Top 3 Reasons I Use Kajabi for My Online Course Business
If you are thinking of launching an online course, you have lots of options to choose from. And here’s the truth: the software you choose does matter in a big way. You want to choose right the first time to avoid headaches and unnecessary work down the road.
Your customers see your course software as part of your business and your brand: unless you are in a techie niche, no matter what you end up using, the majority of people won’t understand that you are using Teachable or Kajabi or Samcart. Much of the time, your customers think they are using your website. Your course software becomes part of your brand.
When I was researching software options for my online courses, I did a ton of research. I’ve spent the majority of my career working at a software company, so I knew what to look out for. I left that job to start my company Mighty Milk, which offers expert-led online breastfeeding and pumping classes for new and expectant parents. After exhaustive research, I chose Kajabi to host my classes.
One note I want to share up front: Kajabi is generally more expensive than other equivalent options. It is the “Tesla” of online course software (though there are plenty of sufficient choices out there). I bootstrap my own business, so paying for Kajabi is not a small expense for me. But here are the top three reasons I decided to take the plunge and invest in this software, even when I could have chosen less expensive options.
- Kajabi is dedicated course software. There are some other vendors that do multiple things. For example, Samcart is a checkout tool that now also offers the ability to create and “host” courses. But because Kajabi’s clientele is course creators, its product development is geared towards this end. What does this mean? In this case, a Kajabi or a Teachable will generally always have the best functionality for running an actual course. Samcart, because they focus on checkout, will generally always have superior checkout features. But Samcart doesn’t only serve course creators; they have all sorts of types of customers, like authors who sell e-books.
For example, as of my writing this, Kajabi’s course features are much more robust than Samcart’s. But Samcart allows you to use digital wallets at checkout(Google Pay and Apple Pay), where Kajabi doesn’t. In my case, I use Kajabi because it has the most functionality for courses and interacting with my customers. I also use Sam Cart because it’s the best checkout software. Is it annoying to manage and pay for multiple systems? Sort of. Do I need to? Because I need to deal with HSA/FSA eligibility, yes. But most people have basic needs and don’t need to use multiple systems. For the vast majority of course creators, this means you can get away just fine with using Kajabi’s native features. As your business grows, you can easily integrate with software leaders in other spaces (webinars, checkout, marketing automation/email, etc.)
2. Kajabi’s community is a huge benefit. I cannot emphasize this enough. Kajabi has a very active Facebook community where you can bounce all sorts of ideas off of people who are on very similar journeys. Have a “what’s the best way to this in Kajabi?” type question? Go to the community. Have a “what’s the best webinar software to integrate with Kajabi?” type question? Go to the community. Have a “I need to create a lead magnet, what do I do next?” type question? Go to the community. Best microphone or tripod or whatever gizmo? Community. People are very generous with their knowledge in this Facebook group. I haven’t found any other software company’s user community in this space that is so active. One comment you read from someone in the community can literally change the trajectory of your business. I would argue that Kajabi’s community is more powerful than the software itself.
3. Support. Here’s a short story that IMO tells you everything you need to know about what type of company Kajabi is. I had an issue with limited functionality in Kajabi that was bothering me and preventing me from being able to grow my business in the way I needed. I decided to send an email to the CEO of Kajabi, Jonathan Cronstedt. I did not respect a response, since he is undoubtedly a busy guy and I am nowhere close to Kajabi’s biggest multi-million dollar-earning customers. To my surprise, just minutes later, I received a response from him. He was polite, empathetic, and…drumroll…put me in touch with the people on his team that actually helped me solve my issue. I know, right!?
Aside from this one-off experience, Kajabi has great support. They are not magicians and cannot spin up all of the features you want that are missing, but they are easily available by chat during business hours. They are good at identifying answers and I get the sense that they truly try hard and care. And when you can’t get what you need from them, the community (see #2 above) can weigh in. In the end, what more can you really ask for or reasonably expect?
Thinking of launching a course? E-learning is such an amazing avenue into entrepreneurship and there are so many types of people making money by sharing knowledge via Kajabi. Like I mentioned, my business provides online breastfeeding classes, but I’ve seen it all. There’s a woman who teaches Korean instant pot cooking. A guy who teaches how to become a drone pilot. A lady who teaches pet photography. And these people are earning real income through sharing their passion (and…yes…lots of hard work is involved.) And Kajabi is the best way to set yourself up for long term success with monetizing your class(es).
Want to try Kajabi? My passion for Kajabi is why I signed up to be a Kajabi Partner. If you found this article to be helpful, please use this link to sign up for a free trial. Have a question about Kajabi or choosing online course software? Email me.
