Kajabi vs ConvertKit for Coaches: Honest 2026 Comparison

In the Kajabi vs ConvertKit decision, the short version is this: Kajabi is a course, community and website platform that also sends email, while ConvertKit (renamed Kit) is an email and newsletter platform that also sells simple digital products. If your coaching business is mainly a list and a newsletter, Kit is the lighter, cheaper fit. If it is mainly courses and a paid community, Kajabi covers more. Neither one runs the coaching itself: booking calls, client records, agreements, habits and check-ins between sessions.

We make Coachful, a coaching platform, so we have a stake in this question. We will give Kajabi and Kit a fair head-to-head first, using what each vendor documents and its prices as listed in October 2026, and then explain where Coachful fits as a third option, including the cases where it does not.

What is the short answer by use case?

Pick by what you sell and how much of the client relationship you need software to hold. Here is the quick version before the detail.

• You run a newsletter and sell a few digital products: Kit. Its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, and its paid plans add sequences and visual automations.
• You sell self-paced courses and a membership community: Kajabi. Courses, community, website, funnels and email sit in one product, and Basic already includes unlimited funnels, landing pages and marketing emails.
• You sell 1:1 or group coaching programs with sessions and between-session work: neither is built for this. Kajabi treats coaching as a product or a community; Kit fulfils digital products only and has no scheduling or client records. This is where a coaching platform such as Coachful fits.
• You want to keep costs low while you test an offer: Kit's free plan, or a coaching platform that replaces several tools at once.
• You already have a large email list and a big course catalogue: Kajabi Growth or Pro, or Kit Pro alongside a course tool.

If you are weighing Kit against other email tools rather than against Kajabi, our Flodesk vs ConvertKit comparison, ConvertKit vs MailerLite and ActiveCampaign vs ConvertKit cover those pairings.

How do Kajabi and Kit compare side by side?

We rank by what matters most to a coach: one login for the whole client journey, delivery between sessions, total stack cost, and setup effort (including a free white-glove build). On those criteria Coachful leads; between the two tools in the title, Kajabi does more for course sellers and Kit does more for list builders.

The Trustpilot figures were seen on 25 October 2026 for Kajabi and Kit. A score is only a rough signal: Kajabi's comes from many more reviewers, and Kit's sample is small. Read the recent reviews for the issues that matter to you, such as support response times or billing, rather than relying on the average.

How much do Kajabi and Kit cost in 2026?

Kit is far cheaper to start: its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, and paid plans start at $39 a month for 1,000 subscribers. Kajabi starts at $179 a month ($143 a month billed annually) and has no free plan. The gap narrows as a Kit list grows, because Kit prices by subscriber count while Kajabi prices by plan tier.

Kit's pricing page blocked automated checks, so the Kit figures above come from Kit's own help center articles as listed in October 2026. Paid Kit prices rise with your subscriber count, so check Kit's calculator against your real list size before you compare.

What are the transaction fees?

Fees matter as much as the subscription once you are selling. Here is what each vendor lists.

An illustrative example: on $10,000 of sales in a month split across 20 payments, Kit Commerce would take $350 plus $6 in per-transaction fees, and Kajabi Payments on Basic would take $290 plus $6. These are worked examples from the listed rates, not quotes. Your actual cost depends on card mix, country and refunds.

What does a realistic stack cost?

The subscription line hides the real bill. With Kit, a coach still needs somewhere to host a course, a booking tool, a way to send and sign a coaching agreement, and somewhere for clients to track their work between calls. With Kajabi, the course and community are covered, but booking with calendar sync, agreements and per-client check-ins usually still come from other tools. Add those up before you compare one tool's sticker price with another's. Our Kajabi pricing guide walks through the full Kajabi bill, including the contact add-on of $125 a month per extra 25,000 contacts.

For a coaching platform that replaces those extra tools in one subscription, current plans are listed here: (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).

What about free trials and refunds?

