Is Kajabi a CRM?

Introduction

Welcome to my real talk breakdown for online business owners curious if Kajabi is right for you.

When I first started using Kajabi, I wasn’t thinking about whether it could be my CRM. I was just trying to find a platform that would let me stop duct-taping my digital business together. Courses? Check. Email? Check. Payments? Done.

But as my audience grew and I started automating more of my marketing, I found myself wondering:

Wait... can I actually use Kajabi as my CRM, too?

Spoiler alert: yes and no. Let’s unpack that.

What even is a CRM? (and do you need one?)

Before we answer whether Kajabi is a CRM, let’s get clear on what a CRM actually does.

CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management, which is just a fancy way of saying, “How you keep track of your people??” Your subscribers, your clients, your customers—all of it.

A full-fledged CRM (think Salesforce, HubSpot, HoneyBook) usually includes features like:

• Contact storage and organization
• Lead tracking and sales pipelines
• Deal forecasting and reporting
• Automation workflows and activity logs
• Tools for managing multiple team members or departments

If you’re running a sales-heavy business or onboarding tons of 1:1 clients, this level of structure can be essential. But if you're a solopreneur running a course-based business? You might not need all that firepower.

Is Kajabi a CRM?

Yes… ish!

Kajabi isn’t technically a CRM in the traditional sense. But depending on your needs, it might check enough boxes to function like one.

Here’s where Kajabi shines: It gives you a centralized place to manage your leads, customers, and community. You can tag contacts who purchase your online courses or opt-in for a lead magnet, automate emails based on behavior, and see a snapshot of their journey—all without leaving the platform.

You won’t get the heavy-duty pipeline or proposal tracking, but you will get:

• Contact profiles for every subscriber, student, or buyer
• Tagging and segmentation tools
• Purchase history and product enrollment
• Email campaign performance (opens, clicks, etc.)
• Trigger-based automations to personalize the customer journey

For most course creators, coaches, or consultants, that’s often more than enough. 

For me, I also operate a full-service branding/design studio, so we require a bit more of a robust CRM to send proposals, track pipeline stages, and automate things in a similar but different way. To learn more about how I do that you can read my blog here.

How I use Kajabi as a CRM inside Good Brand Academy

Let me give you a behind-the-scenes peek.

Inside Good Brand Academy, Kajabi is where I keep tabs on my students, subscribers, and customers. When someone downloads a freebie, signs up for a webinar, or purchases a course—they're automatically tagged, segmented, and added to a tailored automation flow.

Here are a few things I track and manage:

• Who’s downloaded which resources
• Which course(s) or trainings they’ve purchased
• Progress or where they dropped off in a course (so I can follow up!)
• How they engage with my emails (opens, clicks, etc.)
• Which audience segment they fall into

Is it perfect? Nope. But it’s all I need for this branch of my business. It gives me a clear picture of where my audience is in their journeyand helps me serve them better without needing a separate CRM tool. Which is solid enough for me!

How does Kajabi measure up as a CRM?

As much as I love Kajabi, let’s keep it honest: it’s not built to be a full-scale CRM for service-based businesses that rely on custom proposals, sales pipelines, or multi-person teams.

So here’s what Kajabi won’t do:

• Manage contracts or proposals
• Track deal stages or lead scoring
• Build advanced reports or dashboards
  
  

If you’re working with a small team or doing complex service delivery, you’ll likely need a second tool (I use HoneyBook for my branding and web design clients). But for digital products, memberships, and online courses? Kajabi can absolutely hold its own.

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Should you use Kajabi as your CRM?

Here’s my take, straight up:

If you’re a coach, course creator, educator, or content-based business owner, Kajabi is more than capable of being your CRM—especially if your focus is building relationships through email and digital offers.

But if your business relies heavily on proposals, contracts, or a more complex sales process? Pair Kajabi with a service-based CRM like HoneyBook or Dubsado and keep the customer journey smooth from start to finish — keeping your more educational offerings on Kajabi (think courses, community, downloads, etc.)

Kajabi CRM: Yay, Nay, or Kinda?

I say yay! But it depends on your goals.

In summary, Kajabi is sort of a CRM.

Remember, it’s not a traditional CRM like the big, more corporate players — but for creators and educators, it offers just enough CRM functionality to organize your contacts, track engagement, automate emails, and keep things simple.

If you’re building a product-driven business, it might be all you need.

If you’re running a service based business that requires a bit more CRM features, consider looking at HoneyBook, Dubsado, or even Salesorce and Hubspot.

Curious if Kajabi could work for you? Try Kajabi free for 30 days using my extended trial link and see how it fits your workflow.