If you're about to set up an online business, but you're not sure what platform to go for - stop and read through our Kartra vs Clickfunnels comparison!
There are tons of different types of platforms out there for eCommerce. Funnel building, email marketing, landing page builders, dropshipping apps (if you're dropshipping, of course) … the list goes on.
Related: Spocket vs. Oberlo: Which Shopify Dropshipping App is Better?
You may find yourself pouring a lot of time (and money) into multiple different platforms for your business.
However, a few out there allow you to (almost) do everything under one roof. Including, you guessed it, Kartra and Clickfunnels. Both of which are ideal for people starting from scratch.
So, which one is better?
Our top choice upfront: We like Kartra. It has a LOT to offer for the money, and we think it's a bit easier to navigate than Clickfunnels.
Keep reading to find out more, starting with what the difference is between the two.
What's the Difference Between Kartra and Clickfunnels?
So, what sets Kartra and Clickfunnels apart?
Essentially - Kartra gives you more features. Clickfunnels is more focused on funnel creation. That's about the crux of it, but of course, we'll go into more detail.
Here's an overview of the main differences:
- Kartra has built-in email marketing, a lead generator, form builder, helpdesk creator, and other features, whereas Clickfunnels lacks these extra features.
- Kartra is a bit easier to navigate, whereas Clickfunnels is more clunky and cluttered.
- Kartra's customer service team can be slow to respond, whereas Clickfunnels' customer service team is quick to get back to you.
What Are the Similarities?
There are some significant similarities too:
- The funnel-building process is similar.
- They both have a marketplace for user-created funnels.
- They both allow you to create landing pages.
- They both have safe, secure shopping carts for your customers.
Now, let's take a look at them in more detail.
What is Kartra?
Kartra is a shopping cart platform that brings together several other essential eCommerce tools, including email marketing, list building, and web hosting. Launched in 2018, it's particularly good if you're just getting started with your online business.
What is Clickfunnels?
Clickfunnels is a website and sales funnel builder. It has an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop page builder, as well as robust sales, funnel templates. Launched in 2014, it's aimed at any-sized business online, although, like Kartra, it's ideal if you're just starting out.
Kartra - Main Features
First, let's look at Kartra's main features.
UX/Ease of Use
Kartra is pretty easy to use from the get-go. You can easily navigate using the bar on the left, and every feature is clearly signposted. There are signposted tutorials and steps to take for beginners, which is excellent.
Kartra is a pretty clean, simply designed platform, so it's difficult to get lost or feel overwhelmed. However, signing up is a bit confusing, and you will be faced with a lot of upsells to skip past, which is slightly annoying.
Shopping Cart
You can create product listings through Kartra, which can then be integrated into your sales funnels. This is simple to do, and you can add upsells and one-click sales. You can also set flexible pricing structures if you offer subscription-based services. Plus, you can create coupons and vouchers, which is an excellent way to draw in new customers.
Customers can pay using a credit card or PayPal. The checkout process is secure and safe, but the payment options are limited compared to some other services (for example, you can't use Apple Pay).
You can easily view your sales on Kartra, too, allowing you to manage orders and send them (if you sell physical products).
Funnel Builder
There are a series of pre-built campaigns to choose from with Kartra. Using a drag-and-drop sequence builder, you can tinker around with these to your hearts' content. You can also take advantage of the user-built campaigns. Pre-built campaigns include:
- Simple List Builder
- List Builder
- Quick Launch
- 4-Day Cash Machine
- Book Funnel
- eShop Campaign
- Masterclass Campaign
- Agency Campaign
Each prebuilt campaign has a short video to show you how it works. If you like it, clicking 'deploy' activates the campaign.
The campaign builder itself does feel a bit overwhelming if you're new - it's a little easier to grab a pre-built campaign and alter that, as opposed to trying to build one from scratch if you've never done it before.
If you do want to build one from scratch, it has tons of options for you. You could build a campaign that suits your needs with a bit of time to learn the process.
Landing Page Builder
The landing page builder is straightforward to use, too. It comes with a bunch of pre-made templates for landing pages, including:
- Squeeze page
- Video sales page
- Thank you page
- Long sales page
- Coming soon page
- Product launch page
- Webinar registration
- Blog post
- Blog home
There are more templates to choose from, too. You could build some beautiful landing pages using Kartra from scratch, too (you can grab some ideas from our guide to the 6 conversion-boosting Best Practices for eCommerce Homepages).
