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Kajabi does a lot. Courses, community, email, landing pages, payments, all under one login. But when you’re selling one course to a few hundred people, paying Kajabi prices every month can feel like renting a stadium for a book club. That’s why so many people go looking for Kajabi alternatives for small creators: they want most of the same toolkit without the big monthly bill.
The good news is there are solid options. The tricky part is that each one cuts costs in a different place. Some charge a transaction fee on cheaper plans. Some cap your email list. Some don’t have a mobile app.
So I compared four popular alternatives — Heights Platform, Thinkific, Teachable, and Podia — against Kajabi, by going through their pricing pages, plan limits, and feature lists. The question was simple: which one lets a solo creator or small training business run a course and a community for the least money and the fewest surprises?
Why small creators outgrow (or never fit) Kajabi
Kajabi is built to grow with big creator businesses, and its pricing reflects that. For a coach, consultant, or solo course creator, a few problems tend to show up:
- The entry price is high for where you are. At the time of writing, Kajabi’s Basic plan is $143 a month billed annually, according to its pricing page. That’s a lot to pay before your first course has paid for itself.
- The limits arrive faster than you’d think. Basic includes 5 products and 2,500 contacts. A course, a community, a mini-course, and a coaching offer use up most of that quickly.
- You’re paying for features you don’t use yet. Funnels, landing pages, and advanced automations are great, but plenty of creators just need a course player, a community, and a way to email students.
- Switching later feels scary. Once your students, emails, and payments live in one tool, moving is a real project. So it pays to pick a platform that fits your size from the start.
The right platform is one you can afford in a slow month, that holds your course and your community in one place, and that doesn’t take a cut of every sale.
How I compared these platforms
I focused on five things that decide whether a course platform still makes sense a year in.
1. What you’ll actually pay, including fees
Monthly price is only half the story. Some plans add a transaction fee on every sale, which can cost more than the plan itself once you start selling. I looked at both.
2. Student and product limits
Some platforms cap how many students you can have. Others cap how many courses or products you can publish. I checked where each limit kicks in.
3. Community features
Many creators now sell a course plus a community, or a membership built around one. I checked which plans include a community and how it’s set up.
4. Email marketing
Being able to email your students and your list from the same tool saves you a separate subscription. I checked whether email is built in and how big your list can get.
5. Mobile app
Students increasingly watch lessons and check in on community posts from their phones. I looked at whether each platform offers a mobile app for students, and whether a branded app costs extra.
Kajabi alternatives compared
Here’s a quick overview. Prices are per month, based on published rates at the time of writing. Kajabi, Thinkific, Teachable, and Podia are shown billed annually. Heights Platform lists monthly prices and says annual plans save 20%. “Platform fee” means the platform’s own cut on top of standard card processing (around 2.9% + 30¢ per sale on most of these). Always check the official pricing pages before you buy.
| Tool | Starting price | Platform fee | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heights Platform | $49/mo (Basic, with community) | 0% on all plans | Course + community on a budget |
| Kajabi (reference) | $143/mo (Basic) | None with Kajabi Payments | All-in-one marketing, bigger budgets |
| Thinkific | $40/mo (Basic) | 0% with Thinkific Payments | Course-first creators |
| Teachable | $29/mo (Starter) | 7.5% on Starter, 0% from Builder | Simple course sales |
| Podia | $42/mo (Mover) | 5% on Mover, 0% from Shaker | Digital products and a simple storefront |
Now let’s look at each one more closely, starting with Kajabi as the reference point.
Kajabi (the reference point)
Kajabi is an all-in-one platform for courses, coaching, communities, email marketing, funnels, and websites. It’s the tool the others are usually measured against.
According to Kajabi’s pricing page, Basic is $179 per month, or $143 a month billed annually. It includes 5 products, 2,500 contacts, unlimited marketing emails, 2 admin users, and 1 community. Growth is $249 a month ($199 billed annually) with 50 products, 25,000 contacts, and 11 admin users. Pro is $499 a month ($399 billed annually) with unlimited products, 100,000 contacts, 3 communities, and a branded mobile app included. On fees, Kajabi Payments charges a processing rate starting at 2.9% + 30¢, and the pricing page lists an extra fee on lower plans if you use a third-party payment processor instead. Members can use the free Kajabi mobile app on iOS and Android to access courses, and Kajabi’s help center lists a 14-day free trial.
