Kartra Pricing in 2026: Plans, Fees and What Coaches Pay
Kartra pricing in October 2026 starts at $59 a month for the Essentials plan and runs to $549 a month for Professional, with Starter at $119 and Growth at $229. Paying yearly brings those down to $52, $99, $189 and $429 a month, a saving of up to 22%. There is no free plan, a 14-day free trial on any plan and a 30-day money-back guarantee. The catch for coaches sits in two places: Essentials takes a 5% transaction fee on your sales, and every plan caps your contacts, with Kartra automatically moving you up a plan (plus a mid-cycle reconciliation fee) when your list grows past the limit.
This guide walks through every plan and limit as Kartra lists them in October 2026, the fees on top, what a coach at three different sizes actually pays in a year, the gotchas that public reviewers keep raising, and how the bill compares with Kajabi, ClickFunnels, GoHighLevel, Systeme.io, Podia and Coachful. We make Coachful, so we say so up front and keep the Kartra numbers exactly as Kartra publishes them.
How much does Kartra cost in 2026?
Kartra costs between $59 and $549 a month on monthly billing, or between $52 and $429 a month when billed yearly, as listed in October 2026. Prices have not changed since our previous check; what has changed is that the pricing page now spells out the automatic upgrade when you pass your contact limit and lists AI-use allowances per plan.
In yearly terms, here is what the subscription alone adds up to before any transaction or card processing fees:
- Essentials: $708 a year paid monthly, or $624 paid yearly (you save $84).
- Starter: $1,428 a year paid monthly, or $1,188 paid yearly (you save $240).
- Growth: $2,748 a year paid monthly, or $2,268 paid yearly (you save $480).
- Professional: $6,588 a year paid monthly, or $5,148 paid yearly (you save $1,440).
The "up to 22%" annual saving only applies in full to Professional. On Essentials the yearly discount works out to about 12%, on Starter about 17% and on Growth about 17.5%. Your Kartra subscription itself is billed by card in US dollars; Kartra does not accept PayPal for its own fees.
What are Kartra's plans and limits?
Kartra sells four plans, and the main thing that separates them is how many contacts you can hold, how many pages and products you can build, and how many domains and team members you get. The table below lists every plan as Kartra shows it in October 2026.
| Plan | Monthly billing | Yearly billing (per month) | Contacts | Key limits | Kartra fee on sales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $59 | $52 | 500 | 5 pages, 1 product, 1 membership or course, 10,000 emails a month, 1 domain, 30 AI uses | 5% |
| Starter | $119 | $99 | 2,500 | Unlimited pages, products and memberships, unlimited email and SMS, 1 domain, 100 AI uses, 5 team members | 0% |
| Growth | $229 | $189 | 12,500 | 3 domains, 250 AI uses (the comparison table also shows 200), 10 team members | 0% |
| Professional | $549 | $429 | 25,000 | 5 domains | Not stated on the current page |
Two details matter more than they look. First, the contact cap counts everyone in your account, not just paying clients: a free lead magnet that brings in 600 email subscribers already pushes you off Essentials. Second, Essentials allows only one product and one membership or course. A coach who sells a 1:1 package and a group program is already at two products.
What does each Kartra plan add?
Each plan keeps everything from the one below and adds a layer. Here is what Kartra lists for each step up.
Essentials ($59 a month, $52 yearly)
Essentials includes Kartra AI, forms, the funnel mapper, analytics, checkouts and 100 pre-built campaigns. It is a way to put up a small funnel with a single offer. It does not list calendars or video hosting, and it carries the 5% transaction fee on what you sell. For a coach who takes bookings, the missing calendar is the bigger problem: you would need a separate scheduling tool (our Calendly pricing guide covers one common option).
Starter ($119 a month, $99 yearly)
Starter is where Kartra becomes usable for most coaching businesses. It adds video hosting and calendars, removes the transaction fee, and lifts pages, products and memberships to unlimited. Email and SMS become unlimited too, and you get up to 5 team members and 100 AI uses. The limit to watch is 2,500 contacts and a single domain.
Growth ($229 a month, $189 yearly)
Growth adds funnel simulation, automations, an affiliate program, surveys and quizzes, and a helpdesk. Contacts rise to 12,500, domains to 3, team members to 10 and AI uses to 250. Automations being a Growth feature is worth noting: if you want a lead to move from a free guide into a nurture sequence based on what they click, Kartra places that on its $229 plan.
