Teachable vs Kajabi Fees: Which Platform Costs You Less in 2026?

On fees alone, Teachable is cheaper than Kajabi at every revenue level: Teachable Builder costs $89 a month with a 0% platform fee, while Kajabi Basic costs $179 a month, and both pay roughly 2.9% plus $0.30 in card processing. That gap is a flat $90 a month no matter how much you sell. Kajabi's case is not the fee line at all; it is the email marketing, funnels, and landing pages bundled into the plan. If those would otherwise cost you more than about $90 a month in separate tools, Kajabi wins, and for creators with a real email list that crossover arrives sooner than most pricing comparisons admit.

Here is every fee on both platforms as published in July 2026, and the math at real revenue levels.

What Teachable charges

Teachable's plans run $39 a month for Starter, $89 for Builder, and $189 for Growth, with annual billing dropping those to $29, $69, and $139 per month. Starter carries a 7.5% platform transaction fee on every sale; Builder and Growth carry 0%. Every plan pays payment processing of about 2.9% plus $0.30 on US cards, 3.9% plus $0.30 on international cards, and more via PayPal. The full breakdown, including the payout fee and the upgrade break-even, is in our Teachable fees guide.

What Kajabi charges

Kajabi's public plans are Basic at $179 a month, Growth at $249, and Pro at $499, with annual billing at roughly $143, $199, and $399 per month. The entry-level Kickstarter plan at $89 was removed from public pricing in January 2026. Kajabi advertises 0% transaction fees, and that is true in the same sense it is true on Teachable Builder: Kajabi takes no platform cut, but processing still costs you 2.9% plus $0.30 per sale through Kajabi Payments on Basic, stepping down to 2.8% plus $0.30 on Growth and 2.7% plus $0.30 on Pro.

The detail most comparisons miss: if you plug in your own Stripe account instead of Kajabi Payments, Kajabi adds a platform surcharge of 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, and 0.5% on Pro, on top of Stripe's own 2.9% plus $0.30. Using your own processor on Kajabi Basic means giving up almost 5% per sale, which quietly rebuilds the platform fee the headline says does not exist.

What a $199 course sale nets on each plan

Processing on a $199 US card sale costs $6.07 at 2.9% plus $0.30. From there the per-sale math is nearly identical everywhere except Teachable Starter, where the 7.5% platform fee takes another $14.93.

Per sale, the platforms are a wash once you are off Teachable Starter. The decision is made by the monthly plan fee and what is bundled into it, not by the per-sale cut.

The math at real revenue levels

Total monthly cost below assumes a $199 course, US card sales, Teachable Builder versus Kajabi Basic, both billed monthly.

Because both platforms charge the same processing rate, the premium never changes: Kajabi Basic costs $90 a month more than Teachable Builder at any revenue. On annual billing the gap is $74. So the fee question reduces to one sentence: what does that $90 buy?

When Kajabi is actually cheaper

Kajabi Basic includes a full email marketing platform with automations, plus funnels and landing pages. A creator running Teachable alongside a separate email tool at a 5,000-subscriber list commonly pays $60 to $100 a month for that tool alone, before adding a landing page builder. Cancel those and the $90 premium disappears; keep them and Kajabi is simply the more expensive platform. That is the honest crossover, and it is why the answer differs by creator: a list-first business crosses early, a course-only business may never cross at all.

One more wrinkle favors Teachable at the low end: at $2,000 a month in sales, Teachable Starter costs about $250 all-in because of its 7.5% fee, which is more than Kajabi Basic at about $240. If you are on Starter and comparing against Kajabi, compare Builder instead; staying on Starter past roughly $1,000 a month makes every platform look cheap by comparison.

Which fees still catch creators out

On Teachable: the 7.5% Starter fee during launch weeks, the international card rate a full point higher, and PayPal costing more than cards. On Kajabi: the own-Stripe surcharge, and the fact that the plan price buys marketing tools you may already pay for elsewhere without realizing the overlap. On both: refunds return the sale price to the buyer while the processing fee is generally not returned to you, and chargebacks add a fixed fee on top.

Track what you actually keep, wherever you sell

The published rates tell you what should happen. Your deposits tell you what did. The number worth watching is your blended take-home rate, total deposits divided by total gross sales per month, because it captures refunds, international cards, PayPal mix, and plan fees in one figure that no pricing page can predict.

Earnly is an income tracker built for course creators: every payout from Teachable, Kajabi via Stripe, Gumroad, YouTube, Patreon, and 12+ platforms lands on one board with gross, fees, and take-home per source, plus expected pay dates on a payout calendar. The per-platform fee breakdown makes the Teachable versus Kajabi question answerable on your own numbers instead of a blog table. For payout timing on the Teachable side, see the Teachable payout schedule guide. Earnly is informational analytics, not a bank, a processor, or a tax advisor.

Pricing and fee figures are the platforms' published rates as of July 2026 and change without notice; confirm current pricing on teachable.com and kajabi.com. This is general information, not financial or tax advice.