Kajabi vs Podia: Which One Is Worth the Monthly Bill?

It’s 11 p.m. and you’ve got a pricing tab open for Kajabi and another for Podia, and your course is still sitting in a folder called “Untitled.”

For most first-time creators, Podia wins because its entry plan costs less and doesn’t demand you jump tiers just to use basic features. Kajabi wins if you’re already running a business with real contact volume and want everything, including a community platform, under one login. The two aren’t really competing for the same wallet, and that’s the part the marketing pages don’t say out loud.

Prices verified August 2026.

What does each one actually cost to start?

Kajabi’s cheapest plan is Basic at $179/month, or $143/month if you pay annually. That’s before you’ve made a single sale. Podia’s cheapest plan, Mover, runs $49/month ($42/month annually) — a little over a quarter of Kajabi’s entry price. Neither platform has a free tier anymore; Kajabi gives you a 14-day trial, Podia gives you 30 days and doesn’t ask for a card upfront.

If you’re testing an idea rather than launching a business, that trial gap alone matters. A month of runway to see if anyone buys is worth more than two weeks, especially if you’re building the course in your spare time.

Where do the transaction fees bite?

This is where Podia’s cheap plan gets less cheap. Mover carries a 5% platform fee on top of standard payment processing — Stripe or PayPal’s 2.9% + 30 cents lands on every plan regardless. Upgrade to Shaker or Earthquaker and that platform fee drops to 0%, but you’re now paying $99 or $179/month to get there.

Kajabi skips the platform fee entirely if you use Kajabi Payments, 0% cut, just processing at 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic, ticking down slightly on Growth and Pro. But use a third-party processor instead, and Kajabi adds its own surcharge: 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, 0.5% on Pro. PayPal and Kajabi Payments dodge that surcharge; everything else doesn’t.

So the real comparison isn’t “5% vs 0%.” It’s: Podia’s cheapest plan taxes every sale until you pay more monthly to stop it, while Kajabi’s fee structure punishes you for not using its own payment processor. Neither is generous. Both are designed to nudge you toward paying them more, one way or another.

What do you actually get at the entry tier?

Here’s the surprising part: Podia includes the same core toolkit, website, custom domain, blog, landing pages, over 1,900 integrations, tax handling in 230 countries, 20+ currencies, checkout, and email/chat support, on all three plans, Mover included. You’re not missing infrastructure at the cheap tier, just growth features like affiliate marketing, upsells, PayPal, and Zapier, which only unlock on Shaker and up.

Kajabi’s Basic plan caps you at 5 products, 2,500 contacts, and 2 admin users. If you’re building one course with a small list, that’s plenty. If you’re already running a newsletter with a few thousand people on it, you’re bumping into Kajabi’s contact limit before you’ve bumped into anything Podia would call a limit at all, since Podia’s caps are about subscriber count on the low end and spaces/videos, not admin seats.

For a deeper look at what you get for that $179 before fees, the Kajabi review breaks down whether the higher price earns its keep.

The surprising catch in Podia’s fine print

Podia’s refund policy is stricter than it looks on the pricing page: you have to contact support within 72 hours of your last payment, and there are no partial refunds on annual plans. Commit to a year and change your mind in month three, and you’re not getting a prorated refund, you’re stuck or you’re eating the loss. That’s worth knowing before you grab the annual discount to save a few dollars a month.

Three creators, two different answers

A teacher launching one $200 course to a list of 300 people: Podia’s Mover plan covers it, and the 5% fee on modest early sales is a small price for a $49 commitment. A coach running a paid community with 5,000 contacts and needing built-in email marketing: Kajabi’s Growth plan, at $249/month ($199 annually), handles the contact volume and includes its own community tool, something you’d have to bolt on elsewhere with Podia. A creator selling a $1,000 cohort course a few times a year with an active affiliate program: Podia’s Earthquaker at $179/month gets you 0% platform fee and affiliate tools without Kajabi’s higher entry price, though check whether Earthquaker’s 1,000 email subscriber cap fits your list before committing.

Who should NOT choose Podia

Skip Podia if your contact list is already past a few thousand people, none of its three plans are built for large-list creators the way Kajabi’s higher tiers are, and you’d outgrow Mover or even Shaker fast. Skip it too if you need PayPal, Zapier, or affiliate marketing on day one but want to stay on the cheapest plan, those tools simply don’t exist on Mover, no matter how you configure it.

Who should NOT choose Kajabi

Skip Kajabi if you’re pre-revenue or testing a first course. Paying $179/month before you know if anyone will buy is a real risk, and the 14-day trial isn’t much time to find out. Skip it too if you’re allergic to payment processor lock-in, using anything other than Kajabi Payments or PayPal costs you an extra surcharge on top of standard processing, which is an odd tax to put on your own customers’ checkout experience.

If Teachable is also on your shortlist, the Kajabi vs Teachable and Podia vs Teachable comparisons cover how a third option changes this math.

Switching costs to expect

Podia advertises free migration help, up to 50 products on Mover, up to 150 on the higher tiers, which softens the blow of moving in. Moving out is the usual story: you’ll need to export your student and contact data manually, and neither platform’s marketing pages promise a clean one-click exit. Budget real time for re-uploading content and reconnecting payment processors if you switch either direction.

FAQ

Is Kajabi’s annual discount worth it? Annual billing saves 20% compared to monthly on every Kajabi plan, which adds up on the higher tiers. But commit only if you’re confident in the product. Kajabi’s page doesn’t advertise a partial refund path for early cancellation, so treat the annual price as a real one-year bet.

Does Podia’s 5% fee apply to everything I sell? Yes, on Mover specifically, it’s a platform fee on top of standard payment processing, not instead of it. It disappears entirely once you’re on Shaker or Earthquaker.

Can I avoid Kajabi’s payment surcharge? Yes, use Kajabi Payments or PayPal, both exempt from the surcharge. Any other third-party processor triggers Kajabi’s added percentage on top of normal processing fees.

Which one handles a big email list better? Kajabi, by design, its plans scale up to 100,000 contacts on Pro. Podia’s highest tier tops out at 1,000 email subscribers, so a large-list creator will hit a wall Kajabi doesn’t have.

What if I outgrow Podia’s Mover plan? You can upgrade, downgrade, or switch between monthly and annual billing at any time on Podia, so there’s no lock-in penalty for moving up a tier as your list or feature needs grow.

Do either of these have a real free plan? No. Both dropped free tiers in favor of trials. Kajabi gives 14 days, Podia gives 30 days without requiring a card. Neither trial period is long enough to test a full launch cycle, so plan your test window accordingly.

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How we got these numbers. Prices and fees come straight from the official pricing pages of Kajabi, Podia, checked in August 2026. Where a value wasn’t published, the table shows “—”. Prices in this space change often — confirm on the provider’s site before you buy.