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Creating an online course can be pretty profitable and fun.
But, picking the platform which you want to host your course on can be quite a hard decision.
Today, we’re going to compare Kartra vs Teachable, which are both two great solutions to host your online course.
For this comparison, I am going to assume that your main focus is hosting your course, due to the nature of Teachable.
This means I won’t go into too much detail for less relevant features.
Kartra vs Teachable: Main Differences
The main differences between Kartra and Teachable are that Teachable’s main focus is people selling courses, whereas Kartra gives you all the tools you need for the rest of your online business.
Using Teachable, you will need to purchase more external software to run your entire business, whereas with Kartra you will not.
Kartra vs Teachable: Overview
Kartra | Teachable | |
Website | kartra.com | teachable.com |
Founded In | 2013 (Genesis Digital) | 2014 |
Services | Memberships, Page building, Helpdesks, Affiliate Management, Email marketing, Calendar, video hosting | Memberships, Affiliate management |
Pricing | Starting at $99 per month Full: See Website | Starting at $39 per month Full: See website |
Support | 7/10 | 6.5/10 |
Free Trial? | $1 For 14 Days | No |
Money-Back Guarantee | 30 Days | 30 days |
Overall Rating | 9/10 | 7.5/10 |
Kartra Features
As you probably already know, Kartra is packed with useful features.
Not only that, but they are also all incredibly useful if you are looking to sell your own course. If Kartra is something that you want to learn more about through an in-depth post, check out my Kartra review.
Page Builder, Sales Funnels & Templates
Firstly, we have the page builder, sales funnels, and templates.
Kartra pages will give you everything you need to convert your visitor from a visitor to a sale.
There are over 500 beautiful templates that are super easy-to-edit.
These templates range from pages for your sales pages to your legal pages and even 404 Errors, so you won’t be needing any additional templates!
Sales Funnel Tools
Kartra also comes with comprehensive sales funnel tools like:
- Order bumps
- One-click upsells
- One-click downsells
Of course, these can have huge advantages, especially if you’re selling info-products.
You can also create discounts and coupons.
Kartra Mail / Autoresponder
Next, we have the autoresponder within Kartra, which also has huge advantages.
It offers all the features you would expect from your normal autoresponder such as:
Again, Kartra has done a fantastic job here, as you won’t need an autoresponder.
Membership Sites
Membership sites are probably the feature that you are the most interested in, right?
Kartra does have a great membership site builder, it’s easy to use and has some pretty advanced features:
- Progress-tracking
- Drip-feed content
- Comments & comment control
- Tagging inside based on view time and other triggers
- Content protection based on Progress
- Advanced analytics
- Automated membership management
As you can see, Kartra goes above and beyond, even in memberships.
Video Hosting
You won’t be needing Wistia or Vimeo with Kartra, as Kartra lets you host your own videos.
This means, for your courses, you can host the videos on Kartra and even add your own clickable CTA’s inside of the video.
If you’re selling courses or creating any type of video-based membership site, then this feature is huge.
Affiliate Management & Marketplace
Another great feature inside of Kartra is the affiliate management & marketplace.
You can not only recruit and manage affiliates, but they can also find you through the affiliate marketplace (if you want them to).
Again, a useful feature if you are selling courses.
Helpdesks
You can also connect helpdesks which can also be a great feature to improve your customer experience.
Calendar
I wasn’t really going to go into too much detail about the Calendar, but I figured people who are selling courses often also offer coaching or consulting.
For these people, the Kartra calendar can definitely be useful, as it’s just like the calendar you would get from somewhere else like Squarespace.
You can send it to your prospects or even leave it on your website and they can book appointments.
Teachable Features
Now, let’s take a look at Teachable’s features.
As I mentioned earlier, they are much more focused on the membership/course features, as that’s their purpose.
Obviously, as membership sites are the main purpose of Teachable, I’m going to be talking more about the features inside of the membership sites.
Learning Tools
Teachable comes with a lot of features to help your students learn.
- Feedback
Your students can always give you feedback helping you create a better membership
- Certificates
With Teachable, you can also give your students Certificates, which shows that they have completed your course.
