Kartra vs Teachable: Which Fits a Coaching Business in 2026?

In the kartra vs teachable decision, the short answer is this: Kartra is a marketing suite (pages, funnels, email, SMS, memberships and calendars) that also hosts courses, while Teachable is a course and digital-product platform with polished student apps but no native booking. If your coaching business runs on funnels and email campaigns, Kartra fits better. If it runs on recorded courses, Teachable fits better. If it runs on 1:1 and group clients doing work between sessions, neither was built for that, and a coaching platform is worth a look.

We make Coachful, so we have a stake in this comparison. We have kept the Kartra and Teachable sections to what each vendor documents on its own pricing and product pages (as listed in October 2026) and what public reviewers report, and we have not claimed hands-on testing. At the end, we explain where Coachful beats both and where it does not.

What is the short answer, by use case?

Pick by the work you do most days, not by the longest feature list. Here is how the two tools split across common coaching setups.

• You sell mostly recorded courses to a large audience: Teachable. It is built around course products, has iOS and Android student apps on every plan, and its Builder plan drops the platform fee to 0%.
• You run launches with funnels, email sequences and SMS: Kartra. Pages, checkouts, email, SMS and memberships live in one account, and the Starter plan removes the 5% fee and adds calendars.
• You coach clients 1:1 and need booking, contracts and invoices: neither is a natural fit. Kartra has calendars from Starter; Teachable has no native scheduling, so coaches pair it with a separate booking tool.
• You run multi-week programs with habits and check-ins: neither tracks client habits, daily check-ins or per-client plans. This is where a coaching platform such as Coachful fits.
• You want the lowest entry price: Teachable Starter is $29 per month billed annually versus Kartra Essentials at $52 per month billed annually, but both entry plans take a cut of sales (7.5% and 5%).

How do Kartra and Teachable compare side by side?

Kartra and Teachable overlap on courses and checkout, and differ almost everywhere else. Our criteria for this table: one login for the whole client journey, delivery between sessions, total stack cost, and setup effort. Coachful leads because it was built around those four; Kartra and Teachable were built for marketing and for courses.

For a deeper single-vendor look, our Kartra review and Teachable review go plan by plan.

How does Kartra pricing compare with Teachable pricing?

Teachable is cheaper at every self-serve tier, but Kartra's plans include far more marketing tooling. The bigger differences sit in the fees and limits rather than the sticker price.

Prices are as listed on each vendor's pricing page in October 2026, in US dollars.

What do the transaction fees actually cost?

Both entry plans take a share of every sale, so the cheap plan stops being cheap once you sell. An example with illustrative numbers: a coach selling $4,000 a month through the entry plan pays $300 a month to Teachable at 7.5%, or $200 a month to Kartra at 5%, before card processing. At that volume, Teachable Builder ($89 monthly, 0% fee) or Kartra Starter ($119 monthly, 0% fee) costs less overall.

Teachable also lists its own payment processing rates: 2.9% + 30¢ for US cards, 3.9% + 30¢ for international cards, 3.49% + 49¢ for US PayPal and 4.99% + 49¢ for international PayPal, plus a $15 chargeback fee and an optional BackOffice service at 2% to 2.8% of sales. Kartra lets you connect processors such as Stripe and PayPal for your sales (older profile), and their fees sit on top.

What are the hidden limits?

Kartra's limits are contact-based. Its pricing page states that if you exceed your plan's lead limit, the account upgrades automatically with a mid-cycle reconciliation fee, and there are no add-ons to buy more capacity. A free lead magnet that goes well can push you into a higher plan. Teachable now lists students as "Unlimited" on all self-serve plans, so its limits are product counts (5, 10, 50) and admin seats.

Trials differ too. Kartra lists a 14-day free trial on any plan with a 30-day money-back guarantee. Teachable's plan cards show a 7-day free trial plus a 30-day guarantee, and a pop-up offers a 30-day trial on Builder monthly. Neither page states whether a card is required. Our Kartra pricing breakdown and Teachable pricing breakdown cover every line.

Which is better for selling and delivering courses?

Teachable is the stronger course tool; course hosting is its core product rather than one feature among many. Kartra handles courses as "memberships", which work but are built inside a broader marketing system.

