Kartra and Clickfunnels are competitors in the marketing software industry, both platforms offering powerful email marketing and business management tools.
Kartra is the upstart looking to assert its dominance in the digital marketing game, while Clickfunnels has been around for a while and has earned its place as an industry leader. confused between both? check this. The rivals share certain tools but also have key features that are exclusive to their respective platforms, they are by no means the same product.
In the following article, we will discuss the differences and similarities found within each product. A quick summary on the winner in each section can be found below.
Both platforms offer a 14-day trial, the Clickfunnels trial is free and Kartra’s trial will cost 1$.
Software Overview
Kartra was started by marketers Andy Jenkins and Mike Filsaime in 2018 and is increasingly gaining popularity amongst small business owners and entrepreneurs due to its functionality and price point. Kartra is also backed by the legendary direct response marketer Mike Kern.
Clickfunnels is the older of the two and was started in 2014 by marketing wiz Russel Brunson and currently has over 100k active users utilizing the platform. They have been an industry leader in marketing software over the past 6 years, and they’re one of the most popular Kartra alternatives.
Webpage Builder/ Editor
One of the most valuable things you will find in the arsenal of tools available to you is the webpage builder. You no longer need to hire a developer or designer in order to build a professional, functional website.
Both platforms use a drag and drop style builder eliminating the need to know code and have many templates from which to choose, from sales funnels to landing pages.
Kartra
Building a webpage in Kartra is a simple process-simply choose a template from the page editor and begin building.
The editor has two modes: column and component. In the column mode, you are able to select a column (section) and customize it any way you choose. The component mode, on the other hand, allows you to change the content within the columns.
Another handy feature is the ability to add pre-built sections like testimonials, download boxes and pricing tables.
Clickfunnels
The Clickfunnels builder has a more task-orientated and optimized approach. You are given the options to choose the type of industry, the type of funnel and what your end goal is and from there you choose a template to work with.
The layout of the editor is similar to Kartra’s with a few small differences. With Clickfunnels you have color-coded rows, columns and elements (content) which you simply click on to select and customize.
Winner
Both builders are fairly straightforward and easy to use given the visual styling and drag and drop functionality. The page editors also work in very much the same way making this a close one. The winner, however, is going to be Kartra because of how well the funnel builder works in tandem with Kartra’s sales/checkout system and email automation.
Email Automation
Both Kartra and Clickfunnels possess incredibly powerful email automation that targets your customers based on their actions bringing you more sales
Kartra
Kartra’s email tool, Kartra mail, uses behavior-based automation and personalization features to customize the types of emails that will be sent to your clients. Every click, send and open is tracked giving you an idea of how well your email marketing is working.
An “if” and “then” automation system automatically follows up with your customers based on the parameters you set. Perhaps the most powerful tool at your disposal is the automated marketing campaign which will do all your marketing for you-sends, follow-ups, subscriptions, analytics, and a whole host of other actions.
Clickfunnels
Clickfunnels uses automation software called actionetics, which takes personalized email marketing to a new level. Actionetics uses your client’s email address to gather their information-social profiles, interests, address and even income to enable you to market directly to their preferences. This is possible because actionetics integrates with services like Facebook, Twitter, and Google.
Like Kartra mail, your customer’s interactions are tracked but to a greater degree.
One of the stand-out features is an algorithm that grades people in your follow-up funnel and gives them a rating based on how much they will be worth to your business.
Winner
This round goes to Kartra. Actionetics is not available on the lower pricing plans while automation is available on all of Kartra’s pricing options.
Membership Sites
Membership sites are a great way to generate a passive income. All you need to do is create the content, upload and get paid monthly for access.
Kartra
Building a membership site in Kartra allows you to easily upload video, audio, text, and downloadable documents all of which can be hosted directly on the Kartra servers. Login pages, usernames, and passwords are generated automatically so your only focus is the content.
Content can be delivered by time or membership access level, you also have the ability to create bronze, silver, gold or Diamond tiers.
A big plus is that Kartra offers built-in video and audio hosting which is great for those entrepreneurs interested in course creation. 3rd party hosting, customer tagging, and progress tracking are also available.
Clickfunnels
Clickfunnels membership sites are easy to set up because just like with your funnels you have access to templates. You do not have the same level of customizability, but this is true for Kartra as well. Member access and registration pages are available as part of the builder.
One of the stand-out features is that the membership site and the existing sales funnel can be integrated making things more streamlined. Existing membership sites can be replicated and reused elsewhere using the share funnel feature.
Disappointingly, built-in video/audio hosting and progress tracking are not available so you will have to go with a 3rd party.
A/B Testing
Using split tests is a crucial aspect of running a business and even more so as the business grows-the tests let you know how well your pages are performing.
Both platforms give you the option to perform split tests on a number of different page types.
Kartra
Kartra lets you do a split test with pages made within the platform or from an external URL, you are also able to set what percentage of visitors are sent to either page and can test up to 4 pages at once.
The goal of the split test can be defined so that you can choose to see how options on each page perform against each other for example.
A winner can be chosen by you or can be automatically selected when a milestone like 1000 visitors is reached. You can then tag the visitors to see who took part in the split test.
The data of the test is available on a fairly detailed stats graph so you can see the specifics of how well each page has performed.
One of the stats found on the graph is the percent of certainty, in which the system calculates how much better one page is doing when compared to the other.
Clickfunnels
Split-testing in Clickfunnels lets you choose to either duplicate your current page or choose a page from one of the many templates. Traffic percentages can also be adjusted just like in Kartra.
The winner of the test is chosen by you based on how the pages have performed with the losing page being automatically archived. Each page is given a confidence score that is calculated over the period of the test, the one with the highest score being the one you should choose.
There is a stats page for analysis, but it gives you minimal information when compared to Kartra’s.
Winner
The features and tools provided with Kartra’s split-testing allow you to collect a lot more data and make more informed decisions making them the winner.
Shopping Cart
Your checkout page is the last stop before a sale is made. With an abandonment rate of 60-80%, you best make sure the checkout experience is a good one.
Kartra
As with most of the pages in your funnel, the checkout page can be customized to your liking with many templates to choose from and can be branded to match your site.
Kartra’s checkout system has built-in automation to recover abandoned shopping carts, it also integrates with all of Kartra’s other tools.
Checkout allows you to manage sales, payment plans, subscriptions, special offers, trails, and coupons. Up-sells, down-sells, and bumps can also easily be added.
The supported payment gateways are Authorize.net, Braintree, PayPal, and Stripe.