When it comes to building funnels, landing pages, membership sites and any form of lead generation tools for your business, there is really no shortage of choice out there. The thing is, it can be an overwhelming choice to make if you are not so sure what to look for.

That’s where we come in to help. We’re going to do the ‘heavy lifting’ in terms of sussing out two well-known page builder platforms so that you can see which of the two is better suited for you without you needing to spend a cent.

So keep reading to see a comparison between Clickfunnels and Kartra.

Clickfunnels

Clickfunnels is a well-known page builder on the market and it all really depends on your project needs and expectations as to which of these two platforms you will go with. Clickfunnels is geared towards building different types of marketing funnels.

The upside

If you are looking to build a fully-fledged marketing funnel, then Clickfunnels has your back. They offer a range of different types each geared towards the specific outcome you are looking to achieve. The user-friendliness of setting this up is also fairly simple by the way (we will go into this aspect a bit later on in more detail).

Basically, whether you are looking to set up a simple 2-step lead capture funnel whose purpose is to capture visitor info and email and then send them to a thank you page once done, or a more sophisticated funnel that requires user registration, a webinar, perhaps an upsell and downsell then it is all possible within this program capability.

To give you an idea, here are the types of funnels you are able to create:

Optin/Lead Capture Funnels – For capturing email addresses of your visitors and grow your mailing lists;

Sales Page Funnels – Used for selling products and services, with the ability to add any upsells/downsells to the sales process;

Webinar Funnels – Pretty neat for when you need people to register for webinars;

Membership Sites – Particularly handy for when you are looking to generate a recurring income by creating a full-blown membership site for members.

Once you have decided what your funnel is going to be set up to do there are a large number of templates on the site to help you get started. These can be customised as much or little as you want whether you are looking to just use a wireframe for reference or follow the template and only adapt your colours and style, the choice is yours. The live editor makes this quite easy to achieve and the interface itself of point and click is fairly uncomplicated to navigate around.

If you are not up for using a template, you can also easily create your own pages from scratch too. The choice is really yours. There is a large degree of flexibility when it comes to placing elements on the screen and it is also easy to preview your work as it would appear live.

What may also help a great deal depending on your level of experience in page building software is the help videos they offer. The videos are short, to the point and helpful and the resources for when you need help guides are in no short supply either. The chat support system is particularly helpful too and you can deal with any issues you are having via IM chat.

When it comes to the build, there are a lot of element widgets available to you and these are easily found by typing in the search bar above the elements. Again, when you are unsure, you can always get some help.

Coming back to the ease of use. When editing or creating pages, the interactive and reactive system is fairly easy to get used to with a bit of practice. Changing things like backgrounds, page widths, padding, text sizes and colours, to name a few, appear in the menu as and when you click on the different elements on the page. As far as live editors go, it is really quite easy to use. You have the option too of setting up custom domains for your funnels and is usually not so difficult to set up. Although, we do recommend having someone of technical mind if you are not familiar with cloudflare use.

Payment and other integrations are supported well with a built-in stripe payment integration available. And if you have not setup any external mail systems like mailchimp or active campaign, there is an internal set of functionality that can help you set up autoresponders and follow up mails. These can also be set up with your mail service provider for more customised approach to follow up mails.

Probably one of the other more interesting features of clickfunnels is the tracking abilities built in. You are able to monitor and check visitor rates, conversion figures and of course evaluate any split testing you have set up for your pages. This is definitely handy to have right in front of you each time you go into Clickfunnels and can help you optimise your funnels to work just the way they need to while removing the guesswork.


The downside

One of the first big disadvantages that comes to mind when looking to sign up with Clickfunnels is its pricing structure. It can be described as the more expensive option. A basic plan is $97 per month. This is not a dealbreaker though if you counteract the pricing with your product sales or any affiliate association. It can be worked around to make sure that your outlay on such a resource is countered by sales so that you are not seeing it so much as a big expense but rather a justifiable resource.

Another disadvantage seems to be the amount of pages you are limited to creating. There is a limit on the number of funnels, pages and visitors with the standard plan that can possibly become an issue for you in the future depending on your usage.

While the site may be easy to use, there is a lot of stuff to learn and some pretty in-depth stuff. The good side of this though is that it is regularly updated and there are weekly webinar sessions and learning guides so if you are prepared to learn, then this will not be a problem for you.

Split testing, while a built-in feature – is fairly basic and a lot of people generally opt for external forms of analytics to make use of also. More so if things like Facebook ads are being directed to the funnels.

It should be used as a starting guide, you could say, but not the only method of testing should this be something you are serious about doing.

