Kartra is a sales funnel software while Shopify is an eCommerce platform.

But how do they match up to each other? What are the core differences and similarities between the two platforms?

There is no doubt that both of these online marketing softwares are very popular in their world and solve a lot of problems for online entrepreneurs.

However, I don’t need to delve in much on what both tools do. The ultimate purpose of this post is to compare and contrast their qualities in this Kartra vs Shopify review article…

Because I guessed you already have the full knowledge about Kartra and Shopify. What you’re actually concerned about is the comparison of both, right?

And if they can work hand-in-hand with one another through integration and all that.

A quick summary:

Our Pick
Kartra

With Kartra you have all the tools you need ready-to-go at your fingertips, which makes it ridiculously easy to build and scale your online business fast… with tons of extra features at a more affordable price.

Now, let us start with the overview:

Part #1: Kartra vs Shopify Overview

In this part, we’re going to take a look at the brief overview of Shopify and Kartra.

What Is Kartra?

Starting with Kartra – this is an online sales funnel building software and also categorized as an an-all-one marketing tool used by online business owners to build-up marketing pages, campaigns and automate your business.

Kartra tool

Kartra offers a range of features such as landing page builder, sales funnel builder, email marketing, membership sites, video hosting, affiliate management, and more. These features are designed to help you create and automate your marketing campaigns and sales processes, so you can focus on growing your business.

One of the key benefits of Kartra is its ease of use.

You don’t need to be a tech expert to use Kartra, as it comes with a user-friendly interface and drag-and-drop editor. This means you can create professional-looking landing pages, sales funnels, and emails without any coding or design skills.

Even though I’ve already written a detailed review of Kartra here, I would still talk about the core features of this tool in this comparison. Like the campaign builders, automation platform, members area, Helpdesk, and a few other capabilities inside of Kartra.

Being a tool that does a lot, you will find a lot of training on how to use every one of the features within its Kartranault academy, and also the customer support is quite responsive when it comes to handling issues.

What is Shopify?

On the other hand – Shopify is a popular web-based e-commerce platform that is used for building online stores and making sales.

Shopify overview

This platform has become the leading platform for e-commerce owners. Unlike Kartra, this is mainly used for showcasing and selling various products.

Shopify comes with lots of themes that allow you to easily build and customize your store the way you want needing no design skill.

Everything you need to set up your e-commerce business is within Shopify. There’s also a developer community where you’ll find solutions to any issues you encounter using the platform.

Just like Kartra, Shopify is also a hosted solution – meaning that you need not worry about buying web hosting or installing software anywhere.

The idea is that pretty much everything you need to build, run and sell your physical product happens ‘out of the box’.

Part #2: Features Of Kartra and Shopify

In all honesty, Kartra and Shopify are two separate platforms that serve different purposes entirely. But before we go into the core differences of both, let’s take a look at their complete features.

Core Features Of Kartra

Here are the important features of Kartra:

#1: Kartra Helpdesk

This helps you to create multiple Helpdesk to answer tickets for different products for your clients and customers. This is built-in into Kartra and you do not need the services of a specialized Helpdesk system.

Apart from you being able to answer live chats and hop on skype calls with your customers, you can also add product wiki to your HelpDesk for customers to browse through.

#2: Kartra Funnels and Campaigns

I guess you already know that Kartra is an ideal platform for building out your complete marketing funnels from scratch to top. But that’s not even the good part.

Kartra provides you with various sets of complete funnels (for different goals in different niches), that aids as a jumpstart on building your first funnel.

#3: Email and Automation Platform

The visual automation builder inside of Kartra makes it possible for you to apply different types of conditions within your funnel, so you’d be able to get your message across to the targeted people.

Kartra sequence builder

You can also utilize the communication menu on Kartra to upload and configure your email list, individual leads, email campaigns, and few other amazing email marketing activities.

#4: Kartra Calendars

Another cool inbuilt feature that lets you have direct contact with customers, book appointments, consultations and events with your leads.

#5: Kartra Memberships

You can host and build your online course or any type of membership content on the Kartra membership site. And it doesn’t just end there…

Kartra membership reviews

You have the option to have your members’ area branded with different membership levels & drip contents, products, and files for each, then automate based on user behavior.

#6: Kartra Page Templates

You do not really need to recreate any of your marketing pages from scratch when Kartra has provided you with hundreds of optimized templates to choose from. Forms, sales pages, squeeze pages, optimized checkout/shopping cart pages, etc.

#7: Kartra Video Hosting

Unlike most of the sales funnel building tools and marketing platforms that use an external video sharing platform to host their marketing videos, Kartra comes with its own inbuilt video functionality.

kartra video

And it’s mobile-friendly and marketing oriented. You can include marketing messages, CTAs, and features that help more conversions into your Kartra videos.

