Marvelous vs. Kajabi: A Side-by-Side Comparison
Marvelous and Kajabi let you build and sell online courses, membership sites, coaching, digital products, and more.
What sets these tools apart is their all-in-one platform approach for creating an online business.
Unlike many other creator platforms, Marvelous and Kajabi cover everything from website creation to sales pages, email marketing, affiliate marketing, and more. They’re designed to not just help you create your online content but also provide everything you need to sell it.
Choosing the right tech and tools for your online course or membership can be a lot to consider. To ease this process and help you determine the best fit for your business, let's explore the features and differences between Marvelous and Kajabi in detail.
Marvelous vs. Kajabi: Online Teaching Platform Comparison
Marvelous:
Marvelous is the most stunning and stylish platform for creators. Tailored for wellness businesses, it offers an all-in-one space to create and sell online classes, courses, memberships, webinars, and digital downloads. You won't need to hire a designer or deal with coding to have a beautiful online presence when you use Marvelous.
Many customers on Marvelous find that it takes minutes to get their accounts setup and running. You don’t have to spend hours learning how to use the software. It’s designed for ease of use, whether you’re a beginner or experienced business owner.
Marvelous starts with a budget-friendly Starter Plan at $39/month, along with higher-tier plans that include more features. Regardless of the plan you’re on, all comes with the capability to sell an unlimited number of digital products..
Kajabi:
Kajabi lets you build a secure and beautiful website without the need for designers or coding. It offers an all-in-one platform for courses, memberships, podcasts, community, and coaching. Its templates can be easily customized to fit your brand, but there are limited template options available depending on which product you want to sell.
Kajabi has powerful integrated marketing tools, like sales funnels, landing pages, and email marketing. There can be a learning curve to getting your products set up on the platform if you’re not familiar with tech..
Kajabi starts at $149 per month for their basic plan and goes up to $399 per month for their pro plan with advanced features. Each plan limits the number of products that can be sold and the number of active customers who can be subscribed..
Marvelous and Kajabi both offer everything you need to create, market, and profit from your expertise online. They let you easily transform content into digital products and create a beautiful online presence with customizable branding design templates that match your brand.
Marvelous focused on helping creators make more money and transform more lives through online education. It’s tailored to wellness creators and practitioners who want to teach online with tools like livestreaming, ClassCards, and 1:1 coaching.
ClassCards™ are like the physical class passes used in in-person studios. They offer flexible options like 5-punch, 10-punch, or 20-punch cards, benefiting both students and studios.
Kajabi focuses on being a robust digital product delivery system and tailors its products to creators who need advanced marketing and sales features. While the interface is designed to be user-friendly, mastering the platform’s many tools and features may take some time.
Let’s take a closer look at the different features with Marvelous and Kajabi.
Online Course Creation:
Marvelous and Kajabai offer course builders with customizable templates and design tools. You can add course content, set your prices, and automate many aspects of the process.
Both platforms empower you to create lessons and drip-feed your content. They support multimedia formats like video, audio, and text-based lessons, providing you the flexibility to present content in various ways.
Engaging your students is a breeze with features like built-in quizzes, assessments, and surveys available on both Marvelous and Kajabi. You can generate graded multiple-choice quizzes, whether automated or manually, and keep track of student performance. Students can respond to open-ended questions in paragraph form or upload photos, audio files, or PDFs.
However, Kajabi limits the total number of courses and products across all plans. Marvelous allows you to create an unlimited number of courses, memberships, or products regardless of the plan.
With Marvelous, you can schedule the release of your content. You can have lessons show up after the previous lesson is complete, after a specified number of days, or after a specified date.
You can’t schedule the release of your content based on the date on Kajabi. You have to manually log in to publish a post that could be scheduled or drip content so that a student gets it after a specified number of days.
Membership Sites
One highly sought-after feature on both Marvelous and Kajabi platforms is the ability to create memberships, as it gives creators an opportunity to establish a recurring revenue stream.
Both platforms are designed for those with little to no design or technical experience. But despite its user-friendly interface, there is a learning curve with Kajabi when it comes to understanding how to fully utilize its features. It may seem overwhelming for beginners.
Marvelous makes membership creation a breeze, with a drag-and-drop builder that emphasizes simplicity and ease of use. In just a few clicks, you can set up an on-demand media library and focus on your content without tech hurdles.
Choose from several payment options, from weekly to month, quarterly, biannually, or annually with Marvelous. You can also upload video, audio, and PDF content to livestream and replays.
Kajabi offers several templates for your membership site that can be tailored to reflect your branding, which gives you a cohesive aesthetic across all your offerings. Marvelous offers a uniform template design for all membership products. However, Marvelous offers a unique feature calles Marvelous Magic Pages. It’s an AI-driven tool that lets you generate a customizable sales page with just a click of a button.
