Top 12 Kajabi Alternatives for Life Coaches: Ranked & Reviewed

The best Kajabi alternatives for life coaches are the ones built around the client, not the product catalogue. Kajabi is strong at selling courses, communities and funnels, but most life coaches earn their living from 1:1 packages and small groups, where the work happens between sessions: the habit a client is trying to keep, the reflection they write on a Sunday night, the agreement they signed before the first call. So the deciding question is simple. Do you need a place to sell content, or a place to run a coaching relationship from discovery call to final session?

For most life coaches, our pick is Coachful, because it puts booking, payments, agreements, multi-week programs with habits and check-ins, courses, community, a website and email behind one login, and its team builds your site or program for you at no extra cost. We make Coachful, so we have ranked it first and explained why; every other tool below is described from what its vendor publishes and what public reviewers report, with prices as listed in October 2026. If you sell mostly self-paced courses to a big audience, a few of the alternatives below may suit you better, and we say so in each section.

If you want the broader version of this list for every coaching niche, read our Kajabi alternatives for coaches roundup. This article is narrower: it ranks 12 tools on what life coaches in particular do all week.

What do life coaches actually need from a Kajabi alternative?

Life coaches need a system that carries a person through a change over weeks or months, not just a checkout that delivers a video. In practice that comes down to six jobs, and Kajabi covers some of them well and others not at all.

• Discovery calls that turn into clients. A booking page with intake questions, time-zone detection and calendar sync, so a prospect from Instagram or a podcast can book a free consult without an email chain.
• Agreements before the first session. Life coaching involves confidentiality, cancellation terms and a clear statement that coaching is not therapy. You want that signed before the first call and stored with the client. Our guide to legal disclaimers for life coaches covers what to put in it.
• Packages, payment plans and subscriptions. A 12-week clarity program is often paid in instalments; an ongoing "in your corner" retainer is a monthly subscription.
• Between-session delivery. Weekly goals, daily tasks, habit tracking and morning or evening check-ins are where life coaching gets results. Kajabi's own model is products and communities, not per-client plans, and the vendor data we reviewed shows no habit tracking or daily client check-ins there.
• Group work and content. Many life coaches add a monthly circle, a cohort program or a self-paced starter course. Courses and community matter, but as part of the client journey, not the whole business.
• A website and email that point to one action. Book a call, apply, or download a free guide. Life coaches rarely need dozens of funnels; they need two or three that work.

Scope belongs on this list too. Life coaching, as Wikipedia's overview of life coaching describes it, is focused on goals and change, not on diagnosing or treating mental illness. Coaching is not treatment. If a client describes symptoms of depression, trauma, an eating disorder or thoughts of self-harm, refer them to a licensed mental health professional; the US National Institute of Mental Health keeps a find help page you can share. Your software should hold coaching records, not clinical ones, and none of the tools in this list are positioned as clinical record systems.

Cost is the other reason life coaches look around. As listed in October 2026, Kajabi Basic is $179 per month ($143 per month billed annually) with 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 community and 0 AI credits. Growth is $249 ($199 annually) and Pro is $499 ($399 annually); the branded mobile app is Pro-only according to Kajabi's comparison table. Using a payment processor other than Kajabi Payments or PayPal adds a Kajabi fee of 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth and 0.5% on Pro. Our Kajabi pricing breakdown goes through every plan.

Quick picks: which Kajabi alternative fits your situation?

Coachful is the best overall choice for life coaches who run 1:1 and group programs; the other picks win specific situations. Prices are the lowest listed monthly plan in October 2026, before payment processing.

Ranking criteria: one login for the whole client journey, between-session delivery (habits, check-ins, programs), total stack cost, and setup effort, including Coachful's free white-glove build.

The rest of the ranking runs LearnWorlds (#7), Circle (#8), ClickFunnels (#9), Thinkific (#10), Teachable (#11) and Skool (#12).

How did we choose and rank these 12 tools?

We started from one realistic life-coaching practice: a solo coach with around 15 private clients on a 12-week program, a monthly group circle, a free discovery call and a lead magnet such as a values worksheet. For each tool we asked whether that coach could run the whole week from it, or would need extra tools bolted on.

