I read every one of their pricing pages and help centres this week and pulled out the part that is never on the big price tag: contact caps, seat fees, transaction cuts, metered email, forced upgrades, onboarding fees. Then I put the same business into all seven and let the bills speak. HighLevel is the one I use and teach, and I'm an affiliate, so I show you the numbers instead of asking you to trust me.
Tap who you are. I fill in a normal month. Then drag anything to match yours.
Monthly billing everywhere, so the bills compare like for like. Annual saves roughly 9 to 24% depending on the tool, HighLevel included. Stripe's own processing fee (2.9% + 30¢ in the US; 3% + 30¢ on Flodesk Express accounts) applies to every tool here, HighLevel included, so it's left out. What is counted is each platform's extra cut on top of Stripe. AI that answers customers is billed separately by every tool that has it, so it's a switch, not a slider. Where a tool bills a one-time onboarding fee I spread it over 12 months so it shows up here.
A red badge means that thing is not included on the plan priced here: you'd need another tool, another account, or a higher tier. Details in the cards below.
Nine ways the number on the price tag turns into a different number on your card. Most of these are published, just not on the big price tag. Every cell is from the vendor's own pages, read 20 Sep 2026.
| The fee | HighLevel | Kajabi | Kartra | ClickFunnels | HubSpot | ActiveCampaign | Flodesk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cap on contacts | None. Unlimited on every plan. | 2,500 / 25,000 / 100,000. Extra 5,000 for $25/mo. Account locks 30 days after you go over. | 500 / 2,500 / 12,500 / 25,000. Go over and you're auto-upgraded, plus a "reconciliation fee". | 10,000 / 75,000 / 150,000 / 400,000. No add-on: next tier only. | 1,000 / 2,000 / 10,000 marketing contacts. One contact over = next tier, billed now, no downgrade till renewal. | Every price is per contact tier. New accounts pay for unsubscribed and bounced contacts too. Cap reached = campaigns stop. | Every price is per subscriber tier. Cross a tier = auto-upgrade. Can bill you after you cancel. |
| Fee per user seat | None. Unlimited users. | 2 / 11 / 26 seats. $5 per extra. | 0 / 5 / 10 seats. No add-on: next tier only. | 2 / 5 / 10 / 20 seats. No add-on: next tier only. | $20 per seat on Starter. Professional: 3 included, then $50 each on monthly billing ($45 annual). Can't reduce seats till renewal. | 1 seat on Starter and Plus. Extra $10 to $40 per seat. | 1 / 2 / 3 seats. No way to add more. |
| Cut of your sales | 0% on top of Stripe. | Use your own Stripe: +2% / 1% / 0.5% on top of Stripe's fee. Kajabi Payments: 2.9% + 30¢, +0.7% on every subscription payment, $15 per dispute even if you win. | 5% of every sale on the $59 plan. 0% from $119. | 0% on Stripe. Payments AI: +0.5% "billing, tax, invoicing". | 0% (payments via Revenue Hub have a platform fee). | None. No checkout at all. | 0%. Stripe 3% + 30¢ on Express accounts. |
| Email charges | $0.675 per 1,000 sent. 10,000 emails = $6.75. No monthly cap; brand-new accounts ramp up over their first weeks. | Unlimited, included. | 10,000/mo on $59 plan. Unlimited from $119. | Capped at 50,000 / 300,000 / 750,000 AND metered at $0.675 per 1,000 on top of the plan. | Capped at 5x / 10x / 20x your contact tier. 1,000 contacts on Starter = 5,000 emails. | Capped at 10x contacts. Over that, $0.005 per email. At 3x your cap, sending is switched off. | Unlimited on paid plans. |
| Texting (SMS) | Built in. About $0.012 per text, number $1.15/mo, pay as you go. | Beta, paused, US only, bring your own Twilio account. | Bring your own Twilio, Plivo or Vonage. You pay the carrier. | Bring your own Twilio or Bandwidth. No phone numbers. | Not on Starter. Professional/Enterprise add-on $75/mo for 1,000 segments, then $15 per 1,000. Calling: 500 minutes and 1 number on a Starter Sales seat. | Add-on from $21/mo for 1,000 credits, Plus and up only, no rollover. | No SMS product at all. |
| AI charges | Separate on every plan: pay per use, or $50/mo AI Employee Growth, $97/mo Unlimited. Never included in the $97. | Customer-facing AI "coming soon", price TBD. AI credits for video transcription: 0 on Basic, $15 per 500. | Copywriting AI only, 30 / 100 / 250 uses. No AI for customers. | Copywriting AI only, "1M words". No AI for customers. | Credits: 500 on Starter, 3,000 on Professional. Customer Agent is Professional and up and burns 50 per conversation. Over the limit: pay 1¢ per credit as you go, or buy a capacity upgrade that runs for the rest of your term. | AI Activities add-on $5 per 1,000 for internal automation. No AI that talks to customers. | Flodesk Studio design AI, free while in beta. No AI that talks to customers. |
