Kajabi vs Systeme.io 

Kajabi and Systeme.io are two of the most cutting edge platforms in the online course industry right now!

And if you’re just getting started on your search for a new platform, it can be difficult to know how to compare the two.

The good news is that there is an answer as to which may be a better fit for you and your needs and that’s what we’ll help you uncover in this review.

Another good news, is that both Kajabi and Systeme.io have a similar promise, which is that they would be the only platform you need to run your business online: All-in-one platforms!

This includes everything you need to build pages, to take payments, to run email marketing campaigns and to host and deliver your products (and everything in between!).

Let’s note a few differences in the two platforms however:

Kajabi is built specifically for course creators and membership owners and has always kept them in mind when adding new features.

Systeme.io caters to a wider audience of online businesses that sell different types of products or services.

But before making a decision based on this alone, read on to really understand how this all breaks down!

Starting with an overview of the two platforms feature at a glance:

That’s the overview but now let’s see how these compare side by side:

Funnel & Website builder

The first feature to compare Kajabi and Systeme.io for is their ability to create pages and funnels.

The first major difference is that Systeme.io will have you create Funnels and Kajabi Websites.

Meaning that Systeme.io takes a sales-focus approach to creating landing pages and categorizing them, while Kajabi pushes the more traditional “shop front” site.

Ultimately you can create funnels and websites with both platforms, but this shows the different philosophy of these two.

Kajabi and Systeme.io both offer an easy front-end page builder that you'll build with sections and blocks.

Systeme.io has a very similar interface to ClickFunnels here (see our comparison of these platforms).

You can easily drag & drop elements and edit them on the spot.

You can also save sections and re-use them later or set them up as global elements to be used and dynamically updated through the site.

These are things that aren’t possible with Kajabi…

The page builder, although still relatively easy to use, isn’t as intuitive and not a real drag & drop builder.

That being said, you should be able to build just as well-designed pages on Kajabi, which you can make easier by purchasing 3rd party templates.

Slight advantage to Systeme.io here, especially with the ability to perform A/B split tests of your pages within a funnel.

Again, this is something Kajabi doesn’t offer.

Lastly, both platforms offer a Blog feature that is relatively similar and on par in terms of best SEO practices.

Checkout & Affiliate System

Kajabi and Systeme.io enable you to take payments through an integrated checkout system.

In Kajabi this is done through Offers which each have their own checkout.

Unfortunately, the customization of these checkouts is limited and you won’t be able to use the page builder to edit them.

The biggest drawback with these is also that you cannot display more than 1 pricing options on the same checkout with Kajabi.

On the other hand, Systeme.io checkouts are more flexible:

You can display multiple payment options but also more easily sell any type of products you want: digital, physical, services…

Kajabi is more catered to sell digital products only.

Both allow for 1 click upsell and downsell similarly as well as order bumps.

Systeme.io also has a few more options in terms of payment gateways (which need to be integrated to take payments):

Kajabi integrates with both Stripe and Paypal.

Systeme.io integrates with: Stripe, Paypal, Razorpay (for the Indian market) and MercadoPago (for the hispanic market).

Lastly, both platforms have an integrated affiliate program feature.

This is how you can invite people to promote your products for you and earn a commission.

Both affiliate features are similar: you’ll add people as an affiliate and they’ll get access to a dedicated dashboard and see their unique affiliate links:

The only major difference is that Systeme.io allows for affiliate payout to be automated, which Kajabi doesn’t.

Here again, Systeme.io prevails overall when it comes to selling tools.

Email Marketing & CRM

Managing your list of contacts and creating automations and sequences can greatly increase your sales.

Email marketing is a must for any business online, especially cours creators!

Having an integrated email system in the platform is one of the biggest advantages of using platforms like Kajabi and Systeme.io.

Both offer the ability to send Broadcast date-based emails, and autoresponders that are usually based on triggers (e.g. someone opted in).

The email builder in Kajabi and Systeme.io are similar: these are easy to use visual builders to create your email block by block.

You can also use and save templates to reuse later.

The biggest difference between the two platforms is when it comes to the automated email sequences.

