MemberPress vs Kajabi

Kajabi makes it easy to launch a coaching or course business without touching WordPress. MemberPress gives you a coaching and LMS platform you actually own: on your brand, your domain, at a fraction of the price. Here's how they really compare.

A resposta curta:
Kajabi is a standalone all-in-one platform starting at $179/month. It handles courses, coaching, email marketing, and your website in one place.

MemberPress is a WordPress plugin with coaching and LMS features starting from $349.50/year for the plans that include them.

MemberPress is significantly cheaper, lives on your brand and domain, and keeps your content and client data fully in your hands.

Kajabi is simpler to start but expensive to scale, and your business lives on their platform, not yours.

What Is Kajabi?

Kajabi is an all-in-one platform for coaches, course creators, and online entrepreneurs. You get a website builder, marketing por e-mail, checkout pages, courses, coaching products, and a community, all in one subscription.

It has a polished interface and a loyal user base, and for a non-technical creator who wants everything in one login, there's great appeal.

What Kajabi doesn't make obvious upfront: it's one of the most expensive platforms in this space, and in late 2025 it raised prices for the first time since 2015.

Basic plan is now $179/month. The Growth plan (which is where coaching features really come into their own) is $249/month.

If you want a branded mobile app, add another $199/month on top of that.

Note: That's per month, not per year.

Your courses, your client relationships, and your coaching content all live on Kajabi's servers.

If you cancel, you lose access to delivering through their interface. If Kajabi changes its terms or raises prices again, your options are absorb it or migrate.

O que é o MemberPress?

MemberPress is a WordPress membership and course plugin that has been running since 2012.

CoachKit™, the coaching-specific add-on, turns it into a full coaching management platform:

• unlimited programs,
• milestone
• habit tracking,
• automated client onboarding,
• scheduling integrations,
• coach-client messaging,

all running on your own WordPress site.

Because it's built on WordPress, everything is yours. Your client list, your course content, your coaching programs, all of it lives on your server, under your domain, inside your brand.

Clients never see the name MemberPress. They see your business.

The tradeoff is the same one that comes with any self-hosted platform: you manage WordPress. Hosting, security, backups.

ReadyLaunch™ lowers the setup barrier considerably, but if you have never touched a CMS, Kajabi's setup will feel simpler.

As principais diferenças

MemberPress vs. Kajabi: Pricing

This is the argument that matters most for anyone running a coaching or course business seriously.

Kajabi plans (as of 2026 pricing update):

• Básico: $179/month: courses, website, email marketing, no coaching cohorts
• Crescimento: $249/month (approx. $199/month annual): coaching features, cohorts, automations, removes Kajabi branding
• Profissional: $499/month: advanced customisation, multiple websites

Note: Kajabi raised prices in late 2025 for the first time since 2015. That alone is worth factoring into any long-term plan.

Planos MemberPress (introductory pricing. Check memberpress.com/plans/pricing para obter as taxas atuais):

• Lançamento: From $179.50/year + 4.9% transaction fee – basic memberships and courses, no CoachKit™
• Crescimento: From $349.50/year + 0% fees – CoachKit™, ClubSuite™ community features
• Escala: From $499.50/year + 0% fees – CoachKit™ + ClubConnect™ (real-time messaging) + full ClubSuite™

Here's what that looks like annually for a coaching business that wants the full feature set:

At comparable feature levels (coaching tools, community, and a branded mobile app) MemberPress comes in at roughly a third of Kajabi's cost.

That gap is real money every year, not a rounding error.

Conclusão: Kajabi Basic looks affordable at a glance. But the coaching features that make it competitive with MemberPress live on the Growth plan at $249/month. MemberPress Scale gives you coaching, community, and messaging for around $499.50/year.

The math is stark.

MemberPress vs. Kajabi: Coaching Features

Kajabi's coaching product has improved significantly. You can build coaching packages, create intake forms, run group or 1:1 sessions, set up automations triggered by client actions, and add session notes.

