LifterLMS vs. Kajabi: a comparison

Good question. And the answer is: it really depends.

What are your goals for your LMS? Do you have online courses, digital downloads, and a membership? Or just one of these? What do you have now vs. what do you want to have in the future? These are all good questions to ask yourself in order to prepare for this decision. 

And let’s be clear if you decide to go with a platform now, but realize you want a plugin later, you certainly can move, but the migration might be costly, time-consuming, and frankly downright painful at times. 

Here are some scenarios where a platform, like Kajabi, might be right for you: 

• You want to have as much as possible in one system 
• You want to get up and running as quickly as possible 
• You’re okay with the platform’s limitations (be it in design, features, and/or functionality)  
• If you find the limitations of the platform are limiting your growth, you’re willing to rebuild on a software (time, money, team resources, etc.) 

Here are some scenarios where a plugin, like LifterLMS, might be right for you: 

• You want a specific design, flow, and setup, built just how you imagine 
• You want to do it right the first time, with little possibility of needing to migrate in the future 
• You’re willing to spend a little bit more time in the initial setup (compared to what you’d spend on a platform) 
• You already have a WordPress site and you’re comfortable using it, or you’re willing to get one and learn

LifterLMS doesn’t offer monthly payment options while Kajabi does.

We’ll start with LifterLMS. Its pricing can be quite deceiving.

• • Earth Bundle: $199 per year
  • Universe Bundle: $360 per year
  • Infinity Bundle: $1,200 per year

With LifterLMS, the core plugin is free. This is a great way to download the plugin, get it installed on your WordPress site, and get a first-hand look and feel for the software. You won’t be able to operate a robust online course or membership environment on this free version though. You’ll almost immediately have to upgrade or purchase individual add-ons to get basic functionality.  (They do offer a 30-day trial for $1.) 

For example, if you want to accept PayPal and Stipe payments, those are $199 per year, so instead of free, you’re already at $200 a year.

The Universe Bundle that starts at $360 per year does include valuable features like design add-ons and e-commerce functionality.

Even on the Universe Bundle though, you’ll be missing features like advanced quizzing and assignment options, video features, customization, and group features.

Kajabi’s pricing is more straightforward than LifterLMS’s.

• • Basic: $149 per month
  • Growth: $199 per month
  • Pro: $399 per month

If you pay annually with Kajabi you save some money vs. paying monthly. The tier differences are based on features, products, pipelines, marketing emails, websites, and admin users.

The Growth tier at $199 per month is the most popular. And with it, you’ll get access to valuable features like 24/7 chat support, advanced automations, the ability to remove Kajabi branding, and the affiliate program management feature.

You only have access to the code editor on the Pro level. So if you do have a custom design you’ll need to budget for this tier. You’ll also need to be a skilled developer or hire one to implement your design.

Both LifterLMS and Kajabi strive to be all-in-one solutions for your online business. Our recommendation with both of these is that you strive to use the system to its fullest potential, without relying on integrating multiple systems to make it work. That being said, you will likely need more integrations with LifterLMS than with Kajabi.

Again, Kajabi is an all-in-one platform. So they offer a space to house your contact like you would in a CRM like ActiveCampaign, ConverKit, or MailChimp, etc. They have a visual editor and the ability to craft automations so you can send your emails at specific dates and times or intervals to specific groups.

The People feature in Kajabi allows you to see each user’s profile like you would in a CRM. Depending on the complexity of your automations, Kajabi may be all you need here. That being said, they do integrate with Aweber, MailChimp, Drip, ConverKit, and ActiveCampaign. If you choose to integrate, you’re stepping away from Kajabi’s core philosophy that they’re an all-in-one platform that can support every part of your business.

Integrating also means that you’re paying for another system and have something else to maintain outside of your Kajabi dashboard.

They also work with Zapier and ClickFunnels. Again, while this is a nice offering, remember to keep as much as possible under Kajabi’s roof if you choose them.

Even if the functionality is there to allow for integrations, you can find yourself on a slippery slope of duct-taping systems together, then down the road, you’re in a big mess that feels impossible to get out of.

LifterLMS does offer email notifications and email engagements. Notifications are all types of stock messages, where personalized data can be merged in. Email engagements are emails sent to individuals or groups based on certain criteria that are met. While these are helpful features, they don’t take the place of automations or campaigns in a CRM. 

LifterLMS integrates directly with MailChimp and ConvertKit. They also offer integrations through WP Fusion, which is a third-party connector tool. From there you can connect to ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, AgileCRM, and many more. 

LifterLMS has lots of known integrations with common systems like bbPress, Buddy Press, Twilio, and more. 

When you’re researching LifterLMS, you’ll see the word ‘add-on’ and ‘integration’ used. An add-on is typically something within the LifterLMS software that can be added to the core plugin while an integration is something outside of LifterLMS.

All in all, Kajabi has more built-in functionality than LifterLMS when it comes to email capabilities, managing contacts, and community features. If you want to keep it all under one roof with the platform limitations, then Kajabi may be a better choice for you. 