What stands out: Everything is genuinely in one place. Email, pages, checkout, courses, and community share one contact list, so you’re not stitching tools together.
The catch: The price. For a creator with one course and a small community, Basic costs roughly three times what most of the alternatives below charge for a similar setup. And with 5 products and 2,500 contacts, you may hit a limit and need Growth sooner than you planned.
Heights Platform
Heights Platform is an all-in-one tool for selling online courses and running a community, aimed at creators, coaches, and small training businesses. You build courses, host videos, run discussion channels, send emails, and take payments without bolting on extra apps.
According to Heights Platform’s pricing page, the Challenge plan is $29 a month and covers 1 course or challenge and up to 100 active students, with no community channels. Basic is $49 a month and adds unlimited courses, unlimited community channels, up to 5,000 active students, email to 5,000 contacts, digital products, and live streaming. Pro is $119 a month and raises the limits to 10,000 active students and 10,000 email contacts, adds a custom domain, removes Heights branding, includes 2 admin users and weekly coaching. A larger Academy plan is available for big creators and organizations. Heights says annual plans save 20%, and every plan comes with a 30-day free trial with no credit card required.
On fees, Heights says it charges zero transaction fees on payments you collect. You pay only the standard Stripe or PayPal processing fees. Payment options include one-time payments, subscriptions, and installment plans. All plans include unlimited video hosting, certificates, gamification with badges and points, learner analytics, coupons, and lesson email sequences, plus cart recovery emails.
What stands out: Basic gives you courses and a community together, with no transaction fee, at a price close to the cheapest plans here. For a coach or small training business that wants students learning and talking in the same place, that’s a strong combination for the money. The 30-day trial without a credit card is also one of the more relaxed ways to test a platform.
The catch: There’s no native iOS or Android app. Students use Heights in a mobile browser, and Heights offers desktop apps for Mac and PC. If your audience mostly learns on their phones and expects an app, that’s worth weighing. Also, Basic runs on a Heights subdomain with Heights branding. A custom domain and a white-label look start on Pro at $119 a month.
Thinkific
Thinkific is a course platform that has grown into communities, memberships, and digital downloads, with a strong focus on the learning experience itself.
According to Thinkific’s pricing page, Basic is $54 a month or $40 a month billed annually, Start is $109 a month or $82 billed annually, and Grow is $219 a month or $164 billed annually. All three list up to 10,000 current students and unlimited courses. Basic and Start include 1 community, and Grow includes 3. Email automation, including abandoned cart emails, is listed on all plans. Thinkific says it charges zero transaction fees on paid plans when you use its own checkout. A branded mobile app is available as a $199-a-month add-on. There’s a 30-day free trial.
What stands out: The annual Basic plan is one of the lowest entry prices here, with no transaction fee on Thinkific’s own checkout. The course builder is mature, and if courses are clearly the main product, Thinkific is a safe, well-known choice.
The catch: Some features creators want for a course-plus-membership business sit on Start or higher. Podia’s comparison page, for example, notes that memberships aren’t included until Start. And a branded app at $199 a month costs more than most of the plans in this article.
Teachable
Teachable is one of the best-known names in online courses. It’s built for selling courses, coaching, and digital downloads with as little setup as possible.
According to Teachable’s pricing page, Starter is $39 a month or $29 billed annually, with 5 products and a 7.5% transaction fee on sales. Builder is $89 a month or $69 billed annually, with 10 products and a 0% transaction fee. Growth is $189 a month or $139 billed annually, with 50 products and 5 admin users. Students are unlimited on every plan, and built-in email marketing is listed across the board. The Community feature starts on Builder. Teachable offers iOS and Android apps for students and a 7-day free trial.
What stands out: Student apps on every plan, unlimited students, and a well-known checkout. If you want students to have a proper app without paying extra, Teachable is one of the few on this list that offers it at the entry level.