The template builder is drag-and-drop, and it's fairly easy to pick it up. You can create a structure using 'sections' and then use 'components' to fill those sections. Components include headlines, text, buttons, images, videos, countdowns, progress bars, and built-in forms.
Email Marketing
There are a few ways you can reach out to your customers using Kartra. You can use SMS as part of your campaigns, filtering recipients based on tags you can give to your customers (or tags that are automatically applied to them as part of the funnel you have created).
You can also create emails, which can be split tested. Emails can be created using a basic email editor or a drag-and-drop template builder. The email builder works in the same way as the page builder. You can select automations, too (for example, if a customer clicks on a link within the email, you can assign them a tag). This is all pretty straightforward to learn, and it saves you from signing up for a separate email marketing service.
Handily, Kartra will start to offer you suggestions over time - like the best time of day to send emails.
Leads
Kartra allows you to find out more about your customers easily in the Leads section. You can see their contact details, lead score, date of joining if applicable, and the tags you have assigned to them. You can also create notes for each customer, which is helpful if there is more than one of you on your team, or you need to remember something for later.
The 'log' section is really helpful, allowing you to see all your customers' interactions with you. From how many emails they've opened, how many products they've ordered, if they registered with you - everything is clearly laid out.
Lead scoring is helpful too. Customers will be given points for specific actions, for example, opening an email or making a purchase. This allows you to target campaigns based on how often a person has interacted with you.
Form Builder
Kartra has an easy-to-use form builder too. It's very straightforward - you can just add the fields you need for the form you are creating. You can also add automations (for example, assigning a tag to a customer or adding them to a specific mailing list). You can embed your forms into your Kartra page or to a different website if needed.
Helpdesk
You can set up help desks for your customers if you want to help to automate some customer service issues that may crop up. You can assign customers tickets, distribute them amongst your team members, and create standard answers for certain questions. This could be helpful for larger businesses.
Extra Features
There are even more features to talk about. To keep it brief:
- Calendar System - this is a clever system that allows your customers to book appointments with you based on your availability without you having to set it up yourself. A customer can book an appointment via your website. Perfect if you have the kind of business that requires appointments or if you sell tickets to events. Kartra will email you to remind you of the appointment the day before.
- Memberships - you can create memberships with Kartra, using the Membership Site Builder. You can set tiers and have password protection for members.
- Videos - if you create video content, you can take advantage of Kartra's video editor. You can put product links in these videos, and add tags to customers if they drop out at certain points - allowing you to run marketing campaigns with a deeper understanding of your customers and what they want to see.
Affiliates
You can manage your affiliates with Kartra, too. You can set flexible commission rates, set payment milestones to decide when your affiliates will be paid, and build custom landing pages for them. This is a straightforward process, and it's great if you don't want to go elsewhere to run an affiliate program.
Analytics
You can view reports on various topics, including:
- Traffic and conversion
- Subscriptions
- Products
- Calendar and helpdesk
- Affiliates
You can view a report for every transaction, which is really helpful. You can filter reports and download them to share with others. The analytics are easy to understand and helpful in terms of making strategic business decisions.
Clickfunnels - Main Features
Let's take a look at the main features that Clickfunnels has to offer.
UX/Ease of Use
Clickfunnels is pretty easy to navigate. The dashboard has handy 'quick links so you can quickly build a funnel without having to click through menus. It also has a 'next steps' area, which is really useful for new users. Clickfunnels asks questions about your business during the signup process and then filters some of their tasks and training based on that.
The downside is it's not immediately clear how to build a landing page, other than during the funnel building process. It's also a little clunky and outdated generally - there are better-looking platforms out there.
Shopping Cart
As part of the funnel-building process, you can create a secure checkout page for your customers. You can play around with this in the same way you can with all pages on Clickfunnels (more on that in the landing page builder section coming up).
Clickfunnels relies on payment processors like PayPal or Stripe to deal with payments. This makes it relatively simple for your customers, but if I had one criticism, it would be that it's not as instantly obvious where to go to add new products.
Funnel Builder
You can create custom funnels or use templates. There are three basic templates to choose from: Collect Emails, Sell Your Product, or Host Webinar.
