Kajabi vs Teachable: The Real Cost per Sale

The short answer: Teachable is cheaper until roughly $2,000 in monthly course sales, at which point its 5% Basic-plan transaction fee plus a $30–50 external email tool pushes its effective cost past Kajabi’s $149 flat rate. Kajabi costs more up front but replaces your email platform, funnel builder, and website, and never touches your revenue. If you have not sold a course yet, neither price is easy to justify — which is why our budget pick, Systeme.io, gets its own section below.

What each platform actually charges

Kajabi runs three main tiers: $149, $199, and $399 per month. A Kickstarter tier exists at $69, but its limits (one product, one funnel, capped contacts) make it a trial with a credit card attached, not a plan you stay on. Every Kajabi tier takes 0% of your sales and includes email marketing, funnels, and a website. All prices on this page are list prices; promotional and annual rates vary.

Teachable starts at free — with a $1 + 10% fee on every sale. Paid plans run $39, $119, and $249 per month, with discounts for annual billing. The $39 Basic plan still takes 5% of each transaction. The fee drops to 0% only from Pro ($119) up. And Teachable’s built-in email is limited enough that most sellers add an external email service provider at $30–50 per month.

The math at $500, $2,000, and $10,000 per month

Sticker prices hide the real comparison. Teachable’s cost moves with your revenue; Kajabi’s does not. Here is the effective monthly cost at three sales levels, assuming Teachable Basic at $39 with its 5% fee, a $40 ESP for Teachable, and Kajabi’s $149 entry plan.

The crossover is earlier than most comparisons admit. On platform fees alone, Teachable Basic matches Kajabi at $2,200 in monthly sales. Add the ESP most Teachable sellers end up paying for, and the crossover drops to roughly $1,400. Below that, Teachable is genuinely cheaper. Above it, the 5% fee is a tax on growth.

The obvious counter: upgrade to Teachable Pro at $119 and the transaction fee goes to 0%. That works. At $10,000 in sales, Pro plus a $40 ESP runs about $159 — ten dollars more than Kajabi’s entry plan, for less included tooling. At that point you are paying two vendors to approximate what one vendor sells for the same money. Some sellers still prefer it; the arithmetic no longer favors it.

Where each platform earns its price

Neither platform has a RealCostLabs Lab Score yet; we publish scores only after full testing. The pricing above is verified from public list prices as of early 2026 and should be treated as ranges — both companies run promotions and annual discounts that change the exact figures.

Which one should you pay for

Pick Kajabi if you are replacing a full stack — email platform, funnel software, website builder — and you are selling seriously. Its $149 is expensive as a course host and reasonable as a consolidated marketing bill. The 0% fee means your costs stay flat while revenue grows, which is the entire point of a flat subscription.

Pick Teachable if this is your first course and you want minimal money at risk. The free plan’s $1 + 10% per sale is steep as a percentage but costs you nothing in a month where you sell nothing. Move to Basic at $39 once sales are steady, and revisit the math when you clear $1,500 a month.

The budget angle: Systeme.io does 80% of this for 20% of the price

Here is the option neither company mentions. Systeme.io — our highest-rated budget platform at 9.0/10 — bundles course hosting, sales funnels, and email marketing, the same three jobs Kajabi charges $149 for. Its free plan is genuinely free, with no transaction fees on paid tiers, and paid plans run $27 to $97 per month.

The trade-offs are real: the course player is plainer than Kajabi’s, the template library is smaller, and the analytics are thinner. But at $27 a month a creator selling $2,000 of courses keeps $122 more per month than on Kajabi and $152 more than on Teachable Basic with an ESP. For a first or second course, that gap funds your ad budget. The full breakdown is in our Systeme.io pricing analysis.