On Teachable, every self-serve plan includes AI creation tools, the iOS and Android student apps, global payments and tax handling, upsells and cart recovery, with up to 1TB of video on Starter. Builder adds an affiliate program and real-time support. Growth adds certificates, removes Teachable branding, lets you import students, and includes custom admin permissions and free subtitles and translations. Certificates only appear on Growth, which matters if your program ends in a credential.

On Kartra, Essentials allows one membership or course, and Starter makes memberships unlimited and adds video hosting. Kartra's strength is what wraps the course: the funnel that sells it, the email sequence that follows up, and the checkout. Kartra's documentation (older profile) says memberships are not portable and must be rebuilt if you leave, and that pages and funnels export only as Kartra elements. Teachable lets you export students and reports to CSV, though video content is downloaded manually with no bulk course export (older profile).

If courses are only part of what you sell, our guides on delivering online courses without Teachable and migrating from Teachable without losing students show the alternatives in practice.

Which is better for funnels, email and marketing?

Kartra wins this round clearly. It was designed as an all-in-one marketing suite, and its plans show it: pages, forms, a funnel mapper, analytics, checkouts and 100 pre-built campaigns from Essentials; unlimited email and SMS from Starter; funnel simulation, automations, affiliates, surveys and quizzes, and a helpdesk from Growth; real-time funnel analytics and helpdesk live chat on Professional.

Teachable's marketing tools center on the sale itself: upsells, cart recovery and, from Builder, an affiliate program. It is not designed to run a multi-step email nurture sequence or a multi-page funnel the way Kartra is. Many Teachable users pair it with a separate email tool, which adds another subscription and another login.

Kartra includes AI uses on each plan: 30 on Essentials, 100 on Starter and 250 on Growth (its comparison table also shows 200 for Growth). Teachable lists AI creation tools on every plan without a stated usage count.

If marketing is your main bottleneck, see how Kartra stacks up against other funnel tools in Kajabi vs Kartra and GoHighLevel vs Kartra.

Which handles coaching sessions and clients better?

Kartra, narrowly, because it has calendars and Teachable does not. Neither one handles the core of client work: intake, agreements, per-client plans, habits, check-ins and notes in one record.

Kartra adds calendars on the Starter plan, so clients can book time from a Kartra page. Its helpdesk (Growth and up) gives you a support channel. There are no client habits, check-ins or per-client coaching plans, and Kartra has no mobile app for students or admins (older profile).

Teachable has no native scheduling or calendar sync (older profile); coaching calls rely on outside booking and video tools. It has no client habits, daily check-ins or per-client plans. What it does well is give the student a clean place to watch lessons on a phone.

For a coach with ten 1:1 clients, the practical result on either tool is the same: the client record lives in several places. The booking tool knows when they meet, the course tool knows which lessons they watched, a spreadsheet or notes app holds goals and session notes, and the contract sits in an e-signature tool. Our article on running coaching programs without Kartra maps that journey step by step.

What is the client experience like on each?

On Teachable, the client is a student: they log in to a school, watch lessons, maybe download a worksheet, and use the mobile app to keep going. It is a good learner experience and a thin coaching experience; there is nowhere for the client to log a habit, answer a check-in or see their next session.

On Kartra, the client moves through pages: an opt-in page, a sales page, a checkout, then a membership area, plus emails and texts along the way. The experience is shaped by marketing steps. Once inside the membership, there is no app and no daily touchpoint beyond what you send by email or SMS.

In both cases, the parts that make coaching work between sessions (the small daily actions, the check-ins, the coach noticing someone has gone quiet) happen outside the platform, if at all.

What do public reviewers say about Kartra and Teachable?

Both sit in the low-to-middle range on Trustpilot. As seen on October 25, 2026, Teachable rated 3.3 from 1,110 reviews and Kartra rated 3.2 from 129 reviews. These scores include reviews from all kinds of users, not only coaches, so read them as a signal to check support and billing terms carefully rather than as a verdict on features.

Trustpilot ratings change daily, and review platforms collect a mix of verified and unverified opinions. Read recent reviews about billing, cancellations and support response times, since those are the issues that tend to affect small coaching businesses most.

Which should you pick for which kind of coach?

The best pick follows your revenue model. This table matches common coaching businesses to the tool that fits them best, with Coachful included as the third option.

