket products: a $29 workout guide, a recipe ebook or a paid 30-minute form review. For higher-ticket ongoing coaching, a platform with client records and check-ins does more of the work. Our guide to getting online fitness coaching clients covers how bio traffic turns into paying clients.

Pick it over Coachful if nearly all your sales come from social bios, you sell mostly low-ticket digital products, and you do not need client tracking.

10. Skool: a gamified challenge community

Running a 6-week challenge or a low-cost monthly group? Skool's leaderboards and simple group structure suit a fitness community where members earn points for posting workouts. It puts community, classroom and calendar in one group.

As listed in October 2026, Hobby is $9 a month ($7.50 annually) and Pro is $99 ($82.50 annually), both with unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls. The fees are the real cost: Hobby takes 10% + 30¢ on every transaction, and Pro charges 2.9% + 30¢ up to $899 and 3.9% + 30¢ above $900. Fees are non-refundable, and payouts arrive weekly on Wednesdays in local currency. Payments run only through Skool Payments, so you cannot bring your own Stripe account. The pricing page shows "Try for free" buttons but did not state a trial length when we checked.

For a $49 a month challenge group with 100 members, Hobby's 10% fee would take about $490 a month plus 30¢ per payment, so Pro is cheaper at almost any real volume. That is an example calculation, not a forecast.

Skool deliberately leaves out a lot. There is no custom-domain website, no funnels, no email automation and no public API. There are no 1:1 client records, intake forms, habits or check-ins. It is a community tool, not a coaching back office.

Trustpilot showed 1.6 from 54 reviews.

Compared with Kajabi's community, Skool is simpler and much cheaper as a monthly fee, but it cannot replace Kajabi's website, funnels or email. Our community platform overview explains what a coaching community needs beyond a feed.

Pick it over Coachful if your business is mainly a large, low-ticket group community, gamified leaderboards are central to your offer, and you do not need 1:1 coaching tools.

11. Podia: a simpler Kajabi for a small product catalogue

Some trainers love Kajabi's model (sell courses, downloads and a community) and simply want it cheaper. Podia is that kind of simple storefront, covering courses, downloads, webinars, coaching sessions and community.

Mover is $49 a month ($42 annually) with 50 products, 500 videos, 25 community spaces and 100 email subscribers included, and it carries a 5% Podia transaction fee. Shaker is $99 ($84) with 150 products, 1,000 videos, 100 spaces, 500 email subscribers, 1 assistant and 0% fees. Earthquaker is $179 ($150) with unlimited products, videos, spaces and assistants and 1,000 email subscribers. Those figures are as listed in October 2026. Stripe or PayPal processing applies on top, and the 14-day trial needs no card or plan choice.

The email allowance is the limit a fitness coach will hit first. Kajabi Basic includes 2,500 contacts; Podia's Shaker plan includes 500 email subscribers. A lead magnet that works will outgrow that quickly.

On the training side, Podia has no client habits, check-ins or per-client plans, and our September profile noted no mobile app and no native video calls. You can sell a coaching session, but delivery of workouts and check-ins still needs a training app.

Trustpilot showed 4.1 from 153 reviews.

Podia makes most sense for a trainer whose income is mainly recorded programs and ebooks rather than ongoing coaching. If that describes you, our breakdown of Kajabi vs Podia goes deeper.

Pick it over Coachful if you sell a small catalogue of recorded programs and downloads, have a small email list, and do not deliver individual training plans.

12. Thinkific: a dedicated course school

The last pick is for the trainer whose business is turning into education, such as a certification-style course for other trainers or a large on-demand program library. Thinkific is a course platform with communities, memberships and coaching or webinar products.

Start is $109 a month ($82 annually) with 10,000 current students, 2 admins, 1 community with 10 spaces, 5 live community events and 200 GB a month of video bandwidth. Grow is $219 ($164) and Expand is $499 ($374), with more admins, communities and bandwidth. Plus is custom. Those prices are as listed in October 2026, after a rise of about 10% on August 13, 2026. A 30-day free trial covers every self-serve plan.

