Thinkific vs Kartra – Comparison

Last updated on March 15, 2024

Both Thinkific and Keap come loaded with features to assist you in launching, marketing, and selling your content. 

But the question is: which platform is the best fit for your coaching business?

Let’s take a closer look at their similarities and differences to help you decide.

Thinkific vs Kartra: An Overview

Thinkific is a leading platform for online course creation. Many creators favor it for its intuitive interface and robust marketing features. 

Kartra, on the other hand, excels as an all-in-one solution for sales and marketing. It comes with a complete toolkit for managing and scaling your online business.

When choosing between the two, think about what you need most: if it’s seamless course creation, Thinkific might be the way to go. If it’s comprehensive sales and marketing solutions, Kartra might be what you’re looking for.

Let’s explore their features, pricing, and more to help you make an informed decision.

Thinkific vs Katra: Brief History 

Back in 2012, a team led by Greg Smith, along with Matt Payne, Miranda Lievers, and Matt Smith, kicked off Thinkific.

It started as a simple platform, but it didn’t take long for it to grow into this all-encompassing platform for educators, coaches, and consultants.

Then there’s Kartra, which came onto the scene a bit later in 2018, thanks to Andy Jenkins and Mike Filsaime.

It swiftly gained traction within online business communities, drawing acclaim for its extensive features and user-friendly approach.

Features

Let’s take a look at Thinkific’s and Kartra’s key features.

Thinkific key features:

• Course builder: Allows you to develop online courses with multimedia content and interactive features.
• Mobile app for clients: Gives students access to course content and allows them to participate in discussions and track their progress directly from their mobile devices.
• Community building tools: Encourages interaction and collaboration among students through discussion forums and community groups.
• Branding customization: Allows for full branding customization, including white-labeling options, to maintain a consistent brand identity throughout the learning experience.
• Analytics: Provides analytics and reporting features to track student progress, course performance, and revenue metrics.

Other features:

• Website builder
• Client community groups
• Affiliate management
• Marketing tools
• Checkouts
• Thinkific app store

Kartra key features:

• Sales funnel builder: Kartra has a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface to help you create and customize comprehensive sales funnels.
• Email marketing: That platform features built-in email marketing tools for creating campaigns, automating follow-ups, and nurturing leads.
• Membership sites: Allows you to create membership sites where you can offer exclusive content and manage member access.
• Advanced automation: Offers advanced automation features for tasks such as email sequences and segmenting your audience into smaller groups according to their characteristics or behaviors.
• Product bump upsell: Adds enticing offers during checkout, increasing profit and improving the shopping experience for your customers.

Other features:

• CRM
• Scheduler
• Video hosting
• Affiliate management
• Forms
• Checkouts
• Analytics

Pricing 

Let’s see how Kartra and Thinkific stack up against each other regarding pricing.

Kartra Pricing:

• Starter Plan ($99/month billed annually) – offers basic features suitable for new businesses, including 2,500 leads, 15,000 emails per month, and hosting for up to 20 products.
• Silver Plan ($189/month billed annually) – provides more resources and capabilities, suitable for growing businesses.
• Professional Plan ($429/month billed annually) – includes more leads, emails, and additional features perfect larger businesses or those with extensive marketing needs.

To get a better sense of how Kartra works, you can sign up for a 30-day free trial.

Thinkific Pricing:

• Free Plan – includes the essentials: a course builder, e-commerce capabilities, access to one course and a community feature, and allows for an unlimited number of students.
• Basic Plan ($36/month billed annually) – gives you access to unlimited courses and features like coupons and discounts to help boost your sales.
• Start Plan -$74/month (billed annually) – provides more features for engaging clients and selling your services, including bundles, memberships, and live lessons.
• Grow Plan ($149/month billed annually) – sets you up with advanced tools to help you grow your business.

Customer Support

Kartra’s customer service holds a 4.1-star rating on Capterra, with some users expressing dissatisfaction due to receiving generic responses. To reach their customer service, you can either use live chat or submit a support ticket.

Thinkific’s customer service, on the other hand, has a higher rating of 4.5 stars on Capterra, with many reviewers commending the team’s quick and helpful responses.

For those using Thinkific’s free plan, customer support is available through a chatbot. If you’re on the Basic plan, you gain access to live chat support. Higher subscription tiers also include the option for phone support, offering more direct and immediate assistance.

Conclusion

In conclusion, both platforms bring different strengths to the table.

Thinkific is primarily for creating and selling online courses. It’s great if your main focus is delivering content and building a course-based coaching business.

Kartra, on the other hand, is more comprehensive. It includes features for course creation along with email marketing, sales funnels, and more. If you’re looking for a solution that integrates multiple aspects of your coaching business under one roof, Kartra might be the better choice.

Alternatives to Thinkific and Kartra

If neither Thinkific nor Kartra aligns with your coaching business needs, consider exploring our list of best life coaching platforms, including:

• Practice: Perfect for those who want an intuitive, all-in-one coaching platform.
• Bonsai: Streamlines small coaching business operations with contract templates, financial management, and more.
• Simply.Coach: Automates all coaching operations.
• Paperbell: Includes coaching-specific features like group coaching and selling packages.
• UpCoach: Focuses on growth and development.
• Coaches Console: Integrates client management, billing, and scheduling for coaches.
• Simplero: Manages your online presence.
• Delenta: Supports scalable coaching with client management and automation features.

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