Four tests decided the order:

1. One login for the client journey. Can a prospect book, sign, pay, start a program and join a group without leaving the platform?
2. Between-session delivery. Are there habits, check-ins, goals and tasks per client, or only content?
3. Total stack cost. The listed plan price plus platform fees plus the tools you would still need beside it (usually a scheduler, an e-signature tool or an email service).
4. Setup effort. How long until the site, booking page and first program are live, and whether anyone will build it for you.

Every price and limit comes from the vendor's own pricing page as listed in October 2026. Trustpilot scores were seen on 25 October 2026. We did not run paid accounts on each tool; where we describe how something works, it is from vendor documentation or public reviews. Kajabi itself is the baseline, not a ranked entry. Paperbell, a well-known 1:1 coaching tool, is left out because we could not verify its current pricing page today.

1. Coachful: the best Kajabi alternative for life coaches overall

Coachful wins when your income comes from coaching relationships rather than content sales. 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. You get one login; your clients get one branded app. It is built for coaches who deliver programs, not just sessions, and for solo coaches who are replacing four to six tools. See how it maps to this niche on our Coachful for life coaches page.

Where it beats Kajabi for 1:1 and group life coaching

Kajabi treats coaching as a product or a community. Coachful treats it as a client record. Each client has goals, check-ins, habits, notes, intake answers, tags, payments and sessions in one place, plus an AI briefing per client and a status of thriving, active, quiet or at risk. That status matters for life coaches, because the client who goes quiet in week five is the one who does not renew.

Booking pages include availability rules, buffers, minimum notice and time-zone detection, with two-way Google, Apple/iCloud and Outlook calendar sync. Sessions run on built-in video or auto-created Zoom, Meet or Teams links. Email reminders are standard, and SMS (24 hours before) and WhatsApp (1 hour before) reminders work once messaging is enabled. You can add intake questions to the discovery call booking, sell paid sessions and session credits, and send a coaching agreement with e-signature before the first call; it is stored on the client record. More on that in coaching contracts.

Between sessions: habits, check-ins and the client's app

This is the part Kajabi does not do. Coachful runs multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals with progress bars, and streaks. A client on a 12-week confidence or life-transition program opens their app in the morning, answers a short check-in, sees the two tasks for today and ticks off a journaling habit. You see the pattern across all clients without chasing anyone by email.

The check-ins themselves are built as coaching flows: welcome, daily, weekly and longer journeys. Coachful ships more than 40 ready-to-film program templates, 48 course templates with quizzes, about 25 funnel templates and coaching flow and journey templates, so you rarely start from a blank page. This short walkthrough shows how check-ins are set up:

Courses, groups, website and email in the same account

Courses (modules, lessons, drip, completion tracking), downloads, videos, books, AI tools, events and bundles are delivered into the client's branded home and app. Community comes with a feed, group chat, direct messages and video events, and cohort groups are created automatically when someone enrols in a program, which suits a monthly circle or a group program. The website builder is section-based, with a blog, custom domain, SEO settings, 30 designed homepage templates and an Import website option. Booking, application, lead-magnet and checkout funnels support pixels and UTM tracking, and email lists, broadcasts and multi-step sequences include triggers, delays, branching and A/B splits.

Michelle, the built-in AI assistant, works from your live practice data. It builds programs, drafts emails and content, summarizes recorded sessions and briefs you before sessions. For life coaches working toward a credential, it can also give optional private feedback on your own coaching against ICF Core Competencies 3 to 8, and Coachful's ICF hour tracking counts coaching hours and distinct clients against ACC, PCC and MCC thresholds and exports a client coaching log with paid and pro bono hours. Questions and planning with Michelle are included in your Coachful membership; confirmed builds and changes use AI credits.

Payments and price

Payments go through your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account: one-time, subscriptions, payment plans, order bumps, coupons, refunds, Apple Pay and Google Pay, and Stripe Tax, with an invoice per transaction plus manual invoices. Since August 2026 Coachful takes a 0% platform fee, so you pay only Stripe or Razorpay processing. Plans are flat monthly fees; lower plans cap the number of clients, Pro is unlimited, team plans 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.

