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Podia vs Kajabi: what each one really costs once the fees and caps land

Pricing verified 2026-09-02

Podia logo
Podia
$49/mo · Mover · $42/mo billed annually

A low floor for creators selling several small things at once — courses, downloads, coaching and community on one bill — as long as your email list stays under four figures.

Kajabi logo
Kajabi
$179/mo · Basic · $143/mo billed annually

A full marketing platform with no revenue share on its own payments and room for a real email list, priced like the serious purchase it is.

Podia vs Kajabi, line by line

 PodiaKajabi
Entry price$49/mo (Mover), or $42/mo billed annually — $504 for the yearedge$179/mo (Basic), or $143/mo billed annually — Kajabi puts the saving at $432/year
Transaction fees5% on Mover. 0% from Shaker at $99/mo ($84 annually) upward0% revenue share on all three plans through Kajabi Payments, where processing runs 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic. Bring your own gateway and Kajabi takes 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, 0.5% on Proedge
Email list cap100 subscribers on Mover, 500 on Shaker, 1,000 on Earthquaker — the ceiling never leaves four figures2,500 contacts on Basic, 25,000 on Growth, 100,000 on Proedge
Product cap50 on Mover, 150 on Shaker, unlimited on Earthquaker ($179/mo)edge5 on Basic, 50 on Growth ($249/mo), unlimited on Pro ($499/mo)
Community25 spaces on Mover, 100 on Shaker, unlimited on Earthquakeredge1 community on Basic and on Growth. 3 on Pro at $499/mo
Website and landing pagesWebsite builder, blog, landing pages and a custom domain, all on the $49 plan1 website, unlimited landing pages and checkout pages, custom domain on Basic — but you can't remove Kajabi branding below Growth
Funnels and automationNo funnels listed. Zapier, upsells and PayPal all start at Shaker, $99/moFunnels and access groups on Basic. Advanced automations from Growth, $249/moedge
Coaching and membershipsCoaching, community, events and digital downloads are all included at $49/mo, with no per-type gateedgeCohort courses, community and access groups on Basic — but everything counts against the 5-product cap
Mobile appNot listed on its pricing pageKajabi customer app on Basic. Branded app on Pro at $499/mo, listed as a $199/mo valueedge
AI featuresNone listed on its pricing page0 credits on Basic, 500/mo on Growth, 1,000/mo on Pro. $15/mo buys 500 more, plus Cofounder AI and a Kajabi MCP serveredge
Free trial30 days, no credit card. After you pay, a 72-hour refund window and no partial refunds on annualedgeA free trial, but the page never states the length in visible copy — its own signup links carry a 30-day source
Who it's really forA creator selling several small things to a list still measured in hundredsA creator selling one or two big things to a list measured in thousands

Every comparison of these two leads with the same line: Podia plans start at $49/month, Kajabi plans start at $179/month. It's true, and it's the least useful true thing you can say about them. That $49 plan takes 5% of every sale you make on it, and the $179 one takes 0% as long as you sell through Kajabi Payments — 2% if you bring your own gateway. Any comparison that stops at the sticker price has skipped the part where the money actually moves.

The more interesting split is what each platform decides to ration. Podia rations your list — 100 email subscribers on the $49 Mover plan, 500 on Shaker, 1,000 on its top self-serve tier. Kajabi rations your catalogue — 5 products on the $179 Basic plan, and 1 community until you're paying $499/mo. Those are two completely different ceilings, and which one you hit first has almost nothing to do with which platform is better and everything to do with what you sell.

I pulled both vendors' US pricing pages on 2 September 2026 and read the numbers off their own plan data, not off anyone's blog post. I haven't run a business on both platforms, so treat this as a pricing-and-limits read rather than a hands-on one. Card processing fees sit on top for both and I've left them out of both sides, since you pay those on the payment rather than on the platform. Both vendor links on this page point at their own homepages; the full reviews I've linked can carry affiliate links, and neither fact changed which side got the edge on any row.

Kajabi vs Podia: which should you pick?

Pick Podia over Kajabiif…

  • ✓Starts at $49/mo, or $42/mo billed annually — a third of what Kajabi asks
  • ✓50 products on the $49 plan, against 5 on Kajabi's $179 one
  • ✓25 community spaces on Mover, and unlimited on Earthquaker at $179/mo
  • ✓0% transaction fee arrives at Shaker, $99/mo — still $80/mo below Kajabi's cheapest plan
  • ✓Coaching, events and digital downloads are all in from the entry plan, no product-type upsell
Where it costs you
  • −Mover takes 5% of every sale, which costs more than the $50/mo jump to Shaker past roughly $1,000/mo in sales
  • −100 email subscribers on Mover, and the ceiling only ever reaches 1,000 on the top plan
  • −No upsells, no PayPal and no Zapier on the $49 plan
  • −No mobile app and no AI features listed anywhere on its pricing page

Pick Podia if your catalogue is wider than your list. At $49/mo you get 50 products, 25 community spaces and coaching included; the same $179 that buys Kajabi Basic buys Podia's top plan with unlimited products and unlimited community spaces. The thing to plan for is the fee, not the price. Mover's 5% overtakes the $50/mo cost of upgrading at around $1,000/mo in sales, so if you're already past that, budget for Shaker at $99/mo ($84 annually) from day one. That's still $80/mo under Kajabi's floor with nothing taken off the top.