| Onboarding or setup fee | None. | None. | None. | None. | Required: $3,000 Marketing Pro, $1,500 Sales Pro, $7,000 Marketing Enterprise. | None. | None. |
| Commitments and cancellation terms | Month to month. Cancel any time. Numbers and texts used during the trial are billed at usage rates. | $149 hold on trial card. Your customers' Stripe subscriptions keep billing after you cancel unless you stop them yourself. | "Dynamic marketplace pricing... subject to change at any time." $9.99/mo to freeze. Overages billed at cancellation. | $17/mo to pause. Cancellation fee "equal to the discount" allowed by the terms. 10 days' notice or you're charged again. | Professional and Enterprise are 12-month commitments even when paid monthly. Auto-renews. Seats can't be reduced until renewal. | Annual auto-renews; reviewers report no refund. Trial capped at 100 emails. | Flat "unlimited" price retired Dec 2025. Auto-upgrade can charge you after cancelling an annual plan. |
| Price rises this year | Same $97 / $297 / $497. | First rise in 10 years, Jan 2026. Trustpilot 1-star spike, petition. | Terms allow changes at any time. A Dec 2024 review: "price keeps going up". | Legacy plans retired; terms allow changes any time. | Starter is on a "$7" promo that returns to $20. | Trustpilot summary: "steep price hikes... costs that keep rising". | Unlimited plan gone for new customers. |
30 things a business actually needs to run, and which tool has it built in. "Add-on" means you pay extra. "Limited" means it's there but capped or tier-gated.
| You need | HighLevel | Kajabi | Kartra | ClickFunnels | HubSpot | ActiveCampaign | Flodesk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRM with sales pipelines | ✓ | ✕ tags only | ✕ tags only | limited 1 pipeline on $97 | ✓ | add-on from $39/mo | ✕ |
| Websites and funnels | ✓ | limited 1 site on $179 | ✓ unlimited pages from $119 | ✓ | limited 30 pages | limited landing pages, Plus+ | limited link page, sales page |
| Courses and memberships | ✓ | limited 5 products on $179 | ✓ unlimited from $119 | limited 3 on $97 | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Community | ✓ groups, channels, gamification | limited 1 on $179 | ✕ comment forums only | limited 3 on $97 | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Documents and contracts with e-signature | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | limited quotes, 10 e-signs/mo | ✕ DocuSign integration | ✕ |
| Invoicing and estimates | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ 0.75% fee on Stripe | ✕ | ✕ |
| Subscriptions and payment plans | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ? not on vendor page | ✓ | limited via Stripe/PayPal | ✓ |
| Forms and surveys with conditional logic | ✓ | ? not on vendor page | limited surveys from $229 | ✓ | limited conditional: Pro only | ✓ forms | limited simple forms |
| Chat widget on your website | ✓ | ✕ 3rd-party bot | limited live chat on $549 only | limited inbox; widget unverified | ✓ | limited site messages only | ✕ |
| add-on $10/mo + Meta fees | ✕ | ✕ | limited own Twilio | limited Pro, $800/mo | add-on from $63/mo | ✕ | |
| Missed-call text-back and call tracking | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | limited 500 min, no text-back | ✕ | ✕ |
| Affiliate program manager | ✓ | limited $249 plan and up | limited $229 plan and up | limited $297 plan and up | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Blog | ✓ | ? not on vendor page | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ 1 blog | ✕ | ✕ |
| Mobile app for you to manage leads | ✓ | ✓ | ? not on vendor page | ? not on vendor page | ✓ | ✓ | ? not on vendor page |
| Webinars, built in | ✓ | ✕ Zoom integration | limited retiring 1 Nov 2026 | ? not on vendor page | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Course quizzes and certificates | ✓ | ✓ | limited quizzes from $229; certificates not on vendor page | ? not on vendor page | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Google review requests | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Email marketing | ✓ metered | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ metered + capped | limited 5x contacts | ✓ 10x contacts (12x Pro) | ✓ |
