The best Kartra alternative depends on which part of Kartra you actually use. If you mostly use its email, courses and pages for your own audience, Systeme.io is the cheapest like-for-like move and Kajabi is the stronger course platform. If you run paid ads to your offers, you need deeper split testing and a checkout that holds up at volume, which is what ElasticFunnels is built for.
Our picks: ElasticFunnels for paid traffic, Systeme.io on a budget, ClickFunnels for a funnel-first all-in-one, Kajabi or Podia for courses, HighLevel for agencies, and ThriveCart or SamCart if the checkout is all you need.
Kartra is a good bundle. Pages, email, SMS, courses, a helpdesk, calendars and an affiliate program sit behind one login, and for a coach selling one or two programs to a warm list that is a lot of software for one bill. People start looking elsewhere for a handful of concrete reasons, and nearly all of them come back to the pricing page. The price climbs with your contact list, the entry plan takes a cut of every sale, and some of the tools a growing business reaches for are on the upper plans.
I spent nine years as CTO of a direct-response company, building the funnel system, the checkout and the attribution we sold through, and in 2023 I left to build ElasticFunnels. That makes me biased toward sellers who buy traffic, and you should read this list knowing it. It also means I don't think one tool wins for everyone. A coach and a media buyer both "sell online", and they need almost nothing in common from their software.
The best Kartra alternatives at a glance
Entry prices are monthly on monthly billing, from each vendor's pricing page on 29 September 2026. Most are cheaper billed yearly, and most cap contacts, products or seats per plan.
| Tool | Best for | Starts at | Free plan or trial | Key strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ElasticFunnels | Paid traffic and direct response | $97 a month | 14-day trial | Split tests under one URL, checkout across your MIDs |
| Systeme.io | The cheapest all-in-one | Free, then $17 a month | Free plan | Email, funnels and courses with no transaction fee |
| ClickFunnels | A funnel-first all-in-one | $97 a month | 14-day trial | Funnels, email and courses in one place |
| Kajabi | Courses and communities | $179 a month | 14-day trial | Course delivery, community and a branded app |
| HighLevel | Agencies | $97 a month | 14-day trial | A CRM you can resell under your own brand |
| ThriveCart | A checkout without a monthly bill | $47 a month, or $495 once | 30-day trial | Checkout, bumps and upsells with no fee on sales |
| SamCart | Checkout-first digital products | $79 a month | 7-day trial | Polished checkout pages, quick to set up |
| Podia | A simple creator storefront | $49 a month | 14-day trial | Courses, downloads and email in a simple store |
Why people look for a Kartra alternative
These come from Kartra's own pricing page and help center, checked on 29 September 2026. None of them makes Kartra a bad product. They make it a poor fit for particular businesses.

- The price follows the list. Essentials is $59 a month for 500 contacts, Starter $119 for 2,500, Growth $229 for 12,500 and Professional $549 for 25,000. Kartra's pricing FAQ says that going over the cap upgrades you automatically to the next tier, with a mid-cycle reconciliation fee, and that there are no add-ons to raise a single limit. A lead magnet that works can move you up a tier before those leads have bought anything.
- A fee on the entry plan. Essentials adds a 5% fee on each sale and rebill of products hosted in Kartra, invoiced monthly even on annual billing. Essentials is also limited to 5 pages, 1 product and 1 course. The higher plans have no fee.
- Plan-gated growth tools. Automations, the affiliate program and API access start on Growth, so the step from "selling" to "partners promote you" is also a step to $229 a month. Real-time funnel analytics are on Professional.
- Upsells rely on a cookie. Kartra's help center says one-click upsells keep the buyer's details in a browser cookie for 30 days. They work for card payments (not PayPal, Apple Pay or Google Pay), on the same browser and device, with the upsell on the same domain; otherwise the buyer sees the full checkout form again.
- Page tests are capped. Kartra compares up to four versions of a page. Whether the versions share one URL is not publicly stated.
If none of those touch you, stay put. Moving a business off an all-in-one takes a few weeks of careful work, and "a newer tool" is a weak reason to do it. The businesses that should move are the ones where one of those five lines costs them money every month.
How we picked
We didn't give scores or stars, and we didn't pretend to have run a business on all eight tools. We compared what a Kartra user would need to replace, using each vendor's public pricing page, feature pages and help center, all read on 29 September 2026:
- Coverage of the Kartra bundle. Pages and funnels, checkout, email, courses and memberships, affiliates. A tool that covers two of these is listed for the job it does well, not as a full replacement.
- What it costs as you grow. The meter each vendor charges on (contacts, products, seats, visits or a fee on sales) and what the plan you would need at twice your current size costs.
- The checkout. Order bumps, one-click upsells, subscriptions, and which payment processors it connects.
