The best funnel builder for most coaches is GoHighLevel, because it puts funnels, booking calendars, a CRM pipeline, email and two-way SMS in one account for $97/mo. If you’re just starting and money is tight, Systeme.io’s free plan covers funnels, email and a course. If your coaching is mostly courses and community, Kajabi gives students a better home.
Coaches need more than a page builder. You need a way to capture leads, book discovery calls, follow up until they show up, take payment and deliver the program. We compared five platforms on those jobs, priced them at 1,000, 5,000 and 15,000 contacts, and noted where the fees and limits catch coaches out.
Short answer: choose GoHighLevel if you sell calls and want booking, reminders and follow-up in one place. Choose Systeme.io to start free. Choose Kajabi if courses and community are the product. Choose ClickFunnels if paid-ad funnels drive your sales. Choose Kartra if you want helpdesk and video hosting built in.
What coaches need from a funnel builder
Most coaching businesses run on the same path: lead magnet or free training, a booking page for a discovery call, reminders so people show up, a sales conversation, then payment and delivery. Here’s what that means for the software:
- Booking calendars with reminders. No-shows are expensive. Email and SMS reminders help.
- A simple pipeline. You want to see who booked, who showed and who bought.
- Checkout with payment plans. High-ticket coaching is often sold in instalments.
- Delivery. A course area, community or member portal for group programs.
- Fair pricing as your list grows. Contact caps and fees on sales can double your bill.
1
GoHighLevel: best for coaches who sell calls
Best for: coaches who book calls, follow up by SMS and track leads in a pipeline
From $97/mo · $970/yr billed yearly · 30-day trial through our link (14 days direct)
GoHighLevel combines a funnel and website builder, booking calendars, a CRM with pipelines, email, two-way SMS, workflows and courses with communities. For a coach, that covers the whole path from opt-in to booked call to paid client in one login.
Starter is $97/mo, Unlimited is $297/mo and Agency Pro is $497/mo. Most solo coaches only need Starter. The catch is usage: SMS, calls and email sending are billed on top of the plan, so set a usage limit before you run big campaigns.
✓ WHY PICK IT
Booking, reminders, pipeline and follow-up are built in, so you don’t pay for a separate scheduler or CRM.
✕ WATCH OUT
It’s a big platform with a steep first month, and usage fees for SMS and email are extra.
2
Systeme.io: best free option for new coaches
Best for: new coaches who want funnels, email and a course without a monthly bill
Free plan · paid from $17/mo · $170/yr billed yearly · 0% fees
Systeme.io’s free plan includes up to 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course and unlimited email sends, according to two 2026 guides. Paid plans are Startup ($17/mo, 5,000 contacts), Webinar ($47/mo, 10,000 contacts, evergreen webinars) and Unlimited ($97/mo).
It covers funnels, checkouts with upsells, email automation, courses, communities and an affiliate program. For discovery calls you’ll usually link a separate booking tool from your funnel.
✓ WHY PICK IT
The lowest cost of any tool here at every list size, with 0% fees on sales.
✕ WATCH OUT
No native SMS, and you’ll need a separate tool for booking calls.
3
Kajabi: best for course and community coaches
Best for: coaches whose main product is a course, group program or membership
From $179/mo · $143/mo billed yearly · free trial
Kajabi is built around the student experience: courses, coaching programs, community and a mobile app for students, plus funnels, email and a website. Plans are Basic ($179/mo, 2,500 contacts), Growth ($249/mo, 25,000 contacts) and Pro ($499/mo, 100,000 contacts), after a price rise in January 2026.
Kajabi takes no platform cut with Kajabi Payments (2.9% + $0.30 per sale on Basic). If you connect your own Stripe, it adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth and 0.5% on Pro.
✓ WHY PICK IT
A polished home for students, with community and coaching built in.
✕ WATCH OUT
The highest starting price here, and Basic’s 2,500-contact cap fills fast.
4
ClickFunnels: best for coaches selling with paid ads
Best for: coaches who run ads into funnels with upsells and webinars
From $97/mo · $81/mo billed yearly · free trial
ClickFunnels is a funnel-first builder with templates for lead magnets, webinars, application funnels and upsells. Launch ($97/mo) includes 10,000 contacts, 3 courses and 50,000 emails a month; Scale ($197/mo) and Optimize ($297/mo) add more contacts, workspaces, the full API and priority support.