| Texting from the app | ✓ | limited own Twilio, beta | limited own Twilio account | limited own Twilio account | add-on $75/mo, Pro+ | add-on from $21/mo | ✕ |
| Phone numbers and calling | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | limited 500 min, 1 number | ✕ | ✕ |
| Booking calendars | ✓ | ✕ coaching sessions only | ✓ from $119 | limited none on $97 | ✓ | ✕ Calendly | ✕ |
| Reviews and reputation | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Social media planner | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | limited Pro, $800/mo | ✕ | ✕ |
| AI that talks to customers (chat, voice) | add-on pay per use or $50/mo, every plan | ✕ "coming soon" | ✕ copywriting only | ✕ copywriting only | add-on credits, auto-upgrade | ✕ internal AI only | ✕ design AI only |
| Multi-step automation | ✓ | ✓ | limited advanced from $229 | ✓ | limited 10 actions on Starter | ✓ unlimited on Plus | ✓ Pro and up |
| Separate accounts for clients | ✓ 3 on $97, unlimited on $297 | ✕ | limited bulk-buy from $229, you bill | limited 1 / 5 / 10 / 20 | ✕ Enterprise only | limited reseller program, you bill | ✕ |
| Your brand on the software (white label) | limited $297 plan and up | ✕ | limited your name in email footers | limited branding removal, $5,997/yr | ✕ | limited agency program: domain + logo | ✕ |
| Sell the software to clients (SaaS) | limited $497 plan | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Unlimited contacts | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Unlimited users | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Free trial | 30 days | 30 days $149 card hold | 14 days 1,000 emails | 14 days card required | 14 days Marketing Pro, no card | 14 days 100 emails | 14 days |
| Built in, no add-on | 26 of 30 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 3 |
Counted: a ✓ with no "limited" or "add-on" tag, trial row excluded. Each column is that tool's entry plan named at the top of section 4, except Kartra, where I use the $119 Starter because the $59 plan is not a real starting point. A grey ? means I couldn't find it on the vendor's own pages, so I didn't count it either way. Read 20 Sep 2026 from each vendor's pricing page and help centre; links in the footer.
Plans, the fees behind them, what's missing, who it's honestly good for, and what people said about it in the last 30 days.
Not because it's always the cheapest line on the chart. Because of what the chart can't show.
No contact cap. No seat fee. No cut of your sales. Go from 500 contacts to 50,000 and the plan is still $97. On the other six that same list costs a higher tier: Kajabi $499, ClickFunnels $197, ActiveCampaign Plus $759, Flodesk Pro $389, HubSpot Starter around $1,900 in extra contacts, and Kartra publishes no price at all past 25,000.
Leads, booking, texting, calling, email, funnels, courses, reviews, social, AI. 26 of 30 built in on the $97 plan. The four that aren't: WhatsApp and AI are pay-as-you-go add-ons, white label and SaaS mode need the $297 and $497 plans. The best of the others gets 7. Everything else on their list is a second subscription you also have to connect.
Fractions of a cent per email, about a cent per text. If you're quiet in August, you pay $97 plus your phone number. Nobody moves you to a higher contact tier, and there's no annual contract to run out.
Unlimited client accounts on $297, your logo on the app, and on $497 clients sign up and pay you automatically with your own markup. ActiveCampaign and Kartra let you resell discounted accounts if you bill clients by hand; the other four don't resell at all. Section 6 below has the detail for all seven.
Thirty days of the full product, no card hold. Kajabi also gives 30 days but holds $149 on your card; the rest give 14, and ActiveCampaign caps it at 100 emails. Cancel before day 30 and the subscription costs nothing; texts and numbers you use are billed at usage rates.
The Trustpilot 5-star that ClickFunnels got this month was someone "saving over £100 a month by migrating email, website and booking into one space". That's the whole idea. HighLevel just does it for more things.
The question that separates a tool you use from a business you own. I checked all seven on their own pages. Short answer: HighLevel is the only one built for it end to end. ActiveCampaign and Kartra let you resell rebranded accounts if you do the billing yourself. Kajabi, ClickFunnels, HubSpot and Flodesk: no.
