Kajabi vs Circle in 2026: Which Is Actually Cheaper?

Circle costs $89 a month. Kajabi Basic costs $143 billed annually. On those two numbers Circle is the affordable choice and Kajabi is the expensive incumbent, which is how this comparison is almost always framed.

Then you notice that Circle charges 2 percent on paid memberships and Kajabi charges nothing through its own payments, and the two lines cross at about $2,700 a month.

A community of 150 people paying $49 a month is $7,350. At that size Circle Professional costs $236 all in and Kajabi Basic costs $143. The cheap one is the expensive one, and the crossover sits well below where most paid communities operate.

A membership platform is software that charges people a recurring fee for ongoing access to you, to your material, or to each other.

Kajabi approaches that from courses and Circle approaches it from conversation, they each do some of the other, and they charge for it in opposite ways.

Full disclosure: Framekit is our own product and it does not compete here at all. Our store rejects recurring prices, so memberships and subscriptions cannot be built on it, which rules us out of the job both of these products do. We say where that matters in a short section near the end.

How We Compared Kajabi and Circle

We priced one business on both rather than scoring features, because these two products overlap in the middle and diverge at the edges, and only the arithmetic makes the divergence legible.

The profile: a creator running a $49 a month paid community with 150 members, which is $7,350 in monthly recurring revenue, alongside one $299 course and an email list of about 4,000 people.

Prices were read on each vendor's published pricing pages in August 2026, on fresh accounts with no promotional code, and are linked at the point of use.

Judgements about how each product feels to run are labelled as ours, because community software is judged partly on atmosphere and that is not measurable from outside.

No star ratings appear here. The large review aggregators declined our automated checks during this research, and for two products this structurally different an averaged score would obscure the thing that actually decides the choice.

In one lineone creator with a 150-member $49 community, a $299 course and a 4,000-person list, priced across every tier of both platforms.

The Two Ladders

Circle's pricing page lists unlimited members on every tier with a 14-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Kajabi's pricing page charges no platform transaction fee when you use Kajabi Payments, which processes at 2.9 percent plus 30 cents on Basic falling to 2.7 percent on Pro, and charges a third-party gateway fee of 2 percent on Basic, 1 percent on Growth and 0.5 percent on Pro if you use your own processor.

What Our Creator Pays

At $7,350 a month in membership revenue, before card processing.

Kajabi Basic is the cheapest row in that table, which is not where anyone expects to find it. Its 5-product limit and 2,500 contacts both accommodate our creator, so it is a legitimate choice rather than a technicality.

The crossover. Circle Professional costs $89 plus 2 percent and Kajabi Basic costs $143 flat, so they meet when 2 percent of revenue equals $54, which is $2,700 a month. Below that, Circle is cheaper.

Above it, Kajabi is, and the gap widens every month the community grows.

The second crossover, inside Circle. Moving from Professional at $89 with 2 percent to Business at $199 with 1 percent costs $110 and saves one percentage point, so it pays for itself at $11,000 a month in membership revenue.

Below that, Professional is the correct Circle tier regardless of what else Business offers.

Where Circle Wins

In one lineCircle is a genuinely better community product, it never meters your members no matter how many join, and below the crossover figure it is the cheaper of the two by a comfortable margin.

Unlimited members on every tier, including the $89 one. Most community platforms meter members, and metering hurts precisely where a free tier is growing into a paid one.

Circle charges on the transaction instead, which aligns its incentive with yours rather than against it.

The conversation actually works. This is our judgement rather than a measurement.

Circle's discussion, spaces, live rooms, and notifications are built for people talking to each other, and Kajabi's community feels like a feature added to a course platform because it is one.

If your members are paying for access to each other, that difference shows up in retention.

It is cheap to start. At $89 a month on annual billing, which is the basis Circle's pricing page states its figures on, a community that is not yet earning costs a fraction of Kajabi's floor.

Moderation structure. 3 admins and 10 moderators on Professional, 5 and 15 on Business. For a community of any size, moderators are the people who keep it alive, and Circle prices them generously.

The gotchathe 2 percent is charged on paid memberships and compounds monthly rather than once. A $49 membership for 150 people generates $147 a month in Circle fees on top of the $89 plan, every month, forever, and it grows as you do.

Where Kajabi Wins

In one lineKajabi charges nothing on your revenue when you use its own payments, and it bundles an email platform sized for a real list, which Circle does not attempt at any tier.

