How to Migrate from Kajabi to Whop (Step-by-Step, 2026)

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Kajabi raised its prices in early 2026, and for thousands of course creators the math stopped making sense overnight. A platform that once cost $149 per month on the Basic plan now starts at $179 per month (or $89 on a stripped-down Starter tier that did not previously exist). Growth jumped to $249. Pro jumped to $499. If you are reading this, you have probably already done the napkin math: you are paying $2,000 to $6,000 per year for a course platform before a single student enrolls. This guide walks you through the full migration from Kajabi to Whop, step by step, with the gotchas that no other guide covers because no other guide for this specific path exists yet.

The goal is not just to move your content. It is to move your business to a platform that charges nothing monthly, takes just 2.7% + $0.30 per transaction (no subscription required, no hidden costs), and gives you infrastructure Kajabi cannot match: built-in community gating, automated dispute protection, a marketplace of 22.5M+ buyers, and a payment system that does not run through Stripe under the hood. If you want a side-by-side feature comparison before committing to the switch, our Whop vs Kajabi comparison covers the breakeven math in detail.

Why creators are leaving Kajabi in 2026

The price increase is the trigger, but the underlying reasons run deeper.

The subscription cost scales with Kajabi, not with you. Kajabi charges $179 to $499 per month regardless of whether you make $500 or $50,000. A creator doing $1,500 per month on the Growth plan ($249/mo) is spending 16.6% of gross revenue on platform fees alone, before payment processing (which is Stripe under the hood, adding another 2.9% + $0.30). On Whop, that same creator pays approximately $45 in total fees and $0 in monthly subscription.

Community features are limited. Kajabi added a community feature, but it is bolted on rather than native. There is no Discord or Telegram gating, no multi-tier community access management, and the community UX trails purpose-built platforms. Creators running paid communities alongside courses find themselves paying for Kajabi plus a separate community tool, or settling for a subpar community experience that hurts retention.

Payments run through Stripe. Kajabi does not process payments directly. Your money flows through Stripe, which means you inherit Stripe's risk policies: automated account reviews, potential holds during launch spikes, and the $15-per-dispute chargeback fee. Creators in income-adjacent verticals (business coaching, financial education, "make money online" content) are particularly exposed. Whop automatically handles and fights disputes on your behalf, which is a structural difference, not a feature toggle.

No marketplace discovery. Every sale on Kajabi comes from your own marketing. Whop's marketplace (22.5M+ users) provides organic discovery that Kajabi simply does not offer. For creators spending $2,000 or more per month on ads, marketplace traffic can materially reduce customer acquisition costs.

What migrates and what does not

Before you start exporting, understand the boundaries. Not everything transfers cleanly.

What you can migrate

• Video files: Download your original uploads from Kajabi's media library. If you uploaded to Kajabi directly (not via Wistia or Vimeo embeds), you can retrieve the files.
• PDFs, images, and downloadable resources: All downloadable attachments can be saved locally.
• Contact list: Export your full contact database as CSV (People > Export), including emails, names, tags, and subscription status.
• Written lesson content: Copy and paste lesson text manually, or use a browser extension to save full pages.
• Product pricing and offer structures: Document your pricing, coupons, payment plans, and offer configurations for recreation on Whop.

What does NOT migrate

• Kajabi pipelines (funnels): Pipeline pages, opt-in forms, and multi-step funnels do not export. Rebuild landing pages on Whop or use a standalone funnel builder. Our best funnel builders guide covers alternatives.
• Email sequences and automations: Kajabi's built-in email marketing does not export automation logic. Screenshot or document your sequences, then rebuild in a standalone email platform (ConvertKit, Beehiiv, Mailchimp).
• Drip schedules: Kajabi's per-student drip timing does not transfer. You will need to restructure drip content using Whop's scheduled release features.
• Quiz and assessment configurations: These must be rebuilt manually.
• Student progress data: Completion percentages, quiz scores, and engagement analytics stay in Kajabi.
• Active subscriptions: You cannot transfer a recurring billing relationship from Kajabi (Stripe) to Whop. Members must re-subscribe on Whop.

The 7-step migration checklist

This is the operational sequence. Follow it in order. Skipping the audit step (Step 1) is the number one reason migrations take twice as long as expected.

Step 1: Audit your Kajabi account (1-2 hours)

Before you touch the export button, document everything you have on Kajabi. Open a spreadsheet and create columns for: product name, type (course, membership, community, coaching program), number of lessons or modules, media files (count and approximate size), active members, monthly revenue, pricing/offers, email sequences attached, automations triggered, and pipeline pages connected.

