Quick Verdict

Choose Kajabi if you're building a massive course empire and need built-in email marketing, sophisticated automation, and don't mind paying $89-$399/month forever. Choose Teachery if you want complete design control, 0% transaction fees, and prefer to own your platform with a $550 lifetime deal instead of renting it monthly.

Already leaning toward Teachery? You can start your 14-day free trial here — no credit card required. The lifetime deal alone saves you thousands compared to Kajabi's monthly fees.

Pricing Comparison: The Numbers Don't Lie

Here's where things get interesting. Kajabi's pricing looks reasonable until you do the math over 2-3 years.

Kajabi Pricing

• Kickstarter: $89/month ($948/year) — 1 product, 1,000 contacts

• Growth: $179/month ($1,908/year) — 15 products, 10,000 contacts

• Pro: $319/month ($3,396/year) — 100 products, 25,000 contacts

• Legacy: $399/month ($4,248/year) — 200 products, 100,000 contacts

Teachery Pricing

• Monthly: $49/month

• Annual: $470/year (saves $118)

• Lifetime: $550 one-time payment

Everything is unlimited: products, students, landing pages, custom domains. Zero transaction fees on all plans.

Real Talk: The Math

Kajabi's cheapest plan costs $948/year. Teachery's lifetime deal costs $550 once. After just seven months, you've already spent more on Kajabi than Teachery's lifetime price.

Over three years, Kajabi's basic plan costs $2,844. Teachery costs $550. That's $2,294 in savings — enough to hire a designer, run ads, or just keep in your pocket.

Feature-by-Feature Breakdown

Course Creation and Content Management

Kajabi wins on sophistication. Their course builder includes assessments, certificates, community features, and advanced drip scheduling. You can create complex learning paths with prerequisites and conditional logic.

Teachery keeps it simpler but covers the essentials: video/audio uploads, text lessons, file downloads, and drip content scheduling. You won't get quizzes or certificates, but you'll get students through your content without confusion.

If you're teaching complex subjects that need assessments and branching paths, Kajabi's your pick. If you want students focused on learning (not navigating features), Teachery works better.

Design and Customization

This is where Teachery demolishes Kajabi. We're not talking about choosing from 20 templates — we're talking about customizing every pixel.

With Teachery, you can:

• Upload custom fonts (any font file)

• Customize every color, spacing, and layout element

• Create completely unique designs that don't scream "course platform"

• Make your sales pages look like custom websites

Kajabi gives you nice-looking templates, but every Kajabi site has that "Kajabi look." You're essentially renting their design system.

Here's the thing: your brand matters. If you want your course platform to look like an extension of your brand (not like every other online course), Teachery's design flexibility is unmatched.

Payment Processing and Transaction Fees

Teachery wins this one decisively.

Kajabi charges standard Stripe fees (2.9% + 30¢) but no additional transaction fees on any plan. Teachery also charges 0% transaction fees and uses Stripe for processing.

Both platforms integrate with PayPal and Stripe. Both handle subscription billing, one-time payments, and payment plans. The difference? Kajabi locks you into their payment flow. Teachery gives you more control over the checkout experience.

Student Management

Kajabi's student management is comprehensive — detailed progress tracking, engagement analytics, and automated communications based on student behavior. You can see exactly where students get stuck and send targeted messages.

Teachery covers the basics: student enrollment, progress tracking, and communication tools. You can see who's active and who isn't, but you won't get Kajabi's detailed behavioral analytics.

If you're running a large-scale course business and need deep student insights, Kajabi's worth the premium. For most course creators, Teachery's student management does everything you need.

Marketing Tools

Kajabi wins big here. They include email marketing, automation sequences, and funnel builders right in the platform. You can build complete marketing funnels without touching another tool.

Teachery doesn't include email marketing — you'll need ConvertKit, Mailchimp, or similar. But here's what Teachery does well: landing pages and sales pages that actually convert. Their design flexibility means your sales pages can look like custom websites, not generic course platform templates.

The trade-off: Kajabi's all-in-one approach costs $89-$399/month. Teachery + ConvertKit costs about $80/month total (and you own Teachery forever with the lifetime deal).

Integrations

Both platforms play nice with popular tools:

Kajabi integrates with: Zapier, Mailchimp (though why would you with their built-in email?), Facebook, Google Analytics, and most major tools.

Teachery integrates with: Zapier, ConvertKit, Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, and other marketing tools. The key difference? Teachery's designed to work with your existing marketing stack instead of replacing it.

Customer Support

Kajabi offers 24/7 chat support and extensive documentation. Their support team is responsive and knowledgeable — you're paying for premium support with those monthly fees.

Teachery provides email support during business hours and solid documentation. Response times are typically within 24 hours. The support is personal (you're not ticket #47,382), but it's not 24/7.

Fair trade: Kajabi's enterprise-level support costs enterprise prices. Teachery's support is good enough for most creators at a fraction of the cost.

Who Kajabi Is Best For

Kajabi makes sense if you check most of these boxes:

• You're building a course empire: Multiple products, thousands of students, complex funnels

• You want everything in one platform: Courses, email marketing, funnels, analytics — the works

• You have the budget: $89-$399/month doesn't make you wince

• You need advanced features: Assessments, certificates, detailed analytics, sophisticated automation

• You don't care about design uniqueness: Kajabi's templates look professional enough for your brand

Kajabi is the platform for serious course creators who want to scale big and fast. If you're aiming to become the next Amy Porterfield or Pat Flynn, Kajabi's feature set supports that vision.

But here's the honest truth: most course creators never need Kajabi's advanced features. You're paying for sophistication you might never use.

Who Teachery Is Best For

Teachery is perfect if you're nodding along to these:

• You want to own your platform: Pay once, use forever appeals to you

• Design matters to your brand: You want your course platform to look unique, not template-y

• You're budget-conscious: Saving $2,000+ over three years sounds pretty good

• You already have marketing tools: ConvertKit, Mailchimp, etc., and don't want to switch

• You prefer simplicity: Clean, focused course delivery without feature bloat

• You're starting or scaling smartly: You want room to grow without platform costs spiraling

Teachery works especially well for:

• Designers, photographers, and creative professionals who need brand control

• Business coaches who want professional-looking client portals

• Service providers selling templates, downloads, and courses together

• Anyone who's tired of monthly software subscriptions eating their profits

We've seen photographers use Teachery to create stunning client portal experiences. Business coaches build comprehensive training programs that look nothing like "online courses." The design flexibility lets your personality and brand shine through.

The Bottom Line

Here's our honest recommendation: Start with Teachery unless you specifically need Kajabi's advanced features.

Most course creators get seduced by Kajabi's marketing and feature lists, then realize they're paying $2,000+ per year for email marketing and assessments they barely use. Meanwhile, their courses look like every other Kajabi course.

Teachery's lifetime deal changes the game completely. For $550, you get a platform that grows with your business without growing monthly costs. The design flexibility means your courses can look as unique as your teaching style.

Sound familiar? You want to focus on creating and teaching, not managing a dozen marketing tools or paying platform rent forever.

If you're ready to see what a truly customizable course platform looks like, check out Teachery's pricing and lifetime deal. The 14-day free trial gives you plenty of time to build a test course and see if the design flexibility lives up to the hype.

Your future self will thank you for those monthly subscription savings. Trust us on this one.

Want more guidance on launching your first digital product? Read our guide on how to launch a digital product with no audience — it's more doable than you think.