In this Systeme.io vs. Kajabi comparison, we’ll compare two of the most popular online business platforms today.

I tried both Kajabi and Systeme.io for course creation and digital sales.

Below are some things I found that will help you decide which is the best online business platform for you.

No worries.

We’ll only share the details that’ll help you decide which platform, between Kajabi and Systeme, is the best for your needs.

Systeme vs. Kajabi: A Quick Overview

What does Kajabi do?

Kajabi has built a name for itself as a robust, all-in-one platform for launching, running, and thriving online businesses.

It offers a single all-in-one platform to create and sell online courses, communities, funnels, manage marketing emails, and run marketing automation.

It offers these, but at a much higher price.

What does Systeme.io do?

Systeme.io is an all-in-one knowledge business platform designed for small and medium digital businesses.

It strives to be more flexible, more comprehensive, and user-friendly than Kajabi. It even markets itself as THE top Kajabi alternative today.

Yet, Systeme.io claims to offer a whole lot of the features Kajabi offers, but for free.

And this is one of the main reasons that many people are switching.

What do I like about Systeme over Kajabi? 👍

• Loads of value for free: From unlimited emails, blog posts, and community members to a feature-rich affiliates program, Systeme includes a ton of capabilities for free (this is why people are switching to it!).
• Low cost: Systeme offers the essentials you need to launch and grow your digital business from $27/month compared to $149/month with Kajabi’s Basic Plan. And, even the highest-paid plan for Systeme.io is often cheaper than Kajabi’s basic plan.
• Built-in affiliate marketing: Systeme.io allows you to manage affiliates and payouts on any plan, whereas Kajabi’s affiliate features are only available on higher-priced plans.
• A/B testing: Built-in A/B split testing for funnels and emails at all pricing tiers, unlike Kajabi which limits A/B testing capabilities.
• Supports digital and physical products: You can sell both digital and physical products, making Systeme.io more versatile for e-commerce needs.
• Extensive payment gateway support: Supports Stripe, PayPal, GoCardless, and more, offering flexibility in collecting payments.

Explore Systeme

What do I like about Kajabi over Systeme? 👍

• Truly all-in-one platform: Kajabi has more depth to its features and is truly all-in-one. For example, its community feature comes with a lot of gamification elements like badges, leaderboards, points. And also its automation engine (trigger-action) is more comprehensive as it has more features.
• Advanced course creation features: It has more advanced course builder, quizzes, progress tracking certificates, and is far better than Systeme for this.
• Quizzes and assessments: This is a good tool for gauging how well your learners understand your concepts and determining what you can improve.
• Mobile app support: Kajabi comes with a dedicated mobile app for both iOS and Android, which is non-negotiable. Your students, members, and communities can access your content wherever they are. You can also send push notifications, which have a much higher open rate than emails.
• More integrations: It offers more integrations with popular tools like ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, etc for easier sync.

Explore Kajabi

Upfront verdict

Systeme delivers exceptional value with its free plan and affordable paid options starting at $27/month.

It’s perfect for beginners and budget-conscious creators.

Kajabi, while pricier starting at $149/month, offers advanced features and a more polished experience.

Choose Systeme if you want to start without financial pressure. Choose Kajabi if you need premium features (and truly all-in-one experience) and don’t mind paying for them.

Here’s a more in-depth comparison of Systeme vs Kajabi to help you make the best purchase decision.

User interface and ease of use

Systeme.io prioritizes simplicity with a clean, intuitive interface.

The dashboard is uncluttered, showing only what you need.

Kajabi offers more depth and customization for serious business owners.

The interface can feel cluttered at first, but the extra functionality becomes valuable once you’re familiar with it.

However, the features are very logically nested, and you have a search assistant to navigate.

📱 For mobile usability, Kajabi offers a dedicated mobile app for iOS and Android with push notifications. Systeme has no app but works well on mobile browsers.

🏆 Bottom line: Tie. Both the platforms have equally intuitive user interfaces, although with Kajabi, it may be overwhelming due to its extensive features. However, it indeed offers good UX and UI.

Course creation

Building courses shouldn’t feel like rocket science.

With Systeme.io’s simplicity, you don’t need to spend hours creating an online course.

Course creation is straightforward.

• Just name your course.
• Add your modules.
• Set up individual pages for each lesson (with your key takeaways and a video).

And you are ready to go live.

If you have the course content all ready to go, you’ll be done in minutes like I was.