Kit offers a 14-day free trial on Creator and Pro with no credit card required, on top of the permanent free plan. Kajabi's help center describes a standard 14-day trial; a card is optional, and if you enter one Kajabi places an authorization hold and charges on the day the trial ends. Some features, such as bulk contact import, test emails and some automations, stay locked until a paid plan is active. Kajabi also lists a 30-day money-back guarantee on every plan.

How do the email tools compare?

Kit is the stronger pure email tool; Kajabi's email is good enough for most course sellers and comes bundled. If email is the centre of your business, Kit was built for you. If email is one channel among several, Kajabi's version saves you a separate subscription.

Kit's free plan already includes unlimited forms, landing pages and broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, broadcast A/B tests and the Creator Network with five recommendation slots. Sequences, visual automations, rules and RSS, AI connectors, paid apps and paid recommendations need Creator. Pro adds email content A/B tests, collaborative editing, deliverability reporting, engagement scoring, Facebook Custom Audiences, the SparkLoop referral system and an insights dashboard.

Kajabi lists unlimited funnels, landing pages and marketing emails from Basic, with automation and scale features on higher tiers. The Basic plan caps contacts at 2,500 and includes no AI credits, so a growing list can push you to Growth sooner than you expect.

Coachful also includes email: lists, broadcasts and multi-step sequences with triggers, delays, branching and A/B splits. The difference is that the same contact who joins your list can book a call, sign an agreement, pay and start a program without changing system.

Here is a short walkthrough of how email works inside Coachful:

Which is better for landing pages, funnels and a website?

Kajabi is better if you need a full website and multi-step funnels; Kit is enough if you need a signup page and a simple product page. Kit gives you unlimited forms and landing pages even on the free plan, but it is not a website builder. Kajabi includes one website on Basic and Growth, three on Pro, plus unlimited funnels and landing pages.

For a coach, the funnel usually ends in a call or an application, not a download. That is where a coaching platform has an edge. Coachful includes a section-based website builder with a blog, custom domain, SEO settings and 30 designed homepage templates, plus booking, application, lead-magnet and checkout funnels with pixels and UTM tracking, and a link-in-bio page that sells. There are about 25 funnel templates to start from. We compare the two funnel builders in more depth in Coachful vs Kajabi for funnels and email.

Which is better for courses and community?

Kajabi, clearly. Kit has no courses portal or community; it sells digital products and subscriptions but you would host a course elsewhere. Kajabi is a course and community platform first, with 5 products and 1 community on Basic, 50 products on Growth and unlimited products with 3 communities on Pro.

Kajabi's branded mobile app is listed as included but, per its comparison table on 25 October 2026, sits on Pro. If a branded app is part of your plan for students, budget for the Pro tier. If you mostly deliver audio, our guide to delivering audio courses without Kajabi shows other routes.

Coachful also includes courses (modules, lessons, drip and completion tracking), downloads, videos, books, AI tools, events and bundles, delivered into the client's branded home and app. The community side has a feed, group chat, direct messages and video events, and cohort groups are created automatically when someone enrols in a program. There are 48 course templates with quizzes. Coachful is not a course marketplace, though, and a coach whose whole business is a large public course catalogue may still prefer Kajabi.

Can either one run 1:1 coaching sessions?

Not on its own. Kit fulfils digital products only and has no scheduling, client records or session management. Kajabi treats coaching as products and communities rather than per-client plans, with no habit tracking or daily client check-ins. In practice, coaches on either tool add a booking app, a contract tool and something to track client progress.

This is the gap that matters most if most of your revenue comes from coaching packages. Every extra tool is another login for you and another link for your client. A client who books in one app, signs in another, pays in a third and does homework in a fourth is a client who drifts.

