Kajabi vs Podia: Why I left Kajabi For Podia
Update in 2023: I have since moved to Thrivecart because it’s a one-time lifetime payment and to Active Campaign for emails, as it integrates with Thrivecart without having to use Zapier.
The internet is fueled by blog posts about "why I switched to Kajabi". It's the main reason why I felt compelled to share my personal experience, for the sake of diversifying the online scene and bringing an alternate perspective to online course creators, coaches, and consultants.
First, you must know that reviews are inherently biased because affiliate partners write them, and they get a commission when you use their affiliate link to sign up for a program they recommend. Kajabi's affiliate commission is a recurring commission of 30% for as long as the customer remains a member of Kajabi. For a 149$ minimum bill, it's pretty attractive! Before switching to Podia, I took the time to read tons of reviews, and I was grateful for bloggers who wrote genuine advice with impartiality. So this is what I'm going to attempt here.
Disclaimer: I will try my best to keep this article updated, but please note that platforms evolve rapidly and constantly add features, so some of my comments may become obsolete.
1) Why I joined Kajabi - the great things about Kajabi
I joined Kajabi because I was attracted by the fact that it was an all-in-one-which seemed to be a pretty innovative concept. It was the most expensive online course platform that I knew of, but I thought that since it's all-in-one, this would be worth it. By all-in-one, I mean a one-stop solution where you can host your website, courses, have your community, do your email marketing, etc., a dream!
I followed the recommendations of other celebrity online educators. As a new online entrepreneur, I lacked discernment and was still figuring out what systems I needed and how I wanted to exist as an online business. When I joined one of Amy Porterfield's courses, she highly recommended it and gave access to a referral discount to all students of her course. Many online course creators were raving about it too. I wanted to be part of "the club" and aspired to this identity. I had my disillusion with Thinkific and Teachable; I thought that perhaps by paying more, I would be more satisfied with Kajabi.
Kajabi's student was and still is my favorite interface from a student user experience. I've joined a few courses that were hosted on Kajabi, and from a student experience, I loved the design and functionality. It's pleasant, modern, and practical. There's also a premium feel, supported by the fact that advanced course creators use the platform. The premium price does filter who becomes the end-user.
This is how my private clients’ resource library looked like in Kajabi:
Maika Endo Coaching private clients’ resource library in Kajabi
2) What I didn't like about Kajabi and somewhat annoyed me
It was a bit overwhelming to learn how to use all the features and navigate the platform. Kajabi provides plenty of resources and tutorials. Still, if you like me and prefer to learn by doing rather than spending hours learning something before using it, the interface was not intuitive.
Frustrations accumulated over time, due to small things I could not do unless I upgraded my package. Example: When you're in a basic package, you cannot edit the templates' code. On my Squarespace website, I was able to upload my fonts, but this was not possible with Kajabi. The bandaid was to use fonts that looked as close as possible to my fonts.
It was also challenging to create a nice sales page and structure the layout the way I envisioned it. The interface is clunky, making the building process slow and painful. The solution I found was to purchase templates for my sales pages and opt-in forms.
I could not use my logo to brand the emails. So people would emails from me like this:
In Flodesk, it took me half the amount of time to create a newsletter, and the emails looked like this:
If I want to embed an opt-in form to my Squarespace website, Kajabi opt-in forms looked like this:
My Flodesk opt-in forms look like this-, much more customization options:
AFTER ALL, I WAS STILL GOING TO USE FLODESK FOR MY EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER.
I never used Kajabi's community feature because in the basic plan that I had, you only have three products allowance, and the community feature would count as one. So, all in all, I was still using Facebook for the community part. I was still in the market to find a replacement and explore Mighty Networks, Circle, Slack, etc.
I was also going to keep my website in Squarespace because I am happy with the platform and support.
THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMEL'S BACK:
This feature gave some interesting insights into my clients' and leads’ profiles.
The problem was to synchronize my mailing list in Flodesk and the one in Kajabi with all the separate segments. I had to pay a third-party integration (Zapier) to do this, and the possibilities were limited - leaving me with some manual work every month.
Kajabi + Flodesk + Zapier = 191$/month.
At this stage, I realized that I was far from my original intent to simplify my business systems and use an all-in-one to make my 149$ Kajabi bill worth it.
3) What made me stay longer with Kajabi
The biggest reason why I stayed longer with Kajabi was that it has a fantastic Facebook community group ready to help you out. Kajabi's community group was the only group I participated in on Facebook and wanted to check regularly. When I was on my 30-day social media sabbatical, I missed it! Every time I had a question and needed a workaround, I turned to the community and had answers from other entrepreneurs within the same day- the engagement is high and you learn a lot from others.
