Both are all-in-one platforms for selling digital products, both include courses and affiliates, and both price on contact tiers. On paper they are near-identical products at very different prices.
The real difference is delivery and support — what happens after the sale.
Key takeaways
- Systeme.io is dramatically cheaper: free to 2,000 contacts, then $17, $47 and $97 per month.
- Kartra runs $52 to $429/mo on annual billing, by contact tier.
- Kartra includes hosted course video and a helpdesk — the two things Systeme.io does not have.
- Systeme.io offers unlimited contacts at $97; Kartra charges $429 at 25,000 and has no published plan above it.
- Both cap teams: Kartra at 10 members; Systeme.io is built around a single operator.
Systeme.io unless you specifically need hosted course video with gated access, or a helpdesk beside the customer record. Those two features are genuinely valuable for a video-heavy course business with real support volume, and they are what Kartra's higher price buys. For everything else Systeme.io does the same job for a fraction of the cost.
Pricing compared
| Kartra plan | Price |
|---|---|
| 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 |
| Systeme.io plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Free | $0 — 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course |
| Startup | $17/mo — 5,000 contacts, unlimited funnels |
| Webinar | $47/mo — 10,000 contacts, unlimited courses |
| Unlimited | $97/mo — unlimited contacts |
The gap widens with list size. At 10,000 contacts Systeme.io is $47 and Kartra is $189. At 25,000 Systeme.io is $97 and Kartra is $429. Above 25,000 Kartra has no published plan at all, while Systeme.io stays at $97.
Pricing for both products was checked against the public Scalry and Kartra and Systeme.io 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
| Capability | Kartra | Systeme.io |
|---|---|---|
| Sales funnels | Included, strong | Included, unlimited from $17 |
| Courses and memberships | Included | Included |
| Hosted course video | Included — the key differentiator | Not native |
| Helpdesk and live chat | Included | Not native |
| Affiliate management | Included | Included |
| Email marketing | Unlimited above Essentials | Unlimited on all plans |
| Webinars | Not native | From the $47 plan |
| Calendars and booking | Included | Not native |
| Free tier | No | Yes — 2,000 contacts |
| Team members | Up to 10, hard cap | Built for one operator |
| Contacts ceiling | 25,000 published | Unlimited at $97 |
The costs that don't appear on either pricing page
- Kartra's contact steps. Crossing 12,500 roughly doubles the bill; crossing 25,000 more than doubles it again.
- Kartra's ceilings. Ten team members and 25,000 contacts on published plans — both are hard limits rather than price increases.
- Video hosting alongside Systeme.io, if your course is video-heavy.
- A scheduler alongside Systeme.io, which has no native booking.
- Support tooling alongside Systeme.io, once volume justifies it.
- Neither is a CRM — if a human starts selling over several conversations, both push you into a spreadsheet.
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Where Kartra wins
Hosted video with gated access
Course video hosted natively, with progress tracking and calls to action, behind a membership wall. Running a video course on Systeme.io means adding a separate host and wiring it up. For video-heavy courses this is the single strongest argument for Kartra.
A helpdesk beside the customer record
Ticketing and live chat included. Digital product businesses generate genuine support volume, and this removes another subscription and another place customer context hides.
Booking is included
Calendars come with the platform. Systeme.io has no native scheduling, so anyone selling calls needs a separate tool.
It supports a small team properly
Up to ten members with roles. Systeme.io is clearly designed around one person running everything.
Where Systeme.io wins
The price is not close
Free to 2,000 contacts, and unlimited contacts for $97 against Kartra's $429 at 25,000. For a creator whose list is growing faster than revenue, this difference funds a lot of advertising.
No contact ceiling
Kartra's published plans stop at 25,000 contacts. Systeme.io's $97 plan is unlimited. A growing newsletter simply cannot outgrow it, which is not true of Kartra.
Unlimited email sends on every plan
Including the free one. For anyone mailing frequently to a large list, this alone can decide it.
You can start for nothing
A real free plan with funnels, email and a course. Validating an offer costs zero, which is the correct budget for validating an offer.
Which should you choose?
| If this is you | Pick |
|---|---|
| Video-heavy course delivery | Kartra |
| You handle real support volume | Kartra |
| You sell calls and need booking | Kartra |
| A small team with defined roles | Kartra |
| Validating with no budget | Systeme.io |
| Large or fast-growing list | Systeme.io |
| You mail frequently | Systeme.io |
| Solo operator keeping costs down | Systeme.io |
Name the Kartra feature you need before paying for it. If it is hosted video or the helpdesk, the premium is justified. If you cannot name one, Systeme.io is doing the same job for free or close to it, and the difference is better spent on traffic.
How to test Kartra and Systeme.io 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 — Kartra and Systeme.io 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.
- How much video does your course contain? That is Kartra's main argument.
- How many support tickets do you get weekly?
- What will your list be in twelve months? Kartra's tiers step steeply.
- Do you need booking? Systeme.io has none.
- How many people work in the tool?
- Can you name a Kartra feature you would use? If not, the answer is Systeme.io.
If you cannot answer the first three, you are not ready to choose between Scalry and Kartra or Systeme.io yet — you are still deciding what you need, which is a cheaper problem to solve first.
A third option, briefly
Both assume you are selling a digital product to an audience. If your business also involves selling to companies over several conversations, neither handles that — a CRM alongside one of them is the usual architecture, which is where Scalry fits. It does not host courses, so it replaces neither.
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 Systeme.io a good Kartra alternative?
For most course businesses, yes — it covers funnels, email, courses and affiliates at a fraction of the price, with a genuine free tier. Where it cannot substitute is hosted course video with gated access, a built-in helpdesk, and native booking.
Why is Kartra more expensive than Systeme.io?
Partly the extra features — hosted video, helpdesk, calendars — and partly the contact-tier structure, which steps much more steeply. At 25,000 contacts Kartra is $429/month against Systeme.io's $97 for unlimited.
Does Systeme.io host course videos?
Not natively with gated access and progress tracking. You would embed video from a separate host, which works but is another subscription and another integration to maintain.
What happens on Kartra above 25,000 contacts?
There is no published plan above Professional at 25,000, so you would need to talk to them. That ceiling is worth knowing about before building a list that will cross it.
Which is better for a first online course?
Systeme.io, almost always. Start on the free plan, validate that people buy, and only move to Kartra if hosted video or support volume becomes a genuine constraint.
If you cannot name the Kartra feature you need, start free on Systeme.io instead. You can rebuild one real campaign inside Scalry before moving anything else.
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