Do both Teachable and Kajabi allow custom domain branding?

Yes, both platforms allow creators to establish custom domain branding for their schools and storefronts, though specific DNS mapping and SSL configurations depend on the active subscription tier chosen.

What core differences exist in how Teachable and Kajabi position their pricing?

Teachable offers a free starting point to help creators begin growing their revenue, whereas Kajabi provides simple, all-in-one pricing with no revenue sharing across its plans designed to scale expert businesses.

How can creators determine which platform best fits their business model?

Creators should evaluate whether they need an all-in-one solution for marketing and selling digital products (Kajabi) or a dedicated platform focused primarily on creating, hosting, and selling online courses and memberships (Teachable).

Teachable vs Kajabi: Course Platform Comparison for Digital Creators

Question: Should a digital creator host and sell online video courses using 'Teachable' or 'Kajabi', considering custom domain branding options, affiliate program management features, and transaction fee percentages on sales?

Prepared by the ChoiceScore Research Desk · Editor-approved for the curated library · Reviewed July 30, 2026

It depends Choice Score: 78/100

Direct answer

Choose Teachable if you want to start with a specialized course builder, or choose Kajabi if you want an all-in-one ecosystem for expert businesses as described in official vendor overviews.

Summary

Selecting the right platform to host and sell online video courses involves weighing Teachable's specialized course-building and free-start offerings against Kajabi's positioning as an all-in-one platform to create, market, and sell digital products and online courses with simple, all-in-one pricing with no revenue sharing. Digital creators must evaluate how each vendor's official feature set aligns with their technical stack, custom domain requirements, and overall business scaling strategy. Because official vendor snippets emphasize distinct onboarding experiences—such as Teachable's free start and Kajabi's all-in-one approach—creators should carefully verify exact feature availability across current subscription tiers before committing to a long-term publishing workflow.

Choice Score breakdown

Custom Domain Flexibility 85/100 — Both platforms support custom storefront branding, though exact DNS configuration and SSL implementation depend on your active subscription tier.
Affiliate Program Features 75/100 — Affiliate and partner tracking capabilities vary across pricing plans, often requiring higher-tier subscriptions or specialized configurations.
Platform Ecosystem & Integration 80/100 — Teachable focuses squarely on course delivery and sales, whereas Kajabi bundles comprehensive marketing, landing page, and community tools.

Best for / Not best for

Best for

Teachable: Creators seeking a dedicated course builder with a free start option to test digital product ideas.
Kajabi: Educators looking for a popular online platform that enables users to create, market, and sell digital products and online courses under a unified ecosystem.

Not best for

Teachable: Creators who require an absolute all-in-one marketing suite without relying on external plugins or third-party integrations.
Kajabi: Beginners on a strict bootstrap budget who cannot accommodate the platform's fixed monthly subscription tier pricing.

Scenarios

Bootstrapping Creator (Teachable Focus) (40% likely)
A new digital creator launching their initial cohort with minimal upfront software expenditure, leveraging Teachable's free-start option. This probability is an illustrative, user-adjustable scenario weight, not an empirical forecast.
All-in-One Scaling Business (Kajabi Focus) (45% likely)
An established educator consolidating their marketing funnels, email lists, and video course hosting into Kajabi's unified ecosystem. This probability is an illustrative, user-adjustable scenario weight, not an empirical forecast.
Hybrid Stack Creator (15% likely)
A creator who pairs Teachable for core video hosting with specialized external email marketing and landing page software. This probability is an illustrative, user-adjustable scenario weight, not an empirical forecast.

Calculations

Metric	Result	Formula
Illustrative Annual Subscription Baseline	1,800 USD/year (Illustrative scenario assumption)	monthly_subscription_fee × 12
Illustrative Transaction Fee Impact Model	500 USD/month (Illustrative scenario assumption)	monthly_sales_volume × transaction_fee_percentage
Illustrative Net Creator Revenue Model	9,650 USD/month (Illustrative scenario assumption)	gross_revenue − (fixed_subscription + variable_transaction_fees)

Pros & cons

Pros

Teachable provides a straightforward starting point with a free tier option to help new creators build and launch their first courses.
Kajabi offers an all-in-one platform design that enables users to create, market, and sell digital products and online courses in one place.
Both platforms support professional custom domain branding to maintain a cohesive creator identity for student-facing academies.
Official documentation for both services highlights dedicated structures designed to help creators grow their digital revenue and scale operations.

Cons

Teachable's lower subscription tiers may include transaction fees or feature limitations that encourage upgrading as sales volume increases.
Kajabi operates on fixed subscription pricing models that require careful financial planning for new or bootstrapping digital creators.
Migrating existing video hosting libraries, student databases, and active memberships between platforms can introduce technical friction.

Assumptions

Illustrative Monthly Sales Volume: 10,000 USD (Illustrative scenario assumption) — Used strictly for modeling the mathematical impact of variable fees in comparison scenarios; user-adjustable.
Illustrative Subscription Rate: 150 USD/month (Illustrative scenario assumption) — Serves as a standardized benchmark for software cost calculations across comparative scenarios; user-adjustable.
Illustrative scenario probability — Bootstrapping Creator (Teachable Focus): 40% — A user-adjustable modeling weight used to compare scenarios; it is not a measured probability or forecast.
Illustrative scenario probability — All-in-One Scaling Business (Kajabi Focus): 45% — A user-adjustable modeling weight used to compare scenarios; it is not a measured probability or forecast.
Illustrative scenario probability — Hybrid Stack Creator: 15% — A user-adjustable modeling weight used to compare scenarios; it is not a measured probability or forecast.

Practical next steps

Audit your current digital product catalog, video content volume, and projected launch timeline for the next 12 months.
Review official pricing and feature documentation on Teachable and Kajabi to verify exact current plan inclusions.
Determine whether you require an all-in-one marketing suite (Kajabi) or a focused course-authoring platform (Teachable).
Evaluate custom domain connection requirements and ensure your chosen subscription tier supports your branding needs.
Test platform usability, video upload speeds, and checkout flows by utilizing available free trials or starter options.

Methodology

This decision report evaluates Teachable and Kajabi by synthesizing official pricing documentation, feature descriptions, and creator workflow requirements. Scoring is derived from an objective comparison of custom domain flexibility, affiliate management features, and platform ecosystem capabilities based strictly on the provided source snippets.

Sources

Sources support specific claims; they do not replace our analysis. Read the research and source standards.

FAQ

Do both Teachable and Kajabi allow custom domain branding?: Yes, both platforms allow creators to establish custom domain branding for their schools and storefronts, though specific DNS mapping and SSL configurations depend on the active subscription tier chosen.
What core differences exist in how Teachable and Kajabi position their pricing?: Teachable offers a free starting point to help creators begin growing their revenue, whereas Kajabi provides simple, all-in-one pricing with no revenue sharing across its plans designed to scale expert businesses.
How can creators determine which platform best fits their business model?: Creators should evaluate whether they need an all-in-one solution for marketing and selling digital products (Kajabi) or a dedicated platform focused primarily on creating, hosting, and selling online courses and memberships (Teachable).

Related decisions

What factors should digital creators consider when migrating online courses between platforms?
How do all-in-one business platforms compare to specialized course-hosting software?
What steps are involved in setting up a custom domain for a digital storefront?

Disclaimers

Platform pricing, feature availability, and transaction fee policies are subject to change by Teachable and Kajabi at any time.

All financial projections, fee calculations, and sales volume inputs are illustrative, user-adjustable scenario assumptions and must not be interpreted as empirical vendor facts.