What Is Kartra?
That’s a great question. Kartra is a completely integrated platform meaning every part of the software works together for the efficient and smooth running of a business.
It was founded in 2018 by Genesis Digital, the same company behind WebinarJam and EverWebinar.
Kartra includes everything you need to create an online business, from hosting, email marketing, video, webinars, split-testing, cart checkouts, and a host of other useful tools — each created to integrate seamlessly with one another.
One of Kartra’s main advantages is that the platform is designed for both newbies in the world of online business and seasoned tech users too.
Beginners will appreciate how easy to use the platform is and will love the pre-made templates and easy-to-use drag and drop interface.
Even those without any previous tech knowledge can easily get to grips with the software within a couple of days.
That’s not to say that the platform is too basic or inflexible for pros though.
Those with more coding and design experience will have plenty of fun experimenting with advanced, customized, and complex sales funnels and marketing campaigns to suit their specific business needs.
Another benefit of Kartra is that the platform is completely cloud-based, so you could be working on a laptop from anywhere in the world. Pretty cool!
So, you don’t need to fret about losing precious information – it’s always safe in the cloud. All you need is an internet connection and your web browser.
Here’s another amazing fact: With Kartra, all features and parts of the program are included, with no additional add-ons necessary.
One way Kartra does stand out against other all-inclusive marketing platforms is that the software offers proven, ready-made sales funnels and campaigns that are backed by marketing legends like Frank Kern and your friendly folks at Ambient Click.
While making the tech setup of a website stress-free is great, having pre-made, high-converting sales funnels ready to use is a whole another feature to get very excited about. Think of all the time, money, and effort you’ll save.
So far, Kartra sounds pretty good huh? Let’s go through some of Kartra’s main features to learn more about its offerings.
Who Is Kartra For?
Kartra works well for people who are brand new to the world of online business or for those who have a whole host of tools that aren’t compatible with one another.
It’s for entrepreneurs on a budget who don’t have the time or money to hire teams to create a thriving online business.
It’s for people who want to spend less time spending time on fixing software issues, and more time on what matters – creating and closing sales.
Kartra is also for people who are searching for an alternative from other big-name marketing platforms such as ClickFunnels, which is more expensive (though we are big fans of their One Funnel Away training program).
If you’re currently comparing or researching different marketing platforms and tools, then learning more about Kartra in this review will help.
Now, let’s get on to Kartra’s many features. Be warned – there are quite a few.
What Does Kartra Do?
Here’s the full laundry list:
- Checkouts
- Leads
- Pages
- Funnels & Campaigns
- Memberships
- Videos
- Helpdesks
- Calendars
- Forms
- Affiliates
- Integrations & API
- Analytics
- Agency
- Marketplace
It’s kind of mind-blowing you can get all of this for just $99.00 per month!
What Do I Really Need To Run My Business?
That’s a tricky question as every business is different but the most essential tools in that giant tool best would be:
Pages – The page builder is incredible and an absolute breeze to use. It’s entirely visual and intuitive. Kartra also provides over a hundred pre-made templates for almost any type of page you can imagine. These include classic squeeze pages, video sales letter pages, and Thank You pages to name a few. Import these as campaigns easily with just a single click of a button.
Products – You’ll definitely want to use this feature as it’s where you configure the product you are selling, whether that’s a physical or digital product or service, the Products section is where you set all that up.
Carts – The great thing here is that the Shopping Cart is always pre-configured for you. There is literally nothing for you to do except to setup your Stripe and PayPal payment Gateway in order to get paid.
Email Marketing – Kartra has an incredibly strong email game. Broadcasts, automation, tagging, sequences, and more. The emails themselves are called Sequences and is where the visitors to your Funnel will receive emails once they are either captured by your opt-in, or added into the
Kartra system and assigned to the Funnel as a Lead. It sounds complicated but it really isn’t. If you can use Gmail, you can definitely write and structure sequences. None of this is rocket science. You can even send messages via SMS if you have mobile phone numbers and you feel it’s appropriate for your business.
Automation – Kartra offers what they call “Behavior-Based Automations” which are simply actions based on your recipients’ behaviors. For example, you can have your Funnel automatically send a follow-up message if they haven’t opened the previous email, or assign a tag if they click on the link, or unsubscribe them if they haven’t opened any email in the last 30 days. This is super-powerful stuff and built to make your life easier and save you time.
Campaigns – You have a choice of creating campaigns from scratch if you have the technical skills, or you can opt for one of Kartra’s handy premade campaign templates. If you choose to import a campaign, it will be implemented to your Kartra account complete with email sequences, product sales funnels, advanced automation, and other related components ready to go. The whole process takes less than a minute and is why many of the Ambient Click Marketing Funnels are so popular. Being ready to go out of the box is definitely worth the cost of a Funnel for many companies. Once you’ve deployed the campaign, you will see all the relevant assets and be able edit as necessary.
