Migrating an active course academy from Teachable to Kajabi is a major operational milestone that unlocks advanced marketing funnels and eliminates 5% transaction fees. However, migrating hundreds of active students, video assets, and recurring subscriptions without downtime requires disciplined execution.
A botched software migration leads to frustrated students locked out of curriculum, broken recurring billing streams, and lost customer goodwill. Approaching platform migration with an engineering mindset ensures zero data loss and uninterrupted operations.
This technical guide provides a battle-tested blueprint for migrating from Teachable to Kajabi. We break down student data export, curriculum reconstruction, video transfers, and Stripe subscription cutover protocols.
Complete Architectural Blueprint for Migrating from Teachable to Kajabi
Teachable and Kajabi utilize fundamentally different data schemas for courses, offers, and student progress tracking. While Teachable organizes curriculum into Sections and Lectures, Kajabi structures products into Categories and Posts within an Offer architecture.
Understanding this structural divergence prevents confusion during curriculum reconstruction. In Kajabi, a 'Product' contains the learning material, while an 'Offer' controls pricing, access grants, and checkout automations.
Let us examine the complete end-to-end migration roadmap across all four critical execution phases.
Pre-Migration Architecture and Field Mapping
Before exporting data, audit how your existing Teachable curriculum translates into Kajabi's administrative hierarchy:
In Teachable, courses contain Sections and Lectures. In Kajabi, your course translates into a Product containing Categories (modules) and Posts (individual lessons).
In Teachable, pricing is attached directly to the course. In Kajabi, you must create one or more Offers linked to the Product, allowing you to establish multiple pricing variants (e.g., annual vs monthly) for the same curriculum.
Additionally, prepare your video asset library. If you do not have original MP4 files stored locally, you must download your video library directly from Teachable before beginning the transfer.
The 4-Phase Migration Roadmap: Timeline and Deliverables
Executing a seamless platform migration requires a phased approach over a 14 to 30 day transition window. The table below outlines each phase and its associated technical deliverables.
| Migration Phase | Timeline | Core Technical Deliverables | Data Verification Protocol | Risk Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phase 1: Asset Export | Days 1–3 | Export student CSVs, course completion logs, and raw video files | Cross-check active student count against Stripe customer records | Low |
| Phase 2: Product Build | Days 4–10 | Rebuild curriculum hierarchy, upload video assets, configure Kajabi Offers | Preview lesson playback across desktop and mobile browsers | Low |
| Phase 3: Student Onboarding | Days 11–18 | Import student records via CSV, grant Product access, trigger password resets | Send test welcome sequence to internal staging accounts | Medium |
| Phase 4: Billing Cutover | Days 19–30 | Transition recurring subscriptions or grandfather legacy members | Audit failed payment dunning schedules and cancel Teachable | High |
(Source: PlatformProbe LMS migration engineering benchmarks and verified Kajabi API documentation, verified September 2026)
Creators can evaluate the detailed feature differences between both platforms in our Teachable Platform Review and Kajabi Platform Review.
Step-by-Step Guide to Exporting Student Data from Teachable
To safely export your customer records from Teachable without losing enrollment histories, follow this exact workflow:
Step 1: Log into your Teachable admin dashboard, navigate to Users, and select the Students tab. Click on Export CSV in the upper right corner.
Step 2: Ensure your export includes Full Name, Email Address, Sign-up Date, Enrolled Courses, and Progress Percentages. Download the CSV and create a timestamped backup copy on secure cloud storage.
Step 3: Open your export file in Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. Sanitize your data by removing duplicate records, flagging bounced email addresses, and formatting student tags to match your Kajabi organization scheme.
[SCREENSHOT NEEDED: Teachable Users admin screen displaying the filtered student export modal and progress percentage data columns]
Importing Students into Kajabi and Granting Product Access
Kajabi allows creators to import student contacts in bulk and grant automated access to corresponding courses without charging their cards:
Step 1: In Kajabi, navigate to Contacts, click Add Contacts, and select Import Multiple Contacts. Upload your sanitized student CSV.
Step 2: Map your CSV columns to Kajabi standard fields (First Name, Last Name, Email). Under the Grant Offers section, select the Kajabi Offer corresponding to the course your imported students previously purchased on Teachable.
Step 3: Toggle on the Send customer notification email option. Kajabi will automatically dispatch personalized account activation emails containing secure one-click password creation links.
Handling Active Recurring Subscriptions Without Billing Disruption
Migrating recurring membership subscriptions requires careful handling to prevent accidental double-billing or involuntary customer churn:
If you run Teachable:pay, you cannot automatically migrate Stripe customer tokens into Kajabi because Teachable owns the underlying merchant account. In this scenario, you must grandfather existing members or run an incentive campaign encouraging students to re-subscribe on Kajabi.
If you connected a custom Stripe account on Teachable Pro, you can execute a secure Stripe-to-Stripe token copy directly through Stripe support, preserving active subscription tokens without requiring students to re-enter credit card details.
Calculate your potential subscription revenue retention and fee savings using our free TCO Fee Calculator.
Post-Migration Verification and Domain Cutover
Once all students and curriculum are staged in Kajabi, finalize the cutover with these critical steps:
First, point your custom domain DNS records to Kajabi's Cloudflare servers to ensure all web traffic routes to your new academy.
Second, set up 301 permanent redirects from legacy Teachable course URLs to your new Kajabi lesson pages to preserve search engine rankings and prevent broken links.
Finally, keep your Teachable account active on the lowest tier for 30 days to monitor trailing support tickets before permanently closing the account. Explore alternative migration paths in our Platform Match Tool.
Frequently Asked Questions About Migrating from Teachable to Kajabi
Q: Will students lose their course completion progress when migrating to Kajabi? A: Yes, student lesson progress percentages cannot be transferred via CSV between different LMS database architectures; students will start fresh in Kajabi.
Q: How long does a full Teachable to Kajabi migration take? A: A typical migration with 3 to 10 courses and under 2,000 students takes between 7 and 14 business days.
Q: Can I download all my course videos from Teachable at once? A: No, Teachable does not offer a bulk video ZIP export; videos must be downloaded lecture by lecture or via the Teachable REST API.
Q: Does Kajabi charge extra for importing existing students? A: No, Kajabi allows unlimited contact imports within your plan's active contact quota (10,000 on Basic, 25,000 on Growth).
Q: What happens to existing affiliate links after migrating to Kajabi? A: Teachable affiliate tracking links will cease working; you must onboard your promotional partners into Kajabi's native affiliate portal.