Best Kajabi Alternatives for Freelancers and Agency Owners Who Just Need Monthly Billing

Kajabi is a well-known platform. If you've been looking for a way to charge clients monthly or sell memberships online, you've probably come across it.

And if you've looked at the pricing, you've probably also wondered whether you actually need everything it offers.

The honest answer for most freelancers and agency owners is no. Kajabi was built for course creators and online educators. It's a powerful platform, but it comes with a price tag and a feature set that makes a lot of sense if you're selling courses, building a community, and running email marketing — all from one place.

If you're a social media agency charging clients $1,500 a month for management services, you don't need a course builder. You need a clean way to set up a monthly plan, send a link, and get paid automatically.

This article breaks down the best Kajabi alternatives depending on what you're actually trying to do.

Why People Look for Kajabi Alternatives

Kajabi starts at $149 per month. That's a real cost for a solo freelancer or a small agency that's still growing.

Beyond the price, Kajabi bundles a lot of features together. You get a website builder, a course platform, email marketing, a community tool, a podcast host, and a checkout system. If you're using all of that, the price might be justified. Most service businesses are using almost none of it.

The common complaints from people looking for alternatives come down to a few things. It's expensive for what they actually use. The setup is time-consuming. And the platform feels like it was built for a specific type of creator business that doesn't match how they work.

That's not a criticism of Kajabi. It's a good product for its intended audience. The issue is that it gets recommended broadly when most people asking the question have a much simpler need.

Alternative 1: RecurCut

If your only goal is to charge clients a fixed monthly amount and track who's subscribed, RecurCut is the most direct alternative.

There is no course builder, no email marketing tool, no community feature. There is one thing: a clean way to create a monthly plan, share a signup link, and collect recurring payments automatically.

You set up your plan once. You get a link. The client subscribes. Billing runs every month without any action required from you. You can see all your active subscribers, their plan, and their billing status in one dashboard.

For freelancers and agency owners on monthly retainers, this covers everything that matters. Payments are processed through Stripe on the backend, so reliability is not a concern. The 5% transaction fee means there is no monthly software cost to worry about when you're just getting started.

RecurCut will not replace Kajabi if you need to sell courses or host a community. But for service businesses that got pointed toward Kajabi simply because they needed recurring billing, it's a significantly simpler and cheaper starting point.

Best for: Freelancers, marketing agencies, consultants, coaches charging fixed monthly retainers.

Alternative 2: Podia

Podia is a platform built for digital creators that covers courses, downloads, webinars, and memberships. It's commonly mentioned as a Kajabi alternative because it offers a similar set of features at a lower price point.

Podia's membership feature allows you to charge a recurring monthly or annual fee and give members access to content, community, or both. The interface is cleaner than Kajabi and the setup is faster for most users.

If you're a creator who genuinely needs both a content platform and a recurring billing system, Podia is worth looking at. The pricing starts lower than Kajabi and the transaction fees on paid plans are reasonable.

The caveat is the same as with Kajabi — if you're a service business and not a content creator, you're still paying for features you won't use. Podia makes most sense when the content itself is what members are paying for.

Best for: Digital creators, online educators, coaches who sell content alongside memberships.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans start at around $33/month.

Alternative 3: Memberful

Memberful is a membership platform that focuses specifically on subscription billing and member management. It integrates with your existing website and handles the payments side without forcing you to rebuild everything on a new platform.

For creators and publishers who already have an audience and a website, Memberful is a strong option. You keep your existing setup and layer subscription billing on top of it. Members get access to gated content, newsletters, or community features depending on how you configure it.

Memberful is more focused than Kajabi and less expensive for smaller operations. It charges a flat monthly fee plus a small percentage of revenue, which is more predictable than Kajabi's tiered pricing.

The limitation is that Memberful works best when you have content or access to offer members. It's not designed for service businesses that charge clients for work rather than for content.

Best for: Independent publishers, newsletter creators, podcasters with existing audiences.

Pricing: Starts free with transaction fees. Paid plans from around $25/month.

Alternative 4: Skool

Skool has grown quickly as an alternative to Kajabi, particularly among coaches and community builders. It combines a community platform with a course tool and a paid membership option.

The interface is simpler than Kajabi and the community features are genuinely good. If building an engaged group around your content or coaching program is a core part of what you do, Skool is worth a serious look.

The pricing is flat at $99 per month with no transaction fees, which is more predictable than Kajabi's structure. For creators running active communities with paid memberships, the math often works out in Skool's favor.

That said, Skool is still very much a creator and community platform. It's not built for service businesses. If you're an agency owner looking for a way to invoice clients on a retainer, Skool is not the right fit.

Best for: Coaches, community builders, and creators running paid membership communities.

Pricing: $99/month flat, no transaction fees.

Alternative 5: Patreon

Patreon is one of the oldest recurring payment platforms for creators. It allows fans or clients to support you on a monthly basis in exchange for perks, content, or access.

For certain types of creators — artists, podcasters, writers, video producers — Patreon has a built-in discovery element that can help with growth. The platform has name recognition and many potential supporters already have Patreon accounts.

The downsides are meaningful for professional service businesses. Patreon takes a percentage of revenue that ranges from 5% to 12% depending on your plan. The platform has a consumer feel that doesn't always translate well to a B2B service context. And the framing of the tool — fans supporting creators — doesn't match how most agencies or consultants want to position their client relationships.

Patreon makes sense if you have an audience and want to monetize it. It's not a great fit for charging business clients for professional services.

Best for: Independent creators with an existing audience who want fan support or community memberships.

Pricing: Free to start. Platform fee of 5–12% depending on plan.

The Right Alternative Depends on What You Actually Need

Kajabi alternatives fall into two broad categories. There are platforms that offer similar features to Kajabi but at a lower price or with a simpler interface — Podia, Memberful, and Skool fit here. And there are tools that handle just the recurring billing part without any of the content platform features — RecurCut fits here.

If you're a freelancer or agency owner who got pointed toward Kajabi because you needed a way to charge clients monthly, you probably don't need a content platform at all. You need a billing tool.

The simplest version of monthly client billing does not require a course builder, an email marketing suite, or a community platform. It requires a plan, a link, and automatic payments. Start there and add complexity only when you genuinely need it.