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Kartra Alternatives: Comparing Kartra to Competitors

Is Kartra flexible enough to support your membership site vision?

Read our in-depth overview of Kartra’s features, pros and cons of the platform, and pricing breakdown.

Find out if it’s right for you or explore popular Kartra alternatives shared below.

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Before we dive into our Kartra comparison

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.

Why people choose Kartra

Before we get into our list of Kartra alternatives, let’s look at why you might consider implementing Kartra for your membership site.

  • Easy to get started: Kartra’s membership site builder is easy to use and makes your membership setup a breeze. While it’s convenient, it’s not ideal for most online course creators and membership site owners.  It’s one of the most bare-bones membership platforms we’ve reviewed.
  • All-in-one platform: With Kartra there’s no need to worry about getting a bunch of different solutions to work together, and you can start putting your membership on the market in a relatively short amount of time. From your opt-in to sales and thank you pages, your membership site content, and emails, everything is included in the platform.
  • You want to simplify: For some business owners, the technical maintenance required for their systems can become a burden. With Kartra, you can easily train a team member to take care of a lot of your marketing, membership, and website needs from within one platform.
kartra pricing options
Kartra membership site design examples

Why people recommend Kartra

You might have posted in a public group asking people what they use for their membership site or to sell their online courses, and received a lot of “Kartra” answers. Why is that?

  • Easy to launch: Kartra makes it easy for you to set up your membership site. Their in-app guides walk you through each step of the process and remind you which pages you still need to complete before launching. 
  • Kartra has a great affiliate network: If you see people recommending that you choose Kartra, or that you contact them directly to talk about their experience with Kartra it might be because they want to earn a commission from their recommendation. Whenever you have someone strongly advocating for a specific tool, without listening to you and your specific needs, it’s a good time to pause and think about what’s in it for them. Kartra users can earn a nice income from recommending it to others so be mindful of this when you solicit recommendations.

Why people look for Kartra alternatives

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.

One client's story about finding a Kartra Alternative

Sonja Bannon

"you need solutions you can count on

to get you through the next big launch, to grow with you as your business grows, and to always sell your offers with ease!

“Having worked with a lot of other platforms including Kajabi, Teachable, Kartra, I can honestly say:

AccessAlly is the best platform ever – nothing else is as flexible and complete as AccessAlly!”

-Sonja Bannon, daringdesign.co

Compare Kartra Competitors' Pricing

Kartra’s pricing ranges from $99-$499/month based on the number of contacts you have in your system.

For those just getting started the $99/month plan for up to 2,500 contacts is a fairly affordable option, but as your business grows you could be investing $499/month in the platform. Keep in mind this is for all of your contacts – it’s not just counting the members you have within your membership, rather all contacts that opt-in to your funnels.

Here is the cost breakdown for some of the most commonly compared Kartra substitutes:

Kajabi $1490/year
Includes only 3 products, and limit of 10,000 contacts
$3990/year
100 Products, 100,000 contacts, limited email sending
Thinkific $490/year
Unlimited courses and students
$4990/year
Additional features and groups
Teachable $390/year
Plus 5% transaction fee
$4990/year
No transaction fees, includes bulk student enrollment
Podia $390/year
No memberships or affiliate functionality
$790/year
Includes 3rd party code and embedded checkout forms
Mighty Networks $280/year
Community forums only, no online courses, plus 3% transaction fee
$980/year
Includes online courses, plus 2% transaction fee
MemberPress + LearnDash $448/year
No course or student limits, basic functionality
$918/year
Includes group licensing, affiliate functionality
LifterLMS $299/year
Ecommerce and CRM addons included
$999/year
Quizzes, groups, and social learning
AccessAlly $990/year
Unlimited courses and students, affiliate, and bulk courses
$1290/year
All LMS functionality

Want more in-depth Kartra Replacement Comparisons?

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.

Kartra might be right for you if...

  • You’re focused more on marketing initiatives 
  • You don’t have, nor do you ever want a robust membership site and online programs 
  • You want everything centralized in one location with as few integrations as possible 
  • You’re okay with looking through hundred of templates to find the ones that fit your brand the best

Researching course platforms on your own is great, but if you want to talk to someone, we're here to help!

If you’re wondering whether you’re on the right track or not, we can help you sort out all of the different options.

We’ll let you know if AccessAlly is a good fit or not, too.

Book a free discovery call