Squarespace vs. Kajabi
Choosing a website platform is consistently one of the top three things that we see holding people back from creating and launching their site here at Specht & Co.
There are so many options to choose from, each with different features and a whole slew of industry lingo that frankly, can make your head hurt.
After hours of research, the analysis paralysis sets in. You end up not choosing anything and letting that website project sit on the back burner. What’s another couple of months in the grand scheme of things, right?
Trust me, we get it.
Over the last 7+ years building websites, I’ve tried all. the. platforms. Wix, Wordpress, Squarespace, Showit, Weebly, GoDaddy, Kajabi, you name it and I’ve tried it.
Through years of trial and error, I’ve been able to narrow down my two favorites to include Squarespace and Kajabi. Nowadays, those are the only two platforms we build sites in here at Specht & Co!
But which one is better? Well that really depends on your specific needs. So today we’re going to walk you through our expert comparison of Squarespace vs. Kajabi, and get you one step closer to choosing a platform and getting your website live!
What You See Is What You Get
Both Squarespace and Kajabi are “What You See Is What You Get” or WYSIWYG editors, meaning what you see as you’reyour creating/editing your website is pretty much exactly what it will look like when you publish it.
While their individual editing functions differ a bit, both are extremely easy to use and require zero coding knowledge. These are both major green flags if you’re wanting to DIY your website, or even if you’ll be working with a professional website designer, but want something that will be easy for you to edit/maintain on your own afterward.
In my opinion however, Squarespace does have a slight leg up here for a couple of reasons.
First and foremost, Squarespace offers more flexible design customization without having to inject any custom code. Kajabi on the other hand relies heavily on pre-set “sections” and design modules, so if you want to really customize things, you’re going to need some coding knowledge.
Second, Squarespace’s ability to set site-wide styles and save sections to repeat on other pages makes designing in Squarespace quite a bit more efficient than designing in Kajabi. When you start your Squarespace site, you simply input your colors and fonts, and those are automatically applied across the entire website whereas with Kajabi you’ll need to input this information each time you create a new page.
What exactly does “all-in-one” mean?
Both Squarespace and Kajabi tout themselves as being “all-in-one” website platforms… and they are. But there’s a difference in what that means for each of them.
Squarespace allows you to do the following:
Host your website
Host/purchase your domain
Purchase and integrate Google Workspace
Blog
Sell physical products
Sell digital products
Host your membership
Market your business using email campaigns
Schedule appointments via Acuity/Squarespace Scheduling
Kajabi allows you to do the following:
Host your website
Blog
Sell digital products
Host your membership
Host your course
Create an online forum
Market your business using funnels & email campaign
Based on the list above, you might be thinking “well Squarespace seems like the obvious choice”. But not so fast… let’s talk through a few key points.
Host/Purchase Your Domain
Squarespace makes it really easy to purchase your domain (or web address) directly on their site, and with most plans you’ll get your domain for free for the first year! With Kajabi, you’ll need to use an outside service like Bluehost, 1&1, Siteground, etc., and then connect the domain to your website manually.
Purchase and Integrate Google Workspace
Squarespace integrates seamlessly with Google Workspace, so you can purchase your Gmail email address and Google Workspace subscription from Squarespace at the same time that you sign up for your Squarespace plan. With Kajabi, you’ll need to go directly through Google for your email address and workspace subscription which while still pretty simple, is an additional step.
Sell Physical Products
Squarespace offers the ability to sell physical products with any of its eCommerce plans. You can integrate multiple different shipping platforms with relative ease, and I’ve seen plenty of people create very successful online shops using Squarespace in the past. Kajabi on the other hand, does not offer any sort of physical product sales.
Sell Digital Products
Yes, Squarespace does have the ability to sell digital products using its eCommerce platform however this is really best suited for things like PDF bundles and digital files. Anything more robust than that, such as a course is going to require multiple workarounds, connecting other apps, etc. For that reason, if one of your main sources of income is going to be digital product sales I would recommend Kajabi over Squarespace.
Host Your Membership
In 2022 Squarespace rolled out its “Member Areas” feature as a response to the growing demand for online membership platforms. Essentially this is just a paywall that you can put normal website pages behind so that they’re only accessible to your members. While it’s great to see Squarespace coming to the table with a membership offering, in my opinion this is still a very new feature with a lot of kinks that need to be worked out.
