This article compares two leading platforms in the digital entrepreneurship space—SamCart and Kajabi—to help you determine which one aligns best with your business goals.
At first glance, comparing SamCart and Kajabi might seem odd. Traditionally, SamCart was known as a high-converting checkout and cart solution, while Kajabi established itself as a robust all-in-one platform for online course creation and digital product delivery.
However, this comparison makes more sense today than ever. Since June 2021, SamCart has evolved far beyond a simple checkout tool. It now includes course creation features, digital product hosting, and basic membership functionality, putting it in more direct competition with Kajabi.
Given these developments, it’s worth exploring how these platforms stack up across essential categories like course creation, checkout functionality, email marketing, affiliate management, and pricing.
Let’s dive into a feature-by-feature comparison of SamCart vs Kajabi to help you make the most informed decision.
SamCart Vs Kajabi
What is SamCart?
SamCart was started when its founders, Brian and Scott Moran, tried looking for a platform that could let them sell products online easily. They found platforms with many difficulties and complexities. So they quit looking and built a platform suitable for their needs.
In 2014, they launched SamCart to help other creators looking for a platform that would help them sell products online seamlessly.
Over the years, SamCart has helped creators sell 9.7 million products, generating over 2.8 billion dollars in profits.
What is Kajabi?
Kajabi, on the other hand, is an all-in-one course creation platform. In 2010, Kajabi was launched by Kenny Rueter and Travis Rosser.
In 2009, Kenny built a sprinkler toy for his son, and he started getting questions and suggestions about how he built the toy from his neighbors. This gave him an idea, and he met with his friend Travis, and they decided to sell toys online.
When they found a daunting production, warehousing, and logistics process, they dropped the idea and thought they should instead share their knowledge by teaching people online.
When they did not find the correct platform to teach online, they decided to build one. And this is how Kajabi was born in 2010.
Since its launch, Kajabi has helped create over 300,000 online products and generated over 5 billion USD in profits for its creators.
Features: SamCart Vs Kajabi
Having personally used both platforms—SamCart to sell products and Kajabi to deliver PMP exam courses—I’ve observed that while they cater to slightly different user needs, there’s still significant overlap worth exploring.
SamCart began as a shopping cart solution but has evolved to include course creation. Kajabi, on the other hand, was built from the ground up as an all-in-one course platform. Let’s dive into how their feature sets compare.
SamCart
Course Creation
Although course creation is a newer feature in SamCart, it’s surprisingly well-executed. You can choose from a growing library of sleek, modern templates and easily customize them using a drag-and-drop builder—no technical skills required. Templates are mobile-responsive, ensuring your content looks good on any device.
SamCart lets you sell more than just courses and digital products—you can also sell physical products, giving it more versatility than Kajabi in this area.
Payment Gateways
SamCart supports major payment methods including credit cards and PayPal. It also includes support for digital wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, Microsoft Pay, and UPI in select regions. This wide range of options gives your customers flexibility during checkout.
Optimized Checkout and Cart Features
As a pioneer in the cart space, SamCart has powerful eCommerce capabilities. You can add upsells, order bumps, coupons, and multiple pricing tiers to increase your average order value. Its abandoned cart recovery tool helps recapture lost sales by redirecting users back to your order page.
One standout feature is “Pay What You Want,” which allows customers to set their own price. It’s ideal for creators looking to grow their paying audience or offer flexible pricing.
Subscription Saver
SamCart helps prevent subscription churn with its “Subscription Saver.” When a payment fails (due to card expiry or technical issues), it automatically prompts the customer to update their billing information, ensuring continuity.
Course Cross-Sells
This feature allows you to showcase other courses inside a student’s dashboard. It’s a smart way to upsell and promote additional content to users already engaged with your material.
Integrations
SamCart integrates with a wide array of third-party apps, including HubSpot, WordPress, Mailchimp, ConvertKit, and Kajabi. It also connects with Zapier, giving you access to thousands more integrations. For advanced integrations, it’s best to involve a developer unless you’re confident with webhooks and API setups.
Native Payment Processor
SamCart includes its own built-in payment processor, SamPay, removing the need to rely solely on external payment gateways. This simplifies the payment process for some users.
Kajabi
Website
Kajabi allows you to build an entire website to host and market your courses. No coding is required—just pick a template, customize it with the drag-and-drop editor, and you’re ready to launch. You can create homepages, sales pages, landing pages, and more within one centralized dashboard.
Course Types
Kajabi excels in offering diverse content formats. Beyond traditional video-based courses, you can build mini-courses, coaching programs, membership sites, and even host podcasts directly on the platform. Podcast creation is a feature currently missing in SamCart.
Email Marketing
Kajabi includes powerful built-in email marketing tools. You can send one-off broadcasts or create automated email sequences. The visual email editor makes it easy to craft messages using customizable templates. You can segment your audience, track engagement, and trigger automations based on user actions.
SamCart, in contrast, does not offer built-in email marketing and relies on integrations with third-party tools for this functionality.
