Ruzuku vs Kajabi for Coaches: 2026 Prices and Verdict

In the ruzuku vs kajabi decision, Ruzuku is the cheaper, simpler choice for coaches who mainly want to host a course with discussion and live calls, while Kajabi is the larger marketing suite for coaches who want a website, funnels, email and many products under one roof. As listed in October 2026, Ruzuku starts free (up to 5 students at a time) and runs $99 or $199 a month with 0% transaction fees; Kajabi runs $179, $249 or $499 a month and has no free plan. Neither one is built around 1:1 coaching: no booking calendar on Ruzuku, and no habits, daily check-ins or per-client plans on Kajabi.

We make Coachful, a coaching platform, so we have a stake in this comparison. We have kept the Ruzuku and Kajabi facts to what each vendor documents on its own pages, dated them, and said plainly where Coachful is the better fit and where it is not. If you sell courses to strangers at scale, one of these two may suit you better than we do.

What is the short answer by use case?

Pick by what your business sells most: a single course, a marketing machine, or ongoing coaching relationships. Here is the quick version.

• You coach clients 1:1 or in small groups, with programs between sessions: neither tool is shaped for this. Coachful puts booking, payments, contracts, programs with habits and check-ins, courses and community behind one login, so it is our recommendation.
• You want to test one course cheaply: Ruzuku. Its Free plan allows up to 5 enrolled students at a time with 0% transaction fees, which is enough to pilot a small cohort.
• You run a cohort course with live calls and discussion: Ruzuku Core at $99 a month gives unlimited students, built-in live meetings and course discussions.
• You sell many digital products and rely on email and funnels: Kajabi. Even Basic includes unlimited funnels, landing pages and marketing emails, with up to 5 products and 2,500 contacts.
• You need a branded mobile app: Kajabi Pro, per its own comparison table. Ruzuku has no native app; students use mobile web with add-to-home-screen.
• You want your own domain and white-label branding on a budget: Ruzuku Pro at $199 a month, still well under Kajabi Pro.

For deeper single-vendor reads, see our Ruzuku review and our Kajabi review.

How do Ruzuku and Kajabi compare side by side?

Ranking criteria, in one line: 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 ranks first, Ruzuku second on cost and simplicity, and Kajabi third for coaching, though Kajabi wins on marketing scale.

Two things stand out. Ruzuku is much cheaper than Kajabi at every tier, and it charges no platform fee on any plan. Kajabi gives you far more marketing tools for the money, but you pay for them whether or not you use them.

What do Ruzuku and Kajabi cost in 2026?

As listed in October 2026, Ruzuku costs $0, $99 or $199 a month, and Kajabi costs $179, $249 or $499 a month. Annual billing lowers both: Ruzuku to $997 or $1,997 a year, Kajabi to $143, $199 or $399 a month billed yearly.

Ruzuku's annual per-month figures are its yearly totals divided by 12. Kajabi's annual figures come from the structured data on its pricing page. Kajabi's Kickstarter plan does not appear on the public pricing page, so we have left it out.

What does a year cost in practice?

Over twelve months on monthly billing, Ruzuku Core costs $1,188 and Ruzuku Pro $2,388. Kajabi Basic costs $2,148, Growth $2,988 and Pro $5,988. On annual billing the gap narrows a little but holds: $997 for Ruzuku Core against $1,716 for Kajabi Basic, and $1,997 for Ruzuku Pro against $4,788 for Kajabi Pro.

The fairest comparison is often Ruzuku Pro against Kajabi Basic, because both give you a branded, custom-domain presence. Ruzuku Pro is $20 a month more than Kajabi Basic, but it has unlimited students and courses, while Kajabi Basic caps you at 5 products and 2,500 contacts. Kajabi Basic, in turn, includes a website, funnels and email marketing that Ruzuku does not offer.

How do transaction fees compare?

Ruzuku states "0% transaction fees" on every plan, including Free; you pay only Stripe or PayPal processing, which Ruzuku describes as "typically 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction". Kajabi Payments in the US costs 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic, 2.8% + $0.30 on Growth and 2.7% + $0.30 on Pro. If you connect a different processor (other than PayPal), Kajabi adds its own fee on top: 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth and 0.5% on Pro.