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. On every plan, you can open Create, choose "We'll build it for you", and describe what you want: a website, a discovery-call funnel, a sales page, a 12-week program, a course outline, an email sequence, a lead quiz or a link-in-bio page. Attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files such as your logo, photos and existing copy. The Coachful team builds it inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours. Nothing gets invented: no fake credentials, testimonials or prices, and gaps are left for you to fill. A somatic coach leaving Kajabi had the homepage and About page rebuilt and the contact form connected; a leadership coach facing a Squarespace renewal got one clean homepage with a repeated "talk with me" button. It does not cover recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing. Read more about the free white-glove service.

What Coachful does not do

Be clear on the limits before you move. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and does not sign a BAA, so it is not for clinical record-keeping or insurance billing. There is no PayPal and no permanent free plan, though there is a free trial. The client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding, not under your own App Store account. It is not a course marketplace, not a general website builder for non-coaching sites, and has no third-party plugins. The affiliate program tracks links, clicks, conversions and revenue, but payouts are recorded manually rather than sent by Coachful. Moving is easier than most people expect: clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding, and you can export all client data as a ZIP whenever you like. Our Coachful vs Kajabi comparison lays out the differences side by side.

2. Podia: best for a few sessions and a starter course on a small budget

Podia suits the life coach who mainly wants a tidy storefront: a handful of paid coaching sessions, a short self-paced course, a downloadable workbook and maybe a small community, without Kajabi's price. Podia describes itself as a simple storefront for courses, downloads, webinars, coaching sessions and community, and that simplicity is the appeal.

As listed in October 2026, Mover costs $49 per month ($42 billed annually) with 50 products, 500 videos, 25 community spaces and 100 email subscribers included, and Podia takes a 5% transaction fee on that plan. Shaker is $99 ($84 annually) with 150 products, 1,000 videos, 100 spaces, 500 email subscribers and one assistant, and no Podia fee. Earthquaker is $179 ($150 annually) with unlimited products, videos, spaces and assistants and 1,000 email subscribers. Stripe or PayPal processing, typically 2.9% + 30¢, comes on top. The trial is 14 days with full access and no credit card or plan selection required. Podia holds a 4.1 Trustpilot score from 153 reviews.

For a life coach, the catch is the email allowance. A coach who grows a list through a free values worksheet or a podcast will pass 500 subscribers quickly, and the included numbers stay small even on the top plan. The other gap is everything after the sale: our vendor data shows no client habits, check-ins or per-client plans, and an older profile notes no mobile app and no native video calls. So the 12-week program still lives in email threads and a separate video tool.

Podia does make the "first offer" phase pleasant. A new coach can publish a discovery session, a paid single session and a mini course on one page in an afternoon, and the 0% fee from Shaker up keeps more of each sale. If you are weighing it head to head with Kajabi, see our Kajabi vs Podia comparison.

Pick it over Coachful if you sell mostly one-off sessions and small digital products, you are happy to coach without structured check-ins, and you want PayPal at checkout.

3. Kartra: best for marketing-heavy coaches who want SMS and calendars

Kartra fits the life coach whose growth comes from launches, webinars and email sequences, and who wants that marketing machinery in one account. It bundles pages, funnels, email and SMS, memberships, calendars and a helpdesk, which is close to Kajabi's breadth with a different price ladder.

The plan ladder, as listed in October 2026: Essentials at $59 per month ($52 annually) includes 500 contacts, 5 pages, 1 product, 1 membership or course, 10,000 emails per month and 30 AI uses, with a 5% transaction fee. Starter at $119 ($99 annually) moves to 2,500 contacts, unlimited pages, products and memberships, unlimited email and SMS, 100 AI uses and 5 team members, with 0% fee. Growth is $229 ($189 annually) for 12,500 contacts and 3 domains; Professional is $549 ($429 annually) for 25,000 contacts. There is a 14-day free trial on any plan and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Trustpilot shows 3.2 from 129 reviews.

For life coaches the realistic plan is Starter, since Essentials caps contacts at 500 and charges 5% on sales. Starter lands well under Kajabi Basic for a similar contact count, and adds SMS, which our Kajabi data does not show. Where Kartra stops is the coaching itself: our data shows no client habits, check-ins or per-client coaching plans, and an older profile notes no mobile app for students or admins. An older profile also notes that funnels and memberships are not portable to other platforms, which matters if you have already been through one migration from Kajabi.