The flat fee. No platform transaction fee via Kajabi Payments means a community that doubles in size costs exactly the same to host.

For recurring revenue specifically, that is the structurally better arrangement, because a percentage on a subscription is a percentage charged again every month on the same customer.

Email included, at scale. Basic includes 2,500 contacts and Growth includes 25,000, with email marketing at every tier.

Circle is not an email platform, so a creator running Circle is paying for one separately, and that cost belongs in this comparison even though it does not appear on Circle's pricing page.

Our creator's 4,000-person list fits inside Kajabi Growth at $199 and requires a separate subscription alongside Circle.

Courses are native. Our creator's $299 course sits inside Kajabi properly, with products, offers, and access groups. Circle hosts courses too and they are lighter.

Funnels and offers. Kajabi assumes you are running a business with a marketing function. Whether you need that is a separate question, and if you do, Circle has no equivalent.

The gotchathe third-party gateway fee. Route payments outside Kajabi Payments and Basic charges 2 percent, which at our creator's volume is $147 a month, exactly wiping out the advantage this section is about.

Every figure above assumes Kajabi Payments, and that is a real constraint if you have an existing processor you would rather keep.

The Comparison Neither Pricing Page Makes

In one lineCircle sells you a room and Kajabi sells you a business, and the honest cost comparison has to include what you buy separately alongside each.

This is where most versions of this article stop being useful, because they compare two subscriptions as though they buy the same thing.

Running Circle properly usually means Circle plus an email platform, and often plus a course platform if your courses are substantial. Add a mid-tier email tool for 4,000 subscribers to Circle's $236 and the total moves close to, or past, Kajabi Growth at $199.

Running Kajabi properly usually means Kajabi and nothing else, which is the entire argument for its price. The counterweight is that each individual piece is competent rather than excellent, and the community piece is the weakest of them.

So the real question is not which is cheaper. It is whether you would rather have one adequate tool or two good ones. That is a genuine preference rather than a calculation, and creators split on it consistently.

One practical test. Ask what your members would miss most if it disappeared. If the answer is the conversation, buy Circle and accept paying for email elsewhere.

If the answer is the material, buy Kajabi and accept that the community is a forum rather than a home.

What Happens as You Grow

In one linea percentage on recurring revenue is the most expensive fee shape there is, because it charges you again every month for a customer you already acquired.

This deserves stating plainly because it is the structural difference between the two products and it is invisible in month one.

A one-off 2 percent on a $299 course is $5.98, charged once. A 2 percent on a $49 monthly membership is $0.98 a month, charged every month for as long as that member stays. A member who stays three years costs $35.28 in Circle fees, on revenue of $1,764.

Multiply by 150 members and the community that costs $147 a month in fees today costs $294 at 300 members and $588 at 600, while Kajabi Basic still costs $143 and Growth still costs $199.

The counter-argument, which is fairCircle's fee scales with your success and its floor is low, so a community that never grows never pays much. Kajabi's floor is high and it is the wrong purchase for a community earning $500 a month. Neither shape is wrong; they suit different trajectories.

The practical instructionif you expect the community to grow, the flat fee wins and the crossover arrives sooner than you think. If you are testing whether a paid community works at all, Circle's $89 is the cheaper experiment.

We tabulate this and every other crossover in when to upgrade your creator platform.

Where Framekit Fits

We build a website builder rather than a membership platform, and on the specific job these two products do we are not a participant at all. Rather than construct a section implying otherwise, here is the position in full.

Framekit is an AI website builder for photographers, filmmakers, designers, and creators, and its store accepts one-time prices only. Recurring prices are rejected outright, which means memberships, subscriptions, and payment plans cannot be built on it at any tier.

So there is no arrangement in which Framekit replaces either of these for a paid community, and we would rather write that in one sentence than construct a section implying otherwise. If you are choosing between Kajabi and Circle, choose between Kajabi and Circle.

The only reader we are relevant to here is someone who discovered mid-comparison that they do not actually need recurring billing, and what they want is a site with a portfolio and a store on it. That is a different product and a much cheaper one.

How to Choose

In one linework down these questions in order and stop at the first one that describes you, because revenue volume and email needs settle this before atmosphere does.

