Kajabi is an all-in-one platform, and LearnDash is a WordPress plugin.
Kajabi allows you to create, market, and sell digital products.
On LearnDash, you can create and sell courses, but you need an existing WordPress website to do so.
- Kajabi starts at $149 per month (discounts are available with annual billing)
- Kajabi is rated as the #1 platform on SupplyGem
- Kajabi has an excellent customer rating of 4.6/5 on Trustpilot
- Kajabi is a winner of this comparison
- LearnDash starts at $199/year
- LearnDash isn’t in the top 10 of platforms on SupplyGem
- LearnDash is rated 2.3/5 on Trustpilot
- LearnDash is a good alternative if you have an existing WordPress website and you want to sell courses
Both platforms allow you to create and sell courses, but the platforms have different purposes and features.
Kajabi is designed for creators. You can create courses, coaching programs, communities, podcasts, and memberships.
LearnDash is designed for educators. It is an LMS plugin for WordPress that you can build and sell courses with.
Key Takeaways:
- Kajabi is the winner of this comparison for the range of products you can create, built-in marketing and analytics tools, and excellent support.
- LearnDash is a great alternative if you have an existing WordPress website and want to create and sell courses.
Get started with Kajabi using its 30-day free trial. You can test out all of the features and join a paid plan once the trial finishes.
LearnDash doesn’t have a free trial, but they have a demo, so you can check out all of the features before joining a paid plan.
What Are Kajabi and LearnDash?
You can create and sell courses on both platforms. However, there are some major differences.
What Is Kajabi?
Kajabi is an all-in-one platform.
You can build a complete website with a blog and create digital products.
There are email marketing and sales funnel tools included.
You can also sell both physical and digital products, manage your payments and contacts, and grow your business with detailed analytics.
What Is LearnDash?
LearnDash is an LMS WordPress plugin.
You can build engaging courses and sell them. To access analytics, communities, coaching, and other features, you need to pay for an add-on.
Kajabi vs LearnDash: Side-by-Side Look
| Kajabi | LearnDash | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 Overall Rank | #1 | #14 | Kajabi |
| ⭐Customer Rating | 4.6/5 | 2.3/5 | Kajabi |
| 💵 Starting Price | $149/month | $199/year | LearnDash |
| 🔥 Discount | 20% on annual plans | No discount available | Kajabi |
| 💸 Transaction Fees | No fees | No fees | Tie |
| 💡 Demo or Free Trial | 30-day free trial | Demo available | Kajabi |
| 💻 Build a Website | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Kajabi |
| 📱 Mobile App | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Kajabi |
| 👩🏫 Create Courses | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | LearnDash |
| 🧑🏫 Offer Coaching | ✅ Yes, and it has a built-in calendar tool | ❌ Not natively | Kajabi |
| 🎤 Create Podcast | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Kajabi |
| 🌎 Build Community | ✅ Yes | ❌ Not natively | Kajabi |
| 📝 Create Blog | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Kajabi |
| ✉️ Marketing Features | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Kajabi |
| 🌪️ Sales Funnels | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | Kajabi |
| 💰 Sell Physical Products | ✅ Yes, but you need to use a platform like Shopify and integrate it | ❌ No | Kajabi |
| 📈 Analytics | ✅ Yes | ❌ Paid add-on required | Kajabi |
| 🔗 Integrations | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | Tie |
| 🏆 Affiliate Program | ✅ Yes, on Growth and Pro plans | ❌ Not natively | Kajabi |
| 🤝 Customer Support | ✅ Live chat | ❌ Contact form | Kajabi |
Kajabi vs LearnDash: Plans and Pricing
| Kajabi | LearnDash | |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest Tier Paid Plan | $149/month | $199/year – 1 site |
| Top Tier Paid Plan | $399/month | $799/year – unlimited sites |
| Plans Available | 3 | 3 |
| Plan Discounts | 20% on annual plans | Only if purchased for multiple sites |
| Free Plan or Trial | 30-day free trial | No |
| Money Back Guarantee | 30-day refund policy | 15-day money-back guarantee |
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Kajabi vs LearnDash Pricing
LearnDash seems like it’s the more affordable option.
However, it only includes the course selling and creation tool.
You also need an existing WordPress website to use it and will need to pay for integrations and add-ons to match Kajabi’s built-in capabilities.
We would recommend adding the following:
- Analytics
- Coaching
- Community or forum
- Memberships
- Podcasts
- Marketing
- Sales funnels
Kajabi includes everything you need, including features to create, market, and sell your products. There is also a mobile app so that customers can view your content on the go.
Kajabi vs LearnDash Plans
Kajabi has both monthly and annual plans available whereas LearnDash only offers annual plans.
Kajabi and LearnDash also structure their plans differently.
Kajabi has three paid plans. Each plan has different usage limits and access to features.
Kajabi’s Basic plan allows you to create three products and three funnels. You can have 10,000 contacts and 1,000 active customers.