Thinkific charges no transaction fee when you use Thinkific Payments, at a rate it describes as in line with other processors at 2.9%. Using a third-party Stripe or PayPal gateway adds a gateway fee whose amount was not listed. The branded mobile app is a $199 a month add-on.

For fitness coaching specifically, Thinkific has the same gap as Kajabi. Our September profile found no built-in 1:1 scheduling, and there are no client habits, daily check-ins or per-client plans. Swapping Kajabi for Thinkific moves your courses but leaves the training app in place.

Trustpilot showed 1.8 from 868 reviews. For a wider look at the category, see our Thinkific alternatives for coaches guide.

Pick it over Coachful if you are building a large course business, such as education for other fitness professionals, where courses matter far more than individual client training.

How do the 12 tools compare feature by feature?

The matrix below shows which tools cover the training side, which cover the Kajabi side, and which cover both. "Not listed" means the feature did not appear in the vendor's pricing page or our notes, not that it is confirmed missing.

What does each tool cost at 5, 15 and 40 clients?

Client count drives cost for the training apps, while Kajabi and the marketing tools price by contacts or products. These are the listed monthly prices in October 2026 before payment processing.

The cheapest training app is not the cheapest business. Add the marketing tool you need, the add-ons for payments and booking, and the hours spent copying each buyer between systems. If you price your coaching in tiers, our guide to app-only and live-call pricing shows how software cost fits into each tier.

What do three real-world stacks cost per month?

These three example stacks assume a trainer with 15 online clients, a free lead magnet, an email sequence, monthly check-in calls and one recorded program. Prices are as listed in October 2026, monthly billing where available, before payment processing.

The budget split is genuinely cheap, but a client meets three systems: Stan for the call, Systeme.io for the course, Everfit for training. The Kajabi pairing keeps your existing marketing but costs the most and still splits the client experience in two. The single-platform route removes the copying between systems, which is where most trainers lose time each week.

How does a fitness coach set this up in Coachful, step by step?

Here is how a trainer moving from Kajabi plus a training app would set up Coachful, using a 12-week strength and fat-loss program as the example.

1. Request the build. Open Create, choose "We'll build it for you · FREE" and ask for your website and a lead-magnet funnel. Attach links to your current Kajabi pages, your logo and photos from your sessions. Gaps such as testimonials or prices are left for you.
2. Move your clients and content. During onboarding, Coachful imports your clients, programs and content for you. Export your contacts and sales from Kajabi as CSV first, and download course assets before you cancel; in September 2026 Kajabi's documentation said account data is removed 90 days after cancellation.
3. Build the 12-week program. Start from one of the 40-plus program templates or ask Michelle to draft an outline. Add weekly goals, workouts from the illustrated exercise library with your own demo videos attached, a daily step habit and a Sunday check-in with weight, measurements and private progress photos.
4. Set nutrition targets. Add calorie and macro targets per client, attach a meal plan or recipes, and let clients use food lookup and barcode scanning.
5. Configure booking. Create a free 20-minute consult and a monthly check-in call, connect Google, Apple or Outlook calendars, set buffers and minimum notice, and add intake questions that screen for injuries and medical conditions.
6. Connect payments and agreements. Connect your Stripe account, set up the program as a subscription or a three-part payment plan, add a meal-plan order bump if you want one, and attach a coaching agreement that clients sign before the first call.
7. Launch the funnel and email. Point your free 4-week plan opt-in at a five-email sequence that ends with a consult invitation, and add a link-in-bio page for Instagram.
8. Run the week. Each Monday, check the client list for anyone marked quiet or at risk, review form-check videos with timestamped comments, and ask Michelle to brief you before each check-in call.

The Kajabi alternative page covers the move in more detail, and our guide to running memberships without Kajabi helps if you sell monthly access.

What mistakes do fitness coaches make when leaving Kajabi?

• Comparing headline prices only. A $19 training app with paid add-ons for payments, meal plans and scheduling, plus a funnel tool, can cost more than one platform. Price the full stack at your real client count.
• Forgetting the client-count step. Several training apps jump in price at 20 or 50 clients. Check where your roster will be in six months.
• Cancelling Kajabi before exporting. Pull contacts, subscriptions, sales and members as CSV, and download course videos one by one before the account closes.
• Breaking live subscriptions. Clients paying monthly through Kajabi Payments need a plan to move. Announce the switch, give a date and send a new checkout link rather than letting payments fail silently.
• Assuming wearable data will flow in. Many trainers expect Garmin or Apple Health sync. Check this per tool; Coachful, for one, does not offer it.
• Skipping health screening. A new platform is a good moment to add intake questions on injuries, medications and medical clearance, and a clear note on when you refer out.

