Kartra vs Systeme.io Comparison 2026
Kartra starts at $59 a month and takes 5 percent of everything sold on that entry tier. Systeme.io starts free, 2,000 contacts and three funnels for nothing, and charges zero percent on sales at every tier including the paid ones. The axis is the transaction fee: Systeme.io never takes a cut regardless of plan, while Kartra's 5 percent is real money once sales are real, 5 percent of $5,000 a month is $250, more than the subscription itself.
Courses, funnels and email with a cart attached
Funnels, email and courses on one free plan
At a glance
- Systeme.io starts cheaper, at $17.
- Only Systeme.io has a free tier.
- Systeme.io takes no share of what you earn. Kartra takes 5%.
Side by side
Kartra | Systeme.io | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $59 | From $17 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free plan, paid tiers |
| Free tier (they differ) | No | Yes |
| Billing | Monthly or annual | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | None |
| API | 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 email marketing & automation
Systeme.io
Funnels, email and courses on one free plan
Systeme.io bundles funnels, an email list, a course platform and an affiliate program into one account, and the free plan carries 2,000 contacts with no transaction fee. That combination costs several hundred a month elsewhere. Every individual piece is plainer than the tool that specialises in it, and the page editor is the weakest of them.
Why people weigh these two
- Systeme.io instead of Kartra
- Systeme.io runs funnels, email and courses on a genuinely free plan, with paid tiers from $17, the budget alternative to Kartra's $59 floor and five percent transaction cut.
- Kartra instead of Systeme.io
- Kartra adds a full shopping cart on top of the same courses-funnels-email bundle, from $59 with no free tier, for a catalogue bigger than one offer.
Which one should you pick
Choose Kartra if the pre-built campaigns and the tighter integration between checkout, email and course delivery are worth paying a percentage for, and model that percentage against expected sales before picking the entry tier. At real volume, a dearer Kartra tier or a flat-fee alternative works out cheaper once the 5 percent stops applying.
Choose Systeme.io if a free start and never paying a percentage of sales matter more than Kartra's tighter integrations, since the free plan covers 2,000 contacts, three funnels and a course platform at no cost. The page editor is the weakest part of it, which is the honest trade for the price.
Common questions
- Which one is cheaper?
- Systeme.io, at every comparison point: it has a free tier Kartra does not offer, and its paid tiers top out at $97 a month with zero transaction fee, against Kartra's $59 entry price plus a 5 percent cut of sales.
- Does Systeme.io ever charge a percentage of sales?
- No, zero percent at every tier including the free one, which the platform states as a deliberate choice. Kartra charges 5 percent on its entry tier, published on its own pricing page.
- How many contacts does each free or entry plan include?
- Systeme.io's free plan includes 2,000 contacts at no cost. Kartra has no free plan; its cheapest tier includes only 500 contacts for $59 a month.
- Which one has better page design?
- Neither is the strongest option here by Kartra's own comparison, but Systeme.io names its own page editor as the weakest part of its product. Kartra's listing does not raise the same concern about its page builder.
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.