Kartra vs ClickFunnels: Which One Fits Your Business?

Most Kartra vs ClickFunnels comparisons quote plans that haven’t existed for years, so here’s the real picture: Kartra is the all-in-one for selling your own courses and products from $59, while ClickFunnels is funnel-first with AI from $97, and neither runs live webinars.

But which one actually fits your business? We’ve built a quick interactive quiz (6 questions, no email) that tells you whether Kartra, ClickFunnels or GoHighLevel is your best match.

If you want a quick answer, take the quiz.

Key Takeaways

• Kartra bundles courses, video hosting, a helpdesk and five payment gateways under one login.
• ClickFunnels builds funnels fast with AI, handles bigger lists and charges zero platform transaction fees.
• Kartra retired its webinar tool on 1 November 2026, and ClickFunnels never hosted live webinars natively.
• Kartra Starter at $119 a month is where most course creators land, with unlimited courses and video hosting.
• ClickFunnels Scale at $197 a month unlocks automations, calendars and the full AI toolkit for growing brands.
• Agencies managing client accounts will almost always get more mileage from GoHighLevel than either platform.

Kartra vs ClickFunnels: The Quick Verdict

Pick Kartra if…

• You sell your own courses, memberships or digital products and want video hosting, a helpdesk and checkout all under one roof.
• You need multiple payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal, Square, Braintree, Authorize.net) and Klarna for buy-now-pay-later.
• You’re ready to trade a bit of polish on the page builder for deep automations, lead scoring and built-in affiliate payouts.

Pick ClickFunnels if…

• You want funnels built fast, and you want an AI that researches your market, writes the copy and designs the pages for you.
• You run several brands or plan to, and you need bigger contact and email limits without a transaction fee on your sales.
• You value ease of use highly and want a platform that scores noticeably higher on setup and support ratings.

Agencies running client accounts should look at GoHighLevel instead. It’s built for that from the ground up.

The recommended starting points: Kartra Starter at $119 a month and ClickFunnels Scale at $197 a month.

What Is Kartra?

Kartra gives you one place to sell your own courses, memberships and products, so your pages, checkout, emails, video and support finally talk to each other.

Instead of stitching together a page builder, a shopping cart, an email platform, a video host and a helpdesk, you get the whole lot inside a single login. That cuts out a pile of monthly subscriptions and stops your data from living in six different silos.

It also means your automations can see everything: when someone buys, watches a video, opens a ticket or hits a lead score, Kartra can act on it without you wiring up a dozen integrations.

We’ve dug into the whole platform in detail over in our full Kartra review.

What Is ClickFunnels?

ClickFunnels is a sales funnel builder that now creates entire funnels for you with AI, and it wraps courses, communities, a store and a simple CRM around that core.

The idea is speed.

You describe what you’re selling, and the AI researches your market, designs the pages, writes the copy and builds the funnel. From there you can tweak everything in the drag-and-drop editor.

Beyond funnels, ClickFunnels gives you course hosting, community spaces, a customer centre where buyers manage their stuff, and a shared inbox that pulls in messages from email, SMS, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram.

We’ve covered the full platform in our ClickFunnels review.

Features Compared: Where Each One Wins

Here’s the bit that actually matters: how the core features stack up, and who wins each round.

Building Pages And Funnels

You’ll launch your funnels quicker with ClickFunnels, and it feels less like hard work.

Both platforms give you templates, drag-and-drop editors and split testing, so you’re never starting from nothing.

Kartra adds a handy funnel mapping view that shows your whole customer journey at a glance.

But that overview comes with a trade-off. Users regularly complain about a sluggish page editor and an interface that looks tired in places.

ClickFunnels simply feels smoother to use. On G2, it scores 8.6 for ease of use against Kartra’s 7.3.

The real timesaver is Build with AI, included on every plan. It researches your market, designs the pages, writes the copy and assembles the entire funnel for you.

You can then tweak any page by typing a simple prompt.

The edge: ClickFunnels wins on speed and ease of use, especially if you want AI to do the heavy lifting upfront.

Checkouts, Payments And Upsells

You want a checkout that closes the sale and increases the order value without feeling pushy. Both platforms do order bumps, one-click upsells and downsells, and subscription payments.

Kartra recently overhauled its checkouts. You now get Apple Pay, Google Pay and Klarna through Stripe, plus a one-step checkout you can embed on other websites.

The gateway lineup is the real differentiator: Stripe, PayPal, Square, Braintree and Authorize.net. That’s five gateways, which matters if you sell internationally or your audience prefers something other than Stripe.

