Top 9 Kajabi Alternatives for Coaches

If you’re running a coaching business on Kajabi and the monthly bill feels steep for what you’re actually using it for, or you’re comparing options before you sign up in the first place, here are nine alternatives worth a proper look.

Kajabi markets itself hard to coaches, and it does have a real coaching product – scheduling, Zoom integration, session packaging alongside courses. But the price for that access is steep.

If your business is mostly 1:1 or group coaching, you’re looking at $143-$399 a month. That’s a high monthly cost to sell coaching programs, and it’s worth comparing against what the same coaching tools cost on a platform built to be affordable from the ground up.

Then there’s the operational side. Kajabi charges per website, so a coach running more than one program or brand pays for more than one full subscription.

January’s pricing restructure added a fresh sting. New surcharges stacked on top of the subscription fee, tighter contact limits, and a jump in the entry price after the old Kickstarter plan was retired.

There’s also the ownership question.. By Kajabi’s own help center documentation, canceling your subscription takes your site offline immediately, disconnects any custom domain, and cuts your coaching clients off from content they’ve already paid for.

Customer data can be permanently deleted 90 days after cancellation. Sadly, that’s standard for a closed, hosted platform. It means your entire coaching business, client relationships included, lives on infrastructure you don’t control and can lose access to.

You can choose another route which gives you more ownership – we’ll get into that later.

None of that makes Kajabi a bad platform for the right business. It just means “right business” is a narrower group than the marketing suggests.

Here’s how nine alternatives stack up for coaches.

At a Glance

1. MemberPress

The all-in-one WordPress alternative to Kajabi for coaches

MemberPress is what I’d point you to if you want courses, community, and coaching living on a site you actually own, instead of a platform you’re renting space on.

CoachKit™ is a full package built around cohort management, milestone tracking, habit tracking, and automated client onboarding, and it sits alongside ClubSuite™ for community forums and directories, and real-time messaging through ClubConnect™.

Best for: Coaches who want cohort-based or 1:1 coaching programs, a course library, and a member community running on one WordPress install instead of three separate subscriptions.

Pricing: Launch starts at $199.50/year, but coaching tools live on Growth, at $349.50/year (0% transaction fees), which includes CoachKit™ and ClubSuite™.

Scale, at $499.50/year, adds ClubConnect™ direct messaging. For comparison, Kajabi’s Growth plan – the tier where its own cohort courses and community features unlock – runs $199/month billed annually, or $2,388/year.

That puts MemberPress Growth at roughly 15% of what the comparably-featured Kajabi plan costs annually, and MemberPress Scale at roughly 10% of Kajabi’s Pro plan ($4,788/year).

Key features:

• CoachKit™: unlimited coaching programs, milestones, habit tracking, and client dashboards
• Automated client onboarding and scheduling via Calendly or Simply Schedule Appointments
• ClubSuite™ for member profiles, directories, and coaching cohorts
• Real-time coach-client messaging through ClubConnect™ (Scale plan)

Pros:

• Dramatically lower cost than Kajabi at comparable feature levels
• Real ownership: it’s a plugin on your own WordPress site, so client data, course content, and community live in a database you control. Nothing goes offline if you miss a renewal the way a Kajabi site does the moment you cancel
• No per-site penalty – running a second coaching program on the same install doesn’t mean a second subscription

Cons: Requires a WordPress site, so there’s a small setup step if you’re starting from zero. This isn’t a sign-up-and-go platform the way Kajabi is, and coaching-specific tools require the Growth plan rather than the entry tier. The payoff for that extra step is a site you fully own, not one you’re renting.

2. Circle

Best for group coaching communities

Circle treats live interaction as the main event, which suits coaches running group programs or cohort-based coaching more than solo course sales.

Live rooms, workshops, and visual workflow automation for onboarding all sit inside one community space.

Best for: Coaches running group programs who want a polished, engagement-first space rather than a course library with a comments section.

Pricing: Professional is $89/month (annual billing), Business is $199/month, Enterprise runs $419/month – plus a 0.5–2% transaction fee not listed on the main pricing page.