Professional ($549 a month, $429 yearly)
Professional adds real-time funnel analytics and live chat inside the helpdesk, with 25,000 contacts and 5 domains. The current pricing page does not state a transaction fee for Professional; our September 2026 profile recorded 0%. Few solo coaches need this tier unless their list is past 12,500 contacts.
What fees does Kartra charge beyond the subscription?
Beyond the monthly price, the fees that can show up on a Kartra bill are the 5% transaction fee on Essentials, your payment processor's own fees, and the reconciliation fee when you pass your contact limit. Kartra does not sell add-ons for extra capacity, so there are no add-on line items to budget for, but there is also no cheap way to buy a few hundred more contacts.
| Fee | Who pays it | Amount as listed in October 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Kartra transaction fee | Essentials only | 5% of each sale. Starter and Growth: 0%. Professional: not stated |
| Payment processing | Every plan | Charged by your processor (for example Stripe or PayPal), separate from Kartra |
| Contact limit overage | Any plan that passes its contact cap | Automatic upgrade to the next plan plus a mid-cycle reconciliation fee (amount not stated) |
| Capacity add-ons | Not available | Kartra states there are no add-ons to buy more capacity |
| Extra team seats | Starter and above | 5 on Starter, 10 on Growth; no paid seat add-on listed |
How much does the 5% Essentials fee really cost?
The 5% fee is the line that changes which plan is cheapest. The gap between Essentials and Starter is $60 a month on monthly billing. Five percent of $1,200 is $60, so once you sell more than about $1,200 a month through Kartra, Starter costs you less than Essentials. On yearly billing the gap is $47 a month, which you reach at about $940 a month in sales.
As an example, a coach selling $3,000 a month in packages through Essentials pays $150 a month to Kartra in transaction fees on top of the $59 plan, or $2,508 a year before card processing. The same coach on Starter, billed monthly, pays $1,428 a year with no Kartra cut. For anyone with paying clients, Essentials is the more expensive plan.
Which payment processors work with Kartra?
Our September 2026 profile lists Stripe, PayPal and other processors for taking payment from your clients. Each charges its own rate, which you pay on top of any Kartra fee. Kartra's own subscription is billed by card in US dollars, and PayPal is not accepted for that.
What does a coach actually pay for Kartra?
A typical coach pays $119 to $229 a month for Kartra, because the calendar, the 0% fee and enough contacts for a real email list sit on Starter and Growth. The table below models three illustrative coaching businesses, with the tools each one would still need beside Kartra, since Kartra does not include client habits, check-ins or per-client coaching plans.
| Example business | Plan that fits | Monthly billing | Yearly billing | Tools still needed beside it |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coachful (any of the three sizes below) | Plan sized to your client count; Pro is unlimited; team plans add seats | Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients | Current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients | None for booking, payments, contracts, programs with habits and check-ins, courses, community, website, funnels or email |
| New solo coach: 8 clients, 300 subscribers, one package plus booking | Starter (Essentials has no calendars and 1 product) | $119 a month, $1,428 a year | $99 a month, $1,188 a year | Habit and check-in tracking, a client app, e-signature for agreements (not mentioned in Kartra's plan list) |
| Established solo coach: 30 clients, 4,000 subscribers, a group program and a course | Growth (4,000 contacts is past Starter's 2,500) | $229 a month, $2,748 a year | $189 a month, $2,268 a year | Habit and check-in tracking, per-client coaching plans, a client app, e-signature for agreements |
| Small coaching team: 3 coaches, 80 clients, 15,000 subscribers | Professional (15,000 contacts is past Growth's 12,500) | $549 a month, $6,588 a year | $429 a month, $5,148 a year | Same as above, plus per-coach client assignment and session tracking |
These are worked examples, not customer data. Add your payment processor's fees on top of every Kartra figure. Note how the plan is set by your email list, not your client count: the established coach above has only 30 clients but pays for Growth because a free guide grew their list to 4,000.
The "tools beside it" column is where the real stack cost grows. Kartra is a marketing suite. It sells and delivers content well, but it has no per-client habit tracker, no daily check-ins and no coaching plan that changes week by week for each person. Coaches running transformation programs usually add a client delivery tool to cover that, which is the gap our guide on running coaching programs without Kartra works through.
What hidden costs and gotchas should coaches know about?