ClickFunnels handles payments through ClickFunnels Payments AI, which can carry Stripe, NMI and PayPal, and it supports Apple Pay.

The headline here is zero platform transaction fees on any plan. Kartra’s Essentials plan charges a 5% transaction fee, which adds up as your sales grow.

The edge: Kartra wins on gateway choice and Klarna. ClickFunnels wins on fees, because zero is zero.

Email Marketing And Automation

You want to send broadcasts and sequences that feel personal, then automate follow-up based on what people do.

Kartra includes email broadcasts, sequences and an AI spam checker on every plan.

SMS is available through your own Twilio or Vonage account, and you can drop SMS steps straight into your sequences. Lead scoring is built in, so you can spot your most engaged contacts and trigger actions when someone hits a score.

The catch is that behaviour-based automations need the Growth plan at $229 a month.

ClickFunnels gives you email broadcasts with subject-line A/B tests on every plan, and the email allowances are far larger at each tier. Workflows with conditions, splits and goals unlock on Scale at $197 a month.

SMS works through MessageHub with your own Twilio or Bandwidth account. Workflows can send a MessageHub message, which can go out as SMS, but there isn’t a dedicated SMS step.

The edge: Kartra wins on SMS inside sequences and lead scoring. ClickFunnels wins on raw email volume and a lower entry point for automations.

Courses, Memberships And Communities

You want a proper learning experience for your students, not a bunch of pages stitched together.

Kartra gives you unlimited courses and memberships from the Starter plan at $119 a month.

The course builder is solid, and your students get a membership portal to log into. Video hosting is unlimited and uses Kartra’s own player, so your course videos sit right inside the platform.

ClickFunnels lets you host courses too, with drip content and video uploads up to 3 GB per file. But course limits are tied to your plan: 3 courses on Launch, 6 on Scale, 10 on Optimize.

Where ClickFunnels pulls ahead is communities.

You can create groups and topics inside your membership area, which gives your students a space to interact. Kartra doesn’t offer a dedicated community app.

The edge: Kartra wins for course creators who want unlimited courses and built-in video hosting. ClickFunnels wins if you want a community alongside your courses.

Video Hosting

Hosting your own videos means you keep viewers on your pages instead of sending them off to YouTube, and you control the experience end to end.

Kartra includes unlimited video hosting with its own player on the Starter plan and above.

You upload your videos straight into Kartra and drop them into any page or course. Some users even use Kartra instead of regular web hosting for their whole site, which frees up a separate hosting bill.

ClickFunnels hosts course videos natively, but for sales page videos you’ll embed from YouTube, Vimeo or Wistia. That’s not a dealbreaker, but it does mean your funnel pages rely on a third-party player.

The edge: Kartra wins this one cleanly. If you want every video hosted under your own roof, 30 days of Kartra free is the way to test it.

Support Tools: Helpdesk, Live Chat And Calendars

When a customer has a problem, you want them to reach you without leaving your ecosystem, and you want to track the conversation.

Kartra adds a real helpdesk ticketing system on the Growth plan at $229 a month, and live chat unlocks on Professional at $549.

That means you can manage support tickets properly. Calendars are available from the Starter plan, with Google Calendar, Google Meet and Zoom integration, plus paid bookings.

ClickFunnels takes a different approach.

MessageHub is a shared inbox that pulls in website chat, email, SMS, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Telegram. It’s great for seeing all your conversations in one place, but it’s not a ticketed helpdesk.

Calendars unlock on Scale at $197 a month, with Google Meet, Zoom and Teams, plus paid bookings.

The edge: Kartra wins if you need a proper support desk with tickets. ClickFunnels wins if you want one inbox for every channel.

Affiliate Programmes

You want affiliates selling your stuff, and you want to track commissions and payouts without another tool.

Kartra bakes affiliate management into the Growth plan at $229 a month. You can set percentage or fixed commissions, run multiple tiers and pay affiliates through PayPal.

ClickFunnels puts its Affiliate Center on the Optimize plan at $297 a month. You get percentage or fixed commissions, recurring commissions and a 45-day cookie window.

The edge: Kartra wins on price. Affiliate management unlocks at $229 a month on Kartra, versus $297 on ClickFunnels.

AI Tools

AI should save you time on copy, design and figuring out what to say.

ClickFunnels is the clear winner here.

Build with AI is on every plan, and it builds entire funnels from a prompt. It researches your market, designs the pages, writes the copy and creates images.