- Testing and tracking. Whether you can split test pages, how the test is served, and whether a sale can be tied back to the ad that caused it.
- Who it is built for. Coaches, course creators, agencies and media buyers want different things, and we say which one each tool fits.
Where a vendor doesn't say something publicly, we say "not publicly stated" instead of assuming they lack it.
The eight Kartra alternatives, one by one
A disclosure first. We make ElasticFunnels and list it first because it is our site, and we have tried to be as fair to the others as we would want them to be to us. If something here is out of date, email [email protected] and we will fix it.
1. ElasticFunnels: best for paid traffic
ElasticFunnels is a funnel and checkout platform for people who buy traffic: vendors selling their own offers, affiliates promoting others', and teams doing both. It covers the part of Kartra that turns a click into an order, and goes much deeper there. It leaves email campaigns to the email tool you already use.
Best for: direct-response sellers running Meta, Google or TikTok ads to a presell, VSL (video sales letter) or quiz funnel.
- Split tests under one URL. Up to 5 variants of a page, a funnel branch or an order bump run behind the address your ad already uses, so changing a test never means changing the ad. Results are judged on conversions, and you mark the winner.
- AI page building. Describe the page and the AI page builder builds it, or paste a URL and the cloner turns it into an editable page.
- A checkout built for volume. Order bumps, one-click upsells and downsells charged to the saved card on Stripe, NMI and PayPal, subscriptions with dunning, and, with several NMI merchant accounts (MIDs), orders split between them by weight with card-brand, product and amount rules and daily or monthly caps.
- Attribution per ad. Every order is tied to its ad, UTM and page variant, and the sale is sent server-side to Meta, Google Ads and TikTok.
- The operations around the sale. A CRM with custom pipelines, an in-house call center suite, your own affiliate program, and courses with a members area.
Pricing: Starter $97, Growth $197 and Scale $497 a month, metered on visits and brands, not contacts. Every feature is on every plan. A 0.5% fee applies only to orders taken through the EF-hosted checkout, not to orders from ClickBank, Digistore24 or another external cart. 14-day free trial, no free plan. See pricing.
- Pros: testing and checkout depth that all-in-ones don't reach; the price doesn't move when your list grows; one plan has everything.
- Cons: no built-in newsletter or broadcast email (campaigns run through Klaviyo, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp or another integration); no calendars, helpdesk or webinars; no free plan.
Consider it if ads do your selling and every test and every declined card costs you money. The side-by-side is on Kartra vs ElasticFunnels.
This is the tool I built, so here is where I'd tell a Kartra user not to switch to it. If your list does the selling and you live in Kartra's email and helpdesk every day, you would be trading a bundle you use for depth you don't need yet.
2. Systeme.io: best on a budget
Systeme.io is the closest like-for-like replacement for Kartra at a fraction of the price: funnels, email, courses, a blog and an affiliate program in one account.
Best for: solo creators and coaches moving their first or second offer off Kartra.
- A free plan with 2,000 contacts and 3 funnels, with no card and no expiry.
- Unlimited email sends on every plan.
- An affiliate program, even on the free plan.
- No transaction fee on any plan.
Pricing: Free, then Startup $17, Webinar $47 and Unlimited $97 a month.
- Pros: the lowest cost of any full bundle here; like Kartra, one login for pages, email and courses.
- Cons: contacts and funnels are capped below Unlimited; A/B tests, order bumps and upsells are capped by plan.
Consider it if Kartra's bill is the problem and you are happy with its feature set. More in Systeme.io vs ElasticFunnels.
3. ClickFunnels: best funnel-first all-in-one
ClickFunnels bundles funnels, pages, email, courses, a community and a store. It is the tool most Kartra users compared against before they bought Kartra, and it is still the closest in spirit.
Best for: an online business built around one offer, sold through funnels and email.
- Funnel templates and a page builder built around steps.
- Email, courses and a community in the same account.
- Payments AI with its own gateway, plus Stripe, PayPal, NMI and others.
Pricing: Launch $97, Scale $197 and Optimize $297 a month, capped by contacts, team members and courses; Dominate is $5,997 a year. 14-day trial.
- Pros: a large ecosystem of templates and training; contact caps start far higher than Kartra's (10,000 on Launch); no percentage taken from sales.
- Cons: its help docs say each funnel step holds one variant page; the Affiliate Center is on Optimize and Dominate only.
Consider it if you want Kartra's model with a larger ecosystem. See ClickFunnels vs Kartra for the two side by side.
4. Kajabi: best for courses and communities
Kajabi is a course platform first. It hosts the course, the community and a branded mobile app, with funnels, email and a checkout around them.
Best for: creators whose business is the course and its community, not the funnel.
