Are you thinking of using Kartra to sell your products, services, and membership sites?
Do you want to know if Kartra suits your business or not?
Today, I am going to review Kartra in-depth, explaining to you all the features Kartra comes with and helping you decide whether it is worth your money or not.
Let’s get started with the review!
Type | All-in-one checkout platform |
Best for | Selling products, services, and membership sites |
Starting price | $119/month |
Can I create sales funnels? | Yes |
Does it come with in-built email marketing? | Yes |
Competitors | ClickFunnels and Kajabi |
Quick decision
What I like about Kartra 👍
- Built-in funnels, calendar booking, email marketing, and sequence builder: Everything you need to manage marketing and sales workflows under one roof.
- A/B split testing: Test email content and subject lines to improve open rates and conversions.
- Behavioral adaptive marketing: Dynamically changes landing page content based on user behavior for a personalized experience.
- Helpdesk feature: Built-in customer support tools with live chat and ticketing systems.
- Agency tool: Manage multiple client accounts from a single dashboard—ideal for freelancers or agencies.
- Pre-built campaign assets: Quickly launch campaigns with ready-to-use templates for pages, funnels, and automations.
- Flexible checkout options: Hosted checkouts, pop-ups, and embed functionality make it easy to sell products and services.
What I don’t like about Kartra 👎
- Slow loading times: Although they recently revamped their UI. The tool still loads very slow. You would be quite tired seeing cogwheels.
- Limited integrations: Although it covers most needs, Kartra lacks some deeper integrations with third-party tools.
- Higher starting cost: With plans starting at $99/month, it’s pricier compared to some standalone alternatives.
- No advanced course creation features: Lacks specialized tools like quizzes or structured modules that dedicated course platforms offer.
Upfront bottom line
Kartra is a powerful all-in-one marketing platform designed for businesses that want to streamline their tools and workflows. It combines funnels, email marketing, webinars, membership hosting, calendars, and helpdesk support under one roof, eliminating the need for multiple subscriptions.
If you’re an entrepreneur, course creator, or small business owner looking for convenience, automation, and scalability, Kartra delivers exceptional value. Its pre-built assets, automation capabilities, and behavioral adaptive marketing features make it a strong choice for growing online businesses.
However, if you need advanced course creation features, extensive third-party integrations, or prefer specialized tools, Kartra may not fully meet your needs.
For those looking to save time, simplify operations, and centralize their business processes, Kartra is worth the investment.
Sign up for the free trial to explore its capabilities and see if it’s the right fit for your business.
Interface (UX and UX)
After a long time, Kartra 7.0 brings a major interface overhaul, the platform now offers a more intuitive and organized experience.
The navigation has been completely redesigned with a clear workflow-based structure.
It’s now more streamlined:
- Feature Menu: All your content creation tools in one place
- Resource Menu: Settings, integrations, and external tools grouped together
- Profile Menu: Manage your team, subscription, and agency accounts. Also includes affiliate promos for promoting other Kartra users’ products
Apart from this, they have a new global search feature that enables you to search for any feature. This I really like as Kartra is a very feature-rich platform.
The navigation menus are now more intuitively organized, reducing the number of clicks.
Kartra campaigns
Kartra’s campaigns feature allows you to create various types of campaigns, such as email list building, product launches, course sales, consultancy services, and more.
Once a campaign is created, all associated assets—pages, products, and memberships—are automatically set up, ready for editing.
For example, in a BloggingX Pro campaign:
- Pages: You can customize assets like the BloggingX Pro landing page, course thank you page, and other necessary pages.
- Products: A product is automatically created with a checkout offer.
- Memberships: The membership setup ties directly to the product purchase.
Tags are applied based on user behavior:
- “Purchased – BloggingX Pro”: For completed purchases.
- “Abandoned Cart – BloggingX Pro”: For incomplete checkouts.
This feature saves time and streamlines the entire setup process, ensuring everything is interconnected and ready to use.
👉 Additionally, you can share campaigns with others—ideal if you’re building websites or funnels for clients or teammates.