All the same, functionality can be achieved with LifterLMS, through add-ons and/or integrations. If you’re sticking with the software route, spend some time mapping out what each integration will cost and the time investment to implement and maintain. 

Learning reinforcements are really any feature that’s going to enhance the learning experience for your students. Basic learning reinforcement features are progress tracking, quizzes and assignments, video bookmarking, and certificates, just to name a few.

Both LifterLMS and Kajabi offer learning reinforcements, but LifterLMS has an advantage over Kajabi because of its ability to customize and advanced quizzing features. Note that these features are paid add-ons with LifterLMS, or on the Infinity Plan, so if they’re appealing to you, budget accordingly.

LifterLMS offers graded quizzes, and a variety of question types from multiple-choice, true or false, picture choices, fill-in-the-blank, long and short answers, and more. Any type of quiz you can imagine can be built on LifterLMS. They offer reports on quiz results as well, be it individual per user, or a group of students. You can use these reports to see how your students are absorbing the materials.

They offer assignments, which can be a task or task list, upload requirement, or a long answer requirement. LifterLMS has certificates as well, where you can add details and merge fields. It comes with a provided background, or you can upload your own.

They don’t have advanced progress tracking built into their plugin, but you can find add-ons that provide basic progress tracking.

Kajabi does offer a few learning reinforcements to enhance the learning experience.

The assignment features allow the functionality to add different question types, like multiple choice or long-answer. These results can be viewed from your People tab under each user.

The assignments feature takes the place of any quiz or test functionality on Kajabi.

Progress tracking can be viewed from the backend, but there’s no way to display the progress to your students.

Kajabi does support videos and audio, but there’s no bookmarking.

For example, with AccessAlly, you can set a progress objective to be 5 minutes for example into a video. The user will have to watch that video 5 minutes before their objective would be complete, or you could set it up that it has to be complete before they can move on.

Nothing like that can be achieved with LifterLMS or Kajabi.

When you’re running courses and a membership site, you’ll want to be able to accept a variety of payment types with known and trusted merchants. The checkout experience should never be a roadblock to your customer who’s ready to say, “Yes!” 

The e-commerce functionality between Kajabi and LifterLMS is pretty similar. The main differences will be in how those look to you, and where you find the information on the software vs. the platform. 

Both LifterLMS and Kajabi accept one-time payments, recurring memberships, and payment plans. They both work with Stripe and PayPal. 

Kajabi does have valuable e-commerce features like: 

• Multiple currencies
• Order bumps
• Upsells
• Coupons
• Free or paid offers

Kajabi offers a Quaderno integration to calculate tax, but that doesn’t come as a standard feature. They cannot automatically calculate and collect VAT either. 

When it comes to managing your orders, like refunding payments or canceling subscriptions, a lot of that is done directly in Stripe, not in your Kajabi dashboard. 

LifterLMS has similar e-commerce features: 

• Upsells 
• Coupons
• Free and paid offers

They don’t have the functionality to offer multiple currencies, although you can change your default currencies. They don’t offer order bumps either. 

LifterLMS has the added functionality of integrating with WooCommerce and Authorize.net. 

Remember that in line with LifterLMS’ philosophy, each payment gateway is an additional paid add-on or an upgrade to the Infinity bundle. 

If you already work with WooCommerce or Authorize.net, then LifterLMS may be the best choice for you. If you want pre-made checkout forms, and the ability to offer order bumps, then Kajabi may be the best.

LifterLMS doesn’t offer affiliate management features but will integrate with either AffiliateWP or iDevAffiliate. 

Kajabi does offer affiliate management tools on the Growth or Pro plans. The affiliate program helps you manage affiliate registrations and accounts, set up an affiliate marketing system based on share links, track conversions and form submissions, calculate earnings, and create reports.

The main thing that Kajabi is lacking is the ability to build a fully customized affiliate dashboard. If you use Kajabi affiliates, they’ll have a login portal on Kajabi where they can see their clicks, form submissions, conversions, and conversion rate. They’ll also be able to find their share links. Kajabi has a feature where you can post announcements. 

This will work for a basic affiliate program. But if you run a robust program with high-profile affiliates, you’ll want something specifically designed to help them convert. With Kajabi, you won’t be able to create a custom dashboard where they can download images, find copy, important dates, see a leaderboard. 

You may be missing out on valuable sales opportunities if you provide a bare-minimum experience for your affiliates.

• • You’re looking for a membership and LMS plugin all-in-one
  • You’re already using a WordPress website and looking for a WordPress plugin
  • You don’t mind using a third-party tool to connect your course with your CRM
  • You have a need for more advanced quiz functionality 

• • You need a bare-bones course website, with no plans for added functionality down the line
  • You want to have your site up and running quickly, so you can test your ideas without worrying about design
  • You don’t use a CRM like Infusionsoft, Ontraport, ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, or Drip to do your email marketing automation
  • You don’t mind giving up full control to have a website, email marketing, and course platform that handles everything in one place