GrooveFunnels vs Kartra 2023 (Full Comparison + Verdict)

GrooveFunnels vs Kartra banner

Today, I want to do an in-depth review of GrooveFunnels vs Kartra. Overall, both of these softwares are a multi-tool for your business.

Well, after testing both of these platforms, I’ve decided to put together this comprehensive comparison to answer this question and help you decide what platform would be a better option for you depending on your needs.

GrooveFunnels vs Kartra TL;DR

Essentially, there is nothing GrooveFunnels does better than Kartra. The only advantage of GrooveFunnels is the free plan. However, most of the functionalities in the GrooveFunnels free plan are still in beta, and not everything is working properly.

GrooveFunnels is a better option for you if you’re just getting started with your online business and can’t afford an advanced digital marketing platform like Kartra, which is a more established platform. GrooveFunnels is still new software and not everything is working properly however it’s free so there is really nothing to lose. GrooveFunnels would be better for you if you’re interested in a one-time lifetime access payment that will save you a lot of money in the long term.

Kartra is for you if you need more advanced marketing automation features that GrooveFunnels doesn’t have. It’s a better solution for more established entrepreneurs or digital marketers looking to manage their clients with Kartra’s advanced CRM system and continue to grow an email list, With Kartra you don’t have to worry you break your entire campaign because something is not working as it should. So if you want everything to just work seamlessly and you want to eliminate all these different softwares that you’re plugging in together, and you want one solid platform, then Kartra is for you.

So as you can see there is no crystal-clear winner and it really depends where you are at your online business. If you still don’t know what platform to choose for your online business, I highly encourage you to test both of them and see which one works better for you.

👉 Try GrooveFunnels free plan

👉 Try Kartra 30 day trial

 

Feature GrooveFunnels Kartra
Overview Newer platform, some features still in beta. Offers lifetime one-time access. More established with advanced marketing automation. Better for experienced users.
Sales Funnel Builder Drag-and-drop editor with customizable templates. Less flexibility than Kartra. More advanced builder with automated sequences. Save page sections and templates.
Email Marketing GrooveMail offers broadcasts and sequences. Some deliverability issues noted. Robust email automation comparable to dedicated platforms. Better deliverability and lead scoring.
eCommerce & Checkout GrooveSell offers customizable checkout. GrooveKarts ecommerce feature in beta. Comprehensive checkout to sell unlimited products or services.
Video & Webinar GrooveVideo for hosting. Webinar tool in beta. Kartra Video has robust video marketing features. No built-in webinars but integrates with WebinarJam.
Calendar Feature not released yet. Advanced calendar features with improved design.
Opt-in Forms Basic opt-in forms with ongoing development. More advanced forms with extensive customization options.
Quizzes & Surveys Planned feature but not released yet. Also a planned feature, not released yet.
Blogging GrooveBlog offers a simple blogging platform. Kartra does not have a dedicated blogging platform.
Membership & Courses GrooveMember is basic and has bugs. Kartra offers a comprehensive membership portal for hosting content.
SEO Basic SEO features. Advanced SEO parameters and open graph details.
Pricing Free plan available. One-time $1397 payment for Platinum. Monthly plans range from $119 to $549 per month.
Free Trials 👉 GrooveFunnels free plan 👉 Kartra 30-day trial

GrooveFunnels and Kartra are like a Swiss army knife for your marketing efforts for your company. The two platforms have lots in common but, as you can see, there are a few significant differences that we’re going to cover in depth right now.

What is GrooveFunnels?

Groove

GrooveFunnels is very much the new kid on the block when it comes to funnels and online business.

GrooveFunnels is not just a funnel builder; it’s, in fact, an all-in-one business platform.

It really is an all-in-one business platform trying to basically get off your reliance on using multiple different tools.

Groove is a relatively new platform, and they set out to build a lot of things.

They launched in the middle of 2019, and they have a lot on their plate for continual development.

So, in a lot of ways, you’ll hear people say that they’re still in beta, and it’s really important that I convey that to you.

It’s one of the tools that, if you’re an early adopter type of person, could be really great for your business.

Otherwise, if you need something that’s fully stable and ready to go out of the box, Kartra might be your best jam, but let’s get in and analyze into the details.

GrooveFunnels calls itself the best Kartra alternative, but how does it look in practice?

Let’s find out.

What is Kartra?

Kartra

Kartra was launched back in 2018 by Mike Filsaime and Andy Jenkins. The primary goal of the co-founders of Kartra was to design an automated sales funnel builder that offers a one-stop-shop marketing solution.

This platform is equipped with everything you require to run an online business.

Kartra is similar to GrooveFunnels, in that it’s an all-in-one business platform and right off the bat, I need to tell you that Kartra is about 5 years ahead, if not more than where Groove is.

Sales Funnel Builders & Templates

So, the first category is sales funnel and landing page builders. Both platforms have drag and drop builders, the ability to create sales funnels, different page layouts, and build from templates.

