Thrivecart vs. Kartra, Which Platform is Best for your Online Business?

If you’re a business coach or an online service provider looking to level up your marketing systems strategy and host everything under one hub then today’s post is perfect for you. 

As an Online Business Coach and Marketing Strategist, I’ve used what feels like pretty much every marketing platform out there to help me grow and scale my coaching business with simplicity.

The freedom lifestyle is important to me which is why, unlike some coaches out there, I am a fan of saying that you need funnels and marketing automation; because this “fancy” stuff is what fuels your freedom. 

Today I want to talk about two of my favourite platforms for managing your marketing funnels, sales pages, hosting your online courses, pretty much everything you need to be set up for success in your online business. 

I’ve used Kartra for a good couple of years now but recently switched to ThriveCart as it seems like the smarter choice for where I’m at in business right now. 

So far I’m loving all the features and flexibility it’s given me and today I’ll be comparing Kartra vs. ThriveCart so you can see which one will work best for your business. 

What is Kartra?

Kartra describes themselves as an all-in-one marketing platform for businesses. Essentially it’s a one-stop shop for all things marketing and automation. Just some of the features Kartra includes is: 

• Email marketing platform 
• Marketing automation (for sales and marketing funnels)
• Page builders (sales pages, opt in pages, etc.) 
• Membership portal builder
• Checkouts/carts
• Scheduling 
• And lots more – you can check out all their features, here

Basically Kartra offers you all things sales and marketing that you’d need to run your service-based or coaching business. It’s perfect if you’re a serial subscriber who has a few too many monthly payments going out and you want to consolidate everything under one roof rather than juggling multiple systems. 

What is ThriveCart?

Whilst Karta positions themselves as a full-stack marketing software, ThriveCart is more of “cart”/intuitive checkout software with funnel capabilities. ThriveCart is specifically designed to help you build profitable, high converting funnels for your online business and increase your average order value; they have some great tripwire/cart bump features. 

Here are some of the features they offer: 

• Sales pages
• Upsells, tripwires and order bumps
• Funnel builders
• Membership integration 
• A/B checkout testing 
• eLearning/Course Creation 
• And more

The one thing that really appealed to me is the option to host unlimited courses there. At present I have several courses/mini-courses/self-paced options to work with me and I wanted to have the option to add more without worrying about having to upgrade my systems in the future. 

Kartra vs. ThriveCart Key Differences 

As you can see, while there are some similarities between the two systems, there are a couple of big differences between the two platforms which will sway your decision depending on how you want to structure your coaching and service-based business. 

One of the biggest and most appealing differences about ThriveCart is that it’s a one time subscription. Yes, you don’t get built in email marketing like you do with Kartra, however they have pretty simple email marketing integration to make things as simple as possible to use so it could literally save you thousands per year depending on your needs. 

With Kartra, you pay a monthly fee starting from $99 a month all the way up to $499 with a 14-day free trial. However, ThriveCart is currently piloting a programme where you pay a one time fee of just $495, meaning, it can pay for itself in as little as one month compared to Kartra depending on the level of access you require. 

ThriveCart also offers a pretty unique price guarantee, the “pays for itself” guarantee whereby you’ll get access to their team’s support to help you grow your results if it doesn’t pay for itself. It’s a nice bonus especially if you’re struggling to navigate the platform or get the results you thought you might. 

Another big difference lies fundamentally in what they both offer. ThriveCart is designed for those wanting to create a highly profitable checkout process and host an unlimited number of courses and sales pages. Whereas Kartra acts as a robust CRM that supports your client throughout their entire experience with you.

If you’re wanting a tool that does everything for you including hosting your email marketing, allows a high-level of customisation of sales pages then it might be a smarter option. However, if you don’t mind adding in a few integrations yourself and can commit to a higher one-off payment, ThriveCart can be equally as effective for a lot less. 

What Other Systems and Tools Do I Need for my Online Business?

I recently did a full breakdown of all the tools I use in my online business that’s helped me scale to over $400,000 as a Business Coach. I highly recommend checking it out if you’re at that stage in business where you’re starting to scale and are looking to run your ops and marketing automations a little more efficiently and want to make sure you’re providing a top notch client experience. 

I also wanted to mention another all-in-one system that you might want to consider if you’re toying with the idea of investing in Kartra and are a course creator. Kajabi is an all-in-one course platform that’s perfect for selling digital products. At the time of writing, they’re also tapping into membership options and are now beta testing their communities feature following its acquisition of Vibely

But for now, my go to is ThriveCart. The value for money is INSANE compared to Kartra and Kajabi and it’s nice to know that I have something that will grow as my business does without having to switch up/compare plans. 

Let me know in the comments below whether you’ll be choosing Kartra or ThriveCart for your marketing m and if you’d like me to review any other platforms (I’ve used a LOT of systems over the last three years in business) 

Claudia xx