📦 In addition, Systeme enables you to sell physical products alongside digital assets, a feature we’ve only seen partially offered by Thinkific.

But here’s where Kajabi pulls ahead in the backend.

While Systeme supports just course and community creation, Kajabi enables you to create and sell podcasts, coaching, courses, and communities.

For courses, Kajabi enables you to organize your content into modules, sub-modules, lessons, and quizzes.

I also like that Kajabi lets you bulk-upload course content (up to 20 videos at a go!). A true time saver.

Kajabi’s advanced course-building tools really shine here. You get quizzes, certificates dripping, assessments, coaching session builders, and progress tracking certificates.

🏆 Bottom line: Kajabi takes this for serious course creators. The bulk upload capabilities, AI course generator, advanced organization options, and comprehensive backend tools make it superior for building complex courses efficiently.

Website and landing page building

Both Systeme and Kajabi provide hosting for your website, blog, landing pages, and courses. You can use either a subdomain (like bloggingxpro.mykajabi.com) or a custom domain (like bloggingxpro.com).

Systeme’s free plan:

• Custom domain support
• Blog functionality
• Unlimited blog posts

This is perfect for beginners wanting to start without upfront costs.

Need unlimited everything?

You’ll need their $97/month plan.

Systeme’s page builder resembles ClickFunnels with drag-and-drop functionality for text, images, surveys, and FAQs.

It also supports HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for those wanting more control.

👍 Feature I loved: You can save landing page sections as global elements (synced sections). Plus, it includes A/B testing to optimize conversions.

Systeme focuses on simplicity and affordability. Its ideal if you want straightforward tools without excessive features.

Kajabi’s website builder:

For more advanced website building, consider Kajabi.

But expect to pay $149/month for their Basic Plan to get a website with unlimited landing pages.

And

From my experience, Kajabi offers more advanced, customizable, and elegant templates than Systeme.io.

Their templates create professional, scalable websites, perfect for businesses wanting a polished look from day one.

This means you can skip WordPress entirely (perhaps justifying Kajabi’s higher price).

Kajabi supports multiple websites on higher plans, making it ideal for agencies or entrepreneurs managing several businesses, with their $399/month plan offering 3 websites along with unlimited landing pages and emails.

🏆 Bottom line: Kajabi takes this one for serious businesses. While Systeme gets you started with basic website functionality for free, Kajabi’s elegant templates, advanced customization options, and multi-site support make it the better choice for professional websites that need to make a strong first impression and scale effectively.

Sales funnel creation

It is easy to build high-converting sales funnels with Systeme.io.

With just a few clicks, Systeme enables you to access everything you need to create your funnels.

Using A/B tests, you can analyze which lead generation steps are most effective for your specific goals, so you can use only what works in the future.

• The free plan lets you create up to 3 funnels with 15 sales funnel steps.
• Unlimited funnels and steps are available at $97/month.

Now.

Kajabi offers 7 purpose-built sales funnel templates, with the option to build from scratch if you prefer.

As Kajabi comes with a lot of features with really good depth, and they all integrate to their funnels functionality – the resulting use cases and possibilities are really high.

To add on top, the platform includes comprehensive marketing tools that blend perfectly with your funnels.

👉 Here’s something cool: Both Kajabi and Systeme connect your email marketing, landing pages, and courses with sales funnels automatically. No tedious integration work needed. Big time-saver!

🏆 Bottom line: Systeme wins this round for most users (but Kajabi for advanced users). Systeme’s combination of simplicity, built-in A/B testing at all price points, unlimited funnels on higher plans, and the ability to create effective funnels in minutes makes it the better choice for funnel creation. While Kajabi has more advanced automation features.

Email marketing features

You can build, manage, and market your email list using Systeme.io or Kajabi.

Both enable you to create quick-loading, mobile-responsive emails in a few clicks. Here’s the difference, though.

To add a personalized touch to your emails, Systeme only offers a few merge fields. It can feel limited or nicely simple; depending on how you prefer your email functionality (campaign emails and newsletters).

The email editor is quite simple, and has limited personalization features, but it gets the job done for basic email marketing needs.

Or, if you prefer the visual, drag-n-drop email editor, you can switch to it.

Then again, Systeme‘s email builder is free for up to 2,000 contacts (with UNLIMITED emails and unlimited students!).

This makes it a steal compared to paying at least $149/month to use Kajabi.

But, not so fast.

With Kajabi, there are different types of emails you can send.

