You’ve finally decided to create a course, and like any inquisitive business owner, you are curious on which platform to go with. You have most likely heard of Kajabi and Teachable, but let’s be honest, who has time to really compare and contrast these platforms?

Okay….well I do! And hopefully this gives you ALL the details so you can make the best decision for your growing company! 

Here’s what we will be comparing:

• Creating online courses
• Delivering online courses
• Student experience & assessments 
• Website building
• Pricing

There are many other details and features we could review, but these 5 sections will give you a comprehensive understanding of both platforms and what they can do for you. Ready to review? Let’s dive in!

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Creating online courses:

Both platforms allow you to create digital products, such as courses, videos, ebooks, digital workbooks, etc. This feature to turn anything digital into a product is a win for you! If you have any digital products already made, these sites make it easy to sell them on. 

Kajabi, specifically, allows you to create the following from their already set up blueprints:

• Courses
  • Both online and mini courses
  • The mini course differs because it is a quick and short overview. You will only need to have one category when creating this. 

• Evergreen training
  • This means the platform will release your modules of the course throughout a time period to help your members remain engaged.

• Community
  • This is a space for your member who have purchased a course to collaborate.
  • Think of it like Facebook page for your members to communicate with one another, compare ideas, and collaborate on the course you created. This digital classroom is a great way to help your members to reach one another!

• Membership
  • This area is designed for releasing content over time.
  • You can allow your subscribers to access this area for a cost, in return you release content to them throughout the month, as well as already have content created for them that they can access once they enter this area. 

If none of these blueprints peak your interest, you can always start from scratch. If you have experience creating courses, this might allow you to set it up in a custom way that is perfect for your business. 

Teachable’s course creation options are slightly limited in comparison. They only offer two options:

• Creating a coaching business
  • With this feature you can manage your clients and schedule your meetings.

• Creating a course
  • This feature allows you to create any type of course with numerous sections. You are able to add your content into the platform, as well as have your members comment throughout the course. 
  • Teachable also has certificates for completing a course.

My thought: If you are just starting out as a coach or creating a course, Teachable is a great place to start. But if you are already established, or are thinking you will expand your online platform even further, Kajabi’s course creation options allow you way more freedom to do so.

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Delivering Online Courses:

When it’s time for your members to actually access the course, the way it is organized sets the tone for your customers. When it is easy for you to set up, and easy for your members to understand the layout, it’s a win-win.

Kajabi has in depth layout options. When creating the structure of your course, you are able to group lessons to a correlating category (think of a syllabus is often times laid out). Not to mention, you can add subcategories, making it easy for your members to stay focused and organized. 

Teachable also has the option to group your content under categories, which again is a great layout for the members to access the course. The major difference between the two platforms is that Teachable does not allow you to add subcategories. 

My thought: Subcategories aren’t necessary for all courses, especially simple ones. But if you want an in-depth, content-heavy volume course, Kajabi is the best option. If your course structure is simple, either platform is a great choice. 

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Student experience: 

Once you have released your course, it’s pretty normal to wonder how successful it is for your students to make progress, learn, and stay focused. You will probably find yourself questioning if every video is the right length, if there are sections that the members aren’t engaged in, or if they are truly understanding the material you put out. 

Both platforms have a heat map for your video content. This shows the engagement and progress each student made on a lesson.

• Did they watch it?

• Did they skip it?

• Did they rewatch the video? How often?

Kajabi, not going to lie, has quite the system to show you all of these analytics. Not only can you see the personal progress of your students, but you can see how people are actually taking in what they are learning. There are plenty of filters to see how your students are doing throughout the course. 

Kajabi’s assessments have major flexibility when designing an assessment. Here are the important aspects of this feature:

• You can have a variety of questions
  • Multiple choice
  • Fill in the blank
  • Images as the question
  • Open ended questions

• Students have the ability to upload assignments
  • PDF’s
  • Videos
  • Variety of documents (images, essays, word docs)
  • Audio files

• Automating an email response after a student submits an assignment is also a big bonus
  • You can send them their grade right away
  • You can opt them in to an email sequence 
  • You can automate it so an email is sent to your employees or team, if you have one, once a student finishes an assignment.

Teachable offers you to also view the individual report of each student. Once you click into an individual’s profile, you will be able to see the graded quizzes, which lectures they completed, and a heatmap of the video! 

Teachable’s quizzes are slightly different. The functionality and access you have is limited if you have the basic plan ($39/mo). If you have the professional plan ($199/mo) you have the option to grade quizzes, track scores, and the ability to require students to have a specific quiz score before moving onto the next lesson. Here are differences from Kajabi:

• Teachable doesn’t have the feature of open ended questions, so if you want to have your students right a paragraph, this is not an option.