#8: Kartra Marketplace

You can promote your products here and have people apply to become an affiliate. Also, you can apply to help others promote theirs as well.

=>> SEE OTHER KARTRA FEATURES

Core Features Of Shopify

Here are some of the important features of Shopify:

#1: Wide range of themes

Shopify provides lost of themes (or templates) that you can use in building out your e-commerce store, which comes as free or paid.

Shopify themes

All the templates are attractive and mobile-responsive which makes it more conducive for your customers to shop with on any device.

Just like the way you can customize the pre-built campaigns you get in Kartra; Shopify also lets you customize every element of the pre-designed themes using the drag and drop editor.

#2: More payment gateways option

Unlike Kartra which supports only close to a dozen payment gateways, Shopify supports up to 100s of payment gateways which lets its users choose any of their choices no matter where they reside in the world.

#3: Blogging functionality

Content marketing via blogging is one of the key ways to increase traffic to your store, and Shopify comes with a built-in blogging tool that allows you to create content.

Although there are few functionalities lacking in the Shopify blogging platform. It is not like the native WordPress platform.

#4: Comprehensive reporting

Shopify provides a comprehensive range of reporting which includes:

  • Customer reports (where they came from, overall spend, percentage of new vs returning customers)
  • Financial reports (tax, sales reports, etc.)
  • Marketing reports (customer acquisition reports)
  • Search data reports by customers in your store
  • Abandoned carts reports

I want to point out that these reports are only available in the advanced plan of Shopify.

If you’re not on this plan, what you get is just a basic dashboard containing topline stats only.

#5: Mobile App

Shopify provides two main apps for its users on a mobile device which you can use to manage your business: The Shopify main app and the Shopify Point of Sale.

The Shopify app lets you view and fulfill orders; like adding and editing products and viewing reports.

The Shopify Point of Sale app enables you to take card payments in person, track inventory, send receipts to customers.

#6: Shopify’s App Store

One of Shopify’s core features is the availability of an app store where you can visit to get applications (free and paid) to make your store more functional.

Some of the plugins and integrations enable you to create good landing pages, forms, accounting reports lots more.

#7: Dropshipping

Shopify offers a very large range of dropshipping apps which allows you to source and sell a variety of suppliers’ goods online with ease.

Shipping and delivery of your products wouldn’t be a problem, since Shopify has partnered with major couriers like USPS, DHL, UPS to offer low shipping rates to your customers.

Our Pick
Kartra

With Kartra you have all the tools you need ready-to-go at your fingertips, which makes it ridiculously easy to build and scale your online business fast… with tons of extra features at a more affordable price.

Part #3: Core Differences Between Kartra and Shopify

The common difference we all know is that Shopify is an online store creation platform while Kartra is a complete is sales funnel building and marketing software.

Taking a clear look at the features of both in the last section – you might see some of the obvious discrepancies that make them what they are.

But still, I will delve into the stuff you see in Kartra but NOT in Shopify and the ones in Shopify but NOT in Kartra:

What’s in Kartra but not in Shopify

  • Drag and drop builder for designing pages
  • Helpdesk for live chat and taking care of customers
  • Calendars for booking meetings
  • Membership site for hosting courses
  • Affiliate center and marketplace for managing and recruiting affiliates
  • Behavioral Adaptive Marketing (BAM) technology for a personalized experience
  • Over a dozen pre-built marketing funnels/campaigns for quick launches
  • Heatmap tool which helps you uncover what’s engaging your visitors
  • Video hosting functionalities
  • Inbuilt email automation & dynamic sequences
  • Sell/share your campaigns with others

What’s in Shopify but not in Kartra

  • Store themes/templates available for eCommerce
  • Manual product order creation
  • Option to add Unlimited products
  • Dropshipping capabilities
  • Automatic fraud analysis
  • Multiple languages and more payment options
  • Blogging capability
  • Mobile commerce optimization
  • Facebook selling module
  • Shopify point of sale
  • Create customized gift cards

Kartra vs Shopify – Cost

Every online business owner wants slightly more bang for their buck, but the two platforms have really different approaches to pricing:

How much does Kartra cost?

Kartra provides a 30-day trial for $0 and monthly pricing plans as follows:

  • Starter plan which costs $99/mo with up to 2,500 contacts, 1 custom domain, 15,000 emails/mo, host 100 pages, build 2 membership sites, 50GB bandwidth.
  • Silver plan which costs $199/mo with up to 12,500 contacts, 3 custom domains, 125,000 emails/mo, host unlimited pages, build unlimited membership sites, 125GB bandwidth.
  • Gold plan which costs $299/mo with up to 25,000 contacts, 5 custom domains, 250,000 emails/mo, host unlimited pages, build unlimited membership sites, 250GB bandwidth.
  • Platinum plan which costs $499/mo with up to 50,000 contacts, 10 custom domains, 500,000 emails/mo, host unlimited pages, build unlimited membership sites, 400GB bandwidth.
Kartra price

There is an annual option that gives a 25% discount on the plans.

