Kartra vs Shopify 2024: Which Platform is Right for You?

Kartra vs Shopify: Which platform is best?

Comparing the two solutions is more complex than it seems. After all, while Shopify is one of our favorite omnichannel ecommerce platforms, Kartra is more of an end-to-end sales and marketing platform.

We’ve experimented with both platforms, and discovered they can each help retailers build an online presence, capture leads, connect with customers, and even process sales.

Today, we’re sharing all of the insights we’ve gathered from our hands-on review process, to help you make the right decision for your growing company.

How we Reviewed Kartra and Shopify

To gather all the insights we needed for this comparison, we signed up for for both Kartra, and Shopify, so we could get a hands-on insight into what they can do. We’ve also built on our own opinions of the software by reading reviews and testimonials from other customers.

Notably, we do have experience with the premium version of Shopify too, and have used countless different platforms and tools to help companies build and grow their own ecommerce stores.

You can check out our other reviews and comparisons, or reach out to our consulting team for more insights.

What is Shopify?

In our opinion, Shopify is the number one ecommerce platform in the world today. It’s more than just a website builder with payment processing and checkout tools.

Shopify is an omnichannel sales solution, that allows companies to sell any product (physical or virtual), anywhere in the world.

Shopify combines a comprehensive website builder and editor, with a huge app marketplace (for store integrations), sales tools, marketing features, and even business management capabilities. Shopify is even great for dropshipping and print-on-demand companies, thanks to its flexibility.

We’ve had a lot of experience working with this platform in the past, offering custom store setup services to retailers, ecommerce growth consultancy, and Shopify migration services.

What is Kartra?

Kartra might not be as well-known as Shopify, but has earned a lot of attention in recent years as an all-in-one solution for website development, sales, and marketing.

It’s a toolkit for starting, and growing your online business, packed with features that allow you to create landing pages and websites, membership sites, webinars, and even custom forms.

Kartra comes with a built in lead management system, customizable shopping cart software, funnel building tools, email marketing, and affiliate management apps.

Plus, the solution helps companies to scale their business with customer journey maps, real-time funnel analytics, and help desks.

The free trial of Kartra gave us an excellent opportunity to check out all of the creation, marketing, and scale services. However, some advanced features, like API access and custom code pages are reserved for higher-level paid plans.

Overview: The Pros and Cons of Kartra and Shopify

Shopify Pros and Cons

Kartra Pros and Cons

Kartra vs Shopify: Pricing Plans

Although Kartra is definitely more expensive than Shopify at a glance, we think both tools offer fantastic value for money. We also appreciate the fact that both solutions offer a free trial, so you can test the functionality before you sign up for a contract.

Kartra Pricing

After your 30-day free trial of Kartra, there are three plans to choose from. If you love the functionality of Kartra (like we did), we recommend considering an annual plan, as you will get a discount that can save you hundreds of dollars per year.

All plans come with free 1:1 onboarding from the Kartra team, and support for unlimited websites, pages, videos, products, memberships, courses, and funnel mapping. Your options include:

• Starter: $119 per month (or $99 per month paid yearly): Up to 2,500 contacts, 1 language, 1 domain, 5 team members, funnels and campaigns, lead capture and management tools, advanced analytics, automated sequences, calendars, and more.
• Growth: $229 per month (or $189 per month paid yearly: All the features of Starter plus up to 12,500 contacts, unlimited languages, 10 team members, 3 domains, webinars (300 attendees and 6 presenters), surveys and quizzes, funnel simulation, helpdesk support, affiliate management, API access, custom code, and advanced automations.
• Professional: $549 per month (or $429 per month paid yearly): All the Growth features plus 25,000 contacts, 5 domains, 20 team members, 1000 webinar attendees, real-time funnel analytics, and more.

There’s also the option to request pricing for an enterprise level account from the Kartra support team.