Kartra

The first noticeable thing about Kartra is that it is a substantially cheaper option to Clickfunnels. The trial period is a casual $1 for 14 days. While Clickfunnels offers a free 14-day trial period when you sign up for one of their options (either $97 per month or $297 per month).

Right off the bat, Kartra describes itself as an all-in-one tools for launching and running your online business. Another stand-out quality is the Frank Kern collaboration. The internet marketing sensation himself has worked with Kartra to create Done-For-You campaigns that people can use and adapt to their online businesses. Great for those who are not 100% versed in those kinds of matters.

While Kartra and Clickfunnels essentially do the same thing, it has been said by some users that Kartra can be used to create pages that are more diverse, authentic and marketable.

The Upside

It’s like having an in-house marketing team of professionals on your project from day one. The upside of that is that you are getting the expertise that is required to have a competitive edge in order to make your business a success. Kartra takes care of the thinking around launching and running your online business so you can concentrate on the product/service you offer and not have to waste the time and energy on the stuff you have no idea about.

One other big noticeable difference between Kartra and Clickfunnels is that while clickfunnels is a task-oriented program, Kartra is goal-oriented. What does that mean exactly?

Imagine you are creating a sales funnel webpage. In Clickfunnels, you get started, click a few buttons and you’re done. But with Kartra, you kind of think in reverse. You need to consider the ultimate goal that you want to achieve at the end of that sales funnel. So at the end of a sales funnel like that is usually where you place a thank you page. So, in Kartra, you will start with the thank you page and work your way backwards.

Definitely unusual but seems to be a success because it is helping you do the thinking and understanding that process and it is a known fact that the more you understand something, the better chance you have of making a success of it. While it still does the heavy lifting in terms of the build templates, it definitely helps you understand the process you are expecting your clients to go through.

The difference with Clickfunnels is that all the work is done for you from start to finish. What seems to be really interesting with that level of ‘involvement’ from the program is that Kartra gives you a whole lot more creative control over your pages and it definitely seems to show.

Marketers will often tell you that making something visually appealing and making something that will sell your product/service are two different things but it seems like Kartra could be closing that gap by making pages that are visually attractive and are adapted to the marketing process.

Kartra have some additional features that Clickfunnels does not cover, one being the automation process. The automation options can be used to create almost-instant responses to customers, create email lists or create simple sales funnel pages. It basically allows you to engage with your leads without really needing to put in so much work.

The downside

While Kartra is proving to be something to watch, there is definitely one large drawback with it. It lacks reputation. Google Clickfunnels and you will get TONS of video, tutorial, forum content. Do the same for Kartra and you won’t come up as fortunate. The thing about using these done-for-you platforms is you must be able to use them as thoroughly as they have been designed to be used or else you are wasting your time and money.

Not everyone has the resources to hire marketers to handle these kinds of things for their business and most small business owners and startups will choose to do this kind of stuff themselves to save money. Therefore they must be able to make effective use of the programs.

While some people are happy to ‘wing it’ and learn as they go along, some want to be able to make proper use of the program so that it has the greatest impact on their business.

So while Kartra is great in many aspects, this aspect can be a major drawback.

To Conclude

Both programs are super helpful when it comes to building out pages and creating the right structure for marketing your business and while Clickfunnels may be on the more expensive side (Kartra ranges from $89 p/m to $149 and $299), if you are looking for a tried-and-tested reliable, well-known program, it is likely to be your better choice.

At the end of the day, it all comes down to your needs and how much time and effort you want to spend using the platforms. If you are happy to wing it and learn along the way, then Kartra may be ideal for you.

If all else fails, try both out and see what fit works best for you!

Clickfunnels VS Kartra Summed Up

Pros

  • Create simple funnels or more detailed ones with a step-by-step guided process
  • Lots of templates to choose from and customisable to your taste/needs
  • Site builder is pretty easy to use with drag and drop function
  • Loads of helpful tutorials
  • Integrations are easy to navigate
  • Built-in tracking abilities for better analytics and insight into your campaigns
  • Split testing to get the best results

Cons

  • Pricing options are a bit expensive
  • No unlimited pages
  • Takes a while to get the hang of working on it despite there being many tutorials out there
  • Split testing feature is not in depth

Kartra

Pros

  • Done for you campaigns that take care of the strategic part of what you need to build
  • Appealing visual designs that convert
  • Very customisable
  • Goal oriented, instead of task-oriented
  • Interesting price structure
  • Has automation functionality

Cons

  • Does not have a reputation as yet
  • Limited help tutorials when trying to learn how to build/use the program