If you’re in the market for an all-inclusive marketing platform, you might have heard about Kartra.
The cloud-based ‘business management solution’ has revolutionized the process of building an online business by combining all the tools users need into one fully-integrated package – but is it as good as it claims to be?
That’s what we’re going to be finding out today.
In this in-depth Kartra review, we’ll be putting the platform to the test to find out whether it’s a jack of all trades or a master of none.
We’ll review all the main features and explore what kind of businesses Kartra is best for, how much it costs, and how it stacks up against the competition – plus a whole lot more!
Ready? Let’s dive into it!
Table of Contents
What is Kartra?
Kartra is a cloud-based, all-in-one marketing platform and sales funnel builder that provides users with all the tools needed to run their entire online business. It’s owned by parent company Genesis Digital – the company behind WebinarJam and EverWebinar.
It’s a lot like ClickFunnels but with a more robust feature set. You can use Kartra to set up automations, create landing pages, run email marketing campaigns, implement checkouts, and build your whole sales funnel from scratch.
In addition to all the usual tools that you’d expect to see in a dedicated sales funnel builder, Kartra also gives you access to extra features like built-in analytics, affiliate marketing tools, video hosting, and a help desk.
The whole idea of Kartra is that it can completely replace all the different marketing and sales tools businesses typically use to run their business.
Rather than having to integrate a bunch of third-party tools together, Kartra includes everything you need right out of the box in one fully-integrated ecosystem.
Being fully-integrated means all of the different features are interconnected and work together seamlessly.
If someone fills out a Kartra Form, Kartra Mail will automatically add them to your mailing list. If a visitor doesn’t watch a Kartra Video all the way through, it can automatically tag them and activate automations built in the Kartra sequence builder.
Who Is Kartra For?
Kartra is built for solopreneurs who don’t have the time, budget, or resources to piece together a bunch of different apps and get them to play together nicely.
It’s a fantastic choice for coaches, consultants, online course/membership businesses, bloggers, and anyone else selling digital products online.
Rather than purchasing your email marketing software, landing page builder, automation software, and all the other tools you need separately, you just make one purchase and have everything you need at your fingertips.
And because everything is fully-integrated, you don’t have to spend any time fixing software issues. You can focus all your energy on growing your business.
If you’re running a big business that already has a reliable setup in place, or you already have a bunch of tools that you’re happy with, and you’re just looking for one specific feature (e.g. email marketing), then Kartra might not be the right platform for you.
Kartra Features Reviewed
Kartra comes with a ton of different features to help with different aspects of your marketing campaigns. Here’s what you need to know about each of them.
Drag and Drop Page Builder
Let’s start with arguably Kartra’s most important feature – its drag and drop page builder. You can use it to design beautiful sales pages, thank you pages, squeeze pages, video pages, and any other kind of page you can think of.
Start by selecting a template from over 500 professional designs. Unlike some other page builders I’ve used, none of the templates I tried out on Kartra felt outdated, and the catalog was very varied. You also have the option of starting from a blank canvas if you’d prefer.
Once you’ve selected a template, you can customize it. The interface is pretty intuitive. From the left-hand sidebar, you can drag and drop in different sections and blocks.
There are block templates for everything: images, videos, carousels, buttons, accordions, social buttons, popups – you name it!
You can tweak global settings and styling options or customize each element on the page independently. If you want more control, you can even dig into the HTML, CSS, and Javascript code.
All Kartra pages are fully mobile responsive but, if you choose to, you can customize how your page looks on each device independently.
You can also take advantage of flashy elements to make your website really stand out, like countdown timers, parallax scrolling effects, dynamic backgrounds, personalized content, etc. Once you’re done, you can publish pages to your domain in one click.
After you’ve published your page, Kartra will automatically track useful page metrics like visits and time spent on the page. It even tracks scrolling behavior and provides heatmaps that can help you to visualize how users move through the page.
Overall, Kartra’s page builder holds its own against standalone page builders like Thrive Architect, which is impressive considering it’s just one of Kartra’s many features.
And of course, the advantage Kartra has over standalone page builders is that it connects seamlessly with the rest of the Kartra ecosystem.
The biggest disadvantage is that the editor is a little restrictive. You can only operate within set parameters, which is helpful if you’re a total beginner but can be frustrating if you’re used to having more control and flexibility over the design.