Booking calendars aren’t part of Launch, so coaches who sell calls usually connect a scheduler. ClickFunnels doesn’t list a percentage fee on sales on current plans.
✓ WHY PICK IT
Strong funnel and upsell tools, and 10,000 contacts on the entry plan.
✕ WATCH OUT
No SMS or booking on Launch, so call-based coaches will add other tools.
5
Kartra: best for helpdesk and video in one account
Best for: coaches with small lists who want calendars, helpdesk and video hosting built in
From $59/mo · $52/mo billed yearly · 5% fee on Essentials
Kartra bundles pages, funnels, email, memberships, video hosting, booking calendars and a customer helpdesk. Plans are Essentials ($59/mo, 500 contacts), Starter ($119/mo, 2,500), Growth ($229/mo, 12,500) and Professional ($549/mo, 25,000).
Essentials takes 5% of every sale, according to two 2026 guides, so most coaches should start on Starter. Costs climb steeply past 12,500 contacts.
✓ WHY PICK IT
Calendars, helpdesk and video hosting in one bill, with no fee on sales from Starter up.
✕ WATCH OUT
Expensive as your list grows, and Essentials takes 5% of sales.
Coaching features side by side
| Feature | GoHighLevel | Systeme.io | Kajabi | ClickFunnels | Kartra |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Trial | Yes | Trial | Trial | Trial |
| Funnels and checkout | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Booking calendars | Yes | Add a tool | Via coaching | Not on Launch | Yes |
| Two-way SMS | Usage fees | No | Not a core feature | Not a core feature | Listed from Starter |
| CRM pipeline | Yes | Basic | Basic | Basic | Basic |
| Courses | Yes | Yes | Yes | 3 on Launch | Yes |
| Community | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Check plan |
| Fee on sales | None listed | 0% | 0% with Kajabi Payments | None listed | 5% on Essentials |
What each costs at 1,000, 5,000 and 15,000 contacts
Here’s the plan you’d need and the yearly cost on annual billing. Monthly billing costs more: multiply the monthly price by 12. Prices checked on 6 November 2026.
| Tool | 1,000 contacts | 5,000 contacts | 15,000 contacts |
|---|---|---|---|
| GoHighLevel | Starter: $970/yr + usage | Starter: $970/yr + usage | Starter: $970/yr + usage |
| Systeme.io | Free: $0 | Startup: $170/yr | Unlimited: $970/yr |
| Kajabi | Basic: $1,716/yr | Growth: $2,388/yr | Growth: $2,388/yr |
| ClickFunnels | Launch: $970/yr | Launch: $970/yr | Scale: $1,970/yr |
| Kartra | Starter: $1,188/yr | Growth: $2,268/yr | Professional: $5,148/yr |
GoHighLevel’s Starter plan doesn’t step up by contact count, which makes its cost predictable as your list grows. Budget for SMS and email usage on top; that depends on how many reminders and campaigns you send.
Systeme.io is the cheapest at every size. Kartra is the most expensive past 12,500 contacts. Kajabi sits in the middle and is good value at 15,000 contacts thanks to Growth’s 25,000-contact cap.
Warning. Check the fee on sales before you pick a cheap plan. Kartra Essentials takes 5% of every sale, and Kajabi adds 2% on Basic if you use your own Stripe account. On a $2,000 coaching package, 5% is $100.
Which should you pick for your coaching model?
| Your coaching model | Best fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1 high-ticket coaching sold on calls | GoHighLevel | Booking, reminders, SMS follow-up and pipeline in one place |
| Group program plus community | Kajabi | Community, coaching product and student app built in |
| Just starting, testing an offer | Systeme.io | Free plan with funnels, email and a course |
| Paid ads into a webinar or low-ticket offer | ClickFunnels | Funnel templates, upsells and generous contact limits |
| Course plus support desk for members | Kartra | Membership, video hosting and helpdesk together |
| Coach who also builds funnels for clients | GoHighLevel | Sub-accounts and white-label options on higher plans |
Do coaches need an all-in-one, or separate tools?
You can run a coaching business on a page builder, a scheduler, an email tool and a payment link. Many coaches start that way. The problem shows up later: contacts live in four places, reminders don’t know who already bought, and every new offer means reconnecting integrations.
