Kajabi and ActiveCampaign are both highly respected platforms and serve their intended purpose extremely well.
However, as a complete, all-in-one solution, Kajabi was the obvious choice, which was why I chose it for my business.
Key Takeaways:
- Kajabi costs from $69/month, ActiveCampaign costs from $15/month
- Kajabi is designed for building, marketing, and selling digital products
- ActiveCampaign is a full solution for email, SMS, and social media marketing
Kajabi vs. ActiveCampaign: Quick Overview
| Feature | Kajabi | ActiveCampaign |
|---|---|---|
| SupplyGem Platform Ranking | No. 2 | Not ranked on SupplyGem |
| SupplyGem Score | 9.5 | 8.2 |
| Trustpilot Score | 4.4 | 3.3 |
| Costs From | $69/month | $15/month |
| Free Trial | Get a Growth plan 30-day free trial | 14-day free trial |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 30 days | None |
| Platform Pros | – All-in-one platform – Create diverse learning and digital products – Great customer service – Reasonably-priced plans – Excellent user experience | – Advanced marketing platform – Supports social media and SMS marketing – Sophisticated automation – Cheap starter plans |
| Platform Cons | – Basic marketing tools – Limited templates – No SMS or social media marketing | – No product creation tools – No money-back guarantee – More complex to use than Kajabi – Need integrations to get full functionality for a sales business |
| Best For | Digital product creators who want a full solution for building, marketing, and selling. | Those who want a sophisticated marketing solution for their business. |
6 Reasons Why I Chose Kajabi for My Online Business
1. It’s a Complete Business Solution
The fewer platforms I need to run my business, the better. I don’t want to constantly switch between software for different features or, even worse, deal with trying to connect them all.
Thankfully, Kajabi provides a near-enough all-in-one platform that gives me everything I need to create, market, and sell my digital products.
With Kajabi, I can build my website, host my courses, create landing pages, manage email marketing, and even handle payments—all in one place.
Instead of trying to master a dozen platforms to get the same functionality, I only had to master Kajabi, which, thankfully, was really easy!
2. I Don’t Need to Be a Technical Wizard
I’ll admit that most SaaS platforms are pretty easy to use these days, but some more so than others.
I love that Kajabi has placed user-friendliness at the center of everything it does because that means I don’t have to be a technical whiz to try and work things out. Even something as notoriously complicated as automation couldn’t be simpler in Kajabi.
And, as I’ve already said, I don’t need to waste precious hours connecting multiple platforms or worry about my stress levels when things inevitably don’t work. Kajabi’s features work seamlessly together without a line of code in sight!
3. Great Product Range (I Can Scale My Business)
If you’re into selling digital products like me, you want a platform that allows you to create a diverse range of them.
While I started by creating a simple course, I soon branched into offering more in-depth courses, live coaching, and a community. Kajabi allows me to do all of this, plus sell digital downloads, podcasts, and newsletters.
I also ramp up the value of my offers by including multiple products for one price. By bundling a course with a community and bonus downloads, I can provide something that has exceptional value and stands out from my competitors.
4. Easy Funnel Building
I’m the first to admit that I don’t like building or using funnels. But they are incredibly effective and the easiest way to gain leads or promote my business.
For me, Kajabi’s prebuilt funnel templates are a saving grace. Instead of spending hours (or even days) trying to piece a funnel together, I can simply select a template and adapt it to my offer and brand, and it’s good to go.
Kajabi’s funnels include the accompanying email sequences, and the automations are built-in, so the entire process is really easy.
5. Built-in Livestreaming
One of the key reasons I use email campaigns is to promote a free webinar I host. While Kajabi isn’t as sophisticated as, say, Webinarjam for this purpose, it does have a native live stream feature available.
I can use it to run live events, or I can record a session and turn it into an evergreen webinar (there’s even a webinar funnel template for this).
This allows me to connect with my audience without messing with Zoom integrations or similar.
6. No Hidden Costs
Kajabi has clear plans and pricing, so I know how much it costs me and what my limits are.
In contrast, ActiveCampaign’s pricing depends on how many contacts you want to add, and believe me, if you want more than 1,000, it gets very expensive very quickly. Like, thousands of dollars expensive (see further in the article for full pricing info).
Also, the platform features a bunch of add-on costs, which can also significantly jack up the price. Especially since they are for features you will probably need.
Although there are some add-on services for Kajabi, none are integral to the platform’s functionality. They’re more of a “nice to have” thing than something you absolutely need.
And, if you do want them, they’re not that expensive, either:
- Website widgets will set you back an extra $5/month
- Creator Studio (for content creation) is from $9/month
- A branded mobile app costs from $89/month
What Does ActiveCampaign Have That Kajabi Doesn’t?
So, ActiveCampaign’s primary focus is email marketing, so naturally, it has much stronger features surrounding it. Yes, Kajabi has an emailing tool, but when compared with ActiveCampaign, it is somewhat basic.
