- Plans cost from $97/month
- GoHighLevel is ranked as the #2 platform on SupplyGem
- Rated 4.9/5 on Trustpilot
- GoHighLevel offers sophisticated features for marketing professionals
- Plans cost from $119/month
- Kartra is ranked as the #4 platform on SupplyGem
- Rated 4.6/5 on Trustpilot
- Kartra is a great tool for digital product creators
Key Takeaways:
- GoHighLevel is an excellent platform and the winner of this comparison
- Kartra is still a top choice for creating learning products
GoHighLevel vs Kartra Side-by-Side Comparison
| GoHighLevel | Kartra | |
|---|---|---|
| No. of Plans | 3 | 3 |
| Free Trial | 30 days | 30 days |
| Overall Rating | ★★★★ 4.5/5 | ★★★★☆ 4/5 |
| User Experience | ★★★★☆ 4/5 | ★★★☆3.5/5 |
| Customer Support | ★★★★ 4.5/5 | ★★★★☆ 4/5 |
| Value for Money | ★★★★★ 5/5 | ★★★★☆ 4/5 |
| CRM Features | ★★★★ 4.5/5 | ★★★☆☆ 3/5 |
| Sales and Marketing Features | ★★★★★ 5/5 | ★★★★ 4.5/5 |
| Funnel and Page Builders | ★★★★ 4.5/5 | ★★★★☆ 4/5 |
| Courses and Memberships | ★★★☆ 3.5/5 | ★★★★ 4.5/5 |
| Integrations | ★★★☆☆ 3/5 | ★★★★☆ 4/5 |
What Is GoHighLevel and Who Is It for?
GoHighLevel – an all-in-one platform – was created specifically for marketing agencies and professionals. However, it can be used by just about anyone who requires sales, marketing, lead nurturing, and customer relationship management (CRM) tools for their business.
The platform is feature-rich for the above purposes, and most can be used on an unlimited basis.
Additionally, GoHighLevel can be sold as software as a service (SaaS), giving its users the potential for uncapped additional revenue.
What Is Kartra and Who Is It for?
Kartra is aimed at anyone looking to monetize their knowledge, skills, or content.
The platform contains features for creating courses, membership sites, webinars, and more, as well as several tools designed to help you market your content and grow your audience.
Many of its content-building and marketing tools are unlimited and like GoHighLevel, it can be considered “all-in-one.”
Key Differences
GoHighLevel aims its platform at marketers, while Kartra aims its platform at those who wish to monetize their knowledge.
Because of this, Kartra has much better features for creating learning products. For example, the platform supports native live streaming and webinar creation, while GoHighLevel does not.
Kartra also has a superior course-building tool when compared with GoHighLevel’s.
On the other hand, GoHighLevel’s marketing and automation capabilities are far superior to Kartra’s. For example, GoHighLevel has its own phone and SMS service and allows you to integrate with WhatsApp and social media messaging and build multi-channel campaigns.
As well as the ability to sell the platform as SaaS, its users can also use GoHighLevel to rebill or resell additional native and third-party products.
Pros and Cons
GoHighLevel Pros
- Huge number of features for a reasonable price
- Most features are unlimited
- Customer support is excellent
- Features are high quality and work well
- Can sell platform as SaaS
- Is a genuine “all-in-one” platform
- Can be used by all types of businesses
GoHighLevel Cons
- Platform can feel overwhelming for new users
- Training material is frequently out of date
- Platform look and feel is a little outdated
- Template aesthetics could be better
Kartra Pros
- Modern-looking interface and tools
- Great looking website templates
- Lots of guidance for beginner users
- Full webinar feature with native live streaming
- Course builder is top quality
- Supports many native integrations
Kartra Cons
- Features limited on cheaper plans
- Number of contacts limited on all plans
- User experience can be frustrating for experienced users
- Customer service is limited, especially outside the US
- Funnel builder is complicated
Affordability
GoHighLevel has three plans available:
- Starter: From $97/month
- Unlimited: From $297/month
- Pro: From $497/month
There’s not actually a lot of difference between these plans.
The Starter plan gives you access to pretty much all the features but limits sub-account creation to three, whereas the Unlimited plan lets you create unlimited sub-accounts. The Pro plan is the one that enables you to sell GoHighLevel as SaaS.
Kartra also has three plans available:
- Starter: From $119/month
- Growth: From $229/month
- Professional: From $549/month
Most of Kartra’s product-building features are unlimited on all plans; however, the number of features you get varies considerably.
