Don't Choose a Platform. Choose a Business Partner.

See why serious course creators are switching from generic builders to our hands-on partnership model.

Starting an online course business is thrilling, but the platform you choose is the backbone of your success. If you're comparing BusinessTools and Kajabi, this guide will help you make a clear decision based on what truly matters: your goals, your budget, and your need for genuine support.

The Partnership vs. Software Mindset

Before diving into features, let's nail down the core difference:

• Kajabi is a powerful Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform. It gives you best-in-class tools and expects you to build, manage, and scale your course business independently.
• BusinessTools is a Partner-as-a-Service (PaaS) platform. We combine robust software with hands-on support and custom development, treating your business growth as our most important metric.

Now, let's explore how this foundational philosophy impacts the key areas of your business.

Website Design & Performance

Your website is your storefront. With Kajabi, you manage the build; with BusinessTools, we build it for you.

Kajabi’s Approach: Self-Service Builder

Kajabi provides a drag-and-drop website builder with templates. This offers flexibility but demands your time and often leads to performance trade-offs:

• Learning Curve: You must invest time in learning the builder and its capabilities—time taken away from creating content.
• Performance Hit: No-code builders often produce slower, unoptimized code. Many Kajabi sites score between 40–60 on Google PageSpeed Insights, which directly impacts SEO and visitor experience.
• Generic Look: Despite the customization options, many sites built with blocks and standard templates can end up looking similar.

BusinessTools’ Approach: Custom, Hand-Coded Development

We provide a dedicated professional web designer and developer at no additional cost.

• Design & Approval: Our designer creates custom mockups based on your brand. You review and refine until it’s perfect.
• Development: Our developer hand-codes your site, ensuring it is clean, fast, and unique.
• The Results:
  • Zero Learning Curve: Focus entirely on your course material.
  • Superior Performance: The majority of our hand-coded websites score 100% on Google PageSpeed Insights, and we guarantee a score above 90%.
  • True Uniqueness: Need custom animations, interactive elements, or specific functionality? We build it—no templates or blocks required.

This is a screenshot of google website insites comparing performance our websites vs kajabi teacher's website (website from an actual techer)

Customer Support Philosophy

We believe your success hinges on getting the right answer quickly, especially when you're just starting out.

Kajabi Support

Kajabi offers standard customer support focused on platform issues. While functional, long response times and limited scope can lead to frustration, forcing you to solve complex business problems yourself.

BusinessTools Support: Unlimited Scope

Our support is an extension of our partnership:

• Unlimited Scope: Ask us anything. We assist with technical setup, email service integrations, and even high-level business strategy questions. We don't limit support to just "software issues."
• Lightning-Fast Response: Most customers receive responses within one hour, and we guarantee a reply within 24 hours.
• Partnership Mentality: We're actively invested in helping you build a thriving business, not just troubleshooting software errors.

Business Guidance & Expert Access

Launching a course involves more than just content—you need expertise in marketing, sales, and compliance.

Kajabi Experts Marketplace

Kajabi offers access to a marketplace of verified, third-party experts for consultation on design, marketing, and tech setup. This is a pay-as-you-go model, typically costing $50+ per hour.

BusinessTools Consultancy: Free and Integrated

Free, actionable consultancy is included with your subscription:

• Integrated Guidance: You get direct access to our team members who intimately understand your platform and business context.
• Resource Focus: We provide guidance, resources, and actionable information on sales and marketing, ensuring you avoid common startup pitfalls.
• (Note: We are also currently developing our own expert marketplace, coming soon.)

Pricing & Value Comparison

Your budget is critical. BusinessTools is designed to give you dramatically more features and flexibility for less, allowing you to scale affordably.

Feature	Kajabi (Basic Plan)	BusinessTools (Standard Plan)	BusinessTools (PAYG Plan)
Price	$89/month	$55/month	$2 per active student (One-time cost)
Products (Courses)	1	5	All features included
Marketing Contacts	250	Unlimited	All features included
Admin Users	1	5	All features included
Website	Self-Service Builder	Custom-Designed & Coded	All features included
Consultancy	Pay-as-you-go ($50+/hr)	Free & Included	Free & Included
Commitment	Monthly/Annual Subscription	Monthly/Annual Subscription	No monthly commitment

The Math for Scaling

Let's look at value when you have 100 active students and want to grow:

• Kajabi Basic: $89/month (assuming you stay within contact/product limits).
• BusinessTools Standard: $55/month (includes unlimited contacts, 5 products, and custom development).
• BusinessTools PAYG: $200 one-time cost (if you only onboarded 100 students this month, you don't pay next month).

Our Standard Plan provides superior features at nearly half the price, and our PAYG option makes testing and bootstrapping your course idea risk-free.

Community Features

Building a community around your course increases engagement, completion rates, and lifetime customer value.

Kajabi Communities

• Community features count as a separate product.
• Not available on the $89/month Basic plan—requires $179/month Growth plan.
• All messages go to a single group chat (limited organization)
• Includes voice chat capabilities
• Creating additional communities requires additional "products"
• Setup can be complex.

BusinessTools Communities

• Group chat is included free with every course.
• Organize discussions with topic-based channels.
• Additional communities available with Pro Community add-on ($20/month)
• Standalone community option available ($20/month) if you don't need course features
• Currently supports text messaging and file sharing (voice chat in development)

Live Sessions & Webinars

Kajabi

• Built-in live session capabilities
• Host webinars and live workshops directly in the platform
• Integrated with your course materials

BusinessTools

• Live sessions are not currently available in-platform
• Can integrate with Zoom, Google Meet, or other tools
• Feature on our development roadmap

If frequent live sessions and webinars are an important part of your buisness and zoom or google meet is mazority expence of your buisness you are better of choosing kajabi.

Who Should Choose Which Platform?

Choose BusinessTools If...

• ✅ You're launching your first course and need guidance, not just software.

• ✅ You want a custom, high-performing website without spending time learning to code or design.

• ✅ You value fast, comprehensive support that acts as a business consultant.

• ✅ You're budget-conscious and want more features for significantly less money.

• ✅ You need the flexibility to start small with the Pay-As-You-Go model.

• ✅ You appreciate unlimited contacts and multiple courses from day one.

Our ideal customer is a coach, consultant, or expert who wants to focus on teaching and content while we handle the heavy technical and strategic lifting.

Choose Kajabi If...

• ✅ You strongly prefer the independence of building everything yourself using drag-and-drop tools.

• ✅ Built-in live sessions and webinars are non-negotiable for your core business model right now.

The Bottom Line

Both platforms can help you succeed, but they offer fundamentally different journeys.

Choose Kajabi if you want a well-known, powerful software suite and prefer to build and manage independently.

Choose BusinessTools if you want a true business partner who provides hands-on support, custom development, and treats your success as our own—all at a far more affordable price point.

We've built BusinessTools on the belief that course creators deserve more than just software—they deserve a dedicated partner.

Ready to Make Your Decision?

1. Schedule a Free Consultation: Let's discuss your specific needs and see if we're the right fit.
2. Start with Pay-As-You-Go: No commitment, just $2 per student. Test us risk-free.
3. Special Migration Offer: Switching from Kajabi? We'll handle your entire migration for free, including content transfer, design, and setup. Learn more →

Have questions? Our support team is standing by. Most responses within 60 minutes. Contact us now.