Kajabi vs. Passion.io

For course creators, your decision about where to host your courses could make or break your success. 

The ideal online course platform needs to provide you with marketing and sales tools, the ability to build relationships with your audience, and tools to keep them informed of new releases, special discounts, and upcoming events. Not to mention, the ability to actually create an online course.

It’s a tall order to fill for any online course platform, and it’s one that Kajabi and Passion.io approach differently. So which one is right for your business? 

To help you determine which platform could be the best choice for your course, we’ll compare Passion.io vs. Kajabi in terms of their:

• Mobile app
• Sales funnels
• Landing pages
• Pricing

Let’s jump right in! 

What is Passion.io? 

Passion.io is an app development platform that offers a white-labeled online course mobile app rather than a web-based online course platform. This helps creators build a customized app to distribute and monetize their content — without coding skills or the need to hire a developer.  

Passion.io’s mobile app builder works like a drag-and-drop website builder, but for an app. It allows course creators to customize and brand their own online course mobile app. And it includes many of the same features you’d find on online course platforms, such as: 

• Video hosting
• Course modules and lessons
• Interactive questionnaires and quizzes
• A built-in payment processor that allows for subscriptions or one-time purchases

It also lets you build it as a membership site, create a community, and live stream to your subscribers.

According to Passion.io, by publishing your courses on an app, you’ll win over an app-centered audience. 

But is it enough to have your own app? Is it really that simple to stand out and succeed in a crowded marketplace? 

Kajabi vs. Passion.io  

Now that you have an overview of Passion.io, let’s do a true Kajabi vs. Passion.io comparison. 

Mobile app

Both Kajabi and Passion.io allow you to make your courses available to customers via an app. Both apps are available on all major app platforms. And both have similar features. The difference lies in how each platform provides access to your digital content.

As an all-in-one platform, Kajabi is designed to provide everything you need to grow your business — including a mobile app for your customers. You don’t need to build the app to use it.

Passion.io gives you an app builder, with features to help you connect with and grow your audience. 

Let’s see how this difference plays out in the app.

Kajabi’s mobile app

Customers of your online course can download and install the Kajabi app at no cost. Once they log in, any courses purchased using that email will be displayed in the app, just as it would online. 

The interface is very YouTube-like, making it intuitive and easy to navigate. And their progress is synced between the app and the online course platform, so they never lose their place. 

The app also has push notifications, so you can put your updates front and center on the screen your customers look at most. 

The Kajabi app is ready-made, so you never have to worry about the cost or time investment to design and build your app. Once inside the app, there’s no Kajabi branding. And you can choose the color palette that suits your brand, so your courses look like they come from you. 

Be aware, that if a customer has purchased other courses hosted on Kajabi using the same email address, those courses will also be available to them through the Kajabi app. The app isn’t yours alone. It's part of the greater Kajabi universe.

But this is actually more convenient for your customers. Instead of having to hunt for the appropriate app, they can find all of their Kajabi courses in one spot. And every time they open the app, they’ll see your course, reminding them to complete the course and engage with your community.

Passion.io’s mobile app

The ability to build and customize a personalized app is Passion.io’s flagship feature. Using their drag-and-drop interface, you can build a mobile app for your course and customize it with your branding. 

Be aware, though, you can’t access custom branding for your app in the Pro package. It’s only available in the Ultimate plan or higher.

As with many course apps, customers can log in and interact with other customers in the app. Their progress is tracked as they work their way through the course. And you can monitor their progress and provide them assessments to test their knowledge. 

Passion.io lets you drip-feed content if you invest in the Ultimate Plan or above. This allows you to release lessons only after your customers have completed the previous one. 

Push notifications are available for Pro, Ultimate, and UltimatePLUS users. This is valuable for reminding students to take their quizzes, do their homework, or continue learning. 

Passion.io’s app is feature-rich, intuitive, and easy to use. But it's not designed to be an all-in-one solution for building your business. They have, however, built a Zapier integration so you can connect with whatever other apps you need for building your business.

Now, let’s look at two features you’ll need to market and sell your courses: sales funnels and landing pages. 

Sales funnels & landing pages

Both Kajabi vs. Passion.io offer sales funnels. 

Within Passion.io’s app, you can add upsells to each product you offer. That allows you to create an upsell journey, from your lead magnet to an inexpensive product and then to your higher value offers. 

Kajabi’s sales funnel builder includes landing pages and upsell offers. Landing pages are one of the features that sets Kajabi apart from other online course platforms and course mobile apps. 