Full Podiareview →

Pick Kajabi over Podiaif…

  • ✓0% revenue share on every plan through Kajabi Payments; a third-party gateway costs 2% on Basic
  • ✓2,500 contacts on Basic, rising to 25,000 on Growth — Podia's best is 1,000
  • ✓Unlimited emails, funnels, landing pages and checkout pages from Basic up
  • ✓A customer app on Basic and a branded mobile app on Pro, which Kajabi itself prices at $199/mo of value
  • ✓Real AI provision: 500 credits/mo on Growth, 1,000 on Pro, plus a Cofounder AI builder and an MCP server
Where it costs you
  • −$179/mo ($143 annually) before you've sold anything — 3.6x Podia's entry plan
  • −5 products on Basic, which a flagship course plus a few add-ons clears immediately
  • −Kajabi branding stays on your site until Growth at $249/mo ($199 annually)
  • −The affiliate program and advanced automations wait for that same step up — $70/mo on monthly billing, $56 on annual

Pick Kajabi if your list is the asset. Podia caps email subscribers at 100, 500 and 1,000 across its three plans, so a 2,000-person list has nowhere to sit on Podia at any price — Kajabi Basic holds 2,500 contacts for $143/mo annually, and Growth holds 25,000. That single ceiling decides this comparison for most people before a feature ever does. Go in knowing the second bill, though: removing Kajabi branding and running an affiliate program both need Growth at $249/mo ($199 annually), which is a $70/mo step on monthly billing ($56 on annual) you'll probably take within the year.

Full Kajabireview →

Questions people actually ask

How much is Podia per month?

$49/mo for Mover, $99/mo for Shaker and $179/mo for Earthquaker, billed monthly. On annual billing those drop to $42, $84 and $150/mo, so Mover works out at $504 a year. There's no free plan — the only free access is a 30-day trial with no credit card. The number that matters more than the headline is the fee. Mover takes 5% of every sale while Shaker and Earthquaker take 0%, so at $3,000/mo in sales Mover really costs $49 plus $150, which is more than Shaker costs outright.

What are the downsides of Kajabi?

The price floor first: $179/mo, or $143/mo billed annually, before you've sold anything. Then the Basic caps — 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 website, 1 community, 2 admin users and 0 AI credits. Three things people assume are included aren't: the affiliate program, advanced automations, and removing Kajabi branding from your site. All three need Growth at $249/mo ($199 annually), a $70/mo step on monthly billing or $56 on annual. The branded mobile app is higher again, on Pro at $499/mo ($399 annually), where Kajabi prices it as $199/mo of value on its own page.

Is there anything better than Kajabi?

Better at what, honestly. On price, Podia's Shaker plan gives you 0% fees at $99/mo ($84 annually) against Kajabi's $179 floor. If the community is the product rather than the course, Skool charges $99/mo on Pro with a 2.9% fee, or $9/mo on Hobby with a 10% one, and Circle's Professional plan runs $89/mo billed annually with a 2% fee. What none of them match at the entry tier is contact headroom: Kajabi Basic carries 2,500 contacts and Growth carries 25,000, where Podia's best plan stops at 1,000.

What does Podia vs Kajabi cost over a year at $2,000/mo in sales?

Podia Mover on annual billing is $504, plus 5% of $24,000, which is $1,200 — $1,704 for the year. Kajabi Basic on annual billing is $1,716. Twelve dollars apart. At that volume the cheap-looking plan isn't cheaper, which is the single most useful thing on this page. The plan that is genuinely cheaper is Podia Shaker: $1,008 a year with a 0% fee, or $708 under Kajabi Basic. Card processing sits on top for both and I've excluded it from both sides, since it's charged on the payment rather than the platform.

Does Podia or Kajabi have a free plan?

Neither one does. Podia runs a 30-day free trial with no credit card, and once you've paid there's a 72-hour refund window with no partial refunds on annual plans. Kajabi offers a free trial too, though its pricing page never states the length in visible copy — the signup links on that page carry a 30-day source, so 30 days. If free is the actual requirement, neither platform is the answer: even Skool, the cheapest thing in this category, starts at $9/mo and takes 10% of every payment on that plan.

Can I move from Podia to Kajabi later?

You can, but nothing on Kajabi's pricing page promises any help with it, so plan on rebuilding courses, emails and checkout pages by hand. The migration offer runs in the other direction — Podia includes migration of up to 50 products on Mover and up to 150 on Shaker, which is aimed at people arriving from a platform like Kajabi rather than leaving for one. The switching cost that actually hurts is neither of those. It's every payment link and course URL you've already handed to buyers, and no vendor migrates those for you.

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