1. Email Sequence: lets you create a series of emails that are triggered by automation.
2. Email Broadcasts: If you only need to share one email at a time, like making an announcement.

It also offers a drag-and-drop email editor with a lot of branding options.

You can create highly targeted campaigns based on behavior, purchase history, and engagement levels.

Also, it provides advanced analytics like:

• Open rates
• Click-through rates
• Deliverability reports

🏆 Bottom line: Kajabi edges out Systeme for serious email marketers. While Systeme offers excellent value with unlimited emails for up to 2,000 contacts for free, Kajabi’s advanced segmentation, comprehensive CRM integration, better branding options, and sophisticated automation make it the better choice.

Payment processing

Systeme has payment gateway options like Stripe, PayPal, Mercado Pago, RazorPay (Indian gateway!), FluterWave, GoCardless, and Mollie.

For affiliate payouts, Systeme.io supports PayPal and wire transfers.

However, you can automate commission payments by connecting your Wise account.

👍 This extensive payment gateway support gives you flexibility in collecting payments from customers worldwide. The automated affiliate commission payouts through Wise are a huge time-saver.

If you use Kajabi, you’ll have fewer payment gateways to offer; Kajabi Payments, PayPal, and Stripe. However, Kajabi Payments lets you accept debit/credit cards, along with Apple Pay and Google Pay.

You can choose any payment method for affiliate payments.

But you’ll have to manage the payouts manually.

👎 Here’s a bummer: International creators can’t use Kajabi Payments outside the US. However, US-based businesses benefit from centralized refund management, payment oversight, and affiliate payouts all in one place.

🏆 Winner: Your choice depends on location and needs. Systeme offers more payment gateways and automated affiliate payouts for international users. Kajabi excels for US businesses with advanced checkout features.

Checkout Page Experience

The checkout page is where your customers finalize their purchase decision.

Both platforms offer different approaches to optimize this crucial conversion point.

Kajabi shines with its sophisticated checkout features that can significantly boost your average order value.

You can easily implement upsells, bundle multiple products together, add order bumps, and create downsells for hesitant customers.

It also gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes to customizing your checkout page for more conversions.

Systeme’s checkout experience focuses on simplicity while still offering core functionality.

You’ll get access to essential features like subscriptions, one-time payments, and payment plans – all available even on their free tier.

Also it does include coupon codes, discounts, course bundling, order bumps, and 1-click upselling, the overall checkout process feels somewhat limited in terms of conversion optimization options.

🏆 Winner: Kajabi offers a more robust checkout experience with advanced features like urgency timers, multiple discount types, and sophisticated upsell paths. However, Systeme provides all the essentials for free, making it an excellent choice for beginners or budget-conscious creators.

Community and engagement tools

Kajabi offers powerful community features that outshine Systeme.

You get gamification with badges, leaderboards, and points, plus a comprehensive trigger-action automation engine.

The dedicated mobile app for iOS and Android is a game-changer.

Members can learn on the go, join discussions during commutes, and stay connected anywhere. This dramatically improves engagement.

Now about Systeme:

Systeme’s community features are simple yet effective.

One standout benefit is the unlimited community members on even the free plan!

However, Systeme does lack two important features: gamification elements and a mobile app for community access.

While the platform focuses on providing essential engagement tools rather than advanced features, these basic community capabilities maybe sufficient for you.

🏆 Bottom line: Kajabi wins this category with its mobile app, gamification features (badges/leaderboards), coaching tools, and robust engagement options. While Systeme provides free basic community features, it lacks Kajabi’s depth and sophistication for building engaged communities.

Live streaming and events

Systeme does do support Evergreen Webinars, complete with automation rules and A/B testing.

👎 However, it doesn’t support on-demand webinars as it doesn’t come with native live-streaming abilities considering the price. But it does integrate with external applications like Zoom.

Now Kajabi:

It has native live streaming abilities.

This means you not only can do evergreen pre-recorded webinars but also go live in your community or conduct webinars.

🏆 Winner: Kajabi. It not only comes with evergreen pre-recorded webinars but also native live streaming abilities (big as it has better community). However, the streaming latency may be poor compared to Zoom or Google Meet.

Affiliate marketing

You can onboard affiliates to help you sell products with both Kajabi and Systeme.

The dashboards on both platforms are full-featured.

Kajabi lets affiliates self-register and use coupon codes. You can set commission windows (up to 90 days) to track affiliate referrals – a feature Systeme lacks.