Pick Kartra if...

You think in funnels. You run webinars, lead magnets and launches, you want email and SMS in the same place as your sales pages, and your coaching is booked from those pages. You have the budget for Starter or above, and you are comfortable that your funnels and memberships stay inside Kartra if you leave.

Pick Teachable if...

Your income is mostly recorded courses and digital products, your students value a mobile app, and you want a lower monthly price. You are fine adding a separate booking tool and email tool for any coaching you sell alongside the courses. Our Thinkific vs Teachable and Kajabi vs Teachable comparisons cover other course-first options.

Pick neither if...

Your clients pay for change over weeks, not for content. If you run a 12-week program where clients complete daily tasks, track habits and check in, and you want to see who is thriving and who has gone quiet, you need a coaching platform rather than a course host or a marketing suite.

Is there a third option that beats both? Coachful, honestly

Coachful is a coaching platform: 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 gets 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. Coachful is based in Tallinn, Estonia, and holds a Trustpilot rating of 4.5 from 21 reviews.

Where Coachful beats Kartra and Teachable

Between-session delivery. Coachful runs multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals with progress bars and streaks. Neither Kartra nor Teachable has any of these. The client record pulls together goals, check-ins, habits, notes, intake answers, tags, payments and sessions, with an AI briefing per client and a status of thriving, active, quiet or at risk.

Booking that knows the client. Booking pages include availability rules, buffers, minimum notice and time-zone detection, with two-way Google, Apple/iCloud and Outlook calendar sync. Sessions use built-in video or auto-created Zoom, Meet or Teams links. Reminders go by email, plus SMS (24 hours before) and WhatsApp (1 hour before) once messaging is enabled. You can sell paid sessions and session credits, ask intake questions on booking, and assign multi-coach session types by round-robin or least-busy. Teachable has none of this natively; Kartra's calendars do not connect to habits or per-client plans.

Agreements and payments in the same record. Coaching agreements with e-signature go out before the first call and are stored on the client record. Payments run through your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account: one-time, subscriptions, payment plans, order bumps, coupons, refunds, Apple Pay and Google Pay and Stripe Tax, with an invoice per transaction plus manual invoices. Coachful charges a 0% platform fee (since August 2026), so you pay only Stripe or Razorpay processing, on every plan. Compare that with Teachable Starter's 7.5% and Kartra Essentials' 5%.

Courses and marketing without a second tool. Courses come with modules, lessons, drip and completion tracking, delivered into the client's branded home and app alongside downloads, videos, books, AI tools, events and bundles. The section-based website builder has a blog, custom domain, SEO settings and 30 designed homepage templates. Booking, application, lead-magnet and checkout funnels support pixels and UTM tracking, and email covers lists, broadcasts and multi-step sequences with triggers, delays, branching and A/B splits.

Here is a short walkthrough of how a program looks when you build it in Coachful:

Total stack cost. A Teachable coach usually adds a booking tool, an e-signature tool and an email tool; a Kartra coach usually adds a contract tool and something for client tracking. With Coachful those are included in your Coachful membership (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). Plans are flat monthly prices; lower plans cap the number of clients, Pro is unlimited, team plans add coach seats, and monthly plans cancel in one click.

Michelle and the AI Coach. Michelle, the built-in AI assistant, works from your live practice data. She builds programs, drafts emails and content, summarizes recorded sessions, briefs you before sessions, and can give optional private feedback on your coaching against ICF Core Competencies 3 to 8. Questions and planning are included in the membership; confirmed builds and changes use AI credits. The AI Coach is an AI version of you that selected clients can chat with between sessions, configured by you.

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. On every plan, you can ask the Coachful team to build things for you from Create > We'll build it for you · FREE: a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline and written material, coaching flow, form, email sequence, link in bio, lead quiz, event or automation. You attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files (logos, photos, brand guides, copy), 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. For example, a somatic coach leaving Kajabi had their homepage and About page rebuilt and the contact form connected, and a business mentor for beauty professionals got a 12-week mentorship sales page, a free start-up-guide funnel and rewritten follow-up emails. It does not include recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing. Read more about the free white-glove build service.