Both Marvelous and Kajabi let you drip-feed content within your membership program. This lets you control the pace that students access materials and encourages students to keep returning to your platform.
With Kajabi, you can only drip membership content based on enrollment timeframes, rather than a specific date. Marvelous goes a step further by letting you schedule specific time and date releases to automate the process.
Marvelous also offers Playlist features for memberships, which lets creators group content or showcase a series of classes within a membership. You can use playlists to sort your classes, replays, webinars, and digital content based on themes (monthly plans, weekly challenges, or special series).
Grouping your content into Playlists makes it easier for students to find exactly what they need, especially when you have a library with a lot of content. As of now, Kajabi doesn’t have this feature.
Live-streaming
For creators who want to connect with their students or clients in the moment, livestreaming is a must-have feature. It’s the key to real-time interaction, engagement, and instant feedback. Both Marvelous and Kajabi have embraced livestreaming, but they have different approaches.
Marvelous stands out by offering a seamless integration with Zoom. Once your accounts are connected, you can run everything from your Marvelous site calendar, which means you never have to send out a Zoom link again. It automatically uploads your Zoom recordings straight into your Marvelous Media Library for easy access and use in your products.
Marvelous also supports simultaneous live streaming, which helps enable large-scale online teaching with multiple instructors. In addition to integrating with Zoom, Marvelous offers its own built-in Broadcast feature, which is useful if you’re looking to broadcast without needing to see your students or clients.
While Kajabi supports live streaming, it’s less robust and relies on third-party tools like Zoom or YouTube Live. With Kajabi, each session must be set up manually and it doesn't support multiple simultaneous live sessions.
If live streaming is a core part of your online teaching experience, Marvelous takes the lead. However, if your live streaming needs are occasional or supplemental to your content delivery, Kajabi’s integration with third-party tools might serve you just as well.
Marketing Tools and Automation
Marketing features are included with both Marvelous and Kajabi. Both platforms let you capture leads, send broadcast emails, and build relationships with your audience.
With Marvelous Mail, a built-in email marketing tool, creators can send targeted emails based on criteria like course enrollment. For users who need more advanced segmentation and automation, Marvelous also integrates directly with popular email marketing platforms like ConvertKit and Mailchimp. This integration lets you directly tag people based on the product they've purchased or the waiting list they've joined.
Marvelous.bio offers a free link-in-bio option for sharing a single link on social media. It lets you gather all your key URLs in one place, which is a feature that Kajabi doesn’t currently offer
Kajabi is a marketing powerhouse with its own built-in email marketing system that allows you to craft personalized email campaigns and automate marketing. It also offers creators the ability to craft campaigns and funnels with a feature called "pipelines. These pipelines provide a blueprint for pages, triggers, and emails to nurture leads, but you have to create the content to fit your offer.
Marvelous and Kajabi both integrate with Zapier, which opens the door to thousands of other apps like Flodesk and ActiveCampaign for email marketing.
For Marvelous users on the Solo Plan or higher, you also get access to a powerful landing page builder and Marvelous Magic Pages, an AI-driven sales page generator.
With Kajabi, while customizable templates for landing and sales pages are available, you'll need to design and write the content yourself.
Analytics and Reporting
For any online creator aiming for growth, tracking and analyzing data is key. Both Marvelous and Kajabi get this, offering detailed analytics and reporting tools to track course performance and student engagement.
Marvelous offers a user-friendly analytics dashboard that covers everything from revenue, video analytics, event attendance, and community engagement. It also supports Google Analytics.
Meanwhile, Kajabi provides robust analytics that span revenue, page views, member opt-ins, video insights, and course completion rates. These analytics are built-in and eliminate the need for third-party tools to gather data about your course or membership site.
Community Building
Community features are a cornerstone of online learning platforms. They're the place where students come together, connect, and learn from each other, making the learning experience more dynamic and engaging.
Both Marvelous and Kajabi offer communities within their platforms. Marvelous offers built-in Community Groups where students can interact, join discussions, as well as ask questions and share experiences with each other. Creators can also directly message students or set up chat rooms, which can help create a community feel without the need to run a full-blown community group.
With Kajabi Communities, creators can create a community hub that functions like a forum or built-in social network. Students can create profiles, post updates, and comment on each other's posts. Kajabi Communities are highly customizable and can be a standalone product or integrated into your courses.
Customer Management
When it comes to managing students on online teaching platforms like Marvelous and Kajabi, both offer impressive tools.
Marvelous keeps it simple and practical. Their customer management dashboard provides a clear, centralized view of all your customers. Creators get easy access to a list of students, their enrollment status, and their course progress.
Kajabi takes it further with a comprehensive approach. In addition to standard features like customer lists and progress tracking, Kajabi has a “People” feature that provides creators a detailed view of individual customer activity, like their engagement history, comments, purchases, and membership levels.