This audit becomes your migration project plan. Without it, you will discover a forgotten product or a critical automation midway through the transition and scramble to patch it.

Pay special attention to:

• Revenue per product: Prioritize migrating your highest-revenue products first. A $50/month membership with 200 members ($10,000/mo) moves before a $29 ebook with 3 sales per month.
• Active vs. legacy products: If a course has not sold in six months, consider retiring it rather than migrating it.
• Integration dependencies: Note any Zapier automations, webhook triggers, or third-party tools connected to your Kajabi account.

Step 2: Export your content and contacts (2-6 hours)

Contacts: Go to People > Export in Kajabi. Download your full contact list as CSV. This file includes email addresses, names, tags, and subscription statuses. Save it in a secure location. You will need this for your email migration and for notifying members about the platform switch.

Video files: Kajabi does not have a bulk video export. Navigate to each course, each lesson, and download the video files individually. If your videos are hosted externally (Vimeo, YouTube, Wistia), you already have them outside Kajabi and can simply re-embed the same URLs on Whop. If you uploaded directly to Kajabi, plan for significant download time depending on your library size.

Written content: For each lesson, copy the text content. A browser extension like SingleFile or a simple copy-paste workflow works. Document the lesson structure (module > lesson > section) so you can recreate the hierarchy on Whop.

Landing page copy: If you have pipeline pages (sales pages, opt-in pages) with copy you want to reuse, save them as complete web pages or screenshots. The design will not transfer, but the copy and structure can be reused.

Email sequences: Open each email sequence in Kajabi. Copy the subject line, body text, and trigger conditions for each email. Screenshot the automation logic (timing, conditions, tags). You will rebuild these in your new email platform.

Step 3: Set up your Whop account and storefront (1-2 hours)

Create your free account on Whop. No credit card required, no setup fee.

Configure these elements immediately:

• Storefront branding: Upload your logo, set colors, and write your storefront description. Match your Kajabi branding so existing members recognize the new home.
• Custom domain: If you use a custom domain on Kajabi (e.g., courses.yourbrand.com), do not move the DNS yet. You will do this in Step 6 after everything is built and tested.
• Payout settings: Connect your bank account or preferred payout method. Verify your identity. Do this early so payouts are ready when the first Whop sale hits.
• Community setup: If you plan to gate a Discord server or Telegram group through Whop, set up the integration now. This is one of Whop's strongest features, and if community is part of your offering, getting it right before members arrive matters.

Step 4: Rebuild your courses on Whop (3-8 hours per course)

This is the longest step. For each course:

1. Create a new product in your Whop dashboard.
2. Add the course app to the product.
3. Build out modules and lessons matching your Kajabi structure (use the spreadsheet from Step 1).
4. Upload video files or re-embed external video URLs.
5. Attach downloadable resources (PDFs, templates, worksheets).
6. Set pricing: one-time, subscription, or payment plan. Whop supports all three natively.
7. Configure access tiers if you have multiple membership levels.
8. Test the student experience by previewing or enrolling a test account.

Tip for large course libraries: Migrate your highest-revenue product first and run it on Whop for one to two weeks before migrating the rest. This lets you learn the platform, catch any issues, and build confidence before moving everything. Creators who try to migrate five courses simultaneously make more mistakes and burn out.

If you have an existing audience paying for a course specifically, also check the best payment processors for online courses guide to see how Whop's fee structure compares at your revenue level.

Step 5: Migrate your members (1-2 weeks transition window)

This is the step most migration guides gloss over. Your members are paying customers with active access. You cannot just flip a switch. Here is the sequence:

1. Send a migration announcement email (2-3 weeks before the switch). Explain that you are moving to a new, better platform. Emphasize what improves for them: faster community, lower costs (if you pass savings through), better mobile experience. Do not dwell on Kajabi's shortcomings.
2. Provide early access to Whop. Send existing members a free or discounted access link to your Whop product. Let them explore the new platform while still having Kajabi access as a fallback.
3. Handle active subscriptions carefully. Do not cancel members' Kajabi subscriptions for them. Instead, let the current billing cycle complete on Kajabi, then guide them to subscribe on Whop for the next cycle. For annual subscribers with months remaining, honor the commitment on Kajabi or offer a prorated credit on Whop.
4. Send a follow-up email one week before Kajabi access ends. Include their Whop access link, a quick-start guide, and your direct support contact.
5. Keep Kajabi active for 30-60 days after the Whop launch. Some members will be slow to transition. The cost of one or two more months of Kajabi is worth avoiding member churn from a jarring cutover.