Opt-In Forms
You can build high-converting opt-in forms on Kartra to help capture leads using the form builder feature.
As with the website builder, it all starts with a template.
There are over 50+ form templates to choose from. We particularly liked how bright and eye-catching these are. Too many platforms still use traditional boring and outdated opt-in form templates, but Kartra is different.
Once you’ve selected a template, you can customize the form by adding, removing, modifying, or rearranging form fields.
Choose between custom text inputs, checkboxes, dropdown lists, and more. You can also tweak colors and other design elements to match your branding.
One of the coolest things about building your forms with Kartra is how well they integrate with the rest of the ecosystem. For example, you can tag leads based on their form input and then add them to specific automation paths.
Once you’re done creating your form, you can choose between different placement options. Show them as a pop-up, have them slide onto the page, or embed them into your page content – it’s up to you.
You can even embed forms within your videos as interactive elements so that they appear at the perfect time, immediately after your in-video CTA.
Smart Forms
All forms are built with Kartra are ‘smart forms.’ Kartra will memorize the details a user enters into your opt-in form on a previous visit and then auto-fill it in for them the next time they load the page so that they can pick up where they left off.
Having their information pre-loaded means the user doesn’t have to bother typing everything in again. This improves not only the user experience but also your conversion rates.
Embedded Forms
In addition to using forms within your Kartra pages, you can also embed them on sites built outside of the platform.
For example, if you already have a WordPress blog, you can add a Kartra Form to it in just a few clicks. All you have to do is grab the code snippet and paste it in.
And the best part is that everything is kept in sync. If you update your form on Kartra, it’ll automatically update the embedded form. You don’t have to change the code snippet every time.
Digital Products, Courses, and Checkout Carts
You can use Kartra to sell physical and digital products and memberships. There are two features that help with this: Kartra Checkout and Kartra Membership.
Kartra Checkout provides a suite of tools to help you manage sales, set up free trials, create payment options, build coupons, and more.
You can create your own high-converting checkout pages by starting with their professionally-designed checkout page templates and customizing them to match your brand.
You have full control over everything. You can:
- Toggle express checkouts on or enable the full checkout experience
- Customize your checkout page fields
- Turn on cart abandonment to automatically tag customers who land on your checkout page and follow up with cart recovery emails if they drop out.
As with opt-in forms, Kartra even memorizes details entered on your checkout page and pre-fills payment form fields for your customers, so if they reload the page, they don’t have to enter it twice.
If you sell physical products, Kartra can handle that too. It has built-in shipping tools, automatic tax/VAT, supports automated fulfillment, and more.
Kartra Memberships
Kartra Memberships enables you to set up basic online courses and create private members-only content and community spaces.
You can start from a course template and structure your lessons by adding categories and sub-categories. Courses built in Kartra support different file types, including video, audio, and text.
You can also track user progress through your course content and get an overview of your course performance by looking at analytics data like average user progression level and average number of days to course completion.
All that being said, Kartra is still a long way away from being able to match dedicated course builders like Kajabi, Thinkific, or LearnWorlds.
The course creator isn’t as flexible or powerful, and some key engagement features are missing. You also can’t zoom in on your analytics data to see how individual students are progressing.
With all that in mind, Kartra probably isn’t the best choice for serious online educators with complex courses. For that, you’re better off choosing a dedicated course builder with more powerful course creation tools.
However, it is a great choice for selling other types of digital products and good enough for simple courses.
Video Hosting
Viewers are 64-85% more likely to buy a product after watching a video. As such, adding videos to your sales and landing pages is a no-brainer.
The problem is that most sales funnel platforms don’t support video hosting. Sure, you can embed a video from a free online video hosting platform like YouTube instead, but then that platform’s branding will be all over your content, which isn’t ideal.
Fortunately, this isn’t a problem with Kartra. Kartra Video lets you upload and publish your own videos directly to your landing pages.
You have full control over how your video looks and feels. You can switch between an embedded or pop-up display, change the dimensions, add your own logo watermark, and much more.
You can also change how users interact with your video player. For example, you can choose whether to autoplay videos on page load or mute them on start.
Another cool thing about Kartra Video is that it syncs up with the rest of the ecosystem, like your automations, forms, analytics, and checkout.
For example, you can automatically assign a tag to leads once they reach a certain time stamp in the video to add them to specific automations. You can also add opt-in forms and buy buttons within your video at specific time-staps.