Shopify Pricing

Shopify’s free trial only lasts for 3 days. However, you can access your plan for only $1 per month for the first 3 months after that. Like Kartra, Shopify offers discounts to customers on annual plans. You’ll get 25% off the cost of any subscription.

Plus, there are three core plans to choose from:

• Shopify Basic: $39 per month: Website builder and theme editor, SSL certificates, basic reports, 1,000 inventory locations, 2 staff accounts and marketing tools.
• Shopify: $105 per month: All the features of Basic, plus 5 staff accounts, shipping discounts, and professional reports.
• Advanced Shopify: $399 per month for all the Shopify features, plus a custom report builder, 15 staff accounts, and import tax management.

There’s also the “Starter” plan for $5 per month (with 5% transaction fees) which allows you to sell products with links on social apps and messengers – but you can’t build a full website. Alternatively, bigger companies can check out Shopify Plus, the enterprise plan starting at $2,000 per month with access to advanced customizations and integrations.

One slight downside is that all of Shopify’s plans include transaction fees, and you will need to pay an extra fee to use any payment processor other than Shopify Payments.

Kartra vs Shopify: Core Features

We could spend days talking about all the features of both Shopify, and Katra. If you want to take a deep dive into Shopify, you can find our full review here. For the purpose of this comparison, though, we’re looking at the most significant standout features of the two platforms.

Kartra’s Key Features

Kartra’s core features fall into three distinct categories: tools for creating your online presence, marketing your business, and scaling your company. Some of the most significant features include:

• Website and landing page builders: With Kartra, you can create custom landing pages, ecommerce stores, and membership websites, all customized to suit your branding. There’s a drag-and-drop editor, and hundreds of templates to get you started. Plus, all of your assets can be published instantly to your domain.
• Product creation: Kartra doesn’t just help you sell products, it also gives you the tools you need to create digital products, like video courses, webinars, and similar tools. You can even design affiliate programs to boost your chances of reaching a wider audience.
• Funnels and campaigns: While you can create sales funnels and automated campaigns with Shopify using integrations, Kartra comes with these features already built in. You can design comprehensive funnels using templates, and automate every aspect of your campaign. Plus, you can segment and organize your leads based on a variety of factors.
• Custom checkouts: Kartra’s simple and secure checkouts are fantastic for ecommerce vendors. With them, you can create fully branded experiences, enable one-click transactions, and even leverage upsells, cross-sells, downsells, and order bump tools. There’s even the option to create multiple price and payment options for each product.
• Analytics and journey mapping: One thing we love about Kartra is how easy it is for ecommerce vendors to get deep insights into the buyer journey. You can use data to map out every part of the buyer journey, and measure and optimize your efforts in real-time. You can even create helpdesks with FAQs to support your customers.
• Customer feedback: With surveys and quizzes, you can collect useful insights about your customers preferences, satisfaction scores, and more. This is ideal for when you want to build different audience segments, or personalize your campaigns to each customer group

Shopify’s Key Features

As a leading omnichannel and international sales platform, Shopify is one of the most feature-rich tools on the market. The platform is brimming with solutions to help you start your own business, sell products, and even learn more about your audience. Key features include:

• Website builder: Shopify’s powerful website builder offers an easy way to create a completely branded online experience for customers. Unlike Kartra, with Shopify’s website builder, you can create SEO ready blog sections, but you can’t design funnels and landing pages without add-ons and integrations.
• Commerce tools: As we mentioned above, Shopify allows companies to sell virtually any type of product (physical and digital) on any platform. You can sell globally with Shopify Markets, connect to marketplaces and social media channels, and even sell your products in-person with Shopify POS. Shopify even supports dropshipping and print on demand.
• Customer insights: Although Shopify doesn’t have journey mapping tools, it can provide insights into your target audience and segments. You can also access in-built tools for social media marketing, email nurturing, and even live chat.
• Business management: Business management tools are where Shopify really stands out compared to Kartra in our opinion. There are tools for tracking sales, orders and inventory. Plus, you can access Shopify Fulfillment and Shipping tools, access business funding, and even integrate your store with fulfillment providers.
• Payment processing: Shopify’s world-class checkout ensures you have everything you need to process sales without having to integrate with a third-party provider. Shopify Payments is one of the most secure and simple payment processing options around.
• Analytics and reports: Shopify also offers deeper insights into your company’s performance than Kartra. You can access a range of reporting and analytical tools, that make it easier to manage VAT and tax reports, track customer preferences, and more.