Expect 5-15% member loss during any platform migration. This is normal. Some members were already on the fence about canceling. The platform switch gives them a convenient exit. Focus your energy on the 85-95% who stay, not the ones who leave.

Step 6: Redirect domains and update links (2-4 hours)

Custom domain: Once your Whop storefront is live and tested, update your DNS records to point your custom domain to Whop instead of Kajabi. Whop's documentation walks through the CNAME setup.

301 redirects: If any Kajabi pages receive organic search traffic (check Google Search Console), set up 301 redirects from the old URLs to the corresponding Whop pages. This preserves your search rankings. Common pages to redirect:

• Course sales pages
• Blog posts (if you used Kajabi's blog)
• Landing pages from pipelines
• The main storefront URL

Update all external links: Go through every place that links to your Kajabi pages: social media bios, email signatures, YouTube descriptions, podcast show notes, Facebook group pinned posts, ad campaigns. Update them to your new Whop URLs. A single missed link sends potential customers to a dead page.

Step 7: Cancel Kajabi and confirm clean cutover (30 minutes)

Only cancel Kajabi after confirming:

• All active members have transitioned to Whop
• No outstanding billing cycles remain on Kajabi
• All content has been downloaded and backed up locally
• 301 redirects are live and tested
• Your custom domain resolves correctly to Whop
• At least one full billing cycle has completed successfully on Whop

Keep your local backup of all exported content indefinitely. You will want it if you ever need to reference old course materials or if a member has a question about legacy content.

Five migration gotchas that will bite you

Every Kajabi-to-Whop migration surfaces the same set of problems. Here is how to handle them before they cost you members or revenue.

1. Email list portability is not automatic. Kajabi's email marketing is built in. Whop does not have a native email marketing tool. You need a standalone email platform (ConvertKit, Beehiiv, Mailchimp) to replace Kajabi's email functionality. Export your list from Kajabi, but do not just bulk-import it into a new provider and start sending. If the list is cold or has not been mailed recently, re-confirm opt-in first. A spike in spam complaints on a new email account can get your sending domain flagged.

2. Embedded videos from Kajabi's player will break. If your videos were uploaded directly to Kajabi (not via Vimeo, YouTube, or Wistia), they are hosted on Kajabi's infrastructure. When you cancel Kajabi, those video URLs die. Make sure you have downloaded every video file before cancellation. After the switch, host them on Vimeo, Bunny.net, or upload directly to Whop.

3. SEO redirects need to go live before Kajabi goes dark. If you have Kajabi pages ranking in Google, the redirect window matters. Set up 301 redirects while Kajabi is still live (using your domain registrar's redirect rules or a service like Cloudflare). If you cancel Kajabi first and set up redirects later, Google crawls the dead URLs, indexes 404s, and your rankings drop. The recovery from a botched redirect can take 2-3 months.

4. Payment plans do not carry over. A member paying $99/month for 12 months on Kajabi (through Stripe) cannot have that same subscription transferred to Whop. You have two options: let the Kajabi subscription run to completion (while giving them Whop access), or cancel the Kajabi subscription, prorate the remaining value, and start a new plan on Whop. The first option is cleaner for the member. The second gets you off Kajabi faster. Choose based on how many months remain.

5. Kajabi affiliate programs need manual migration. If you run an affiliate program through Kajabi, those affiliates, their referral links, and their commission structures do not transfer. Set up affiliate tracking on Whop (which supports native affiliate management), then reach out to each affiliate with new links and updated terms.

Cost comparison: Kajabi vs Whop at three revenue levels

The savings from eliminating Kajabi's monthly subscription are straightforward. Here is the math at three revenue levels, assuming US domestic card transactions on Whop (approximately 3% all-in, no separate platform fee).

Whop saves the most for creators whose revenue is low relative to their Kajabi plan tier. A creator doing $1,500/mo on Kajabi Growth saves roughly $3,000 per year. Even at $5,000/mo, the annual savings still exceed $2,900. Whop's 2.7% + $0.30 base undercuts Kajabi's underlying Stripe rate, so Whop stays cheaper across all three levels, as our Whop vs Kajabi breakeven analysis lays out, and that comparison still ignores the value of Whop's dispute protection, marketplace discovery, and community gating, all of which would cost extra on top of Kajabi.