- Course delivery, communities and coaching in one product.
- Unlimited marketing emails on every plan.
- Unlimited funnels and landing pages on every plan.
Pricing: Basic $179, Growth $249 and Pro $499 a month, capped at 5, 50 and unlimited products and 2,500, 25,000 and 100,000 contacts. 14-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Affiliates start on Growth; the branded app and API are on Pro.
- Pros: a better course and community experience than an all-in-one's add-on; generous contact caps from Growth.
- Cons: the highest entry price here; a third-party processor adds 2%, 1% or 0.5% by plan where Kajabi Payments is available; A/B tests cover landing pages, and checkout or sales-page tests are not publicly stated.
Consider it if you used Kartra mostly for memberships. More in Kajabi vs ElasticFunnels.
5. HighLevel: best for agencies
HighLevel (often called GoHighLevel) is an agency platform: a CRM with pipelines, SMS, calendars, reviews and funnels, sold per agency with sub-accounts for clients and a white-label app to resell.
Best for: agencies that build and run funnels and follow-up for local or service businesses.
- Sub-accounts per client and a white-label app.
- CRM, calendars, SMS and reputation tools in one place.
- SaaS Mode on Agency Pro, to resell the platform under your own brand.
Pricing: Starter $97 a month with 3 sub-accounts, Unlimited $297 and Agency Pro $497, with phone, SMS, email and premium AI billed on usage. 14-day trial.
- Pros: the most complete CRM and messaging stack on this list; built to resell.
- Cons: usage charges on top of the plan; split tests send visitors from an entry URL to each variant's own URL.
Consider it if Kartra's helpdesk, calendars and SMS were the reason you bought it, and you run them for clients. More in GoHighLevel vs ElasticFunnels.
6. ThriveCart: best checkout without a monthly bill
ThriveCart is a checkout and cart with bumps, upsells, subscriptions and an affiliate center, plus a course and community product. It was known for a one-time lifetime licence and now sells monthly plans too, with the lifetime option still offered on Standard.
Best for: creators who want Kartra's checkout without Kartra's monthly bill, and host email elsewhere.
- Unlimited products and funnels, with one-click upsells and downsells on every plan.
- A/B split tests, cart abandonment and sales tax automation.
- An affiliate center with automated payouts and JV contracts, on Pro+.
- "0% fees on sales", only the processor's own fees.
Pricing: Standard $47 a month and Pro+ $87 a month, or Standard as a one-time $495 lifetime licence. 30-day free trial. Standard has one order bump per checkout; multiple bumps, dunning and custom domains are on Pro+.
- Pros: the lowest long-run cost for a checkout; no fee on sales.
- Cons: no built-in email marketing; affiliates and dunning are the upgrade to Pro+.
Consider it if the checkout was the part of Kartra you valued most. More in ThriveCart vs ElasticFunnels.
7. SamCart: best checkout-first tool
SamCart starts from the checkout: polished checkout pages for digital products, with courses and AI page tools added over time.
Best for: creators whose traffic arrives warm and whose funnel is mostly the checkout page.
- Checkout templates that are quick to set up.
- Courses included.
- Payment routing between processors, on Pro.
Pricing: Core $79 and Pro $199 a month. Order bumps, one-click upsells, A/B testing and the affiliate center are on Pro. 7-day trial.
- Pros: a clean checkout with little setup.
- Cons: the tools most funnels rely on are the upgrade to Pro; tests cover checkouts and upsell funnels, not the pages before them.
Consider it if you want a better checkout and nothing else. More in SamCart vs ElasticFunnels and SamCart vs ThriveCart.
8. Podia: best simple creator storefront
Podia is a simple storefront for creators: courses, digital downloads, coaching, a community and email, with a website builder around them. It does less than Kartra, on purpose.
Best for: course creators who want the easiest possible setup and don't run funnels.
- Courses, downloads, coaching and community products from one store.
- Email marketing built in.
- Its pricing page says "We never auto-upgrade you" when you pass a limit.
Pricing: Mover $49, Shaker $99 and Earthquaker $179 a month, with 100, 500 and 1,000 email subscribers included. Mover adds a 5% transaction fee; the others don't. Upsells and affiliate marketing start on Shaker. 14-day trial with no card; no free plan.
- Pros: very little to learn; no forced upgrades.
- Cons: small email allowances per plan; like Kartra's Essentials, the entry plan takes a fee on sales; funnel and page-testing tools are not publicly stated.
Consider it if Kartra felt like too much software and you mostly sell courses to people who already know you.
