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ClickFunnels vs Kartra: Which Suits a Course Business?

2 weeks, 2 days ago

These two land on the same shortlist because they solve the same business: selling a digital product to an audience you build. Both include funnels, email, courses and affiliates.

The differences are narrower than the marketing suggests, and they mostly come down to how each one charges you.

Key takeaways

The short version
  • ClickFunnels bills on contacts with seat caps: $81 to $248/mo annually, and unlimited funnels on every tier.
  • Kartra bills purely on contact tiers: $52 to $429/mo annually, capped at 10 team members.
  • Kartra includes hosted course video and a helpdesk, which ClickFunnels does not.
  • ClickFunnels is stronger on selling mechanics — order bumps and one-click upsells are its craft.
  • Both step steeply on contacts. Model your list at twelve months before choosing.
Who wrote this: Scalry, which competes with both ClickFunnels and Kartra. We have tried to describe each as its own users would, and we have not put ourselves in the comparison — there is a short note at the end if you want it. Read it knowing who wrote it, and check the pricing against each vendor.
The short answer

Kartra if delivery is the hard part — hosted course video with gated access and a built-in helpdesk remove two separate subscriptions. ClickFunnels if selling is the hard part, because its order bumps, upsells and funnel templates convert better and it does not cap you at ten team members.

Pricing compared

Both are shown on annual billing as a monthly equivalent.

ClickFunnels planPrice
Launch$81/mo — 10,000 contacts, 2 team members
Scale$164/mo — 75,000 contacts, 5 team members
Optimize$248/mo — 150,000 contacts, 10 team members
Dominate$5,997/yr — 400,000 contacts, 20 team members
Kartra planPrice
Essentials$52/mo — 500 contacts, 5 pages, 1 product
Starter$99/mo — 2,500 contacts, 5 team members
Growth$189/mo — 12,500 contacts, 10 team members
Professional$429/mo — 25,000 contacts, 10 team members

The contact allowances are wildly different. ClickFunnels Launch includes 10,000 contacts at $81; Kartra needs its $189 Growth plan to reach 12,500. If your list is large relative to your revenue, ClickFunnels is substantially cheaper. Kartra is cheaper below about 2,500 contacts.

Pricing for both products was checked against the public Scalry and ClickFunnels and Kartra pricing pages in August 2026. SaaS pricing changes often — confirm the current numbers with each vendor before you commit to a plan.

Feature-by-feature comparison

CapabilityClickFunnelsKartra
Funnel buildingBest in classStrong
Order bumps and one-click upsellsCore strengthIncluded, less refined
Courses and membershipsIncludedIncluded
Hosted course videoNot nativeIncluded — a real differentiator
Helpdesk and live chatNot nativeIncluded
Affiliate managementIncludedIncluded
Email marketingIncluded, generous sendsIncluded, unlimited above Essentials
Calendars and bookingLimitedIncluded
Contacts at entry tier10,000500
Team member ceiling20 on the top annual plan10 on all published plans
Social publishingNot nativeNot native

The costs that don't appear on either pricing page

  • Kartra's tier steps. Crossing 12,500 contacts roughly doubles the bill; crossing 25,000 more than doubles it again.
  • Kartra's team cap. Ten members on every published plan is a ceiling, not a price — there is no paid way past it.
  • ClickFunnels' seat caps. Two team members on Launch forces an upgrade on hiring rather than volume.
  • ClickFunnels' top tier is annual-only at $5,997 paid up front.
  • Video hosting alongside ClickFunnels, if you sell courses — budget for it.
  • Neither publishes socially or does outreach, so audience building sits elsewhere.

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Where ClickFunnels wins

The selling mechanics are better

Order bumps and one-click upsells have had a decade of refinement here — the timing, the friction, where the bump sits relative to the order form. For direct-response offers that difference shows up directly in average order value.

Far more contacts for the money

10,000 contacts on the $81 plan against Kartra's 500 at $52. For anyone building a list faster than they are monetising it, this is the whole comparison.

A bigger template and training ecosystem

You can start from a proven webinar or launch funnel rather than a blank canvas, and the body of training around it is unmatched.

It scales past ten people

The top annual plan supports twenty team members. Kartra's published plans stop at ten, which is a hard ceiling rather than a price increase.

