Do both Teachable and Kajabi support custom domain names?

Yes, both platforms support custom domain mapping on their paid tiers, allowing creators to host their online school and sales pages on their own brand URL rather than a subdomain.

Which platform is better for automated marketing funnels?

Kajabi is superior for built-in marketing funnels because it includes native email marketing, landing page builders, and automated pipeline sequences in one system. Teachable focuses primarily on course delivery and requires external tools for advanced automated funnels.

Are there transaction fees on Teachable and Kajabi?

Teachable charges transaction fees on its free and lowest-tier plans, which decrease or disappear on higher paid tiers. Kajabi prides itself on zero revenue sharing and no transaction fees across its standard pricing plans.

Teachable vs. Kajabi: Course Platform Selection Decision Report

Question: Should a creator or small business use 'Teachable' or 'Kajabi' for selling online courses, considering built-in marketing funnels, transaction fees, and custom domain support?

Prepared by the ChoiceScore Research Desk · Editor-approved for the curated library · Reviewed July 25, 2026

It depends Choice Score: 78/100

Direct answer

Choose Teachable if you need a cost-effective, specialized course platform with lower starting costs, or choose Kajabi if you require an all-in-one ecosystem with advanced native marketing funnels and email automation despite a higher fixed monthly subscription.

Summary

Selecting between Teachable and Kajabi depends primarily on your business maturity, technical stack preferences, and marketing requirements. Teachable focuses heavily on core course creation, digital downloads, coaching, and student engagement tools with flexible pricing tiers. Kajabi operates as an all-in-one business suite, combining robust landing pages, email marketing funnels, communities, and podcasts under a single roof, eliminating the need for third-party integrations but commanding a higher price point. This report evaluates both platforms across financial metrics, marketing capabilities, custom domain flexibility, and operational overhead to help creators maximize return on investment.

Choice Score breakdown

Marketing Funnels & Automation 85/100 — Kajabi excels with built-in native funnels; Teachable requires third-party email tools.
Cost-Efficiency & Fees 75/100 — Teachable offers lower entry tiers and free options, whereas Kajabi has flat pricing with no transaction fees.
Custom Domain & Branding 90/100 — Both platforms fully support custom domains for professional creator branding.

Best for / Not best for

Best for

Budget-conscious creators starting their first online course (Teachable)
Established experts scaling automated email marketing funnels and memberships (Kajabi)
Businesses wanting to eliminate third-party plugin bloat (Kajabi)

Not best for

Creators who want advanced native email funnels on a shoestring beginner budget (Kajabi is too expensive)
Businesses needing complex enterprise resource planning or physical inventory management

Scenarios

Bootstrapping Creator (45% likely)
A solo creator launching their first digital product with minimal initial capital and existing external email tools like Mailchimp or ConvertKit.
Scaling Digital Business (40% likely)
An established educator or small business generating consistent revenue, looking to unify landing pages, email sequences, courses, and communities into one dashboard.
Hybrid Custom Setup (15% likely)
A technical team using WordPress for front-end content marketing while embedding Teachable purely for course delivery and student portals.

Calculations

Metric	Result	Formula
Annual SaaS Cost Difference	1320 USD/year	kajabi_annual_cost − teachable_annual_cost
Estimated Third-Party Tool Savings on Kajabi	1140 USD/year	email_tool_cost + landing_page_builder_cost + community_hosting_cost
Transaction Fee Impact at Scale	500 USD/month	monthly_sales_volume × transaction_fee_percentage

Pros & cons

Pros

Teachable offers low-cost entry points and specialized course builder tools.
Kajabi provides robust, built-in marketing funnels and automated email sequences without requiring external plugins.
Both platforms support custom domain configuration to maintain professional brand identity.
Kajabi features zero transaction fees on all primary paid plans, preserving creator profit margins.

Cons

Teachable requires integration with third-party email and funnel tools for advanced automated marketing campaigns.
Kajabi has a significantly higher starting monthly price tag, which can strain beginner creator budgets.
Migrating an established course catalog and subscriber base between platforms involves technical friction and potential downtime.

Assumptions

Baseline Subscription Rates: Standard published retail pricing tiers — Assumes standard monthly or annual billing cycles without promotional introductory discounts.
Third-Party Software Redundancy: 100 USD/month in external tools — Assumes creators utilizing Teachable may also pay separately for email marketing, landing page builders, and community software.

Practical next steps

Audit your current technical stack, existing audience size, and monthly software budget.
Evaluate your marketing workflow requirements (e.g., whether you need complex native email sequences or already use ActiveCampaign/ConvertKit).
Test platform interfaces using available free trials or starter tiers (Teachable free trial vs Kajabi 30-day trial).
Configure your custom domain, payment gateway (such as Teachable Payments or Stripe/PayPal on Kajabi), and initial course curriculum.
Launch your sales page, connect your marketing funnel, and begin onboarding students.

Methodology

This report synthesizes official pricing data, product feature overviews, and structured comparative analysis evaluating marketing funnels, fee structures, and custom domain capabilities between Teachable and Kajabi to provide an objective, data-informed decision framework.

Sources

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

FAQ

Do both Teachable and Kajabi support custom domain names?: Yes, both platforms support custom domain mapping on their paid tiers, allowing creators to host their online school and sales pages on their own brand URL rather than a subdomain.
Which platform is better for automated marketing funnels?: Kajabi is superior for built-in marketing funnels because it includes native email marketing, landing page builders, and automated pipeline sequences in one system. Teachable focuses primarily on course delivery and requires external tools for advanced automated funnels.
Are there transaction fees on Teachable and Kajabi?: Teachable charges transaction fees on its free and lowest-tier plans, which decrease or disappear on higher paid tiers. Kajabi prides itself on zero revenue sharing and no transaction fees across its standard pricing plans.

Related decisions

Disclaimers

Software pricing, feature inclusions, and transaction fee structures are subject to change by the respective platform vendors.

Financial calculations and estimations are illustrative and depend heavily on individual sales volume, tier selection, and third-party software stack choices.