Kartra vs Ontraport Comparison 2026
Kartra bundles pages, checkout, email and course delivery in one subscription from $59 a month, billed monthly, with a 5 percent transaction fee at that entry tier. Ontraport replaces a CRM, an email tool, a page builder and a payment processor instead, from $83 a month billed annually, with no stated transaction fee, built for a sales process where a contact record, a follow-up message, a charge and a task all need to move together. The axis is what kind of business: Kartra is built to sell and deliver a course or membership, and Ontraport is built to run a considered sales pipeline with automation doing the handoffs.
Courses, funnels and email with a cart attached
CRM, email and checkout in one subscription
At a glance
- Kartra starts cheaper, at $59.
- Neither has a free tier.
Side by side
Kartra | Ontraport | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $59 | From $83 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Not stated |
| Free trial | Not stated | Not stated |
| API | Yes | Yes |
Kartra
Courses, funnels and email with a cart attached
Kartra sells the whole stack in one subscription: pages, checkout, email, membership and the course itself, with everything wired together on arrival. The trade is stated plainly on the pricing page, because the cheapest plan takes five percent of what you sell. Contact limits are the other constraint and they bind sooner than most people expect. Anybody with an email platform they like is paying twice.
Our note
Work out the transaction fee against your expected sales before choosing Essentials, because at any real volume the dearer plan is cheaper once the percentage stops applying. Systeme.io covers similar ground on a free tier and Kajabi is the closer comparison at the top end.
Only on this side
- Covers courses & coaching
Ontraport
CRM, email and checkout in one subscription
Ontraport replaces the usual stack of a CRM, an email tool, a page builder and a payment processor with one system, which is worth it precisely when the handoffs between those are where things break. Automations can move a contact, send a message, charge a card and open a task in the same sequence. Pricing is per plan rather than per contact at the entry tier. It is a large system to learn, and anybody who only needs to send a newsletter will spend weeks configuring something they did not need.
Why people weigh these two
- Ontraport instead of Kartra
- Ontraport at $83 leads with the CRM under the email and checkout, for a business tracking people rather than launches.
- Kartra instead of Ontraport
- Kartra bundles courses, funnels and a cart the same way Ontraport bundles a CRM around email, at a lower starting price of $59.
Which one should you pick
Choose Kartra if the product is a course or a membership sold behind a login, since pages, checkout, email and delivery are wired together from day one. Model the 5 percent transaction fee against expected sales before committing to the entry tier, because at real volume a dearer Kartra tier is cheaper once the percentage stops applying.
Choose Ontraport if the sale is considered rather than impulse, and losing a lead in the handoff between a CRM, an email tool and a payment processor is the actual problem being solved. It is a large system to learn and rewards commitment, so anybody who only wants to send a newsletter will spend a fortnight configuring a CRM they did not need.
Common questions
- Does Ontraport take a cut of sales the way Kartra does?
- Its listing does not mention a transaction fee, only that payments are built in as a feature alongside the CRM and email tools. Kartra's entry tier explicitly takes 5 percent of what you sell, on top of its $59 a month price.
- Which one is built for selling a course?
- Kartra is, with membership delivery, course hosting and pre-built campaign funnels included from the entry tier. Ontraport is built more broadly around a CRM-driven sales process, which suits a considered purchase more than course delivery specifically.
- How does pricing scale with contacts on each platform?
- Kartra's entry tier caps out at 500 contacts before an upgrade is needed. Ontraport prices per plan rather than per contact at the entry tier, with additional users priced separately at $49 a month each instead.
- Which one should replace an existing CRM and email tool?
- Ontraport is built for exactly that: replacing a CRM, an email tool, a page builder and a payment processor with one system. Kartra is closer to Ontraport in shape than most course platforms, which is why its own pricing guidance names Ontraport alongside HighLevel as a direct comparison.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.