Better Automation
For starters, ActiveCampign has far better automation capabilities for sending emails.
Besides the basic “when and then” actions (which Kajabi also has), it’s also capable of creating complex branched workflows with multiple outcomes. Also, if you’re lazy like me, you’ll appreciate the AI-powered automation builder!
I also like the predictive sending feature. The platform uses sophisticated algorithms to predict when recipients are most likely to open their emails and will automatically send your emails out during those periods.
ActiveCampaign recently revamped its automation builder and now features a visual canvas to map out everything. Oh, and there are hundreds of prebuilt automation “recipes” you can use so creating sequences is a whole lot easier than it once was.
Multichannel Marketing
One limitation of Kajabi that does frustrate me is that you’re limited to email marketing only. Yes, of course, you can use social media, but the platform doesn’t offer any direct integrations with social platforms for marketing purposes.
ActiveCampign, however, has many more options. For starters, it supports SMS marketing (although it does cost extra), which can be a really powerful tool, especially when compared to email. In fact, the open rates of SMS messages are around 95%, while emails are about 20%.
You can also connect ActiveCampaign directly to Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn Ads and sync all your lead data between the platforms.
Also, ActiveCampaign has lots of apps available for direct connection with other social media platforms, including Pinterest, Facebook Messenger, YouTube, and more.
Pipelines and CRM Tools
I always feel that Kajabi could do better in the customer relationship management (CRM) department. There are contact management tools but not a lot else, to be honest.
If you want things like automated pipelines and opportunity tracking, perhaps ActiveCampaign is the better option. There are also handy features to help you stay on top of lead nurturing.
For example, you can get automatic notifications whenever a contact performs an action. These real-time updates can help you decide in the moment if a lead needs an extra nudge in the right direction. The lead scoring system is another great tool because it tells you which leads are worth your effort and which aren’t.
Easier Design Tools
It’s certainly not difficult to design landing pages, emails, etc., in Kajabi, but I wish it utilized the drag-and-drop method for customizing them. Also, while the platform does have templates, there aren’t many of them, so you soon run out of choice.
In contrast, ActiveCampaign has hundreds of email and landing page templates, giving you a much wider choice. The platform also has the drag-and-drop tool, so designing pages is more intuitive than Kajabi.
Kajabi vs. ActiveCampaign: Affordability
Both platforms have four plans available, and both offer a 20% discount for annual payments.
Initially, Kajabi looks more expensive until you realize that ActiveCampaign’s pricing depends on how many contacts you want to add. If you want less than 1,000, it’s cheap, but the price can quickly rise significantly once you need over 2,000 contacts.
Here’s a quick rundown of the pricing:
| Plan | Monthly Price | Monthly Price (Paid Annually) | Total Annual Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lowest tier: Kajabi Kickstarter | $69 | $55 | $660 |
| Lowest tier: ActiveCampaign Starter | $19-$189 | $15-$149 | $180-$1,788 |
| Mid-tier 1:Kajabi Basic | $149 | $119 | $1,428 |
| Mid-tier 1:ActiveCampaign Plus | $59-$759 | $49-$609 | $588-$7,308 |
| Mid-tier 2: Kajabi Growth | $199 | $159 | $1,908 |
| Mid-tier 2: ActiveCampaign Pro | $89-$1,089 | $79-$969 | $948-$11,628 |
| Top-tier: Kajabi Pro | $399 | $319 | $3,828 |
| Top-tier: ActiveCampaign Enterprise | $159-$1,315 | $145-$1,169 | $1,740-$14,028 |
Also, ActiveCampaign has a bunch of other add-on costs for:
- Additional users: From $10/month
- SMS marketing: From $16/month
- Advanced CRM: From $95/month
- Transactional emails: From $15/month
Kajabi vs. ActiveCampaign: Which Should You Use?
This question can be quickly answered by looking at the type of business you want to run.
If your focus is on marketing and marketing only, ActiveCampign is the obvious choice. It has many, many more features for creating diverse campaigns and supports multi-channel marketing.
On the other hand, if you’re like me and want a complete solution for creating and selling digital products, Kajabi is the far better choice.
Yes, its marketing tools are more basic, but for me, marketing is only a small part of what I do. I don’t need all the bells and whistles that ActiveCampaign provides here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I Use Kajabi or ActiveCampaign to Sell Digital Products?
Kajabi is better than ActiveCampaign for selling digital products because it includes tools for building courses, communities, digital downloads, and more. In contrast, ActiveCampaign is a marketing platform and lacks product-building features.
Do I Need ActiveCampaign if I Have Kajabi?
No, you don’t need ActiveCampaign if you have Kajabi since Kajabi provides email and funnel marketing tools. However, if you want advanced features like complex automation, SMS marketing, and pipeline management, you may wish to also use Active Campaign.