The interface is clean and coaches with no technical background find it easy to set up.

MemberPress's CoachKit™ is built for coaches who want to run their programs on their own site.

You create programs with unlimited cohorts, milestones, and habit tracking – a structured approach to client accountability that goes beyond session management.

• Automated onboarding gets clients started fast.
• Scheduling integrates directly with Calendly and Agendamento simples de consultas, so session booking happens inside your site.
• Real-time coach-client messaging is available via ClubConnect™ on the Scale plan.

The crucial difference is where the coaching experience lives. With Kajabi, clients access their program through Kajabi's interface.

With MemberPress and CoachKit™, every touchpoint (welcome page, program portal, session booking, messaging) lives inside your branded WordPress site. Your clients never know it's powered by MemberPress.

Conclusão: Both platforms have solid coaching functionality. MemberPress CoachKit™ runs on your domain with your branding. Kajabi's coaching lives inside Kajabi's ecosystem. For coaches who care about their professional brand, that distinction matters.

MemberPress vs. Kajabi: Course & LMS Features

Kajabi's course builder is clean and straightforward.

You upload videos, structure modules, and students access everything from the same dashboard. It's been well-refined and works reliably. Cohort courses (where a group progresses together) are available on Growth and Pro plans.

Cursos do MemberPress é more feature-rich on the structured learning side.

• Conteúdo de gotejamento releases lessons on a schedule.
• O quizzes add-on supports graded assessments.
• O livro de notas tracks student performance.
• Atribuições let students submit work for review.
• Certificados de conclusão are included.
• There's also an Gerador de cursos de IA add-on for rapidly building course outlines and content directly in MemberPress.

For coaches running a program with real learning accountability (not just video modules for people to watch at their own pace) MemberPress has the deeper toolset.

Conclusão: Kajabi is a solid course host. MemberPress is a more complete LMS, especially if your courses involve graded work, structured pacing, or formal completion tracking.

MemberPress vs. Kajabi: Platform Ownership and Brand

When a client signs up for your Kajabi coaching program, they're entering Kajabi's world.

Even with a custom domain pointed at your Kajabi site, the back-end experience carries Kajabi's infrastructure.

The “Powered by Kajabi” footer shows on Basic plan pages. The login experience, the student portal, the mobile app: these are all Kajabi's product, with your logo placed on top of it.

There's also the deeper question: what happens to your business if Kajabi's interests change?

They already raised prices significantly in 2025. If that happens again (or if they deprecate a feature, change their payment terms, or get acquired) your options are limited.

You can export your content, but migrating an active coaching client base mid-program is painful.

With MemberPress, your clients land on your WordPress site.

They log in at your domain. They access your coaching portal, your course content, your community, none of which has a third-party platform's name on it.

Your content lives in your database. If you decide to move hosts, change platforms, or extend your site in any direction, you can do it without asking a SaaS company for permission.

Conclusão: The question isn't just “which has more features.” It's “who controls the platform your business runs on.” With Kajabi, that's Kajabi. With MemberPress, it's you.

MemberPress vs. Kajabi: Customer Satisfaction

MemberPress currently holds a 4.8/5 on Trustpilot. Kajabi's score is 3.5/5, across more than 2,300 reviews.

Kajabi's reviews are genuinely split. Around 76% are 5-star, from users who love the all-in-one convenience and have built real businesses on the platform.

Where Kajabi's score takes a hit is when things go wrong. Recurring complaints centre on customer support that leans on AI chat before you reach a human, and frustration with the 2025 price increases landing mid-billing cycle for some users.

The sense in those reviews is that a fast-growing platform is stretching its support infrastructure.

MemberPress reviews consistently highlight responsive support and a stable product improved steadily over more than a decade.

For a coaching business, where something breaking the day before a client session is a genuine problem, that consistency matters.

The “customer success” team has even been known to write custom code when a customer needs to extend MemberPress beyond its built-in features.

Conclusão: A 1.3-point Trustpilot gap across thousands of reviews is substantial. Both platforms work for most users most of the time, but the support experience when things go wrong is measurably different.