The biggest hidden cost is the automatic upgrade: when your contacts pass your plan's limit, Kartra moves you to the next plan and charges a mid-cycle reconciliation fee, and you cannot buy extra contacts as an add-on. Here is the full list worth checking before you sign up.
- Contact limits count leads, not clients. A webinar or free download that brings in a few hundred sign-ups can trigger the jump from $119 to $229 a month. Cleaning out cold contacts regularly is the only way to stay on a plan.
- The upgrade is automatic. Kartra's pricing page states that exceeding the lead limit upgrades your account, with a reconciliation fee for the rest of the billing cycle. Its amount is not published.
- Essentials is a trap for paying clients. One product, five pages, no calendars and a 5% fee make it a trial-sized plan for anyone who already has clients.
- Automations and affiliates start at Growth. If your plan depends on behavior-based email sequences or a referral program, budget for $189 to $229 a month from the start.
- No client app. Our September 2026 profile notes no mobile app for students or admins.
- Leaving is work. Contacts export to CSV with their fields, lists and tags, but pages and funnels export only as Kartra elements, and memberships must be rebuilt elsewhere (September 2026 profile). Budget time for a migration if you ever switch.
- AI uses are capped. Essentials gets 30 AI uses, Starter 100 and Growth 250. Kartra's own comparison table shows 200 for Growth in one place, so check inside your account before relying on the higher figure.
- Review sentiment is mixed. Kartra holds 3.2 out of 5 on Trustpilot from 129 reviews, seen on October 25, 2026, down slightly from 3.4.
None of these is unusual for a marketing suite. They do mean that the sticker price on the pricing page is rarely what a growing coach ends up paying a year later.
Is Kartra worth it for coaches?
Kartra is worth it for coaches whose business is mainly marketing: selling a course, a membership or a launch through funnels and email, with a helpdesk to answer buyers. It is a weaker fit for coaches whose value is the work they do with each client between sessions, because Kartra has no habits, check-ins or per-client plans.
Course creators and launch-driven coaches
If you run launches with sales pages, email sequences, a membership area and an affiliate program, Kartra Growth covers most of that in one account. The price is high, but it replaces a page builder, an email platform and a course host. Compare it with Kajabi's pricing, which targets the same buyer.
1:1 coaches and program coaches
Life, business, executive and career coaches who sell packages need booking, payments, a signed agreement and a way to keep clients moving between calls. Kartra covers booking (from Starter) and payments, but clients get no habit tracker, no check-ins and no app. Most of these coaches end up paying for Kartra plus a client delivery tool, which is the stack an all-in-one coaching platform replaces. See our coaching software overview for what that category includes.
Group and cohort coaches
Kartra's plans list memberships and courses, but not a community feed or cohort groups that form when a client enrolls in a program. Coaches running cohorts often want community and program delivery joined up, which is what group coaching software is for.
Fitness and nutrition coaches
Kartra's plans do not list a workout builder, food logging or progress photos. Fitness and nutrition coaches would need a separate training app beside it. Coaching is not medical treatment, and coaches working on food, weight or exercise should stay within their scope and refer clients to a doctor or registered dietitian when symptoms, medications or diagnosed conditions come up. Our fitness and nutrition pack page shows what a coaching-first tool covers here.
Small coaching teams
Starter gives 5 team members and Growth 10, which is generous. What Kartra does not list is per-coach availability, client assignment across coaches or a view of each coach's client results, so team coaching still needs structure from somewhere else. Our page for coaching teams covers what a team plan should include.
How does Kartra pricing compare with alternatives?
On entry price, Kartra sits in the middle: cheaper to start than Kajabi, more expensive than ClickFunnels and GoHighLevel at the plan most coaches need, and far above Systeme.io. The table below compares the entry plan, the fee on sales, the first real limit and whether each tool handles client habits and check-ins, as listed in October 2026.
