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Skool vs Kajabi in 2026: what each one actually costs to run

Pricing verified 2026-09-02

Skool logo
Skool
$9/mo · Hobby · 10% transaction fee

One community app sold at two prices. Unlimited members, courses, videos and live calls on both tiers — the higher tier only buys a smaller transaction fee, not more product.

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

A whole business platform. Marketing email, landing pages, funnels and checkout ship with the $179 entry plan — which also caps you at 5 products and 2,500 contacts.

Skool vs Kajabi, line by line

 SkoolKajabi
Entry price$9/mo Hobby. The plan most people actually run is Pro at $99/mo.edge$179/mo Basic, or $143/mo billed annually — a $432 saving over the year.
Transaction fee10% on Hobby, 2.9% on Pro. The pricing page states one flat rate and never breaks out card processing.0% revenue share through Kajabi Payments, where processing is 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic, 2.8% on Growth, 2.7% on Pro. A third-party gateway costs 2% / 1% / 0.5% instead.edge
Members and contactsUnlimited members on both plans. No member cap is published anywhere.edge2,500 contacts on Basic, 25,000 on Growth, 100,000 on Pro.
Courses and productsUnlimited courses, unlimited videos and unlimited live calls on the $9 plan and the $99 plan alike.edge5 products on Basic, 50 on Growth, unlimited on Pro. Cohort courses and video transcriptions from Basic.
Community and gamificationThe entire product. Points, levels and leaderboards are built in, on both tiers.edge1 community on Basic and Growth, 3 on Pro. Access groups and spaces, with no points or levels listed.
Email marketingAdmin broadcast emails to members. No sequences, no automations, no list outside the community.Unlimited marketing emails on every plan. Advanced automations start at Growth, $249/mo or $199 annually.edge
Funnels, landing pages and websiteNone. A custom URL for the community is as far as it goes.Landing pages, funnels, checkout pages and a custom domain on Basic. 1 website on Basic, 3 on Pro.edge
Coaching and membershipsPaid memberships and live calls, unlimited, but only in the one community shape.Courses, coaching, memberships and digital products as separate product types — 5 of them total on Basic.
Mobile appSkool has iOS and Android apps, though its pricing page doesn't mention them; the community lives inside them.The Kajabi customer app on every plan. A branded app of your own needs Pro at $499/mo, or $399 annually.
DiscoverySkool Discovery lists communities publicly, so new members can find you inside Skool itself. Not covered on the pricing page.edgeNothing equivalent. Every member arrives through traffic you generated.
AI featuresNone listed on the pricing page.0 AI credits on Basic, 500/mo on Growth, 1,000/mo on Pro. Top-ups are $15/mo per 500.edge
Free trial14 days.30 days, going by the pricing page's own signup links — the visible copy never states a length.edge

Skool and Kajabi get compared constantly, and they aren't the same kind of product. Skool is one community app sold at two prices: $9/mo on Hobby, $99/mo on Pro, with the same feature list on both — unlimited members, unlimited courses, unlimited videos, unlimited live calls. The only thing the higher price buys is a smaller cut of your sales. Kajabi is a business platform. Its entry plan, Basic, is $179/mo or $143/mo billed annually, and it ships marketing email, landing pages, funnels and checkout pages that Skool doesn't build at all.

Which means the sticker prices aren't the comparison. The fee is. Skool takes 10% of every payment on Hobby and 2.9% on Pro. Kajabi takes 0% revenue share when you sell through Kajabi Payments, which charges 2.9% + $0.30 processing on Basic; bring your own gateway and it takes 2% on Basic instead. Run that arithmetic and the $9 plan stops being cheap quickly: at roughly $1,270/mo in community revenue Skool Hobby costs the same as Skool Pro, and at roughly $1,890/mo it costs more than Kajabi Basic on annual billing. Ignore Kajabi's $0.30 per transaction and that second line moves up a little; it doesn't move far.

The other half of the question is what you're not buying. Skool has no landing pages, no funnels and no checkout pages, and its email is an admin broadcast to people already inside the community rather than sequences, automations or a list you own. Plenty of people who choose Skool end up paying for an email tool and a page builder on top — which is roughly the $80/mo gap to Kajabi Basic billed monthly, or the $44/mo gap to its annual rate. I haven't run a paid community on either platform, so this is a pricing-and-limits read rather than a hands-on one. Every figure came off the two vendors' own US pricing pages on 2 September 2026, and the links here go to their homepages. The full reviews those cards point at carry affiliate links, which changes nothing in the table above.

Kajabi vs Skool: which should you pick?

