Kajabi vs Kartra Comparison 2026
Kajabi starts at $143 a month billed annually, with 2,500 contacts and no transaction fee beyond standard payment processing. Kartra starts cheaper at $59 a month, but its entry tier caps out at 500 contacts and takes a 5 percent cut of everything sold, a cost Kajabi does not add. The axis is real cost against sticker price: 5 percent of $5,000 in monthly sales is $250, which changes the comparison well before Kartra's dearer tiers even come into it.
Courses, funnels and email under one roof
Courses, funnels and email with a cart attached
At a glance
- Kartra starts cheaper, at $59.
- Neither has a free tier.
Side by side
Kajabi | Kartra | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $143 | From $59 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Free trial, then paid | Paid subscription |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | Yes |
Kajabi
Courses, funnels and email under one roof
Kajabi is the expensive end of course platforms and sells the reason for it plainly: landing pages, email, checkout, community and the course itself all built by one company, so nothing has to be wired together. Coaches with a working offer tend to stay. Anybody still testing whether the offer works is paying several hundred a month to find out.
Our note
This is the expensive end of the category by a distance, and the money buys one bill and one support line rather than a better course player. Worth it once the offer is proven. An expensive way to find out whether it sells.
Only on this side
- Covers memberships & subscriptions
Kartra
Courses, funnels and email with a cart attached
Kartra sells the whole stack in one subscription: pages, checkout, email, membership and the course itself, with everything wired together on arrival. The trade is stated plainly on the pricing page, because the cheapest plan takes five percent of what you sell. Contact limits are the other constraint and they bind sooner than most people expect. Anybody with an email platform they like is paying twice.
Why people weigh these two
- Kartra instead of Kajabi
- Kartra bundles courses, funnels and email the same way, starting at $59 against Kajabi's $143 a month, without Kajabi's polish but at well under half the price.
- Kajabi instead of Kartra
- Kajabi bundles the same courses, funnels and email under one roof, starting at $143 against Kartra's $59, a pricier all-in-one bet with a free trial to test it first.
Which one should you pick
Choose Kajabi once the offer is proven and revenue justifies one bill and one support line over saving money, since $143 a month buys 2,500 contacts with no percentage taken from sales. It is the expensive end of the category by a distance, and testing whether an offer even sells here is an expensive way to find out.
Choose Kartra if $59 a month fits the budget better and sales volume is modest enough that 5 percent does not add up to real money. Model the transaction fee against expected sales before committing to the entry tier, because at any real volume the dearer Kartra tier, or Kajabi outright, becomes the cheaper choice once the percentage stops applying.
Common questions
- Which one is cheaper?
- Kartra's sticker price is lower, $59 a month against Kajabi's $143. But Kartra's entry tier takes 5 percent of sales, which Kajabi does not, so the real cost crosses over at real sales volume, for example $250 a month in fees on $5,000 of sales.
- Does Kajabi take a cut of what I sell?
- No, Kajabi's own pricing has no transaction fee; only standard payment processing applies, from 2.9 percent plus 30 cents down to 2.7 percent by tier, which is the processor's charge rather than Kajabi's. Kartra's entry tier takes an additional 5 percent on top of processing.
- How many contacts does each entry plan include?
- Kajabi's entry plan includes 2,500 contacts for $143 a month. Kartra's entry tier includes only 500 contacts for $59, a limit that arrives sooner than most people expect.
- Which one is the better comparison at the high end?
- Kartra's own pricing guidance points to Kajabi as the closer comparison once volume is real and Kartra's transaction fee stops making sense on a cheaper plan. Systeme.io is named as the closer comparison at the low end instead.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.