Where Coachful does not beat them

• Pure course businesses. If you sell recorded courses at scale to thousands of students with no coaching, Teachable is a closer fit. Coachful is not a course marketplace.
• Heavy funnel and SMS marketing. Kartra's funnel simulation, real-time funnel analytics and helpdesk live chat go further than Coachful's funnels for marketers who live in their analytics.
• PayPal. Coachful does not support PayPal. Teachable and Kartra both support it for your sales.
• Your own App Store listing. The client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding, not under your own App Store account.
• Clinical work. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and offers no BAA, so clinical records and insurance billing belong in a clinical system.
• Large sales teams. There is no multi-stage deal board for large teams and no Salesforce or HubSpot integration.
• Affiliate payouts. Coachful tracks affiliate links, clicks, conversions and revenue, but payouts are recorded manually rather than sent by Coachful. Teachable Builder and Kartra Growth both include affiliate programs.
• Wearables. There is no Garmin, Fitbit, Whoop or Oura sync, and no stock exercise videos.

How to start with Coachful

Start a free trial, then use the free white-glove build service to have your website, first funnel or first program set up for you. Your clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding, and you can export full client data as a ZIP at any time (roster, notes, check-ins, goals, habits, sessions and form responses). See the niche pages for life coaches, business coaches and group coaching, or compare Coachful against other course hosts on our Teachable alternative page and in our Kartra alternatives roundup.

How hard is it to switch between these tools later?

Switching off Kartra is harder than switching off Teachable, because more of your business lives inside Kartra's proprietary formats. Kartra contacts export to CSV with fields, lists and tags, but pages and funnels export only as Kartra elements and memberships must be rebuilt (older profile). Teachable students, course reports and sales reports export to CSV, while video content is downloaded manually (older profile).

Before you commit to either, run a simple test during the trial: export your contacts or students and open the file. If the export you need does not exist, plan for a rebuild later. In Coachful, the full client data export and course export are built in, and imports are handled for you during onboarding.

Frequently asked questions

Is Kartra better than Teachable?

Kartra is better for marketing: funnels, email, SMS and calendars in one account. Teachable is better for courses, with student mobile apps and lower plan prices. For coaches whose clients do work between sessions, neither tracks habits or check-ins, so a coaching platform may fit better than either.

Which is cheaper, Kartra or Teachable?

Teachable is cheaper at each tier. As listed in October 2026, Teachable starts at $39 a month ($29 billed annually) and Kartra at $59 a month ($52 billed annually). Both entry plans take a fee on sales (7.5% on Teachable Starter, 5% on Kartra Essentials), so compare the next plan up if you expect regular sales.

Does Teachable have scheduling for coaching calls?

Teachable has no native scheduling or calendar sync, according to its documented features (older profile). Coaches typically pair it with a separate booking tool and a video tool. Kartra includes calendars from its Starter plan.

Does Kartra have a mobile app?

Kartra has no mobile app for students or admins (older profile). Teachable includes iOS and Android student apps on every self-serve plan. Coachful clients use a branded client app inside the Coachful app.

What happens if I go over Kartra's contact limit?

Kartra's pricing page states that exceeding your lead limit upgrades the account automatically, with a mid-cycle reconciliation fee. There are no add-ons to buy extra capacity, so a successful lead magnet can move you to a higher plan.

Can I sell coaching packages on Teachable or Kartra?

You can sell access to a product on both, and Kartra can book calls through its calendars. Neither offers coaching agreements with e-signature, per-client plans, habits or check-ins. Coachful includes booking, agreements, payments and program delivery in one client record.

What is Coachful's free white-glove service?

On every Coachful plan, you can request a build from the Create page: a website, funnel, program, course outline, email sequence and more. You attach reference 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.

Does Coachful take a transaction fee?

No. Coachful has charged a 0% platform fee since August 2026; you pay only your Stripe or Razorpay processing. Teachable Starter takes 7.5% and Kartra Essentials takes 5% on top of processing.

Can I move my Teachable courses or Kartra contacts to Coachful?

Yes. Your clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding. Export students from Teachable or contacts from Kartra as CSV first, and download your course videos so they can be uploaded.

Is Coachful suitable for health or therapy practices?

Coachful suits health coaching, but coaching is not medical treatment, and clients with medical or mental health concerns should be referred to a licensed professional. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified, so clinical records and insurance billing belong in a clinical system.