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The cheapest way to run a membership site in 2026
A membership site is a paywall, a place to put the content, and a way to email the members. Buying those separately is how a membership costs more than it earns. These are the real prices for the four tools we track that can do it, re-checked from the vendors' own pages this week.
Prices last re-checked 2026-10-05. Every number below is read from the vendor's own pricing page.
Which one should you pick?
- Pick Systeme.io if you need the cheapest all-in-one, by a wide margin. Visit Systeme.io
- Pick Kajabi if the membership is the business. Visit Kajabi
- Pick GoHighLevel if you also sell the membership to clients. Visit GoHighLevel
Some buttons are affiliate links — how this works.
The short answer
Short answer: Cheapest all-in-one, by a wide margin: Systeme.io Systeme.io is free up to 2,000 contacts and one course, then $17/mo Startup ($14/mo billed annually) for 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels and 5 courses - the paywall, the content and the email in one bill. GoHighLevel Starter is also under $100, at $97/mo, and Kit's free plan is $0.
| Tool | Entry price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo (no annual discount published) | 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course, unlimited emails. Never expires, no credit |
| Startup | $17/mo, or $14/mo billed annually | 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels, 5 courses |
| Webinar | $47/mo, or $39/mo billed annually | 10,000 contacts, 50 funnels, 20 courses, evergreen webinars |
| Unlimited | $97/mo, or $80/mo billed annually | Unlimited contacts, funnels, courses, and automation rules |
Prices checked 2026-10-05.
Cheapest all-in-one, by a wide margin: Systeme.io
Systeme.io is free up to 2,000 contacts and one course, then $17/mo Startup ($14/mo billed annually) for 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels and 5 courses - the paywall, the content and the email in one bill. GoHighLevel Starter is also under $100, at $97/mo, and Kit's free plan is $0. The honest caveat is that its membership features are simpler than Kajabi's.
See Systeme.io pricingBest if the membership is the business: Kajabi
Kajabi is $179/mo Basic ($143/mo billed annually) and takes no revenue share, with the deepest course and community tooling here. It is ten times Systeme.io's price, so it is only the right answer once the membership is already earning.
See Kajabi pricingBest if you also sell the membership to clients: GoHighLevel
GoHighLevel Starter is $97/mo with 3 sub-accounts and unlimited users, and Agency Pro at $497/mo adds SaaS mode and rebilling. If you run memberships for other people rather than your own, the sub-account model is what you are paying for.
See GoHighLevel pricingThe prices, plan by plan
Systeme.io
Systeme.io is free up to 2,000 contacts, then $17/mo Startup, $47/mo Webinar and $97/mo Unlimited on monthly billing. Annual billing gives you two months free. Every plan includes unlimited email sends, unlimited sub-accounts, and 0% transaction fees. The free plan never expires and does not require a credit card.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo (no annual discount published) | 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course, unlimited emails. Never expires, no credit card. |
| Startup | $17/mo, or $14/mo billed annually | 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels, 5 courses |
| Webinar | $47/mo, or $39/mo billed annually | 10,000 contacts, 50 funnels, 20 courses, evergreen webinars |
| Unlimited | $97/mo, or $80/mo billed annually | Unlimited contacts, funnels, courses, and automation rules |
What to watch: Monthly rates $17, $47, and $97 were read on systeme.io/pricing on 2026-10-13, in the page's own FAQ. That FAQ prints Webinar as 50 funnels and 20 courses, Unlimited as unlimited courses and automation rules, and every plan as unlimited email sends, unlimited sub-accounts, and 0% transaction fees. The free plan never expires and does not require a credit card. The same FAQ lists extra free-plan caps of 1 blog, 1 affiliate program, 1 custom domain, 1 automation rule, 1 email campaign, and 500 students. The pricing page prints Annual billing and 2 months free. The page HTML does not print the annual dollar amounts. Those dollars stay the 2026-10-05 reading from systeme.io's own affiliate page.
Source: https://systeme.io/pricing, read 2026-10-05.
See Systeme.io pricingKajabi
Kajabi is $179/mo Basic, $249/mo Growth and $499/mo Pro on monthly billing, or $143 / $199 / $399 per month billed annually. Kajabi takes no revenue share.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | $179/mo, or $143/mo billed annually | 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 website, 1 community, 2 admin users |
| Growth | $249/mo, or $199/mo billed annually | 50 products, 25,000 contacts, 1 website, 1 community, 11 admin users |
| Pro | $499/mo, or $399/mo billed annually | Unlimited products, 100,000 contacts, 3 websites, 3 communities, 26 admin users |
Prices checked 2026-10-05.