As you upgrade your plan, these all increase. You also unlock access to the affiliate program, superior support, and more.
LearnDash has three paid plans, too.
All the plans have the same features and usage limits. The difference in the plans is the number of sites you can use LearnDash on.
Kajabi vs LearnDash Feature Comparison
As LearnDash only enables you to create and sell courses, these are the only features we’ll compare.
It’s worth noting that Kajabi includes tons more features.
Course Building Basics
Winner for Course Building Basics: LearnDash
There are similarities to creating courses on both platforms, including:
Create lessons and use sections to organize your content.
- Use the drag-and-drop course builder.
- Grant certificates.
- Add video, audio, and text to your lessons.
Both LearnDash and Kajabi have a drag-and-drop editor, so you don’t need any coding knowledge.
However, Kajabi’s interface is cleaner and easier to navigate than LearnDash’s.
LearnDash has several complaints from users that the platform can initially take time to grasp.
There are also limited training modules, meaning it is often a trial-and-error process, which can be frustrating.
There are some differences between the platforms.
| Kajabi | LearnDash |
|---|---|
| The number of courses you can create depends on the plan you have. The Basic plan allows you to create three, the Growth plan allows you to create 15, and the Pro plan allows you to create 100. | LearnDash offers unlimited courses. |
| The number of active customers you can have varies by plan. The Basic plan allows you to have 1000 active customers, the Growth plan allows you to have 10,000 active customers, and the Pro plan allows you to have 20,000 active customers. | LearnDash allows you to have unlimited members. |
| There are no specific content protection tools included, but you can stop your videos from being downloaded. | LearnDash has a plugin to help protect your content. This includes hotlinking protection, login protection, preventing copying and pasting, and a reCaptcha integration. |
| Kajabi allows you to build a community and sell it with your course. This gives your students a place to communicate, share their experiences, and allows you to add value to the offer. | You need to use an add-on, like bbPress, to create a community on LearnDash. |
| Kajabi offers free and paid courses. There are several paid options on Kajabi:
| LearnDash also offers free and paid courses. The paid options include the following:
|
| Kajabi doesn’t offer a focus mode. | LearnDash has a focus mode. This helps students focus on your course and removes distractions. |
| Kajabi has a mobile app, so users can consume content on the go. | There is no mobile app available on LearnDash. |
| Kajabi is not SCORM compliant. | LearnDash is not natively SCORM compliant. However, with additional plugins, it can be. |
Quizzes
Winner for Quizzes: LearnDash
You can create quizzes on both LearnDash and Kajabi.
Both allow you to create graded and non-graded quizzes. You can set the passing score and award users with certificates.
Kajabi offers four question types:
- Multiple choice
- Checkboxes
- Short answer
- File upload
LearnDash offers seven question types:
- Single choice
- Multiple choice
- Free choice
- Sorting choice
- Matrix sorting choice
- Fill in the blank
- Assessment
- Easy/open answer
LearnDash does offer some additional features including restricting retakes and adding a time limit for the quiz.
Interactive and Gamification Elements
Winner for Interactive Elements and Gamification: It’s a tie.
Adding gamification elements to your courses can keep users motivated to learn.
Both platforms allow you to create quizzes and offer certificates.
Quizzes can test your users and also keep them engaged and focused on your content.
Using rewards like certificates gives users the recognition they deserve for their work and help to celebrate passing or completing content.
LearnDash Gamification Elements
LearnDash has a few extra features to help keep your users engaged.
These include a profile dashboard where users can view their statistics, and you can send notifications to keep them on track.
There are also free add-ons, like GamiPress, that allow you to award points and create leaderboards.
You could also use BadgeOS to create achievements and ask users to upload assignments for badges.
Kajabi Gamification Elements
With Kajabi, the main gamification features sit within Kajabi Communities.
You can create a community and make it available with your courses.
Kajabi Communities allow you to create challenges and display leaderboards.
You can also use community badges to reward their engagement or accomplishments.
Reporting and Analytics
Winner for Analytics: Kajabi
The main difference is that Kajabi includes analytics in all plans.
With LearnDash, you need to pay extra to access analytics.
This is called ProPanel. It costs $49 per year for one site.
As LearnDash is only a course creator, the only analytics included in ProPanel are course related.
Kajabi is an all-in-one, meaning that the analytics include everything you need to know about your entire business. This includes sales, opt-ins, visits, and more.
With both platforms, you can track an individual learner’s progress in your course.
The LearnDash ProPanel allows you to communicate with struggling students and track assignments, too.
Payments
Winner for Payments: LearnDash
You can sell your courses on both platforms, and neither charges transaction fees.
Kajabi integrates with three payment gateways: Stripe, PayPal and native Kajabi Payments.
LearnDash integrates with more payment gateways, including:
- Stripe
- PayPal
- WooCommerce
- Razorpay
- 2Checkout
Integrations
Winner for Integrations: It depends.
LearnDash offers more native integrations. But it has to, as it is an LMS plugin and requires additional tools to function.
