7 Shocking Things Kajabi, Skool and Circle Don't Want You Comparing
An interactive guide that breaks down 7 platforms side by side. Pricing, hidden fees, and what they won't tell you on their pricing page.
By the Hopper team
Why people are leaving Kajabi.
In late 2025, Kajabi killed their $89/mo Kickstarter plan and restructured pricing. Basic now starts at $179/mo. Growth is $249/mo. On top of that, there’s a surcharge if you use Stripe instead of Kajabi Payments, plus additional subscription fees that catch most membership creators off guard. For a coach doing $5k/mo in revenue, the hidden fees add up fast. On top of the subscription.
The 7 alternatives
Honestly compared.
Tap each platform. We’re not pulling punches.
Circle.so
$89 to $199/mo · most features locked at $199
“Polished. Premium. But the bill creeps up fast.”
What’s good
- Beautiful, branded community spaces
- Rich content editor (Notion-style)
- Workflow automations on Business plan
- Free migration service from Kajabi (Business Annual+)
What’s missing
- Email marketing is a paid add-on ($99/mo for 10k contacts)
- Workflows and AI tools locked behind $199/mo. Courses are on the entry plan but lack quizzes and certificates
- Transaction fees: 2% on Professional, 1% on Business. On top of Stripe's 2.9%
- No link-in-bio shop. Can't bundle products flexibly
- No native funnel builder
- 20-space cap on the $89 plan
The alternative
So... what does $58/mo actually get you?
The platform that does what the others charge $200+/mo for.
Create as many memberships and products as you want. All under one subscription. No per-community fees.
Every plan. Not a $399/mo upgrade. Your members get a real app from day one.
Built-in storefront that replaces Stan Store. Bundle any content into any product. Sell from your Instagram bio.
Podcasts, video trainings, PDFs, frameworks. Organize and gate however you want.
Discussion feeds and channels you can assign to the specific buyers of each product. Everything Skool does, without the $99/community tax.
Reward your members with custom badges. Make your community feel alive.
Members send questions via video, voice, or file. You respond on your schedule. No Voxer needed.
Use our hub for high-ticket 1:1 coaching delivery with session recordings and proprietary frameworks. All in one place.
What only Hopper does
- Unlimited membership types under ONE flat fee. Skool charges $9 or $99 per community. Mighty Networks adds 0.5% to 2% on every sale on top of the SaaS fee
- Native link-in-bio shop with full content bundling. Not possible on Skool, Circle, Systeme, GoHighLevel, Thinkific, or Mighty Networks. The only platform of the 6 that has this
- Native iOS + Android app on EVERY plan from $58/mo. Thinkific charges $199/mo extra. Systeme.io has no app at all. Circle reserves white-labeled apps for $399/mo+
- Selling of asynchronous coaching built in on our Pro plan. No need for another platform.
- Private Client Spaces for high-ticket 1:1 delivery. Not a generic 'private group' but a branded, locked space with session recordings and frameworks
- Loyalty pricing that automatically rewards long-term members with discounts. None of the other 6 offer this out of the box
- Flat $58/mo. Just 1% commission, and 0% on Pro (excluding Stripe fees). No other surprises. Skool's Hobby plan takes 10% of every sale.
Monthly cost
The full bill, side by side.
Hopper’s native email broadcasts ship by end of 2026, included on every plan starting from $58/month, at no extra cost.
Limited offer
Ready to stop overpaying?
- 18-day free trial. No credit card required.
- Personally onboarded by Cedrik, our founder.
- We migrate your content and paying subscribers for you.
Cancel anytime.
This guide was written by the Hopper team. We tried to be as honest as possible about every platform, including ourselves. We’re new, and we know it. But we built what our coaches wished existed when they were paying more than $249/mo for tools we barely used.
On our list and want off? .