What you gain by switching (beyond the savings)

The cost comparison covers what you stop paying. Here is what you start getting:

• Dispute protection. Whop automatically handles and fights disputes on your behalf, shielding you from holds and account closures. On Kajabi (Stripe), every chargeback costs $15 plus your own time to fight it.
• Marketplace discovery. Whop's marketplace of 22.5M+ users is a distribution channel Kajabi does not have, so creators report organic sales they never had to pay to acquire.
• Native community gating. Gate Discord servers, Telegram groups, or Whop's native community straight from checkout. Iman Gadzhi made $25M+ on Whop, TJR runs $1M/month, and Airrack hits $250K/month.
• No Stripe dependency. Your business no longer sits on Stripe's risk policies, the structural fix if you have faced platform risk with membership payments.

Realistic migration timeline

For a creator with 1-3 courses and under 500 active members, expect the full migration to take 1-2 weeks of focused work plus a 30-60 day parallel-run window. Here is a realistic breakdown:

• Day 1: Audit (Step 1) and begin exports (Step 2)
• Days 2-3: Complete exports, set up Whop account (Step 3)
• Days 4-7: Rebuild courses on Whop (Step 4), test thoroughly
• Day 8: Send migration announcement to members (Step 5 begins)
• Days 8-14: Onboard members, update links (Step 6)
• Days 14-60: Parallel run, monitor, handle stragglers
• Day 60+: Cancel Kajabi (Step 7)

For larger operations (5+ courses, 1,000+ members, complex funnels), double the timeline and consider migrating one product at a time rather than everything simultaneously.

Frequently asked questions

Can I export my courses from Kajabi?

Kajabi does not offer a one-click course export. You can download your own uploaded videos, PDFs, and images from each product manually. Written lesson content must be copied out by hand (or scraped with a browser extension like SingleFile). Kajabi does not export course structure, drip schedules, or quiz configurations. Budget 2-4 hours per course for a manual export.

Will my members lose access during the migration?

Not if you run both platforms in parallel during the transition window. Keep Kajabi active for 30-60 days after launching on Whop. Existing members retain Kajabi access while you onboard them to Whop. Cancel Kajabi only after all active members have transitioned and no outstanding billing cycles remain.

Does Whop support drip content like Kajabi?

Whop supports scheduled content releases and gated access tiers. The implementation differs from Kajabi's drip mechanism: instead of unlocking lessons on a per-student timeline, you create timed releases within your Whop app. For cohort-based courses where all students start on the same date, this works identically. For evergreen drip courses where each student starts on their purchase date, you may need to adjust your course structure or use Whop's API.

Can I keep my custom domain when switching to Whop?

Yes. Point your custom domain's DNS to Whop instead of Kajabi. Whop supports custom domains for your storefront. If your SEO traffic goes to Kajabi-hosted pages (like blog posts or landing pages), set up 301 redirects from the old URLs to the equivalent Whop pages to preserve search rankings.

How much will I save switching from Kajabi to Whop?

A creator on Kajabi Growth ($249/mo) doing $3,000/mo in revenue saves approximately $2,988 per year after accounting for Whop's transaction fees. The savings are largest for creators with lower revenue relative to their Kajabi plan tier, since Whop charges no monthly subscription. Because Whop's 2.7% + $0.30 base actually undercuts Kajabi's underlying Stripe rate (2.9% + $0.30), Whop stays cheaper at every revenue level once you factor in the eliminated subscription.

What happens to my Kajabi email list?

Kajabi lets you export contacts as a CSV file (People > Export). The CSV includes email addresses, names, tags, and subscription status. You can import this list into any email platform (ConvertKit, Mailchimp, Beehiiv). Whop does not have a built-in email marketing tool equivalent to Kajabi's, so you will need a standalone email platform going forward. Do not send to the exported list without re-confirming opt-in if you plan to use a new email provider, as this can trigger spam complaints.

Last reviewed: 2026-06-19. Kajabi pricing sourced from kajabi.com as of June 2026. Whop fees sourced from whop.com. Effective rates vary based on transaction mix, international card share, and feature usage. Migration timelines are estimates based on typical course creator accounts. Nothing in this guide is legal or financial advice. WhatPayment earns a commission if you sign up to Whop via our links, at no extra cost to you. Read our affiliate disclosure.