# Kartra vs Thinkific (2026) · Funnel Critic > Source: https://funnelcritic.com/compare/kartra-vs-thinkific Head-to-head ## Kartra vs Thinkific Pick Thinkific when lessons come first. Pick Kartra when your launch, your list and your affiliates share one account. By [Marta Ovalle](/authors/marta-ovalle), reviewed by [Funnel Critic Editorial](/authors/funnel-desk-editorial). Published 18 October 2026\. We update this page every 90 days. **Disclosure:**We may earn a commission when you buy through links on this page. It never affects our rankings. ### Quick answer Pick Kartra if you need funnels, email, checkout, affiliates and a helpdesk in one account; pick Thinkific if the student experience and course delivery come first and you will add marketing with apps or other tools. You are choosing between two problems: helping students finish the lessons, or running the launch that sells them. [Compare Kartra's plan tiers](/reviews/kartra/pricing) before you assume the cheapest price includes the features you will use. ### Side by side The two tools you are choosing between, plus one more worth knowing if you run paid ads. | Tool | Free trial | Best for | | ----------------------------------------- | ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | [Kartra](/reviews/kartra) | 14 days | Established coaches and creators who want pages, email, checkout and memberships in one account | | Thinkific | Unconfirmed | Creators who put the student area first | | [ElasticFunnels](/reviews/elasticfunnels) | 14 days, no card | Teams running paid traffic | ### What you are really choosing between You already know the product is a course. What you are buying is either the place students watch the lessons, or the tools that sell those lessons. Kartra's [own comparison](https://kartra.com/resources/compare/kartra-vs-thinkific/) calls Thinkific a course host. On that page, Kartra lists funnels, email, checkouts, memberships, a helpdesk and affiliates as its own features. That framing is Kartra's. Thinkific's [App Store](https://apps.thinkific.com/) is where email, CRM, analytics, Zoom and Shopify get added. The [Zapier listing](https://apps.thinkific.com/apps/zapier) says triggers and actions need the Grow plan or higher. Kartra memberships drip lessons on a schedule. They also include discussion forums, access levels and progress tracking, in the same account as checkout and email. [The membership page](https://kartra.com/feature/membership-sites/) says a member who joins months later still sees the lessons in the same sequence. On [r/smallbusiness](https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1fptzw5/those%5Fof%5Fyou%5Fwith%5Fonline%5Fhosted%5Ftraining%5Fprograms/), people running hosted training call Thinkific a good fit for a mid-sized team, and they mention security for the course files. The same thread says Kartra is a full marketing machine when all you need is a place to host lessons. On [r/onlinecourses](https://www.reddit.com/r/onlinecourses/comments/1kldbg2/course%5Fcreators%5Fwhat%5Fplatforms%5Fdo%5Fyou%5Flike%5Fbest/), creators recommend Thinkific to beginners because the course builder is easy to follow. Two threads on r/EcommerceWebsite talk about the first weeks with Kartra. One writer says the setup takes time to learn, and that it is worth the time once the setup is familiar. Another says the interface felt clunky and small bugs kept appearing. The first link is the learning-curve thread. The second is the thread about bugs. Read them here: [learning curve](https://www.reddit.com/r/EcommerceWebsite/comments/1lwhdt2/thoughts%5Fon%5Fkartra%5Fneed%5Freddit%5Freviews/) and [small bugs](https://www.reddit.com/r/EcommerceWebsite/comments/1lff26b/best%5Ffunnel%5Fbuilder%5Fsoftware/). Thinkific's [developer site](https://developers.thinkific.com/) says more than 50,000 course creators have used the platform, and that those creators have earned more than $650 million. That scale figure is Thinkific's. If the curriculum is finished and the list already lives in Kit or HubSpot, you are buying a place for students. Pages, an email sequence, checkout and an affiliate program are launch work, and Kartra is the account built for that. Ads on Meta, Google or TikTok are covered in the paid-traffic section further down. ### Where each one wins and loses #### Kartra ##### What works * One platform genuinely replaces the stack. You get pages and funnels, email and