Skool vs Kajabi: Which One Fits Your Business?

Skool vs Kajabi is really a choice between a simple paid community and a full business system. Skool gives you a community feed, a course area, a calendar and payments, and not much else. Kajabi gives you courses, a community, email marketing, funnels, a website and your own domain, for a much higher monthly price. This guide compares the two on price, fees, courses, community, marketing tools, who owns the customer, and ease of use. Every fact comes from each company's own pages, checked on 29 September 2026.

We run our own Skool community, so we know Skool from the owner's side. We have not run a business on Kajabi, so every Kajabi fact below comes from Kajabi's own pricing page and help centre, not from our own use.

Skool vs Kajabi at a glance

Price per month

Skool has two plans. Hobby is $9 a month and Pro is $99 a month. Skool's pricing page lists unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls on both, and marks a custom URL and affiliates as Pro only. Skool's help centre reserves more for Pro, including changing your group URL and plugins such as Zapier, AutoDM and the cancellation video. Yearly billing gets "2 months free", and Skool's help centre says both plans start with a 14-day free trial. The plan is billed per group, so a second community means a second subscription. Our Skool pricing guide covers the two plans in more detail.

Kajabi has three plans. On monthly billing, Basic is $179, Growth is $249 and Pro is $499. On yearly billing they drop to $143, $199 and $399 a month, which Kajabi's pricing page calls a 20% saving. Kajabi's help centre says its trials run for 14 days, and its pricing page says every plan has a 30-day money-back guarantee.

What each Kajabi plan limits

Kajabi's limits matter as much as its prices. Basic caps you at 5 products and 2,500 contacts. When your list outgrows a plan, Kajabi's FAQ says extra contacts "come in blocks of 25,000 for $125 a month".

If you want to test a small paid group before you spend more, you can start a Skool community (affiliate link) on the 14-day trial and see if the simple setup suits you.

Transaction fees: what you pay on each sale

Skool charges one transaction fee and processes the card itself. Skool's payments FAQ says "All payment processing happens on the Skools merchant." Hobby is "10% + 30c /transaction for all transactions". Pro is "2.9% + 30c /transaction for transactions up to $899 USD" and "3.9% + 30c /transaction for transactions above $900 USD". Skool lists no separate card fee on top of that.

Kajabi says it "does not take a revenue share as a platform". That is true, but you still pay card processing. With Kajabi Payments, the US rates are 2.9% + 30c on Basic, 2.8% + 30c on Growth and 2.7% + 30c on Pro. Rates differ by country. If you use another payment provider instead, Kajabi adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth or 0.5% on Pro, and the provider charges its own fee as well. PayPal is left out of that extra charge. Kajabi's FAQ also says that where Kajabi Payments is not offered, there is no extra fee.

On a normal sale, Skool Pro and Kajabi Basic take the same 2.9% + 30c. The real gap is the monthly bill: $99 against $179.

A worked example

Say you charge $50 a month for your community. We worked out the total monthly cost from each company's listed rates. This assumes US cards, monthly billing, no refunds and no sales tax.

Three things stand out. First, Skool Pro is the cheapest in both cases. Second, Skool Hobby only makes sense while you are small. Its 10% fee costs more than Pro's extra $90 a month once you sell about $1,270 a month, and Hobby lacks the Pro-only features. Third, Skool has one fee Kajabi does not. If Skool finds you a paying member through its Discovery search or its own ads, Skool's Growth Boost takes 30% of that member's payments, plus fees, for as long as they stay. Growth Boost is on by default, and you can turn it off in Settings, then Discovery. Members you bring yourself only pay the normal fee.

Where Kajabi wins on fees

Big one-off sales. On a single charge above $900, Skool Pro moves up to 3.9% + 30c. Kajabi's pricing page shows one rate per plan, with no higher band for large sales, and Kajabi Payments takes Afterpay and Klarna. On a $2,000 program, Skool Pro takes $78.30 in fees and Kajabi Basic takes $58.30.

Courses

Skool's courses live in a tab called Classroom. Skool's help centre calls it "a section of your Skool group to assist you in organizing useful information". You add pages, turn them into lessons with video, attach files and links, add transcripts so videos are searchable, and group pages into folders. You can drip a page so it opens a set number of days after someone joins. You can also lock a course until a member reaches a certain level. Skool's help article on Classroom does not mention quizzes, certificates or assignments.

Kajabi's course product does more. Kajabi lists quizzes you can place anywhere in a course, assessments, certificates sent automatically when a student finishes, drip content, progress tracking, and video hosting with download protection. It supports self-paced courses and cohort courses, and cohort courses need Growth or Pro. The catch is the product cap: 5 products on Basic.

If courses are your main product and you want quizzes and certificates, Kajabi is the stronger course tool. If courses are a bonus inside a paid community, Skool's Classroom covers the basics: video lessons, files, drip and level locks.

Community

Community is Skool's core. Each group has a main feed, a Classroom, a Calendar and a leaderboard. Members earn one point for each like on their posts, comments and replies, and climb nine levels, from 0 points at level 1 to 33,015 points at level 9. Levels are per group. Live calls run inside Skool, in the browser or the app, with no Zoom needed, and the pricing page lists unlimited live calls on both plans.

Kajabi's community has more parts. Kajabi lists topic-based spaces, channels that work as a feed or as real-time chat, meetups with a built-in live room, challenges, announcements, and "leaderboard and gamification settings that reward members for participation". Communities can be private, paid or tiered. Basic and Growth include one community. Pro includes three.

The difference is focus. On Skool, the feed, the courses and the calendar are the whole product, laid out one way. On Kajabi, the community is one tool among many, and you choose how to set it up.