Market Your Business Using Email Campaigns
The Squarespace Email Campaign add-on was introduced in 2019, and while it’s convenient to be able to run your email marketing through the same platform as your website, I’m still not a huge fan. Their features are fairly basic when compared to those of Kajabi or other dedicated email marketing platforms, and you’ll have to pay a fee in addition to your website subscription in order to utilize them.
Schedule Appointments via Acuity/Squarespace Scheduling
This is one of my favorite Squarespace features. A few years ago, Squarespace acquired Acuity Scheduling and I am not kidding when I say I don’t know how I would run my business without it. Acuity makes it impossibly easy to schedule appointments with clients, have people register for classes, etc. While Kajabi doesn’t have a dedicated scheduler of its own, it is still fairly simple to embed or link to a third party scheduler like Acuity or Calendly, just not quite as seamless as with Squarespace.
How much does each platform cost?
It’s no secret that when making a business decision, cost is going to be a major deciding factor and there’s a pretty big difference in the cost of a Squarespace subscription vs. a Kajabi Subscription.
Squarespace subscriptions start at $23/mo for their Personal Plan and go up to $65/mo for their eCommerce Pro plan. At Specht & Co. we recommend the $33/mo Business Plan for most of our clients, which gives them access to a handful of additional premium features beyond what the Personal Plan offers. You can see a comparison of each Squarespace plan for yourself here.
Kajabi subscriptions start at $149/mo for their Basic Plan and go up to $399/mo for their Pro plan. At Specht & Co. most of our clients with Kajabi websites utilize the Growth plan which is $199/mo and allows features like removing Kajabi branding, affiliate commissions, 24/7 chat support, and advanced automations. You can see a comparison of each Kajabi plan for yourself here.
Again, it would seem that Squarespace is the most obvious choice here, considering the most expensive Squarespace plan is less than half the cost of the cheapest Kajabi plan. But remember that with Kajabi, the prices listed include your website, email marketing, and hosting your courses/membership. With Squarespace, if you’re doing email marketing or hosting courses/memberships, you’ll need additional subscriptions for each of those which could easily add up to match Kajabi’s monthly pricing.
It should also be noted that both Squarespace and Kajabi offer discounts of up to 30% and up to 20% respectively if you purchase an annual plan rather than paying month-to-month. Both platforms also offer free trial periods of 14 days to see if their platform is right for you.
Customer Support
No matter which website platform you choose, the odds are almost 100% that you’ll end up needing to use their customer support a time or two. Luckily, both Squarespace and Kajabi do a fantastic job of providing resources and support to their users.
Squarespace offers 24/7 email support and live chat Monday thru Friday. I’ve utilized both of these services many times myself, and there has yet to be an issue that the Squarespace team was unable to help me resolve. As a Squarespace user you’ll also have access to a robust library of Squarespace Help articles, video tutorials, webinars, and an online forum full of other Squarespace users to connect with.
Like Squarespace, Kajabi offers email support via a ticketing system, and live chat Monday through Friday. Even better, if you’re on Kajabi’s Growth plan or higher you’ll have access to live chat 24/7. Kajabi also offers a massive library of resources and tutorials via their help center as well as Kajabi University which includes courses and webinars to help you with your website, marketing, and business as a whole. Finally, as a new Kajabi user you’ll have access to a 30-minute Welcome Call to help you get the most out of your Kajabi Membership.
When it comes to customer support, I’d say you can’t go wrong either way. Both Squarespace and Kajabi really go the extra mile to make sure their users are taken care of and utilizing their platforms to the best of their ability.
So do I choose Squarespace or Kajabi?
This is the million-dollarmillion dollar question, and a decision only you can make for your business. That said, here’s what we recommend for our website design clients here at Specht & Co.
Choose Squarespace If…
You offer 1:1 services
You do business primarily in-person or offline
You sell physical products
You’re already using a separate platform for your course/membership such as Thinkific, Teachable, MemberVault, Mighty Networks etc.
You want a beautiful, customized website at an extremely affordable price
Choose Kajabi If…
You sell digital products (courses, etc.)
You run an online membership
You’d like your website, digital product sales, membership, and email marketing all in one place
Tech, automations, and functionality are more to you important than a fancy, custom design
You have the budget to invest in a robust, all-in-one solution
Still not sure which platform to choose? It’s a big decision, we get it! DM me on Instagram and I’d love to help you talk through the decision and come to a solution that will support your business the best way possible!
And if you’re looking for help designing a website in Squarespace or Kajabi, Specht & Co. would love the opportunity to support you. You can download our service guide here to learn more about our packages, pricing, and next steps required to get started!