Kajabi has everything you need to create, run, and grow your business. So naturally, it has fewer integrations available.
That said, both offer integrations with popular platforms to enhance your business. You can also integrate Kajabi and LearnDash with Zapier, giving you access to thousands more tools.
Kajabi currently offers the following integrations:
- Google Tag Manager
- Stripe
- Aweber
- Segment
- ActiveCampagin
- PayPal
- Drip
- ConvertKit
- MailChimp
- Google Analytics
- Meta Pixel
- Zapier
LearnDash currently offers the following integrations and plugins:
- BuddyBoss
- BuddyPress
- Front-End Course Creation
- Visual Customizer
- WooCommerce
- UpSells for LearnDash
- Frequently Bought Together for LearnDash
- WP Fusion
- Solid Affiliate
- Weglot
- Bento
- Reports for LearnDash
- The Events Calendar
- PowerPack for LearnDash
- Private Messaging for LearnDash
- ThriveCart
- ConvertKit
- Restrict Content
- GamiPress
- MailChimp
- SamCart
- EDD
- bbPress
- Toolkit for LearnDash
- BadgeOS
- Gravity Forms
- Event Espresso
- MemberPress
- Paid Memberships Pro
- Zapier
- 2Checkout
- Stripe
- Content Cloner
- Memberium
- Course Creation for Instructors
- Group Registration
- Slack
Support and Training
Winner for Support and Training: Kajabi
Kajabi and LearnDash both offer a blog, webinars, and an academy with tons of resources, like courses, videos, and more.
LearnDash has a Knowledge Base which has detailed information on how to use each aspect of the platform.
Kajabi’s Help Center has videos and articles with everything you need to know about Kajabi and how to use it.
Kajabi has expert support, and if you have a Growth or Pro plan, there is 24/7 live chat available. There is also a thriving Facebook community with Kajabi Heros happy to answer questions.
LearnDash also has a Facebook community, but the customer support offered doesn’t compare to Kajabi.
Poor customer support is the most common complaint on Trustpilot. You can contact support by raising a ticket or completing a contact form.
What Features Does Kajabi Have That LearnDash Is Missing?
As an all-in-one solution, Kajabi has a lot more features than LearnDash.
There are a few workarounds that you can do with LearnDash to achieve something similar to what Kajabi offers.
Products
As well as online courses, Kajabi also allows you to create the following digital products:
- Coaching
- Podcasts
- Memberships
- Communities
You could integrate LearnDash with BuddyBoss and Zoom to create coaching for groups. bbPress could be added to your LearnDash to create a community.
If you want to add memberships, you could integrate LearnDash with MemberPress.
Marketing and Sales Tools
You can sell your courses on both platforms.
However, Kajabi includes tons of marketing and sales features that LearnDash doesn’t.
Kajabi
Kajabi natively offers order bumps and upsells.
There are automated cart abandonment emails that can be sent to encourage customers to complete their purchases.
You can also build your own website easily by using the available templates and customizing them to suit your brand.
Kajabi includes pop-ups to encourage opt-ins and purchases.
There are built-in email marketing tools, too. You can create automated campaigns and send one-time broadcasts.
There are tons of email marketing templates that are easy to customize.
With the automation features available, you can create expert sales funnels with funnel templates that make it simple to build converting funnels.
LearnDash
LearnDash does offer some sales tools.
However, they are paid add-ons. These include UpSells for LearnDash and Frequently Bought Together for LearnDash.
UpSells for LearnDash costs $60 a year. It allows you to add similar courses or link to WooCommerce or Easy Digital Download to offer relevant products.
Frequently Bought Together also costs $60 a year.
You can add a widget with relevant products to encourage and help customers find products they might be interested in.
Mobile App
Kajabi has an app so that customers can access your content on the go.
There is no app available on LearnDash.
So, Is Kajabi or LearnDash Better for Me?
If you have an existing WordPress website and want to create courses and share your knowledge, LearnDash is a great option. It’s also more affordable than Kajabi.
If you’re a creator looking for an all-in-one solution that can grow with you, then Kajabi is a better choice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Is Kajabi More Expensive than LearnDash?
Comparing the price of the platforms is almost impossible. Kajabi has far more capabilities and features compared to LearnDash. You can build your entire business on Kajabi, whereas LearnDash only allows you to create and sell your courses.
What Can LearnDash Do That Kajabi Can’t?
LearnDash allows you to create an open course, and you can also use gamification add-ons to engage and motivate students.
Is Kajabi or LearnDash Easier for Beginners?
Kajabi is more user-friendly. However, if you’re choosing LearnDash, we’ll assume you already have a WordPress website. Knowing how to navigate WordPress can help you grasp LearnDash quicker.
Can LearnDash or Kajabi Build Better Courses?
Both platforms have great course features and offer benefits suitable for different businesses. You can build more extensive quizzes on LearnDash and easily protect your content. Kajabi allows you to offer communities with your courses and then gamify it with leaderboards and badges to engage users.