An illustrative example: you sell $10,000 of courses in a year through your own Stripe account. On Ruzuku you pay Stripe's processing and nothing more. On Kajabi Basic with that same third-party processor, Kajabi's extra 2% adds $200 on top of processing. Use Kajabi Payments or PayPal and that surcharge disappears.

Free plans, trials and guarantees

• Ruzuku: a "Free forever" plan with no credit card, capped at 5 students enrolled at a time. No time-limited trial is stated. Paid plans carry a 30-day money-back guarantee if you cancel within 30 days of activating.
• Kajabi: no free plan. The standard trial is 14 days per its help center. A card is optional; if you enter one, Kajabi places an authorization hold and charges when the trial ends. Bulk contact import, test emails and some automations stay locked until you activate a paid plan. Every plan carries a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Ruzuku also lists 30% off annual plans for nonprofits, NGOs, government and education, and a one-time $4,950 Lifetime Pro option for grant-funded organizations. Kajabi lists add-ons: extra contacts at $125 a month per 25,000, and an AI credit top-up of $15 for 500 credits, marked as coming. Our Ruzuku pricing breakdown and Kajabi pricing guide go plan by plan.

How do the course builders compare?

Both build solid courses; Ruzuku keeps it simple and discussion-led, Kajabi wraps courses in a wider product catalog. The right one depends on how many products you plan to sell.

Ruzuku documents a course builder with video, audio, downloads, quizzes and discussions, with drip by enrollment date or by fixed dates. Every plan allows unlimited courses and unlimited video hosting. Core caps each video at 2 GB and streams up to 1080p; Pro raises that to 4 GB and 4K, and adds certificates of completion, co-teacher courses, AI transcription and captions, and custom registration fields.

Kajabi treats courses as one product type among several, and it counts them: 5 products on Basic, 50 on Growth, unlimited on Pro. If you sell a flagship course, a mini course, a membership and two downloads, you have already hit the Basic cap. For course-only buyers, Kajabi's breadth matters less than Ruzuku's unlimited courses.

If you are weighing other course hosts too, our Kajabi vs Thinkific and Kajabi vs Teachable comparisons cover the nearest alternatives.

Which is better for community and live sessions?

Ruzuku is stronger for live teaching on lower plans, because it has built-in video meetings; Kajabi is stronger for a standalone community, with up to 3 communities on Pro.

Ruzuku documents live video meetings for up to 60 people in conference mode or 250 in presentation mode, plus a Zoom integration, and Pro adds Zoom recording integration. Community discussions and direct messaging are on every plan, including Free. That makes Ruzuku a tidy home for a cohort course where students watch a lesson, discuss it, and join a weekly live call in the same place.

Kajabi includes 1 community on Basic and Growth and 3 on Pro. It is designed as a separate space alongside your courses, which suits a paid membership more than a cohort. Our Kajabi vs Circle and Kajabi vs Skool pieces compare it with community-first tools.

Can either one run 1:1 coaching?

Not well. Ruzuku states on its coaching page that clients schedule 1:1 time through your own calendar tool, and Kajabi's coaching runs through products and communities rather than per-client plans.

For a coach, that gap is the whole question. Neither tool documents habit tracking, daily check-ins or a private plan per client. Neither documents coaching agreements with e-signature, a client record that pulls sessions, notes and payments together, or reminders by SMS or WhatsApp. On Ruzuku you would add a booking tool, and probably a separate tool for contracts and invoices. On Kajabi, check during the trial how 1:1 sessions get scheduled, because its pricing page lists products, contacts, communities and websites rather than a booking calendar.

If your income comes mainly from 1:1 or small-group coaching, a platform built for it will save you the stitching. See Coachful's scheduling software and coaching software pages for what that looks like.

How do websites, funnels and email compare?

Kajabi wins clearly here. Ruzuku offers sales pages and, on Pro, a public storefront; Kajabi includes a website, unlimited funnels and landing pages, and marketing emails on every plan.

Kajabi's pitch is that your site, opt-ins, sales pages, email list and products sit in one account. Growth adds automation and an affiliate program, and Pro adds up to 3 websites for multiple brands. The trade-offs are the contact caps (2,500 on Basic, 25,000 on Growth) and the price.

Ruzuku gives every plan sales pages and payments, and Pro adds a public storefront, digital product sales, a custom domain, Meta Pixel and Google Analytics. It does not document an email marketing tool or a website builder beyond those pages, so most Ruzuku coaches pair it with a separate site and email service. That pairing is part of the real cost.