Payment Gateways
Kajabi supports Stripe and PayPal for payment processing. While this is sufficient for most users, SamCart currently offers a broader range of checkout options, including support for digital wallets and its native processor.
Integrations
Kajabi integrates with popular tools like ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, Mailchimp, Calendly, and Google Analytics. It also connects via Zapier, expanding your options for workflow automation.
Winner
It’s hard to name a definitive winner because both platforms serve different types of users. If your priority is selling physical or digital products with advanced cart functionality, SamCart is more suitable. If you’re focused on building and scaling online courses with an integrated website and marketing tools, Kajabi stands out.
Choose based on your business model and what kind of experience you want to deliver to your customers.
Plans and Pricing: SamCart Vs Kajabi
Pricing is a factor that can change your mind. The goal is to subscribe to a plan that gives more for less and lists all the functionalities and capabilities you need in the software. Let’s know what plans are available in SamCart and Kajabi.
SamCart
As shown in the above screenshot, SamCart has one simple pricing plan. The price is 79 USD per month and it increases as per your sales. This plan has all features with unlimited access.
With annual plan, you can get a 25% discount.
You can visit the pricing page of SamCart to see a preview of what you are getting with each plan.
Kajabi
Kajabi offers customers three paid plans: Kickstarter, Basic and Growth. These plans are priced at 89, 149 USD, and 199 USD, respectively, providing customers with various features and options to suit their needs.
Kajabi offers annual plans with a 20% discount for customers looking to save on their subscriptions. This allows customers to access the features they need to grow their online business while staying within their budget.
These are some differences in features that you should know:
Winner
Now, seeing the prices of both SamCart and Kajabi, you can tell that SamCart is the cheaper option here. But should that be the only reason you should go with SamCart? I don’t think so. Kajabi is bringing in more features to justify the higher prices, such as marketing tools, a website builder, and a podcast builder.
But if you have to call a winner based on lesser pricing plans, then SamCart is it.
Support: SamCart Vs Kajabi
Support for the software is equally important as the functions and features of the software. You should not underestimate this evaluation when considering all the other factors, like its tools, features, and pricing.
It can make a lot of difference when you use the software firsthand. Now let’s know what you get in terms of support.
SamCart
You can write to the [email protected] email address to seek help from their customer support team. They reply to emails within 24 hours of receiving them. Please note their availability timing, which is 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. ET on weekdays.
Can’t wait for 24 hours to get help? They assumed that’s why they also have live chat support, where you can connect to their support executives within seconds. The timing of the support hours is the same as the email support Monday – Friday, 9 a.m.–5 p.m. CT.
You get free access to blogs, guides, and tutorials for self-help.
Kajabi
Kajabi has done a good job of providing what its customers may need.
For self-support, they have offered many resources to help you through their blogs, community, webinars, over 350 training videos, and a Kajabi university that takes you off on all your queries and how-to questions.
For customer support, they provide live chat support. You can ping them, and they will help you with your doubts. But note that the availability of the support team will vary depending on which plan you are on.
You can find more information about the timing of the support team based on your plan on this page.
Winner
SamCart and Kajabi are providing their customers the support they need to get them moving, so I can’t take sides on which one is better in this evaluation. Both are winners in this aspect.
Similarities between SamCart and Kajabi
Despite targeting different audiences, SamCart and Kajabi share several core features that make them appealing to digital creators and entrepreneurs:
- Both platforms support the creation and delivery of online courses and coaching programs.
- Each offers a user-friendly interface with minimal learning curve.
- Both provide integration capabilities with popular third-party tools and marketing platforms like Zapier, ConvertKit, Mailchimp, and more.
- You’ll find a variety of professionally designed templates on both platforms, helping you launch quickly without needing to design from scratch.
- Both allow you to host videos, PDFs, and other digital content for your learners.
Differences Between SamCart and Kajabi
While they overlap in several areas, the differences are significant and may determine which is better for your business:
- SamCart includes built-in A/B testing for checkout pages, while Kajabi currently lacks this feature.
- You can sell both physical and digital products with SamCart. Kajabi only supports digital product sales.
- Kajabi offers a longer 14-day free trial, compared to SamCart’s 7-day trial.
- Kajabi provides a mobile app for users and students, allowing on-the-go access. SamCart does not offer a mobile app for managing courses.
- Kajabi includes native email marketing and automation. SamCart requires third-party integrations for email campaigns.
- SamCart has a native payment processor (SamPay), whereas Kajabi relies solely on Stripe and PayPal.
What I Like About SamCart
- One of the best cart solutions in the market with advanced checkout optimization features.
- Extremely simple and intuitive interface—great for beginners.
- Core features such as unlimited products and unlimited courses are available in all plans.
- No transaction or processing fees on any plan.
- The unique “Pay What You Want” pricing option is flexible and customer-friendly.
- Offers excellent uptime reliability at 99.9%.
- Comes with a 7-day free trial to test the platform risk-free.
Open Trial Account With SamCart
What I Dont Like About SamCart
- No free plan is available—only a short trial period.