Key features:

• Live rooms, streams, and group coaching sessions
• Visual workflows for client onboarding and reminders
• Branded mobile apps (Circle Plus tier)

Pros: Strong automation and a genuinely polished interface for running structured group coaching.

Cons: Email marketing is a bolt-on rather than included, and the transaction fee isn’t disclosed up front.

3. Podia

Best for solo coaches who want it simple

Podia bundles coaching sessions, courses, and email into two straightforward plans, which makes it a natural fit for a solo coach who doesn’t want to manage three separate tools.

Best for: Solo coaches selling both 1:1 sessions and a course or two, without a steep learning curve.

Pricing: Mover is $42/month (annual) with a 5% transaction fee. Shaker, at $84/month, drops the fee to 0% and adds affiliate marketing.

Key features:

• Coaching sessions, courses, and digital downloads in one dashboard
• Email marketing included, free up to 100 subscribers
• Unlimited students and community members on every plan

Pros: Genuinely simple to set up, with pricing that’s easy to understand.

Cons: No native mobile app, and reviewers note some basics (like affiliate link tracking) are still missing.

4. Teachable

Best for a built-in mobile app

Teachable lists coaching programs alongside courses as a core use case, and the native iOS and Android app included on every paid plan is a real differentiator for coaches whose clients expect a proper app experience.

Best for: Coaches who want their sessions and course content in an app their clients actually open.

Pricing: Starter is $29/month (annual) with a 7.5% transaction fee. Builder, at $69/month, drops that fee to 0% – where most coaches land.

Key features:

• Native mobile app on every paid plan
• Support for coaching programs alongside structured courses
• Built-in community and comments

Pros: The app is a real edge, and the interface stays approachable at every tier.

Cons: No permanent free plan, and recent reviews flag slow, AI-first support and a frustrating cancellation process.

5. Skool

Best for simple, gamified cohort coaching

Skool strips things down to one community with a gamification layer – points, levels, leaderboards – that reviewers consistently say drives real engagement. It’s built more for community-based coaching cohorts than deep course structure.

Best for: Coaches running one tight cohort who care more about participation than certificates or quizzes.

Pricing: Hobby is $9/month with a steep 10% transaction fee. Pro is $99/month with a 2.9% fee and unlimited admins.

Key features:

• Built-in gamification and leaderboards
• Native video uploads with auto-captions
• Full-featured mobile apps

Pros: Genuinely effective engagement mechanics and simple flat pricing.

Cons: No quizzes, certificates, or custom domain at any price – and running more than one coaching cohort means a separate subscription for each.

6. Thinkific

Best for structured curriculum alongside sessions

If your coaching includes a real curriculum – modules, assessments, a defined path clients move through between sessions – Thinkific’s course builder is deeper than most of the community-first tools on this list.

Best for: Coaches who pair 1:1 or group sessions with a structured course clients work through on their own.

Pricing: No permanent free plan – a 30-day trial instead. Start is $82/month (annual), Grow is $164/month.

Key features:

• Unlimited students and 0% transaction fees on every paid plan
• Strong quiz, exam, and certificate tools
• Cohort-based and self-paced formats

Pros: No transaction fee eating into margins, and genuinely deep course-building tools.

Cons: No free tier to test with, and a steeper learning curve than Podia or Skool.

7. Paperbell

Best for solo 1:1 coaching admin

Paperbell isn’t a teaching platform at all – it’s scheduling, packages, contracts, and payments built specifically for coaches, and it’s worth including here because a lot of coaches on Kajabi are paying for course infrastructure they never use.

If your business is booking calls, collecting payment, and sending contracts, this does that job better and cheaper.

Best for: Solo coaches whose product is 1:1 time, not a course library.

Pricing: One plan at $57/month ($47.50/month billed annually), plus a free tier for your first client. No transaction fees beyond standard Stripe or PayPal processing.

Key features:

• Package creation with built-in payment plans
• Contract signing and a client portal
• Auto-generated coaching website from your package details

Pros: Genuinely fast setup – a working package page connected to your calendar and Stripe within about 45 minutes – and flat pricing with no feature-gated tiers.