An all-in-one keeps leads, bookings, payments and follow-up in one record, so automations can react to what each person did. That’s the main reason we rank GoHighLevel first for call-based coaching and Kajabi first for course-based coaching. If you’re still validating your offer, separate free or cheap tools are fine; Systeme.io’s free plan is a good middle ground until you have paying clients.
How to choose a funnel builder as a coach
- Map your sales path first. Write down every step from first click to paid client. Count the tools each platform would replace.
- Price next year’s list size. Contact caps are where costs jump. Pick the plan you’ll need in 12 months.
- Check fees on sales. A percentage cut costs more than a higher monthly price once you sell high-ticket packages.
- Decide how you’ll book calls. If the platform has no calendar, add the cost of a scheduler.
- Think about delivery. Course-heavy coaches benefit from Kajabi’s student area; call-heavy coaches benefit from GoHighLevel’s CRM.
- Use the trial with a real funnel. Build your actual lead magnet and booking flow during the trial, not a demo page.
Switching platforms without losing clients
- Export contacts with tags as CSV and map tags before importing.
- Rebuild your best-converting funnel first; keep the old one live until the new one works.
- Move booking links last, and update links in your email signature and social bios.
- Move recurring payments one at a time and check one renews before moving the rest.
- Keep the old account for one billing cycle so old email links still work.
If you work with clients as an agency as well as coaching, our best CRM for marketing agencies guide covers tools with client sub-accounts. For a wider list beyond coaching, see our best funnel builder roundup.
How we chose
This guide is research-based. We didn’t run new paid test accounts for it. We compared each platform’s plan tables, limits and help docs against the jobs coaches need done: lead capture, booking, follow-up, payment and delivery. Modasser also draws on client work building funnels and CRMs on several of these platforms.
Prices were checked on 6 November 2026. GoHighLevel and ClickFunnels prices match figures already verified on WebSourceLab and ClickFunnels’ official plan table. Systeme.io, Kajabi and Kartra prices come from at least two dated 2026 pricing guides each, because their official pricing pages didn’t load for our checker. See how we test for our method.
Sources: GoHighLevel pricing, ClickFunnels plan comparison (help centre), Systeme.io pricing, Kajabi pricing, Kartra pricing, AI Funnel Insider Systeme.io review (updated 2 Nov 2026), Learning Revolution Kajabi pricing (updated 8 Oct 2026), Elev8or Kajabi pricing (1 Nov 2026), Schoolmaker Kartra pricing (updated 10 Sep 2026), CartMango Kartra pricing (21 Aug 2026).
OUR PICK
GoHighLevel for coaches who sell calls. Systeme.io to start free. Kajabi for course-led coaching.
GoHighLevel covers the full coaching sales path, from funnel to booked call to follow-up, for a flat $97/mo plus usage. Systeme.io is the best way to start without a monthly bill, and Kajabi is the strongest choice when your program lives in a course and community.
FAQ
What is the best funnel builder for coaches?
For most coaches who sell discovery calls, GoHighLevel, because it includes funnels, booking calendars, CRM pipeline, email and two-way SMS from $97/mo. For course-led coaches, Kajabi. For a free start, Systeme.io.
Is there a free funnel builder for coaches?
Yes. Systeme.io has a free plan with up to 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course and unlimited email sends, according to two 2026 guides.
Is GoHighLevel good for a solo coach?
Yes, if you’ll use booking, SMS and follow-up automation. The Starter plan at $97/mo covers one business. If you only need a sales page and email, a simpler tool will cost less.
Is Kajabi worth it for coaches?
It’s worth it if your coaching is delivered through courses, group programs and a community. It starts at $179/mo, so it’s expensive if you mainly sell one-to-one calls.
ClickFunnels or GoHighLevel for coaches?
Both start at $97/mo. GoHighLevel includes booking calendars, CRM pipelines and SMS, which call-based coaches need. ClickFunnels is stronger for paid-ad funnels and upsells but doesn’t include booking on Launch.
Do these tools take a cut of my coaching sales?
Kartra Essentials takes 5% of sales. Kajabi adds 0.5% to 2% if you use your own Stripe instead of Kajabi Payments. Systeme.io lists 0%, and GoHighLevel and ClickFunnels don’t list a platform fee. Your payment processor still charges its normal rate.