Once you're in, you can start to edit your funnel:
It's not the best-looking funnel builder out there, but it's pretty straightforward - you can see the funnel steps on the left and access your chosen landing page on the right. You can also run split tests. You can either create a slight variation on your selected landing page or choose a different page altogether.
You can check out the Clickfunnels Marketplace if you want more options. The price ranges pretty widely from free to hundreds of dollars, but they're worth considering if you want more options.
There are some powerful funnels available on the Marketplace, with excellent reviews. These are pretty simple to install. The downside is that the most powerful ones tend to come with bigger price tags - and as the price is kind of high already (more on that later), it may be out of reach if you haven't got much in the way of start-up costs.
Landing Page Builder
The landing page builder is pretty easy to use. You can click on each element, rearrange them, and edit them. You can add new elements using the top right buttons, including text boxes, bullet-point lists, headings, subheadings, images, videos, audio files, buttons, icons, and countdowns.
You can also add social media share buttons, as well as advanced form elements - for example, you can quickly and easily drag and drop a sign-up form for your mailing list.
The landing page builder is perfect if you don't have any knowledge of coding or website building, as it's straightforward to use. The downside is it's not as customizable as other platforms designed for this purpose, which isn't necessarily a surprise given that it's not the only focus of the platform - the landing pages are just an element of the funnel as opposed to the main feature.
There are some lovely templates to choose from:
They're all reasonably similar, though - large images or videos, with stand-out taglines (like 'Get the Right Clients' or equivalent). If you want something different than this, you'll have to make one from scratch, but the page builder is easy enough to learn.
Email Marketing
Clickfunnels doesn't have an email marketing service built into the platform itself. It has two options to choose from - Clickfunnels Internal or Email Messenger. However, neither works as well as dedicated email marketing services. It's a bit confusing, especially if you're not very tech-savvy.
They do offer many integrations with third-party email marketing services, but more on that a little later.
Affiliates
You can manage affiliates using Clickfunnels, and it's pretty straightforward to set up commission plans and affiliate types. The dashboard gives you an instant overview of the number of affiliates you have, their total sales, and the commission made. You can also view the Affiliate Leaderboard, which will give you a good idea of how well your affiliates are performing.
Analytics
Clickfunnels has an overview of money made from funnels on the main dashboard. You can view more in-depth statistics on each funnel too.
You can also view total sales, with more in-depth information on each sale, using the Sales dashboard.
Kartra vs Clickfunnels - Integrations
Now, let's look at how Kartra and Clickfunnels integrate with other platforms:
Kartra
Kartra has some good integrations, including:
- Braintree
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Authorize.net
- Postmark
- Google Calendar
- Twilio
- Zapier
Clickfunnels
Clickfunnels has a pretty good array of integrations in various categories, including custom domains, webinar services, payment gateways, SMS, and email marketing.
If you're new to email marketing, ideally, you'd go for a third-party platform to integrate with Clickfunnels. You'll have plenty to choose from, including:
- ActiveCampaign
- Aweber
- Constant Contact
- ConvertKit
- Drip
- GetResponse
- MailChimp
- Ontraport
- Salesforce
- Sendlane
- Shopify
Kartra vs Clickfunnels - Support
What about customer support?
Kartra
Kartra has a lot to offer in terms of teaching and guidance. Kartra Academy, for example, takes you on an in-depth course to learn exactly how to use the platform. You can also dip in and out of tutorials, either articles or videos, which are really helpful.
You can contact support using a ticketing system. The customer support team is friendly, but they can take a little while to respond.
Clickfunnels
Clickfunnels has a good knowledge base, with guides, videos, a podcast, and a blog. You can find help articles and tutorials for specific parts of the platform, and there is an online community that you can join, too.
You can contact Clickfunnels using the support button on the lower right-hand side in terms of customer support. Typing in your problem will either point you in the direction of a help article or create a ticket. The customer support team is pretty prompt and helpful.
Kartra vs Clickfunnels - Pricing
Now, let's talk about pricing.
