Kajabi is an online course platform that’s been popular for a decade. Launched in 2010 as a sales platform, it’s evolved into a well-known software that blends sales and marketing with course delivery. LearnWorlds was created more recently–in 2014–and has developed a platform similar to Kajabi, with asynchronous course features and marketing tools.

In this article, we’ll compare LearnWorlds vs. Kajabi. Since both are course platforms, we’ll compare how each delivers asynchronous course options, the features they give for live teaching and communities, their business and marketing tools, and what each offers for apps.

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Kajabi vs LearnWorlds (Comparison Chart)

LearnWorlds vs Kajabi

Course Platforms

LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds has only become popular in the last few years, but it’s a well-designed asynchronous course platform and it’s growing in popularity. The platform has flexibility to deliver courses with features like:

• Customized learning paths and course player, content dripping, and SCORM-compliance


• AI features like auto transcripts, sticking lessons to a TOC, and adding interactive moments in course videos


• Build 16 types of assignments, customize summary screens, create a bank of questions you can reuse for other assessments, and award branded certificates


• Create surveys to understand students’ experiences

Kajabi

Like LearnWorlds, Kajabi has a strong asynchronous course platform. Like LearnWorlds, you can build out a course with most kinds of material: audio, text, video, downloads, quizzes, and surveys. The asynchronous course builder happens around the LMS function, which has useful features like previews and content dripping.

Kajabi has also adopted AI, like LearnWorlds. But it’s taken a different slant, focusing more on AI text generation for course material and landing pages. The AI tools are public facing, you don’t have to be a Kajabi customer to use them. They include: a course outline generator, lesson content, video scripts, and, finally, landing page, social media, and email copy.

Kajabi’s course builder is customizable, meaning you can lay out your asynchronous course in the way you choose.

Which is better?

Both Kajabi and LearnWorlds are strong in this area. Each offers a comprehensive LMS which is best for asynchronous courses.

• In our opinion, LearnWorlds offers a slightly better course platform. Its features are accessible yet powerful, and has more options for assessments and evaluations.


• Kajabi isn’t as strong as an LMS, but it does have better course marketing features. Since they integrate to its course platform, it still may be the better choice for some users (more on this below).

Live Learning and Communities

LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds was obviously designed with the option for live student engagement in mind. However, it does accomplish most of its live functionality through integrations–which you likely need to pay separately for. But if you can get past this, the live teaching options are pretty good. You can:

• Run live meetings with Zoom, Webex, and Calendly integrations–these allow 1:1 or group video sessions.


• Host live sessions with segmented chats, breakout rooms, polls, or share screens


• Record live sessions and download this


• Run different sessions at the same time with different instructors

Although LearnWorlds doesn’t have native livestreaming, the integrations do give you a lot in terms of course delivery for live experiences.

Communities and memberships

However, the community side of the live engagement is weak, though. LearnWorlds only offers a basic community forum. It can be divided into different spaces, but feels pretty outdated. LearnWorlds has no native community video and has a 20MB attachment limit.

Kajabi

Like LearnWorlds, Kajabi accomplishes live learning through a series of integrations and work-arounds. There’s no native livestreaming on Kajabi’s flagship course platform–it requires a third-party streaming platform like YouTube or StreamYard. However, Kajabi recently acquired a live streaming and chat platform called Vibely, which they have redeployed under the Kajabi brand as “Kajabi 2.0”. This gives Kajabi a livestreaming, teaching, and meeting option, although it happens under a separate platform.

On a desktop, Kajabi 2.0 will open in a separate window, while on a mobile it requires downloading a separate Kajabi app.

Communities and memberships

As far as online communities, acquiring Vibely also gives Kajabi some improved options here. Traditionally, Kajabi’s community was an extremely simple discussion forum. But with the acquisition of Vibely, Kajabi added:

• Events, chat and DMs, and a discussion board feature that can be organized into “circles.” This means more tools for meetings, livestreaming, and more comprehensive discussions than Kajabi could traditionally handle.


