Kajabi vs. Supercast: which platform is best for your podcast?

Do you run a podcast, or are you thinking about starting an independent podcast? The hosting platform you choose could mean the difference between reaching thousands of happy listeners or barely registering as a blip on anyone’s radar.

You’ve got great content and compelling stories to tell. Now you need a platform that helps you turn your podcast into a profitable digital product. But to do that, you need the tools, guidance, and support to make it happen. 

In this detailed Kajabi vs. Supercast review, we’ll look at what Supercast is, how it compares to Kajabi podcasts, and which platform could ultimately best fit your needs. 

Let’s jump right in! 

What is Supercast? 

Supercast bills itself as an “all-in” podcasting platform that gives you everything you need to launch an audio subscription program. It integrates with every leading podcast player and enables listeners to subscribe in just a couple of taps. It also features a built-in feedback option and the ability for podcast users to create an online storefront. 

As with other podcasting and subscription packages, you can create different pricing tiers with varying levels of perks and get paid through Stripe directly to your bank account. 

On the surface, it seems as if Supercast offers you a complete toolset for your podcast hosting needs. But if you go beyond the basics, you’ll see that the platform is missing a few key elements to turn your podcasting venture into a profitable business. 

Kajabi has been around since 2010 and has helped over 55,000 knowledge creators generate over $3.9 billion in sales. Supercast only emerged from its beta-testing period in 2020, naming a new CEO and receiving $2 million in seed funding. 

Admittedly, Kajabi had a bit of a head start. However, the comparison goes much deeper than who’s been around the longest. Let’s compare the two platforms in terms of capability, pricing, storefront, and integrations. 

Can you make money online with podcasting? 

Both Kajabi and Supercast allow you to present your podcast like a membership model. A percentage of your audience pays a specific price to access extra content. But instead of digital courses, you’re leveraging audio content like exclusive interviews, AMAs (Ask Me Anything), and other perks for listeners who pay for membership. 

Subscription-based podcasts are a highly lucrative business model and follow closely in the footsteps of the SaaS (Software as a Service) model. The big difference is that podcasts can do so without the hefty costs of research and development, cut-throat competition, and constant marketing to stay front-of-mind with consumers. 

All of the benefits without any of the downsides? Yes, please! 

Until recently, podcasters that wanted to take advantage of this type of business model had to piece together options like Wordpress, PayPal, and membership plug-ins to create the semblance of a platform to manage their members. 

Even if they did manage to put something together, using different platforms created a new set of issues: payment problems, software failures, critical vulnerabilities, and plugin incompatibilities. Even worse, if listeners shared the RSS feed, thousands of people could pirate the podcast.  

Massive headaches, non-paying listeners, and massive hosting bills were common hurdles early podcasters faced. Kajabi and Supercast addressed this issue head-on by providing a secure, innovative, and easy-to-use platform for podcasters that offers the following tools and resources:

• Premium and private podcast capabilities
• CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software
• Storefronts 
• Analytics
• All-in-one approach vs. integrations 

Now, let’s take a moment to compare these.

Premium and private podcast capabilities

Kajabi and Supercast allow creators to publish premium and private podcasts with membership-like features. Both platforms place high value on security and prevent your RSS feed from being pirated and shared with non-subscribers. 

You’ll also be glad to know that both platforms work with the top podcast networks, so you can be sure your podcast will be found on Apple Music, Google Play, Spotify, and any of the 60+ podcast apps that support private RSS feeds. 

In this way, you can still deliver the premium value paid subscribers demand without giving up the security and peace of mind you deserve as the podcast host. 

CRM

Managing a podcast as a business depends on knowing who your subscribers and listeners are. One of the best ways to do that is by using CRM or Customer Relationship Management software. 

Supercast allows you to see who your subscribers are and lets you store basic information about them, such as their names and email address. 

But Kajabi has a comprehensive CRM that prioritizes automation so you can stay in touch with your audience without spending hours writing emails. For example, you can automatically send follow-up emails by setting key trigger points with simple rules. 

Send listeners coupons, discounts, special offers, and more without jumping through hoops to set up complicated email campaigns. It’s all built-in with Kajabi. 

As you can see, a Kajabi vs. Supercast comparison based on podcast features alone will show how the two products are similar on the surface. 

But what sets Kajabi apart from Supercast as a podcast hosting platform is the emphasis on helping you build a business, not just monetize your podcast. With Kajabi, podcasting is treated as a component of your thriving business without ignoring all of the other moving parts needed for your podcast to scale and reach its full audience potential. 

