HighLevel vs the rest › HighLevel vs Kajabi
Quick answer: 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.
HighLevel gives 30 days through my link, no card hold.
Every number below is from the vendor's own pricing page and help centre, read 20 Sep 2026. 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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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. |
| Fee per user seat | None. Unlimited users. | 2 / 11 / 26 seats. $5 per extra. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Onboarding or setup fee | 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. |
| Price rises this year | Same $97 / $297 / $497. | First rise in 10 years, Jan 2026. Trustpilot 1-star spike, petition. |
30 things a business actually needs to run, and whether HighLevel and Kajabi have it built in. "Add-on" means you pay extra. "Limited" means it's there but capped or tier-gated.
| You need | HighLevel | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| CRM with sales pipelines | ✓ | ✕ tags only |
| Websites and funnels | ✓ | limited 1 site on $179 |
| Courses and memberships | ✓ | limited 5 products on $179 |
| Community | ✓ groups, channels, gamification | limited 1 on $179 |
| Documents and contracts with e-signature | ✓ | ✕ |
| Invoicing and estimates | ✓ | ✕ |
| Subscriptions and payment plans | ✓ | ✓ |
| Forms and surveys with conditional logic | ✓ | ? not on vendor page |
| Chat widget on your website | ✓ | ✕ 3rd-party bot |
| add-on $10/mo + Meta fees | ✕ | |
| Missed-call text-back and call tracking | ✓ | ✕ |
| Affiliate program manager | ✓ | limited $249 plan and up |
| Blog | ✓ | ? not on vendor page |
| Mobile app for you to manage leads | ✓ | ✓ |
| Webinars, built in | ✓ | ✕ Zoom integration |
| Course quizzes and certificates | ✓ | ✓ |
| Google review requests | ✓ | ✕ |
| Email marketing | ✓ metered | ✓ |
| Texting from the app | ✓ | limited own Twilio, beta |
| Phone numbers and calling | ✓ | ✕ |
| Booking calendars | ✓ | ✕ coaching sessions only |
| Reviews and reputation | ✓ | ✕ |
| Social media planner | ✓ | ✕ |
| AI that talks to customers (chat, voice) | add-on pay per use or $50/mo, every plan | ✕ "coming soon" |
| Multi-step automation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Separate accounts for clients | ✓ 3 on $97, unlimited on $297 | ✕ |
| Your brand on the software (white label) | limited $297 plan and up | ✕ |
| Sell the software to clients (SaaS) | limited $497 plan | ✕ |
| Unlimited contacts | ✓ | ✕ |
| Unlimited users | ✓ | ✕ |
| Free trial | 30 days | 30 days $149 card hold |
| Built in, no add-on | 26 of 30 | 5 |
Counted: a ✓ with no "limited" or "add-on" tag, trial row excluded. Each column is that tool's entry plan shown in the close-up cards below, 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 HighLevel is always the cheapest line. Because of what the price tag can't show.
| 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 |
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.
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.
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.
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