It also provides comprehensive affiliate tools: commission configuration, payout management, analytics, and more in one dashboard.

On the other hand, Systeme offers a straightforward affiliate program with clean interface.

Here’s what it looks like:

But unlike Kajabi’s, you can publish your products to Systeme.io’s marketplace to promote your program and set a minimum payout amount.

Systeme’s affiliate program integrates directly with your memberships, email list, and payment systems for a seamless experience.

🏆 Winner: Systeme wins here. It offers built-in affiliate marketing on all plans (including free), automated payouts, marketplace exposure, and seamless integration. While Kajabi has advanced features like commission windows and coupon codes, these require higher-tier plans, making Systeme more accessible for most users.

Analytics and reporting

Kajabi’s analytics gives you actionable insights to improve your business.

You get video stats, heatmaps, and retention graphs to track student progress and engagement levels.

This lets you follow up with students who are struggling and find out what’s holding them back.

👉 Note: Kajabi only sells digital products directly, not physical ones like Systeme. For physical products, you’ll need to integrate with Shopify.

Systeme offers basic analytics for your funnels, affiliate performance, email campaigns, and courses.

It’s not as detailed as Kajabi’s comprehensive analytics dashboard.

But for most small to medium businesses, Systeme provides enough insight without overwhelming you with unnecessary data.

🏆 Bottom line: Kajabi wins for analytics and reporting. Its video stats, heatmaps, retention graphs, student progress tracking, and marketing analytics make it perfect for data-driven businesses. Systeme offers basic analytics that work well for most users, but can’t match Kajabi’s reporting depth.

Customer support

Need help when things break?

Quality support matters.

Systeme.io offers video tutorials, Facebook groups, knowledge base, and direct team support. Their email response time is truly impressive – they deliver on their two-hour promise.

On the $97/month plan, you get 1-hour technical calls. Or schedule a 2-hour call for $57.

They provide 24/7 email support, even weekends and holidays (9am-7pm GMT+1).

Kajabi doesn’t offer phone support.

Instead, you get live chat (6am-5pm Pacific Time only).

Want 24/7 chat? You’ll need the $199/month or $399/month plan.

Kajabi provides a knowledge base, ticketing, video tutorials, and Facebook community.

They charge $99 for 1-on-1 sessions.

🏆 Bottom line: Systeme wins with fast email responses, phone support options, and 24/7 weekend support. Kajabi’s webinars are valuable but they lack phone support and charge more for 24/7 assistance.

Pricing and value

Let’s talk money!

Both platforms offer different pricing tiers to fit your needs.

Systeme’s free plan includes unlimited emails, students, community members, and blog posts, plus 2,000 contacts.

It gives you everything to launch your digital business from just $27/month compared to Kajabi’s $149/month Basic Plan.

Their Unlimited plan costs $97/month – a genuine steal.

Now.

Kajabi works best for established creators with an active audience.

Their Basic plan at $149/month handles up to 10,000 contacts and 1,000 active customers. But it limits you to just 3 products total.

Most businesses quickly outgrow this, pushing you to the $199/month tier.

That initial price hurdle is significant for most creators.

🏆 Bottom line: Systeme crushes it on value. Their free plan offers unlimited core features, paid plans start at just $27/month, and even their top-tier plan ($97/month) costs less than Kajabi’s basic option. Perfect for beginners and budget-conscious creators who want all the features without the hefty price tag.

Conclusion

Let’s break it down:

Kajabi packs advanced course features, email tagging, CRM, and website tools. It’s built for established businesses ready to pay premium prices.

Their features are so complete you might ditch specialized tools like WordPress and ConvertKit for Kajabi’s website builder and email functionality.

Perfect for serious entrepreneurs with complex needs and bigger budgets.

When Kajabi makes sense:

• For established creators needing advanced features
• When detailed analytics and student tracking are essential
• If mobile access is crucial for your students
• For complex email marketing and CRM capabilities
• When budget allows for premium pricing

Systeme offers incredible value with its free plan (compared to Kajabi’s $149/month). Test your ideas without risk and scale up affordably.

Systeme delivers simplicity and affordability that works for beginners and growing businesses.

When Systeme makes sense:

• For beginners or budget-conscious creators
• When value is the priority
• If you prefer simplicity over complexity
• For affiliate marketing needs
• For global businesses with multiple payment options
• When validating business ideas risk-free

Choose based on your business size, budget, and feature needs. Systeme wins for value, Kajabi for premium features.