MemberPress vs. Kajabi: Email Marketing and Integrations

Kajabi includes email marketing natively: broadcasts, sequences, automations, tagging. For coaches who want everything in one platform, not having to pay for a separate email tool is genuinely convenient, and it's one of Kajabi's real strengths.

MemberPress doesn't include email marketing, but it integrates with all the major providers: Mailchimp, Kit, ActiveCampaign, Gotejamento, AWeber, e mais.

If you already have an email platform you like, MemberPress connects to it. If you want to add one, you're choosing from the best tools in the market rather than using whatever the membership plugin includes.

Conclusão: Kajabi wins if you want email included and don't want to manage multiple tools. MemberPress wins if you want best-in-class tools rather than built-ins.

Para quem o MemberPress é melhor

• Coaches who want their programs, sessions, and client portal to live on their own branded WordPress site, not inside a third-party platform
• Course creators who need structured LMS features: drip content, quizzes, graded assignments, gradebook, completion certificates
• Anyone earning consistently who wants to stop paying Kajabi's $249/month Growth plan and reinvest that saving
• Businesses that already have a WordPress site and a preferred email platform, and want coaching functionality on top
• Coaches building long-term businesses who want full ownership of their client relationships, content, and data
• Teams who want coaching accountability features (milestones, habit tracking, automated onboarding) built into their WordPress site

Who Kajabi Is Best For

• Coaches and course creators who want one login, no WordPress, and no managing a plugin stack
• Creators who don't have a preferred email platform and find genuine value in having email marketing, website, courses, and coaching all in one place
• Anyone at the very start of their business who wants to validate fast without upfront technical setup
• Coaches whose clients expect a polished, self-contained platform experience and where the Kajabi branding is not a concern

Switching from Kajabi to MemberPress

If you're on Kajabi and considering moving, the main things to know: your course videos and content can be exported and re-uploaded.

Your member and client list exports to CSV. The coaching history and session notes in Kajabi don't transfer automatically, you'd want to download those before cancelling.

MemberPress's ReadyLaunch™ means you can have a professional-looking WordPress site faster than you might expect. The heavier lift is usually re-onboarding active coaching clients, which is worth planning for rather than rushing.

Caseproof's support team can walk you through migration planning. It's worth a conversation before you start moving files.

Perguntas frequentes

Veredicto final

Kajabi earned its reputation by making it genuinely easy to build a coaching or course business without touching a single line of code. For someone just starting out who wants everything in one place, that's still a real argument.

But the price increases are real. The platform dependency is real. And for coaches who care about their brand (who want clients to experience their coaching portal, não Kajabi's) the case for MemberPress is compelling and getting stronger with every update and new release.

If you're building a coaching business you intend to own long-term, MemberPress is the better foundation.

The WordPress setup is a one-time investment. The savings over Kajabi's Growth plan pay for your MemberPress licence multiple times over. And your clients, your content, and your data stay yours – regardless of what any platform decides to do next.

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Victoria Lloyd

Victoria tem o dom de transformar pequenos começos em grandes sucessos, tendo elevado sua marca de joias do vibrante burburinho dos mercados de rua de Londres a locais de prestígio como a Royal Academy of Arts e a loja principal da Topshop em Oxford Circus. Sua experiência não se limita aos produtos físicos. Victoria tem um histórico comprovado de aumento do envolvimento on-line para diversas marcas. De startups dinâmicas a nomes conhecidos, como Nokia e Jack Daniels, Victoria aplicou sua potente combinação de magia de palavras, insight estratégico e perspicácia digital para aumentar o envolvimento da marca e o SEO. Na MemberPress, Victoria aproveita sua experiência diversificada para simplificar e desmistificar o mundo da associação on-line e do crescimento dos negócios. Ela está aqui para orientar os leitores com seus insights exclusivos, ajudando-os a criar suas comunidades on-line e sites de associação com confiança e criatividade.

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