4) What made me finally decide to leave Kajabi
IT'S GREAT TO FIND BANDAIDS AND WORKAROUNDS, BUT NOW MY MINDSET IS MORE LIKE: IF IT DOESN'T DO THIS, IT DOESN'T. BANDAIDS STILL CONSUME TIME TO SET UP AND BRAIN BANDWIDTH TO THINK ABOUT.
It didn’t make sense to pay the price of an all-in-one if I was not using all the features. It's a waste of resources. Kajabi may be the perfect platform for those who want a one-stop platform and are happy using most of its features (I was using only 3):
Website
Email broadcasts
Email funnels, tagging
Pipelines and automation
Events, webinars
Courses
Community
I long for simplicity and a “one thing at a time” approach.
I hesitated and postponed the decision because, in a year, I've had already spent more than a thousand dollars, including Kajabi and templates. But in my decade of being a business owner, I learned the hard way that it is almost always better to make a change even when it's time-consuming- because the long-term compound effect is greater than the energy you save by not changing. Actually, when you settle for something that’s not suitable for you, you pay miscellaneous costs!
5) Why I chose Podia after an extensive research
Time is our most precious asset.
A chatbox is always accessible to get my question answered by a REAL person. I don’t have to look for the chatbox it’s right there, and I’ve never waited for than 5 minutes.
They offer a free migration service if you pay for an annual plan. The migration is limited to the product itself, not the funnels and sales pages. However, it was still worth it because I had a large resource library with video lessons, worksheets, and files for my private clients, and this would have taken me several sittings throughout the week to complete.
Maika Endo Coaching private clients' resource library after migration by Podia
The interface is straightforward and user-friendly, and I didn't need to research to create a good-looking sales page. To give you an idea, it took me only 15 minutes to copy-paste my content from my Kajabi sales page to Podia, and a couple of hours to refresh graphics in Canva and brand the page (backgrounds, colors, photos). Since I moved, I've been spending an hour every day in Podia to play and tweak my site just because I enjoy it!
PODIA ALSO POSITIONS ITSELF AS AN ALL-IN-ONE, HOWEVER, FOR 39$/MONTH, I FIND IT ACCEPTABLE TO JUST USE IT AS A COURSE, DIGITAL PRODUCT, AND WEBINAR PLATFORM, AND KEEP MY EMAIL MARKETING WITH FLODESK.
Flodesk + Zapier + Podia = 81$ /month
If the membership feature seems to still be at the baby stage - if it develops a bit more, I will consider upgrading.
Conclusion and recommendations
I've explored Active Campaign, Ontraport, MailChimp, Convertkit, and when I discovered Flodesk, I committed with an annual membership.
I've tried Teachable, Thinkific, Kajabi, and when I found Podia, I committed to an annual membership.
Annual memberships save you money, but you need to try first and be convinced.
What's important to know is that there’s no perfect platform. One platform will always have something better than another platform while lacking something else. I don’t think that we need to choose the platform that has the MOST features. A more holistic and sustainable approach to this would be to evaluate what you have and what you currently need, rather than speculate about what you may need in the future.
Even in Podia, there are things I dislike, but they are not deal-breakers to me. Such as their "powered by Podia" footer in the emails sent through the platform or their logo at the bottom of my school's site. Or the fact that they are no features to create more than 2 payment options (I like to have 3). But I trust that they are constantly working to improve the product, and they do listen.
My recommendation is to take the time to read reviews with discernment, but more importantly, to use the trial period.
Nothing can replace your own judgment and hands-on experience.
I've used the 2-week trial period in Podia and even created another account to continue exploring before making a decision. I also bought a course and membership hosted in Podia, just to test the student experience. When you try a product, questions will naturally arise, and encourage you to reach out to the support team. This will give an immediate impression of what kind of energy and culture fuels the company. I had a personal feeling that Podia is creator-centric and includes its users in the co-creation process.
I felt called to write this article because there are many articles about people moving to Kajabi. I didn't find any article about people moving out of Kajabi to a smaller, newer host. This is my humble "review." and it is not a technical blog post with a thorough comparison; the internet has plenty of those already, and I'm far from being an expert in this field.
Are you curious about Flodesk?
Flodesk: The Best Email Marketing Platform for Coaches, Creatives, and Consultants
Try Flodesk for free and get 50% off with my affiliate link. On top of this, when you pay annually, you get one month for free!
About Maika Endo
Maika mentors heart-centered, impact-driven entrepreneurs to build the foundations of their business with her signature Intentional Business Building™ method. Her approach is holistic and integrates the entrepreneur mindset, marketing strategies, and systems to help create sustainable changes and long-lasting results. A lifelong passion for the human psyche, healing arts, and personal growth brought her to mentorship and coaching. She’s French-born in Japan and currently lives in Istanbul with her family. She enjoys cooking, sparkling wine, and playing with her son in parks.
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