Kajabi vs Squarespace 

Comparing Kajabi and Squarespace might seem odd at first glance since they are platforms in different industries.

Squarespace is mainly a website builder platform with an emphasis on beautiful designs and simplicity…

While Kajabi is an online course, all-in-one platform catering to creators wanting to monetize their knowledge through online products.

Now in the interest of people looking for the best platform to both sell online programs and also build a website and presence online, we’ll compare these two platforms.

Understanding these strengths and weaknesses should help you decide what’s more important to you and which might be the best fit.

Starting by taking a look at the overall pros and cons:

Website & Pages

One of the main features for both Kajabi and Squarespace is creating website pages or a funnel.

This would be done by choosing a theme and then using the page builder to edit the design and content, which works similarly for both platforms.

Kajabi’s page builder is intuitive but can feel a little bit limiting since you’ll have to deal with a grid-like designs and blocks:

This does not mean you can’t create beautifully designed pages on Kajabi, but it may take a little bit of practice and workarounds.

Another solution is to use one of the many templates the Kajabi marketplace offers to have a good base to start from.

Squarespace on the other hand gives a bit more flexibility inside of it’s builder with a more straightforward drag and drop builder of blocks:

Managing pages can also feel a little more organized in Squarespace, which isn’t surprising since this is their main selling point.

Pages can easily be sorted in folders and sub-pages, which isn't as simple in Kajabi.

Also, Squarespace can accommodate website features that Kajabi can’t through Extensions/plugins.

For example, you could build a fully functional e-commerce website or manage bookings and events…

These are things you can’t really do in Kajabi without some workarounds.

Online Courses

Of course, this is where an online course platform like Kajabi shines.

With a dedicated online course and curriculum builder to easily manage your course content for instance.

This can easily be done from the back-end:

You can also choose among a few different themes for your course layout and design which can then be customized to a good extent to match your branding.

Regardless of which plan you’re on, you’ll also get unlimited file and video hosting.

Squarespace on the other hand does not offer a back-end builder but instead you’ll have to design everything yourself in the front-end.

So essentially, you’ll have to create 1 page for each lesson, edit it and upload your content, then link all of these pages together,etc.

Which is definitely not as easy as what Kajabi offers. You’ll also probably need to look into the appropriate plan to make sure you have enough video storage (see pricing section).

On top of that, you won’t have access to learning tools such as quizzes or assignments, all of which are native features of Kajabi.

See our complete article on other things to take into account when building a Squarespace membership.

Overall, and this shouldn’t be a surprise, Kajabi offers a much better process for building an online program or membership.

Marketing Tools & Payment

The last major aspect of Kajabi and Squarespace to compare is about the kind of tools they offer to market your site and products.

One of Kajabi’s main appeals is its all-in-one package which includes things such as email marketing and automations.

Included in any plan, though email list size is subject to allowances, you can build an email list and send date-based broadcasts or automated email sequences.

This is a very easy process to set up and can help you build proper marketing campaigns and funnels to sell to your list.

This is not a feature Squarespace really offers and you will have to use another platform to do so and integrate it to your Squarespace site…

Another aspect of selling online products is to have a shopping cart and payment system.

Both Kajabi and Squarespace offer this to a fairly similar extent.

Kajabi has a native checkout that integrates with Stripe, Paypal and their native payment gateway.

You’ll be able to manage everything directly in the platform:

Squarespace also offers a native checkout (depending on your pricing plan) that integrates with Stripe and Paypal.

Note here that it probably is easier to create funnels with order bump, upsell and downsell in Kajabi since everything is integrated (Squarespace needing additional extensions to do so).

Other Features

Let’s note here a few more features that might be important for most creators:

• Community: This isn’t something that exists natively in Squarespace whereas Kajabi has a fully fledged community builder with threads, live sessions, events, challenges,etc.
• Mobile App: Your members in Squarespace will not have a mobile app to go through your programs. Kajabi offers for all users a native app for your online courses (you can also make it fully branded at an extra cost).

This is where a bit of content and consideration is useful to understand how Kajabi and Squarespace compare.

Let’s take a look at the overall pricing of both platforms:

As mentioned before, Kajabi is an all-in-one platform with hosting and marketing tools included out of the box.

Squarespace can turn into a membership site and its pricing can be flexible depending on what you need.

But on top of the pricing we see above you may need to pay extra for certain extensions (checkout, membership manager,etc.)

And also for a 3rd party email marketing software.

This additional cost may be getting Squarespace closer to Kajabi’s entry plan, although maybe a little cheaper.

Kajabi does not have a free plan but there is a low-priced Kickstarter plan or a 30 days free trial.

Squarespace offers a 14 days free trial on any plan.