1. Is your paid community earning more than about $2,700 a month? Kajabi Basic at $143 billed annually is cheaper than Circle Professional and stays cheaper as you grow.
2. Is it earning less than that, or not yet earning at all? Circle Professional at $89 a month. Lower floor, better product for the job.
3. Do you email a list of more than a couple of thousand people? Kajabi, where Growth at $199 includes 25,000 contacts. Add an email platform's cost to Circle before comparing.
4. Is the conversation the product rather than the course? Circle, and treat the 2 percent as the price of a better room.
5. Do you need more than a handful of moderators? Circle, which gives 10 on Professional and 15 on Business.
6. Do you want to keep your existing Stripe account? Price Kajabi's third-party gateway fee first: 2 percent on Basic and 1 percent on Growth, which can erase its advantage entirely.
7. Do you need courses with real structure and funnels around them? Kajabi.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Circle cheaper than Kajabi?

Below about $2,700 a month in membership revenue, yes. Circle Professional is $89 a month plus a 2 percent transaction fee on paid memberships, and Kajabi Basic is $143 billed annually with no platform fee via Kajabi Payments.

Above that figure Kajabi is cheaper, and the gap widens as the community grows.

Does Circle charge a transaction fee?

Yes: 2 percent on Professional at $89 a month on annual billing, 1 percent on Business at $199, and 0.5 percent on Circle Plus. The fee applies to paid memberships, so on recurring revenue it is charged every month rather than once. All tiers include unlimited members.

Does Kajabi charge a transaction fee?

Not when you use Kajabi Payments, which processes at 2.9 percent plus 30 cents on Basic, falling to 2.7 percent on Pro.

If you use a third-party payment gateway instead, Kajabi charges 2 percent on Basic, 1 percent on Growth and 0.5 percent on Pro, which at meaningful volume removes its main cost advantage.

When should I move from Circle Professional to Business?

At $11,000 a month in membership revenue. Business costs $110 more and saves one percentage point, so $110 divided by 0.01 is $11,000. Below that, Professional is the correct tier regardless of the extra admins and moderators Business provides.

Which is better for a paid community?

Circle, on the product itself. Its spaces, discussions, live rooms and moderation tooling are built for people talking to each other, where Kajabi's community is a feature attached to a course platform.

If retention depends on members talking, that difference matters more than the fee.

Which is better for courses?

Kajabi. Courses are native, with products, offers, and access groups built around them, and Basic includes 5 products while Growth includes 50. Circle hosts courses and they are lighter, which is fine if the course supports the community rather than the other way round.

Does Circle include email marketing?

No. Circle is a community platform, so email to your members generally means a separate subscription. Kajabi includes email marketing at every tier, with 2,500 contacts on Basic and 25,000 on Growth.

Any honest cost comparison should add an email platform to Circle's side of the ledger.

How many members can I have on Circle?

Unlimited, on every tier including Professional, which is $89 a month on annual billing. Circle meters transactions rather than members, which means a growing free tier costs you nothing until it starts paying you.

Admin and moderator seats are the limited resource: 3 and 10 on Professional, 5 and 15 on Business.

Can I run both?

Yes, and some creators do, using Kajabi for courses and email and Circle for the community. It doubles the subscriptions and splits the member experience across two logins, so it is worth doing only when both jobs are large enough to justify a dedicated tool.

Is Framekit an alternative to either?

No. Our store accepts one-time prices only and rejects recurring ones, so memberships, subscriptions and payment plans are not possible on our platform. If you need recurring revenue, both products in this comparison do something we cannot.

Final Verdict

If your paid community earns more than about $2,700 a month, Kajabi Basic at $143 billed annually is the cheaper platform and it includes an email list that Circle does not attempt. That figure is low enough that most established paid communities are already past it.

If you are below it, or testing whether a paid community works at all, Circle Professional at $89 a month is both cheaper and the better product for the job. Unlimited members on the entry tier is a genuinely good offer and the community itself is the stronger one.

The mistake to avoid is comparing $89 against $143 and stopping. On recurring revenue a percentage is charged again every month for a customer you have already won, and that shape costs more than it looks like it does.

Where Framekit is not in the conversation. We cannot bill recurring subscriptions at all, so neither of these has a Framekit-shaped alternative. This is one of the few comparisons in our series where the honest position is that we do not compete.

Related readingthe best Kajabi alternatives, Podia vs Kajabi, and membership platforms for creators.

If the platform you are weighing Circle against is Podia rather than Kajabi, that comparison is here, including the email add-on that changes Circle's real monthly cost.