For a closer look at Kajabi's funnels against a coaching platform, read Coachful vs Kajabi for funnels and email.

What about payments, branding and data export?

Ruzuku supports Stripe and PayPal with one-time payments, subscriptions and installment plans. Kajabi supports Kajabi Payments, PayPal and other providers, with the surcharge described above.

Branding. Ruzuku reserves white-label branding, the custom domain and multiple instructor accounts for Pro. Kajabi's branded mobile app is a Pro feature per its comparison table, and Kajabi lists it as included with a "$199/mo value". Ruzuku has no native iOS or Android app.

Data. Ruzuku documents CSV export of student data; a course content export is not stated. It says courses, students and sales history are kept if you downgrade or cancel. Kajabi offers emailed CSV exports for contacts, subscriptions, sales and members, while course content is downloaded manually per asset; per our September 2026 profile, data is removed 90 days after cancellation. If you are leaving Kajabi, our guide on how to migrate from Kajabi lists the order of steps.

What is the client experience like on each?

On Ruzuku, your client is a student in a course: lessons, discussion threads, live meetings and messages, on the web or as a home-screen shortcut on mobile. On Kajabi, your client is a customer of a product or member of a community, with a branded app if you are on Pro.

One detail favours Ruzuku: tech support for your students is included on every plan, so a confused client can contact Ruzuku rather than you. That matters for a coach without an assistant.

What both experiences lack is a place where a client sees today's tasks, logs a habit, answers a check-in and books the next session. That is the day-to-day rhythm of a coaching program, and it is where clients drift if it lives in five different tools.

On public reviews: Kajabi had a Trustpilot score of 3.4 from 2,347 reviews when we checked on 25 October 2026. Ruzuku's Trustpilot profile had 0 reviews, and its homepage shows a G2 badge of 4.4 whose review count we could not verify. With so few public reviews of Ruzuku, we cannot fairly summarise what users say about it.

Which should you pick for your kind of coaching?

Pick Ruzuku for a low-cost course or cohort, Kajabi for a product-and-marketing business, and a coaching platform for client work. Here is how that maps by coach type.

Niche pages go further: for life coaches, for health coaches and for business coaches.

How can you test both before committing?

Run the same small scenario on each tool during its free period, then compare how many steps and extra tools it took. Ruzuku's Free plan and Kajabi's 14-day trial are enough for this.

1. Write down your real offer. For example (illustrative): a six-week group program with weekly lessons, one live call a week, and one 1:1 call per client at the start.
2. Build the first week. Upload one lesson, set the drip, and open a discussion thread or community post.
3. Take a test payment. Check which processor you will use, and on Kajabi, whether a third-party processor triggers the extra fee for your plan.
4. Book the 1:1 call. Note whether the booking happens inside the tool or needs a separate calendar app, and how the client finds the link.
5. Look at it as the client. Open the course on your phone and ask: where would a client see what to do today, and how would you know they did it?
6. Add up the stack. List every extra tool the scenario needed (booking, contracts, email, website) and its monthly cost, then add the platform price.

If step 4 or step 5 sent you to another tool, that is the signal to look at a coaching platform instead of a course host.

Is there a third option that beats both?

For coaches whose income comes from clients rather than course sales, yes: Coachful. It covers what Ruzuku and Kajabi do for courses and community, and adds the 1:1 and program side neither of them offers.

What Coachful is. 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 has one login; the client has one branded app. It is built for coaches who deliver programs, not just sessions, for solo coaches growing into a small team, and for coaches replacing 4 to 6 tools. The company is based in Tallinn, Estonia, and has a Trustpilot score of 4.5 from 21 reviews. 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).

Where Coachful beats Ruzuku and Kajabi

• Programs between sessions. Multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals with progress bars and streaks.
• Booking built in. Booking pages with availability rules, buffers, minimum notice and time-zone detection; two-way Google, Apple/iCloud and Outlook sync; built-in video or auto-created Zoom, Meet or Teams links; email reminders plus SMS and WhatsApp once messaging is enabled.
• Contracts and records. Coaching agreements with e-signature sent before the first call. Each client record holds goals, check-ins, habits, notes, intake answers, payments and sessions, with a status of thriving, active, quiet or at risk.
• Payments without a platform fee. Your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account; one-time, subscriptions, payment plans, order bumps, coupons, Apple Pay and Google Pay, Stripe Tax. Coachful takes 0% (since August 2026).
• Courses and community too. Courses with modules, drip and completion tracking; a community feed, group chat, direct messages and video events, with cohort groups created on program enrollment.
• Website, funnels and email. A section-based site builder with 30 designed homepage templates, booking, application, lead-magnet and checkout funnels, and email sequences with triggers, delays, branching and A/B splits.
• An AI assistant. Michelle works from live practice data: she builds programs, drafts emails, summarises recorded sessions and briefs you before sessions.