The catch: Starter’s 7.5% fee adds up fast. On $10,000 a year in sales, that’s $750 on top of the plan price. And Starter has no community, so for a course-plus-community setup, Builder is the real starting point.
Podia
Podia is an all-in-one storefront for courses, digital downloads, webinars, coaching, and communities, with a simple website builder and email built in.
According to Podia’s own comparison pages, Mover is $49 a month or $42 billed annually, with 50 products, 25 community spaces, up to 100 email subscribers, and a 5% transaction fee. Shaker is $99 a month or $84 billed annually, with 150 products, 100 community spaces, up to 500 email subscribers, affiliate marketing, and no transaction fee. Earthquaker is $179 a month or $150 billed annually, with unlimited products and community spaces and up to 1,000 email subscribers. Podia lists unlimited students on all plans and includes community on every plan. It also offers free migrations when you move from another platform.
What stands out: If you sell several kinds of products (a course, a template pack, a webinar), Podia’s storefront approach and generous product limits are easy to work with. Community is included from the first plan.
The catch: The email subscriber caps are tight. Up to 100 subscribers on Mover and 500 on Shaker means you’ll likely need a separate email tool once your list grows. And the 5% fee on Mover makes Shaker the more realistic plan for anyone with steady sales. I also didn’t find a dedicated student mobile app mentioned on the Podia pages I reviewed, so check that if it matters to you.
What a small creator would pay in a year
Let’s make the pricing concrete. Picture a creator with one course and a community, a few hundred students, about 2,000 email contacts, and $10,000 a year in sales. Here’s a rough yearly cost based on published rates at the time of writing. Card processing fees (around 2.9% + 30¢ per sale) apply on top of every option, so they’re left out.
| Tool and plan | Fits this setup? | Platform fee on $10k | Rough yearly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thinkific Basic | Yes (1 community) | $0 (own checkout) | $475 |
| Heights Platform Basic | Yes, Heights subdomain | $0 | About $470 annual, $588 monthly |
| Teachable Builder | Yes | $0 | $828 |
| Podia Mover | Email capped at 100 | $500 | About $1,004 |
| Teachable Starter | No community | $750 | About $1,098 |
| Heights Platform Pro | Yes, custom domain | $0 | About $1,142 annual, $1,428 monthly |
| Kajabi Basic | Yes | $0 with Kajabi Payments | $1,716 |
Heights Platform’s annual figures are estimates, since its pricing page shows monthly prices and a 20% annual saving rather than a yearly total.
A few things jump out:
- Heights Platform Basic and Thinkific Basic are the cheapest ways here to run a course plus a community with no platform fee. Heights includes unlimited courses and community channels on that plan. With Thinkific, check whether you need Start for membership-style features.
- Transaction fees matter more than the sticker price. Teachable Starter looks cheapest on paper, but the 7.5% fee pushes it past Teachable Builder once you’re selling.
- Podia’s real cost depends on your list. If you’ll email more than a few hundred people, budget for a separate email tool or a higher plan.
- Kajabi costs roughly three to four times what the cheapest options charge for this setup. You get more marketing tools for that money, but many small creators won’t use them early on.
These are rough numbers. If you’re not sure the platform will stick, it can make sense to start on monthly billing and switch to annual once your course is selling.
Signs Kajabi is more than you need right now
Kajabi is a strong product. It’s just not built around a small budget. Here are some signs an alternative might fit better:
- Your platform bill is bigger than your course income. If you’re paying for the tool before it pays for itself, a cheaper plan buys you time.
- You have one or two offers. A course and a community don’t need 50 product slots.
- You don’t use the funnels or landing page builder. If your sales page is one simple page, you’re paying for tools you skip.
- Your list is under a few thousand contacts. Kajabi’s higher contact limits only matter once your list is big.
- Your students mostly want a place to learn and talk. A course player and a community cover most of what coaches and small training businesses need.
If two or more of these sound familiar, any of the four alternatives above could save you real money.
What to set up first
A new course platform can feel like a big build. It doesn’t have to be. Start small:
- Connect payments. Hook up Stripe or PayPal (or the platform’s own checkout) and run a test purchase before anything else.
