Kajabi vs Pewpros: Feature Comparison & Attack Strategy

Research date: 2026-04-05 Issue: #205 Sources: developers.kajabi.com, kajabi.com/features, Pewpros codebase audit

1. Executive Summary

Pewpros is a single-tenant, firearms-industry-focused learning + membership + community platform with deep vertical integrations (USCCA, GHL, Stripe Terminal, Apple Wallet, iOS Live Activities). Kajabi is a horizontal, multi-tenant creator-economy platform optimized for course/membership/coaching creators.

The two platforms overlap in ~60% of their surface area (courses, memberships, community, commerce, CRM, email, automations, blog), but each has unique strengths:

Pewpros wins on: events & scheduling, appointments, mobile/native (APNs, Live Activities, Wallet), unified communications (SMS/voice/chat), approval gates in automations, USCCA/GHL integrations, in-person POS, family memberships, refund/reschedule policy engine.

Kajabi wins on: landing page & website builder, funnels/pipelines, public OAuth API with JSON:API + webhooks, forms builder, offers/pricing flexibility (payment plans, order bumps), podcasts, coaching product type, analytics polish, mobile creator/consumer apps, developer ecosystem.

The attack strategy (Section 6) prioritizes: (1) public developer API + webhooks (table stakes for integrations); (2) payment plans + order bumps (revenue uplift); (3) forms builder (lead capture gap); (4) page/funnel builder (long-tail).