• More comprehensive member directories with custom profiles. Members can use it to find other members who share interests.

However, as we said above, the serious UX issue with Kajabi 2.0 is that it requires a separate app. This means 2 downloads and 2 log-ons, vs. an all-in-one community and course app. We’ll cover this more below.

Which is better?

Overall, Kajabi is better here for live learning and communities. Kajabi 2.0 adds a lot of functionality for live meetings and live instruction that LearnWorlds doesn’t do natively. The separate app is annoying, but you are still in a Kajabi product. You could, for example, integrate WebEx with LearnWorlds, which would create exceptional live experiences. But you would likely have to pay for WebEx too.

Note: If you are starting a community or membership business, neither of these platforms are the right place to start. These are course platforms that have tried to add on community and membership features–neither are built well for this.

Business & Marketing

LearnWorlds

When it comes to branding, LearnWorlds has the tools to deploy a course that looks and feels like yours. This starts with course design pages and website templates (over 400). The site-builder is drag-and-drop and easy-to-use. Or, you can even use custom code to design something from scratch.

While Kajabi is known for business and marketing tools, LearnWorlds has incorporated some useful ones too. This includes:

• A pop-up builder with some pre-set marketing funnels to sell courses


• The option to run promotions, coupons, or your own affiliate program (with dashboard)


• Different ways to sell and gate courses, memberships, subscriptions, or bundles


• Advanced community analytics with automated insights and segmentation by user behavior

Kajabi

Kajabi has a site builder too, with a similar drag-and-drop page editor that can be used to customize a course page. But it can also create different elements of a traditional website, plus useful marketing pages (downloads, sales pages, opt-ins, etc.)

The marketing and sales funnels are Kajabi’s bread and butter. These features include:

• Pre-made marketing funnels and email tools that all integrate together to help you sell more courses


• Email platform with subscriber management, tags, segmentation, and automated sending


• E-commerce tools like abandoned cart recovery, upsells, and coupons


• Flexible monetization with free trials, subscriptions, or bundles

Which is better?

Kajabi’s marketing tools are better here. LearnWorlds has lots of good features, but Kajabi wins out for more powerful marketing tools, more email options, and better integration of everything throughout its course platform. LearnWorlds does have some automated emails, but not the full email platform Kajabi has.

Kajabi has a well-deserved reputation as a marketing powerhouse.

Price

Kajabi Price

• $69/mo - Kickstarter (1 product, 1 funnel + 250 contacts)


• $149/mo - Basic (3 products, 3 funnels + 10,000 contacts)


• $199/mo - Growth (15 products, 15 funnels, + 25,000 contacts)


• $399/mo - Pro (100 products, 100 funnels + 100,000 contacts)

LearnWorlds Price

• $29/mo + $5/course sale - Starter (1 admin, 3 website pages)


• $99/mo - Pro Trainer (adds unlimited pages, pop-ups, memberships, and funnels)


• $299/mo - Learning Center (interactive videos, white-labeling, 25 admins)


• $598/mo - Learning Center + App

Apps and Access

LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is an unusual course platform in that it only offers branded apps. (Many platforms offer the opposite–an integrated basic app but no white-label apps.) The app platform is a DIY, drag-and-drop app builder that you submit to LearnWorlds for deployment.

This is okay if you want a branded course app. However, is it a significant upsell from LearnWorlds’ main offerings, so it’s a letdown for course instructors looking for a course-app that’s included. And, the apps are also poorly rated–and one of the most frequent complaints about LearnWorlds on G2. LearnWorld’s track record here is seriously not great–so if you’re considering having app access as a major component of your course offering, make sure LearnWorlds can do what you need it to.

Kajabi

As we’ve been hinting at through the article, Kajabi does have apps. But it does also require several apps to get its main features, which can be annoying. These include:

Kajabi Course App: This is the OG of the Kajabi apps that works best for asynchronous courses. It delivers a course table of contents and individual lessons.

Kajabi Community App: This is the rebranded Vibely app that works for livestreaming and live meetings, as well as a decent community function built around “circles.”