Kartra is a marketing suite first. If your calendar is full of discovery calls generated by a weekly webinar, that is a strength. If your calendar is full of clients who need a nudge between sessions, you will still be doing that part by hand or in another app. For a wider look at funnel tools, read our ClickFunnels alternatives for coaches.

Pick it over Coachful if SMS marketing and a helpdesk matter more to you than habit tracking and client check-ins, and you run frequent launches with large email lists.

4. Systeme.io: best for starting a life-coaching business with no software budget

When the budget is zero, Systeme.io is the realistic starting point. Its Free plan never expires and needs no credit card, and it includes 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course with up to 500 students, a blog, an affiliate program, a custom domain, one automation rule and one email campaign.

Paid plans, as listed in October 2026, are Startup at $17 per month (5,000 contacts, 10 funnels, 5 courses), Webinar at $47 (10,000 contacts, 50 funnels, 20 courses) and Unlimited at $97 (unlimited contacts, funnels, courses and automation rules). Systeme.io charges 0% transaction fees on every plan, including Free, so you pay only Stripe or PayPal processing. It has a 4.9 Trustpilot score from 8,696 reviews, the largest review count of any tool in this list.

A new life coach can use the Free plan to publish a lead magnet ("five questions to find your next chapter"), a short email sequence and a paid mini course. That covers the marketing half of what Kajabi does, at a fraction of the cost. The coaching half is missing: an older profile notes no native 1:1 scheduling with client records, habits or check-ins, and community and course features are described as basic, with no branded mobile app. You would add a scheduler, an e-signature tool and some way to track clients, which brings back the tool sprawl many coaches are trying to escape.

There is also a practical ceiling. The single automation rule and single email campaign on Free are enough to test an idea, not to run a practice. Most coaches who stay will move to Startup or Webinar within a few months.

Pick it over Coachful if you have not signed your first paying client yet, you want to test a lead magnet and an email list before paying for anything, and you are comfortable running sessions and agreements in separate tools for now.

5. Stan Store: best for Instagram and TikTok life coaches selling from a bio link

Stan Store wins for the life coach whose audience lives on Instagram or TikTok and who sells from a single link: a paid 45-minute call, a journaling guide, a mini course. It is a link-in-bio storefront for digital products, courses, memberships and paid calls, and it is fast to set up on a phone.

As listed in October 2026, Creator costs $29 per month ($25 annually) with unlimited products and customers and one store. Creator Pro is $99 ($79 annually), and that is where email marketing, upsells, discount codes and affiliates live. Stan takes 0% of sales; standard Stripe or PayPal processing applies. Both plans have a 14-day free trial, and the help center says the first month is charged when the trial ends. Trustpilot shows 4.7 from 2,205 reviews.

For a social-first coach, the strength is conversion from a follower to a buyer in two taps. The limits show up once someone becomes a client. Our vendor data lists no contracts, invoices or client records, no programs with client tasks, habits or check-ins, and no team seats advertised. Stan is not a CRM. A coach selling 12-week packages would still need somewhere to hold the agreement, the session notes and the weekly check-in, and on the $29 plan there is no email follow-up at all.

Many coaches pair Stan with something else. If you go that route, keep the paid call on Stan and move the actual program into a coaching platform, rather than trying to run a three-month engagement from a storefront. Coachful also includes a link-in-bio page that sells, so if you are paying for Creator Pro mainly to get email, compare that against a single platform before you commit.

Pick it over Coachful if your business is mostly single calls and low-priced digital products sold to a social audience, you want PayPal, and you do not run multi-week programs.

6. Mighty Networks: best for community-led life coaches running cohorts

Mighty Networks is the strongest choice here for a coach whose offer is the group itself: a membership circle, a women's leadership cohort, a year-long community with monthly live calls. It combines community, courses and events, with Mighty-branded member apps.

As listed in October 2026, Launch is $95 per month ($79 annually) with 3 hosts, 10 moderators, 200 GB storage and 20 hours a month of livestreaming for up to 100 attendees. Scale is $215 ($179 annually) with 5 hosts, 500 GB and 30 livestream hours for 200 attendees. Growth is $354 per month billed annually, with 1,000 livestream attendees. Mighty takes a platform fee on sales of 2% on Launch, 1% on Scale and 0.5% on Growth and Mighty Pro, plus Stripe processing. The trial runs 14 days with no credit card and includes Growth features. Trustpilot: 3.3 from 219 reviews.