Kartra
There are four plans:
Starter - $99 per month
- Up to 2,500 leads
- 15,000 emails per month
- Stream 50GB bandwidth
- Host 100 pages
- Sell 10 products
- Create 2 memberships
Silver - $199 per month
- Up to 12,000 leads
- 250,000 emails per month
- Stream 125GB bandwidth
- Host unlimited pages
- Sell unlimited products
- Create unlimited memberships
Gold - $299 per month
- Up to 50,000 leads
- 500,000 emails per month
- Stream 200GB per month
- Host unlimited pages
- Sell unlimited products
- Create unlimited memberships
Platinum - $499 per month
- Up to 50,000 leads
- Send 500,000 emails per month
- Stream 400GB per month
- Host unlimited pages
- Sell unlimited products
- Create unlimited memberships
It's not bad in terms of pricing on the lower levels, comparable to Clickfunnels. However, it does offer more features than Clickfunnels, so you may decide it's a better value for that reason. They offer a 14-day trial for $1 - you can find out more on their pricing page.
Clickfunnels
Here's a breakdown of the cost of Clickfunnels:
Clickfunnels - $97 per month
This includes:
- 20 Funnels
- 100 Pages
- 1 Sub User
- 3 Payment Gateways
Clickfunnels Platinum - $297 per month
This includes:
- Unlimited Funnels
- Unlimited Pages
- 3 Sub Users
- 9 Payment Gateways
- Unlimited Follow Up Funnels
There's also TwoCommaClubX, which costs $2,497 per month and is available for larger businesses wanting priority support and services.
Clickfunnels is fairly pricey, given that the interface is slightly clunky, and you'll probably need to sign up to a separate email marketing service to create enticing emails for your customers. You may also end up having to shell out for funnel templates. Still, as it combines a shopping cart, funnels, and a page builder, you may decide it's worth it.
You can find out more on their pricing page - they have a free 14-day trial which is worth checking out!
Pros and Cons
Let's look at a quick overview of the pros and cons of both Kartra and Clickfunnels:
Kartra
Pros
Cons
Clickfunnels
Pros
Cons
Alternatives to Try
Don't fancy Kartra or Clickfunnels? There are other platforms out there that you can try. The difficult thing is finding a service that offers a shopping cart, funnel building, and email marketing all under one umbrella. Here are a few we'd recommend looking at:
ActiveCampaign
Similar to both Kartra and Clickfunnels, ActiveCampaign combines a landing page builder, funnel builder, and CRM tools, as well as email marketing. It has a lot of tools for one platform, and we think it's a good choice with a great customer support team, too.
Keap (formerly Infusionsoft)
Keap is a good one to look at if you want to visualize your sales pipeline easily. It's a very user-friendly platform, allowing you to manage multiple tools under one 'roof'.
Drip
If you're a bit more tech-savvy or you've had your business for a while, and you want to see better results, Drip is well worth looking at. It's got a pretty steep learning curve, but it's a powerful tool if you want to build better marketing campaigns.
Frequently Asked Questions
Before you go, here are some questions you might want to know the answers to:
Is there a mobile app for Kartra or Clickfunnels?
At the time of writing, Kartra doesn't have a mobile app. Clickfunnels has Clickfunnels Stats, an app that allows you to see reports on the go, as well as accessing sales and marketing training.
How can I cancel Kartra or Clickfunnels?
Both platforms allow you to cancel your subscriptions on your 'account' page.
Are Kartra and Clickfunnels secure platforms?
Yep, pretty secure. They both have SSL certificates (essential for encrypting information) and super secure payment methods. They also have PCI compliance (administered by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council). Neither platforms appear to have had any security breaches, either.
Final Thoughts... Which is Better Between Kartra vs Clickfunnels
In our opinion, today's winner is …
Don't get me wrong, Clickfunnels has a lot of great features. You can build some powerful funnels using their platform, and their Marketplace has some excellent, proven funnels to choose from.
Plus, the customer service is fast to respond (and friendly), which is a definite bonus. And they have some great training available, as well as a podcast and a blog with bonus tips and tricks.
However, in terms of bang for your buck, you're better off going with Kartra.
It's packed with features - the calendar, form builder, helpdesk, and video tools are really useful - and the overall user experience is better. It's easier to navigate, which is a huge plus.
Either one is ideal if you're just starting out in eCommerce.
It's worth checking out Clickfunnel's free trial and the Kartra $1 trial - that way, you can see for yourself which one works best for you!
