Kajabi and Facebook both offer extensive features that allow you to build and grow an audience. However, they have some important differences that may make one platform more suitable for your needs than the other.
Key Takeaways:
- Kajabi communities are easy to monetize and gain revenue from
- Facebook groups can be found organically and require little marketing
- Kajabi is the better option if you want a high-quality and committed audience
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Kajabi Community 2.0 vs. Facebook Group: Differences at a Glance
| Features | Kajabi Community 2.0 | Facebook Group |
|---|---|---|
| Payments and monetization | Kajabi lets you set up and take payments for communities directly on its platform. You can monetize the community itself as well as monetize content within the community. | Facebook has no direct payment facility, so you must set up a website, landing page, or similar to charge for the group. You cannot create paid content within the Facebook group. |
| Marketing | You must develop a marketing strategy to promote your community. | Facebook groups can be found organically on the platform. |
| Management | Kajabi has automated member management . Moderation is simpler because you have a more dedicated audience that has paid to be there. | Member management is a manual process. You can get a lot of spam, irrelevant posts, and “trolls” in your group making it harder to manage. |
| Customization | You get a wide range of customization options on the Kajabi platform. | Facebook has limited customization features. |
| Content Creation | It is your responsibility to create and manage valuable content for your community to entice people to join and stay. | Content on Facebook groups tends to be member driven and requires less input from yourself. |
What Can You Do with Kajabi Community 2.0 That You Can’t With a Facebook Group?
Kajabi acquired Vibely in late 2022 and subsequently enhanced its community feature greatly. The platform now offers comprehensive community features, some of which are not available with a Facebook group:
- Create Paid Communities and Spaces: You can create spaces within your community and choose whether or not to charge for the content. For example, you could add a space to run a live workshop and charge $40 for access. Additionally, you can also charge for access to the community itself.
- Add Challenges: You can set up and run challenges within your community. While Facebook does allow for challenges, you have to set up a separate group for them.
- Customization Options: There is very little you can do to customize the front page of a Facebook group. With Kajabi, you have a lot more control over your community landing page and how it looks, plus you can fully customize your community spaces to suit your requirements.
- Enhanced Security: Kajabi has high data protection policies and uses Cloudflare technology, which keeps your member’s data secure and protected from online attacks. With Facebook, users’ data is frequently compromised or mined.
- Upload All FileTypes: With Kajabi, you can upload and store video and audio files as well as document files such as PDFs for members to access at any point. You cannot upload audio or video files onto Facebook unless it’s in the newsfeed.
- Automatic Member Removal: With Facebook, you must manually add or remove members from the group. Kajabi, on the other hand, automatically adds members when they join and removes members when their subscription expires.
While the following aren’t features per se, they are important differences between a Kajabi community and a Facebook group:
- Better Quality Audience: With Kajabi, people are there because they want to be. Because Facebook groups can be found on the platform and are free to join, it increases the likelihood of having uninterested, disruptive, or abusive people infiltrating the group.
- Better Commitment: You tend to get more commitment and engagement from a Kajabi community. This is because people have generally invested money to be there and therefore want to make the most of what your community has to offer.
The Pros and Cons of Kajabi Community 2.0 Compared to a Facebook Group
Pros
- Creating paid spaces provides you with plenty of upsell opportunities.
- You can take payments for your community and spaces directly in the platform.
- The platform’s features allow you to provide more value to your audience .
- You get a more invested and engaged audience and are far less likely to encounter undesirable members and internet “trolls.”
- Member data is kept fully secure and safe.
- Aside from its community features, Kajabi provides you with marketing, coaching, and course-building tools.
- Adding and removing members is automatic.
- You get a lot of support from Kajabi customer service and the Kajabi community.
Cons
- It’s not cheap. You must pay at least \$149/month to use Kajabi.
- You have to actively market your community since it has no exposure to organic searches.
- A Kajabi community takes more effort to set up than a Facebook group, as you need to provide content that entices people to join.
What Is a Kajabi Community 2.0 Best for?
A Kajabi community is excellent if you want to create a course or course content that has a looser format or one that requires a lot of member engagement and discussion.
It’s also a great opportunity to grow a dedicated audience that you can easily upsell to. For example, if you start a community with free access, you will build your member base more quickly. Then, you can start adding paid content into the community for members to purchase. The big advantage here is that you don’t need to create a marketing campaign for the paid content because your audience is already present.
What Is a Facebook Group Best for?
Facebook groups are ideal if you don’t have a budget to create a community. Since they are free to create and run, they are a no-risk strategy for building an audience.
Furthermore, you can make your Facebook group public, which means it can be found in searches or suggested in people’s newsfeeds. This removes the need to actively market the group, and you’re not limited to the number of members you can have.
Overall, Facebook groups are great for casual discussion and information about a specific brand, hobby, topic, or local area.
Kajabi Community 2.0 vs. Facebook Group: Feature Comparison
| Features | Kajabi Community 2.0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Available from $149/month | Free |
| Add paid content | Yes | No |
| Visibility | Visible only through advertising | Has organic reach via Facebook users |
| Post feed | Yes | Yes |
| In-post commenting | Yes | Yes |
| Direct messaging | Yes | Yes |
| Live event streaming | Yes | Yes |
| Chatrooms | Yes | No |
| Challenges | Yes | No |
| Custom home pages | Yes | No |
| Surveys and opinion polls | Yes | Yes |
| Dedicated Community mobile app | Yes | No |
| Member security | High | Low |
Kajabi Community 2.0 vs. Facebook Group: Which One Should You Use?
If you want a committed and high-quality audience, then Kajabi is the better option because people join with the express purpose of gaining value from whatever content you are offering. You should also choose Kajabi if you want to monetize your community and great upsell opportunities.
If you need to build an audience but are extremely limited in budget, then a Facebook group will let you do this for free. A Facebook group is also the better option if you have no plans to monetize your community at any point.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Difference Between a Facebook Group and a Kajabi Community 2.0?
A Facebook group can be set up and found for free. However, it is harder to control and monetize. A Kajabi community is much easier to monetize but you must pay for a Kajabi subscription and market it yourself.
Which is Better, Kajabi Community 2.0 or Facebook Group?
Kajabi communities are better than a Facebook group because you can build a dedicated, high-quality audience that you can upsell to and monetize. You are also far less likely to encounter undesirable members, which makes group moderation much easier.
Are Kajabi Communities 2.0 Free?
Kajabi communities are not free. You must pay for a Kajabi subscription to access the community-building features. This costs from $149/month or $119/month, paid annually.
Can I Charge for Facebook Groups?
You can charge for Facebook groups but payments cannot be taken from the Facebook platform.
You must set up and take payments elsewhere online. After a customer has paid, you then provide the link and access to the Facebook group.
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