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2. Feature Matrix

Legend: ● = full parity, ◐ = partial, ○ = missing, ★ = Pewpros exceeds Kajabi

Area	Capability	Kajabi	Pewpros	Notes
Courses / LMS	Course → module → lesson hierarchy	●	●	Pewpros: course → section → lesson
	Video lessons (embedded)	●	●	No built-in hosting either side; both embed
	Text / PDF lessons	●	●
	Drip content (date + day-count)	●	●
	Progress tracking	●	●	Lesson + video position
	Assessments / quizzes	●	○	Schema stub only, no grading UI
	Assignments (upload, grade)	●	○	Not implemented
	Certificates on completion	●	● ★	Pewpros has 6 certificate types + PDF gen
	Prerequisites / skill trees	●	○
	Sequential mode	●	●
	Cohorts / group-based courses	●	◐	Groups exist but not cohort model
	Multi-instructor courses	●	○	Single instructor field
	Free preview lessons	●	●
	Course bundles	●	◐	Via membership levels
Memberships	Recurring subscriptions	●	●
	Tiered membership levels	●	●
	Family plans	○	● ★	Primary + spouse + dependents with Stripe
	Trial periods	●	◐	Only via Stripe config, no UI
	Pause / resume	●	○
	Proration on upgrade	●	○
	Dunning management	●	◐	Basic retry, no upsell on decline
	Auto-enrollment in linked courses	●	●	Via membership_level_courses
	External sync (USCCA)	○	● ★	USCCA bidirectional sync
Community	Feed, posts, comments, likes	●	●
	Categories / spaces	●	●
	Polls	●	●
	Leaderboards / gamification	●	●	Points + point_events
	Member profiles	●	●
	Moderation (report, block, pin)	●	●
	Direct messages	●	●	Unified conversations
	@ mentions & notifications	●	○
	Hashtags	●	○
	Threaded replies	●	○	Flat comment structure
	Private sub-groups / channels	●	○
	Live events / streaming	●	◐	AWS IVS integration exists
	Push notifications on activity	●	● ★	APNs + iOS Live Activities
Email Marketing	Broadcast emails	●	●	Admin compose
	Drip sequences / campaigns	●	◐	Via automations, no dedicated UI
	Segments (behavior-based)	●	◐	Tag-based only
	Email templates library	●	◐	Transactional only
	A/B testing	●	○
	Open / click tracking	●	○
	Deliverability monitoring	●	○
	Forms → email list	●	○	No form builder
	SMS broadcasts	○	● ★	Twilio
	Voice broadcasts	○	● ★	Twilio
Funnels / Pages	Landing page builder (drag-drop)	●	○	Hardcoded templates only
	Sales funnel / pipeline (multi-step)	●	○
	Opt-in forms / lead capture	●	○
	Thank-you pages	●	◐	Hardcoded per flow
	A/B test pages	●	○
	Custom website pages	●	○
	Themes / templates marketplace	●	○	Tenant branding only
	Popups / exit intent	●	○
Commerce	One-time products	●	●	Shop
	Recurring subscriptions	●	●
	Payment plans (installments)	●	○	Split payments not supported
	Order bumps (checkout upsell)	●	◐	Event addons only
	Upsells (post-purchase)	●	○
	Coupons / promo codes	●	●
	Tax calculation	●	◐	Stripe only
	Multi-currency	●	◐	Stripe supports but UI fixed
	Physical products + shipping	◐	● ★	Kajabi is digital-first
	Affiliate program	●	○
	In-person POS	○	● ★	Stripe Terminal
	Apple Wallet passes	○	● ★	Events & memberships
Analytics	Revenue dashboard	●	●
	Student progress reports	●	●
	Cohort analytics	●	○
	Funnel conversion analytics	●	○
	Video watch analytics	●	●
	Email engagement	●	○
	Custom report builder	●	○
	CSV export	●	●
Automations	Visual workflow builder	●	●
	Trigger types	●	● ★	Pewpros: 15+ incl. community, webhooks
	Action types	●	● ★	20+ nodes incl. Stripe ops
	Conditional branching	●	●
	Delay / wait steps	●	●
	Manual approval gates	○	● ★
	Sub-workflows	○	● ★
	Rate limiting / circuit breaker	○	● ★
	Templates library	●	●
Events / Scheduling	Calendar events	○	● ★	Kajabi has no events
	Recurring event series	○	● ★	instances + occurrences
	Ticket types & pricing tiers	○	● ★
	Registration + payment	○	● ★
	Waitlist	○	● ★
	Check-in (QR)	○	● ★
	Refund / reschedule policies	○	● ★	Full policy engine
	Virtual / Zoom / IVS integration	○	● ★
	1:1 appointment booking	◐	● ★	Kajabi has coaching calls, not quite the same
	Venue management	○	● ★
Blog / Content	Blog posts + categories	●	●
	SEO metadata	●	●
	RSS feed	●	●
	Scheduled publishing	●	○	No publish_at
	Comments	●	○
	Podcasts	●	○	Not implemented
	Newsletters (separate product)	●	○
Mobile	Creator mobile app	●	○	Kajabi has one, we don't
	Learner mobile app	●	●	Swift app
	Push notifications	●	●	APNs
	iOS Live Activities	○	● ★
	Offline sync	◐	○
Integrations	Stripe	●	●	Both deep
	Google Calendar	●	●
	Mailchimp / Klaviyo	●	○
	Zapier / Make	●	○	No native connector
	GHL (Go High Level)	○	● ★
	USCCA	○	● ★
	Twilio	○	● ★
	Zoom	●	●
	WordPress / WooCommerce import	●	●
Auth / Users	Email + password	●	●
	Magic link	●	●
	Social login (Google/FB/Apple)	●	◐	Only Google for calendar, not login
	2FA	●	○
	SSO (SAML)	●	○
	Roles & permissions	●	●	student/admin/owner/super_admin

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3. Public API Comparison

3.1 API Design Philosophy

Dimension	Kajabi	Pewpros
Base URL	https://api.kajabi.com/v1	https://{tenant}.pewpros.com/api/v1
Format	JSON:API (sparse fields, includes, relationships)	Plain REST JSON
Auth	OAuth 2.0 client_credentials grant	Bearer token (user) + X-Admin-Key (admin)
Developer docs	Public Mintlify site, OpenAPI spec, Postman collection	/docs (internal), OpenAPI at /api/docs/openapi.json
Self-serve API keys	● Via Kajabi Dashboard → Public API settings	○ No customer-facing key management
Scopes	● Granular (view:contacts, view:orders, etc.)	○ Coarse (admin vs user)
Sandbox env	◐ Not documented	○ None
Rate limits	Not publicly documented	◐ Only on /auto-login (10/60s)
Webhooks (self-serve CRUD)	● Full via /v1/hooks	○ Hardcoded incoming endpoints
Idempotency keys	Not documented	○
Request IDs	Not documented	○