Pick Skool over Kajabiif…

  • ✓$99/mo flat on Pro for unlimited members, unlimited courses, unlimited videos and unlimited live calls
  • ✓Points, levels and leaderboards are the product itself, not a feature you unlock at a higher tier
  • ✓Skool Discovery lists communities publicly, so the platform itself can send you members
  • ✓One feature set at two prices — you never pay a tier upgrade to unlock something you need
  • ✓$80/mo cheaper than Kajabi Basic billed monthly, $44/mo cheaper than Kajabi's $143 annual rate
Where it costs you
  • −The 10% fee on the $9 Hobby plan overtakes Kajabi Basic's annual total at about $1,890/mo in revenue
  • −No landing pages, no funnels, no checkout pages — the front end of the business lives somewhere else
  • −Email is an admin broadcast to existing members, not sequences, automations or a list you own
  • −The pricing page lists no AI features at all, and the annual prices aren't published on it

Pick Skool if the community is the product and you already have an audience to fill it. Move to Pro as soon as revenue clears about $1,270/mo, because that's where the $99 and 2.9% beats the $9 and 10%. At $5,000/mo in sales Skool Pro runs roughly $244 in plan plus fee against roughly $288 for Kajabi Basic on annual billing, before Kajabi's $0.30 per transaction, and that $44 difference is your email budget, not your saving. Above roughly $1,890/mo, the $9 headline is the most expensive number on this page. Below that line, and with no audience yet, a Discovery listing is the only marketing the platform hands you.

Full Skoolreview →

Pick Kajabi over Skoolif…

  • ✓0% revenue share through Kajabi Payments (2% on Basic with a third-party gateway), so growing the business barely grows the platform's cut of it
  • ✓Unlimited marketing emails, landing pages, funnels and checkout pages on the $179 Basic plan
  • ✓Annual billing drops Basic to $143/mo and takes $432 off the year
  • ✓One bill instead of a community tool plus an email tool plus a page builder
  • ✓30-day trial, going by the length coded into the pricing page's own signup links
Where it costs you
  • −Basic stops at 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 website, 1 community and 2 admin users
  • −No affiliate program, no advanced automations and no removing Kajabi branding until Growth at $249/mo
  • −0 AI credits on Basic; 500/mo starts at Growth, and extra credits are $15/mo per 500
  • −One community on both Basic and Growth — three of them means Pro at $499/mo

Pick Kajabi if you sell more than access — a course, a coaching offer, a digital product — and you'd be buying a page builder and an email tool regardless. At $143/mo billed annually you get unlimited marketing emails, landing pages, funnels and checkout in a single bill with no revenue share layered on top. Watch two numbers before you commit: 5 products and 2,500 contacts. Pass either one and Basic is finished, and the next stop is Growth at $249/mo, or $199/mo annually.

Full Kajabireview →

Questions people actually ask

What are the cons of Skool?

Three of them cost real money. The 10% transaction fee on the $9 Hobby plan overtakes Pro's $99 + 2.9% at about $1,270/mo in revenue, so the cheap plan is only cheap below roughly $1,270 a month. There are no landing pages, funnels or checkout pages, so the selling half of the business runs on something else you pay for. And the pricing page lists no AI features at all, against 500 AI credits a month on Kajabi's $249 Growth plan.

What are the downsides of Kajabi?

The entry plan is the downside. Basic is $179/mo, or $143/mo billed annually, and it caps you at 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 website, 1 community and 2 admin users. It also withholds the affiliate program, advanced automations and any way to remove Kajabi branding — all three begin at Growth, which is $249/mo or $199/mo annually. Basic gets 0 AI credits, and extra credits cost $15/mo per 500 on the plans that have them.

How much does Skool cost per month?

$9/mo on Hobby or $99/mo on Pro, with transaction fees of 10% and 2.9% respectively. The pricing page carries a yearly toggle and a '2 months free' banner, but those annual figures load from Skool's own system rather than the page, so only the two monthly prices are verifiable. There's a 14-day free trial and no free tier.

Can you run courses on Skool?

Yes, and both plans allow unlimited courses, unlimited videos and unlimited live calls — the $9 tier carries the same feature list as the $99 one, which is unusual. What Skool's pricing page doesn't list is the machinery around a course: no funnels, no landing pages, no checkout pages. Kajabi Basic includes all three at $179/mo, or $143/mo annually, and then caps you at 5 products.

Do I need email software if I use Skool?

Almost certainly. Skool sends admin broadcasts to people already inside your community, which isn't the same as sequences, automations or a list you own and can export. Kajabi Basic includes unlimited marketing emails at $179/mo, or $143/mo on annual billing. The gap between Skool Pro at $99 and that annual rate is $44/mo, which is the honest budget for whatever you bolt on — and it goes negative the moment your email tool costs more than that.

Is Skool, Kajabi or Circle right for a paid community?

On price alone: Skool Pro is $99/mo with a 2.9% fee, Circle Professional is $89/mo billed annually with a 2% fee, and Kajabi Basic is $143/mo annually with no revenue share but 2.9% + $0.30 processing. Circle publishes no monthly-billed price at all, so $89 is the annual rate or nothing. Skool is the simplest of the three, Circle gives you the most community structure — 20 spaces, 3 admins and 10 moderators on Professional — and Kajabi is the only one that also sells you funnels and email. I haven't run a community on Circle either, so treat that as a pricing read too.

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