Split Testing
Split testing is an important process in conversion rate optimization. It involves comparing two variations of a page in order to see which one performs best.
Fortunately, Kartra offers a powerful split testing feature that makes this easy. You can use it to create and test up to 4 different page variations in tandem.
It’s one of the most flexible A/B testing tools we’ve come across. You aren’t limited to basic 50/50 split tests and can instead define custom rotation percentages.
For example, if you’re testing 3 versions of a page (A, B, and C), you might want to show page A to 10% of your traffic, page B to 50%, and page C to 4%. You can do that with Kartra.
Define your split testing campaign’s main parameter (the variation you’re testing), and Kartra will calculate the winning variation for that parameter and switch to it. You can test opt-in forms, sign-ups, orders, sales, and more.
Kartra has also created a ‘Certainty Ratio’ – an advanced algorithm that analyzes various factors to make sure you get the most accurate possible results from your campaign.
Affiliate Management
Affiliate marketing is a great marketing strategy and one of the best ways to drive sales to your website – and Kartra provides you with all the tools you need to grow your affiliate network.
The built-in affiliate management system enables you to review and approve affiliate applications, set up commission payment structures, create custom landing pages for your affiliates to promote, and more.
You can also get an overview of all your affiliate’s performance. You can track how many visitors they’ve sent your way, how many sales they’ve driven, how much revenue they’ve generated, and more.
Kartra Marketplace
The Kartra Marketplace is a place where Kartra users can buy and sell their services and campaigns.
In the Experts for hire section, you can hire experts to help grow your business, like web designers, content writers, and funnel building experts.
This becomes useful if you want to outsource some of the more time-consuming tasks involved in building your online business to niche experts. And if you’re an expert yourself, you can share your expertise on the marketplace to earn extra money.
In the Campaigns marketplace section, you can publish and share done-for-you campaigns directly with other Kartra users.
If you’re a Kartra expert, this is a great way to earn some extra cash on the side of your main online business. If you’re an entrepreneur who’s short on time, purchasing a ready-to-go template is a great way to minimize your workload.
Karta Mail
Kartra Mail is Kartra’s world-class integrated email marketing platform. There’s a lot to say about it, and all of it’s quite good.
It comes with all the features you’d expect from a full-fledged mail marketing tool, including:
- Expertly-designed email templates
- A top-of-the-line email builder
- Behavior-based automations (based on clicks, opens, purchases, etc.)
- Intelligent email scheduling (send emails out at the optimal time for each lead)
- Email personalization and lead targeting features
- Real-time tracking and robust analytics
- Intelligent subject line split testing
- Unlimited trigger rules for email sequences
We don’t have time to cover everything there is to say about Kartra Mail here but needless to say, we were impressed.
Email Broadcasting
The easiest way to send out emails on Kartra is by using the email broadcasts feature. All you have to do is navigate to My Campaigns > Campaigns > Broadcasts, then click the +BROADCAST button.
You can then choose whether to send your message out by email or SMS, select a category, and choose your recipients. You can send emails out to everyone on your list or just certain segments. When segmenting your messages, you can get really specific.
After that, just build your email using the Email Template Builder, compose your message, set up any automations as needed, and send or schedule it.
Automation
Kartra Mail is a built-in marketing automation platform that comes with a lot of advanced automation tools, like unlimited trigger rules, conditional paths, etc.
The easiest way to build your automations is with the sequence builder. This is essentially a blank canvas on which you can drag and drop different events, triggers, and actions and connect them with arrows to put together complete automated marketing campaigns.
GDPR
Kartra Mail also makes it easy to stay compliant with GDPR regulations. It automatically detects each visitor’s geo-location and, when necessary, prompts mandatory GDPR permission checkboxes on your email opt-in forms.
Kartra Support
Kartra is fairly beginner-friendly, but setting up an online business from scratch is a big task – you’re bound to run into some bumps along the road.
Fortunately, if you’re ever having trouble, Kartra’s there to help.
Aside from extensive documentation, a huge knowledge center on which you can find dozens of helpful guides and tutorials, and a complete coaching program (Kartranaut training), they offer several other support options. Let’s take a look at them.
Customer Support
Kartra offers two direct customer support channels: ticket support and digital chat support.
