Kajabi vs Podia Comparison 2026
Kajabi starts at $143 a month billed annually with 2,500 contacts and no transaction fee. Podia starts far cheaper, $42 a month billed yearly, but Mover caps out at 100 email subscribers and takes 5 percent of sales, a fee that disappears entirely on Shaker at $84. Neither individual piece is the best version of itself on Podia, which is the trade for one subscription instead of four, while Kajabi is priced at the other end for coaches who want one vendor doing everything well.
At a glance
- Podia starts cheaper, at $42.
- Neither has a free tier.
Side by side
Kajabi | Podia | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $143 | From $42 |
| Pricing model | Free trial, then paid | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 30 days |
| API | Not stated | Not stated |
| Data export |
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 landing pages & funnels
- Covers memberships & subscriptions
Podia
Courses, downloads and email in one place
Podia sells courses, digital downloads, coaching and memberships from one storefront, with an email tool attached so the list and the products live together. Nothing in it is the best version of itself, and that is the trade being offered: one subscription instead of four. The entry plan charges 5 percent of sales, which the two plans above it drop.
Why people weigh these two
- Podia instead of Kajabi
- Podia at $42 puts courses, downloads and email in one place for a smaller catalogue, without the funnel machinery Kajabi carries.
- Kajabi instead of Podia
- Kajabi adds funnel-building to the courses-and-email combination, for a creator who also wants marketing pages built into the same subscription.
Which one should you pick
Choose Kajabi once an offer is proven and the business can absorb $143 a month for a genuinely unified platform: pages, email, checkout, community and course all built by one company with no transaction fee. It is the expensive end of the category, and paying this much to find out whether an offer sells is a costly way to test.
Choose Podia if the budget is tight and a small catalogue of digital products is the whole business, starting at $42 a month billed yearly. Run the fee math early: past roughly $850 a month in sales, the 5 percent on Mover costs more than the $42 jump to Shaker, which also removes the 100-subscriber email cap.
Common questions
- Which one is cheaper?
- Podia, by a wide margin at entry: $42 a month billed yearly against Kajabi's $143. Podia's cheapest tier caps email subscribers at 100 and takes a 5 percent fee, neither of which applies to Kajabi at any tier.
- At what point should I upgrade off Podia's cheapest plan?
- Around $850 a month in sales, where the 5 percent fee on Mover costs more than the $42 jump to Shaker, which also removes the fee entirely and raises the subscriber cap. Kajabi charges no equivalent transaction fee at any tier.
- How many contacts or subscribers does each entry plan include?
- Kajabi's entry plan includes 2,500 contacts. Podia's Mover plan includes only 100 email subscribers, a much smaller allowance that is one reason for the price gap.
- Which one is better if the course is the whole business?
- Kajabi, according to its own comparison: Podia's course features are thinner, which matters if the course is the entire business rather than one product among several. Podia is built for a small catalogue of mixed digital products 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.