What to watch: Every plan price, annual rate, contact limit and payment fee on this page was read from kajabi.com/pricing itself. Kajabi takes no revenue share, but its own card rate and the third-party processor fee are listed separately above because they change the real cost.
Source: https://www.kajabi.com/pricing, read 2026-10-19.
See Kajabi pricingGoHighLevel
GoHighLevel is $97/mo Starter, $297/mo Unlimited and $497/mo Agency Pro, or $970 / $2,970 / $4,970 billed yearly. Every plan includes unlimited contacts and unlimited users. The cards say 14 days free. Billing starts on its own unless you cancel, and phone, text, email, and AI fees can apply during the trial.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $97/mo | 3 sub-accounts, unlimited contacts, unlimited users, all core features |
| Unlimited | $297/mo | Unlimited sub-accounts, rebill phone & email at no markup, basic API |
| Agency Pro | $497/mo | SaaS mode, automated sub-account creation, rebill with markup, advanced API |
| Enterprise | custom quote | Custom quote |
What to watch: Every plan price, annual total and add-on price on this page was read from gohighlevel.com/pricing itself. GoHighLevel does not publish a free plan. On 2026-10-11 the plan cards said 14 days free, and the page's own disclaimer said billing starts automatically unless you cancel, and phone, text, email, and AI usage fees can apply during the trial. Add-ons are extra. Some are billed per sub-account, some are a flat monthly fee, and WordPress hosting is per site. The same page also lists the certification program at $97 a month, online listings at $30 a month per sub-account, the premium prospecting tool at $29 a month per sub-account, and WordPress hosting from $10 a month per site. On 2026-10-12 the Unlimited card carried GoHighLevel's own Most Popular badge. This page does not treat that badge as a count of customers.
Source: https://www.gohighlevel.com/pricing, read 2026-10-19.
See GoHighLevel pricingKit (formerly ConvertKit)
Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers on the Newsletter plan. At 1,000 subscribers Creator is $39/mo billed monthly or $390/yr and Pro is $79/mo or $790/yr. Yearly billing also prints an extra 25% off Pro for the first year only: $50/mo, $593 billed, then it renews at the standard rate. Both plans scale with list size (Creator $169/mo at 15,000, Pro $249/mo).
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free (Newsletter) | $0/mo | Up to 10,000 subscribers, unlimited landing pages and forms, unlimited broadcasts, tagging and segmentation, sell digital products |
| Creator | $39/mo, or $32.5/mo billed annually | Everything in Free plus unlimited visual automations, unlimited sequences, A/B subject lines, SMS, remove Kit branding |
| Pro | $79/mo, or $65.83/mo billed annually | Everything in Creator plus Subscriber Signals, engagement analytics, unlimited users, deliverability reporting, newsletter referral system. Yearly billing at 1,000 subscribers prints an extra 25% off the first year ($50/mo, $593 billed). The page says that discount is the first year only and the plan then renews at the standard rate. |
What to watch: Free / Creator / Pro were read from kit.com/pricing itself, at 1,000 email subscribers, on 2026-10-12. The monthly toggle prints Creator $39/mo and Pro $79. The yearly toggle prints Creator as $33/mo ($390 billed yearly); that $33 is the page's rounding of $390/12, so the table keeps $32.50. The same yearly view prints an extra 25% off Pro for the first year ($50/mo, $593 billed) with $66 struck through, and says the plan renews at the standard rate after that year. The card does not print the standard Pro yearly total of $790. Kit's paid plans scale with list size, so the price shown is the price at 1,000 subscribers, not a flat rate. Both paid plans say the trial is 14 days and that no credit card is required.
Source: https://kit.com/pricing, read 2026-10-05.
See Kit (formerly ConvertKit) pricingQuestions people ask
What is the cheapest option here?
Systeme.io - free up to 2,000 contacts and one course, then $17/mo Startup ($14/mo billed annually) for 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels and 5 courses - the paywall, the content and the email in one bill. GoHighLevel Starter is $97/mo and Kit is free up to 10,000 subscribers, so those prices are under $100 too. Kajabi is ten times the price at $179/mo and its membership features are deeper, so it is the better product, not the cheaper one.
Are these prices first-party?
Every number on this page is read from the vendor's own pricing page or from the source named under each tool. Where a vendor renders prices in JavaScript, the caveat under that tool says so and names the source we used instead.
How often are these prices re-checked?
The dataset behind this page is re-checked against the vendors' own pricing pages every week, and the date at the top of the page is the last time every tool on it was confirmed.
Do you take payment for placement?
No. Some links are affiliate links and we may earn a commission if you buy through one, at no extra cost to you. The order of the picks is set by price and fit, not by commission.
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you buy through one we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We do not accept payment for placement, and the price tables are generated from the same dataset we re-check weekly. Full disclosure. How we check prices.