Unfortunately, their live chat support isn’t available 24/7. It’s only open from 8 AM to 12 PM PT, and 12 AM to 4 AM PT. That’s essentially only an 8-hour window on which you can get support.
To be honest, we were a little disappointed in this. Many other providers offer 24/7 live chat support, where you can get instant answers to your queries, so Kartra falls short of the mark here.
Facebook Group
The good news is that, while you may not be able to access chat support 24/7, you can always post your question on the private Kartra Facebook group at any time. There’s usually at least one good samaritan willing to answer your questions hanging around there.
You can join the group straight away, even if you’re only currently signed up for the 14-day trial. Once you’ve joined, you can network with other Kartra users and professionals and share advice and expertise.
Concierge Service
If you want to be completely hands-off, you can also sign up for Kartra’s Concierge Service. This is a paid service offered by Kartra that isn’t included in any of their paid packages.
For a one-off fee of $150, the experts at Kartra will set up all your pages, email sequences, automations, and everything else for you, so that you don’t even have to lift a finger.
If you’re short on time but not on funds, it’s a great way to get moving quickly.
Kartra Pricing
Kartra offers four paid pricing plans: Starter, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.
The cool thing about Kartra’s pricing model is that all of those plans include access to all of Kartra’s tools and features. The only difference between them relates to usage caps.
The right plan for you will depend on the size of your contact list and how many leads and domains you require for your online businesses.
Kartra Starter Plan
The Starter plan is Kartra’s entry-level package. It starts at $99 per month ($79/month when billed annually) and includes up to 2,500 leads and 1 custom domain.
There are various caps on this plan that you need to be aware of. You’re limited to:
- 15,000 emails per month
- 50 GB bandwidth
- 100 pages
- 50 videos
- 2 membership sites
- 20 products
- 1 helpdesk
- 1 team member
Because of all these limitations, the Starter plan is only really suitable for small e-commerce operations. I wouldn’t recommend it for most users. It doesn’t include Kartra Agency either, so it isn’t suitable for resellers.
Kartra Silver Plan
Kartra’s Silver plan is the next tier up and is the package we’d recommend in most cases. This Karta pricing plan costs $199 per month ($149/month when billed annually) and includes up to 12,500 Leads and 3 custom domains.
Aside from that, it gives you access to unlimited everything. It also comes with Kartra Agency.
Kartra Gold Plan
If you need over 12,500 leads, the next step up is Kartra’s Gold plan. It costs $299/month ($229/month when billed annually) and will work for up to 25,000 Leads and 5 custom domains. As with the Silver plan, everything else is unlimited.
Kartra Platinum Plan
Platinum is Kartra’s highest-priced plan. It costs $499/month ($379/month when billed annually) and is good for up to 50,000 Leads and 10 custom domains.
For anything higher than that, you’ll need to contact Kartra’s support team and discuss an enterprise-level package.
Kartra 14 Day Trial
One of the biggest bummers about Kartra is that it doesn’t offer a free plan or a free trial. However, you can still test drive it by paying $1 for a 14-day trial.
Important: The 14-day trial (and rarely, a 30-day trial) are sometimes only available as a limited-time promotion or if you access the site through certain referral links. Click Get Started on any plan on the pricing page, and it should open up a pop-up offering you the $1 trial. If not, you can always try contacting support to request one.
It’s also worth noting that Kartra offers a 30-day money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied. Check out their Billing Policy page for the full details.
Bottom Line: Is Kartra Worth It?
Alright, let’s cut to the chase here – is Kartra worth it?
The short answer is yes – at least if you’re in the market for an all-in-one platform.
At first sight, Kartra might seem a little steep. However, it’s actually in a similar ballpark to other sales funnel builders like Clickfunnels.
Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely cheaper options out there, but you usually get what you pay for when it comes to sales funnel builders.
Kartra is a full-featured, advanced software solution for people who are serious about their online business, not hobbyists – and the price reflects that.
And when you factor in the fact that Kartra is essentially dozens of different tools all rolled into one, I’d say it’s a pretty good deal. If you were to purchase all those different tools separately from dedicated providers, you’d no doubt end up paying a lot more.
All that being said, it’s not the right choice for everyone. If you’re an enterprise-level business with more than 50,000 contacts on your list, you’ll probably need to look elsewhere as this is the maximum cap on Kartra’s Platinum plan.