How much does Shopify cost?

Just as Kartra, Shopify gives you a 14-day trial but for free without entering your credit card details. The paid plans go as follows:

  • Basic Shopify plan costs $29/mo
  • The Shopify plan costs $79/mo
  • Advanced Shopify costs $299/mo. Has all features for scaling your business
Shopify Pricing

Shopify offers a 10% discount on annual plans and a 20% discount on biennial plans.

Part #4: Kartra vs Shopify – Pros and Cons

As we compare Kartra vs Shopify, it becomes clear that both have their strengths and weaknesses. Let’s explore which can be attributed to each platform.

Kartra

Kartra Pros

  • Complete marketing tool-suite that can be used for launching your business from scratch
  • Done-for-you marketing campaigns and funnels
  • Fully featured email marketing and automation system
  • Membership portal
  • Video hosting and behavioral tagging
  • Affiliate center with advanced tracking
  • Helpdesk for live chat and ticket support system
  • Calendar for booking events
  • Webinar supported

Kartra Cons

  • It can be expensive at $99/mo.
  • Can’t really build a multiple-product store
  • Takes a bit getting used to the platform
  • Can be slow when updating pages
  • Extra video bandwidth can cost money

Shopify

Shopify Pros

  • Shopify is great for selling multiple products and showcasing variations or them
  • There are plentiful and beautiful themes
  • Dropshipping is simple with Shopify
  • There’s access to thousands of apps
  • Easy to set up a Shopify store

Shopify Cons

  • You don’t have much control over your site with Shopify
  • Customization is limited with Shopify
  • You can’t build funnels and sales pages with Shopify
  • No affiliate management tool
  • Lack of membership area
  • No Helpdesk and Calendar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Kartra better than Shopify?

It totally depends completely on a few things. Do you want a store to showcase your products and have options to add multiple ones? OR a single page/funnel with one product, then followed by order bumps, upsells and OTOs to maximize conversions?

How do I integrate my Shopify store to Kartra?

You do this in two ways. You can create funnels that lead to your Shopify store where they complete the sale, then use Zapier to send customers info back to Kartra for email and automation. The second way is using a platform called AppTrends which allows you to connect Kartra to Shopify with ease.

Can I use Kartra to sell my physical products?

Although Kartra is the best sales funnel tool I recommend for every digital product creator out there, when it comes to physical product businesses and fulfillment – you will need another shopping cart solution. Use Kartra for building product funnels that lead to a purchase from your shop.

Is Kartra worth the price?

I have been a user of Kartra for months, and I can boldly say as a ‘non-techy’ person – I found it to be a crazily amazing solution where everything I need is already provided plus the range of features are worth having for every serious business owner.

Do you have further questions? Drop them in comments…

Kartra vs Shopify – Final Thoughts

Can you see differences between both platforms?

Shopify and Kartra are impressive solutions for all and have much to offer to their users. But I have to say that merging or integrating a sales funnel and automation tool WITH a popular eCommerce software can take your business to another level.

Entirely!

Especially when you sell physical products online.

That is to say – comparing them doesn’t really make sense to me as they differ in lots of ways!

Wouldn’t it be cool to integrate?

If you ask me, that would be a great and wicked combination.

I highly recommend you integrate Kartra with Shopify. But if I’m to declare the final winner in this comparison post based on functionality, flexibility, and versatility.

I give it to Kartra! Visit https://kartra.com/

Our Pick
Kartra

With Kartra you have all the tools you need ready-to-go at your fingertips, which makes it ridiculously easy to build and scale your online business fast… with tons of extra features at a more affordable price.

Or maybe you have other questions related to the topic of Kartra vs Shopify? I’d love to hear from you below.

6 Comments

  1. Hello 🙂

    Shopify 29.99 Plan takes a 2% fee on all your transactions. is there’s a similar fee in Kartra?

    Thanks a lot!

    Cheers!

    1. Hey Nadav, there’s nothing like that on Kartra.

      However like I explained in the comparison above – both tools are designed separately for different things and they can also work hand-in-hand with each other.

      Especially when it comes setting up variations of physical products or multiple quantities – Kartra is a bit limited on this. That’s why you need to connect the both if you desire a great experience using sales funnels integrated with your shop.

    1. Of course, you can TJ.

      That would be a bit difficult tho. As you’ll need an external app to do that which will cost you some extra fee. But the funnels, upsells and downsells done on Shopify can’t be as smooth and advanced as that of ClickFunnels‘.

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