- Lacks built-in marketing tools like email automation and funnels that platforms like Kajabi offer natively.
What I Like About Kajabi
- Perfect for course creators, coaches, and educators looking to build full-scale learning businesses.
- Zero transaction fees across all three plans—your revenue is all yours.
- Extremely polished and clean interface, arguably even easier to navigate than SamCart’s.
- Strong uptime performance between 99.68% and 100%.
- Native email marketing, automation workflows, and funnel creation are included in every plan.
- 14-day trial on all plans gives you ample time to explore.
- You can build unlimited landing pages and send unlimited marketing emails, regardless of your subscription tier.
What I Don’t Like About Kajabi
- Primarily focused on course creators—less suitable for those selling physical goods or simple digital products.
- Pricing is on the higher side compared to SamCart.
- Product, funnel, and contact limits apply even on premium plans, which feels restrictive for a premium-priced platform.
- No free plan available—only a time-limited trial.
Alternatives to SamCart and Kajabi?
If you’re wondering whether there are viable alternatives to SamCart and Kajabi, the answer is yes—several platforms offer overlapping features, often at a lower cost or with a different focus. Here are some of the most noteworthy alternatives:
Systeme.io
Systeme.io is one of the most affordable and comprehensive alternatives to both SamCart and Kajabi. It offers a robust suite of tools for online business owners, including course creation, funnel building, email marketing, affiliate management, and even blogging.
The best part? Systeme.io offers a free-forever plan with generous limits, making it an excellent choice for creators and entrepreneurs on a budget.
Click here to visit Systeme.io
Kartra
Kartra is a powerful all-in-one marketing and business platform often compared with Kajabi and SamCart. It offers advanced funnel building, course delivery, email automation, membership management, and affiliate marketing features. While it starts at $99/month, the depth of features—especially its automation capabilities—makes it a strong contender.
Teachable
Teachable is a user-friendly course creation platform that’s ideal for beginners and budget-conscious creators. It supports digital course sales, coaching, and memberships, and it provides tools for analytics and payments. A free plan is available, and paid plans start at just $39/month.
Teachable lacks some of the advanced funnel and marketing tools found in Kajabi or SamCart but is well-suited for simple course delivery.
LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds is another solid Kajabi alternative, known for its interactive learning features like quizzes, certificates, and video engagement tools. It’s designed specifically for educators who want more control over their course design and learner experience. Plans start at $24/month when billed annually.
LearnWorlds is ideal for schools, institutions, and solo creators who want to provide a more engaging learning experience without the high costs of Kajabi.
Click here to visit LearnWorlds
SamCart Vs Kajabi: FAQs
Q: What is the key difference between SamCart and Kajabi?
SamCart is primarily a shopping cart software focusing on sales and checkout processes. Kajabi, on the other hand, is an all-in-one sales funnel platform for managing online businesses, including selling products, services, courses, and marketing.
Q: Can I use SamCart and Kajabi together?
You can integrate SamCart with Kajabi to streamline your sales and marketing processes. SamCart can handle the checkout process, while Kajabi can handle the course creation and delivery.
Q: Which one is better for selling online courses?
Kajabi is better suited for selling online courses as it provides all the necessary course creation, marketing, and sales features. SamCart, on the other hand, is more focused on the sales and checkout process.
Q: What payment gateway does SamCart support?
SamCart currently supports Stripe and PayPal as payment gateways. SamCart also offers a native payment gateway called “SamPay,” which is based on Stripe.
Q: Can I customize the checkout pages with SamCart and Kajabi?
SamCart and Kajabi provide customization options for checkout pages to match your branding and design.
Q: Do SamCart and Kajabi offer a free trial?
SamCart and Kajabi offer a 14-day free trial for new users to test their features and functionalities.
Q: Which one is more affordable, SamCart or Kajabi?
SamCart is more affordable than Kajabi, as it only focuses on sales and checkout and provides basic to medium course selling and membership site features. Kajabi, being an all-in-one platform, comes with a higher price tag.
Conclusion
Both the software lets you create courses and coaching sessions. But Kajabi lets you create podcasts and a website and also assists you in marketing your courses with the help of its marketing tool, which you do not get on SamCart.
On the other hand, SamCart provides better checkout tools and features like auto-enroll technology, subscription saver, cross-sell, and a better checkout solution with digital UPI payment enablement. All that at a lesser price, making a small dent in your pocket as compared to Kajabi.
But you must decide on a platform that aligns with your needs and choose accordingly. And don’t worry if you can’t choose between these two; there are other options.
Thank you for reading this comparison article between SamCart and Kajabi.
Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links, and I will earn a commission if you purchase after clicking. Please understand that I recommend these resources because they are useful, not just because of my commissions. Please do not purchase unless you need the materials to achieve your goals. Read the disclaimer.
I am Mohammad Fahad Usmani, B.E. PMP, PMI-RMP. I have been blogging on project management topics since 2011. To date, thousands of professionals have passed the PMP exam using my resources.