SMS, checkout, memberships, courses, a calendar, a helpdesk and an affiliate program under a single login. They share one database, so a sale and its follow-up email stay on the same customer record. Reviewers single out the detailed analytics and how convenient built-in affiliate management and payments are once everything sits in one place. * Checkout and memberships are strong for selling knowledge. The checkout supports upsells, coupons and several payment processors, and the membership and course tools host your content and drip it out. For a coach selling a course or a membership, that is the core job done without plugins. * No transaction fees on the main plans. Starter and the higher tiers charge 0% on sales. Essentials charges 5% on sales. * The drag-and-drop builders, more than 100 ready-made campaigns, and Kartra AI let a creator publish a funnel, emails and a checkout in a few hours, without hiring a developer. * You can try it before a long commitment. Kartra has a 14-day trial page and a 30-day trial page. A subscription payment can be refunded within 30 days. A card is required to create the account, and billing support says the trial fee is non-refundable. ##### What to watch * Bugs across the builders are the top complaint. Long-term reviewers describe a page builder that malfunctions, with frequent logouts and glitches in the email, page and membership tools. It is usable, but expect rough edges, and some reviewers feel updates polish the surface while core problems linger. * Getting a reply from a person is the slow part. Kartra's contact page offers an assistant at any hour, and you can be transferred to a person in that chat. The page lists no phone number. Trustpilot reviews through 2025 still describe chats that never start and tickets that take a day or longer. * It is overkill for beginners. Kartra bundles eight to twelve tools. If you only need one or two, you still pay for the whole set and still have to learn your way around it. Reviewers repeatedly say beginners find it overwhelming. They point those readers toward simpler, cheaper tools. It pays off for established businesses that use most of the bundle. * The entry plan offers very little and carries a fee. Essentials looks cheap, but it caps you at 500 contacts and 5 pages while charging a 5% transaction fee. Unlimited pages, zero transaction fees and video hosting start on Starter. Automations and affiliates start on Growth. * Kartra hosts your pages, and those pages cannot be exported. Everything lives on Kartra's servers. If you leave, set aside time to rebuild the pages. Your contacts export as a CSV file, and your pages stay behind. #### Thinkific ##### What works * People new to course software say the Thinkific builder is easy to follow. * Buyers running hosted training say it works for a mid-sized team, and they mention security for the course files. * You add email, CRM, analytics, Zoom and Shopify as apps. The course remains the main part of the account. ##### What to watch * Zapier triggers and actions require a higher plan, so connecting the course to other tools that way costs more. * A creator ten months in described lead alerts, exports and rigid pages as daily friction, and told others to stay away. * Funnels, email sequences and affiliate payouts in one account are what Kartra Growth includes. ### What they cost Pick the Kartra plan you will still need once the launch is over. The cheapest plan is a weak comparison if you send email and host more than one course. Essentials limits how much you can publish, and it keeps a percentage of each sale. Starter removes that fee. Pages, courses, email and SMS are included. Growth adds automations, affiliate management and a helpdesk, plus funnel simulation, surveys and quizzes. Each higher plan allows more contacts. On all three plans, paying for the year costs less than paying every month. Thinkific's paid plans are built around delivering the course. When you also need email and a CRM, you add apps such as Kit or HubSpot. Connecting those apps through Zapier requires the higher plan named on the Zapier listing. | | Kartra | Thinkific | | --------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------- | | Entry account | Essentials $59/mo ($52 annual): 500 contacts, 5 pages, 1 course, 5% on sales | Paid course plans | | Working account | Starter $119/mo ($99 annual): 2,500 contacts, unlimited pages and courses, 0% on sales | Higher plan if you use Zapier | | Launch tools | Growth $229/mo ($189 annual): 12,500 contacts, automations, affiliates, helpdesk | Email and CRM through apps | | Lessons | Drip on a schedule, forums, tiers, progress tracking | Student area and course delivery | | Trial | Free trial on the plans page, plus a 30-day money-back guarantee | Unconfirmed | Compare a Thinkific course plan with Kartra Starter when you need both lessons and email. On Thinkific, that email is an app. Compare it with Kartra Growth when you want affiliate tools and automations inside the Kartra account. Essentials still limits contacts and pages, and it keeps a percentage of each sale. It is the wrong plan for either of those jobs. Paid Kartra plans list a free trial, and the plans page also advertises a money-back guarantee after you have been charged. The guarantee covers that subscription charge. It is separate from the free trial. ### A third option, if you run paid ads Paid traffic changes the job. A team buying clicks needs the ad click, the order, the rebill and the refund on one timeline. When the course lives in one account and email lives in another, someone still has to combine the exports to see which ad made the sale. ElasticFunnels is a funnel platform for teams that run paid traffic: affiliates, product vendors, agencies and ecommerce brands. Pages, checkout, CRM and attribution sit on one data layer. Same-URL split testing is what those teams look at first. Variants rotate on the server under one campaign link, so Meta, Google and TikTok keep the learning already on that link, and a test does not send the ad back through review. An AI builder can generate a page from a prompt or clone one from a URL. The checkout can take a bump, a one-click upsell and a subscription. Sessions, orders, rebills and refunds share the timeline, and the CRM, automations and call center read it too. Every feature is on every plan. The plans differ by page views, brands, domains, team seats and automation runs. Starter is $97 a month for 50,000 page views, Growth is $197 a month for 250,000, and Scale is $497 a month for 500,000\. Paid yearly, those totals are $937, $1,891 and $4,771\. Extra page views are billed, and the account stays on its current plan. Bot, datacenter and test traffic is not counted. Revenue processed on ElasticFunnels' own checkout carries a 0.5% fee. That checkout charges through Stripe, NMI, PayPal, Klarna or Authorize.net. Sales you send to an outside checkout or a network do not carry that fee. A split across several merchant accounts applies to NMI accounts only. Each first sale is weighted across the merchant's NMI accounts, with rules for card brand, product and amount, and a daily cap on each account. The upsell and the rebill stay on the account that took the sale. Stripe, PayPal, Klarna and Authorize.net each connect as one account. The trial runs 14 days and asks for no card. Pages, funnels and a custom domain can be set up during the trial. ElasticFunnels is newer than the platforms it competes with, and there is very little independent third-party review coverage to check its claims against. Until you run real volume through it, you are largely taking the vendor's word for it. Outside write-ups are still thin, which fits a product that only dates back to 2023\. Those write-ups are too thin to confirm the split-test and attribution claims. You can still use the pages, the checkout and the CRM, and judge those claims on your own traffic. Between these two, Thinkific is the default when the student area is the job and marketing can live in apps. Choose Kartra instead when the launch needs pages, email sequences, checkout and an affiliate program in one account. Those tools are included on Kartra Growth. **My take.