Similarly, it probably isn’t the right fit for you if:
- You don’t want an all-in-one solution and won’t take advantage of all the features Kartra has to offer
- You’re selling physical products
- You’re planning on using it to create a very complex, 6-month+ long course.
But in all other cases, we’d absolutely recommend it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Before we wrap up our Kartra review, here are some frequently asked questions and answers about the platform.
Which is better: Kajabi or Kartra?
Kajabi and Kartra are both great platforms, each of which has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. The best choice for you will depend on what you’re trying to achieve.
Kartra is a better all-in-one business management solution. It offers a wider feature set than Kajabi and can replace more marketing tools.
If you want to build your whole eCommerce operation on one platform, Kartra is the way to go. It’s also the best choice for selling physical and digital products.
Kajabi’s strength lies in its course creation and membership tools. They’re more powerful than Kartra’s – the course creator is more flexible, and you get access to some extra features that Kartra lacks, such as the ability to create a community space where members can interact.
If you’re just looking for a platform to help you sell courses, and you don’t need all the other bells and whistles Kartra has to offer, go with Kajabi.
For more details, read our Kajabi vs. Kartra article.
Is Kartra hard to use?
We found Kartra to be very easy to use. The interface is intuitive, the page and form builders are very beginner-friendly, and the done-for-you templates simplify things.
The funnel sequence builder has a bit more of a learning curve, but you should still be able to get the hang of it pretty quickly.
Which is better: Clickfunnels or Kartra?
Clickfunnels and Kartra are both great sales funnel builders, but if we had to pick just one, we’d say Kartra is a little better. It’s a true all-in-one platform and offers some crucial features that Clickfunnels lacks.
For example, if you want to add videos to pages on Clickfunnels, you have to go through a third-party video hosting solution like Vimeo or Wistia. If you want to set up analytics, you have to integrate it with Google Analytics. Kartra, on the other hand, offers both video support and built-in analytics right out of the box.
If you’re thinking about these two for your online business, check out our Kartra vs ClickFunnels comparison (coming soon).
But again, it really all depends on your business goals and priorities. I’d suggest checking both out and signing up for the one you like best.
Is Kartra a CRM?
Kartra isn’t a CRM in the true sense of the word in that it isn’t a dedicated customer relationship management system – it’s an all-in-one business management platform.
It does include some features that can help you to manage your database of customers and keep track of interactions, but this isn’t an area it particularly excels in. I’d recommend choosing a true CRM like Zoho or Zendesk if this is a priority for you.
What is Kartranaut training?
Kartranaut training is Kartra’s own free online course that explains how to use the platform. It includes a bunch of in-depth tutorials that walk you through how to use each of Kartra’s main features. You can follow along with them to learn the ropes!
Kartra Alternatives
Not sure if Kartra is the right choice for you after reading this Kartra review? Here are some Kartra alternatives you might want to check out instead.
ClickFunnels
Clickfunnels is one of Kartra’s biggest competitors. Founded in 2014 by Russel Brunson, it quickly became one of the most popular sales funnel builders on the market.
Like Kartra, it provides all the tools you need to collect and nurture leads through the sales process, including a page and sales funnel builder, email marketing, automation sequences builder, and affiliate marketing tools.
However, it doesn’t offer analytics or video hosting, so it can’t do everything Kartra can. Still, if Kartra isn’t working out for you and you don’t mind a few integrations, it’s absolutely worth considering.
For more details, read our ClickFunnels review here. And for an in-depth comparison read our ClickFunnels vs Kartra article.
Systeme
Systeme is another all-in-one business management solution, and sales funnel builder similar to Kartra. The biggest difference between them is the price tag.
Systeme is much more affordable, with a range of paid plans ranging from $27 to $97 per month and even a free plan. This makes it a great option for smaller businesses, entrepreneurs, and cash-strapped startups.
Check out our review of Systeme for features, pros, cons, and more.
Kajabi
Kajabi is one of the most sophisticated all-in-one online course platforms available. It’s an enterprise-level solution that’s been around since 2010 and has served over 40,000 entrepreneurs across the world.
It’s a little pricey but has some powerful features that Kartra is missing, including a blogging feature (Kartra doesn’t support blogging on the backend) and a full-fledged website builder.
If you’re in the information course selling business, I highly recommend checking out Kajabi.
