Not sure if you want to use Kajabi or Teachable? This post will dive into two of the most popular online course platforms: Kajabi and Teachable and help you decide.
But, we’re going to take a different approach than other similar reviews on this topic because most reviews that just compare Kajabi and Teachable based on features are not very helpful!
That’s because Kajabi and Teachable cater to specific needs but can't be directly compared.So instead, we're going to look at both of the online course platforms in a smarter way. Our goal is that you can ask yourself the right questions to determine which one is better for what you want to accomplish.
All-in-one vs standalone
Kajabi and Teachable are fundamentally different: one is an all-in-one, and one is a standalone platform. That’s why it's a mistake to compare the two platforms directly, with a feature by feature table.
Kajabi is an all-in-one platform, meaning that it's meant to be the only platform you use for your online course business. It takes care of page building, blog, website features, course hosting, email marketing, cart, and more.
Teachable is a standalone online course platform. It's NOT meant to replace everything you're using or everything you need as a course creator. It handles the basics: online course hosting, basic pages, blog, etc.
Does that mean Kajabi is better because it has more features? Absolutely not.
It just means that depending on what you need, one type of platform will be better than the other.
Now you might say, but I don't really know what I need.
I got you! This is what the rest of today’s article is about. The next few questions will help you know whether either of these two specific platforms could be a great fit for you.
How to know if Kajabi is right for you
Let’s start with the all-in-one platform: Kajabi.
As mentioned before, the selling point of Kajabi is that everything you need is included.
Kajabi includes:
Now again, just having more features does not mean the platform is right for you.
If you go with a cheaper standalone platform, you could make up for the fewer extra features by using other free tools.
For example, Teachable doesn't have an email capability, but you could use ConvertKit (free until 1,000 subscribers) and integrate the two.
However, comparing Kajabi and Teachable is slightly more complex than just comparing features.
Ask yourself the following questions to help you know whether to use Kajabi or Teachable.
Am I already using tools I'm happy with to sell my courses?
Maybe you are not starting completely from scratch.
Maybe you already have a website on WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace and have been slowly building an email list on ConvertKit, Mailchimp, or a similar service.
And now you're wanting to get started with courses and don't want to deal with hosting it on your site.
In that case, maybe Kajabi isn't the best option.
If you think about it, you may only need a place to host your courses at this point, and then you can build sales pages on your WordPress site using funnel builders plugin.
Or for example, you know your main source of traffic is organic from the great articles you've been writing for a long time. In which case you wouldn't want to move things over to Kajabi and lose all your SEO and authority.
On the other hand, if you’re starting from scratch or aren't happy with the tools you're using now then Kajabi may be the best option for you. In which case, you can ditch everything you have now, migrate a few things and start with a clean slate on Kajabi.
Do I prefer to have everything in one place or do I value having separate tools that do each part exceptionally well?
Before you commit to an all-in-one platform like Kajabi, you should know some of the features take that takes some time using it to realize, It may take some time for you to learn everything, and a few weeks in you realize you regret choosing the platform!
Kajabi gives you everything you need, not everything you want. Meaning that it will do everything mentioned above pretty damn well!
For instance, Clickfunnel has a better funnel builder than Kajabi, ThriveCart is a better cart than Kajabi, and Active Campaign is a better email and CRM tool than Kajabi.
But it wouldn't be fair to compare them together because remember Kajabi is designed to be all-in-one. The features in Kajabi are a package deal, but you do get everything in one place but you don’t get to choose each one.
Are you comparing apples to oranges?
I remember this iPhone review back in the early days of when it first came out. The review was essentially comparing each feature of the iPhone with other phones.
But they would take only the phone with the best camera and compare just that one feature to the iPhone.
Then they would do the same with another phone that had a great screen resolution, and another one with battery life, and so on.
The review went on, comparing each best feature of that one phone to the iPhone.
What an unfair comparison! That's exactly what some are doing by comparing Kajabi's different features to standalone tools.Now that might be your preference: to have one tool for each function. This is a good option if that’s what you’re looking for.
But, if you're okay to give up on a little bit of the bells and whistles, and prefer to have everything in one place and/or don't want to deal with integrating tools, then Kajabi could be a great option!
What do I want in the long term, and is an out-of-the-box platform going to be a good fit then?
This last, but not least, question is an important one. You need to not only think of what your business needs now but what you will need as you grow.
You may assess your needs now and decide that since you're starting from scratch, an all-in-one like Kajabi is better.
But then five months down the road, you realize that you now have a much different vision for your membership and want some specific delivery method.
Or you may realize down the line that you need advanced affiliate marketing capabilities because that's a huge part of your strategy.
And sometimes, you realize that neither Kajabi nor Teachable is the right solution for you, and you may need to come back and ask yourself what kind of platform you need.
For both Teachable and Kajabi, you'd be using an out-of-the-box platform with varying degrees of customization.
With either Teachable or Kajabi you'll have to make some trade-offs and maybe give up on a little detail you wanted to add to your online course platform.
And although you would have code access with both platforms, you still can't have it all.
But again, maybe that's fine and you're okay with it.
Just ask yourself what you value most.
Conclusion
The point of the questions isn't to give you a blatant answer saying either Kajabi or Teachable is better, but to empower you to ask the right questions to make the best decision for YOU.
Before committing to one platform you should strategize for what you need now and in the future and not simply accept someone else’s opinion on what you should pick.
