Kartra vs LearnDash: Which is Better for Online Courses?

Looking for a better online solution to sell online courses and run your online business between Kartra vs LearnDash?

Well, both Kartra and LearnDash help you create courses and run membership sites.

And this is where the similarities kinda end.

While LearnDash is a plugin for building courses on WordPress site, Kartra is an all-in-one marketing solution for running your entire online business from one place.

We know how overwhelming it could be to find the perfect fit solution to sell your online courses and run memberships as the marketplace is filled with a ton of software solutions.

And this is why we created this in-depth Kartra vs LearnDash comparison review.

Let’s dive in so you can see which one suits your needs better.

Kartra vs LearnDash Overview

What is Kartra?

Kartra is a complete, all-in-one marketing platform that comes with various tools bundled together in one place to help you run, and grow your online business without hiring an expensive team of programmers, web developers, and designers.

“In fact, no need to pay for another solution while on Kartra”. So they claimed.

On the platform, you get access to a suite of tools to create, promote, and grow your online business online from one central place and achieve your business goals.

Some of the tools you get include:

• Page builder
• Done-for-you campaigns and funnels
• Helpdesk tool
• Affiliate management
• Video hosting
• Form builder

And much more

What is LearnDash?

LearnDash on the other hand…

Is a WordPress plugin that makes creating and selling online courses easy for course creators and online business owners.

It is the leading learning management system (LMS) for WordPress sites that let you facilitate creating, selling, and managing your online courses on a self-hosted platform.

If you have a WordPress site and you want to create online courses on your site, you’ll most likely need this plugin.

LearnDash calls themselves the most trusted WordPress LMS (learning management system) and is the #1 choice for online education of major Fortune 500 companies, universities, training organizations, and entrepreneurs.

The plugin was developed with tools and features for you to create and sell online courses on your WordPress site.

Let’s take a look at the features of both software to see how they compare.

Taking a Look at The Features of LearnDash vs Kartra

Starting with…

Kartra Features

Here is all the good stuff you’ll get in Kartra to run your online business.

#1. Memberships

Kartra has a feature for you if you desire to share and sell your knowledge online. This in-built tool that allows you to share, sell, and deliver knowledge to your customers.

With an inbuilt video player. (more on this later)

It comes with the flexibility you need to create a course, digital products, and downloads, or even a paid membership community for your audience.

This tool helps you create your content and build your membership site with a drag-and-drop page builder and templates so you can give your customers an awesome learning experience.

More about Kartra Memberships at https://home.kartra.com/feature-memberships

#2. Pages and beautifully designed templates

Kartra comes with an in-built page builder along with a library with hundreds of page block templates to build high-converting pages in minutes.

You don’t need to have tech, coding, or design powers. Just select your desired templates and tweak them!

You only need to drag desired page elements and drop them into your canvas to build your 100% mobile responsive page!

Kartra gives you hundreds of customizable page and section templates and if you don’t want to use templates, you build from scratch.

More about Kartra Page and templates at  https://home.kartra.com/feature-pages

#3. Kartra Checkouts

You can sell your products (whether digital or physical), membership sites, and courses, online quickly using Kartra’s checkout and shopping cart page features.

Kartra gives you the tools to create cool checkout pages that convert.

You can set various price points, and accept payments (one-time, recurring, or installments) for products with various payment methods and models.

Also, you can add coupons, upsells, and order bumps to your checkout pages to maximize the customer lifetime value of your online courses.

More about Kartra Checkouts: https://home.kartra.com/feature-checkouts

#4. Mails

Kartra offers you a cutting-edge tool to send email messages to your contacts and keep in touch with your audience.

With some crazily advanced automation and CRM capability. Using the if-then function.

You can also build, create, and send personalized emails to your audience using Kartra’s drag-and-drop email builder and well-designed email templates.

Also, the email builder allows you to do intelligent Split Testing while running email campaigns and email automation is activated based on your contacts’ actions and behaviors so you can get time to focus on other parts of your business.

Kartra email and automation demo at https://home.kartra.com/feature-emails

#5. Kartra Funnels & Campaigns

On the platform, you’ll get done-for-you funnels & campaigns. Tons of them.

Both for memberships, digital products consulting, etc.

You can plug these funnels and campaigns directly for your own business as they’ve been built and tested by marketing experts like Frank Kern, Andy Jenkins, and more.

If you desire a money-making online system to plug and play into your business, you should strongly consider this.

You only need to import and use any desired one under one click. And you can import and use the ones made by Kartra users in the Kartra marketplace.

Find out more about Kartra Funnels and Campaigns: https://home.kartra.com/feature-campaigns

#6. Videos

Kartra calls this tool a video marketers’ dream come true as it allows you to upload and host your videos natively on Kartra.

Without the need for YouTube Wistia, Vimeo, or any other third-party video hosting solution anymore. However, there’s a bandwidth limit. Which isn’t that favorable to many.

With Kartra Videos, you get the ability to edit the branding, control setting, and video player look, and add buttons and in-video CTA to your video.

