Kartra vs Thinkific: Which Is The Best? (Helpful Comparison)

Have you been having a hard time picking a solution for your online business between Kartra and Thinkific?

This super-helpful and detailed Kartra vs Thinkific comparison will help you get to see the BEST and choose the right one for your online business.

In this guide, we’ll be taking an in-depth look into the Kartra and Thinkific platforms, their distinctive features, similarities, differences, price points, and finally do a roundup and recommend the better option.

Let’s dive in quickly, and put an end to the Kartra vs Thinkific debate.

Looking for a quick summary?

Here you go:

What is Kartra?

Kartra is a complete, all-in-one software with various marketing solutions with a goal to ULTIMATELY help you build, launch and sell both physical and digital products in one place, eliminating duct-taping for online entrepreneurs.

It comes with mobile-optimized pages and campaigns.

The platform provides a bunch of marketing solution tools for course creators, marketers, and online business owners like:

• Sales funnel builder
• Marketing automation platform
• Course Builder
• Affiliate center
• Booking app
• Inbuilt Video hosting
• Helpdesk
• Checkout tool
• And a customer relationship management tool

Kartra was founded in 2018 by Andy Jenkins and Mike Filsaime and since then, have succeeded in building the platform in a goal-oriented manner.

Let’s take a look at the second option, Thinkific.

What is Thinkific?

Thinkific is an all-in-one learning management system that gives you a platform and the ability to create, market and sell your own online courses with ease.

Their platform boasts of over 36,000 course creators and essential course creation and hosting features such as:

• Unlimited Students (Unlimited Courses for all paid plans)
• Upload and Host Online Course In Various Formats
• Build and customize your Sales Pages from available templates
• Integration with various payment processors (Stripe and PayPal)
• Integration with Email Marketing service providers
• Give Quizzes, Assignments, and Badges/Certificates to students
• Community/Discussion forums or students

As you can see, it is obvious that in this Thinkific vs Kartra evaluation, Thinkific was entirely built solely for online course creators and membership sites.

The features in Thinkific are designed to help you get your course up and running so you can:

• Build your brand and grow your audience
• Start selling immediately
• Create compelling content
• Scale your business

Kartra Features

#1: Membership Sites

Kartra offers you a membership portal so you can configure, build, host, and sell your online courses on the Platform.

On this portal, you’ll find it pretty easy to deliver your content, course, or training material as a course or content creator.

They have a well-designed, drag-and-drop membership site builder that’s built to do this for you.

Another fantastic thing is you can brand your membership site with your brand identity and also add different membership levels, content, products, and files for each.

You can also create a unique helpdesk for support to your members, automate your members based on behavior, and communicate through comments.

Want to see exactly how the Kartra membership portal works?

Check out the demo over here.

#2: Funnels and Campaigns

Kartra has a Funnels and campaign feature.

Which is one of the beauties and awesome parts of the marketing tool.

These campaigns are done-for-you automated campaigns that you can install, customize, and launch under the click of a few buttons and your business is live.

Here are some of the various campaigns you’ll get to run for free on the platform:

• Agency campaign
• Simple list builder
• Book funnel campaign
• Quick launch campaign
• Four-day cash machine
• Tripwire campaign
• Squeeze page campaign
• Video Sales Letter (VSL) campaign
• Digital Daily Deal
• 3-Step Application Campaign

And more all for free.

These campaigns and sales funnels were built by experts and are proven to convert.

So, if you have no idea what campaign to run to get more leads and sales then you can plug and play any of the campaigns and be on your way to building a more profitable business.

View Kartra funnels and campaign demo here

#3: Landing Pages, Forms, and Checkouts

At the landing page templates department, Kartra GREATLY shines. They boast hundreds of page templates on the platform.

You will find literally any type of page template on Kartra ranging from:

• Squeeze templates
• Sales pages
• Blog home & post templates
• Webinar templates
• Legal landing pages
• Upsell pages
• 404 landing pages
• Product launch pages
• Thank you landing templates

And many more.

You can check here for more on Kartra pages

Kartra also lets you build stunning-looking lead capture forms to collect leads and automate your business. You can create your own custom fields with powerful tagging and automation rules inside Kartra.

And you have an inbuilt shopping cart and checkout system available for you to sell your products, services, and courses through a secure checkout form.

You can process payments from credit cards and PayPal via your built checkout pages.

#4: Emails Automation

This is one essential feature of marketing platforms. And it’s quite a wide one on Kartra.

Kartra comes with automation tools to help personalize your marketing messages based on your visitors’ journey with a feature called (BAM).

Also, you can create live or automated email/SMS marketing campaigns to communicate and engage with your user base and you can set automation based on triggers such as:

• Tags
• List subscribes/unsubscribes
• Cart Abandonment
• Email opens/clicks
• Page visits
• Purchases
• Form submits
• Video views/clicks
• Membership status

#5: Videos

Kartra users don’t need a third-party hosting solution like Wistia, Vimeo, or YouTube to host their video files.