Which Kajabi alternative should a fitness coach choose?

Choose Coachful if you want to replace Kajabi and your training app with one platform, one client login and a flat price, and if you would like the website and funnels rebuilt for you. Choose a dedicated training app (Trainerize, Everfit, PT Distinction, HubFit, My PT Hub or TrueCoach) only if you are keeping a separate marketing tool on purpose. Choose Systeme.io, Stan Store, Skool, Podia or Thinkific only if you are replacing Kajabi's marketing or course side and your training already lives elsewhere.

Coachful is for fitness coaches who deliver programs, not just sessions, and who are tired of paying for four or five tools. It does not sync wearables, take PayPal or publish under your own App Store account. To start, open a free trial and request the free white-glove build for your site and funnel. Other niches are covered too, for example Kajabi alternatives for health coaches.

Frequently asked questions

Is Kajabi good for fitness coaches?

Kajabi is good for selling recorded programs, memberships and communities, and its funnels and email are capable. It has no workout logging, habit tracking or daily client check-ins, so most trainers on Kajabi also pay for a separate training app. Basic was listed at $179 a month in October 2026.

What is the cheapest Kajabi alternative for a personal trainer?

Systeme.io's free plan replaces Kajabi's funnels, email and one course at no monthly cost, and Everfit's Starter plan covers training for up to 5 clients for free. Together they cost nothing at the start, but you run two systems and still need booking and payments set up separately.

Can Coachful replace both Kajabi and Trainerize?

For most online trainers, yes. Coachful covers the website, funnels, email, courses and community that Kajabi provides, and the Fitness & Nutrition pack adds workouts with logging, nutrition targets, check-ins, progress photos and form-check video. It does not sync wearables or include stock exercise videos, so you attach your own demos.

What is Coachful's free white-glove service?

From Create, you can ask the Coachful team to build a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline, email sequence and more inside your account, at no charge on every plan. You attach up to 8 reference links and 10 files, and builds usually arrive within about 24 hours. It does not include filming videos, logo design or ad management.

Do I need a branded mobile app for online fitness coaching?

Not necessarily. Clients mostly care that the app is easy to log a workout in. Kajabi puts the branded app on its $499 Pro plan, and PT Distinction includes one from its $59.90 Pro plan. Coachful's client app carries your branding inside the Coachful listing rather than your own App Store account.

Which tools let clients log sets and see personal records?

The dedicated training apps (Trainerize, Everfit, PT Distinction, HubFit, My PT Hub and TrueCoach) all focus on workout delivery, and Coachful's workout logging shows set history and PRs. Kajabi, Systeme.io, Stan Store, Skool, Podia and Thinkific do not offer workout logging.

Is any of these tools suitable for clients with medical conditions?

Coaching is not treatment, whichever tool you use. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and is not built for clinical records. Screen clients at intake and refer anyone with pain, injury, cardiac symptoms or a diagnosed condition to a physician or physical therapist, and nutrition therapy to a registered dietitian.

How do I move my Kajabi courses to a new platform?

Kajabi lets you export contacts, subscriptions, sales and members as CSV, but course content is downloaded manually asset by asset. Do that before cancelling. On Coachful, clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding, and there is a course export if you ever leave.

Do these platforms take a cut of my sales?

Some do. Skool takes 10% + 30¢ on Hobby, Podia's Mover plan takes 5%, and Kajabi adds 0.5% to 2% if you use a processor other than Kajabi Payments or PayPal. Coachful charges a 0% platform fee, so you pay only Stripe or Razorpay processing.

Can I take PayPal payments on Coachful?

No. Coachful runs payments through your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account, which supports cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, subscriptions and payment plans. If PayPal is essential for your clients, Systeme.io, Stan Store and Podia list PayPal as a processor option.