Kartra and ClickFunnels both have similar features to help online course creators thrive, but you don’t need both.
Both platforms are incredibly powerful and useful. But, depending on your business needs, one platform will be a better option.
This comparison will dive into when you should use Kartra and when you should use ClickFunnels.
What’s the difference between Kartra and ClickFunnels?
Kartra and ClickFunnels are both popular online course platforms. Each has pros and cons.
That can make your decision of Kartra vs ClickFunnels very difficult. However, which one you should choose will depend on your specific situation.
Generally, Kartra is the best all-in-one solution, while ClickFunnels specializes in building sales funnels. But, let’s look closer at each platform’s pros and cons.
Kartra Pros
ClickFunnels Pros
Kartra Cons
ClickFunnels Cons
If you want more details about Kartra vs ClickFunnels, then check out the next section, where we break down the tools and features of each.
Tools & Feature Comparison:
Kartra has pretty much every feature under the sun when it comes to an online business platform. It is, after all, an all-in-one solution.
Kartra offers the following:
- Course hosting and design
- Advanced emails/automation
- Calendar capabilities
- Advanced cart + Affiliate program
- Advanced Page/Funnel builder
- A/B testing
- CRM: Help desk, ticket system, live chat, lead points
- File hosting
- Code access
ClickFunnels, on the other hand, focuses more on funnel building. It has everything but course hosting, including:
- Advanced funnel builder
- A/B testing
- Integrated cart + Affiliate program
- Email software (Platinum plan)
Funnel/Page building
ClickFunnels is arguably the most popular funnel builder platform available. It has advanced features to build your funnels and sales pages.
Kartra also offers advanced upsell and downsell capabilities and A/B testing, but it’s not as specialized in funnel building.
Clickfunnels Cookbook
Specifically, the ease of use Clickfunnels offers explains a lot of the success it has achieved and how it became the industry standard.
Built by a renowned online marketer, Russel Brunson, ClickFunnels was designed with more than a decade of experience in the industry.
Thus, ClickFunnels has an expert balance between customization and optimization with its layout and block options.
On the other hand, Kartra has tons of templates and presets to choose from on its page builder. The templates are easy to use, and you can simply plug and play your content.
Kartra Page Templates
Truthfully, you could build just as advanced and optimized funnels through Kartra as Clickfunnels. It just takes a lot more work…
This is true of the funnel system but also through most features the two platforms have in common.
Checkout/Upsells/Affiliate system
Both Kartra and ClickFunnels offer a thorough checkout system.
You’ll be able to sell both digital and physical products as you wish.
ClickFunnels Checkout
Upsells and downsells are also available and checkout pages are fully customizable.
Once again, Karta’s process for setting up a checkout is a little more involved and could be overwhelming for beginners
Kartra Checkout Setup
But again, not much difference in the end result here!
Kartra’s and Clickfunnels affiliate program helps you manage and track commissions, payments and more.
Note that affiliates payments will have to be manual.
Both offer analytics for your sales funnel to track how your campaigns are doing.
Affiliate payout are done manually, but this can easily be done in-masse using Paypal, which details each affiliate is prompted to enter.
Course delivery
This is probably the biggest difference between the 2 platforms!
Kartra offers a proper course building and management system with the ability to customize the front-end of your course membership area.
Kartra Course Builder
Even if Kartra does not have the best customization or design options compared to other course hosting platforms like Kajabi, it still does a lot better than Clickfunnels.
ClickFunnels is not a course hosting platform per se, so you can only create a limited layout for membership pages. It does not have the ability to create a proper course. That may be a deal-breaker for some.
ClickFunnels Membership Builder
What you’ll technically do is just literally upload your course’s content to a front-end page…
Note that both platform lack real learning tools that you may find in other online course platforms like quizzes, assignments, coaching notes,etc.
Other
Let’s note here a few other features each platform has over the other:
Kartra allows you to build in a native calendar, so you don’t need an external tool like Calendly or Acuity.
Kartra Calendar System
You’ll also be able to manage a real ticket and CRM system with a native support feature.
Unfortunately, neither platform offers a blog. With Kartra, you can create posts on individual pages, but it won’t be as powerful without the content management system that comes with WordPress or Kajabi and the SEO behind them.
So, if a blog is important to you, perhaps look at alternative online course platforms.
Pricing: Comparison Kartra vs ClickFunnels
Kartra has great value for the price, starting at just $99 a month.
However, both are very affordable compared to some tools that cost several hundreds of dollars a month.
If you’re just starting out as a course creator, Kartra has every feature you need for your online business and may be your best option.
However, if you’re looking to focus on funnels, then ClickFunnels is an excellent option as the tool can scale with you as you grow.
Support and Community: Kartra vs ClickFunnels
When building your online business community, having support is critical to solving any problems that arise.
Kartra and ClickFunnels both have a large community for support as well as tutorials and customer support.
ClickFunnels has a massive following with a quarter of a million people in their Facebook group. Kartra also has a Facebook community with over 20K users.
Kartra also has plenty of online tutorials on the Kartranaut to answer any questions and solve problems quickly.
ClickFunnels’ internal support has been known to be slow at times, or not very helpful. However, the Facebook community can answer any questions you need.
Additionally, the platform is designed to be intuitive and easy to use so that even non-techies will not struggle with it.
Furthermore, Kartra has two Q&A live sessions every week so you can ask your specific questions.
Both support and community can be of great help in your online course journey, so knowing what will be available for each platform can help your decision!
Kartra vs ClickFunnels: The Bottom Line
Kartra is definitely one of the most comprehensive platforms for selling online courses. It’s designed to be the only tool you need.
However, it can be complicated for course creators that don’t need extra features.
Alternatively, ClickFunnels is one of the most popular online platform available. It has a large industry following and is easy to use and scale.
But, ClickFunnels is focused mainly on building your sales funnels.
The bottom line is that ClickFunnels is better for funnel building, but Kartra is better for course delivery.
The best platform of Kartra vs ClickFunnels will depend on your specific needs; it depends on what you value.
Both platforms have a free trial, so if you’re trying to decide between Kartra vs ClickFunnels, try them out!