3.2 Resource Coverage

Kajabi Resource	Kajabi Endpoints	Pewpros Equivalent	Gap
Blog Posts	list, show	/api/v1/blog, /api/v1/blog/:slug	● parity
Contacts	list, show, create, update, delete	/api/v1/contacts/*	● parity + we have notes
Contact Notes	list, show, create, update, delete	/api/v1/contacts/:id/notes/*	● parity
Contact Tags	list, show	/api/v1/tags/*	● parity
Contact → Tag add/remove/replace	dedicated endpoints	/api/v1/contacts/:id/tags	◐ no "replace" op
Contact → Offer grant/revoke/replace	dedicated endpoints	--	○ no offer concept
Courses	list, show	/api/v1/courses/*	● parity + we have lessons/progress
Custom Fields	list, show	--	○ No custom field system on contacts
Customers	list, show + offer grants	--	○ No "Customer" abstraction separate from User
Forms	list, show, submit, submissions	--	○ No form builder
Landing Pages	list, show	--	○ No page builder
Offers	list, show, products	--	○ No offer abstraction
Orders	list, show, items	/admin/shop-orders (LiveView only)	◐ no public Orders API
Podcasts	list, show	--	○ No podcasts
Products	list, show	/api/v1/admin/courses, /api/v1/admin/products	◐ not unified
Purchases	list, show, cancel, deactivate, reactivate	/api/v1/courses/:slug/enroll, /api/v1/membership	◐ scattered across enrollments/memberships/registrations
Sites / Website Pages	list, show	--	○ No multi-site / page API
Transactions	list, show	/api/v1/admin/reporting (data only)	◐ no per-transaction resource endpoint
Payouts	list, show	--	○ Stripe dashboard only
Webhooks (CRUD)	create, list, show, delete	--	○ No webhook management API
User Profile (/me)	show	/api/v1/auth/me, /api/v1/profile	● parity

3.3 Resources Pewpros has but Kajabi does NOT

These are the vertical strengths that form our moat:

• Events (10 endpoints): listing, registration, checkout, reschedule, cancel, roster, mobile checkout
• Appointments (booking, availability, reschedule)
• Groups / Seats (13 endpoints: invitations, members, courses, events, progress, seats)
• Community (20 endpoints: feed, posts, comments, polls, likes, pin, report, block, leaderboard, members, profile)
• Conversations (SMS/voice/email/chat unified)
• Live Activities (iOS) -- start, advance, end
• Device tokens & push -- register, unregister, test push
• Certifications -- issue, list, download PDF
• Apple Wallet passes
• Waivers -- liability form management
• Notifications -- list, unread count, mark read
• Approval gates -- list, approve, deny
• Admin Reporting + CSV export
• Terminal (Stripe POS) -- connection tokens, payment intents
• QR codes -- event join, community invites

3.4 Webhooks

Dimension	Kajabi	Pewpros
Self-serve CRUD API	●	○ (hardcoded)
Event types	6 (purchase, payment_succeeded, order_created, form_submission, tag_added, tag_removed)	15+ internal automation triggers, but not exposed as outbound webhooks
Signature verification	Not documented	● Stripe uses signature; our own webhooks don't sign
Retry policy	Not documented	◐ Oban retries for outbound webhook automation actions
Wildcard / filtered hooks	● (omit resource_id = wildcard)	○
Dead-letter queue	Not documented	◐ webhook_dedup for idempotency

This is our biggest API gap. Customers integrating Pewpros with external tools (Zapier, custom backends) need a self-serve way to create webhooks and receive signed deliveries.

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4. Strategic Gap Analysis

4.1 Must-Have (P0) -- Competitive Table Stakes

These are features buyers will ask about in the sales cycle and expect on day one.