Kajabi also enables user segmentation and automates communication based on user behavior. This is especially helpful for larger course platforms because it simplifies communication management across various students.
With Marvelous Mail, creators can send targeted emails based on specific enrollment criteria. This makes it easy to customize communication for different groups of students.
Integrations
Integrations link different software in your tech lineup. They make it easy to use third-party plugins, apps, or tools alongside Marvelous or Kajabi. Kajabi has fewer native integrations, but you can connect with Zapier for more options.
Currently, here are the integrations supported with your favorite apps:
| Marvelous | Kajabi | |
|---|---|---|
| Google Analytics | ✔ | ✔ |
| Stripe | ✔ | ✔ |
| PayPal | ✔ | ✔ |
| Zapier | ✔ | ✔ |
| Canva | ✔ | ✖ | UnSplash | ✔ | ✖ |
| MailChimp | ✔ | ✔ |
| ConvertKit | ✔ | ✔ |
| Deadline Funnel | ✔ | ✖ |
| AWeber | ✖ | ✔ |
| Zoom | ✔ | ✖ | Acuity | ✔ | ✖ |
| Calendly | ✔ | ✖ |
| Active Campaign | ✖ | ✔ |
| Drip | ✖ | ✔ | Segment | ✖ | ✔ |
| Meta Pixel | ✔ | ✔ |
| Creator.io | ✖ | ✔ |
| Twilio (SMS notifications) | ✔ | ✖ |
| ✔ | ✖ |
Payment Processing
Both Marvelous and Kajabi use Stripe and PayPal for secure payments. You only need to connect to your existing accounts to accept both forms of payment at checkout.
There are no extra processing fees on either platform outside of the standard fees from Stripe and Paypal. One of the reasons Stripe stands out is its flexibility to accomodates multiple payment options. This is particularly helpful for businesses based in Europe who want to offer alternative payment methods such as Bancontact, EPS, or direct debits.
Customer Support
Marvelous stands out for its reputation of quick and friendly customer support. You can reach out to them via email or live chat on their website, and they're known for promptly resolving issues within a few hours. Live chat support is available six days a week.
Marvelous and Kajabi both provide an in-depth knowledge base and tutorial videos, so you can troubleshoot issues on your own if you prefer.
When you become a Marvelous customer, you can choose from two bi-weekly customer success calls: the Onboarding Call and Customer Success Q&A call.
Onboarding Call: These live, interactive sessions are intended for beginner Marvelous customers.
Customer Success Q&A: These sessions are open to current Marvelous customers.
These group calls are to help you get your site up and running, plus help you troubleshoot particular questions.
Kajabi offers tech support via chat support, but the availability for Live Chat depends on which Kajabi plan you’re on. Customers on the Growth and Pro Plans have 24/7 chat support, while live chat is unavailable outside of regular business hours on the Basic Kajabi Plan.
Beyond chat support, Kajabi provides an extensive library of educational resources, including how-to guides and tutorial videos. They also host regular webinars and training sessions to help users get the most out of their platform.
Marvelous vs. Kajabi Pricing Plans
Both Marvelous and Kajabi are all-in-one platforms for setting up your online teaching business, but Marvelous comes with a lower price.
Marvelous starts with a budget-friendly Starter Plan at $39/month and higher-tier plans with more features. There are no extra fees beyond payment processors, which gives creators full control over their earnings. They also provide a free 7-day trial that lets you explore the entire platform.
However, Kajabi starts at $149 per month for their basic plan. While Kajabi lacks a free plan, they do offer a 14-day free trial.
Pricing Plans
| Marvelous | Kajabi | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Free 7-day trial on any plan | Free 14-day trial on any plan |
| Lowest cost plan with basic features | Essentials $48/month (billed annually) $57/monthly | Basic $119/month (billed annually) $149/monthly |
| Second paid plan tier | Solo $104/month (billed annually) $129/monthly | Growth $159/month (billed annually) $199/monthly |
| Third paid plan tier | Pro $149/month (billed annually) $179/monthly | Pro $319/month (billed annually) $399/month |
| Fourth paid plan tier | Growth $208/month (billed annually) $250/monthly | - |
Marvelous vs. Kajabi: Which Creator Platform Is Best For You?
Marvelous and Kajabi are two excellent all-in-one business platforms that give creators everything they need to teach online without having to connect with third-party apps. Both platforms offer mobile apps.
Marvelous focuses on simplicity and ease of use. The setup is quick and easy, with most clients setting up their accounts in just minutes. On the other hand, Kajabi offers robust features, especially with integrated marketing tools and customer management. However, there is a bigger learning curve with Kajabi.
If you're looking for a platform that prioritizes live streaming, customization, affordability, and community-building, Marvelous is a standout option. It caters to wellness creators, providing a space where disciplines like yoga, Pilates, mindfulness, nutrition, and more can thrive.
