Coachful vs Kajabi for coaches: course platform or coaching platform
The short answer
Kajabi is the stronger course and marketing machine, and its Coaching product has a native scheduler and built-in live video. The gap is the daily coaching layer (habits, check-ins, progress) and price: Basic is $179/mo with a 5-product cap, and using your own Stripe adds a 0.5-2% surcharge. Coachful delivers programs and habits natively on Solo at $49/mo with unlimited clients.
Pricing and features checked September 2026. We link every source at the bottom of the page.
Eight things a coaching business needs,
scored side by side.
Each group is scored 0 to 5 from the 26 capabilities in the full matrix below. A full point means it is native, half means partial or an add-on.
Coachful
4.6 / 5
Kajabi
3.9 / 5
Coaching delivery
Scheduling & sessions
Getting paid
Marketing & growth
Community & content
Client management
Brand & apps
AI & platform
What each one costs,
and what it costs once you add the rest.
With CoachfulCoachful
coaching platform
Lite
Up to 5 clients. Every feature.
$29/mo
$19/mo annual
Solo
Unlimited clients.
$49/mo
$39/mo annual
Pro
Unlimited clients, Coachful Intelligence.
$99/mo
$79/mo annual
Studio
3 coach seats.
$199/mo
$159/mo annual
- Fees0% platform fee. You keep everything after Stripe or Razorpay processing.
- ModelFlat monthly price. Lite is capped at 5 clients; every other plan is unlimited clients.
- Trial7-day free trial. Card required at signup, no charge during the trial, cancel in one click.
Kajabi
course platform
Kickstarter
Removed from public pricing page in January 2026; reportedly still surfaces in-trial or via support. 250…
$89/mo
$71/mo annual
Basic
5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 community, 1 website, 2 admin users, 0 AI credits, unlimited landing…
$179/mo
$143/mo annual
Growth
50 products, 25,000 contacts, 1 community, 11 admin users, 500 AI credits, affiliate program, branded mobile…
$249/mo
$199/mo annual
Pro
Unlimited products, 100,000 contacts, 3 communities, 3 websites, 26 admin users, 1,000 AI credits
$499/mo
$399/mo annual
- Fees0% platform fee when using Kajabi Payments (processing 2.9% + $0.30 Basic, 2.8% + $0.30 Growth, 2.7% + $0.30 Pro). If you use your own Stripe/PayPal, Kajabi adds a…
- ModelPriced per plan by product/contact/admin-user caps, not per member. Admin users: 2 / 11 / 26.
- TrialFree trial on any plan; kajabi.com/pricing says 'Try Kajabi for 1 month, on us!' (third-party sources report 14 days via direct signup and 30 days via partner links).…
The true cost of your stack
Kajabi plus the tools it does not cover
We pre-selected what Kajabi lacks. Toggle anything you would actually buy. Entry-tier prices, September 2026.
Kajabi + 2 tools
$134/mo
$89 Kajabi + $45 in add-ons. 3 logins for your clients.
Coachful Solo, everything included
$49/mo
Saves $85/mo, $1020/yr.
Twenty-six capabilities,
nothing hidden in the footnotes.
Tap any cell for the specific detail behind it. Partial means it exists with real limits, or needs an add-on.
What matters most here
Fair play first,
then the honest answer.
Kajabi is genuinely all-in-one for a knowledge business, with website, email, funnels, checkout, courses, communities and coaching sharing one contact record, and a branded mobile app included on Growth and Pro rather than sold as an add-on.
With CoachfulPick Coachful if…
- Your clients need daily structure: habits, morning and evening check-ins, streaks and goals with progress bars. Kajabi's Coaching product is session-centric and has none of that.
- You are earlier than $5k/mo. Kajabi Basic is $179/mo ($143 annual) with 5 products and 2,500 contacts; Coachful Solo is $49/mo with unlimited clients.
- You want contracts with e-signature sent before the first call and SMS or WhatsApp session reminders. Kajabi has neither natively.