Where Kartra wins

Hosted video with gated access

Course video hosted natively with progress tracking and calls to action, which removes a separate video subscription and the integration that goes with it. For a course business this is quietly the most valuable feature either product has.

A helpdesk in the same system

Ticketing and live chat sitting beside the customer record. Digital product businesses handle real support volume, and this is otherwise another tool.

Cheaper to start small

$52/month at 500 contacts is the lowest entry point here, which suits a creator with a small engaged audience and a high-priced offer.

More included at the low end

Calendars, helpdesk and video are in the box rather than assembled from separate products.

Which should you choose?

If this is youPick
Large list relative to revenueClickFunnels
Upsell mechanics drive average order valueClickFunnels
Team larger than ten peopleClickFunnels
You want proven funnel templatesClickFunnels
Video-heavy course deliveryKartra
You handle real support volumeKartra
Small list, high-priced offerKartra
You want fewer separate subscriptionsKartra

The number that decides it is your contact count. Below roughly 2,500 Kartra is cheaper and more complete; above 10,000 ClickFunnels is dramatically cheaper. Work out where you will be in a year, not where you are.

How to test ClickFunnels and Kartra without wasting a fortnight

Feature matrices settle less than two days of real use. Both products will demo well; what you want to know is which one is annoying on a Tuesday.

  • Rebuild one real campaign in each, end to end — the page, the form, the follow-up, the handoff. Not a test campaign; the one that matters.
  • Import a real segment, not ten sample contacts. Field mapping problems only appear with real data.
  • Time the boring tasks. Logging an activity, editing a sequence, finding last month's numbers. You will do these hundreds of times.
  • Give it to the person who will actually use it, not the person evaluating it. Adoption is decided by them.
  • Price both at next year's size before deciding — ClickFunnels and Kartra scale on different axes, so today's comparison will not hold.
  • Test the export. Confirm you can get your data out on day one, not on the day you want to leave.

Questions to ask before you commit

Whichever way you are leaning, these are the questions that change the answer. Work through them against your own numbers rather than anyone's feature matrix — including this one.

  • What will your contact count be in twelve months? This decides the price more than anything else.
  • How video-heavy is your course? Kartra's hosting is worth real money if the answer is very.
  • How many people need logins? Kartra caps at ten, permanently.
  • Do upsells drive your revenue? That favours ClickFunnels.
  • Do you handle support tickets? Kartra includes a helpdesk.
  • What are you paying for video and support today? Add those before comparing.

If you cannot answer the first three, you are not ready to choose between Scalry and ClickFunnels or Kartra yet — you are still deciding what you need, which is a cheaper problem to solve first.

A third option, briefly

Neither of these is built for a business where a human sells over several conversations — both assume the funnel closes the deal. If you have a course and a consulting arm, a CRM alongside one of them is usually the right architecture, which is where Scalry fits. It does not host courses.

That is the whole pitch, and it is last for a reason — if one of the two tools above fits, use it. Our pricing study compares thirteen platforms including both, and the cost calculator prices them against your own team size.

Frequently asked questions

Is Kartra better than ClickFunnels?

For delivering courses, arguably yes — hosted video with gated access and a built-in helpdesk are genuine advantages. For selling them, ClickFunnels is better: order bumps, one-click upsells and its template library are more refined.

Which is cheaper, ClickFunnels or Kartra?

It depends almost entirely on list size. Kartra Essentials is $52 at 500 contacts against ClickFunnels Launch at $81 — but Launch includes 10,000 contacts, which on Kartra requires the $189 Growth plan. Above a few thousand contacts, ClickFunnels is considerably cheaper.

Does ClickFunnels host course videos?

Not with gated access and progress tracking the way Kartra does. Course businesses on ClickFunnels typically add a separate video host, which is a cost and an integration worth pricing in.

Can Kartra handle a team of fifteen?

Not on published pricing — its plans cap at ten team members, including the most expensive one. That is a hard ceiling rather than an upgrade path, and it rules Kartra out for larger teams.

Do both include affiliate management?

Yes, both include affiliate recruitment, tracking and commissions, which would otherwise be a separate subscription. Neither is notably better than the other here.

Test it against your own numbers

Model both at next year's contact count — that single number decides this comparison. You can rebuild one real campaign inside Scalry before moving anything else.

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