• Additionally, students can not upload a photo, PDF, or an audio file. 

• Multiple choice is the only format (which if this is all you need, Teachable is great!)

My thought: For tracking your student’s progress, there is not a clear winner because both offer a comprehensive report to see progress. Because both platforms have a heatmap, which is an incredible tool, I wouldn’t base your decision on the member/student progress analytics. However, if it is based on overall student experience, Kajabi allows a more in-depth engagement level due to being able to have students upload files, and a variety of question formats. Not to mention, this feature on Kajabi is available for each plan, not just a specific plan.

Not to mention, you can have membership areas for your students on Kajabi, which is an amazing feature to create a sense of community amongst your students, as well as keep them engaged. 

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Website building:

When someone lands on your website, an immediate impression is formed. Building a website that emulates your brand, and looks professionally done is a must. Let’s ditch the websites that look like someone majorly DIY’ed it. Because here’s the thing, great platforms allow you to build professional looking sites and landing pages that are EASY TO SET UP!

This is where Teachable and Kajabi differ the most. 

Kajabi does one thing that no other course creating platform does: You can choose from a library of beautifully designed website templates that you can apply throughout your website and courses. There are even specific templates for specific digital products. This lets you ditch the design stress and instead tap into your creative flow because everything is laid out for you. 

Kajabi also has amazing automations that you can set up throughout your website, making it all interacting together successfully and leaving you with more time on your hands. Kajabi’s site is secure and stable, and the amount of design templates you have access to allows you to customize as little or as much as you want. Kajabi’s website builder has the following features:

• Custom domain

• Site header

• Opt-in forms

• Testimonials

• Sales pages, landing pages, and a blog section

• CTA’s

• Analytics to see how your site is functioning. 

Teachable’s website building is pretty limited. You can only choose from a few themes that allow you to change the logo, background and the colors. When it comes to courses, there isn’t much you can customize which is a major downside when you are wanting to release different courses. Additionally, there are only 11 fonts to choose from and you can only choose ONE for your entire site. 

IF you have the business plan, you can get the power editor which allows you to code your website for a custom look. But who has time for that?

My thought: This one is simple. Kajabi all the way. Teachable doesn’t offer enough customization for you to create a seamless and branded site. If you are creating a landing page, imagine how difficult it would be for it to stand out and be eye catching when using Teachable. Kajabi allows you to create one in a short amount of time, and it FLOWS through the lead generation process so well. 

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Pricing: 

Pricing does differ quite a bit between the two platforms. So I urge you to consider price, but also consider the features that you get with each platform. 

Kajabi’s pricing plans (when billed annually):

• Basic: $119/mo

• Growth: $159/mo

• Pro: $319/mo

Teachable (when billed annually)

• Basic: $29/mo

• Professional: $99/mo

• Business: $249/mo

You might be thinking that once you get into the more comprehensive plans of either platform that it seems a little pricey per month. But in reality, they actually are both very well priced. Here are a few things to keep in mind for both platforms: A course is one of the best ways to make passive income, as it builds your brand and community. You can essentially create the course once, and let anyone access it for a cost at any time. 

AND GET THIS: Kajabi doesn’t take any cuts from the sales you make. Teachable will take 5% of the sales for every course you make. This makes you reevaluate the prices, doesn’t it?

My thought:  People will, are willing, to pay for quality courses! Our world is more digital than ever, so investing in the right course creating site will allow you to properly create the best course for our tech-savvy audiences (although let’s not forget some are not tech-savvy and need your course to flow so easily they learn in the best way possible). After this analysis, the price for Kajabi, although it is higher, seems like a better investment for all of the additional features you get.

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The final verdict:

I’m going to be honest. I’ll admit that at this point in my career I am pro-Kajabi. It is an incredible platform that gives you a major bang for your buck. It has helped my clients to go from just having a website, and coaching only in person, to having a SHOW STOPPING website with a course library letting them make money passively!

However, I always give credit where it’s deserved. Teachable is the perfect platform for someone just starting out, or seeing if they even like creating courses. Don’t get me wrong, I know that it is a widely used platform, so if their features align more with you, then I think it is the right decision to go with that. 

Wherever your business takes you in the course creation process, choose a platform that will allow you to grow at your pace. I suggest revisiting your short-term and long-term goals before making any investments for your business. At the end of the day, always do what is best for you! 

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