- Quizzes
You can also quiz your students which is pretty cool and can be useful.
Analytics
Teachable also has some great reporting tools which allow you to see your revenue and signups over a specific period of time.
Another thing that you can monitor is your course completion rates to see where you can improve.
Marketing Tools
Finally, Teachable also comes with marketing tools to help you sell your course.
This includes:
- Landing & Sales pages
- Affiliate management
- Coupons
- One-time fee or subscription billing
Of course, it’s not quite as advanced as all the features that Kartra has to offer, but these marketing tools are still good.
Membership Site Comparison
As you are comparing Kartra with Teachable, I figured that membership sites are probably your main interest.
Below, you will find a table explaining what each software does well.
Kartra | Teachable |
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From this table, you should be able to pick out a winner that suits your course best.
Kartra has better tools for business, while Teachable has a few more added features for teaching.
Extended Kartra Trial
For a limited time, you can actually get an extended trial (30 days instead of 14) by following the instructions below.
Step 1: Use this link
Step 2: Click “Start your trial”
Step 3: Wait for the page to be fully loaded, then pretend to navigate off the page
Step 4: Accept the exit pop-up to get the 30-day trial.
Teachable does not offer a trial.
Integrations
Integrations is a bit of a weird category, as with Kartra you will probably not need them, at all.
Kartra also provides you with the API key (outbound & inbound) which you can usually also connect with most software.
Here is a list of native integrations (No API or Code needed)
- Braintree
- Stripe
- Paypal
- Authorize.net
- Mailgun
- SendGrid
- Elastic Email
- PostMark
- Digital Access Pass
- OptimizePress
- aMember
- S2Member
- WishList
- Kajabi
- Twillio
- Nexmo
- Plivo
- Google Calendar
- Zapier
But, keep in mind Kartra can probably integrate with a lot of other software if you did need to with their API.
Teachable Integrations
From my understanding, Teachable integrations are fairly limited.
Teachable integrates directly with:
- Mailchimp
- Convertkit
- Zapier
- Sumo
- Segment
- Google Analytics
This means for most of their integrations, you’re going to have to use Zapier.
Kartra Pricing
Kartra starts at $99 per month.
But, even in this plan, you get access to ALL features, apart from Kartra agency.
20-25% Annual discounts are available too.
Kartra agency is a feature that allows you to manage your client’s account while also selling seperate Kartra accounts, but getting them at a discounted price.
Other than on the starter plan, this feature is included in all plans too.
What I also like about Kartra is that other than on the starter plan, they don’t limit you with Bandwidth or emails, like they used to.
The only limit is contacts which is pretty standard for most autoresponders.
Teachable Pricing
Teachable starts at a much lower $39 per month, but it just doesn’t come with all the features Kartra has to offer.
Plus, you’re also going to have to pay a 5% transaction fee which is pretty annoying.
It may not sound like a lot, but let’s say, you’re making $1,000 per month selling your courses, that’s an extra $50 charge per month.
In which case, it would make sense to just upgrade or use Kartra.
Also, keep in mind, you’re still going to need an autoresponder, which usually costs around $49 per month.
Overall Winner
Teachable may have slightly more advanced features for inside the membership (certificates, quizzes, etc.), but that does not outweigh the business tools Kartra has to offer:
- Autoresponder
- Video hosting
- Calendar
- Sales funnel tools
- More page building options
For me, the winner is Kartra.
Not only from the features but also from the pricing.
If you’re using Teachable, then you need to get an external autoresponder and probably use Zapier too. This costs usually around $49 per month.
And, with Kartra, you’re still going to get much better marketing tools, even in the $99 per month plan.
Final Thoughts
Just because the winner was Kartra for me, doesn’t mean it has to be the same for you.
If you’re just looking to host a free course and that’s all you want to do, Teachable can be a great option too.
But, if you’re looking to build a business and have powerful marketing tools, then Kartra simply wins here.
That’s it, I hope you enjoyed this comparison and if you did, make sure to leave a comment and/or share the post.