SamCart vs Kajabi 2024 Comparison

Comparing SamCart vs Kajabi is a lot like comparing apples to oranges.

As you’ll see in this in-depth comparison, both are very different products—each with its own strengths and weaknesses. In fact, the two platforms can complement each other nicely, which is why many entrepreneurs choose to use both.

But if you only have the budget for one, don’t worry. From here on out, we’ll be telling you everything you need to know about both of these popular eCommerce platforms to help you figure out which is best for your business.

Let’s get started

SamCart vs Kajabi Overview

While both SamCart and Kajabi provide you with the tools you need to start selling products online, each is designed for different types of businesses.

SamCart is an eCommerce platform for creators. It’s best known for its excellent checkout system and revenue optimization tools (e.g. order bumps, one-click upsells, etc.).

You can use SamCart to sell all kinds of products, from online courses to ebooks and even physical products. 

Kajabi, on the other hand, is specifically built for knowledge businesses.

It’s an all-in-one platform that gives you all the tools you need to build, market and sell online courses. 

Key Differences

In practical terms, perhaps the biggest difference between the two is that Kajabi has a broader feature set. 

While both platforms share some core features (like a landing page builder, page templates, affiliate marketing tools, and course creation tools), Kajabi is the only one to offer a built-in email marketing solution and CRM. 

This makes it a true all-in-one platform. You can pretty much run your whole online course business on Kajabi, whereas you’ll probably need to integrate SamCart with other tools for the whole package. 

That said, what SamCart lacks in features it makes up for in other areas. For example, it excels when it comes to commerce/selling features, with a superior checkout process, more supported payment gateways, and sophisticated upsell tools.

Before we move on, here’s a quick side-by-side feature comparison of SamCart vs Kajabi:

Feature Comparison

Now let’s take a closer look at some of the key features of both platforms and how they compare.

Page Builder

Winner: It’s a tie

Kajabi and SamCart both provide the tools you need to create and publish all your landing and sales pages. 

With both platforms, you can start by choosing a pre-made template/theme and then customize it in an easy to use drag-and-drop page builder. 

There’s not much difference between the actual page builders on each platform – they’re pretty much exactly what you’d expect. Both are beginner-friendly and let you move around widgets and elements on the page and tweak the styling options without having to mess around with code. 

You have plenty of flexibility and customization options, and all the pages you build are fully responsive and should look great on all devices.

Ultimately, the winner here will come down to personal preference. You’d have to try out both page builders for yourself to see which one you liked best.

Course Creation

Winner: Kajabi

It’s a little easier to pick a winner when it comes to course creation. Kajabi is, first and foremost, an online course platform, so as you’d expect, its course creation tools are top-notch.

First off, it’s the only platform of the two to offer course templates, known in Kajabi as ‘Blueprints.’ Course Blueprints set up the foundations of your course for you, with the complete structure and sample lesson text, so you don’t have to start from scratch and can get up and running quickly.

SamCart doesn’t have a Blueprints feature, so you have to design the structure from scratch, which takes more time.

Kajabi also has, in our opinion, a better selection of features to aid with student engagement. While both platforms let you set assessments like mandatory quizzes, Kajabi takes it one step further and gives students the option of submitting file uploads as answers. It also facilitates instructor feedback, which is essential for serious educators.

Both platforms support different types of media on course pages — you can add text, video, audio, and downloadable files.

Checkout Process

Winner: SamCart

SamCart wins hands-down in this category. We much preferred its streamlined one-page checkout process over Kajabi’s messy, multi-page checkout. 

Having to click through multiple pages to make a purchase gives you more ‘drop off points’ in which your potential customers might change their minds and leave without finalizing their purchase. Simplifying the checkout flow by allowing customers to do everything on one page can help you bag more conversions and win more sales.

SamCart also supports more payment gateways. Kajabi only integrates with Stripe and PayPal, so payment options are limited, whereas SamCart supports tons of gateways, including Apple Pay and Google Pay for one-touch purchases.

You’ll also be pleased to know that neither platform charges any conversion fees, so you don’t have to worry about them taking a cut of your sales (though your payment processor might).

Commerce Features 

Winner: SamCart

SamCart comes out on top again here. It offers a ton of sophisticated commerce features that come in useful.

First off, while both platforms come with upsell features, SamCart’s are much more sophisticated.

In addition to standard post-purchase upsells, SamCart lets you set up pre-purchase order bumps that help you to maximize revenue.

You can also offer more ways to pay with SamCart. In addition to standard one-time payments, SamCart supports recurring payments for monthly subscriptions, dollar trials, and even ‘Pay What You Want’ offers in which customers can choose how much to pay.

Other advanced commerce features SamCart boasts include support for coupons/discounts, partial refunds, and the innovative Subscription Saver technology (more on this later).