You can easily host your marketing videos inside Kartra with a customizable player to present them using its inbuilt video hosting.

The Kartra video player also comes with an advanced in-video action that brings about more conversions in your business.

Other video functionalities include tagging viewers based on watch behaviors, and adding CTAs and opt-in forms at any point while playing a video.

#6: Calendar/Scheduling/Booking App

Kartra comes with a built-in calendar scheduling app that allows your clients to self-book and schedule an appointment with you based on your availability.

This app also sends automated reminders when necessary and integrates with other parts of your business and marketing sales funnels.

#7: Support & Helpdesk

Kartra understands that their platform MIGHT be overwhelming for beginners and newbies so they have a robust help desk to assist you at every step of the way.

This help desk allows your clients to contact you via LiveChat, support tickets, phone, and Skype calls.

Also, you can set up multiple help desks and you can add a product wiki to your helpdesk for your customers to browse through to search for answers on their own.

Want to see more of how the Kartra helpdesk works in action?

You can watch the live demo here

Affiliate Management Center

Kartra provides an affiliate management center that allows you to easily recruit affiliates for your online business.

In this center, you can recruit, assign links, manage, and pay your affiliates easily.

Also, you are able to set commissions, payment milestones, currency, due date, and more.

Kartra also comes with a marketplace section where you can become an affiliate for the products of other Kartra users from the marketplace section.

Thinkific Features

#1: Drag and Drop Course Builder

Thinkific has a drag-and-drop course editor which could be one of the most outstanding features on the platform. You don’t need to know about coding to build your courses.

The builder is simple, super smooth, and intuitive and allows you to arrange your course sections, elements, and content freely.

Also, the platform lets you add your course content which includes text and videos, audio files, PDFs, quizzes, type forms, surveys, Google Docs, Download options, and more.

Your students will have access to all these resources you upload via Thinkific.

Every file you upload is hosted by Thinkific, meaning you don’t have to worry over storage and file compression plus you can create an unlimited number of courses with their corresponding resources.

#2: Site Builder

Thinkific is a great and flexible solution to building and hosting your site.

For instance:

You can build your site by using Thinkific’s site builder tools.

And proceed to use the free Thinkific subdomain with a URL like yourwebsite.thinkific.com which is recommended for beginners.

If you have the budget, you could purchase a custom domain name instead of relying on Thinkific’s subdomain.

Also, you can set up your domain and website on a third-party hosting platform like WordPress and then use Thinkific for its online learning management. Just simply integrate your existing site with Thinkific and boom!

You’re good.

#3: Site Themes

Thinkific comes with a collection of predesigned e-learning-based web themes to save you the stress of having to design your site from scratch.

The section on the themes includes

• online course review
• course curriculum
• key-learning
• course instructor

And more.

You also have a chance to customize the theme if you don’t like the design. For instance, you can add, delete, and rearrange the sections with a click.

You can also change page elements such as layout, colors, text, media, and more.

And if you’re a coding geek, Thinkific gives you access to its HTML and CSS for extensive website customization.

#4: Course Payment Structure

Thinkific offers a range of payment models for creators to get paid for courses.

You can either choose to offer your courses at a one-time payment system or a subscription-based model.

Also, you could even choose to give your courses out for free on the platform.

Regarding transaction processing, Thinkific provides several payment gateway integrations like Stripe, PayPal, and more.

#5: Marketing Your Courses

Thinkific gives you tools to market and sells your courses EASILY.

With the site editor, you can customize your courses and build systematic sales funnels.

It’s also a good idea to arrange your courses in a way that will entice your prospects and should either display each course individually or place them in categories to sell.

You can also use coupon campaigns to promote your online courses on other third-party platforms.

Thinkific’s affiliate management system is another means of promoting your courses.

You only need to bring in your affiliates to the course, and register them and Thinkific will handle the tracking process for you.

But this part of the Thinkific feature can’t be matched with that Kartra. Obviously, Kartra has more marketing-oriented features hands-down!

#6: Tracking and Analytics

Thinkific has a good centralized tracking and analytics system. You can monitor your students and course analytics from the main admin panel

It would show you each student’s data such as last sign-in date, course activation date, course starting date, course completion date, email, name, percentage of course completed, and more.

And it would present all this data in a pretty report to monitor the subsequent business growth.

Similarities – Kartra vs Thinkific

#1: Site Builder

Both Kartra and Thinkific offer you a drag-and-drop builder with the ability to create your site, brand your site, deliver your content and sell your courses.

#2: Templates

You’ll get a collection of ready-made, proven-to-convert templates when using either Thinkific or Kartra to build your site and host your courses. Although Kartra has more range of templates overall.

#3: Videos

As a Kartra or Thinkific user, you can easily host your marketing videos locally inside each platform and don’t need a third-party hosting solution to host your videos.