Kartra alternatives compared feature by feature
"Plan-gated" means the feature exists but not on the entry plan. "Not stated" means the vendor's public pages don't say. Checked on 29 September 2026.
| Tool | Price grows with | Fee on sales | Built-in email | Bumps and one-click upsells | Affiliate program | Split tests |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kartra | Contacts | 5% on Essentials | Yes | Yes; one-click by cookie, same device | Plan-gated (Growth) | Up to 4 pages |
| ElasticFunnels | Visits and brands | 0.5%, EF-hosted checkout only | Order emails; campaigns through an integration | Yes, every plan; one-click on Stripe, NMI and PayPal | Yes, every plan | Up to 5 variants under one URL |
| Systeme.io | Contacts and funnels | None | Yes | Capped by plan | Yes, including Free | Capped by plan |
| ClickFunnels | Contacts, seats and courses | None | Yes | Yes | Plan-gated (Optimize) | One variant per funnel step |
| Kajabi | Products and contacts | Only on third-party processors | Yes | Yes | Plan-gated (Growth) | Landing pages |
| HighLevel | Sub-accounts, plus usage | Not stated | Yes, billed on usage | Yes | Yes | Variants on their own URLs |
| ThriveCart | Plan | None | No | Yes; multiple bumps on Pro+ | Plan-gated (Pro+) | Yes |
| SamCart | Plan and seats | None on SamPay | Cart abandonment and receipts | Plan-gated (Pro) | Plan-gated (Pro) | Checkouts and upsell funnels, on Pro |
| Podia | Email subscribers | 5% on Mover | Yes | Upsells from Shaker | Plan-gated (Shaker) | Not stated |
When I read a table like this, the column I look at first is the second one. What the price grows with decides what the tool costs you once the business works, and it is the one thing no integration or workaround can change later.
How to switch from Kartra
Moving off an all-in-one means moving four things: pages, the checkout, contacts, and the domain. Move one funnel first, prove it sells, then move the rest.

- Export your contacts. In Kartra, Contacts, All contacts, select them and export to CSV. Kartra's help center says the file includes the default and custom profile fields, lists, tags and GDPR status, but not the data from a contact's other profile tabs.
- Note what won't come with it. We found no Kartra feature that exports pages or funnels to another platform; its share codes import campaigns into another Kartra account. Transactions are viewable per product in sales analytics and through the API, and we found no CSV export for them. Screenshot or record anything you will need later.
- Plan the subscriptions. Kartra's own help center says subscriptions from another system can't be imported into Kartra for PCI reasons. Expect the same going the other way: subscribers usually go through a new checkout once. Let existing rebills run out on Kartra, or ask your new tool's support how they handle it.
- Rebuild the pages. Rebuild the funnel you run most first. In ElasticFunnels you can paste each live Kartra page URL into the AI cloner and get an editable page back, then tidy it up.
- Rebuild the checkout. Recreate the products (in ElasticFunnels, products can also be imported from a CSV), connect your processor, and add the bumps and upsells. Place a real test order and refund it.
- Import contacts where email lives. Load the CSV into your new email tool, keeping tags so sequences start in the right place.
- Move the domain last. Point your domain's DNS at the new platform once the funnel works on a test domain, and send one ad set to it before moving the rest.
Plan for weeks, not a weekend, and keep Kartra until the new funnel has taken real orders. The step people skip is the test order, and it's the one that finds the broken receipt email or the tax setting nobody checked.
Which Kartra alternative is best?
Start from where your sales come from, not from the feature list.

- You sell courses to your own audience: Kajabi if the course and community are the product, Podia if you want something simpler and cheaper, Systeme.io if budget matters most.
- You coach and sell one or two programs: Systeme.io for the lowest bill, ClickFunnels for more funnel depth and a bigger ecosystem.
- You run an agency: HighLevel, for sub-accounts, SMS and a CRM you can resell.
- You only need a better checkout: ThriveCart for the lowest long-run cost, SamCart for the most polished pages.
- You buy traffic and scale offers: ElasticFunnels, for split tests under one URL, one-click upsells, routing across merchant accounts and revenue tied to each ad.
If two of those describe you, pick for the one that brings in the money. Most businesses that "need everything" really need one thing done well and a cheap integration for the rest.
- Price the plan you'd be on in a year, not today's. On a contact-metered tool, a successful lead magnet is a price increase.
- Don't leave Kartra for a tool that bundles the same things at the same meter. Move when a different meter, or a missing capability, changes your numbers.
- If you run paid traffic, the one thing I wouldn't give up is testing under the URL the ad already points at. Every other gap has a workaround.
- Keep Kartra running until the new funnel has taken real orders. Cancel the old tool last, not first.
Kartra was built to put a whole online business behind one login, and for a lot of coaches it still does that job. When it stops fitting, it usually stops in one place: the bill, the checkout or the testing. Find which one it is for you, and choose the tool that fixes that.



