*this post has affiliate links. If you decide to make purchase by using links in this blog post, I'll earn a commission that helps me write these reviews.*
In this review I'll compare two sales funnel tools - Kartra and Clickfunnels. You'll learn the difference of these platforms in terms of...
1. Features
2. Price
3. Pros and Cons
4. Comparison of the two
I have used both platforms extensively for my online coaching, course business and sales funnel consulting business. This review is based on my own experience on running a business using these platforms and running funnels for clients.
I just discovered a sales funnel tool that looks super awesome and best IT IS FREE! Click below to get your sales funnels for FREE!
I also write when Clickfunnels is the better option and vice versa - both have their place depending where you are in your business.
And to be transparent I am currently using Kartra after cancelling Clickfunnels subscription. I do still work with few clients that have Clickfunnels subscription.
Kartra vs Clickfunnels Features - What Do You Actually Get
I've used both Kartra and Clickfunnnels extensively and trialed all their features and run my business on both platforms. I know both in and out.
If you would like to see my complete tool box for me business, go to Online Tools
This review is based on my personal experience using both platforms, and although I am an affiliate to both, commissions earned does not impact my review.
Email Marketing
KARTRA
Email marketing in any way you want from creating to actual delivering the emails.
Create automated campaigns, autoresponders, drip campaigns and broadcasts.
All with beautiful done-for-you templates or DIY if you wish.
No extra cost involved.
CLICKFUNNELS
Email marketing is ONLY available at $297 version and even so email marketing with Clickfunnels is very, very, very basic.
You still need an STMP server who actually sends your emails. You can use free services, but it it recommended to pay to get a level of better service.
If you use Clickfunnels I highly recommend using external email marketing provider like ActiveCampaing or Convertkit.
Winner: Kartra (by a mile!)
Let's compare Kartra and Clickfunnels membership site / online course options.
Membership Sites
KARTRA
With Kartra you can do pretty much anything and in any way you want.
Create multiple membership levels, host all your videos under Kartra and keep track of leads with integrated shopping cart function.
All this you can do by drag-n-drop function making it super easy to use and build.
CLICKFUNNELS
This is a feature with many, many issues on CF and they have no plans of developing their membership site.
You need to host videos externally for example Youtube (not recommended) or Vimeo (extra cost).
Biggest issues are payment problems and integrations as well as not being able to deep link - major issue if your course has multiple modules / videos.
Winner: Kartra (CF does not even come close)
Shopping Cart
KARTRA
Fully-customizable sales pages, product pages, multi-step funnels and much more.
Integration with Stripe, Paypal or many others.
Use Done-for-you templates or create your own.
CLICKFUNNELS
Fully customisable shopping cart and checkout pages - works with Stripe and Paypal.
Affiliates only available at $297 / month option!
Winner: Kartra
Split Testing
KARTRA
Split testing and analytics are included in the package.
CLICKFUNNELS
Split testing and analytics are included in the package.
Winner: tie
Calendar Function
KARTRA
Kartra recently launched Calendar functionality which of course integrates with everything inside Kartra making it super easy to manage.
Schedule live events, appointments, and anything else seamlessly.
CLICKFUNNELS
Clickfunnels does not have this, you need external provider which means another monthly expense.
Winner: Kartra
The next is a big between Kartra vs Clickfunnels - VIDEOS! Have you heard the saying video is the future?
It is true and hosting your HQ videos could be pretty expensive, unless you opt for Kartra!
Video Hosting | Kartra vs Clickfunnels
KARTRA
You can host videos with Kartra and add awesome extra functionalities like click-to-action to your videos - very powerful.
CLICKFUNNELS
You need external video host like YouTube (free but not recommended) or Vimeo (cost extra)
Winner: Kartra (Video is the Future!)
Support from the Platform
KARTRA
Kartra offers responsive support plus very active Facebook Group and my experience has been nothing but positive.
CLICKFUNNELS
Clickfunnels offers support and Facebook Group.
I have had issues with CF support by not getting response to my tickets in timely fashion, or getting bad attitude when I wanted to cancel a service <- one of the main reasons why I left!
Winner: Kartra
Extra note: having reliable and timely customer support is crucial to your business! If something goes wrong, you need support to be available and ready to help. Do your self a favor and check out FB groups and see feedback on customer support...
Biggest Differences - Kartra vs Clickfunnels
The biggest differences between the platforms are that they serve a difference purpose.
Clickfunnels is a sales funnel software.
Kartra is all-in-one business management software.
Clickfunnels on its own does not allow you to run your whole business where as Kartra does.
Which one is better for you depends which stage you are in your business and what do you want.
When Clickfunnels is better than Kartra?
Clickfunnels is great if you just want an effective sales funnels with a drag-n-drop interface. You already have email service provider, website etc. elsewhere then Clickfunnels is great option to host your opt-ins and sales funnels.
You can also use it for autowebinars - it is not perfect but kinda'ish works.
If you want to learn marketing, Clickfunnels peeps are the best people to learn from. They have created a massive following to both Clickfunnels and Russel Brunson - people buy the product because of strong brand, and their famous "one funnel away" slogan.
And if you want to make money as an affiliate, Clickfunnels affiliate system is great as they have two-tier earning possibility and even a possibility to earn a free car (read more here).
Because of this awesome affiliate set up, lot of people promote CF. If you've read glorious reviews of Clickfunnels (especially the ones that offer lot of extra bonuses), these are affiliate posts, and often writers of these have never really used Clickfunnels and wrote to review just to earn affiliate income.
I am affiliate to both and currently my Kartra affiliate earnings exceed Clickfunnels earnings so I guess that tells something too.
When Kartra is better?
Kartra is great option when you want all-in-one solution to run your business.