For group work it is well thought through: livestreams inside the community, course content next to discussion, and an app members can open on their phones. Your own branded apps, though, are only on the custom-priced Mighty Pro plan. And the 1:1 side is absent: our vendor data shows no 1:1 scheduling, invoicing or contracts, and no per-client habits, check-ins or private coaching plans. A life coach who sells a premium private tier alongside the community would run those clients elsewhere.

Watch the fee at the entry level. On Launch, 2% of every membership payment goes to Mighty on top of processing. On a growing membership that is a real line item, and it disappears only on higher plans. Our roundup of coaching communities for life coaches covers the group side in more depth.

Pick it over Coachful if nearly all your revenue comes from a large paid community with frequent livestreams, and you rarely coach people one to one.

7. LearnWorlds: best for course-heavy coaches who want interactive lessons

LearnWorlds earns its place for the life coach whose signature offer is a structured self-paced course, such as a values-and-purpose curriculum with quizzes and interactive video, sold alongside a small amount of live coaching. It is a course and LMS platform with a website builder, funnels, SCORM support and interactive video.

As listed in October 2026, Starter costs $29 per month ($24 annually) with 1 admin, 1,000 active learners a month and 300 AI credits, but LearnWorlds charges $5 per paid enrollment on that plan. Pro Trainer is $99 ($79 annually) with 5 admins, 2,000 active learners a month, 500 AI credits, 20 SCORM packages, 15 page funnels and 2,000 mass emails a month, with no LearnWorlds fee. Learning Center is $299 ($249 annually) with 25 admins and up to 10 client groups. Stripe or PayPal gateway fees of 2.9% + $0.30 apply. The 30-day free trial needs no credit card according to LearnWorlds' pages, and the school is scheduled for deletion if you do not upgrade. Its Trustpilot score is 4.8 from 423 reviews.

The interactive video and quiz tools are a step above Kajabi's course player, and a life coach who teaches a framework can make lessons feel like workshops. The trade-offs are the active-learner caps (1,000 or 2,000 a month on self-serve plans), the separately priced branded mobile app, and the fact that LearnWorlds is not built for 1:1 client management, habits or check-ins. It is a school, not a practice.

Do the maths on Starter carefully. A $5 fee on every paid enrollment is cheap for a $500 program and expensive for a $27 mini course; Pro Trainer removes it.

Pick it over Coachful if your main product is a polished self-paced course with interactive video, SCORM or quizzes, and private coaching is a small add-on rather than the core.

8. Circle: best for a premium membership community with events

Circle is the community platform to consider when you want a calm, well-organised paid membership with courses, events and live streams, and you care about how it looks. Life coaches who run an alumni community for past clients often look at it.

Circle's pricing page shows annual billing: Professional at $89 per month with 3 admins, 10 moderators and 2,500 AI credits; Business at $199 with 5 admins and 15 moderators; Scale at $419 with 10 admins, 100 moderators and 5,000 AI credits; and custom-priced Circle Plus. Monthly-billing prices were not listed in the data we captured in October 2026. Circle takes a fee on payments of 2% on Professional, 1% on Business and Scale, and 0.5% on Circle Plus, plus Stripe processing. The 14-day trial on Professional, Business and Scale needs no credit card. Trustpilot shows 4.1 from 129 reviews.

Circle does community very well, but the coaching back office is not there. Our vendor data lists no 1:1 scheduling or client management back office, and no per-client habits, check-ins or coaching plans. Branded mobile apps are only on Circle Plus. For a life coach, that makes Circle a strong second tool for an alumni or membership space, and a weak first tool for running private clients.

If you are leaving Kajabi mainly because its single community on Basic feels cramped, Circle answers that. If you are leaving because Kajabi does not help you coach individuals, it does not. Our guide to running coaching memberships without Kajabi covers billing and access for either route.

Pick it over Coachful if you are building a large, design-led paid community as the centre of your business and you already handle private clients in a separate system.

9. ClickFunnels: best for life coaches who live on paid ads and sales pages

ClickFunnels is the specialist for coaches who buy traffic and need high-converting sales pages, order forms and upsell sequences above everything else. It also includes email, courses, community, a store and an appointments app.