Creating products
You can create both digital products and physical products with Kartra.
Now, the product BloggingX Pro was created.
While editing this product, you can customize its settings extensively.
First, you can set the pricing.
By default, it is set to a one-time payment, but you have multiple options, including recurring payments, installments, or even setting it as a physical product.
For physical products, you can add shipping costs, set up sales tax, and edit the refund policy.
👉 If the product is automatically created by campaign builder it will be automatically mapped to your main landing page and thank you page, which ensures a smooth customer journey.
Checkout
Kartra also offers flexible checkout options:
- Kartra-hosted checkout
- Overlay pop-up checkout (a single-step checkout within a pop-up)
- Embed functionality: Kartra provides an embed code you can add to platforms like WordPress
These checkout options are complemented by customization features, giving you control over the user experience.
When it comes to profit maximization it comes up with both upsells and also ability to set order bumps.
Also one really impressive thing is – Kartra supports one-click transactions helping you increase the conversions.
Kartra also supports robust post-sale workflows.
Once a customer purchases the product, you can:
- Tag them with specific tags (e.g., “Purchased – BloggingX Pro”)
- Assign them to a membership to access product-related content
- Trigger automations like onboarding sequences or follow-ups
Kartra’s product creation tools simplify the process and integrate seamlessly with other features, ensuring an efficient and user-friendly experience.
Combined with its integrated tracking tools, you can gain valuable insights into your sales performance and optimize your checkout process for higher conversions.
Courses and membership
When it comes to creating product content in Kartra, the platform doesn’t have dedicated course creation features like modules, lessons, and quizzes.
However, it does offer a membership functionality that allows you to deliver exclusive content to customers who purchase specific products.
For example, I’ve created a BloggingX Pro Membership.
Here, you can manage various settings such as Content, Comments, Access, and Automations.
Under the Content section, Kartra offers a membership content builder where you can structure your membership content into modules.
Under each module, you can create individual membership pages to house your exclusive content.
While designing these pages, you can use building blocks to add elements like headlines, text, images, videos, and buttons.
The sidebar content is a standout feature. It lets you display:
- Progress bars for users to monitor their progress
- Upsells for cross-selling related products
👉 Kartra’s Membership Content Builder is sales-focused and includes additional options like opt-in forms, checkout forms, webinar integrations, and surveys.
Once your membership content is built, you can configure advanced settings under Access. Here, you can:
- Create multiple membership levels like Gold, Silver, or Bronze
- Grant access to specific modules and lessons based on the membership level
For any lesson, you can also set a drip schedule. You can choose to:
- Provide instant access
- Unlock content after a specific period of time
- Release lessons on a specific date (useful for date-based content delivery)
You can control membership access by displaying your content to all memberships, restricting it to specific membership levels, or requiring a forced login for portal access.
Overall, while Kartra’s Membership feature isn’t a full-fledged course platform, it provides powerful tools to organize, deliver, and even sell exclusive content to your audience effectively.
Funnel building
When you drive traffic to your landing pages and people purchase your courses, you need to use Kartra’s funnels functionality under the Marketing section.
For example, I can create a new funnel called BloggingX Pro.
Kartra offers two modes for funnels:
- Builder Mode: This is where you visually build your funnel with assets like landing pages, actions, and traffic sources.
- Simulation Mode: This allows you to analyze and simulate the funnel performance.
In the Builder Mode, you start with the traffic component, as Kartra supports tracking traffic from different sources. This helps you identify which traffic sources are converting more effectively.
For example, my main traffic sources for the BloggingX Pro course sales page are Google SEO traffic and Instagram.
When users take an action, like purchasing the course, I can:
- Add a tag (e.g., “Purchased – BloggingX Pro”)
- Subscribe them to a sequence for onboarding
- Trigger actions like assigning lists, removing tags, or starting follow-up automations
While Kartra’s Funnel Builder isn’t as feature-rich or seamless as tools like ConvertKit or ActiveCampaign, it does a great job of visualizing the user journey and managing actions along the funnel.