Marketplace – The Kartra Marketplace is a market of products which you can only see when you are inside Kartra. Think of it as an Aladdin’s Cave of digital tools and services. Looking for Funnel customization? Well, there will likely be an expert who you can hire. You can also sell your own campaigns and can share campaigns that you’ve created with other Kartra users and vice versa in the Kartra marketplace. It’s a meeting place for all things Kartra and there are a ton of opportunities to grow your business inside the Marketplace.
Memberships – Kartra also offers a memberships feature that’s great for business owners selling courses, publishing special content, or offering any type of coaching. It allows for a unique learning process for customers and provides a more exciting, exclusive feeling. So many of our clients are utilizing Memberships as they are a guaranteed way of keeping their customers. If you offer unique and compelling training and content, then why would anyone not want to be a member of that?
Helpdesk – This may not be for everyone but it is a really amazing tool worth mentioning. It allows users to create a trackable ticket whenever customers have questions about your products or business, or they need technical support. No more replying to random emails and trying to see if who you are emailing is who they say they are. With this built-in and ready to go system, you have a full stack ticketing system. Almost every one of the Ambient Click Funnels has a Helpdesk for this reason.
Training – It can be daunting to use a new system to build your business. Thankfully, Kartra provides a stellar training area. It is called the Kartraverse and is where anything and everything Kartra-related is explained through videos and articles. It is all fully searchable so anytime you have something you’d like to figure out, visit the Kartaverse!
The Cost
he big question for many people. How much is all this going to cost me? Kartra offers a variety of monthly subscription packages, each differing in price. However, the most significant differences between the packages are the number of contacts and monthly email sends included and the amount of monthly bandwidth included. Each package offers the same access to Kartra’s variety of tools, features, and benefits.
The best thing here is Kartra is a monthly subscription service, which means you’re not trapped into a contract. If you want to test-drive the platform, you can trial Kartra for just $1 for 14 days, so you can see if the software works for you before making a purchase.
Here are the different packages, their prices, and what they include.
Kartra Starter Plan
As the name of the plan suggests, the Kartra Starter Plan is ideal for those starting a new online business or for small companies with an email list of under 2,500 people. This is $99 per month.
Perks of the package:
- Up to 2,500 contacts
- 15,000 emails per month
- 100 total pages created
- 20 total products created
- 2 helpdesk portals
- 1 custom domain
- 20 dynamic follow up sequences
- 50 GB bandwidth per month
- Unlimited page visits
- 100 total automations
- 2 total membership sites
Kartra Silver Plan
The Kartra Silver Plan is the most popular package on the list. This costs $199 per month.
Perks of the package:
- Up to 12,500 contacts
- 125,000 emails per month
- Unlimited pages created
- Unlimited products created
- Unlimited helpdesk portals
- 3 custom domains
- Unlimited dynamic follow-up sequences
- 125 GB bandwidth per month
- Unlimited amount of page visits
- Unlimited total automations
- Unlimited total membership sites
Kartra Gold Plan
If you have a bigger email list, you may consider going for the Kartra Gold Plan. This is $299 per month.
Perks of the package:
- Up to 25,000 contacts
- 250,000 emails per month
- Unlimited pages created
- Unlimited products created
- Unlimited helpdesk portals
- 5 custom domains
- Unlimited dynamic follow-up sequences
- 200 GB bandwidth per month
- Unlimited amount of page visits
- Unlimited total automations
- Unlimited total membership sites.
Kartra Platinum Plan
Got a mailing list of over 50,000? Then the Kartra Platinum Plan may be perfect for you and your business. It is $499 per month.
Perks of the package:
- Up to 50,000 contacts
- 500,000 emails per month
- Unlimited pages created
- Unlimited products created
- Unlimited helpdesk portals
- 10 custom domains
- Unlimited dynamic follow-up sequences
- 500 GB bandwidth per month
- Unlimited amount of page visits
- Unlimited total automations
- Unlimited total membership sites
Is Kartra Worth It?
While there are many platforms like WordPress that can be used for an online business, they aren’t many created to contain everything necessary for a company. Kartra is great because it removes that issue of attempting to get everything to work together. It’s one huge marketing system in one. It’s your sales funnel creator, landing page builder, website hosting, email marketing tool, marketing automation software, analytics tools, and product creation software plus more.
Everything you need to run a successful business is found under Kartra’s easy-to-use integrated platform. It’s a powerful service that comes with almost everything you could need to sell your products and services. While the monthly fees make seem pricey compared to a free WordPress account, think about it. How much would you spend separately on all your different tools and solutions? Most likely a whole lot more, once you set them all up. This is where Kartra comes into its own. You can save money in the long run as you don’t need to shell out on separate web hosting, email marketing services, help desk assistance, memberships, and a whole lot more.
However, there are edge cases where Kartra may not work for you. If you have email lists of over 100,000 that you like to contact regularly, Kartra might not be the cheapest solution for you as these are the maximum figures on the most expensive package – the Kartra Diamond Plan.
So, is it worth it? Absolutely. If you have an idea to sell a digital product or service, then with a Kartra Starter Plan you are literally paying peanuts for technologies and services that only 10 years ago would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and only be available through a high-level digital agency. Now, you can be your own agency, your own company all from the comfort of a laptop on a beach.