For example, if you want to create webinars, then you have to have the Growth plan, and if you want API access and custom coding, you have to have the Professional plan.
| Platform | Cheapest Plan | Mid-Tier Plan | Top-Tier Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| GoHighLevel | $97/month | $297/month | $497/month |
| Kartra | $110/month | $229/month | $549/month |
On the whole, we think that GoHighLevel is incredibly affordable considering the number of unlimited features you get for the price. Plus, it’s cheaper than Kartra no matter which plan tier you look at.
CRM Features
GoHighLevel reigns supreme for CRM features. For a start, adding contacts and creating calendars, automation, and pipelines is unlimited.
You can connect the platform with a multitude of communication channels (email, SMS, WhatsApp, etc.) and view all your conversation feeds in one single place. This makes it incredibly easy to see who requires a response.
Most CRM jobs can be fully automated, which frees up more time for you. And, we like that GoHighLevel has its own emailing and phone service which is cheaper (and easier) to use when compared with third-party providers.
Other notable CRM features include:
- Missed call text-back
- Text2Pay
- Website chat widget (live or text-based)
Kartra limits the number of contacts you can add and if you exceed your limit, it will automatically upgrade you to the next price plan.
Additionally, Kartra has to verify contact lists that you add, which can take up to 24 hours. Both of these things are somewhat annoying.
The platform has a native emailer, but if you want to use SMS, you will need to use a third-party app such as Twilio. No other communication methods are available.
The platform also has a calendar and scheduling tool, a pipeline management tool, and it includes automation for some CRM tasks.
One aspect of Kartra that can’t be found on GoHighLevel is the helpdesk feature. This enables you to build full help centers with email ticketing, FAQ sections, and support options for different departments.
Sales and Marketing Features
Since it’s aimed at marketing agencies, you can be assured that the sales and marketing tools inside GoHighLevel are comprehensive.
One of its best features is the ability to create marketing campaigns using a range of different communication methods. As well as email and SMS, you can use social media messaging, phone calls, and more. This allows you to really diversify your marketing strategies to suit different audiences.
You can also create sales funnels for just about any purpose, and add order bumps, upsells, downsells, and coupons to your offers.
All aspects of your sales and marketing campaigns can be automated, and GoHighLevel has some of the most sophisticated automation capabilities we’ve seen so far.
Kartra has plenty of marketing features that will satisfy most business needs. The platform allows you to send email or SMS broadcasts and build automated campaigns using both communication methods.
Additionally, there’s a funnel builder (see below), and you can enhance your offers by creating coupons and order bumps,
Kartra supports native integrations with four payment gateways, including Stripe and PayPal.
A feature we really like is Kartra’s ability to automatically calculate and apply sales tax. This makes it so much easier for you and a lot more straightforward to sell your digital products in other countries.
Funnel and Page Builder
GoHighLevel’s page-building tools are straightforward to master. They all use the drag-and-drop method to edit, and there are hundreds – if not thousands of templates at your disposal.
The platform lets you create just about any type of page on an unlimited basis. Whether that’s websites, funnels, blogs, forms, etc., building them is fast and they look pretty good too.
Regarding the funnel builder, you get a wide choice of prebuilt funnels to pick from. Even if you’re new to creating funnels, it doesn’t take long to master them in GoHighLevel.
Compared with Kartra, the editing tools do look and feel a bit dated, but the full functionality and ease of use are there, which is what counts.
Kartra’s page-building tools work in much the same way as GoHighLevel’s. There is a drag-and-drop editing screen and lots of templates to pick from. We have to say, Kartra’s templates look nicer and more modern than GoHighLevel’s.
It’s a bit confusing as there is no standalone website creator. You have the option to create individual web pages and bundle them together as a website, or you can use the membership site creator to build a website.
The funnel builder is somewhat convoluted. First, you have to use the page builder to create your funnel steps, then you have to try and arrange them in the right order on the funnel building screen.
We found this time-consuming and not particularly beginner-friendly. There are free and paid funnel templates in the “Campaigns” tab, but they differ in quality since they are created by third parties.
Courses and Memberships
GoHighLevel has made some improvements to its course builder in recent times. It’s fine, but it’s not going to set your world on fire.
The tool allows you to create lessons and modules and add text, video, images, and supporting files. There’s also the option to add assessments and certificates.
There is also now a standalone community builder where you can create standalone communities or link them to your courses. While also quite basic (you’re limited to posting and commenting on posts), it’s still nice to have a dedicated space for audience engagement.
Kartra’s membership site builder is thorough. It works similarly to a website builder by allowing you to drag and drop elements onto the page. It’s confusing to use, but once you learn it, you can build engaging courses featuring playlists, videos, quizzes, and more.