As listed in October 2026, Launch is $97 per month ($81 annually) with 10,000 contacts, 50,000 emails a month, 2 team members, 5 domains and 3 courses and 3 communities. Scale is $197 ($164 annually) with 75,000 contacts and 300,000 emails a month. Optimize is $297 ($248 annually) and Dominate is $499.75 per month billed annually. ClickFunnels takes 0% commission; processor fees apply. There is a 14-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee, and Trustpilot shows 4.7 from 2,512 reviews.

For a life coach running a webinar-to-strategy-call funnel at volume, the contact and email allowances on Launch are generous next to Kajabi Basic's 2,500 contacts. What ClickFunnels does not give you is the coaching: our data shows no client habits, check-ins or structured 1:1 coaching programs, and an older profile notes that funnels are proprietary and not portable. The 3-course cap on Launch is fine for most coaches, since few life coaches sell more than three courses.

The real question is whether you need ad-grade funnels. A coach filling the practice through referrals, podcasts and one booking page does not; a coach spending on ads every month does.

Pick it over Coachful if paid traffic and multi-step upsell funnels drive your business, and you are willing to run client delivery in another tool.

10. Thinkific: best for building a branded course academy

Thinkific is for the life coach who wants to become a course business: several courses, a structured academy, communities attached to each, and a long-term plan to sell more content than coaching. It is a course platform with communities, memberships and coaching or webinar products.

Thinkific raised prices by about 10% on 13 August 2026. As listed in October 2026, Start is $109 per 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 annually) with 6 admins and 3 communities, and Expand is $499 ($374 annually). Thinkific charges no transaction fee when you use Thinkific Payments, whose rate it describes as in line with other processors at 2.9%; third-party Stripe or PayPal gateways carry an extra per-plan gateway fee that the page does not quantify. Every self-serve plan has a 30-day free trial. Trustpilot shows 1.8 from 868 reviews, the lowest score among the course platforms here.

The course tooling is mature and the student limits are generous. For a coach, though, the limits are familiar from Kajabi: an older profile says coaching relies on external booking links, and there are no client habits, daily check-ins or per-client plans. The branded mobile app is a $199 per month add-on. After the August increase, Start costs more than most life coaches need to spend if courses are a side line. Our Thinkific alternatives for coaches lists other options.

Pick it over Coachful if you plan to sell many courses to thousands of students, coaching is a minor revenue line, and you want PayPal as a gateway.

11. Teachable: best low-cost way to sell one or two courses

Teachable is a sensible landing spot for the life coach who wants to keep a single course online, cheaply, after leaving Kajabi. It is a course and digital-product platform with student mobile apps.

As listed in October 2026, Starter is $39 per month ($29 annually) with 5 products and 1 admin, but takes a 7.5% platform fee on sales. Builder is $89 ($69 annually) with 10 products and 0% fee, and Growth is $189 ($139 annually) with 50 products and 5 admins. Teachable Payments processing is 2.9% + 30¢ on US cards and 3.9% + 30¢ internationally; PayPal costs more, and there is a $15 chargeback fee. The plan cards show a 7-day free trial plus a 30-day guarantee. Trustpilot shows 3.3 from 1,110 reviews.

Builder usually makes more sense, since 7.5% on Starter adds up fast on a $300 course (an example price). Teachable's weak point for life coaches is everything around the course: an older profile notes no native scheduling or calendar sync, so coaching calls rely on Calendly or Zoom, and there are no client habits, daily check-ins or per-client plans. For more, see Kajabi vs Teachable and our Teachable alternatives for coaches.

Teachable works if the course is a standalone asset you promote occasionally. It works less well if the course is week one of a coaching program, because the client then lives in two places.

Pick it over Coachful if all you need is a low-cost home for one or two evergreen courses and you are not running coaching programs through the same system.

12. Skool: best for a cheap, gamified community on the side

Skool fits one narrow use: a low-cost community with a classroom and a calendar, where members earn points on a leaderboard. Some life coaches use it for a free or low-ticket community that feeds their paid programs.

As listed in October 2026, Hobby is $9 per month ($7.50 annually) and Pro is $99 ($82.50 annually), both with unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls. The difference is fees: Hobby takes 10% + 30¢ on every transaction; Pro charges 2.9% + 30¢ up to $899 and 3.9% + 30¢ above $900. Fees are non-refundable and payouts are weekly. The pricing page offers "try for free", but trial length and card terms were not stated when we checked. Trustpilot shows 1.6 from 54 reviews.