Unique SamCart Features

Here’s a quick overview of some of the features you’ll only find on SamCart (not on Kajabi):

• SamCart AutoEnroll – Getting students from purchase to actually starting your courses isn’t always easy. SamCart AutoEnrol ensures that your customers make the most of the content they’ve purchased. 
• SamCart Subscription Saver – This feature auto-updates customer credit card details, so you don’t have to worry about losing customers and payments due to expiring cards.
• A/B testing – With SamCart, you can test your products and landing pages with useful A/B testing features. This makes it easy to optimize and scale your products.

For more features, check out our SamCart review.

Unique Kajabi Features

And here are some features that only Kajabi has to offer:

• Visual email editor – With Kajabi, you can use their visual email editor to optimize your emails and supercharge your email marketing campaigns. Unfortunately, SamCart doesn’t include any email marketing features. 
• Instructor feedback – With Kajabi, instructors have the option to take a hands-on approach to teaching and learning and can provide feedback on quizzes and assessments easily. 
• Customizable course blueprints – Creating courses on Kajabi couldn’t be easier as you can simply customize the readily available course blueprints to get started. 
• Native scheduler – Kajabi has a scheduler feature that’s great for those who offer coaching and/or group coaching.

For more features, check out our Kajabi review.

SamCart Vs Kajabi Pricing

On the surface, SamCart is a lot cheaper than Kajabi. However, Kajabi does have a slightly more advanced feature set. Here’s a breakdown of SamCart Vs. Kajabi pricing to give you an idea of the key price differences between the two.

SamCart

SamCart offers a 14-day free trial and has 3 different pricing plans available. These are Launch, Grow and Scale. 

The Launch plan starts from $79 per month when billed annually. This plan includes all core features such as unlimited products and landing pages, unlimited courses, and a 0% transaction fee. You also get access to all standard third-party integrations, standard email support, and virtual onboarding webinars for 1 admin user. 

If you choose the Launch plan business success package, you can also take advantage of flexible customer billing options, dashboard and sales reports, and weekly webinars.

The Grow plan starts from $159 per month, billed annually. It includes all Launch plan features plus enhanced integrations, 1-day email customer support, virtual onboarding webinars, and a 1:1 launch support call with a SamCart expert. 

The plan is suitable for 3 admin users. Depending on the package you choose for this plan, you can also enjoy features including order bump collections, UTM tracking and marketing reports, Multiple customer payment options, and more.

The Scale plan starts from $319 per month, billed annually. For this price, you get access to all Launch and Grow plan features for up to 10 users. In addition to this, you get custom CRM and API integrations, priority email support, virtual onboarding webinars, and a dedicated SamCart expert. 

If you choose the advanced package, you can also access features like shopping cart abandonment conversion, subscription saver, an affiliate center, built-in A/B testing, and automated/scheduled executive insight reports.

Kajabi

Kajabi, also a 14-day free trial, offers 4 different Kajabi pricing plans. Here’s a breakdown of what’s included in each one. 

Editor’s Note: Kajabi introduced the Kickstarter plan, which now starts at $69/month – check it out here.

The Basic plan starts from $119 per month when billed annually. You can create up to 3 products, 3 pipelines, and unlimited landing pages for this price. 

This plan includes unlimited marketing emails,10,000 contacts, 1,000 active members, 1 website, 1 admin user, and 0% transaction fees. You also get access to Kajabi University, webinars, events,  templates, assessment features, and automation, as well as a customer success activation call and chat customer support.

The Growth plan starts from $159 per month when billed annually. On the Growth plan, you can create up to 15 products and pipelines and unlimited landing pages. 

The growth plan included everything included in the basic plan, but limits are increased to 25,000 contacts, 10,000 active members, and 10 admin users. In addition, you can also create affiliate programs on the Growth plan, and you have the option to remove Kajabi branding and take advantage of advanced automations.

The Pro plan starts from $159/month when billed annually. For this price, you get everything included in the Basic and Growth plans with limits of up to 100 products and pipelines, 100,000 contacts, 20,000 active members, 3 websites, and 25 admin users. You also get access to a code editor that will allow you more flexibility when it comes to designs and site management.

The main difference between SamCart and Kajabi pricing is that all SamCart plans allow you to create unlimited products and courses, making it more affordable for creators who want to build and market a wide selection of different products using the tool.

Final Verdict

So, which is best?

Overall, we’d recommend Kajabi if you’re planning on building your online course from scratch or if you’re looking for an all-in-one platform and don’t want to have to hook up a bunch of different marketing tools together.

If you just want a great page builder and checkout solution for selling products online, and you don’t mind looking elsewhere for things like email marketing and automation, SamCart is a great choice.

And don’t forget that both SamCart and Kajabi integrate together nicely, so you don’t necessarily have to choose one or the other—you can use both!

Good luck!

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