Kartra also has a full webinar feature enabling you to run live webinars or create pre-recorded evergreen webinars. The feature includes cool tools like an on-screen whiteboard, live chat, and attendee speaking.
There’s no standalone community feature, but Kartra does have a commenting option on its membership site builder.
Content can be dripped out gradually, and courses can be bundled together on a single membership site to add more value.
Integrations
GoHighLevel supports a small number of native integrations, mainly because you don’t need to use third-party apps to get full functionality. It also supports Zapier in case you want to integrate anything else.
One necessary integration is Stripe as GoHighLevel does not have a native payment gateway. The rest are optional and include Google My Business, TikTok, Slack, and Meta.
Kartra supports more direct integrations, mostly for email, SMS, and payment gateways. Interestingly, Kartra integrates with Kajabi and allows you to pull your Kajabi offers onto its platform for sale.
Like GoHighLevel, Kartra also supports Zapier in case you want to connect more apps. And the platform has more payment gateway options available, including PayPal, Square, and Braintree.
User Experience
On the surface, Kartra seems easier to grasp than GoHighLevel. Each feature follows a step-by-step process that allows you to create things without missing anything.
As helpful as this is, it quickly becomes frustrating for more advanced users as it makes you trawl through each step one by one, even if you’ve already completed them. You can’t seem to click on the step you want to edit, so this makes the process much longer.
Since it first came onto the scene, GoHighLevel has worked hard on its user experience and we can now confidently say it’s decent.
Some of its tools are complex (like automation) and can take time to learn, but once you get the hang of them, they feel straightforward. Besides, if something doesn’t make sense, you can always ask a GoHighLevel agent to jump on a Zoom call and walk you through it.
Customer Service
Kartra provides email ticketing support and live chat for its users. However, non-US users take note because the live chat is limited to Monday-Friday 8:00 am – 12:00 pm and 12:00 am – 4:00 am US Pacific Time.
Kartra also offers a comprehensive learning center containing training videos and walkthrough articles.
These are easy to follow and to our knowledge, appear to be kept up to date. There is no phone support on offer, which is a shame, but when you sign up for Kartra, you are offered a free 1:1 onboarding call.
GoHighLevel offers 24/7 chat and phone support to all its users. Email support is also available.
One of our favorite things about GoHighLevel’s support is their willingness to jump on a Zoom call with you. You can request it any time and it’s always super helpful.
In contrast, its support articles are frequently out of date and somewhat frustrating to use. The GoHighLevel YouTube channel has more up-to-date video guides, but it can be difficult to find what you need.
Which Platform Should You Choose?
As a whole, GoHighLevel is superior to Kartra. It’s more sophisticated, has unlimited features, is cheaper, and will allow you to easily scale your business.
However, if your primary concern is creating courses, then Kartra is the better platform to choose as it has more diverse features in this area.
For everything else, marketing, sales, CRM, etc., GoHighLevel offers everything you need and then some.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GoHighLevel or Kartra Better for CRM?
GoHighLevel is better than Kartra for CRM. It allows unlimited contacts, and you can connect the platform with many communication channels, including WhatsApp and social media. Additionally, GoHighLevel enables most aspects of CRM to be automated.
Is GoHighLevel or Kartra Better for Marketing Professionals?
GoHighLevel is better than Kartra for marketing. The platform was specifically designed for marketing agencies and professionals and it has a comprehensive suite of tools for that purpose.
Is GoHighLevel or Kartra Better for Digital Product Creators?
Kartra is a better option than GoHighLevel for digital product creators. The platform boasts comprehensive tools for product creation including a webinar feature, native live streaming, a detailed course builder, and automatic sales tax calculation.
Should I Use GoHighLevel or Kartra If I’m a Beginner?
If you are a beginner, Kartra is easier to learn than GoHighLevel. GoHighLevel may take longer to learn, but it provides a better user experience overall.
Is GoHighLevel or Kartra More Affordable?
GoHighLevel is more affordable than Kartra. Its plans are cheaper, and you can access most features on the cheapest plan (from $97/month). In contrast, all Kartra is more expensive and its lower-tier plan’s features are limited.
Which Platform Has the Best Funnel Builder – GoHighLevel or Kartra?
GoHighLevel has a better funnel builder than Kartra. You get lots of pre-built templates, plus the layout and editing tools are more straightforward than Kartra’s. With Kartra, you have to create each individual funnel page, which is time-consuming.
Which Platform Is Easier to Use – GoHighLevel or Kartra?
Kartra is easier to use than GoHighLevel and requires less of a learning curve. However, GoHighLevel has more functionality overall, so it is worth persevering with learning the platform if you want a sophisticated platform for sales and marketing.