For a life coach, Skool's limits are significant. There is no custom-domain website, funnels, email automation or public API, and no 1:1 client records, intake forms, habits or check-ins. Payments run only through Skool Payments. A 10% cut on Hobby is a heavy price for a paid group; a coach charging members monthly would usually move to Pro quickly.

We rank Skool last because it replaces only one part of Kajabi, the community, and asks you to build the rest elsewhere. As a free top-of-funnel group, it can be useful.

Pick it over Coachful if you want a very low-cost gamified community as a lead source and nothing else from the platform.

How do the 12 alternatives compare feature by feature?

Only Coachful covers 1:1 sessions, agreements and between-session habits and check-ins alongside courses, community, website and email. The table uses vendor data from October 2026; "not listed" means our data does not show it, not that it is impossible.

What does a life-coaching stack cost each month?

A single coaching platform usually costs less than Kajabi plus the scheduler, e-signature and check-in tools you would add beside it. The first table shows the listed plan a life coach would need at three practice sizes; the second shows three example stacks.

These are examples built on listed prices, before payment processing. The coaching platform plans are sized by clients; course and community tools are sized by contacts, products or members, so we picked the plan that a coach of that size would realistically need.

Kajabi's step to Growth at 40 clients is an example: it applies once you sell more than five products (a few packages, a course, a membership and a workbook get you there quickly), or if you want the affiliate program. Contact limits rarely bite at this size.

Three example stacks

Here are three common ways life coaches rebuild after Kajabi, with the listed monthly software cost and what each stack leaves uncovered.

The social-first stack looks cheapest on paper, but three logins, three sets of fees and no client record is the setup many coaches describe leaving. The course-and-community stack covers marketing and groups well and still needs a scheduler and a way to track private clients. If you want to compare dedicated booking tools anyway, our scheduling software for life coaches guide lists them.

How would a life coach set this up in Coachful, step by step?

A life coach can move a typical practice into Coachful in a few sittings, or hand most of it to the white-glove team. Here is an example: a coach running a 12-week "Clear Next Chapter" 1:1 program and a monthly group circle, moving from Kajabi plus a separate scheduler.

1. Request the build. Open Create, choose "We'll build it for you", and ask for a website with a discovery-call funnel. Attach your Kajabi site link, logo and About copy. The team builds it inside your account, usually within about 24 hours, and leaves gaps where they need your real credentials or testimonials.
2. Connect payments. Link your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account. Set the 12-week program as a payment plan and the circle as a monthly subscription. To set a price, start from the income you need, divide by the number of clients you can coach well at once, and check it against what your clients are paying for similar programs.
3. Set up the discovery call. Create a free 20-minute session type with buffers, minimum notice and intake questions such as "what would be different in six months if this worked?". Sync your Google, Apple or Outlook calendar.
4. Add your agreement. Upload or write your coaching agreement, including confidentiality, cancellation terms and a line that coaching is not therapy, and send it for e-signature before the first session.
5. Build the 12-week program. Start from one of the 40+ program templates or ask Michelle to draft one. Add weekly goals, daily tasks, a journaling habit and morning and evening check-ins.
6. Move your course. Rebuild your Kajabi starter course as modules and lessons with drip, or attach it as a bonus inside the program. Clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding.
7. Open the group. Enrolling in the circle creates a cohort group automatically, with a feed, chat and video events for the monthly call.
8. Write the follow-up. Build a short email sequence for people who download your lead magnet but do not book, with a delay and a branch for those who open but do not click.
9. Run the week. Before each session, read Michelle's briefing. Each week, scan client statuses and message anyone marked quiet or at risk. Log hours automatically toward your ICF credential.

Here is what the client experiences: they book a call from your site, answer three intake questions, sign the agreement, pay the first instalment, and land in your branded app with today's tasks and a check-in. Nothing asks them to create a second account. This walkthrough shows how programs are built:

Which mistakes do life coaches make when leaving Kajabi?

The most common mistake is replacing Kajabi with another course platform and still running the coaching in email. A few others come up often.