Shopify vs Kartra Designs and Themes

Kartra and Shopify take a slightly different approach to website building and design. Shopify focuses on giving companies a way to build comprehensive ecommerce websites, complete with blog sections and unique product pages. Kartra can create websites, but it also has dedicated landing page and form builder solutions.

Kartra’s Designs and Themes

Kartra offers one of the most straightforward website building platforms we’ve used in recent years. As soon as you sign up for an account, you can start experimenting with hundreds of templates, or add pre-built blocks to a “blank canvas” site.

The customization options are excellent, allowing you to alter everything from the location and size of different elements, with drag-and-drop capabilities. Plus, you can preview your design in “mobile mode” to ensure its fully responsive.

Within the builder, you’ll find all of the tools you need to create a compelling website, including images, backgrounds, carousels, videos, and playlists. The only thing missing is a blog option.

On the plus side, you can create a variety of other types of assets (outside of an ecommerce store or membership site).

Kartra users can build video, exit, landing page, and informational popups, forms to collect lead information, and unique checkout forms. There are tools for creating dynamic landing pages that adapt to your customer based on their browsing history.

Plus, you can choose to host your pages on Kartra, or on your own domain. One particularly great feature is the built-in A/B testing capability, that allows you to check the performance of four different versions of your site at once.

Shopify Design and Themes

We consider Shopify to be one of the best website-building tools around. It offers companies hundreds of templates or “themes” to choose from, including premium and free options. Plus, all of the themes available are automatically mobile responsive.

While Shopify’s theme editor is definitely user-friendly, it is a little clunkier than Kartra’s drag-and-drop solution.

Additionally, if you want to make granular changes to your themes and website experience, you do need to dive into Shopify’s code, which can be a bit complex, particularly if you’re familiar with the Liquid code format.

On the plus side, Shopify does offer a lot of features to help make your site stand out. You can create a SEO-ready blog, and Shopify sites are already optimized for technical and on-page SEO. Plus, you can choose your own domain, create a custom logo with Shopify Hatchful for free, and even change your store themes whenever you like.

Unfortunately, there are no built-in tools for creating comprehensive landing pages and funnels, you’ll need a third-party add-on like OptinMonster to access those features.

Kartra vs Shopify: Apps and Integrations

While Shopify is difficult to beat from a “flexibility” perspective, Kartra still offers users a wide range of integrations, apps and add-ons.

The platform automatically integrates with payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal. Plus, you can connect your site with mailing tools like SendGrid, SMS gateways like Twilio, and membership platforms like Kajabi.

Kartra also syncs with Google Calendar, Google Meet, and Zoom. Plus, it can integrate with additional apps through Zapier hooks.

Shopify still offers the most integrations overall, however. It works with thousands of tools for marketing, sales, website design, and more. Plus, Shopify natively integrates with marketplaces like Amazon, and social media platforms.

It’s also designed for “headless commerce”, so you can disconnect the front and backend aspects of your ecommerce site, and create unique user experiences.

Kartra vs Shopify: The Verdict

Ultimately, Shopify is still our number one pick out of these two platforms. While Kartra is impressive, Shopify is a comprehensive omnichannel platform, with more sales and business management tools, built-in SEO, and thousands of integrations.

However, if you’re looking for a platform that combines website building with lead generation and management, Kartra could still be worth checking out. We were impressed by its overall functionality and ease of use, as well as its amazing design tools.

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