Kartra vs. Kajabi: Which Is Best For a Coach or Course Creator?

Are you trying to decide what to use to run your online business? You should compare and contrast Kartra vs. Kajabi.

Both platforms are useful for different digital offers, and neither is perfect for all businesses. Consider the features of each to decide which suits your needs.

Keep reading for a detailed breakdown of Kartra and Kajabi.

What Is Kartra?

Kartra (full review) is a tool you can use to combine and manage various aspects of your online business. You can set it up as your best online course platform or membership site. However, it also works well for other types of businesses.

The tool offers everything from website creation to sales funnels. It can connect you with people to help promote your business, and you can set up marketing automations.

You don’t need to have any technical expertise to use Kartra. When you compare Kartra vs. Kajabi, you should also consider the tools on their own. Kartra offers some advanced features that you won’t find on a Kajabi plan.

Calendar

One of the best features of Kartra is that it has a built-in calendar for scheduling. That allows your current and potential clients to book a call with you. You won’t have to go back and forth between emails, so you can schedule meetings more efficiently.

Scheduling is an excellent way to start automating part of your business. You’ll have more time to focus on working with your clients.

Kartra lets you set available times so that clients don’t book with you when you’re busy. You can also set up free or paid bookings and take payment when the client schedules their meeting.

The platform offers four calendar styles, including recurrent, consultant, live event, and gym calendars. You can also set it up to send reminder notifications. Then, you can confirm someone’s registration and notify yourself and your team if a client cancels.

Comprehensive Helpdesk

 Another unique feature of Kartra is the ability to set up a helpdesk for your business. You can install a live chat so that your customers can get answers to their questions as they browse your site.

Customers can also email you a support ticket if they need more assistance. Then, you’ll be able to respond to emails when you get to work for the day. With both types of support, you can make sure different departments handle the right issues.

You can even create a knowledge base where you answer common questions. That way, your customers won’t have to contact support for a basic thing.

Marketplace

Kartra (full review here) features a marketplace where you can work with other Kartra users. You can browse the Experts for Hire section to find freelancers to help you with your business. Whether you need graphic design services or a content writer, you should be able to find someone.

On the other hand, you can also join the marketplace to sell your services. Then, when other users need what you offer, you can get clients more easily.

Another way to make money through the marketplace is by selling your sales funnels. If you create a successful campaign, you can offer it to other business owners. Then, you can increase and diversify your income streams.

Behavioral Adaptive Marketing

Behavioral adaptive marketing (BAM) allows you to market better to specific customers. Kartra lets you keep track of how different users behave on your site. You can then adjust the presentation, colors, and other elements.

Being able to adapt is essential for marketers. However, it can be nice to have something that lets you adjust your marketing quickly.

With Kartra, you can track which designs and colors are the most successful. That can help you brand your business more cohesively and successfully. You won’t find this feature on many other course platforms.

What Is Kajabi?

Kajabi allows you to create and sell courses, coaching programs, and other digital products. You can create text, audio, and video lessons to help your students learn. The platform even allows quizzes and other interactive options.

Its other features, such as the website builder, let you run your entire online business in one place. You don’t have to have any technical or design experience to create your website. It’s also an easy option for email marketing.

The email features allow you to target segments of your audience based on their activity. While Kartra works well for a variety of online businesses, Kajabi is fantastic for course creators. Consider some of the features that are unique to this platform.

SEO and Blogging

 When comparing Kajabi vs. Kartra, one of the best features has to do with search engine optimization (SEO). You can adjust the settings to help your site show up in search results. Then, you may get students and clients organically.

Kajabi also offers blog features to increase SEO, traffic, and revenue. You can write blog posts based on your niche to help attract people looking to learn. Use your blog posts to promote relevant courses or coaching packages.

After you write your first blog post, Kajabi will create an index of each post you write. You can set up a few categories to further organize your content. Then, you can let the blog posts sit there and help bring in new leads.

Community Features

Some course creators and coaches like to have a community. While you can use third-party tools, such as a Facebook group, you can also use Kajabi itself. That can save you, your team, and your students a lot of time.

You’ll be able to set up a discussion community where students can ask questions. Of course, you can answer the questions, but students can also answer and help each other. Students can also comment on lessons if they have more specific questions.

Offering a sense of community might help you get more students to join your courses. Plus, you can share that they won’t need a Facebook account to get help. Everything will be right in Kajabi for you and your students to access.

Mobile App

A mobile app is another fantastic feature that you won’t get with Kajabi alternatives such as Kartra. The app works on iOS and Android devices, so your students can access lessons wherever they have an internet connection.