#	Gap	Why it matters	Effort
P0-1	Public developer API keys (self-serve)	Customers can't integrate with Zapier, custom apps, or agencies without admin intervention. Kajabi has this.	M
P0-2	Outbound webhook CRUD API + signing	The #1 integration blocker. Webhooks with HMAC signatures are table stakes.	M
P0-3	Payment plans (split payments on courses)	Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific all have this. Direct revenue impact -- buyers choose platforms they can sell $2k+ courses on.	M
P0-4	Order bumps & one-click upsells	Checkout AOV uplift. Kajabi markets this heavily.	S
P0-5	Forms builder (lead capture + submissions API)	Today we have no way to capture leads outside of hardcoded signup forms. Needed for lead magnets, contact pages, waitlists.	M
P0-6	Quizzes + graded assessments	LMS parity. Schema stub exists; build the runtime.	M
P0-7	Trial periods UI for memberships	Already in Stripe, but no UI. Easy win.	S

4.2 Should-Have (P1) -- Catch-up

Features that close the gap but aren't deal-breakers.

#	Gap	Why it matters	Effort
P1-1	Landing page / section builder	Removes agency dependency for one-off promo pages. Even a block-based builder would work.	L
P1-2	Drip email sequence UI (on top of automations)	Automations already do this, but a dedicated sequence UI is much easier to use.	M
P1-3	Course prerequisites		S
P1-4	Scheduled blog publishing (publish_at)	Trivial, embarrassing we don't have it.	XS
P1-5	2FA for admin accounts	Security posture. TOTP via Erlang lib.	S
P1-6	@ mentions in community + notifications	Engagement.	S
P1-7	Affiliate program	Creator-economy standard.	L
P1-8	Custom fields on contacts	Currently only tags and lists.	S
P1-9	Email open/click tracking	Needs a tracking pixel + redirect handler.	M
P1-10	Cohort analytics	Track a group of students through a course together.	M

4.3 Nice-to-Have (P2) -- Long Tail

Features we'd do after closing the P0/P1 gaps.

#	Gap	Notes
P2-1	Podcasts	Low priority unless a customer asks
P2-2	Newsletters as a separate product	Overlaps with email marketing
P2-3	Coaching product type	Overlaps with appointments
P2-4	Threaded comments in community	Nice but not blocking
P2-5	Private sub-groups in community
P2-6	Funnel builder (multi-step)	After landing page builder
P2-7	A/B testing for emails & pages	After builder exists
P2-8	SAML SSO	Only if enterprise customer asks
P2-9	Social login (Apple/FB)	Google Calendar already integrated
P2-10	Zapier official connector	After public API + webhooks ship
P2-11	Sandbox environment for API
P2-12	Request IDs + idempotency keys	API polish

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5. Pewpros Moat (Do Not Lose)

These are the things that differentiate us and should be preserved/extended, not regressed:

1. Firearms industry verticalization -- USCCA integration, waivers, range events, certification workflows. Kajabi can never match this without a vertical acquisition.
2. Physical events + in-person POS -- Check-in, QR, Stripe Terminal, ticket types, addons, refund/reschedule policies.
3. Unified communications -- SMS, voice, email, DM, community all in one inbox (/admin/chat).
4. GHL deep integration -- Bidirectional contact sync, tag triggers, auto-login tokens.
5. Automation power features -- Approval gates, sub-workflows, rate limiting.
6. Native iOS -- Live Activities, APNs, Wallet passes.
7. Family memberships -- Primary + spouse + dependents, all billed together.
8. Appointment booking -- 1:1 scheduling with Google Calendar sync.

These are multi-year leads that Kajabi would have to rebuild from scratch.

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6. Attack Plan -- Sprint Ordering

Each "sprint" is a logical slice (not a fixed duration). Ship in this order so every sprint delivers a sellable feature and unblocks the next.

Sprint 5 -- Public API Platform (P0-1, P0-2)

Goal: Pewpros becomes integration-friendly. Ship the minimum so a developer can build on top.