| Platform | Entry price | Platform fee on sales | Entry plan limit | Client habits and check-ins | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coachful | Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients | 0% platform fee; only Stripe or Razorpay processing | Lower plans cap clients; Pro is unlimited (Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients) | Yes: habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals, streaks | Coaches who deliver programs and want one login for the whole client journey |
| Kartra | $59 a month ($52 yearly) | 5% on Essentials; 0% on Starter and Growth | 500 contacts, 1 product | No | Launch-driven marketers running funnels and memberships |
| Kajabi | $179 a month ($143 yearly) | No extra fee with Kajabi Payments (processing 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic); extra 2% on Basic with other processors except PayPal | 2,500 contacts, 5 products | No | Course and community sellers |
| ClickFunnels | $97 a month ($81 yearly) | 0% | 10,000 contacts, 3 courses | No | Funnel-heavy sales pages |
| GoHighLevel | $97 a month ($80.83 yearly) | 0%; SMS, email, phone and AI usage metered | 3 sub-accounts, unlimited contacts | No (simulated with workflows and forms) | Agencies and marketing-heavy teams |
| Systeme.io | Free plan; paid from $17 a month | 0% | 2,000 contacts on the free plan | No | Tight budgets selling a course or funnel |
| Podia | $49 a month ($42 yearly) | 5% on Mover; 0% on higher plans | 100 email subscribers included | No | Simple storefronts for courses and downloads |
The pattern is clear: Kartra, Kajabi, ClickFunnels, GoHighLevel, Systeme.io and Podia are built to sell. Coachful is built to sell and to deliver the coaching, which is why it is the only tool in the table with client habits and check-ins included. For a coach whose clients pay for a result over weeks, that gap is the deciding cost, because it is the tool you would otherwise add on top.
Kajabi starts higher than Kartra at $179 a month for Basic, with 2,500 contacts and 5 products, and 0 AI credits on that plan. If you are choosing between the two for courses, the Kartra Starter plan at $119 gives unlimited products for less. Our full Kajabi pricing breakdown covers the payment fees in detail.
GoHighLevel's Starter plan at $97 a month includes unlimited contacts across 3 sub-accounts, which removes the contact-limit problem entirely, but SMS, email, phone and AI usage are metered on top. It is designed for agencies; our GoHighLevel pricing guide explains the usage charges. For a wider view of the field, see the Coachful comparison pages.
What is Coachful, and where does it fit against Kartra?
Coachful is a coaching platform where one subscription covers booking, payments, contracts, program delivery with habits and check-ins, courses, a community, a website with funnels and email, and an AI assistant. The coach has one login and the client has one branded app. It is built for coaches who deliver programs, not just sessions, for solo coaches growing into a small team, and for coaches replacing 4 to 6 tools.
Where Kartra counts contacts, Coachful plans are flat monthly prices where lower plans cap the number of clients and Pro is unlimited (current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients). Team plans add coach seats, monthly plans cancel in one click, and plans are sized by how many clients you coach rather than by contacts.
Here is what is included in your Coachful membership that a Kartra coach would usually buy separately:
- Program delivery: multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals with progress bars and streaks.
- Booking: booking pages with availability rules, buffers, minimum notice and time-zone detection, two-way Google, Apple and Outlook calendar sync, built-in video or auto-created Zoom, Meet or Teams links, and email reminders plus SMS and WhatsApp reminders once messaging is enabled.
- Payments: through your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account, with one-time payments, subscriptions, payment plans, order bumps, coupons, refunds, Apple Pay and Google Pay. Coachful takes a 0% platform fee (since August 2026); only Stripe or Razorpay processing applies.
- Agreements: coaching agreements with e-signature sent before the first call and stored on the client record. See coaching contracts.
- Marketing: a section-based website builder with a blog, custom domain and 30 designed homepage templates, plus booking, application, lead-magnet and checkout funnels, and email lists, broadcasts and multi-step sequences with triggers, delays, branching and A/B splits.
- Michelle, the AI assistant: works from your live practice data to build programs, draft emails, summarize recorded sessions and brief you before sessions.
To see how a program comes together inside Coachful, here is a short walkthrough of the programs builder.
Kartra's funnels and email are its strengths, and Coachful covers the same ground for coaching offers: booking, application, lead-magnet and checkout funnels with pixels and UTM tracking, and a link-in-bio page that sells.
Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. On every plan, you can ask the Coachful team to build something for you from Create > We'll build it for you: a website, a funnel, a sales page, a program, a course outline, an email sequence, a lead quiz or an automation. You describe what you want, attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files such as logos, photos and brand guides, and the team builds it inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours. Nothing gets invented: no fake credentials, testimonials or prices, and gaps are left for you to fill. A somatic coach leaving Kajabi had their homepage and About page rebuilt and their contact form connected; a business mentor for beauty professionals got a 12-week mentorship sales page, a free start-up-guide funnel and rewritten follow-up emails. The service does not include recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing. Read more about the free white-glove service.