Kajabi allows your students to connect with your other students and save their progress. The app might also encourage customers to enroll in more courses.

If you tend to target people who use their phones a lot, this is a great option. For example, parents can use the app to access a quick lesson when they’re waiting to pick up their kids from school. The app is free to download and use as well.

Shared Features

 While it’s great to know about the unique features, you should consider the similarities when deciding between Kartra vs. Kajabi. Both platforms share many attributes and functions, so you might wonder which is better in each category.

Consider the following features to decide which suits your business better.

Onboarding

Onboarding is nice for when you first set up your business. Any platform can take a bit of time to learn how to use.

Here’s how training and onboarding compare when you use Kartra or Kajabi.

Kartra

After you select your Kartra plan, they’ll send you a few welcome emails. That way, you can get to know how the tool works. You’ll be able to learn a bit so that you can get started more easily.

Of course, Kartra will include a link to the login page. You can get to the dashboard that you’ll use to manage your business. Then, you can watch a video that explains the various features and functions and how to use them.

Kartra also offers more specific training for the different features. You can go through the training as fast as you want. After you complete everything, you can call yourself a Kartranaut, and you’ll be able to use what you learn to improve how you run your business.

All of the training is free, so it’s perfect for new business owners or anyone switching from another platform.

Kajabi

If you choose Kajabi over Kartra, you can still get some onboarding assistance. The platform will send you a few emails to welcome you to their system. You can also watch videos from the founder to learn even more.

Kajabi’s CEO, Kenny Rueter, recorded a free training program. Watch it to learn how to create a course or coaching package and sell it online.

If you need more help, you can ask the Kajabi community. Someone might be able to help you specifically or offer a few tips on how to solve your issue. Of course, you can also contact Kajabi directly if you still have issues.

Winner: Kartra

 While both tools have great onboarding, Kartra offers more free training.

Page Builder and Editor

 When you’re ready to create your website, you’ll love the page builder. Both tools make it easy to design your site visually so that you don’t need to use code.

Here’s how the page builders and editors of each tool compare.

Kartra

You get access to hundreds of templates to design your site. The platform has some templates for your home pages, sales pages, and other pages. After you choose a template, use the drag-and-drop editor to customize the design.

Kartra also lets you add different elements to your pages. That way, you can add testimonials or a navigation menu. You’ll also be able to add calls-to-action (CTAs) to encourage people to work with you or join your course or membership.

Web designers can start from scratch without a template. If you don’t like the Kartra templates, you can hire a designer if you aren’t on. The marketplace makes it easy to find someone who knows how the program works to help design your dream website.

Kajabi

When comparing Kajabi vs. Clickfunnels or any competitor, you should know it has a similar page builder to Kartra. Kajabi offers six website templates, and they all offer a clean design to help your offers stand out.

You’ll also get access to around 20-page templates. So while you can design the overall look of your site, you can also design individual pages as needed. That way, you can design your landing pages for conversions, for example.

If you want to set up a blog, you’ll be able to choose a blog page template. You can use this part of Kajabi to write and publish your posts. Even if you don’t add a blog, Kajabi offers a variety of options to help you customize the look of your website. Plus, the pages are responsive on mobile devices.

Winner: Kartra

 When it comes to templates and customizations, Kartra has more to offer. However, you’ll want to use Kajabi if you want to set up a blog.

Sales Funnels

Building a sales funnel is a vital part of almost any online business. Fortunately, you can use either Kajabi or Kartra to create your funnels.

Here’s how the two platforms compare.

Kartra

With Kartra, you can connect your sales funnels to every part of your business. Along with full sales funnels, you can build landing pages and automate emails. You’ll get access to ready-made funnels that you can plug into your business.

Everything is ready to go, from the copy to the landing page design. All you’ll have to do is make small tweaks to include your branding.

However, you can also create a sales funnel on your own. That way, you can completely customize the look and feel of everything to match your business.

Kajabi

One of the best Kajabi features is Pipelines, which are what they call funnels. Like Kartra, you’ll get a few funnels that are ready for you to use. You can select from funnels for Kajabi webinars, sales, or other types of lead generation.

Kajabi created a video to go with each funnel, so you can learn how they work. That way, you’ll make the best use of them in your business.

When you’re ready to build a funnel, you can choose a pipeline. Kajabi will then set up everything you need to create and run the campaign. You can customize the given pages and add more content if you choose.

Winner: Kajabi

Kajabi offers more customizations, and the videos are helpful for new business owners.

Course and Membership Sites

Whether you’ve compared Kartra vs. Teachable or any other combination, you’ve probably come across the benefits of creating online courses. You can make a lot of money, but you’ll need the right platform to do so.