Each client gets their own login, contacts and automations, inside your master account. You do the work, they see their data.
Your logo, your domain, your app name. The client never sees the vendor's name. This is what "white label" means.
Clients sign up on your site, pay you a monthly fee, get an account automatically, and you set the price of every text and every AI reply. This is a software business.
$97: 3 client accounts. $297: unlimited client accounts, white-label desktop app and custom domain, rebill their texts and emails at cost. $497: SaaS mode. Clients sign up and pay automatically, you mark up usage and keep the difference. Optional white-label mobile app $497/mo.
Kajabi's help centre has an article titled "Is white-labeling possible?" The answer is no. Kajabi branding stays in transactional emails and the shared Kajabi app. The branded app on the $499 plan carries your logo for your own students; it isn't a resale product. There are no client sub-accounts and no reseller program; each client is a separate $179+ subscription.
From the $229 plan you get an agency dashboard. Kartra's own page: "purchase Kartra accounts in bulk at a 40% discount and mark them up at will". Your agency's name goes in the footer of every email sent for a client. But the app, login and domain stay Kartra, you bill each client yourself, and there is no sign-up-and-pay mode. The bulk price list is not published.
The Agency App needs a separate Agency Plan, price not published, and allows up to 50 client workspaces. Client workspaces get the Sites app; the other apps are "purchased as add-ons", also unpriced. The ordinary 1 / 5 / 10 / 20 workspaces on the public plans are yours, not clients'. "Branding removal" is a feature of the $5,997-a-year Dominate plan; how far it goes isn't documented. Billing always stays with you; there is no sign-up-and-pay resale product.
No white-label option at any price. Multi-account management is Enterprise only ($3,600/mo plus $7,000 onboarding), capped at 30 accounts. The HubSpot partner programme gives agencies a referral commission on clients who buy their own HubSpot.
The partner program lets you create and resell client accounts at 25% to 55% off, put them on your own domain, replace the logo and remove ActiveCampaign references (full CSS rebrand on Enterprise; domain and logo on small-business plans). In their words: "You are responsible for billing your resold accounts." No sign-up-and-pay mode, no usage rebilling, and they warn the mail-server IPs can be traced back to ActiveCampaign.
One login can be invited into up to 20 accounts, but each account is a separate paid Flodesk plan in the client's name. No branding options, no sub-accounts, no resale.
| Tool | Your brand on the software | Separate accounts for clients | Resell it and set your own price |
|---|---|---|---|
| HighLevel | Yes, from $297: white-label desktop app and custom domain | Yes: 3 on $97, unlimited on $297 | Yes, on $497: SaaS mode, clients sign up and pay you automatically, you mark up their usage |
| Kajabi | No. Help centre: "Is white-labeling possible?" Answer: no. Branded student app on the $499 plan only | No | No |
| Kartra | Partly: your agency name in client email footers; app and domain stay Kartra | Yes: bulk-buy at 40% off from the $229 plan | Partly: mark up the accounts and bill clients yourself; no sign-up-and-pay mode |
| ClickFunnels | "Branding removal" on the $5,997/yr plan; scope undocumented | Agency Plan only, price not published; up to 50 client workspaces, Sites app only | No. Billing stays with you, no resale product |
| HubSpot | No | Multi-account management on Enterprise only, up to 30 accounts | No. Partner program pays referral commission |
| ActiveCampaign | Partly: custom domain and logo via the partner program; full rebrand on Enterprise | Yes: resold accounts at 25 to 55% off | Partly: you set the price and invoice clients yourself; no sign-up-and-pay mode, no usage rebilling |
| Flodesk | No | No. Each client buys their own plan | No |
Sources: help.kajabi.com "Is white-labeling possible" and the Branded App overview; kartra.com/agency-dashboard; ClickFunnels Agency App help guide and pricing page; HubSpot pricing (multi-account management) and partner program; ActiveCampaign Partner Portal FAQ, agency program pricing and "White Labeling in ActiveCampaign" guide; Flodesk help centre on team seats. All read 20 Sep 2026.