The simulation analytics is a standout feature, saving you from relying on external funnel simulation tools.
However, a limitation is that you can’t build your email sequences directly inside the funnel builder. You need to create the sequence first and then map it to the funnel, which adds an extra step.
Overall, while not perfect, Kartra’s funnel builder is functional and effective for creating and managing visual funnels.
Page building
With Kartra’s page builder, you can easily edit the landing pages that are automatically generated as part of your campaigns.
The platform allows you to view and customize pages across desktop, tablet, or mobile devices for a responsive experience.
When working on a page, you can add sections and under each section, include columns. Inside these columns, you can drag and drop various components like text, images, buttons, and more.
Kartra offers pre-designed templates for sections, including:
- Hero sections
- Course feature highlights
- Call-to-action sections, and more
For example, inserting a call-to-action template is as simple as selecting it, dragging it in, and customizing the text, style, and button colors.
Under the components menu, you’ll find all the essentials:
- Text (including animated text)
- Images
- Custom code blocks
- Forms, calendars, surveys, and webinar assets
There are also widgets like countdown timers to implement scarcity marketing effortlessly. Simply drag, drop, and edit the settings for any component you choose.
Also it offers various pop-up types to enhance your marketing efforts:
- Landing page pop-ups
- Exit pop-ups
You can optimize the pages for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
These can be customized and triggered based on specific user behaviors, integrating seamlessly with Kartra’s email sequences and automation workflows.
Apart from this, my favorite options when it comes to their page builder are:
- A/B testing versions of the pages
- Responsive pages
- It allows showing or hiding specific page sections based on a visitor’s tags and past interactions (called Behavioural Adaptive Marketing) – more on this later.
👎 While the Page Builder is quite feature-rich, it falls short of dedicated landing page builders. It’s functional but can feel sluggish, with the loading cogwheel appearing frequently when making changes.
Overall, it’s a solid option for building landing pages quickly and effectively within Kartra.
Also Kartra has split testing functionality, you can easily test multiple variations of your pages to identify which one performs best.
You can specify up to four pages—these can either be Kartra-hosted pages or external URLs.
Kartra will automatically split the incoming traffic between the selected variations and provide you with clear analytics on which page drives the most conversions or sales.
Email marketing
You don’t necessarily need to integrate Kartra with an external email marketing tool, as it comes with its built-in email marketing functionality.
You have the ability to send one-off emails or even SMSs similar to a broadcast or a newsletter.
Or, you can also create a set of emails like a sequence that can be triggered based on users’ behavior.
For example, I’ve created a sequence called BloggingX Pro Purchase Sequence to handle post-purchase communication efficiently.
When starting out, you need to set the trigger for your email sequence. Triggers can include:
- A specific opt-in form being filled
- A specific tag being added
- A particular list being updated
- A user visiting a specific page (thanks to Kartra’s built-in site tracking functionality)
For my BloggingX Pro product, I’ve set the trigger as when people purchase the product.
Once the trigger is set, you can conduct various actions like:
- Sending an email or SMS
- Adding or removing tags
- Subscribing or unsubscribing users to/from a list
- Splitting users into different paths based on conditions
- Adding wait times, which is particularly useful for sending daily reminders to encourage course completion rates.
When designing your sequence, you drag the Email module onto the canvas.
However, unlike tools like ConvertKit, Kartra doesn’t have a single “Sequences” block where you can create all your emails in one place.
🥺 Instead, you need to add email blocks one by one—which can clutter the canvas, especially if you’re building something like a 30-day sequence.
To mitigate this, Kartra offers a Subsequence feature.
Instead of having all emails within the main sequence, you can trigger a subsequence at any point. This not only keeps your canvas clean but also allows you to create hyper-personalized email sequences based on conditions and user actions.
This clever feature helps you manage long or complex email campaigns more efficiently, making Kartra’s email marketing system both flexible and powerful.