Kartra also gives you access to see video analytics including views, button clicks, watch rates, and more of your videos. Pretty impressive!

Watch Kartra Videos demo: https://home.kartra.com/feature-videos

#7. Helpdesks

You get to respond to support queries in real-time and using Kartra’s robust ticketing system in the helpdesk tool, you can manage tickets from your customers and organize them into respective departments for your team members.

The Helpdesk tool also allows you to deliver support to your customers using a live chat support feature.

Meaning no need for a solution like Zendesk.

More on Kartra Helpdesk: https://home.kartra.com/feature-helpdesk

#8. Kartra Calendars

The Calendar tool is easy-to-use and gives your customers access to see your schedule and book appointments when necessary in real-time.

This tool allows your customers to book direct appointments with you so they can connect better.

And you can also brand your calendar, dynamically convert time zones for international clients, and manage your weekly schedule.

More on Kartra Calendar at: https://home.kartra.com/feature-calendars

#9. Kartra Affiliates

Kartra has a tool for hosting and managing affiliates for your business so you don’t have to use a third-party solution.

The in-built Affiliate tool lets you recruit, manage, and pay affiliates so you can get more sales for your business with zero hassles. It comes with some powerful affiliate reporting and tracking dashboards.

#10. Marketplace

This lets you place your products in the Kartra marketplace to be seen and promoted by other Kartra users. You can also apply to promote other’s members as well.

#11. Integrations

Apart from the fact that all the individual sections of Kartra are woven together to seamlessly “talk” to each other, without having to configure any integration whatsoever…

Still, Kartra gives you the ability to integrate with your favorite third-party solutions.

You get to connect with various tools in categories such as:

• Payment gateways
• Email marketing
• SMS tools
• Membership systems
• Zapier

And they continue to improve this list. Click Here

LearnDash Features

Here’s all you can do with the LearnDash LMS plugin.

#1. LearnDash Course Builder

The plugin comes with a new course builder that allows you to start creating courses and lessons so easily.

You get an easy-to-use drag-and-drop interface to customize your course in little or no time. You can add sections, add lessons under each section, and rearrange them by dragging and dropping.

The course builder also allows for adding unlimited topics and quizzes under one lesson.

Another plus is that this course builder allows you to reuse course content in other courses you create.

#2. Focus Mode

The Focus Mode in LearnDash 3.0 (latest version) gives your course content a facelift on the front end under one click so your students can have an awesome learning experience.

This mode allows your course to look really professional with an awesome frontend instead of looking like ordinary WordPress blog posts.

You get an interface that’s neat, brandable, distraction-free, and has more features such as a progress bar to enhance your student’s learning experience.

And you can turn on the Focus mode with just a click with zero coding skills required.

#3. LearnDash Quiz Builder

LearnDash has a quiz builder that lets you create awesome quizzes for your course.

You can include any type of question and customize more settings according to your needs.

Just go into your course area, click on the course you want to create a quiz for, and create add quiz questions for the lesson.

You can select the question type and also edit the question settings. It’s as easy as that.

Learn more about LearnDash Builder here

#4. Drip Content Feature

This feature allows you to release your course lessons at specific times to your students.

You drip-feed your course by setting a specific release date for each lesson and your students will get access to those lessons until the set time.

#5. Students Profile

LearnDash also allows your course students to create user profiles for themselves.

This profile will contain their user details, the courses they have access to, their progress rate, and more useful information.

#6. Payment

LearnDash allows you to get paid directly via PayPal and Stripe. You can start selling your courses and getting paid for it once you set up your payment system.

One downside with their payment feature is you can’t access some extras such as the ability to have upsells, give out coupons, discounts, and more.

To get these extra payment features, you’ll need to connect with third-party plugins such as WooCommerce (along with Cartflows), ThriveCart, SamCart, Easy Digital Downloads, and more.

#7. ProPanel

ProPanel is an extra add-on that comes with the LearnDash WordPress plug-in.

The add-on allows you to see course metrics, real-time students’ activity, students’ course progress and quiz results, manage quizzes, and more.

You can get the add-on only on the Plus and Pro plans.

Kartra vs LearnDash Pricing Comparison

Kartra Pricing

Kartra comes with four pricing plans to choose from with zero transaction fees and a 25% discount when you pay yearly.

In every Kartra plan, you get all of the Kartra tools and features as discussed above with limitations being dropped as you go up.

To take the Kartra for a spin, they have a 14-day trial for $1 for you to try the platform out risk-free before paying.

Also, if you’re not satisfied with Kartra in 30 days after your purchase, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can receive a refund by contacting support.

Let’s look into all of the pricing, plus its features:

Starter Plan for $99 per month

The starter plan is great for small entrepreneurs and online business owners just starting out with minimal needs.

You pay $79 per month ($948 billed annually) using the annual discount and get access to the following features:

• 2,500 Leads
• 1 custom domain
• 15,000 emails per month
• 50 GB bandwidth
• 100 pages
• 50 videos
• 20 products
• 2 membership sites
• 1 additional team member
• 1 helpdesk

Silver Plan for $199 per month

This plan is great for large entrepreneurs, online businesses, and teams and you get to pay $149 per month ($1788 billed annually) using the yearly discount.