Marketing tools: email, funnels, pages and your own domain

This is Kajabi's clearest win.

• Email. Kajabi includes unlimited marketing emails on every plan, with one-off broadcasts and multi-step sequences. Skool's pricing page lists no email marketing tool. Skool's own help centre shows how to send new paid members to an outside CRM through Zapier, a Pro-only plugin, so on Skool you bring your own email tool.
• Funnels and landing pages. Kajabi includes unlimited funnels and landing pages, plus one website (three on Pro). On Skool, your sales page is your group's About page, which Skool calls "essentially a landing/checkout page for your group". Links in the About page description do not work.
• Your own domain. Kajabi lists a custom domain on all three plans. Skool's custom URL is your group's address on skool.com, like our own skool.com/consulting. Skool's help article on changing it says it is a Pro feature and does not mention connecting a domain you own. The first change is free, and each change after that costs $100.
• Branding. Growth and Pro let you remove Kajabi branding, and Pro adds a branded mobile app. On Skool, your group sits inside Skool's own design.

Kajabi's own compare page says Skool has "No native email, requires a separate tool" and "No website builder or standalone pages". Those two points match what Skool's own help centre shows.

Who owns the customer relationship

On Skool, Skool is the seller. Skool's payments FAQ says "Skool is a 'merchant of record'" and that it handles "all sales tax collection, filing, and payments". It also says "Skool handles EU VAT for you. We add the VAT rate on top of the price." You cannot use your own Stripe account. Skool creates a Stripe Express account only to send your payouts, which go to your bank every Wednesday in your local currency. The first payout can take up to 14 days.

The upside is less admin. You never file sales tax for your Skool sales. The downside is that the payment relationship sits with Skool, your members join on skool.com, and Skool can show your group in its Discovery search next to other groups. You can still collect an email address: Skool lets you set up to three membership questions, and one of them can ask for an email address.

On Kajabi, you are the seller. Your checkout, your website and your contact list sit in your own Kajabi account, on your own domain. Kajabi Sales Tax works out and collects tax at checkout, but Kajabi's help centre is clear about the rest: "It does not file or remit sales taxes on your behalf. You are responsible for filing and remitting any sales tax that you collect."

Skool takes the tax work off your plate. Kajabi gives you the brand and the customer list. Neither gives you both.

Ease of use

Skool is easier to start because it does less. There is one feature set, two prices and one layout. You pick a price, write your About page, add a course and invite people.

Kajabi asks more of you. You choose a plan by its limits, set up payments, build pages, write email sequences and set up a community. If you will not use Kajabi's email and funnels, you pay $80 to $400 more a month than Skool Pro for tools that sit idle.

Pick Skool if, pick Kajabi if

Pick Skool if

• Your product is a paid community, with courses as part of it.
• You want the lowest monthly bill: $99 on Pro, or $9 while you test.
• You would rather Skool handle sales tax and EU VAT for you.
• You want members to find you through Skool's Discovery search, and you accept the 30% Growth Boost cut on those members.
• You already have an email tool, or you do not need one yet.

Pick Kajabi if

• You sell courses, coaching or downloads first, and community is one part of it.
• You need email marketing, funnels and landing pages without paying for other tools.
• You want your own domain, your own brand and your own customer list.
• You sell programs above $900 in one payment, or want Afterpay and Klarna.
• You want quizzes, certificates or cohort courses.

If you are weighing more than these two, our Skool alternatives guide covers other platforms, and Skool vs Circle compares Skool with the other big community tool.

For most people choosing between Skool vs Kajabi, the question is simple: is the community the product, or one part of a bigger business? If the community is the product, start a Skool community here (affiliate link) and use the 14-day trial to test it before you pay.

FAQ

Is Skool cheaper than Kajabi?

Yes, on the monthly bill. Skool costs $9 or $99 a month, and Kajabi costs $179, $249 or $499 on monthly billing. Per sale, Skool Pro and Kajabi Basic both take 2.9% + 30c on US cards. Skool Hobby takes 10% + 30c, which costs more than Pro once you sell about $1,270 a month.

Does Kajabi have a community like Skool?

Yes. Kajabi Communities include feeds, real-time chat channels, meetups with a live room, challenges and a leaderboard, and they can be private, paid or tiered. Basic and Growth include one community and Pro includes three. The difference is focus: on Skool the community is the whole product, while on Kajabi it is one tool among many.

Does Skool have email marketing?

Not as a marketing tool. Skool's pricing page lists no email marketing. On Pro, Skool's help centre shows how to send new paid members to an outside CRM with Zapier, and you can ask for an email address in a membership question. Kajabi includes unlimited marketing emails, with broadcasts and sequences, on every plan.

Can I use my own domain on Skool?

Not the way Kajabi allows. Skool's custom URL is your group's address on skool.com, and Skool's help article on it does not mention connecting a domain you own. Changing it needs Pro: the first change is free, and later changes cost $100 each. Kajabi lists a custom domain on all three of its plans.

Can I use Skool and Kajabi together?

Yes, if you pay for both. On Skool Pro, the help centre has a Zapier guide that invites people into your group, with set course access, when they are added to a CRM. So you can take payment somewhere else and host the community on Skool. It does mean two bills, two logins and two places to manage members.

Which is better for selling courses, Skool or Kajabi?

Kajabi, if courses are your main product. It offers quizzes, assessments, automatic certificates, drip content, progress tracking, and cohort courses on Growth and Pro. Skool's Classroom handles video lessons, files, transcripts, drip and level-locked courses, which suits a course that sits inside a paid community rather than one sold on its own.

We may earn a commission if you start a Skool community through a link on this page. It costs you nothing extra, and it does not change what we write.