Fanvault and Kajabi are creator monetization platforms with very different economics: Fanvault charges a flat 8% per transaction with no monthly subscription, while Kajabi charges $179 to $499 per month plus 2.7% to 2.9% + $0.30 per sale through Kajabi Payments. The right pick in 2026 depends on whether a creator is selling structured courses to a focused list or running a fan storefront across subscriptions, drops, paid DMs, and signed memorabilia.
⚡ Key Takeaways
- Kajabi reset pricing on January 13, 2026: $179/$249/$499 per month plus 2.7% to 2.9% + $0.30 per sale through Kajabi Payments. Fanvault is a flat 8% with no subscription.
- Crossover sits around $4K to $6K/mo gross. Below it, Fanvault nets more. Above it, Kajabi's fixed-cost model amortizes well enough that the percentage gap wins.
- Kajabi has paid out $10 billion cumulatively to creators (August 2025, +25% YoY). Average six-figure Kajabi creator earns ~$190K/yr from just 309 paying customers.
- Kajabi can't host auctions, signed memorabilia, or adult content (Stripe's restricted business list). Fanvault is built for all three.
- Fanvault adds Telegram-based ops automation (listings, scheduling, DM triage, orders). Kajabi adds the email and funnel stack that course-led creators actually need.
- Best fit: Kajabi for course/coaching creators with a list. Fanvault for fan-economy creators, athletes, streamers, AI personas, and memorabilia sellers.
How do Fanvault and Kajabi actually charge creators?
Fanvault uses a single number. 8% per transaction, creators keep 92%, no monthly subscription, no plan tiers, no product cap, no contact cap. Payments run through Stripe Connect, and fulfillment for physical drops runs through Shippo.
Kajabi is a stack of two costs. The platform fee, what the company calls "no revenue share," is technically zero on the gross sale. But every account pays a fixed monthly subscription, and every transaction still pays processing. As of Kajabi's January 13, 2026 pricing reset, the public plans are $179/mo Basic, $249/mo Growth, and $499/mo Pro. The older $89 Kickstarter tier was pulled from public pricing.
Processing through Kajabi Payments runs 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic, 2.8% + $0.30 on Growth, and 2.7% + $0.30 on Pro, per Stripe. Use external Stripe or PayPal instead of Kajabi Payments, and Kajabi adds a 5% / 1% / 0.5% surcharge by plan.
Where does each platform win across the dimensions creators actually care about?
Here's the head-to-head across the seven dimensions that move the needle on a working creator's net.
| Dimension | Fanvault | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| Platform fee | 8% flat, creators keep 92% | No revenue share, but $179 to $499/mo plus 2.7% to 2.9% + $0.30 per sale |
| Fixed annual cost before any sales | $0 | $1,716 to $4,788 on annual billing; $2,148 to $5,988 on monthly billing |
| Core revenue streams | Tiered memberships, paywalled posts, paid DMs, custom requests, tips, wishlists, auctions, buy-it-now drops | Online courses, coaching, memberships, communities, digital downloads, podcasts |
| Product and contact caps | None on any account | Basic: 5 products / 2,500 contacts. Growth: 50 / 25,000. Pro: unlimited / 100,000 |
| Marketplace and memorabilia | Authenticated auctions with proxy bidding, anti-snipe windows, provenance metadata, Shippo fulfillment | None. Kajabi is not a marketplace and does not host auctions or physical-goods drops |
| Conversational ops layer | Built-in chat and Telegram for listing items, scheduling content, triaging fan DMs, managing orders | AI assists draft course outlines, lessons, and email sequences. No native ops layer |
| Content rules | 18+ platform, verified onboarding, Sightengine AI moderation, two-strike policy, invite-gated | Inherits Stripe's restricted business list; adult content prohibited |
What does the math look like at $1K and $10K a month?
The crossover between a flat-percentage platform and a subscription-plus-processing platform depends on gross volume and the size of an average transaction.
At $1,000/month across, say, 20 transactions averaging $50, Fanvault takes its 8% and the creator nets $920. Kajabi Basic at the same volume charges $179 plus roughly $35 in processing (2.9% + $0.30 x 20), leaving about $786. Fanvault wins by roughly $134/mo at that scale.
At $10,000/month across 20 transactions averaging $500, Fanvault takes $800 and the creator nets $9,200. Kajabi Growth at the same volume charges $249 plus about $286 in processing, leaving about $9,465. Kajabi wins by roughly $265/mo at that scale, and the gap widens on Pro as volume climbs further.
