LearnDash vs Kajabi: Which is the better LMS platform?

LearnDash and Kajabi are two of the oldest tools being used for eLearning platform. But they are designed in a specific way to help certain audiences.

So, which one is the best platform for you? Let’s find out in this detailed comparison.

Before we begin, let’s quickly introduce LearnDash and Kajabi.

LearnDash vs Kajabi At a Glance

LearnDash, the brainchild of Justin and Kloé Ferrima, is an LMS plugin for WordPress. It adds LMS features to the CMS (Content Management System) platform. It debuted in 2013 and has been part of the StellarWP from 2021 onwards.

Kajabi is an all-in-one platform for creators to market and monetize their skills and following through digital products. In addition to platform to create courses, it also offers a suite of marketing tools. It was founded in 2010.

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Plans and Pricing

LearnDash

LearnDash’s pricing is pretty rigid. There is no free tier or lifetime license, either. You will have to sign up for one of the three yearly subscriptions, which start at $199 per year.  

LearnDash doesn’t have many add-ons since most of the features are included in the plugin itself. However, you’ll have to pay an additional $49 per year for each premium add-on you use. 

LearnDash	Pricing	Benefits
Basic	$199/year  No Lifetime Package	1-site license  Core LMS Features  Free integrations and add-ons  1 year of updates and support
Plus	$399/year  No Lifetime Package	10-site license Core LMS Features  Free integrations and add-ons  1 year of updates and support
Pro	$799/year  No Lifetime Package	Unlimited site licenses Core LMS Features Free integrations and add-ons 1 year of updates and support
Cloud	$25 – $83/month	Fully hosted website with LearnDash LMS

Kajabi

Kajabi, too, is a premium-only service that starts at $149 per month or $1788 per year. But it offers a 14-day free trial for potential users to test the product before making the purchase. It limits the number of courses of ‘product’ that you can create. Even the top-of-the-line Pro subscription only allows 100 courses.

Kajabi	Pricing	Benefits
Basic	$149/month $1788/year	3 products 3 funnels 10,000 contacts 1,000 active customers 1 website
Growth	199/month $1908/year	100 products 100 funnels 100,000 contacts 20,000 active customers 3 website Advanced automations Affiliate program Custom branding 24/7 Support
Pro	$399/month $3,828/year	100 products 100 funnels 100,000 contacts 20,000 active customers 3 website Advanced automations Affiliate program Custom branding 24/7 Support

LearnDash wins this round as it offers more complete plan at affordable price.

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Feature

Initial Setup 

LearnDash’s setup wizard focuses on setting up the plugin based on your needs and requirements. It includes courses, payment, and other settings.

On the other hand, you’re directly thrown into the dashboard when you sign up for Kajabi.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
Setup Wizard	✅	❌

Thus, LearnDash has a better onboarding process.

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Course Builder 

You will find drag and drop course builder on both LearnDash and Kajabi. They also support creation of course outline with AI. That said, Kajabi only allows a fixed number of courses on its platform. It also misses out on advanced feature such as course preview.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
Drag and Drop Builder	✅	✅
Front-end Builder	✅ (Premium Add-on)	✅
Unlimited Courses and Lessons	✅	❌
Course Dashboard	✅	✅
Course Attachments	✅	✅
Download Materials	✅	✅
Course Preview	✅	❌

LearnDash offer more advanced feature for its courses than Kajabi.

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Quiz Builder 

Kajabi lets you create graded and non-graded quizzes with 4 question types. It also lets you import quizzes from other courses. That aside, the rest of the features are underwhelming when compared to LearnDash.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
Unlimited Quizzes	✅	✅
Multiple Question Types	✅ (8, Includes Survey)	✅ (4, Includes Survey)
Quizzes Import and Export	✅	✅ (within your account)
Randomize Questions	✅	❌
Quiz Duration	✅	❌
Limit Quiz Attempts	✅	❌
Quiz Hints	✅	❌
Answer Explanation	✅	❌
Quiz Leaderboard	✅	❌
Email Notification	✅	✅

Thus, LearnDash has a better quiz builder than Kajabi.

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Built-in Order & Payment Support 

Kajabi has PayPal and Strip payment out of the box. It even supports Apple Pay and Google Pay through Kajabi Payments. That said, it doesn’t support revenue-sharing for course marketplace.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
Built-in Order System	✅ (Stripe Connect)	✅ (PayPal, Stripe Pay, Kajabi Payments)
Course Subscription	✅	✅
Revenue Sharing	✅	❌

Kajabi is better for individual instructor. However, LearnDash is still a better option for a course marketplace.

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Sales and Ecommerce 

As a WordPress plugin, LearnDash offers more options for third-party e-commerce integrations than Kajabi.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
WooCommerce	✅	✅ (Via Zapier)
WooCommerce Subscriptions	✅	✅ (Via Zapier)
Shopify	✅ (Via Zapier)	✅
Stripe	✅ (Built-in)	✅ (Built-in)
PayPal	✅	✅ (Built-in)
Razorpay Integration	✅	✅ (Via Zapier)
Easy Digital Downloads	✅	❌
Paid Membership Pro	✅	✅ (Via Zapier)
Restrict Content Pro	✅	❌

LearnDash has more options when it comes to third-party e-commerce integration.

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Certificate Builder

While LearnDash has a Gutenberg-based drop and drag certificate builder, Kajabi has an in-house builder with customizable elements.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
Drop and Drag Builder	✅	❌
Certificate Blocks	✅ (4 Custom Blocks)	✅ (5+ Sections)
Pre-built Certificate Templates	❌	❌
Unlimited Certificates	✅	✅
Certificate Dashboard	✅	✅
Auto Attach Certificate to Email	❌	✅
QR Verification for Certificate	❌	❌

Kajabi has user-friendly certificate builder but it doesn’t offer the same level of customization as LearnDash.

