GoHighLevel vs Kajabi: Courses, Funnels and Membership Compared (2026)

If you sell courses, coaching programs or memberships in Australia, you have probably been weighing up GoHighLevel against Kajabi. They are both pitched as platforms that let you build, sell and deliver digital products without stitching together a dozen separate tools — but they come at the problem from opposite directions. Kajabi was built first and foremost as a course and membership platform that later added marketing features, whereas GoHighLevel (GHL) was built as an all-in-one marketing and CRM platform that later added courses and communities.

I run GHL builds for Australian coaches and course creators every week, and the "GHL vs Kajabi" question comes up constantly. The honest answer is that it depends on what you actually do all day. If your business lives and dies by the polish of your course experience, the calculus is different than if your business runs on funnels, pipelines, SMS follow-up and booking calendars. Below I will walk through how each platform handles courses, memberships, funnels, email, CRM and communities, give you a side-by-side comparison, flag the mistakes I see people make, and tell you plainly who each one suits.

Courses and memberships

Kajabi is genuinely excellent at course delivery. The product builder is mature, the student experience is clean, the video hosting is built in, and features like drip scheduling, assessments, quizzes and completion tracking feel like they were designed by people who teach for a living. If your differentiation is a premium learning experience, Kajabi still sets the bar.

GHL's membership and course product (it sits under "Memberships" in the platform) has closed a lot of that gap. You can build courses with categories and lessons, gate content, drip-feed modules, issue certificates, and bundle products into offers. It is not quite as refined as Kajabi on the pure learning-experience front, but for most coaches and practitioners delivering a signature program, it is more than enough. If you want a deeper walkthrough of how to structure and sell inside GHL, I have written a full guide on how to build and sell memberships and courses in GoHighLevel.

Funnels and landing pages

This is where GHL pulls clearly ahead. GHL ships with a proper funnel and website builder, A/B testing, order forms, upsells, order bumps and a drag-and-drop editor that rivals dedicated funnel tools. Kajabi has landing pages and a "sales page" builder, but it is noticeably more limited if you want multi-step funnels, split testing or granular control over the buying flow.

If funnels are central to how you acquire customers, GHL gives you far more room to move. I have covered the builder itself in detail in my guide to the GoHighLevel funnel builder and landing pages, and if you are specifically migrating from a funnel-first tool, my GoHighLevel vs ClickFunnels comparison is worth a read.

Email, CRM and automation

Both platforms send email and both can automate. The difference is depth. Kajabi's email and automation ("pipelines" and "automations") are perfectly serviceable for nurturing course buyers. GHL, by contrast, is a full CRM with two-way SMS, a unified conversations inbox, visual Workflows, pipelines, appointment booking, missed-call text-back and reputation management baked in. If you follow up leads by phone or text, run sales calls, or manage a pipeline of prospects, GHL operates on a different level.

For an Australian practitioner, the SMS capability matters more than people expect — local mobile follow-up converts, and having it native (rather than bolted on) is a genuine advantage.

Communities

Both platforms now offer native communities, which lets you keep your audience off Facebook. Kajabi Communities and GHL's community product are broadly comparable: spaces or groups, posts, comments, and tie-ins to your course access. Neither is going to replace a dedicated community tool like Circle for a large, highly engaged membership, but both are perfectly good for keeping your program members in one place alongside their course content.

Pricing in AUD

Pricing is the part people get wrong, because it is not really about the sticker price — it is about how many other tools each platform lets you cancel. Both are billed in USD, so the AUD figures below are indicative and will move with the exchange rate. Treat them as a guide, not a quote.

Who each one suits

Choose Kajabi if your entire business is the course or membership and you want the cleanest possible learning experience with the least configuration — you are a knowledge creator first, marketer second. Choose GHL if you run a marketing-led business: you acquire through funnels and ads, follow up by SMS and phone, book calls, manage a sales pipeline, and want your course or membership living inside the same system that does all of that. For most Australian coaches and service-based practitioners I work with, GHL wins because the course is only one part of a much larger machine.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Choosing on course polish alone when funnels, SMS and CRM are where your revenue actually comes from.
• Forgetting that both platforms bill in USD — budget in AUD with exchange-rate headroom.
• Underestimating the tools GHL lets you cancel (separate CRM, SMS, calendar, funnel builder) when comparing sticker prices.
• Migrating courses without a redirect and access plan, leaving existing students locked out.
• Trying to force GHL to match Kajabi's learning experience pixel-for-pixel instead of leaning into GHL's marketing strengths.
• Skipping a proper offer and checkout setup, then blaming the platform for low conversions.

If you want help deciding between GoHighLevel and Kajabi for your course or membership business, book a strategy call with the HL Growth Partner team.

Book Your Strategy Call →

Frequently asked questions

Is GoHighLevel cheaper than Kajabi?

On entry sticker price they are close, with Kajabi often slightly lower. The real saving with GHL comes from cancelling separate tools — CRM, SMS, calendar and funnel builder — that you would otherwise pay for alongside Kajabi. For most marketing-led Australian businesses, GHL works out cheaper overall.

Can I deliver courses properly in GoHighLevel?

Yes. GHL's Memberships product supports categories, lessons, drip scheduling, content gating, certificates and bundled offers. It is not quite as polished as Kajabi for the pure learning experience, but it is more than capable for a signature coaching program or membership.

Does Kajabi do SMS follow-up?

No native two-way SMS. Kajabi is email-focused, so if local mobile follow-up is important to how you convert leads in Australia, GHL's native two-way SMS is a clear advantage.

Which is better for funnels?

GoHighLevel, comfortably. It has a full funnel and website builder with A/B testing, order bumps and upsells, whereas Kajabi offers more basic landing and sales pages without multi-step funnel control.

Should course creators switch from Kajabi to GHL?

Switch if your growth depends on funnels, ads, SMS, booked calls and a sales pipeline, and you want your course inside that same system. Stay on Kajabi if the premium learning experience is your core differentiator and you do little outbound follow-up.