Differences – Kartra vs Thinkific

#1: Emails Automation

This is one of the differentiating features between both platforms as only Kartra has an inbuilt email marketing automation system to manage email marketing. And Thinkific has none.

#2: Student Management & Engagement

Thinkific has more student management and engagement features than Kartra. Features like quizzes, surveys, and assignments. All are inbuilt on Thinkific.

#3: Calendar App

Kartra has a built-in calendar scheduling app that allows your clients to self-book and schedules an appointment with you based on your availability and this isn’t the mission in Thinkific.

#4: Forever Free Plan

Thinkific has a forever plan for you to test-drive Thinkific’s core feature set for free. While Kartra offers you a $1 14-day trial.

Kartra vs Thinkific Pricing

Kartra Pricing

There are four pricing packages for you to choose from in Kartra.

Also, they offer you a 14-day trial period which goes for $1 for you to test the software and see if it’s a good fit before committing with a monthly or annual subscription.

Here are the four plans:

• Starter Plan

This plan goes for $99/mo and you’ll get all the major features of Kartra. Also, you’ll get 15,000 emails per month, 2,500 contacts, 2 membership sites, 100 landing pages, and up to 20 products on this starter plan.

• Silver Plan

This plan costs $199/mo with all the features of Kartra and you’ll get access to unlimited leads, unlimited landing pages, emails monthly, unlimited membership sites, and more.

• Gold Plan

It goes for $299 per month and you’ll get larger access to emails monthly, contacts, and a bunch of other unlimited Kartra features.

• Platinum Plan

This is the last plan which goes for $499/mo and gives you all features made available.

Click here to explore Kartra pricing details

Thinkific Pricing

They have a four-tiered pricing structure and no transaction fees for any of their plans (including the free plan) except a Starter plan that takes a 10% cut of your course profits.

• Thinkific Free plan:

The Thinkific free plan is a great starter option for new course instructors.

Here are the features in this plan:

• Voice-over PowerPoint presentation tool
• Secure cloud hosting and daily backups
• 99.99% uptime and 24/7 monitoring
• SSL certificate
• 1 site administrator
• Accept PayPal payments
• Enroll an unlimited number of students
• Detailed reporting & analytics
• Automated student purchase and enrollment process
• Multiple Instructor Profiles
• Student progress tracking
• Student knowledge assessments
• Branded course catalog
• Customizable course landing pages
• Custom-branded website
• Multiple payment methods and currencies
• Search engine optimization
• Order tracking, conversion tracking, and retargeting
• Student quizzes surveys
• Student discussions
• Student course reviews
• Embed third-party tools and sites
• Full video and content hosting

• Thinkific Basic:

Costs $39/month billed annually, or $49/month billed monthly.

• All the Free plan features
• Manual student enrollment and updates
• Export your data
• Scheduled classes (cohort-based-set start dates
• Custom domains
• Drip (scheduled) content
• Coupons and promotions
• Affiliate management & reporting
• Marketing analytics integrations
• Email marketing integration
• Unlimited courses

• Thinkific Pro:

Costs $79 per month billed annually, or $99 per month billed monthly. Think, a small business plan.

Check the features:

• All the Basic plan features
• Priority customer support
• Create hidden courses
• Create private courses
• Share revenue with up to 5 partners
• Up to 5-course administrator accounts
• Up to 2 Site administrator accounts
• Completion certificates
• Advanced CSS/HTML editing
• Add-ons
• Bundles and memberships
• Offer payment plans
• Additional course prices
• Assignments
• Require video completion
• Prerequisite lessons
• Randomized quiz question bank

• Thinkific Premier:

Costs $399 per month billed annually, or $499 per month billed monthly.

• All the Pro plan features
• Launch preparedness review
• Onboarding call
• Single sign-on
• API access
• Bulk student emailer
• Bulk import and enroll students
• Webhooks
• Advanced student segmentation
• Email white labeling
• Remove Thinkific branding
• Direct Infusionsoft integration
• Share revenue with up to 50 partners
• Up to 15 group analyst accounts
• Up to 50-course administrator accounts
• Groups
• Up to 5 Site administrator accounts
• Direct ActiveCampaign integration
• Brillium exams integration

• Thinkific Plus:

All in the advanced plan along with custom features and pricing for enterprise users.

View Complete Thinkific Pricing here

Which Should You Use?

When you want to build and host online courses online, both Kartra and Thinkific are suitable for that essential purpose.

But Kartra offers a LOT more usefulness.

Kartra is more than just creating an online course. It also offers you features such as calendar booking, video hosting, and helpdesk tools, which are critical to your course and product success. While Thinkific focuses solely on courses.

If you want a solution only useful for selling just your online courses, try out Thinkific. But if you want a platform that has all you need to run your entire online business, then you should look no further than Kartra.

Clearly, you’ll agree with me that Kartra is SUPER-AWESOME and wins in this debate. Give it a try here.

I hope you enjoyed our Kartra vs Thinkific comparison. Let me which you’d try first in the comments.