Cons: No courses, community, or email marketing. If you also teach group programs, you’ll need a second tool alongside it.

8. CoachAccountable

Best for client accountability and progress tracking

CoachAccountable leans into the parts of coaching Kajabi doesn’t really touch: worksheets, metrics, habit tracking, and a running “Stream” of the coaching engagement that both coach and client can see.

Best for: Coaches who want to show clients tangible progress between sessions, not just deliver content.

Pricing: Priced by active client count rather than named tiers – $20/month for 2 clients up to $4,000/month for 1,000. Every tier includes the full feature set, and coach/admin seats are unlimited at no extra cost.

Key features:

• Worksheets, metrics, and automated action tracking
• Public scheduling with calendar sync
• Support for group coaching and coaching teams

Pros: Full features at every tier, and pricing that scales with your actual client count rather than gating functionality.

Cons: The interface has a real learning curve, and branding customization is more limited than dedicated course platforms.

9. Simply.Coach

Best for coaching organizations and teams

Simply.Coach is built for a different scale entirely – coaching organizations, teams of coaches, and corporate engagements that need to report back to an HR business partner. If MemberPress or Paperbell are built for a solo practice, this is built for running several coaches at once.

Best for: Coaching organizations and multi-coach practices running structured, ICF- or EMCC-aligned engagements.

Pricing: CoCreate starts at $79/month plus $29/month per additional active coach. Surge is $159/month, Optima is $289/month, and Enterprise is custom-priced, all billed annually.

Key features:

• Configurable for different coaching methodologies (ICF, EMCC, Marshall Goldsmith, and others)
• Session notes, assessments, and self-assessment tools
• Reporting built for corporate and HR stakeholders

Pros: Genuinely built for team and organizational coaching, not adapted from a solo-creator tool.

Cons: Overkill and pricier than it needs to be for a single independent coach – this one’s for practices with more than one coach on staff.

How to Choose

If you’re running coaching programs alongside courses and community, and you’d rather own that infrastructure (client data included) than rent it on a platform that can cut your business off the moment you cancel, MemberPress is going to save you real money over Kajabi without giving up the features that matter – CoachKit™ covers the coaching side directly.

If your coaching is group-based and engagement is the priority, Circle or Skool are worth a look depending on budget – Skool for simplicity and price, Circle for polish and automation.

If you’re purely 1:1 and you’ve realized you’re paying Kajabi for course tools you never open, Paperbell or CoachAccountable will likely do the actual job better and for less.

And if you’re running a coaching team or organization rather than a solo practice, Simply.Coach is built for that scale in a way none of the solo-creator tools are.

The Bottom Line

Kajabi works well for a specific kind of coach – one running courses, funnels, and email campaigns alongside coaching, and using enough of that toolkit to justify the price.

But if your coaching business is simpler than that, or you’re tired of the per-site pricing and the pattern of rising costs, you’ve got real options that fit better.

My honest recommendation is still MemberPress. Once you factor in what CoachKit™ and ClubSuite™ actually cost compared to Kajabi’s coaching-capable plans, it comes in at a fraction of the price – and it lives on a site you control, not a platform where canceling can take your business offline and put your client data on a countdown to deletion.

Get MemberPress today and see what a WordPress-native alternative to Kajabi actually looks like for a coaching business.

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Victoria Lloyd

Victoria has a knack for turning small beginnings into big successes, having elevated her jewelry brand from the vibrant buzz of London's street markets to prestigious spots like the Royal Academy of Arts and Topshop's Oxford Circus flagship store. Her expertise doesn't stop at physical products. Victoria has a proven track record of boosting online engagement for a variety of brands. From dynamic startups to household names like Nokia and Jack Daniels, Victoria has applied her potent mix of wordsmith wizardry, strategic insight, and digital acumen to drive up brand engagement and SEO. At MemberPress, Victoria leverages her diverse experience to simplify and demystify the world of online membership and business growth. She's here to guide readers with her unique insights, helping them to confidently and creatively build their online communities and membership sites.

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