Thinkific vs. Kartra: Which platform is right for you?

As Kartra is mainly a sales automation tool while Thinkific is an all-in-one learning management system , the two definitely have some differences. 

With a focus on sales automation, Kartra isn’t exactly built for creating and sharing impactful learning experiences for your students. While it does offer some templates, these are designed for website creation rather than to get your courses up and running quickly. Although Kartra offers third party integrations and can work with other course authoring tools, it doesn’t provide the functionality natively within the platform. Creator Educators looking for customizable, flexible, or advanced features may find themselves limited by Kartra’s course creation functionality. 

In comparison, Thinkific offers a course builder designed for creators who want to provide the best learning experience possible for their students. This includes features  like Live Lessons with Zoom, assignments, and a built-in presentation creator that make it easy to create a high-caliber course.

Preparing course (and other educational) materials is made even simpler with Thinkific’s advanced AI technology. For example, creators can build course outlines and quizzes in a few clicks. Thinkific’s AI Course Outline Generator instantly creates a detailed course outline tailored to your audience's needs and Thinkific's AI Quiz Generator creates quizzes that keep learners engaged, test comprehension, and identify knowledge gaps.

A great learning experience can turn your first-time students into repeat customers. Let’s take a look at how Thinkific and Kartra compare when it comes to providing a positive experience for your audience.

While Kartra offers a clean experience that helps drive leads through the door,  they’re lacking in tools that support the learning experience beyond that. They don’t currently offer gamification, social sharing, or an interactive community — features that all benefit the student. In order to enable learning and create the minimum experience your students would expect, you have to install third-party integrations.

Thinkific offers an unmatched suite of functionality that extends beyond what's capable in most course platforms like Kartra. From an intuitive interface to interactive communities, Thinkific offers a number of features that improve the learning experience for your students. Plus, your choice of two mobile app options provides a seamless learning experience across all devices.

Thinkific also does more than just courses — they offer helpful digital learning experiences like Digital Downloads, 1-1 Coaching Sessions, and Webinars. With Digital Downloads, students can find value in quickly-downloadable guides, templates, exclusive resources, and more. With Coaching & Webinars, students can schedule coaching sessions and other forms of dedicated one-on-one time, attend workshops, and register for webinars.

Once you publish your course, you need to get it in front of the right audience. Kartra and Thinkific both have a wide selection of sales and marketing tools that help you turn visitors into a paying audience. 

Built as an automation tool, Kartra provides sales tools and marketing features that help you earn revenue from your course. These include an optimized checkout experience, upsells and order bumps, and coupons. 

While Thinkific offers all of these features as well, it also provides access to more than 90 powerful integrations (like MailChimp, Active Campaign, Shopify, and more) in the Thinkific App Store. This means that in addition to Thinkific’s native selling and marketing tools, you get the best tools in the business for marketing and email automation, increasing sales, and enhancing the learning experience through gamification. These apps are created by developers for Thinkific and can be downloaded, installed, and implemented without any coding experience needed. 

Thinkific’s sales and marketing stack is also powered by AI. You don’t have to worry about list-building or creating sophisticated email flows with Thinkific, as Thinkific also offers an AI-supported email marketing solution. Creators can grow and manage email lists, launch personalized campaigns and roll out automated sequences that support their sales and marketing strategy.

Thinkific offers other sales and marketing digital learning products like Digital Downloads, 1-1 Coaching Sessions, and Webinars. Digital Downloads make it easy to maximize your earning potential, engage new audiences, and deliver more content to your existing audience. By offering digital products like eBooks, guides, templates, and more, businesses can open up a new stream of revenue and increase leads. 

Likewise, Coaching & Webinars make it easy to build a meaningful connection with your audience, and find and attract new customers — while boosting revenue by adding a price tag to these events.

If you’re looking for top-notch customer support, both Thinkific and Kartra offer the guidance you need. 

Each platform offers a Facebook community where you can ask questions and connect with likeminded Creator Educators and experts. In addition to this valuable resource, both Thinkific and Kartra offer 24/7 chatbot support and learning centers with help articles. 

However, Thinkific truly prioritizes support for all customers. Whether you’re looking for a network of experts, a community of peers, or a responsive support partner, Thinkific has you covered with a best-in-class support team. In addition, as your business grows, Thinkific offers additional security and support options to ensure your success.

A mobile app is a great way for your audience to engage with your learning content from anywhere, at any time. Let’s take a look at how Thinkific and Kartra stack up when it comes to their mobile apps. 

Thinkific has two mobile app options for you to choose from: Thinkific Mobile and Branded Mobile. If you’re looking for a white-labeled app that reflects and highlights your brand with your own App Store listing and logo, Branded Mobile ($199/month) has what you need. 

Thinkific also offers Thinkific Mobile (included with Start plans and higher), which gives your audience access to your material in a more flexible, convenient way. While Branded Mobile reflects your own branding, Thinkific Mobile includes Thinkific branding. 

In comparison, Kartra doesn’t offer a mobile app. However, they promote the platform as being optimized to work across all devices. While this is better than nothing, it definitely doesn’t provide the seamless experience that a dedicated mobile app does.

A course platform needs to not only include all of the functionality you need, but also fit into your budget. Depending on what you’re looking for, both Thinkific and Kartra offer pricing plans that provide value for Creator Educators at every stage.

Kartra offers four pricing plans starting at $99 per month, with a maximum of 2,500 students.

Thinkific offers tiers for early-stage businesses all the way to enterprise. With add-on features like a Branded Mobile app ($199/mo) and more, you have access to the tools and features you need — without paying for those you don’t.