Consider how you can use Kartra and Kajabi to create a course or membership.

Kartra

If you use Kartra, you can set up memberships. You’ll get access to a variety of design templates to make your membership site look fantastic. The designs are easy to customize to make sure your brand is cohesive.

While course creation isn’t the main use case, you can set up lessons. You’ll be able to set up recurring payments for membership. If you prefer to offer a more passive course, you can also create one-time payments.

However, Kartra can be a bit difficult to use. It’s not as intuitive as Kajabi, and you can’t upload content in bulk like you can on the other platform.

Kajabi

Kajabi is probably best known as a course platform. You can create small or large courses with it, and you can schedule lessons to launch on a certain day. The platform supports quizzes as well as video, text, and audio lessons.

You’ll be able to embed links to your social media accounts. If you want to offer downloads, such as workbooks, you can upload the files to relevant lessons. There’s also a comment section that you can enable to allow students to ask questions about the content.

As with Kartra, you can use Kajabi to create one-off courses or recurring memberships. You can even set up a coaching program and include extra resources for your clients.

Winner: Kajabi

You can set up a variety of courses and customize Kajabi to meet your needs.

Video Content

Video content has become more and more important recently. If you want to incorporate video into your business, consider how you can do that with Kartra or Kajabi.

Kartra 

One of the best Kartra features is its video customization. You can record and upload videos for your courses or membership program. Then, you can add user tags and signup forms right in the video rather than as a link below.

You can also add captions to make the videos more accessible. The tool lets you change the video player color to help match your branding. If you prefer, you can embed videos from other platforms, such as YouTube.

Kartra even offers video analytics so that you can track the average watch time. Then, you’ll know if your content is engaging or if you might want to redo a lesson. You can get 50GB of up to unlimited bandwidth, depending on the plan you select.

Kajabi

Kajabi offers unlimited video hosting through Wistia. The platform lets you upload videos from Dropbox or Google Drive as well as directly from your computer.

You’ll get access to video analytics to see how long people watch each lesson. Unfortunately, you can’t add CTAs to your videos, so you’ll need to use the lesson description for that.

Also, you won’t be able to embed YouTube videos, but you can link to them. Still, Kajabi can be a good option if you plan to upload a lot of videos to your online course platform.

Winner: Kartra

Kartra offers more customizations to make your videos engaging.

Student Experience

 Even as the course creator, you should know what students will experience on your website. That way, you can make sure people will enjoy learning from you.

Kartra

Kartra lessons look like blog posts rather than digital classrooms. You get to choose from a few templates and select the color scheme based on your brand. Students will see which lessons are the most popular, so they can choose what to learn first.

The main content is on the right and middle of the screen. It can be easy to read the text you include and watch the videos just as if you’re viewing a website.

That design is a nice option if you find your audience likes the look of a blog. You don’t have to make it feel like a traditional school.

Kajabi

You can set up a course in Kajabi to have multiple modules. Each module can then have multiple lessons for students to browse. As a student completes a lesson, their progress will update to show them how they’re doing.

You’ll also be able to add an introductory video to the main screen of the course. That video can help direct students to get started with the course.

In each lesson, you’ll see the lesson video and content on most of the pages. There’s also a sidebar on the right where you can add downloads. Near the bottom is where students can add comments.

Winner: Kajabi

 While a non-traditional look is nice, Kajabi offers plenty of ways for students to navigate lessons and track their progress.

Teacher Options

If you’re comparing Kajabi vs. Kartra vs. Keap or any other combination, you should know what it will be like for you to use the platform. Here’s how Kartra and Kajabi compare.

Kartra

Kartra doesn’t have any built-in features that let you create assessments or quizzes. Fortunately, you can use other tools to develop those things. Then, you can upload them to your Kartra account for students to access.

Some third-party tools are free and easy to use. That comes in handy if you want to test your students on what they learn when taking your course.

Kajabi

 Kajabi offers built-in assessments. You can create quizzes with answers that are multiple-choice or open-ended.

If you want to offer surveys or certificates, you’ll need to use third-party tools. You’ll be able to embed or upload the surveys and certificates to the course in question.

Winner: Kajabi

 Kajabi doesn’t offer everything you could want, but it has more features than Kartra.

Email Marketing

 If you want to run a successful online business, don’t ignore email marketing. Whether you’re looking at Kartra or another alternative to Kajabi, consider if you can use email or if you’ll need another tool.

Kartra

Kartra is useful for creating and importing lists of email addresses. You can then choose from a few email templates to create your first campaign. Kartra offers plenty of customization options to make your emails stand out.