Lead/Customer profiles
Each lead entered into the system will have a profile displaying tags based on their campaign behavior.
You can view their email interactions, visited pages, sequences, memberships, webinars, surveys, calendar events, orders, and help desk chat logs.
👍 The best part is Kartra has on-page site tracking, so you can also see all the pages that are specifically visited by your contacts, in real-time when in your funnel. But it’s cookie-based, which is disabled in most browsers nowadays!
This can effectively replace any of the CRMs that you may be using because it offers a more integrated approach.
And also it has some features like a specific notes area where you can jot down notes regarding a specific lead.
Kartra webinars
Kartra comes with inbuilt webinar hosting functionality, eliminating the need to rely on external tools like Google Meet or Zoom. You can host different types of webinars:
- Right now webinars (instant live webinars)
- Always-on webinars (evergreen, automated webinars)
- Scheduled webinars (specific date and time sessions)
For example, I’ve created a scheduled webinar called BloggingX Masterclass to teach people how to succeed with blogging.
Once you create a webinar, you can schedule it as a single session, multiple sessions, or even a recurring series.
Kartra provides comprehensive registration and email settings.
You can send email confirmations and reminders to attendees. I personally send 2 email reminders before the webinar starts to maximize attendance.
What sets Kartra webinars apart is the ability to pre-load assets like:
- Polls and quizzes to engage your audience
- Product offers for live promotions
- Videos, files, and handouts as additional resources
- Slide presentations that can be triggered seamlessly during the webinar
Kartra also offers replay settings, enabling you to allow webinar recordings for on-demand viewing.
Its automation features are another standout.
When someone registers for the webinar, you can automatically add tags, subscribe them to lists, trigger email sequences, or integrate them into your if-then automations for further follow-ups.
👉 While Kartra webinars are feature-rich and great for evergreen webinars (like an alternative to EverWebinar), you may need to still prefer Zoom or Google Meet for lag-free experience.
Overall, Kartra’s webinar functionality is a powerful built-in solution for hosting live and evergreen webinars, particularly if you want an all-in-one platform without relying on external tools.
Calendar booking
Kartra offers a calendar booking feature that allows you to create and manage appointment slots seamlessly.
It supports various types of calendars, including options for consultants, gym sessions, live events, and even recurring appointments.
Whether you’re offering one-time classes, weekly consulting sessions, or ongoing events, Kartra’s calendar functionality makes scheduling simple and efficient.
A standout feature is its Google Calendar integration, which automatically syncs events to ensure both you and your clients stay on track.
👉 You can also set specific rules for your calendar, such as limiting the number of sessions per user or defining recurring schedules for weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly appointments.
Kartra further integrates with tools like Google Meet and Zoom, automatically generating and sending meeting links when a booking is made.
These links are then added to both parties’ calendars, reducing manual work and creating a seamless scheduling experience.
Overall, Kartra’s calendar tool is a valuable asset for coaches, consultants, and businesses that rely on appointments or live sessions.
Affiliates feature
Kartra offers a robust affiliate marketing program with the following features:
- Commission structure: Flexible commission structure with the ability to set up to 40% commission rates
- Commission settings: Option to set commissions either globally or on a product-by-product basis
- Tier options: Multiple commission tiers support
- Affiliate screening: Ability to qualify affiliates through questionnaires
- Terms acceptance: Mandatory terms & conditions can be required
- Automation features: Automated affiliate tagging and list management features
- Performance tracking: Comprehensive analytics showing metrics like active affiliates, traffic, EPC, sales, and refunds
It also allows you to create custom affiliate portals and landing pages for your affiliates, and includes features for incentivizing affiliate campaigns.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise because Kartra doesn’t cut any corners when it comes to advanced marketing use cases.
Integrations
Kartra integrates well with popular payment gateways, email gateways, SMS gateways, membership platforms, and calendar apps.
However, its number of integrations is limited
Also the available integrations are quite technical, and it’s not one click setup.
Also many people reported inconsistency in data transfer so, it makes sense for you to give it a test drive if native integrations are a real big priority for you.