The practical crossover lands somewhere in the $4K to $6K/mo range for course-style revenue. Lower if transaction count is high (each $0.30 fee adds up). Higher if average order is high. Beneath the crossover, the Kajabi subscription is dead weight a creator pays before earning a dollar. Above it, the 2.7% to 2.9% processing rate beats Fanvault's 8% comfortably.
Where does Kajabi clearly win in 2026?
Kajabi is the dominant knowledge-commerce stack in 2026. Per Business Wire, the platform has paid out $10 billion cumulatively to creators as of August 2025, up 25% year over year from the $8B mark Tubefilter reported in October 2024.
The platform is built around structured courses, coaching cohorts, communities, email automations, and funnels in one account. The average six-figure Kajabi creator earns about $190K/year from just 309 paying customers, off an email list of roughly 4,000, and more than 75% of them run multiple revenue streams averaging 5 each. Financial educator Dominique Broadway scaled her Kajabi business past $10 million in revenue starting from under 100,000 followers, per the same Business Wire release.
For a coach, a financial educator, or a course-led creator who can clear $5K+ in monthly product sales, Kajabi's fixed-cost model amortizes well, and the email plus funnel infrastructure does real work that a fan-monetization platform wouldn't replicate.
Where does Fanvault clearly win in 2026?
Fanvault is built for transactional fan revenue rather than course curricula. The fee is a flat 8%, there is no $2,000+/year fixed cost to clear before the first dollar is profit, and the storefront layer is unique. Kajabi doesn't host auctions, buy-it-now drops, or authenticated memorabilia. Fanvault does, with proxy bidding, reserve prices, anti-snipe extended bidding windows, and provenance metadata on every listing.
It also covers content categories Kajabi can't. Because Kajabi runs on Stripe under the hood, accounts are bound by Stripe's restricted business list, which prohibits the sale of adult content through Kajabi. Fanvault is an 18+ verified platform with AI moderation via Sightengine and a brand-safe two-strike policy, narrower than an OnlyFans-style platform but broader than knowledge commerce.
And the conversational layer is doing actual operations work. Creators can list a memorabilia auction, schedule paywalled content, triage fan DMs, and manage orders from a chat interface or Telegram. On Kajabi, those tasks still fall to the creator or a hired VA. Goldman Sachs projects the creator economy to roughly double from $250B in 2024 to about $480B by 2027, and a meaningful share of that growth sits in transactional fan revenue rather than course catalogs.
So which one should you pick in 2026?
| Creator type | Fanvault | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| Course creator with an email list of 2,000+ | Not built for it | Best fit |
| Coach selling structured cohorts | Not built for it | Best fit |
| Streamer or athlete monetizing a fanbase | Best fit | Not built for it |
| Creator selling signed merch, worn apparel, or one-of-ones | Best fit | Not supported |
| Adult-adjacent or 18+ creator | Best fit | Not permitted |
| Beginner with no audience yet | Lower fixed cost to start (8% only on what you actually earn) | $179/mo fixed cost from day one |
| AI or virtual creator with a persona | Best fit (Content Capital integration) | Possible, but not native |
For most knowledge-commerce creators with a real audience and a course to sell, Kajabi is still the right answer in 2026. For everyone running a fan economy across subscriptions, paid DMs, drops, and signed memorabilia, Fanvault's 8% and built-in storefront is the cleaner stack.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Kajabi cheaper than Fanvault?
It depends on your gross monthly revenue. At
Can I sell physical memorabilia or signed items on Kajabi?
No. Kajabi is a knowledge-commerce stack: courses, coaching, memberships, communities, digital downloads, podcasts. It does not host auctions, buy-it-now drops, or authenticated physical-goods sales. Fanvault is built for that flow:
How long does Kajabi take to pay out?
Per Kajabi's help center, Kajabi Payments offers daily, weekly, or monthly payout schedules, but new accounts default to monthly with a T+7 transaction delay, and the first payout can take up to 7 business days. Fanvault uses Stripe Connect's standard payout cadence, which on a verified account in good standing typically lands every 2 business days once payouts begin.
Does Fanvault work for course creators?
Fanvault can host paywalled video and downloadable files inside a membership tier, and it's a perfectly viable home for a casual or ad-hoc course product. But it doesn't have the structured course-builder, drip-content engine, completion tracking, certificate issuance, email automation, sales funnel, or affiliate program that Kajabi is built around. A creator running a real cohort-based course business should use Kajabi (or pair Kajabi for the course with Fanvault for the fan-economy side).
What about adult or 18+ content?
Kajabi cannot host it. Kajabi accounts run on Stripe and inherit Stripe's restricted business list, which prohibits the sale of adult content through any Kajabi account regardless of how the creator frames the product. Fanvault is an