Here is a short walkthrough of how programs work inside Coachful.

Where Coachful does not beat them

• No permanent free plan. Ruzuku's Free plan has no equivalent; Coachful offers a free trial instead.
• No PayPal. Both Ruzuku and Kajabi accept PayPal; Coachful uses Stripe or Razorpay.
• Not a course marketplace. If you sell to strangers in volume and want a sprawling product catalog with three websites, Kajabi Pro is built for that.
• App listing. The client app runs under the Coachful listing with your branding, not under your own App Store account as Kajabi Pro's branded app can.
• Not HIPAA-certified. No BAA, so it is not for clinical record-keeping or insurance billing.
• Affiliate payouts are manual. Coachful tracks links, clicks, conversions and revenue, but you record payouts yourself.

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. On every plan, you can open Create and choose "We'll build it for you", describe what you want (a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline, email sequence, form and more), attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files, and the Coachful team builds it inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours. Nothing gets invented: no fake credentials, testimonials or prices; gaps are left for you to fill. One recent example: a somatic coach leaving Kajabi had the homepage and About page rebuilt and the contact form connected. It does not cover recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing. Read more about the free white-glove service.

How to start. Begin a free trial, request a white-glove build of your site or first program, and let the team import your clients, programs and content during onboarding. Monthly plans cancel in one click, and a full client data export as a ZIP is available whenever you need it. For a direct comparison, see Coachful vs Kajabi or our list of Ruzuku alternatives.

Frequently asked questions

Is Ruzuku cheaper than Kajabi?

Yes, at every tier. As listed in October 2026, Ruzuku costs $0, $99 or $199 a month, while Kajabi costs $179, $249 or $499. Ruzuku also has a free plan for up to 5 students at a time, and Kajabi does not.

Does Ruzuku charge transaction fees?

No. Ruzuku lists 0% transaction fees on every plan, including Free. You pay only Stripe or PayPal processing.

Does Kajabi charge transaction fees?

Kajabi Payments in the US costs 2.7% to 2.9% plus $0.30 depending on plan. With a third-party processor other than PayPal, Kajabi adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth or 0.5% on Pro on top of the provider's fees.

Can I book 1:1 coaching sessions in Ruzuku?

Not natively. Ruzuku's coaching page says clients schedule 1:1 time through your own calendar tool, so you would need a separate booking app. Coachful includes booking with two-way calendar sync.

Does Ruzuku have a mobile app?

No native iOS or Android app. Students use the mobile web version and can add it to their home screen. Kajabi offers a branded mobile app on Pro.

Which is better for a group coaching cohort?

Ruzuku is the simpler, cheaper fit for a course-led cohort, with built-in live meetings and discussions. If the cohort also needs habits, check-ins and 1:1 calls, a coaching platform like Coachful covers more. See group coaching software.

What do reviewers say about Ruzuku?

Very little publicly. Its Trustpilot profile had 0 reviews in October 2026, and its homepage shows a G2 badge of 4.4 whose review count we could not verify. Kajabi had 3.4 on Trustpilot from 2,347 reviews.

Can I move from Kajabi to Ruzuku or Coachful?

Yes. Kajabi emails CSV exports of contacts, subscriptions, sales and members, but course content has to be downloaded asset by asset. On Coachful, your clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding.

What is Coachful's free white-glove service?

It is a build service included on every Coachful plan. You describe what you need, such as a website, funnel, program or email sequence, attach links and files, and the team builds it in your account, usually within about 24 hours. It does not include recording videos, logo design or ad management.

Is Coachful HIPAA-compliant?

No. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and does not sign a BAA, so clinical records and insurance billing belong in a clinical system. Coaching is not treatment; refer clients to a licensed professional when their needs go beyond coaching.