Only HighLevel bills clients for the software automatically and lets you rebill their usage with a markup. Here is what that looks like with ten clients, using HighLevel's own rates. Usage of $80 a client is my assumption.
| Kajabi, HubSpot, Flodesk | You on HighLevel $297 | You on HighLevel $497 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software fee you charge each client | $0, they buy their own | $297 | $297 |
| Their texts, emails and AI, about $80 a month each | on their card | passed through at cost | marked up 1.5x, you keep $40 |
| Ten clients: software fees plus your usage markup | $0 | $2,970 | $3,370 |
| Your HighLevel bill | n/a | $297 | $497 |
| What you keep from the software alone | $0 | $2,673 | $2,873 |
Short answers. Every number is from the vendor's own pricing page, read 20 Sep 2026.
Usually, yes. Kajabi starts at $179 a month for 2,500 contacts, 5 products and 2 seats, and adds a 2% surcharge if you sell through your own Stripe. HighLevel starts at $97 with unlimited contacts and users and takes 0% of sales. Kajabi has no built-in texting, calling, booking calendars or sales pipelines.
Kartra's $59 plan takes 5% of every sale and allows 500 contacts. Its realistic entry point is $119 for 2,500 contacts. Go over your contact cap and Kartra auto-upgrades you and charges a reconciliation fee. HighLevel is $97 with no contact cap, no seat cap and no cut of sales, and it includes texting and calling that Kartra needs a separate Twilio account for.
Both start at $97. ClickFunnels caps you at 10,000 contacts and 2 seats on that plan, and meters email at $0.675 per 1,000 on top of the plan. HighLevel meters email at the same rate but has no contact or seat caps, and includes texting, phone numbers, booking calendars and reviews, which ClickFunnels does not.
For a small business, by a wide margin. HubSpot Starter is $20 per seat with 1,000 marketing contacts and simple 10-step automation, no texting and no social planner. Multi-step workflows start at Marketing Hub Professional, $800 a month on annual billing or $890 monthly, plus a required $3,000 onboarding fee, on a 12-month commitment either way. HighLevel gives multi-step workflows, pipelines, texting and calling at $97.
At 1,000 contacts ActiveCampaign Plus is $59 a month, but sales pipelines are a $39 add-on, texting starts at $21 for 1,000 credits, extra seats are $15 each and the price climbs to $239 at 10,000 contacts. HighLevel is $97 flat with pipelines, texting and unlimited seats included.
Under about 5,000 subscribers Flodesk is cheaper on the sticker: $25 to $59 a month on Lite or Pro, $54 to $107 on Everything. But Flodesk retired its flat unlimited price in December 2025 and auto-upgrades you as your list grows (Pro is $79 at 10,000 and $169 at 25,000; Everything $137 and $257), and it has no CRM, texting, booking, funnels or courses. HighLevel stays $97 at any list size.
Kajabi, Kartra, ClickFunnels, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign and Flodesk all price by contact tier. HubSpot and Flodesk auto-upgrade you the moment you cross a tier; Kartra auto-upgrades and adds a fee; ActiveCampaign stops your campaigns at the cap. HighLevel has unlimited contacts on every plan.
All six. Kajabi $5 per extra seat, ActiveCampaign $10 to $40, HubSpot $20 to $75. Kartra, ClickFunnels and Flodesk have hard seat caps with no add-on, so you must jump a whole tier. HighLevel has unlimited users on every plan.
Kartra takes 5% on its $59 plan. Kajabi adds 2%, 1% or 0.5% on top of Stripe if you use your own processor, and 0.7% on every subscription payment through Kajabi Payments. ClickFunnels adds 0.5% for billing and invoicing through Payments AI. HighLevel takes 0%.
Only HighLevel has texting, phone numbers and calling built in, at about 1.2 cents per text. HubSpot sells it as a $75 a month add-on on Professional and above. ActiveCampaign sells credits from $21 a month. Kajabi, Kartra and ClickFunnels require your own Twilio account. Flodesk has no SMS at all.
Yes, and it is required, not optional: $3,000 for Marketing Hub Professional, $1,500 for Sales Hub Professional, $7,000 for Marketing Hub Enterprise and $3,500 for Sales Hub Enterprise. HighLevel, Kajabi, Kartra, ClickFunnels, ActiveCampaign and Flodesk have no setup fee.
HighLevel and Kajabi both offer 30 days. HighLevel's is 30 days through an affiliate link with no card hold (14 days on the public page); Kajabi places a $149 hold on your card. Kartra, ClickFunnels, ActiveCampaign, Flodesk and HubSpot Marketing Hub Professional offer 14 days, and ActiveCampaign caps its trial at 100 emails. HubSpot also has a permanent free tier with HubSpot branding.