• ApiKey schema (user_id, name, scopes, last_used_at, hashed_key)
• Admin UI under /admin/api-keys to create/revoke keys
• Scopes: read:contacts, write:contacts, read:courses, write:courses, read:events, write:events, read:orders, read:members, read:community, write:community
• Webhook schema (url, events, signing_secret, active, last_delivery_at)
• Admin UI /admin/webhooks to create/test/delete subscriptions
• WebhookDeliveryWorker (Oban) with HMAC-SHA256 signing, 5-attempt exponential backoff, dead-letter on webhook_deliveries table
• Event emitters in contexts for: contact.created, contact.updated, contact.tagged, order.created, payment.succeeded, enrollment.created, enrollment.completed, membership.activated, membership.cancelled, event.registered, community.post.created
• Docs page at /docs updated with API key + webhook guide
• Add request ID middleware (Plug.RequestId → X-Request-ID header)

Deliverable: A customer can paste an API key into Zapier/Make and receive real-time webhooks.

Sprint 6 -- Commerce Uplift (P0-3, P0-4, P0-7)

Goal: Increase checkout AOV and remove pricing objections.

• Payment plans: add pricing_type: "plan" to courses + memberships, with num_installments and interval. Use Stripe's subscription_schedules under the hood.
• Order bumps: add order_bumps config to course/event/membership checkouts -- a checkbox on Stripe Checkout or a pre-checkout step with the bump products.
• Post-purchase upsells: upsell_offers table linking a trigger product to an upsell product; present on thank-you page.
• Trial periods UI: add trial_days to membership levels, wire to Stripe.
• Admin UI for all of the above in /admin/commerce (new section).

Deliverable: Customer can sell a $2k course in 4 payments + add an order bump. Direct revenue uplift.

Sprint 7 -- Lead Capture & LMS Parity (P0-5, P0-6)

Goal: Close the two biggest LMS/marketing gaps.

• Forms builder:
  • Form, FormField, FormSubmission schemas
  • Admin builder LiveView at /admin/forms/:id/edit with field types: text, email, phone, select, checkbox, textarea, hidden, consent
  • Embed code + direct URL /forms/:slug
  • Submission API POST /api/v1/forms/:slug/submit
  • Automation trigger: form.submitted
  • Submissions list view
• Quizzes / assessments:
  • Finish lesson.content_type = "quiz": add QuizQuestion, QuizChoice, QuizAttempt, QuizAnswer
  • Question types: multiple choice, true/false, short answer
  • Passing score on lesson
  • Block lesson progress until quiz passed (when require_sequential)
  • Student quiz-taking LiveView
  • Admin quiz builder

Deliverable: Customers can build lead-capture forms and real quizzes without leaving Pewpros.

Sprint 8 -- Page Builder Phase 1 (P1-1)

Goal: Let admins create custom pages without a developer. Don't try to beat Kajabi's builder -- match the 80% use cases.

• Page schema (slug, title, status, blocks: jsonb array, seo_*)
• Block types (start with 10): hero, text, image, video, cta, pricing_table, testimonial, feature_grid, event_list, course_list
• Block renderers as function components in PewprosWeb.PageBlocks
• Admin LiveView /admin/pages with block picker + inline preview (no drag-drop v1, just add/remove/reorder)
• Public route /p/:slug serving rendered pages
• Extend to course/event landing page overrides later

Deliverable: Customer can launch a promo page with hero + CTA + pricing table in 5 minutes.

Sprint 9 -- Marketing Polish (P1-2, P1-4, P1-6, P1-8, P1-9)

Goal: Marketer-friendly UX on top of existing infra.

• Email sequence UI: dedicated /admin/sequences wrapping existing automation engine -- list of steps, drip delays, templates. Automations still power it under the hood.
• Scheduled publishing: add publish_at to blog posts + pages, cron worker to flip status.
• @ mentions: parse @username in community posts/comments, create Notification records, push via APNs.
• Custom fields on contacts: ContactCustomField schema, admin UI to define fields, API to read/write.
• Email open/click tracking: tracking pixel served at /e/open/:delivery_id, link rewriter → /e/click/:delivery_id/:hash, EmailDelivery schema.