• Exporting too late. Kajabi offers CSV exports for contacts, subscriptions, sales and members, emailed to you, but course content is downloaded manually asset by asset, and an older profile notes data is removed 90 days after cancellation. Export before you cancel.
• Forgetting active subscriptions. Clients paying monthly through Kajabi Payments need to be moved to your new checkout deliberately, with notice, rather than cancelled and re-sold.
• Rebuilding every funnel. Most life coaches need a discovery-call funnel, a lead-magnet funnel and a program sales page. Start with those three.
• Skipping the agreement. A move is a good moment to tighten your terms and scope line. Our guide to a free website for life coaches and the disclaimers article above cover what your site and contract should say.
• Underestimating fees. A low monthly price with a 5% to 10% cut can cost more than a higher flat plan once you sell a few packages. Run the numbers on your real monthly revenue.
• Ignoring between-session work. If the new tool cannot hold habits and check-ins, you will rebuild them in spreadsheets within a month.

Verdict: which Kajabi alternative should a life coach choose?

Choose Coachful if you coach people through programs, one to one or in groups, and want booking, agreements, payments, habits, check-ins, courses, community, website and email in one login. It ranks first because it is the only tool here that covers the between-session work life coaching depends on, it charges no platform fee on sales, and its team will build your site or program for you during the switch. For a wider view of software for this niche, see best software for life coaches, or browse our Kajabi alternative page.

The others win narrower cases. Podia and Systeme.io suit coaches on a tight budget selling sessions and small products. Kartra and ClickFunnels suit marketing-led coaches with launches or ads. Stan Store suits social-first sellers. Mighty Networks and Circle suit coaches whose business is a community. LearnWorlds, Thinkific and Teachable suit coaches who are really building a course business. Skool is a side community at best.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best Kajabi alternative for life coaches?

For life coaches who run 1:1 or group programs, Coachful is the best fit, because it combines booking, agreements, payments, multi-week programs with habits and check-ins, courses, community, a website and email. If you mainly sell self-paced courses, LearnWorlds or Thinkific may suit you better.

Is there a cheaper alternative to Kajabi for life coaches?

Yes. As listed in October 2026, Systeme.io has a free plan and paid plans from $17 per month, Stan Store starts at $29 and Podia at $49, against $179 for Kajabi Basic. Check transaction fees on entry plans, and add the cost of a scheduler or e-signature tool if the platform lacks them.

Can I move my Kajabi courses and clients to another platform?

Kajabi lets you export contacts, subscriptions, sales and members as CSV files, but course videos and files are downloaded manually. In Coachful, clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding. Export everything before you cancel Kajabi.

What is Coachful's free white-glove service?

On every plan, you can ask the Coachful team to build a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline, email sequence and more inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours. You attach up to 8 reference links and 10 files. The team never invents testimonials, credentials or prices, and it does not record videos, design logos or run ads.

Does Coachful take a cut of my sales?

No. Since August 2026 Coachful takes a 0% platform fee, and you pay only Stripe or Razorpay processing. Several alternatives take a percentage on entry plans, including Podia Mover, Kartra Essentials, Teachable Starter and Skool Hobby.

Can my clients pay with PayPal?

Not in Coachful, which uses Stripe Connect or Razorpay, including Apple Pay and Google Pay. Kajabi, Podia, Stan Store, Systeme.io and Teachable support PayPal according to their pricing pages. If a large share of your clients insist on PayPal, weigh that before you switch.

Can I use these tools to coach clients with anxiety or depression?

Life coaching is not therapy, and none of these tools are clinical record systems. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified. If a client shows signs of a mental health condition, refer them to a licensed professional, and keep your coaching records to goals, actions and progress.

Does Coachful help with ICF credential hours?

Yes. It counts your coaching hours and distinct clients against ACC, PCC and MCC thresholds and exports a client coaching log with paid and pro bono hours. Check current requirements with the International Coaching Federation before you apply.

Do I need a branded mobile app for my life-coaching clients?

Most clients just need one place to see sessions, tasks and check-ins on their phone. Coachful gives them your branding inside the Coachful app; Kajabi lists its branded app on Pro only, and Circle and Mighty Networks reserve own-brand apps for custom-priced plans.

Is there a Coachful free trial?

Yes, there is a free trial, and monthly plans cancel in one click. Kajabi's standard trial is 14 days with a card optional; if you enter one, Kajabi places an authorization hold and charges when the trial ends.