If you are not interested integrating various services with Zapier and all, go with all-in-one solution.
Trust me when I say that this, having all in one can be a life and time saver!
Kartra offers everything you need to run your business and best of all everything works automatically together.
You get video hosting and really powerful ways to catch people depending how much they've watched your video. And one more time, video is the future!
My Choice - Kartra vs Clickfunnels...
I already mentioned that I use Kartra in the first paragraph but here's my reasons why I changed.
Why I left Clickfunnels
Clickfunnels served me great for a while and I was pretty ok with their service.
What I disliked from day one was lack of Undo - button!
Trust me, this is a huge problem!!
You'll remember me saying this when you accidentally delete big junk of your newly built sales page..... cause it will happen to you!
Undo - button is mandatory when building anything online.
Another big downside with CF is lack of development of the platform itself. They focus on creating pretty templates, unnecessary games (why oh why..??) and serving affiliates rather than improving functionality of the platform.
Clickfunnels is essentially a marketing company with tech attached. That is great if you want to learn sales and marketing but you don't need to pay $97/ month to do that! Sign up for free trial and watch the sales pitches flood in!
Zapier is necessary to get everything talking with each other - if you run multiple funnels you end up with way too many zaps (and another extra monthly cost).
And you can not use PayPal with CF the easy way! Seriously in year 2020 you cant plug and play worlds largest payment provider!!
And lastly the community feels like massive network marketing event - which the two-tier affiliate system creates.
Why Kartra
After running my business for years I started to hate that all services were separate and having to use Zapier to integrate all.
I just want to run my business as lean as possible and my current multiple service provider set up did not match this.
Kartra offers all in one - and all I need.
There is slight downside with Kartra is that they do not handle EU VAT - but neither does many other services. If EU VAT is an issue for you, it is if you sell to EU based customers, try Thrivecart as they have it built in.
Your turn!
Which one is your winner - Kartra or Clickfunnels?
Don't forget to share the review on social media and leave a comment letting me know which one you are using and why!
Nina, this is a helpful review and seems to be more objective than those motivated by affiliate schemes. Thanks. I appreciate your side by side comparison. The big difference it seems to me is that Kartra is a whole system and Clickfunnels is one slice. Question: Is there a danger in hosting everything on a third party site like Kartra since it’s not your own “real estate?”
Yes Kartra can provide all in one solution to run business. This helps tremendously with analytics and running your business based on facts and numbers.
Yes there is a risk having all in one, but I am not sure how big of a risk it is end of the day. It is something to consider for sure when you are reviewing options.
I personally dont consider it a huge risk. Sure Kartra could disappear but I am ok taking that risk that happening in the future and having everything under one roof that helps me sell more today.
Great review. Well done. Very objective. Thank you.
Great objective comparison. I was researching which is the better tool and there were loads of CF advocates out there.. which of course their affiliate programme promotes. It was quite hard to sift out the ‘noise’. Really appreciate this review. Thanks again Nina!
wow! great review! thank you so much for this…click funnels was not for me. I’m currently using Kajabi and I love their platform and i am feeling same way like you how you felt with click-funnels in terms of what’s missing. Seems like Katra’s built in help desk is a great add on and the campaigns with loads of analytics as well but kajabi seems to have a good integration with manychat but i saw katra’s demo on check out pages i am falling in love with all its extra features, but the best thing i think that really captivate me is the CTA capability within the videos wow……i want to see some more comparison on the Course making capability because Kajabi is a heavy hitter in digital course making arena so i’d like to see more of Katra in that area but its membership and versatility on affiliates are friggin cool. And the biggest issue i have with kajabi and other platform is the payment splits that i like to have but its lacking it.. like a lot of my prospect would like to pay down 50% then we’ll split the rest to 5 payments so it would like like 50/10/10/10/10/10 and with that i have to create two check out pages that means if i need to automate that then client will pay 50% on one offer page at the start then i have to add an automation to the email to email them another check out page 30 days later so they can punch in credit card again just to start 5 payment subscription plan…that’s the only way i can automate that split, but if i don’t want to bother the client i have to collect that payment on stripe and manually do it which is time consuming and i don’t want to hire someone yet to do those.
Thank you for putting the work into this. I agree Kartra is exceptional. We tried Clickfunnels and other platforms but Kartra’s designed pages are far more professional. There’s so much built in all under one roof as you say. I think Kartra is going to be a long-term superior choice among all marketers who know what they’re doing. Thanks again.
Great information. Have you compared Kajabi? I’m exploring options for myself.
I have tested Kajabi but have not done a comparison post. It appears to be good but lack on testing ability (at least last time I checked). Its great as a course platform but I feel not so much for hosting complete business / sales funnels – and this makes it quite expensive course platform.
This is a great post and i am sure it will help me to choose between the two
Thanks Nina for an honest clear review. I now know who I’m going with!!
Amazing article, broken it down nicely and I totally agree, Kartra wins even comparing the $199 silver plan to the $297 ClickFunnels plan.
You did a fantastic job breaking it down, good job!
Good review, today I learn many things from your review, thank you very much. But you forget that with Kartra we are limited by the number of leads however with the platinum plan of Clickfunnels, we are not limited by leads
Sure, you need to pay higher price on Kartra if you have huge email list – but same goes for CF. $97/month gives you nothing but funnel pages and that price on Kartra gives quite a bit more than just funnel pages.
I’ve been using ClickFunnels for years and I’m still amazed by its features but sometimes I think about switching to other tools for a change but don’t know how will it turn out. So, thank you for this review, I now have an insight about Kartra.
Great blog! Glad to say that you have done fantastic work and included a great review of Clickfunnels.
When was this written? It seems the prices are now different…
It’s been a while since I have updated it. Thank you for letting me know, I’ll review the post!