Kajabi’s landing page builder gives you a user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface and attractive, responsive templates. So, you can create landing pages that fit your brand and show off your offers. Create an unlimited number of landing pages, upsells, and downsells to convert your customers. You can then follow up with emails that reinforce the value of your offer — all built within the Kajabi platform.

Passion.io allows you to create a sales page within your app. But, you have to get your prospects into the app before they’ll see those pages. 

As a result, you may need to invest in a third-party landing page builder to promote your app and course.  

Keep in mind, this adds to the cost of launching your course and attracting and retaining customers. Another disadvantage is that it can make it harder for prospects to find you organically.

Kajabi vs. Passion.io pricing

When comparing pricing packages between Kajabi and Passion.io, it's essential to examine the features each plan includes and how that factors into your overall business growth plan.

Passion.io pricing

Passion.io offers two pricing plans: 

• Pro, at $79/month (when billed annually)
• Ultimate, at $239/month (when billed annually)

A third plan, UltimatePLUS, is a done-for-you plan that you must apply to.

The Pro and Ultimate plans are inclusive. The biggest difference between the two plans is that the Pro plan limits you to:

• 100 subscribers
• 100 videos 
• 1,000 push notifications per month

The Ultimate plan removes those limitations and allows you to have unlimited subscribers, videos, and push notifications. 

However, it’s important to note that some of the most essential features — the ability to drip content, build a community, and custom brand your app — are only available with the Ultimate plan.

Plus there’s a 3.9% platform fee when using Passion.io’s payment processor. External checkout is only available with the Ultimate plan. 

Kajabi pricing

Kajabi offers three pricing plans: 

• Basic, $119/month (billed annually) 
• Growth, $159/month (billed annually) 
• Pro, $319/month (billed annually)

The Basic plan gives you 10,000 contacts and 1,000 active customers, far more than you can get with the starter plan from Passion.io.

And Kajabi’s Growth plan, at just $159, gives you:

• 25,000 contacts
• 10,000 active customers
• Unlimited videos inside your courses
• Unlimited Landing Pages
• Unlimited Marketing Emails
• Access to Kajabi University 
• Advanced automations
• Customized branding
• Affiliate program

The Pro plan takes that to an even more impressive level with 100,000 contacts and 20,000 active customers. 

Passion.io does give you a robust, customizable app with interactive features, including quizzes and streaming. But, you’ll miss out on business-building tools that Kajabi includes, like:

• A drag-and-drop website 
• An email marketing suite
• Customizable sales funnels
• A podcast hosting tool
• Unlimited web hosting (no space or bandwidth constraints on your videos)
• The ability to include your course on the app
• Native coupon functionality

Let's say you decided to use Passion.io and wanted to build a tech stack similar to Kajabi’s suite of marketing and sales tools. 

You'd need to invest in Zapier so you could then connect to third-party tools like an email marketing service, landing page builder, and an e-commerce shopping cart, if you want to avoid the 3.9% PassionPayments fee. All of these will add significantly to your monthly costs.  

Want a website, where you can host a blog and landing pages? To build a WordPress website, you’d need to invest in hosting, a premium theme, and plugins that give you the functionality you want. 

You’ll also have to integrate these tools, so everything works together and gives your customers a smooth experience. Why go through all that trouble when Kajabi has everything you need, all integrated into one seamless business-in-a-box?  

Which is better: Kajabi vs. Passion.io? 

This brings us to the real question in our Kajabi vs. Passion.io review: which is better? 

Passion.io is an excellent app builder. It lets you sell a course, make it available through an online course mobile app, and give students the impression that you have your own customized and personalized app to do it. If this is what you need most, Passion.io will fit your needs nicely. 

However, if you need an all-in-one solution that comes with:

• Mobile-responsive templates 
• Email marketing automations 
• A sales funnel builder 
• Marketing tools 
• An affiliate program
• and more

Kajabi is by far your best option. 

The best features of Passion.io center around its app and include features course creators need to distribute their content and engage with their customers.

Kajabi is a comprehensive web-based solution that also provides an app, but it's just one of the resources Kajabi provides to accommodate your customers and monetize your content.  

As a course creator, you’ll need to consider how your customers access your course material and how you want to market to them. 

You'll also want to consider your broader goal. If you want to build a business that lets you impact lives, you'll need support. Fortunately, Kajabi gives you plenty to be passionate about.