You can then edit any page by typing what you want to change. There’s also an AI coach with voice on Scale and above, and generous AI word allowances on every tier.

Kartra’s AI, called Kartra AI, writes copy inside the page builder and the email and SMS composers.

It’s helpful, but it doesn’t build pages or funnels for you. Usage is capped at 30 uses a month on Essentials, 100 on Starter and 250 on Growth.

The edge: ClickFunnels takes this round. If AI speed matters, try Build with AI free for 14 days and watch it build a funnel from scratch.

Integrations

You want your platform to talk to your other tools, and an API for custom needs.

Kartra opens its API and Zapier integration on the Growth plan at $229 a month. Before that, you’re working inside Kartra’s native feature set.

ClickFunnels gives you its API and webhooks on the Scale plan at $197 a month, and it also has native integrations and Zapier support.

The edge: ClickFunnels unlocks API access at a lower price point, which matters if you plan to connect custom tools early on.

What About Webinars?

This is the bit that trips up most people reading old comparisons.

Kartra retired its webinar tool on 1 November 2026. You can no longer create or edit webinars inside Kartra.

Now, ClickFunnels never hosted the live session itself. Its webinar funnel templates handle registration pages and replay delivery, but the live broadcast runs on a separate tool like Zoom, GoToWebinar or WebinarFuel.

So either way, you’re adding a webinar tool. A popular choice is WebinarJam, which handles live, automated and hybrid webinars. Plans start at $39 a month (billed annually), and the Basic plan and above include EverWebinar for automated replays.

If you want to see how ClickFunnels handles the funnel side, their ClickFunnels webinar guide walks you through the setup.

Kartra and ClickFunnels Pricing Compared

Here’s the full picture, side by side. No old plan names, just the real numbers.

Platform	Plan	Monthly	Annual (per month)	Contacts	Key Unlock
Kartra	Essentials	$59	$52	500	1 course, 5 pages, 5% transaction fee
Kartra	Starter	$119	$99	2,500	Unlimited courses, video hosting, no fees
Kartra	Growth	$229	$189	12,500	Automations, helpdesk, affiliate management
Kartra	Professional	$549	$429	25,000	Live chat, funnel analytics, 5 custom domains
ClickFunnels	Launch	$97	$81	10,000	1 brand, 3 courses, AI funnel builder
ClickFunnels	Scale	$197	$164	75,000	Automations, 5 brands, 6 courses, calendars
ClickFunnels	Optimize	$297	$248	150,000	Affiliate Center, 10 brands, advanced workflows
ClickFunnels	Dominate	Annual only	$5,997 a year	400,000	20 brands, dedicated IP, branding removal

A typical course creator lands on Kartra Starter at $119 a month, which gives you unlimited courses, video hosting, calendars and no transaction fees.

On ClickFunnels you’d need Scale at $197 a month to unlock automations, and even then you’re capped at 6 courses.

Kartra Starter gives you unlimited courses at $119. That’s a meaningful price gap.

But watch the transaction fee.

Kartra Essentials charges 5% on every sale, which grows with your revenue. ClickFunnels charges zero platform fees on any plan, and its contact and email limits are far larger at each tier.

If you’re moving serious volume, those two factors can flip the maths.

3 months of ClickFunnels Scale for $99 is a low-risk way to test the bigger plan.

We’ve broken down every tier in detail: every Kartra plan in detail and every ClickFunnels plan in detail.

Free Trials, Discounts And Refunds

Both platforms let you start without committing, and both stand behind a 30-day money-back guarantee.

The Kartra free trial through this link gives you 30 days instead of the standard 14. Use the code SteveW30 at checkout and you’ll also get 30% off your first payment on the Starter or Growth plan.

A card is required, but if you cancel before the 30 days are up you won’t be charged a thing. The 30-day money-back guarantee covers that first payment, too.

We’ve written a walkthrough on how the 30-day Kartra trial works.

So, start your 30-day Kartra trial and give the whole platform a proper run.

The ClickFunnels free trial runs for 14 days and needs a card.

If you’d rather jump straight into the full toolkit, new customers can grab 3 months of ClickFunnels Scale for $99 instead of paying the usual $197 a month.

Or you can start with ClickFunnels’ 14-day free trial and upgrade later if it clicks.

Which Is Easier To Use?

ClickFunnels scores higher on ease of use, and that lines up with what users report.

G2’s side-by-side ratings tell the story: ease of use scores 8.6 for ClickFunnels against 7.3 for Kartra, ease of setup is 8.3 versus 7.1, and quality of support lands at 8.6 versus 7.2.