Coachful is not the right tool for everyone. It is not HIPAA-certified and does not sign a BAA, so it is not for clinical record-keeping or insurance billing. It does not take PayPal and has no permanent free plan. The client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding, not under your own App Store account. It has no Salesforce or HubSpot integration and no multi-stage sales deal board for large teams, it is not a course marketplace, and its affiliate program records payouts manually rather than sending them. If you need any of those, Kartra or another tool may suit you better.
To start, open a free trial, then either import your website or pick a template, and request a white-glove build if you would rather not set it up yourself. Your clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding. New coaches can start with our guide for new coaches.
How can you save money on Kartra?
The quickest ways to cut a Kartra bill are to pay yearly, skip Essentials once you have paying clients, and keep your contact list clean so you stay below your plan's cap.
- Pay yearly once you are sure. Use the 14-day free trial and the 30-day money-back guarantee to test, then switch to yearly billing. On Starter that saves $240 a year; on Growth, $480.
- Skip Essentials if you sell more than about $1,200 a month. Above that, the 5% fee costs more than the step up to Starter on monthly billing (about $940 a month on yearly billing).
- Prune your list every month. Remove contacts who have not opened an email in months. Since Kartra upgrades you automatically at the cap, every cold contact has a cost.
- Use one domain if you can. Starter includes one domain; needing a second pushes you to Growth.
- Check whether you need automations and affiliates. If simple broadcasts are enough for now, Starter is the plan to stay on.
- Count your full stack, not just Kartra. Add the scheduling, client delivery and e-signature tools you pay for beside it. If that total is higher than one coaching platform, our coaching pricing audit guide helps you compare like for like.
Your software bill is only half the picture. If the tools cost more than you expected, it may be time to look at what you charge too; our guide to pricing coaching packages shows how to build delivery costs into your rates.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Kartra cost per month?
Kartra costs $59 a month for Essentials, $119 for Starter, $229 for Growth and $549 for Professional on monthly billing, as listed in October 2026. Yearly billing lowers those to $52, $99, $189 and $429 a month. Payment processor fees are extra.
Does Kartra have a free plan or free trial?
Kartra has no free plan. It offers a 14-day free trial on any plan and a 30-day money-back guarantee. The pricing page does not say whether a card is required to start the trial.
Does Kartra charge transaction fees?
Only on Essentials, which takes 5% of each sale. Starter and Growth charge 0%, and the current page does not state a fee for Professional. Your payment processor's fees apply on every plan.
What happens if I go over my Kartra contact limit?
Kartra automatically upgrades you to the next plan and charges a mid-cycle reconciliation fee for the rest of the billing period. There are no add-ons to buy extra contacts, so the only way to stay on your plan is to keep your list below the cap.
Which Kartra plan is best for coaches?
Starter is the first plan most coaches can run a business on, because it adds calendars, removes the 5% fee and allows unlimited products. Coaches with more than 2,500 contacts, or who need automations and affiliates, will need Growth.
Can I cancel Kartra and take my data with me?
You can export contacts to CSV with their fields, lists and tags. According to our September 2026 profile, pages and funnels export only as Kartra elements and memberships must be rebuilt on the new platform, so plan time for a move.
Does Kartra include habit tracking or client check-ins?
No. Kartra is a marketing suite with pages, funnels, email, SMS, memberships, calendars and a helpdesk, but it has no client habits, check-ins or per-client coaching plans. Coaches who need those usually add a client delivery tool or use a coaching platform such as Coachful, where they are included in your membership.
Is Coachful cheaper than Kartra?
It depends on your list size and stack, so compare the totals (current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients). Coachful plans are based on clients rather than contacts, take a 0% platform fee and include booking, contracts, programs with habits and check-ins, a website, funnels and email in one subscription, which often replaces several tools a Kartra coach pays for separately.
What is Coachful's free white-glove service?
It is a build service included on every Coachful plan. You describe a website, funnel, program, email sequence or other piece you want, attach links and files, and the Coachful team builds it inside your account, usually within about 24 hours. It does not include video recording, logo design, ads or ongoing marketing.
Is Kartra worth it in 2026?
For launch-driven coaches who sell courses and memberships through funnels and email, Kartra Starter or Growth can replace several marketing tools. For coaches whose clients pay for weekly support between sessions, the missing habits, check-ins and client app mean extra tools on top, so an all-in-one coaching platform is usually the better value.
