Kartra Alternatives: Comparing Kartra to Competitors

We’re always curious about who writes reviews for products online, so we want to give you the full disclosure.

We are the creators of AccessAlly, the premier LMS plugin for WordPress, and while we are affiliates for some of the platforms and plugins we compare here on our site, we’re not for Kartra.

The sole purpose of this page is to help you decide if Kartra is right for you and to share Kartra alternatives that may better support your business needs.

We never let an affiliate incentive sway us in our reviews, but this makes it possible for us to test and provide in-depth and hands-on experience with a lot of the course and membership tools you might be comparing and considering.

Now let’s see how Kartra compares, and why current Kartra users might start looking for a Kartra alternative in the first place.

While Kartra has some great things going for them it’s usually not the right membership platform or learning management system for most. If you already use Kartra in your business and need an easy-to-use system to test your “proof of concept” it gets the job done, but it’s not a long-term solution unless you plan to offer a very basic membership to your customers.

If you’re here you’ve likely tried Kartra and found its membership features limiting, or you’ve heard from others who may have outgrown the Kartra system and want to learn more.

Read an in-depth case study about someone who chose Kartra and realized it wasn’t for them long term.

If you want to build a more customized and engaging learning environment, Kartra won’t be the right fit for you; here are some of the other common reasons why people look for Kartra substitutes.

• Lack of design flexibility: Kartra’s membership design options are fairly limited when it comes to customization. Their sales page builder and opt-in page templates have a little more flexibility, but the membership design leaves a lot to be desired. We know how valuable a custom design can be for membership site owners. If you’re nodding your head in agreement, you’ll likely benefit more from a WordPress membership plugin – Kartra likely isn’t going to be flexible enough for you. You should be able to customize your membership design just the way you want it and have some flexibility in how you deliver your membership site experience.
• No learning management system: Kartra isn’t a true learning management system, it’s better suited for membership sites or simple online courses. If you want to leverage features such as quizzes, assignments or homework, and certificates of completion to improve engagement and increase retention, you’ll want to explore alternative platforms and plugins.
• No gamification features: A powerful feature many membership site owners and online course creators are looking for in their membership site plugins and learning management systems is gamification. The use of gamification will not only help you increase retention for your membership site long-term, and for your users, it can set you apart from your competition based on the user experience you create. There’s no way to award badges and Kartra lacks the functionality you would need if you wanted to create a credits or points system to reward users for their participation.
• Lacks community features: Member directories and forums are a great way to showcase and create a sense of community within your membership. Unfortunately, these aren’t available on the Kartra platform and can’t be added on with an integration. You would have to build and host these features elsewhere if they are an integral part of your membership site build.
• No way to manage VAT or multiple languages and currencies: If your business operates internationally or serves a global market being able to have localized payment and language options provides a lot of opportunity for growth. In Kartra, you can’t add country taxes to collect VAT, or easily handle multiple languages or currencies.
• Extensibility: Kartra does have a marketplace with limited integrations, but it isn’t easily extensible in terms of adding functionality and features popular amongst membership site owners and online course creators such as a learning management system, gamification, and member directories. Here at AccessAlly we know how powerful these features are when it comes to successful memberships and we’re just waiting on a few things from the team at Kartra to complete an AccessAlly integration, you can learn more about it here.
• Bulk course enrollment: This is commonly known as team or umbrella accounts and is a great way to increase revenue and tap into new markets. Unfortunately, you can’t offer this type of enrollment with Kartra. We’re seeing this feature requested more and more as the membership and online course industry grows, so keep it in mind if you think you may want to sell your offerings in bulk now, or in the near future.

Now that we’ve looked at all of the reasons why someone might choose Kartra, or switch from Kartra to another membership solution, it’s time to compare Kartra alternatives!

In these in-depth comparison pages, you’ll see where each tool shines and where it falls short so you can make the best decision for your particular business and online teaching needs.