Split testing is available to help determine which emails are most successful. That will help you create better campaigns in the future.

Another excellent feature is Kartra Automations. You can set up “if, then” rules to determine what to do based on a user’s behavior. That helps you send customized emails to people, such as after they buy your course.

Kajabi

With Kajabi, you can choose from different email templates. However, designing emails on your own is another option. You’ll also be able to segment your audience so that you can target campaigns.

Kajabi lets you create automations based on user activity. The tool is also helpful for writing better email subject lines to help increase your open rate.

Sadly, Kajabi doesn’t offer a visual builder for emails. Still, it offers a variety of features, and you can connect your pipelines and other sales funnels.

Winner: Kartra

Kartra offers a visual email builder as well as split testing. Both of those features aren’t available on Kajabi.

Lead Management

Lead Management is another important aspect of running a business. Consider how Kartra and Kajabi work when it comes to this.

Kartra

You can use Kartra to generate and manage your leads easily. It shows you everything that your leads have subscribed to or purchased in your business. The tool also tracks when people have received emails, clicked on links, booked an appointment, or opened a support ticket.

Kartra allows you to organize your leads into groups. That way, you can send specific email blasts to people based on their prior actions.

You’ll also be able to set up triggers for certain actions. To make the most use of that, you can even add tags or scores to your leads.

Kajabi

If you’ve compared Clickfunnels vs. Kajabi, you may know a bit about this tool. You can use Kajabi to set up unlimited landing pages to help collect email addresses. For websites with a blog, the platform makes it easy to embed a signup form under each post.

Once you get a list going, you can organize it by adding tags or creating segments. If you have a list from another email tool, you can also import those emails.

Segments and tags allow you to target parts of your audience with the right emails. Plus, you can use the Assessments feature to create a survey. That way, you’ll make sure people still want what you have to offer.

Winner: Kartra

While both platforms are useful, Kartra has more features. You can categorize leads and score them, and you can track their activity in more depth.

Affiliate Management

If you want to scale your business, setting up an affiliate program is an easy way to do that. Here’s how affiliate marketing works with Kajabi and Kartra.

Kartra

You can create an affiliate program no matter which Kartra plan you select. When you create your program, you’ll be able to set up a questionnaire for potential affiliates. That way, you can approve the right people to promote your business.

The questionnaire can also cover the terms of the affiliate agreement. Once you accept affiliates, you’ll be able to track their conversions and sales. You can make sure people are being successful.

Kartra lets you choose the commission percentage and set up multiple tiers. You’ll be able to send instant commissions or set up a minimum payout amount. And you can collect tax forms so that everything is legal.

Kajabi 

To set up affiliates with Kajabi, you need the Growth or Pro Kajabi plan. If you want to set up a program, you can accept affiliates and set up their unique share links.

Kajabi lets you track link clicks and create reports of affiliate sales. You’ll be able to set commission percentages and calculate earnings. Then, you can pay your affiliates through the portal.

It lets you track the performance of individual affiliates and your program overall. That can help you determine if your affiliate program is helping your business. If not, you can choose to shut it down, or you can get more affiliates to promote your products.

Winner: Kartra

Kartra offers more features, such as multiple commission tiers for affiliates. It also doesn’t require you to choose one of the more expensive plans.

Third-Party Integrations

While Kartra and Kajabi features are great, it never hurts to use other tools. If you already have some favorite programs, consider if you can use them with Kartra or Kajabi.

Kartra

You can integrate a variety of tools with Kartra to run your business. When it comes to payment methods, Kartra accepts PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, and Authorize.net.

It works with email tools such as SendGrid and Elastic Mail. Oddly enough, you can integrate Kajabi to help run a membership site through Kartra.  The tool also works with member and other Kajabi competitors.

Connect it to Google Calendar to keep track of your schedule. You can then use Zapier to set up other integrations and automations.

Kajabi

For better or worse, Kajabi only accepts Stripe and PayPal as payment methods. You can use it with more popular email marketing tools, such as Mailchimp and Convertkit, so it’s better if you don’t want to use the built-in email.

Kajabi also connects to Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel. Both tools can help you track your audience and use retargeting ads. You can even use it with Clickfunnels to help set up successful marketing campaigns, so you don’t have to compare Clickfunnels vs. Kajabi.

Zapier works with Kajabi to help you set up automations. All of these connections let you run your business the way you want.

Winner: Kajabi

Kartra has a few more integrations, but Kajabi’s integrations are better or more popular services.

Customer Service

 While the way you set up your customer services differs, Kartra and Kajabi have similar customer service options for you as their customer. Consider how the two compare.

