Skool vs Kajabi: a simple community or a marketing suite?

Skool has two plans. Hobby is $9 a month with a 10% transaction fee plus $0.30 per sale. Pro is $99 a month with 2.9% plus $0.30 per transaction, which is card processing, and any individual sale above $899 is charged 3.9% instead, a 1% platform fee on that sale. For a normal monthly membership, Skool Pro is a flat $99 plus processing.

Kajabi has three plans since its January 2026 restructure. Basic is $179 a month for five products and 2,500 contacts, Growth is $249 a month and Pro is $499 a month. The old $89 Kickstarter plan is no longer sold. Kajabi Payments charges 2.7% to 2.9% plus $0.30, and if you use a third-party payment processor instead, Kajabi adds a fee of 0.5% to 5% depending on tier.

Assume $50 monthly memberships, so no single sale is above $899. At $1,000 a month, Skool Hobby costs $9 plus $100 in fees plus $6 in per-sale charges, about $115, while Skool Pro costs $99 plus about $35 in processing. Kajabi Basic costs $179 plus about $33 to $35 in processing. At $5,000 a month, Skool Pro is $99 plus processing and Kajabi Basic is $179 plus processing. At $20,000 a month, Skool Pro is still $99 plus processing, and a Kajabi creator at that size has often passed 2,500 contacts and moved to Growth at $249. Math example, not a customer outcome.

Two rules fall out of that. On Skool, Hobby is cheaper than Pro only below about $1,270 a month in sales; above that, move to Pro. Between the two platforms, Kajabi costs $80 to $150 a month more on the platform line at these sizes, and the question is whether its marketing suite saves you more than that. Math example, not a customer outcome.

High-ticket offers change Skool's math. A $2,000 coaching program sold on Skool Pro is charged 3.9% plus $0.30, about $78, against about $54 to $58 on Kajabi Payments. If most of your revenue comes from sales above $899, run that number before assuming Skool is cheaper. Math example, not a customer outcome.

Kajabi's strength is its marketing suite: email campaigns and automations, sales funnels, landing pages and a website builder, all native and all tied to the same contacts as your courses. If you run on Skool, you would need to add those yourself, typically an email tool such as Kit or Mailchimp, a page or funnel builder, and something like Zapier to connect them. Add up your current quotes for those tools before you compare monthly prices, because that stack is the real competitor to Kajabi's premium.

If you already run email elsewhere and like it, Kajabi's suite is something you would pay for twice. If you do not, it can consolidate three or four bills into one.

This is Skool's territory. One feed, one classroom, one calendar, and a gamification system of points, levels and a leaderboard on every community page. Members earn points when others like their posts, climb levels, and can open content gated to a given level. The habit loop is the product, and it is the reason creators who try Skool often stay.

Kajabi has a community module that includes challenges and live rooms, but it is lighter than the dedicated community products. If members are meant to open the community every day and talk to each other, Skool is the stronger pick. If the community is a bonus for course buyers, Kajabi's is enough.

Skool's classroom is modules and lessons, with content that can be gated by level or by purchase. It has no native quizzes and no certificates. That is a deliberate choice, and it is fine for a community where lessons support discussion, but it rules Skool out for assessed courses.

Kajabi's course builder is polished and covers far more ground: structured modules, drip release, and its own assessment tools. Check its current documentation for which quiz types and completion certificates it supports before you build a graded program on it, because those details matter more than the builder's looks.

Skool has a calendar that shows events in each member's timezone with a link to join, but no RSVPs, no ticketing and no reminder system. Kajabi offers live events and coaching sessions inside its product, which suits a creator selling calls or workshops to a list. If you run a weekly call for paying members, both will list it; if you sell seats to a live workshop, Kajabi is closer to what you need.

On payments, Skool keeps it simple: paid memberships through Skool's own checkout. Kajabi offers more checkout options, order bumps and upsells inside its funnels, which is where its marketing suite earns its keep.

Pick Skool if your product is a community, you want members talking every day, gamification matters to you, and you want the platform line to stay at $99 no matter how big you grow. It suits coaches and creators who sell one membership to an audience they already reach on social media.

Pick Kajabi if you sell through email and funnels, have several products, and would otherwise pay for an email tool and a page builder. It suits established creators and agencies who want one login for the whole marketing business.

The rule that decides it: if your best sales come from a conversation inside the community, pick Skool. If they come from an email sequence, pick Kajabi.

HiveLearn sits between the two for creators who want Skool's engagement and a real LMS without Kajabi's price. Courses, community, events and payments are in one place: points, 12 levels, leaderboards and badges; quizzes with six question types graded on the server and certificates with a public verification page; events with RSVPs, paid tickets, waitlists and automatic reminders. It does not try to be Kajabi's email and funnel suite; it offers broadcast email to members and UTM tracking, and integrates with the rest of your stack through a public API.

Starter is $0 a month with a 6% revenue share, so there is no monthly fee until you monetize. Growth is $39 a month with 4%, rev share capped at $2,000/month. Pro is $99 with 2%, rev share capped at $3,000/month. Stripe processing (2.9% + $0.30) is always on top. At $5,000 a month, Pro costs $99 plus $100, or $199, which is more than Skool Pro's $99 and close to Kajabi Basic's $179, so pick HiveLearn for the features, not to save money at that size. Math example, not a customer outcome. Growth, Pro and Scale include a 14-day free trial, no credit card.