- Upload one module, not the whole course. Get the first lessons live, check how they look on a phone, then fill in the rest. Simple visuals help here too, like a one-page worksheet or summary graphic for each module (see my picks for the best infographic maker for small business).
- Open one community space. A single “Introductions” or “Wins” channel is enough to get students talking. More channels can come later.
- Write a three-email welcome sequence. Welcome, how to get started, and a quick check-in a week later. If you manage leads and clients outside the platform too, a simple CRM helps (here’s my roundup of the best affordable CRM for small business).
- Invite a few beta students. Friends, past clients, or a small discount group. Their questions will show you what to fix first.
Features you can skip at first
Course platform pricing pages are full of extras that small creators don’t need on day one:
- A branded mobile app. Nice to have, but at around $199 a month on some platforms, it’s rarely worth it early. A good mobile browser experience or a free student app covers most needs.
- Advanced funnels and upsell flows. One clear sales page and a checkout are enough to start.
- Affiliate programs for your own course. Useful once you have happy students to share it, but not for your first launch.
- Multiple admin seats. If it’s just you, one login is fine. Add seats when you hire help.
What you shouldn’t skip: a plan with no transaction fee once you’re selling regularly, a place for students to talk, and a way to email them.
Which Kajabi alternative is right for you?
1. Coaches and small training businesses that want a course and a community together
This is where Heights Platform fits best, and it’s my top pick for this group. Basic includes unlimited courses, unlimited community channels, email to 5,000 contacts, and live streaming, with zero transaction fees, for a fraction of Kajabi’s price. Start on Basic, and move to Pro once you want your own domain and no Heights branding. Just check that browser-based mobile access works for your students.
2. Course-first creators who want a well-known platform
If the course is clearly the main product, Thinkific is a solid, budget-friendly choice with a mature course builder and no fee on its own checkout. Teachable Builder is worth a look too, especially if you want free iOS and Android apps for your students.
3. Creators who sell lots of small products
If your business is a mix of courses, templates, downloads, and webinars, Podia makes it easy to sell all of them from one storefront. Go with Shaker if you’re selling steadily, and plan for a separate email tool if your list will grow past a few hundred.
A few tips before you start a trial
- Use real content. Upload a real lesson and post in the community as if you were a student.
- Check it on your phone. Open a lesson and the community on a phone, since that’s where many of your students will be.
- Do the fee math. Multiply your expected yearly sales by the plan’s transaction fee and add it to the plan price.
- Look one plan up. Check what you’d pay once you need a custom domain, more contacts, or branding removed, not just the starting price.
The bottom line
For most small creators, the best Kajabi alternative isn’t the one with the longest feature list. It’s the one you can comfortably afford in a slow month, that keeps your course and your community together, and that doesn’t take a cut of every sale.
If courses are the whole business, Thinkific is a safe choice. If you sell lots of different products, Podia fits. But if you want to run a course and a community side by side without paying Kajabi prices, Heights Platform was the most affordable all-in-one option I found.
Want to see if it fits your business? Heights Platform offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. Build one module, open a community channel, and invite a few students. You’ll know quickly whether it’s the right home for your course.
FAQ
What is the best Kajabi alternative for small creators?
It depends on what you sell. For a course plus a community on a budget, Heights Platform is a strong fit, with zero transaction fees and unlimited courses and community channels on its Basic plan. For course-first businesses, Thinkific and Teachable are well-known options. If you sell many kinds of digital products, Podia is worth a look.
Is Heights Platform cheaper than Kajabi?
At the time of writing, yes. Heights Platform’s Basic plan is $49 a month (with a 20% saving on annual plans), while Kajabi’s Basic plan is $143 a month billed annually. Neither charges its own transaction fee when you use their standard checkout, though card processing fees still apply.
Does Heights Platform charge transaction fees?
No. Heights Platform says it charges zero transaction fees on payments you collect. You pay only the standard Stripe or PayPal processing fees, which are typically around 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction.
Do Kajabi alternatives have a mobile app?
Some do. Teachable offers iOS and Android apps for students, Kajabi has a free member app, and Thinkific offers a branded app as a paid add-on. Heights Platform works in a mobile browser and offers desktop apps for Mac and PC, but doesn’t have a native phone app.
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