Supercast storefront vs. Kajabi website

Supercast allows you to launch a basic storefront where you can attract subscribers and encourage them to sign up for your podcast. But when it comes to the customization you can offer, it’s limited. Kajabi gives you greater control over building your website. Don’t worry! You won’t need web design or development experience. 

Kajabi lets you leverage mobile-responsive templates, choose from different layouts, and update everything in just a few clicks. You can change colors, fonts, and other features to perfectly represent your podcast brand. Just drag and drop your way to a professional-looking website in a fraction of the time. 

Supercast’s website features are limited, forcing you to rely on a third-party website builder or hire an expensive developer if you want anything similar to the functionality you get from Kajabi.

Analytics

Design functionality and subscriber management features are essential. Yet, another key aspect of your podcast business is analytics. The success of your podcast is directly tied to your ability to leverage how much (or how little) information you have about your listeners and the financial results of your broadcasts. 

Knowing who your listeners are and which episodes resonate with them helps you develop content that will appeal to, and attract, even more listeners. 

Supercast gives you analytics about your podcasts, such as:

• How many listeners you have 
• Which episodes are the most popular
• Income and other financial information through the Stripe dashboard 

With Kajabi, you not only have access to analytics about your listeners and episode popularity, but you also get subscription metrics like:

• Net revenue
• Opt-ins
• Page revenue
• Offers sold 
• Product progress
• Subscription metrics

In short, you’ll know more than just your subscriber totals, income, and which episodes are performing the best: you’ll know how your podcasting business is functioning as a whole.

With data insights as granular as you need them, Kajabi makes it easy to track and understand the health of your business at a glance. 

Integrations vs. all in one

When deciding on Kajabi vs. Supercast for your digital product, another question you’ll need to explore is integrations. 

Supercast bills itself as an “everything you need” platform. However, you’ll still need to use third-party integrations for actions like building a truly customized website and creating sales funnels.

That also means you’ll be responsible for paying for all of those services separately. Plus, you’ll have to budget time to integrate them with your Supercast podcast. And if the integration you want isn’t possible, you may be left with piecing components together again, further adding to the cost of hosting and maintaining your podcast.

Kajabi offers a handful of integrations, but most aren’t necessary since the service comes with a drag-and-drop website builder, email marketing, sales funnel builder (Marketing Pipelines in Kajabi), and more. 

You won’t need to worry about clunky and expensive third-party integrations that can become incompatible overnight. 

When you consider the total cost of time and money and add to that the hassle of integrating multiple third-party plugins and add-ons, you may decide you’re not really saving much with Supercast!  

Pricing

Pricing is one of the areas where it seems that Supercast outperforms Kajabi. However, let’s go ahead and break it down. 

Supercast’s “All-In” plan charges you 0.59 cents per subscriber per month, plus Stripe transaction fees of 2.9% and 0.30 cents per transaction.

Imagine for a moment that you had a modest 1,000 subscribers (that’s how many customers you can have on Kajabi’s lowest-tier plan). With Kajabi, you’d pay $149/month, or as little as $119/month when paid annually. 

With Supercast, 1,000 subscribers at 0.59 cents each adds up to $590 per month, and that doesn’t even include Stripe transaction fees! 

NOTE: Kajabi charges no per-transaction fees, so the price per month is all you pay. 

With Kajabi, you also get access to additional features that you’d need to pay for separately with Supercast, including:

• The marketing pipeline builder
• Email marketing functionality
• A drag-and-drop website builder 

Why pay nearly four times as much money for fewer features? 

The bottom line: Which is better? Kajabi vs. Supercast

For those who are starting an independent podcast and just want the “meat and potatoes” of podcasting without any other features, Supercast may be the right service to scratch that itch. 

However, over time you may want to build an email list or create a better-looking website. And as your podcast grows and becomes more popular, you’ll appreciate the ability Kajabi gives you to automate subscriber functionality like sending welcome emails, announcing sales, offering discounts, and announcing referral programs.

With Kajabi, you won’t pay extra for these features, giving you a well-rounded, business-based approach to podcasting that helps you build an interested and engaged audience beyond the podcast itself.

The best part is that you can try Kajabi risk-free for 14 days. Try out all the different features for two full weeks and see how easy it is to do more than just launch a podcast. Create a website, build your email list, view your analytics, and make actionable decisions based on the data you collect about your listeners. 

There’s no better time to start than right now! Sign up today for free.

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