Sprint 10 -- Analytics & Security (P1-5, P1-10, P0 revisit)

• 2FA for admins: TOTP via :pot lib, enrollment flow, backup codes
• Cohort analytics: group_progress already exists -- build dashboard views
• Affiliate program (P1-7): Affiliate, AffiliateLink, Commission schemas; tracking cookie; payout via Stripe Connect

Sprint 11+ -- Long Tail (P2)

Prioritize based on actual customer asks. Likely order:

1. Funnel builder (extend page builder with multi-step flows)
2. A/B testing on pages and emails
3. Zapier official app (public API is already shipped)
4. SAML SSO (first enterprise customer ask)
5. Podcasts
6. Threaded community comments

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7. Open Questions

1. Vertical vs horizontal positioning -- Do we want to be a firearms-industry platform that happens to be Kajabi-like, or a general creator platform with a firearms vertical? Answer changes priorities (e.g., podcasts matter more if horizontal).
2. Kajabi API parity vs our own API shape -- Should we adopt JSON:API to make Kajabi migration easier, or keep our plain-REST API? Recommendation: keep plain REST, add a Kajabi-compat adapter layer later if migration demand emerges.
3. Offer abstraction -- Kajabi's Offer is a nice unified pricing wrapper across products. Should we introduce one? It would simplify checkout but require migrating existing course/event/membership pricing fields. Low priority unless we start selling product bundles.
4. Kajabi Payments competitor -- Kajabi has their own payment processor. We rely entirely on Stripe. Not worth competing with -- Stripe is strictly better for the customer.
5. Mobile creator app -- Kajabi ships an app for creators to manage their business on mobile. Our admin is responsive but not native. Probably P2 unless customers ask.

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8. Appendix -- Data Points

8.1 Kajabi API Resource Counts (from llms.txt)

• Authentication: 2 endpoints
• Blog Posts: 2
• Contacts: 13 (incl. tags, offers, notes relations)
• Contact Notes: 5
• Contact Tags: 2
• Courses: 2
• Custom Fields: 2
• Customers: 6
• Forms: 5
• Landing Pages: 2
• Offers: 3
• Orders: 4
• Podcasts: 2
• Products: 2
• Purchases: 5
• Sites: 4
• Transactions: 2
• Payouts: 2
• Webhooks: 10 (4 CRUD + 6 sample payloads)
• User Profile: 1

Total: ~76 public endpoints

8.2 Pewpros API Resource Counts (from audit)

• Auth: 8
• Courses: 6 (+ admin CRUD ~10)
• Lessons: 5
• Events: 10 (+ admin CRUD ~12)
• Memberships: 3
• Groups: 13
• Community: 20
• Conversations: 8
• Contacts: 8 (+ notes 4 + activities 1)
• Tags / Lists: 8
• Certifications: ~5
• Notifications: 4
• Promo codes: 2
• Dashboard: 1
• Live Activities: 8
• Push / Devices: 6
• Approvals: 3
• Reporting (admin): 2
• Profile: 2
• Wallet passes: 1
• Waivers: ~3
• Blog: 2
• Shop: 2
• Appointments: 2

Total: ~140+ public endpoints

Pewpros already has nearly 2x the endpoint count of Kajabi's public API, but concentrated on different verticals (events, community, scheduling, mobile/push). The gap is not quantity -- it's developer experience (self-serve keys, webhooks, docs) and a few specific resources (forms, landing pages, offers).

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Sources

• Kajabi Developer API Introduction
• Kajabi API Documentation Index (llms.txt)
• Kajabi Authentication
• Kajabi Webhooks -- Create Hook
• Kajabi Offer Details
• Kajabi Features
• Kajabi Communities
• Kajabi Online Courses
• Kajabi Membership Sites
• Pewpros codebase audit (internal, 2026-04-05)