Coachful covers this inside one subscription:

• Booking pages with availability rules, buffers, minimum notice and time-zone detection, plus two-way Google, Apple/iCloud and Outlook calendar sync.
• Built-in video, or auto-created Zoom, Meet or Teams links; email reminders, plus SMS 24 hours before and WhatsApp one hour before once messaging is enabled.
• Paid sessions and session credits, with intake questions at booking.
• Coaching agreements with e-signature, sent before the first call and stored on the client record.
• A client record with goals, check-ins, habits, notes, intake answers, tags, payments, sessions and an AI briefing per client, and a status of thriving, active, quiet or at risk.

See the scheduling software and coaching contracts pages for detail.

What does each one feel like for your clients?

On Kit, your client experiences you as an inbox: emails, a landing page and, if they buy, a product download. On Kajabi, they experience a course library and community, plus the branded app on Pro. Neither gives a coaching client a single place that shows their next session, this week's goals, their habits and their progress.

That matters because coaching results come from what happens between calls. A client who opens one app and sees "here is your next session, here is what to do before it, here is today's habit" is more likely to do the work than one who has to search through emails.

In Coachful, clients get the coach's branding inside the Coachful app. They see multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks and habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals with progress bars and streaks. The coach can also set up an AI Coach, an AI version of themselves that selected clients can chat with between sessions.

One honest caveat: Coachful's client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding, not under your own App Store account. Kajabi Pro can put an app under your own brand, which some coaches with a large audience value.

How do automations and AI compare?

Kit's visual automations and sequences start on the Creator plan, and its free plan has none. Kajabi's Basic plan has zero AI credits; Growth has 500 and Pro has 1,000, with a $15 top-up for 500 credits marked as coming. Kit lists AI connectors on Creator.

In Coachful, the built-in AI assistant is called Michelle. It works from your live practice data: it builds programs, drafts emails and content, summarizes recorded sessions, briefs you before sessions and can give optional private feedback on your own coaching against ICF Core Competencies 3 to 8. Questions and planning are included in your Coachful membership; confirmed builds and changes use AI credits. Coachful also runs Instagram automations: a comment with a chosen keyword, a DM, a story reply or a mention can trigger a DM with your booking link, lead magnet or checkout, and the person lands in the same lead and client records. More on the AI coaching assistant page.

Can you move your data out later?

Yes, with limits on both sides. Kit exports subscribers, all or a segment, to CSV from the dashboard. Kajabi offers CSV exports for contacts, subscriptions, sales and members, sent by email; course content is downloaded manually per asset, and an older Kajabi profile states data is removed 90 days after cancellation.

Coachful exports the full client data set as a ZIP (roster, notes, check-ins, goals, habits, sessions and form responses) plus a course export. In the other direction, clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding.

Which should you pick for which kind of coach?

Match the tool to how you earn. These are the patterns we see in what each vendor documents and what public reviewers report.

Some niche guides go deeper: Kajabi alternatives for life coaches, for business coaches and for health coaches. If you are comparing Kajabi with other all-in-ones, see Kajabi vs Kartra and Kajabi vs Skool.

The third option: when does Coachful beat both?

Coachful is a coaching platform. 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, with one login for the coach and one branded app for the client. It is built for coaches who deliver programs rather than just sessions, solo coaches growing into a small team, and coaches replacing 4 to 6 tools. The company is based in Tallinn, Estonia.

When Coachful beats Kajabi and Kit

• Your revenue comes from coaching, not content. Sessions, packages and programs live next to the client record instead of in three separate apps.
• You want clients to do the work between calls. Habits, daily tasks, weekly goals and morning and evening check-ins come with every program.
• You are replacing several tools. Email, funnels, website, courses, community, booking, agreements and payments in one place.
• You care about fees. A 0% platform fee since August 2026, with only Stripe or Razorpay processing, using your own account.
• You are working toward an ICF credential. Coaching hours and distinct clients are counted against ACC, PCC and MCC thresholds, and an ICF client coaching log exports with paid and pro bono hours. See ICF hour tracking.
• You coach fitness or nutrition. The Fitness & Nutrition pack adds a workout builder with illustrated exercises, workout logging, nutrition targets, meal plans and form-check video.