Here’s what you get on the silver plan:

• 12,500 Leads
• Emails (Unlimited)
• Bandwidth (Unlimited)
• 3 custom domains
• Pages (Unlimited)
• Videos (Unlimited)
• Products (Unlimited)
• Membership sites (Unlimited)
• Team members (Unlimited)
• Helpdesks (Unlimited)
• Kartra Agency

Gold Plan for $299 per month

On the gold plan, you get unlimited Kartra features with fewer restrictions and you pay $229 per month ($2748 billed annually) using the yearly discount.

Here’s what you get on this plan:

• 25,000 Leads
• 5 custom domains
• Emails (Unlimited)
• Bandwidth (Unlimited)
• Pages (Unlimited)
• Videos (Unlimited)
• Products (Unlimited)
• Membership sites (Unlimited)
• Team members (Unlimited)
• Helpdesks (Unlimited)
• Kartra Agency

Platinum Plan for $499 per month

On this plan, you get access to all features (unlimited) of Kartra and your price is reduced to $379 per month (pay $4548 billed annually) when you use the yearly discount.

Here’re the features you get on the platinum plan:

• 50,000 Leads
• 10 custom domains
• Emails (Unlimited)
• Bandwidth (Unlimited)
• Pages (Unlimited)
• Videos (Unlimited)
• Products (Unlimited)
• Membership sites (Unlimited)
• Team members (Unlimited)
• Helpdesks (Unlimited)
• Kartra Agency

Kartra has enterprise-level accounts available for anyone who needs a special plan with some custom needs and demands.

To get a custom quote, you need to reach out to the Kartra team and they’ll arrange one for you based on your unique needs and demands.

LearnDash Pricing

LearnDash comes with three pricing plans and unlike Kartra, you pay for each plan yearly (there’s no monthly pricing). This makes Learndash a pretty cheaper option.

They give you a 30-day money-back guarantee on all plans just in case you’re not satisfied with LearnDash or don’t meet your project’s needs within 30 days of your initial purchase.

Let’s take a look at the pricing plans.

Basic Plan for $159/year

On the basic plan, you get access to use the LearnDash plugin to create unlimited online courses on one site for as many users as you want.

This plan goes for $159/year and you get the following features:

• 1 Site License
• Unlimited Courses
• Unlimited Users
• Course Content Protection
• Drip-Feed Lessons
• Advanced Quizzing
• Certificates & Badges
• Course Forums
• Email Notifications
• Free Integrations
• 1-Year Support & Updates
• BONUS: Demo Site Template

Plus Plan for $189/year

On the Plus plan, you get to use the LearnDash plugin to create unlimited online courses for up to 10 sites along with an add-on, ProPanel (improves your LearnDash admin experience).

The LearnDash Plus plan goes for $189 yearly for the following features:

• Up to 10 Site Licenses
• Includes ProPanel
• Unlimited Courses
• Unlimited Users
• Course Content Protection
• Drip-Feed Lessons
• Advanced Quizzing
• Certificates & Badges
• Course Forums
• Email Notifications
• Free Integrations
• 1-Year Support & Updates
• BONUS: Demo Site Template

Pro Plan for $329/year

This plan gives you licenses to use the LearnDash plugin on up to 25 WordPress sites and you also get the ProPanel add-on for $329/year.

Here’s what you get on the Pro plan:

• Up to 25 Site Licenses
• Includes ProPanel
• Unlimited Courses
• Unlimited Users
• Course Content Protection
• Drip-Feed Lessons
• Advanced Quizzing
• Certificates & Badges
• Course Forums
• Email Notifications
• Free Integrations
• 1-Year Support & Updates
• BONUS: Demo Site Template

Final Words – Which is the best?

Is it Kartra or LearnDash?

The Kartra vs LearnDash battle is a case of an all-in-one marketing solution vs a dedicated WordPress LMS plugin solution!

Obviously, this is clear.

LearnDash is a WordPress plugin solely focusing on helping you get the best out of your courses by offering online course creation tools. Kartra software, on the other hand, has an audacious goal to be the sole platform that powers all the needs of your online business.

Be it webinars, sales funnels, checkout pages, email autoresponder, helpdesk, affiliate management, and more, Kartra has got all you need.

If you’re just getting started and want to run your online business from one central self-hosted platform – selling all sorts of digital products. I recommend Kartra as it saves you money and time duct-taping numerous tools together.

Clearly wins when it comes to overall features.

But it can be expensive.

You can check out the membership area and course builder (at https://home.kartra.com/feature-memberships). That is if you’re really curious about this.

Otherwise, you’re fine with the LearnDash platform if you only want to sell online courses (and better still, if you have a WordPress site).

Let me know which solution piques your interest between Kartra vs LearnDash in the comment box below.

Related: LearnDash Black Friday Discount