Kajabi’s sequence builder is very basic does not’ for some simple feature like sending multiple emails per day, or choosing a specific time, or create different paths:

There’s also no way to “pause” your sequence in case you’d like to run a campaign and have people not be distracted by a ton of campaigns running at the same time…

On the other hand, Systeme.io offers a much more visual and flexible Workflow builder for your automations:

This will allow you to better manage your workflow and get fancy with different Paths based on conditions that you’ve set up.

You can also easily send multiple emails in a day or pause a sequence and all contacts in it.

The CRM of both platforms is fairly similar, you can create different segments in your list but also see everything you might need from one specific contact.

The only thing to beware of when it comes to this feature is the different limits of email list and email sent and their pricing, see that later.

Online Course & Membership

This is finally an area where Kajabi shines!

Both platforms offer the ability to host your online program directly on the platform.

This means creating and managing your curriculum, but also hosting your videos and files in your member’s area.

Systeme.io and Kajabi both allows for a back-end management of your course:

The biggest difference here is two-part:

First, Kajabi allows for several different layouts and designs of your course.

You can choose among a range of templates or even purchase a custom one.

From there you can edit most parts of it to add your own touch: sidebar, top menu, main content, etc.

On top of that, on the higher Kajabi plans, you can access the code editor and mess with custom styling and display that way.

Systeme.io on the other hand, doesn’t really allow for much customization of your course layout.

You are able to change the content of each individual lesson but everything else is pre-set.

The second difference between the two platforms is the learning tools feature.

Kajabi allows for quizzes, assessment and also a different set of tools specifically for Coaching.

Systeme.io on the other hand, only allows for a right/wrong quiz.

Kajabi clearly comes out on top here with this course creation feature and if that’s the main product you’re selling it may be a good argument for it.

Other features

When comparing these core features, it may come across as if Systeme.io is a winner.

But other extra tools that could be important in your decision may still make Kajabi stand out more.

Let’s highlight these for both platforms:

Systeme.io

• Deadlines: in short, this is a replacement for Deadline funnel, which allows you to create evergreen expiring pages and use urgency and scarcity to increase your sales.

This is very unique and no other all in one platform offers this quite as well.

Kajabi

• Coaching: Kajabi offers a dedicated product type for coaches to manage their coaching programs and sessions. This makes it easy to provide such services and not use external platforms for it, including a built-in scheduler.
• Podcast: Kajabi podcasts allow you to use the platform as a hub to publish your episodes and push them to the broadcasting platforms (see our full breakdown here)

These extra features show that Kajabi is more conscious that its audience is mostly course creators!

Note that both platforms also allow for a Community features.

But Kajabi, by acquiring Vibely in 2022, offer a much better experience with a real community building platform :

Systeme.io on the other hand offer more of a forum-like feature that can be underwhelming

Of course, cost is a big factor in choosing an online course platform to invest in.

Both short term and long term scenarios should be considered, ideally the platform you choose is a great fit now and also when you’ve expanded.

Systeme.io currently has a more attractive offering than Kajabi:

With an excellent free plan, you will get unlimited emails and file hosting on any plan!

The contact and page limit is probably what will make you upgrade (see our dedicated review of Systeme.io pricing).

On the other hand, Kajabi is a bigger upfront investment, with its first plan at $119 per month.

There is no free plan but you can get started with a 30 days free trial.

The few things that “justify” a higher price point for Kajabi are the superior course builder and the bigger community (see below).

Being able to find support, whether that’s technical or marketing, is not something to discount when starting on a new platform.

You’re joining a community of fellow users and people that can help you grow your business.

Kajabi offers a working hours live chat support to help you troubleshoot issues - while Systeme.io only offers email tickets.

Both have a comprehensive Help Center with articles and tutorials to help you learn the platform and its features.

On the community side, it’s hard to compete with Kajabi!

The platform is one of the leading in the industry and has a raving fan-base of users and service providers to help you with anything.

Systeme.io’s community is growing at a fast pace too, but hasn’t built quite as much of a following for now.

Kajabi vs Systeme.io: The Bottom Line