- You use your own Stripe account and do not want a 0.5-2% surcharge on top of processing. Coachful charges 0% platform fee.
Pick Kajabi if…
- Your revenue is mostly courses and memberships, and coaching is the upsell. Kajabi's video hosting, drip, quizzes, assessments and certificates are the core product.
- You run big group sessions. Kajabi's built-in live video handles up to 200 participants with 20 breakout rooms.
- You want your own affiliate program and a large ecosystem of templates and experts. That is on Growth at $249/mo and above.
- You have several admins. Kajabi allows 2, 11 or 26 admin users by plan; Coachful Studio has 3 seats and Agency 6.
Real ratings,
the good and the bad.
Scores and counts as published on each review site when we checked. We do not curate them.
Coachful
- Trustpilot★★★★★4.5(21)
Praised for
- Coaching delivery (programs, habits, check-ins) is native, not bolted on
- Scheduling, payments, contracts, website, community and email in one subscription
- Flat pricing with unlimited clients from $49/mo and no platform fee
Complaints
- Younger product with a smaller public review footprint than 10-year-old tools
- No Apple Calendar sync yet (Google and Outlook only)
- Mobile app is branded, not fully white-labelled under your own App Store listing
Kajabi
- G2★★★★★4.1(93)
- Capterra★★★★★4.4(226)
- Trustpilot★★★★★3.5(2337)
Praised for
- Genuinely all-in-one: website, email marketing, funnels, checkout, courses, communities and coaching share one contact record
- Coaching product has native scheduler, built-in live video, session notes and milestone-based programs - more than any other course platform here
- Branded mobile app included on Growth/Pro rather than a $199+/mo add-on
Complaints
- January 2026 restructure raised prices 25-61%, cut Basic contacts from 10,000 to 2,500, removed Kickstarter from public pricing and added a surcharge for third-party processors; existing customers were not…
- Trustpilot complaints about AI-first support that cannot escalate to humans, unexpected charges, failed cancellations and data-retrieval fees
- Value-for-money is the weakest Capterra sub-score (3.7/5); no AI credits and no affiliate program on Basic
Leaving is easier than
you have been told.
Getting your data out of Kajabi
- Export
- CSV exports for contacts, subscriptions, sales and members from within the dashboard (emailed CSV); course content must be downloaded manually per asset.
- Lock-in
- Monthly or annual; annual is non-refundable mid-term beyond the 30-day first-payment guarantee. Cancellation ends access at period end; data permanently removed 90 days after cancellation.
- Worth knowing
- Trustpilot reviewers report difficulty cancelling and being asked to pay to retrieve customer data; export everything before cancelling.
With CoachfulMoving in
Send us your export
CSV of clients, your packages, your program outlines. We map the fields.
We rebuild it with you
Programs, booking pages, contracts and payments set up on an onboarding call.
Clients get one invite
They log into your branded home on web and mobile. Nothing to re-explain.
Full client data ZIP (roster, notes, check-ins, goals, habits, sessions, form responses), course export, org backup JSON. And if you ever leave: monthly plans, cancel in one click. data stays until you ask for deletion.
Coaches who made the switch
I tried running my coaching business across five different apps. It was a complete waste of time and money. Then I found Coachful. It was everything I need in one platform.
Christopher Duff
Founder, Duff X Athletics
It’s the coaching platform I always wanted — it just didn’t exist yet. I have one dashboard for everything and already saved $1,300 by cancelling all the tech I had duct-taped together.
Emily F.
Coach · United States
Fantastic piece of software for coaches who want everything to be in one place. The Coachful team have been amazing at being on hand to help get everything set up. Would highly recommend!
Luis
Coach · United Kingdom
Sources and verification dates
See Coachful run a coaching business in under 5 minutes
A real walkthrough, no narrator voice, no slides.
Everything a coach needs, in one place
Coachful vs Kajabi, answered
The questions coaches ask before choosing.
Ready to leave Kajabi behind?
Programs, scheduling, payments, community and your website in one login. 7-day free trial, cancel in one click.
Built for coaches who take their clients seriously