Kajabi also has a new, branded app option which lines up with LearnWorld’s branded app. We don’t have a ton of info about this feature yet, but it seems similar in theory–you build a course and then Kajabi charges you extra to deploy it in the App Store and Google Play Store. This is the only way to get a Kajabi course and community on the same app (which many other platforms do without needing to pay for a premium plan).

Which is better?

It depends.

• Kajabi’s apps are included with its plans. But it’s annoying that you need 2 different apps to do courses and communities. If you only wanted to run an asynchronous course, the original Kajabi app would work perfectly fine.


• LearnWorlds only has a branded app. This means paying more to get any mobile access for your learners. And the reviews are really bad.

The short answer is, neither Kajabi or LearnWorlds really does that well with apps. For both platforms, the apps have a weird relationship to their main course offerings, and aren’t integrated in a way that makes sense when compared to other course platforms–in which apps are just native, and have the same features of the webapp.

The Verdict

In comparing LearnWorlds vs Kajabi, the verdict will depend on your preferred features.

• If you want high-functioning marketing tools with an app included, Kajabi might be a better choice.


• If you want a more comprehensive course platform and don’t mind paying for a branded app (to get any app access), then LearnWorlds might be a better option.

However, neither platform was designed for live engagement with students. Neither has native livestreaming and live teaching that lives in the same space as a course.

Both seem to be playing catch-up for synchronous course experiences, and neither would be the right platform to run a course and community together.

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Here’s what sets Mighty apart from both LearnWorlds and Kajabi.

Seamless courses + community

Both LearnWorlds and Kajabi have good course platforms, but are playing catch-up with community and live experiences.

Mighty is designed to bring these together seamlessly. In Mighty, experiences are organized into Spaces that can be customized with any or all core features like the LMS, Activity Feed, People Explorer, Chat, Pages, or One-Time or Recurring Events.

Here’s what you can do with Mighty that you can’t do with LearnWorlds or Kajabi:

• Run challenges in a course space with native livestreaming.


• Link events, members, and RSVPs together in a space that also hosts the discussion and course material.


• Teach a live course with native livestreaming and post the download as an async video course (you can even sell both separately).


• Host events and the replays in the same spot.

Members don’t need to click around to different spots (or download different apps) when everything is in the same place and Space.

Software designed for friendships

We research communities, and last year we discovered a statistic that showed–with 93% accuracy–which communities would succeed.

Members need to make friends. When members engage with each other, they stay. This skyrockets the levels of course completion, making communities vital to the success of online courses.

With this in mind, Mighty has been designing software to create people magic–including tools designed to surface the most interesting members to each other.

• Welcome Experiences: A new-member checklist to gamify people’s first steps, and a profile assist tool to make their member profile easier to create.


• People Explorer: Members can see members near them, or with a shared background or interest. Click on “Show Similarities” and AI will tell you what you have in common and even start a conversation.


• Activity Assist: Shows you members who have lapsed or not been active. You can re-engage them with one click (AI will even compose the message for you).


• The Infinite Question Generator: Will auto-create community discussion questions, and when approved post them–whether you’re online or not.


• Course Outlines, Transcripts, & Writing Boosts: To get you started with course creation and improve your writing. Unlike Kajabi, these features are all in-product.


• Instant Brand Building: With a few words, Mighty Co-Host™ can generate a community and brand identity. (Try it free)

Premium branded apps

Mighty comes with an awesome app for every device on every plan. They are well-rated, and–unlike Kajabi and LearnWorlds–make it easy to get everything together in one place (without extra charges).

But Mighty also builds premium, branded apps. With 400+ launches for some of the top names in the world, Mighty Pro comes in 2 ways: “We do it for you,” and “We do it with you.” You can learn more here.

Get started for free!

Mighty gives you an incredible set of tools to seamlessly run courses, community, and events together. And there’s a native ConvertKit integration, + 2,000+ other possible embeds to get incredible function from your course and community.

If you’re ready to launch courses and/or community with Mighty, give it a try! It’s free for 14 days (no credit card required)