Seedly Communities vs Kajabi Skip the hike
Kajabi bundles community into a knowledge-commerce suite that runs $179 to $499 a month, and it just repriced everyone without grandfathering. If community is what you need, Seedly Communities is the whole platform, source code included, for $399 once.
Seedly Communities
$399
one time
You own itThe full source code, yours forever.
Kajabi
$2,388
/ year
You rent itCommunity comes only inside the full suite, repriced upward in January 2026 with no grandfathering.
The honest version
January 13, 2026.
Kajabi is a serious all-in-one, funnels, email, a mature course engine, checkout, and community via the Vibely acquisition. If you need all of that in one managed login, it earns consideration, and this page will say so again at the bottom.
Here is what happened in January 2026. Kajabi restructured its pricing with hikes of 20 to 25%, no grandfathering for existing customers, and contact caps cut from 10,000 to 2,500 on the Basic plan. The r/kajabi threads speak for themselves. A new 0.5 to 5% fee now applies when you use your own payment processor, which is a fee for leaving the toll road. And reviewers describe the community piece, bolted on from the acquisition, as never fully integrated with the rest of the suite.
One honest scoping note before the table. Kajabi replaces more tools than Seedly Communities does. This page compares the community line item, not the whole suite.
Side by side
Seedly Communities vs Kajabi, row by row
Seedly Communities
Kajabi
Price
What you get
Processor freedom
Price stability
Community depth
Courses
Email marketing
Own the software
Contact caps
Export
Competitor pricing, fees, and review scores verified July 2026 from vendor pricing pages and cited third-party sources. Plans change often, so confirm current details on each vendor's site. Seedly Communities is a one-time license plus your own hosting on accounts you control.
The math that matters
The suite tax, in numbers.
Kajabi Growth billed annually is $2,388 a year, $11,940 over five years. Basic billed monthly is $179, $10,740 over the same stretch, and Pro paths run higher. Use your own payment processor and the new 0.5 to 5% fee stacks on top.
Five years of Kajabi Growth buys the Seedly Communities source almost thirty times over. And to keep the comparison fair, Kajabi replaces more than Seedly does, funnels and broadcast email included. The community line item is what you can stop renting.
Seedly Communities is $399 once plus your own hosting on Convex and Vercel, and your members pay through your own Stripe with no processor fine and no platform fee. Bought together with Seedly CRM in one checkout, it is $150.
The whole point
Owned software cannot be repriced.
If community is the product, buy the community platform once instead of renting the whole mall. Kajabi's community is a wing of a building you do not own, and the landlord just proved it can raise the rent on every tenant at once.
Owned software cannot be repriced. That is the entire argument, and January 2026 made it for us.
Getting out
Getting out of Kajabi, honestly.
Kajabi's contact export is the best of the hosted set, a clean CSV, and we will credit it. What does not migrate is billing. Subscriptions stay behind, so members re-subscribe on your own Stripe with a fresh opt-in, and you should plan the member communication around exactly that.
Export contacts, invite them through Seedly's invite links and email invites, and rebuild your community spaces and any community-hosted content by hand. If Kajabi is still your funnels-and-email stack, keep it for that. Both-and is a perfectly good end state, and no importer exists on our side.
Straight talk
When Kajabi is the right call
If you genuinely need funnels, broadcast email, and a mature course engine in one managed login, Kajabi earns its rent. Seedly Communities is not a marketing suite and will not replace your email tool.
It replaces the community line item, permanently, for $399.
Andrew
Founder, Seedly Communities
Questions, answered
Seedly Communities vs Kajabi, the common questions
Does Seedly replace all of Kajabi?
No, and we will be exact about it. Seedly Communities replaces the community piece, feed, chat, classroom, events, live video, gamification, and member billing. It does not do funnels or broadcast email marketing. Kajabi's course engine is also more mature than our classroom today.
Can I keep Kajabi for email and funnels?
Yes, and for many owners that is the right end state. Seedly exposes a REST API and outbound webhooks, so you can wire community events into the marketing stack you keep. Run the community on software you own and rent only what still earns it.
What happens to my member subscriptions?
They do not transfer from Kajabi. Members re-subscribe through your own Stripe with a fresh opt-in, and from then on there is no platform fee and no processor fine, you keep everything minus Stripe's own processing.
Will Seedly raise my price later?
It cannot. You bought the source code with a perpetual commercial license, so there is no subscription to reprice. Updates are published on the public developer changelog and you merge them when you choose.
What do I need to run it?
Your own Convex, Vercel, and Stripe accounts plus a guided setup. It is source you own, deployed on infrastructure you control, and after the deploy weekend the platform bill is zero.
Stop renting. Own the thing your community runs on.
Buy the source once. Run it yourself. It is yours for good.
One payment. Unlimited members. 0% platform fees.
- Full platform source code
- Unlimited members, no caps or seat fees
- 0% transaction fees, your own Stripe
- Feed, chat, classroom, events, live video
- Gamification with points, levels, and streaks
- White-label design tokens + your domain
- Commercial license included
Secure checkout via Stripe. Your license key is emailed instantly.
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