** Name the bottleneck before you name the software. If students cannot get through the lessons, start with Thinkific. If the email list, the pages or the affiliate program is slowing you down, start with the Kartra plan that includes automations and affiliates. Still unsure which job you have? The [six-question funnel tool picker](/best/which-funnel-tool-fits-you-a-6-question-picker) helps you decide before you pay for the larger bundle. Our default pick ### Thinkific Thinkific is the default when the course and the student area are the job, and marketing can be added through apps. ### Frequently asked questions Can Thinkific send emails and run sales funnels? Mail and a CRM are apps you add beside the course. Automation through Zapier waits on the higher plan that listing requires. Kartra puts mail on Starter and automations on Growth. Can Kartra actually host the lessons? Memberships release content on a schedule, keep a forum and record progress next to the checkout. People who only wanted a host say the rest of the account is more than they came for. Kajabi is a separate matchup. Which one is cheaper to start? Kartra's first row is the low sticker, and it keeps a cut of each sale. The rows a launch actually uses are the two above it. On the Thinkific side, email apps can add a second bill beside the course plan. What if the visitors come from ads? That is the ElasticFunnels case above: the click, the order and the refund on one timeline, with variants under one campaign link. This matchup is a course host against a marketing bundle. Is the hard part the software itself? Kartra writers describe a learning stretch, a clunky screen and small bugs. Thinkific's beginner notes go toward the builder. One longer-term user still wanted out, and that limit is in the cons above. ### What we read about Kartra #### From Kartra * * Funnel mapper and simulator * Checkouts and shopping cart * Plans and pricing * Native integrations #### Other sources 7 discussions and reviews read for this page. Quotes are excerpts; open a link to read the original in context. 1. \[r-eco-vs-tc\] [Kartra vs ThriveCart on Reddit ](https://www.reddit.com/r/EcommerceWebsite/comments/1j5nemr/kartra%5Fvs%5Fthrivecartwhich%5Fone%5Fshould%5Fi%5Fgo%5Ffor/) Reddit, 7 Mar 2025 2. \[k-vs-tc-upsell\] [Kartra upsell notes on Reddit ](https://www.reddit.com/r/EcommerceWebsite/comments/1lwhdt2/thoughts%5Fon%5Fkartra%5Fneed%5Freddit%5Freviews/) Reddit, 1 Aug 2025 3. \[k-pricing-page\] [Kartra Plans and Pricing ](https://kartra.com/plans-and-pricing/) Blog 4. \[tp-chat-2025-04\] [Kartra reviews on Trustpilot ](https://www.trustpilot.com/review/kartra.com) Trustpilot, 15 Apr 2025 5. \[tp-hours-2025-01\] [Kartra reviews on Trustpilot, Canada ](https://ca.trustpilot.com/review/kartra.com) Trustpilot, 25 Jan 2025 6. \[tp-ticket-2025-01\] [Kartra reviews on Trustpilot, Canada ](https://ca.trustpilot.com/review/kartra.com) Trustpilot, 25 Jan 2025 7. \[capterra-support\] [Kartra vs Builderall on Capterra ](https://www.capterra.com/compare/184946-202345/Kartra-vs-Builderall) Capterra ### What we read about Thinkific #### From Thinkific * #### Other sources 5 discussions and reviews read for this page. Quotes are excerpts; open a link to read the original in context. 1. \[t-dev\] [Thinkific developers: creator scale ](https://developers.thinkific.com/) Blog 2. \[t-apps\] [Thinkific App Store ](https://apps.thinkific.com/) Blog 3. \[t-zapier\] [Thinkific App Store: Zapier ](https://apps.thinkific.com/apps/zapier) Blog 4. \[r-training\] [r/smallbusiness: hosted training programs ](https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/1fptzw5/those%5Fof%5Fyou%5Fwith%5Fonline%5Fhosted%5Ftraining%5Fprograms/) Reddit 5. \[r-creators\] [r/onlinecourses: platforms course creators like ](https://www.reddit.com/r/onlinecourses/comments/1kldbg2/course%5Fcreators%5Fwhat%5Fplatforms%5Fdo%5Fyou%5Flike%5Fbest/) Reddit If you are buying ads, start the ElasticFunnels trial. [Try ElasticFunnels free (opens in a new tab) ](https://elasticfunnels.io/?utm%5Fsource=funnelcritic&utm%5Fmedium=affiliate&utm%5Fcampaign=review) ### Related reading The [Kartra review](/reviews/kartra) goes through the whole product. The [Kartra pricing guide](/reviews/kartra/pricing) compares the plans. If the other course name is Kajabi, read [Kartra vs Kajabi](/compare/kartra-vs-kajabi). If the business is mostly a newsletter, [Kartra vs ConvertKit (Kit)](/compare/kartra-vs-convertkit) is the closer matchup. For paid traffic against this bundle, read [ElasticFunnels vs Kartra](/compare/elasticfunnels-vs-kartra). If you have ruled Kartra out, the [Kartra alternatives](/alternatives/kartra) page lists what people move to. Every other pairing sits on the [comparison hub](/compare). --- [Funnel Critic](/) Independent reviews and comparisons of funnel, page and checkout tools for startups running paid traffic. Ranked from real user reports and verified pricing. We may earn a commission when you buy through links on this page. It never affects our rankings. © 2026 Funnel Critic. Independent and reader-supported.