When Coachful is not the right pick

• You only want a newsletter. Kit's free plan up to 10,000 subscribers is hard to beat for that alone.
• You sell a large public course catalogue. Coachful is not a course marketplace, and Kajabi is built around selling courses at scale.
• You need PayPal. Coachful takes payments through Stripe Connect or Razorpay only.
• You need your own App Store app. Coachful's client app carries your branding inside the Coachful app.
• You keep clinical records. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and offers no BAA; clinical notes belong in a clinical system.
• You need a full sales deal board or a Salesforce or HubSpot integration. Coachful has neither.
• You want a permanent free plan. There is a free trial, but no free plan.

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. From Create, choose "We'll build it for you" and describe what you want: a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline and written material, email sequence, link in bio, lead quiz, webinar or automation. Attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files such as logos, photos, brand guides and 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 recording videos, 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. Read more about the free white-glove service.

How to start

1. Start a free trial and pick the plan that covers your client count (for example, up to 15 clients: Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients).
2. Ask for your clients, programs and content to be imported during onboarding.
3. Use the white-glove service to have your website or first funnel built.
4. Connect your Stripe or Razorpay account and your calendar.
5. Send your first agreement and enrol your first client in a program.

Here is how a client journey looks once it is set up:

If you are leaving Kajabi specifically, see the Kajabi alternative page and the Coachful vs Kajabi comparison.

Frequently asked questions

Is ConvertKit the same as Kit?

Yes. ConvertKit renamed itself Kit, and its help center and pricing now use the Kit name. The product is the same email and newsletter platform, with forms, landing pages, sequences and simple digital-product sales.

Is Kajabi or ConvertKit cheaper?

Kit is cheaper to start: its free plan covers up to 10,000 subscribers, and paid plans start at $39 a month for 1,000 subscribers. Kajabi starts at $179 a month, or $143 a month billed annually. Kit's paid price rises with your list, so compare at your actual subscriber count.

Can I use Kajabi and Kit together?

Some coaches do, running courses on Kajabi and email on Kit. You then pay for two subscriptions and keep two contact lists in sync, and you still need a booking and client-management tool if you coach 1:1.

Does Kit host online courses?

No. Kit sells digital products and subscriptions, but it has no courses portal or community. For a course, you would host it on another platform and use Kit for the emails around it.

Does Kajabi have email automations?

Yes. Kajabi includes unlimited marketing emails, funnels and landing pages from Basic, with more automation features on higher tiers. Its trial locks some automations and test emails until a paid plan is active.

Which has lower transaction fees?

Kajabi Payments in the US charges 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic, falling to 2.7% + $0.30 on Pro. Kit Commerce charges 3.5% + $0.30 per USD transaction, all-in. Kajabi adds a 0.5% to 2% fee if you use a provider other than Kajabi Payments or PayPal.

Can either tool book coaching sessions?

Kit has no scheduling, client records or session management. Kajabi focuses on courses and communities rather than per-client plans. Coaches on either usually add a separate booking tool; a coaching platform like Coachful includes booking pages with two-way calendar sync.

What is Coachful's free white-glove service?

It is a build service included on every Coachful plan. You describe what you want, such as a website, funnel, program or email sequence, attach references, and the team builds it inside your account, usually within about 24 hours. It does not include recording videos, logo design, ads or ongoing marketing.

Is Coachful HIPAA-compliant?

No. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and does not sign a BAA, so it is not for clinical record-keeping or insurance billing. Coaching is not treatment; if a client needs clinical care, refer them to a qualified professional and keep clinical records in a clinical system.

Which should I pick if I am just starting out?

If you only need a list, start on Kit's free plan. If you are launching paid coaching with sessions and programs, a single coaching platform saves you from stitching tools together later; see Coachful for new coaches.