Nevertheless, you can use Zapier to connect with third-party tools and services. For custom integrations, Kartra offers API, IPN, and custom apps features.
Helpdesk
Kartra also comes with a built-in helpdesk functionality, enabling you to provide seamless customer support without relying on external tools like Zendesk or HelpScout.
You can create multiple helpdesks and even add a live chat widget to your course hosting pages.
This allows your audience to get their doubts resolved instantly, enhancing the overall user experience.
Within the helpdesk, you can set up various departments to streamline communication and ticket management. It supports a complete ticketing system, where users can raise queries, and you can easily manage and resolve them.
A particularly impressive feature is Kartra’s wiki functionality, which lets you host all your support documentation within the helpdesk itself. This eliminates the need for additional tools to manage FAQs, guides, or troubleshooting resources.
What truly sets Kartra’s helpdesk apart is its integration with Kartra-based automation features.
You can:
- Automatically tag or label leads for better organization and communication.
- Segment leads based on their queries or behavior.
- Trigger automations (like follow-up emails or workflows) directly from helpdesk interactions.
Kartra’s Helpdesk not only centralizes your customer support but also ties it seamlessly into your broader marketing and sales workflows, making it a valuable tool for businesses aiming to enhance customer satisfaction and efficiency.
Pricing and support
Kartra’s Starter plan costs you $119 per month. It comes with unlimited everything except it has a limitation of hosting only up to 2,500 contacts.
However, if you exceed 2,500 contacts in the Starter plan, you’ll need to upgrade to the $229/month plan, which is still less expensive than other platforms like Kajabi and ClickFunnels.
And support!
When it comes to support, although I have not reached out to their support during my time on Kartra, but as per web research, their support is quite bad.
You will not be available to easily talk with them and your emails may not receive timely replies.
But things may have changed. I suggest you shoot them an email and see for yourself.
Kartra vs. Competitors
Looking at how Kartra compares to other platforms in 2024, here’s what you need to know. For most users, the choice really depends on what you’re trying to achieve with your online business.
If you’re primarily focused on course creation and want a polished platform, Kajabi makes more sense than Kartra, even though it costs more.
Kajabi’s interface is more modern, and it comes with better course delivery tools, a built-in community feature, and mobile apps. The only downside is that you’re limited to 3 products on the basic plan.
For agencies managing multiple clients, GoHighLevel offers better value than Kartra. It’s not only cheaper but also comes with unlimited everything, a modern interface, and really good CRM features.
The only area where Kartra beats GoHighLevel is in email marketing and some advanced marketing features.
If you’re mainly building sales funnels, ClickFunnels 2.0 has evolved to be a better choice than Kartra. The interface is faster, the funnel builder is more intuitive, and they’ve added features like course creation.
While Kartra has unique features like Behavioral Adaptive Marketing and dynamic OTOs, ClickFunnels’ modern approach and visual funnel mapping make it easier to work with.
Kartra ($119/month) still makes sense if you specifically need its advanced marketing automation features like Behavioral Adaptive Marketing (useful for eCom), dynamic OTOs, and detailed split testing.
It’s also good if you want unlimited products without paying premium prices like with Kajabi.
However, the dated interface and slower development pace make it harder to recommend as your primary platform unless these specific features are crucial for your business.
Verdict
Kartra is an excellent all-in-one marketing platform for entrepreneurs, course creators, and small business owners looking to streamline their workflows.
It centralizes everything under one roof, saving both time and money.
It’s ideal for those who value convenience and automation over specialized tools.
For example, the membership feature works well for delivering course content, but it isn’t as robust as dedicated course platforms like Teachable.
Kartra shines when it comes to automation, pre-built campaign assets, and its ability to manage everything—from lead generation to customer support—in one place.
However, if you only need a single feature like email marketing or landing pages, standalone tools might be a better fit.
For businesses looking for simplicity, efficiency, and scalability, Kartra is worth the investment. Take advantage of the free trial to see how it fits into your workflow.