Kartra’s learning curve is the most repeated complaint in its reviews. It’s powerful, but there’s a lot to learn.

If you want to get a funnel live this afternoon, ClickFunnels is the smoother on-ramp. If you’re willing to invest a couple of weeks learning a deeper system, Kartra rewards that effort.

You can see the full breakdown on G2’s side-by-side ratings.

Kartra Pros And Cons

Kartra packs a lot into one login, but you’ll feel the learning curve in the first week or two.

ClickFunnels Pros And Cons

ClickFunnels is fast and polished, but you’ll pay more to unlock the deeper features.

What Real Users Say

The review sites paint a fairly consistent picture.

G2 users rate ClickFunnels 4.6 out of 5 from 416 reviews, while Kartra sits at 3.9 from 62 reviews. On Capterra both platforms land at 4.5, but ClickFunnels has around 665 reviews to Kartra’s 168, and ClickFunnels scores 4.3 on ease of use against Kartra’s 4.0.

Trustpilot tells a different story: ClickFunnels holds a 4.7 from over 2,500 reviews, while Kartra sits at 3.2 from 129. It’s worth knowing that ClickFunnels actively invites customers to leave Trustpilot reviews, which partly explains the gap.

The themes are clear: Kartra users praise the all-in-one nature and the depth of the automations, and they complain about the learning curve and occasional slow support. G2 reviewers found ClickFunnels easier to use, set up and administer than Kartra.

Which Should You Choose?

The right pick depends entirely on what you’re building. Here’s the fit for four common scenarios.

Course Creators And Coaches

If you sell your own courses, memberships or coaching programmes, Kartra is the tighter fit.

You get unlimited courses, video hosting, a helpdesk and five payment gateways from the Starter plan at $119 a month. Everything lives in one place, and your automations can see the whole customer journey.

Funnel Builders And Growing Brands

If funnels are the engine of your business and you plan to run several brands, the ClickFunnels vs Kartra decision leans heavily toward ClickFunnels. Build with AI gets you from idea to live funnel fast, and the contact and email limits give you room to grow.

Get 3 months of Scale for $99 and you’ll have the full toolkit to test without a big upfront cost.

Agencies

If you’re building funnels and campaigns for clients, neither platform is really designed for that.

GoHighLevel is built from the ground up for agencies, with client sub-accounts, white labelling, a full CRM and SMS baked in.

You can grab a 30-day GoHighLevel trial plus a free setup bootcamp through this link.

We’ve also compared GoHighLevel vs Kartra if you want to see how they stack up.

Tight Budgets

If you’re just getting started and need to keep costs near zero, Systeme.io, which has a free plan covers funnels, email and courses.

It’s not as deep as either platform, but it’s a legitimate starting point.

We’ve also rounded up the best ClickFunnels alternatives if you want to see what else is out there.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Kartra better than ClickFunnels?

It depends on what you’re selling.

Kartra is better for course creators and coaches who want video hosting, a helpdesk and multiple payment gateways under one login. ClickFunnels is better for funnel-first businesses that want AI to build funnels fast and need room to grow across several brands.

What is better than ClickFunnels?

For course creators, Kartra is often a better fit because it bundles unlimited courses, video hosting and a helpdesk at a lower price. For agencies, GoHighLevel is better because it’s purpose-built for managing client accounts.

How much is Kartra per month?

Kartra starts at $59 a month for the Essentials plan and goes up to $549 a month for Professional. The Starter plan at $119 a month is where most course creators land, because it unlocks unlimited courses and video hosting.

Which funnel platform is considered the best?

There isn’t a single best platform for everyone.

ClickFunnels has an AI funnel builder on every plan and higher ease-of-use ratings. Kartra bundles more tools into one login for course sellers, which makes it a strong all-in-one option.

Is Kartra legit?

Yes.

Kartra says it has 60,000 customers. It takes payments through Stripe, PayPal, Square, Braintree and Authorize.net, and offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Kartra vs ClickFunnels: My Final Verdict

Neither platform is objectively better. They’re built for different stages and different business models.

If you’re a course creator or coach who wants courses, video, email, checkout and support all living in one place, Kartra is the smarter fit. Start on the Starter plan and use the 30-day trial to see if the learning curve is worth the payoff.

If funnels are your main growth engine and you want AI to do the heavy lifting while you scale across several brands, ClickFunnels is the one. The Scale plan gives you the full toolkit, and the 3 months for $99 offer makes it easy to test without a big upfront cost.