That said, if you want more advanced certificate builder, check out Masteriyo’s drop-and-drag builder with extensive customization options and features like QR verification.

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Gradebook and Analytics 

You can grade and evaluate the performance of your students using the grade book feature of the respective platforms. Moreover, they also offer analytics about your courses.

The latter is available as Pro-Panel add-on on LearnDash, which costs an additional $40 per year.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
Gradebook	✅	✅ (Available as Assessment)
Course Analytics	✅ (Available as ProPanel)	✅

It’s a tie.

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Live Sessions 

Kajabi has live sessions built into its platform for online coaches. In addition, it can host Zoom meeting. On the other hand, LearnDash offer Zoom, Google Meet, and GoToWebinar through Zapier.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
Calendar	✅ (Event Calendar)	✅ (Kajabi Scheduler)
Live Interaction	✅ (Zoom, Google Meet, GoToWebinar)	✅ (Native, Zoom)

Though both platforms support live sessions, only LearnDash has a calendar to track them.

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Course Protection and Security 

Both LearnDash and Kajabi offer plenty of features to secure course content and user credentials.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
Course Content/Video Protection	✅	✅
Password Strength Checker	✅	✅
Google reCAPTCHA	✅	✅
Email Verification	✅	✅

Thus, it is a tie.

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Student Engagement 

LearnDash lets student leave a review after they complete a course. It is not available on Kajabi. On the other hand, Kajabi supports course-wide announcement not possible on LearnDash.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
Q&A Section	❌	❌
Community	✅ (As Groups)	✅
Review System	✅	❌
Course-wide Announcement	❌	✅
Notification System	✅	✅

There’s no clear winner here.

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Course Control and Access 

Features like content drip, and course bundle are available on both LearnDash and Kajabi. That said, LearnDash has course prerequisites and challenging exams that are not available on Kajabi.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
Course Preview	✅	❌
Course Prerequisites	✅	❌
Content Drip	✅	✅
Course Retakes	✅	✅
Challenging Exams	✅	❌
Course Bundle	✅	✅
Course Expiration	✅	✅

For course control and access features, LearnDash has more features than Kajabi.

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User Roles and Membership 

In LearnDash you can have multiple instructors for the same course. Likewise, you can also have unlimited number of users. Both these features are not available on Kajabi.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
Unlimited Instructors and Students	✅	❌
User Import and Export	✅	✅ (As Contacts)
Bulk Course Enrollment	✅	✅
User Profile	✅	✅
Social Login	❌	✅ (Google)
QR Login	❌	❌
Multiple Instructor	✅	❌
Membership Site	✅	✅

Thus, LearnDash has more flexible options when it comes to user roles and membership.

If you want more convenience, Masteriyo has a QR login along with all the other features mentioned.

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Design and Customization

Despite not being based on WordPress, Kajabi has a drag and drop builder, pre-made templates and supports custom code and shortcodes. It even has white labeling which LearnDash doesn’t.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
Native Theme	❌	✅
White Label	❌	✅
Webhooks	✅ (Zapier)	✅ (Zapier)
Advanced Email Automation	✅	✅
Shortcodes	✅	✅

Thus, Kajabi has better design and customization options than LearnDash.

If you want white labeling but are keen on using WordPress, check out Masteriyo, which offers it along with all other LMS features.

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Support and Documentation

Kajabi offers live chat for its users which LearnDash doesn’t. That aside, the support channels are similar.

	LearnDash	Kajabi
Live Chat	❌	✅
Documentation	✅	✅
Video Tutorials	✅ (YouTube, Academy)	✅  (YouTube, Academy)
Live Walkthrough	✅	✅
Facebook Community	✅	✅

Thus, LearnDash and Kajabi offer similar support channels.

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LearnDash vs Kajabi: Which should you choose? 

Here’s a summary of everything discussed so far. To give you a broader sense of the competition, we’ve also included Masteriyo in the comparison chart. 

Feature	LearnDash	Kajabi	Masteriyo
Pricing	4⭐	3.5 ⭐	5⭐
Initial Setup	4.5 ⭐	3.5⭐	5⭐
Course Builder	5⭐	4⭐	5⭐
Quiz Builder	4.5⭐	3⭐	4.5 ⭐
Certificate Builder	4⭐	4⭐	5⭐
Live Sessions	5⭐	5⭐	5⭐
Course Protection and Security	5⭐	5⭐	5⭐
Student Engagement	4⭐	4⭐	5⭐
Built-in Order and Payment	4 ⭐	4⭐	5⭐
Sales and Ecommerce	5⭐	4.5⭐	5⭐
Gradebook and Analytics	4.5⭐	4.5⭐	5⭐
Course Control and Access	4.5⭐	4.5⭐	4.5⭐
User Roles and Membership	5⭐	4⭐	5⭐
Design and Customization	4.5 ⭐	5⭐	5⭐
Support and Documentation	5⭐	5⭐	5⭐

To conclude, LearnDash and Kajabi each have strengths and weaknesses. LearnDash is better as an complete LMS platform for institutions and educators. However, Kajabi all-in-one marketing tools for digital products targeted at content creators.

Before you make the ultimate decision, we suggest looking into other alternatives, as there are a lot of new promising LMS in the market. One such platform is Masteriyo, which has all LMS features and even more flexible pricing.