HighLevel vs Kajabi: Agency Toolkit or Creator Storefront

The short answer: if you are a coach or course creator selling your own programmes to a list of up to 2,500 contacts, Kajabi Basic puts courses, a community, checkout and unlimited email sends in one plan for $143 a month billed annually, or $179 monthly, on the Kajabi pricing page. If you build lead funnels and booking systems for clients, or want unlimited contacts for a flat $97 a month and will pay for each email you send, HighLevel fits, per its pricing page. Both checked on 26 October 2026.

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Start with Kajabi, because it narrows the question. It is built for one expert selling what they know: courses, coaching, memberships, newsletters and podcasts, with a website and checkout around them. HighLevel lists courses and communities among its core features too, but it is a toolkit an agency rents once and then builds out for many clients, each in its own sub-account. The overlap is real. The centre of gravity is not.

Settle three things first:

1. Your list and how often you mail it, priced both ways. For example, a list of 20,000 contacts mailed four times a month is 80,000 emails. On HighLevel that is 80 x $0.675 = $54 of email usage on top of Starter's $97, so $151 a month. On Kajabi the list needs Growth, at $249 a month or $199 billed annually, with sends unlimited. Inputs from the HighLevel pricing guide and the Kajabi pricing page.
2. What you sell today, written as a list. A course, a coaching programme, a paid community, a membership. Kajabi's plan cards are written around those products; HighLevel's are written around the funnel, the calendar and the follow-up that lead people to them. Your list tells you which vocabulary is yours.
3. One number to read at the end of the trial. Checkout conversion on your main offer is a good one, because both platforms take the payment and both can show it.

Starter plan against Basic plan

Sources, 26 October 2026: HighLevel's pricing page and pricing guide; Kajabi's pricing page.

The three differences that matter

Who the account is for

HighLevel's unit is the sub-account, and Starter includes three, which its pricing FAQ calls enough for a single business owner or a new agency. A creator can run one business on it and leave two empty. Kajabi has no sub-accounts on its plan cards; its Pro plan instead talks about running more than one brand. If you sell for clients, that settles it.

How email is charged

Kajabi charges for the list, not the sends: 2,500, 25,000 or 100,000 contacts by plan, with unlimited email to all of them. HighLevel charges nothing for the list and $0.675 for every 1,000 emails, on every plan. A big list mailed rarely is cheap on HighLevel. A small list mailed daily is cheap on Kajabi. The worked example above sits between the two, which is where most creators are.

Where the money from a sale goes

Kajabi's pricing FAQ says it takes no revenue share as a platform; Kajabi Payments carries a card processing fee that differs by country, and in regions where Kajabi Payments is offered, choosing a third-party processor adds a further fee. HighLevel integrates payment providers such as Stripe, PayPal, NMI, Square and Adyen, per its pricing page, so the processing fee is the one your provider charges.

Plan prices, checked on 26 October 2026

Kajabi, per month, billed annually or monthly, on its pricing page: Basic $143 or $179 with 2,500 contacts; Growth $199 or $249 with 25,000 contacts, adding advanced automations, an affiliate programme and no Kajabi branding; Pro $399 or $499 with 100,000 contacts and your own app. Billed annually, that is $1,716, $2,388 or $4,788 a year.

HighLevel's pricing page charges per account: $97 monthly for Starter ($970 yearly), $297 for Unlimited ($2,970), $497 for Agency Pro ($4,970). Contacts and users are unlimited on all three. Email, phone, SMS and several AI features are billed by use on top, from a wallet, per the pricing guide.

An automation drafted by AI, published by you

Kajabi documents this step in its MCP setup guide. Connect Claude to https://mcp.kajabi.com/mcp and describe the automation in plain words: "When someone submits my Webinar Signup form, tag them Webinar Lead and send my 3-email nurture sequence." The assistant looks up the triggers and actions on your account, builds the automation as a draft and returns a link. You open it in the Kajabi admin, check the form, the tag and the sequence, and publish it yourself. The human check is a permission you leave off: each permission is granted separately at connection, so if "publish or unpublish" stays off, nothing the assistant drafts goes live without you. The guide also lists what the connection will not do, including processing payments and sending email blasts, and it needs a paid Claude plan. HighLevel's equivalent is its MCP server, limited to the scopes of a token you create per sub-account.

Trial both before either invoice

Both trials last 14 days. Build the same thing in each: one offer, its checkout and a three-email follow-up. Kajabi backs its plans with a 30-day money-back guarantee. HighLevel's trial rolls into a paid plan on its own unless you stop it, and phone or email usage is charged even while it runs, so cancel from the dashboard if it is not the one.

Kajabi's FAQ says that when the trial ends you move onto the plan you chose, which means the plan picked on day one, before you knew how your list would grow, becomes the one Kajabi bills from day 15. That default serves the vendor more than you. Pick the plan after the trial has shown your contact count, and cancel no current tool until the replacement has run a full month.

Choose HighLevel if your job is

• Building lead funnels, booking calendars and follow-up for client businesses, and reselling that work.
• Keeping a large list on a flat fee when you mail it rarely.
• Texting, calling and emailing leads from one conversations inbox.

Choose Kajabi if your job is

• Selling your own courses, coaching or community, with checkout and delivery in one place.
• Mailing your whole list as often as you like, with no per-email bill.
• Giving members an app under your own brand without a separate white-label contract.

Background on HighLevel: the HighLevel entry, and how to use HighLevel for a first build.

FAQ

Does Kajabi take a share of my sales?

Not as a platform. Its pricing FAQ says Kajabi takes no revenue share; card processing through Kajabi Payments has a fee that varies by country, and a third-party processor adds a fee where Kajabi Payments is available.

Can HighLevel host a course or a membership?

Yes. Courses and communities are in the core features on its pricing page, and HighLevel's membership sites post describes them being set up from the Membership tab of a sub-account.

Which is cheaper for a list of 2,000 contacts?

It depends on how often you send. For example, 2,000 contacts mailed eight times a month is 16,000 emails, or 16 x $0.675 = $10.80 on HighLevel, so $107.80 a month with Starter, against Kajabi Basic at $143 billed annually. Mail them 40 times a month and HighLevel reaches $151, past Kajabi. Inputs from the HighLevel pricing guide and the Kajabi pricing page.