Kartra

 With Kartra, you can get help through live chat from 8 am to 12 pm and 12 am to 4 am Pacific Time. You can also open an email support ticket, but it can take a day or more to get a response.

If you have a more basic question, the FAQ section is an excellent resource. Kartra also has a training center and technical documentation. Both are great for learning how the program works.

Facebook users can also join the Kartra (Official) group. There, you can ask questions and get help from other people who use Kartra.

Kajabi

 Kajabi has live chat agents available all of the time for quick help. You’ll need one of the more advanced Kajabi plans to access this help method.

Otherwise, you can send a support ticket. Like with Kartra, you can take part in some training, either through Kajabi webinars or Kajabi University.

The free Facebook group Official Kajabi User Group is another excellent choice. You can get answers from other business owners who’ve had similar issues.

Winner: Kajabi

 Kajabi offers more ways to learn and get help. While you need a more expensive plan, you can get help 24 hours a day rather than during limited windows.

Payment Options

 You should also consider how you can take payments in your business. Kartra and Kajabi offer different options you should know.

Kartra

Kartra lets you accept payments from the major gateways PayPal and Stripe. However, it also accepts student payments from Braintree or Authorize.net.

You can take one-off payments for your courses. If you have a membership, you’ll be able to set up recurring payments to earn money each month.

And you can set up a payment plan for students to pay off your course over a few months. That can help you make your products more accessible to people.

Kajabi

 Sadly, Kajabi only allows you to accept payments with PayPal or Stripe. While those are both pretty popular, they can still limit your options.

As with Kartra, you can take those payments in multiple ways. You can set up a one-off payment option for your courses as well as installment plans.

If you run a membership, you can take recurring payments from your clients. Then, you don’t have to invoice people every month.

Winner: Kartra

Kartra takes the lead because it accepts more payment methods than Kajabi. However, both offer the flexibility for you to charge customers one time or monthly.

Cost for You

 Of course, you also want to consider your business budget. That way, you can not only decide between Kartra vs. Kajabi but also each program’s plans.

Kartra

Kartra plans start at $99 per month, and you get up to 50GB of bandwidth. It’s a good plan for new business owners looking to get started.

However, you’ll want to upgrade for more features, such as unlimited bandwidth and access to Kartra Agency. The other plans include Silver ($199), Gold ($299), and Platinum ($499).

All of the plans come with basic features, such as Kartra Checkouts and at least one custom domain. You can also use email and create courses regardless of the plan you select. Of course, the more expensive plans have higher limits on videos, leads, and custom domains.

Whether you find Kartra discount codes or not, you can save money. If you pay annually, the four plans cost $79, $149, $229, and $379 per month. You can save up to 25% off the cost of a plan. There’s also a $1 trial if you want to test Kartra first.

Kajabi

Kajabi costs more near the bottom but isn’t as expensive as Kartra at the top of the range. The Basic plan costs $149 per month or $119 a month if you pay for a full year.

As mentioned, you won’t get access to live chat on that plan. However, you can create up to three products and three funnels. You also can’t remove the Kajabi branding from your site.

If you want more features, you can get the Growth plan for $199 per month or $159 per month for a year. The Pro plan costs $399 or $319 per month depending on your billing frequency.

Kajabi offers a 14-day trial for you to test out the platform. Then, you can make sure it suits your needs before you commit to a full plan.

Pros of Kartra and Kajabi 

Consider the benefits of Kartra and Kajabi.

Kartra Pros

• Dozens of website templates

• Advanced email marketing campaigns

• Various automation features

• Multiple payment gateways

• Access to all tools on all plans

Kajabi Pros

• Easy to scale

• Just for courses and coaching

• Built-in quizzes

• Fantastic customer service

• Great marketing funnels

Cons

Of course, neither platform is perfect. Consider a few drawbacks of Kajabi and Kartra.

Kartra Cons

• Limited bandwidth

• No free trial

• Slow customer services

Kajabi Cons

• More expensive starter plan

• Fewer payment gateways

• No split testing

Who Is Kartra Right For?

Kartra is right for an online business owner who wants to do a bit of everything. You can sell courses, memberships, and other digital and physical products on the site.

Who Is Kajabi Right For?

Kajabi is right for course creators and coaches. The Kajabi pricing is a bit more expensive to start, but you get more features once you upgrade compared to a Kartra upgrade.

Kartra vs. Kajabi: In Review

If you want to start or grow your online business, you should compare Kartra vs. Kajabi. Both are great online course platforms with unique features.

Kartra is more suitable for full businesses that sell a variety of things. However, Kajabi is perfect if you want to focus on courses. Give both a try with their trial options to determine which marketing platform you prefer.