Both of these tools are going to set us up for success with that.

Kartra Page Builder

One of the best features of Kartra is its funnel builders. With Kartra, you can create a multi-page funnel flow that effectively converts visitors into leads, leads into customers, and your customers into paying clients.

Kartra features an automated sequence funnel builder that is pretty easy to use.

kartra page builder

With Kartra funnel builders, you can design a fully customized campaign or choose from numerous ready-to-use Kartra campaigns.

The features that I really love in Kartra that allow you to save page templates and sections and save your color palette. These are coming to Groove if they haven’t been developed already.

When it comes to customization and ease of use, Kartra is comparable with ClickFunnels as I explain in this ClickFunnels vs Kartra comparison.

GrooveFunnels Page Builder

GrooveFunnels features an easy-to-use drag and drop editor with elements like pop-ups, and progress bars, along with social proof, and more.

When it comes to its funnel builders, GrooveFunnels offers customizable templates that are available instead of creating them from scratch.

groovefunnels templates

There are not as many as Kartra has to offer but they are really good-looking.

In addition to that, the GrooveFunnels marketplace allows one to share their creations or buy one designed by other individuals.

However, when compared to their counterpart Kartra, GrooveFunnels need to improve their sales funnel builder because it’s not as customizable and easy to use as the Kartra page builder.

This means that Kartra outshines GrooveFunnels when it comes to building sales funnels.

So all in all, these are both pretty comparable. You choose the one that best works for you.

Email Marketing Automation

Being able to send bulk emails through your platform for your business is very important.

This means that it replaces the functionality you might have needed for using MailChimp, Constant Contact, ConvertKit, or any of those softwares.

You can actually eliminate that expense by coming into these platforms.

GrooveMail

The GrooveFunnels email marketing tool called grooveMail offers both broadcasting and sequence automation; additionally, you will have access to text along with voice SMS broadcasting.

GrooveMail allows one to create email lists, automate emails, send email sequences and broadcasts.

groovemail

Although GrooveFunnels offers a pretty solid email marketing automation, after testing bot platforms, deliverability is not as good as when using Kartra.

Tracking is also not precise at all.

Also, when they launched their GrooveMail platform, they actually had to shut it down because a bunch of people really kind of ruined the system for the rest of us.

So GrooveMail as of writing this is back up and running, but I would say that it’s a jury’s out sort of experience right now and I highly suggest keeping a watchful eye.

Because there would be nothing worse than me recommending it to you that this is full-fledged and ready to go and have your emails completely land in spam inboxes.

Therefore, if you rely much on email marketing, the Kartra email tool will be the best for use as opposed to GrooveFunnels.

Kartra Email

When it comes to email marketing, Kartra provides really solid automation features comparable to dedicated email marketing platforms like MailChimp or GetResponse.

Kartra is definitely doing its part to have a very robust email send operation as well as SMS through a third-party tool like Twilio.

But let me say this, email deliverability is becoming an even more complex topic daily by the day.

One of the things I really appreciate about Kartra is that they have a very thorough manual process for importing leads as a new user on the platform.

What does this mean?

It means they won’t let an evildoer come into the system, upload a bunch of contacts, spam them, and put the rest of us at risk. So, they’re paying a lot of attention to that.

Kartra allows you to create advanced sequences.

Kartra Email Sequence

Additionally, with Kartra, you can customize as well as spice up your emails using add-ons like content blocks, thumbnails, customer testimonials, and countdown timers, to name a few.

Kartra email also has a great lead scoring feature that enables you to score all leads based on their behavior with your content.

eCommerce & Checkout Systems

Checkout pages would be the next category. And both of these tools really are designed for this.

GrooveSell

Checkout features on GrooveFunnels are top-notch. They are fully customizable, making it relatively easy to upsell, downsells as well as do order bumps.

Perhaps you’re not selling consultations or services, but you sell physical products and physical goods. I would say in this category, certainly, Kartra has done what it can because you can absolutely sell physical products through Kartra.

However, it’s not the type of robust e-commerce platform where you would be measuring inventory or keeping track of your shipping and receiving.

It’s not necessarily integrated with any of the major platforms like the United States postal service or FedEx or anything like that.

Now, on the other hand, Groove has an entire feature set called GrooveKarts, which is what, they’re calling a Shopify competitor.

groovekartrs

It’s much more in the e-commerce space, but please hear me say this, it is not as robust as Shopify, and there are still parts of it that are in continual development.

So if you want to go down that road and check out GrooveKart, definitely go.

Also, they have a Printful direct integration, which is one of the coolest features.

Kartra Checkout

Kartra Checkout offers everything you need to sell your products and services online.

With Kartra Checkouts, you are free to sell an unlimited number of products or services with various price points.

In addition to adding price points on your products, Kartra Checkouts offers top-notch product pages that will help you convert your leads into customers.

Kartra checkout template

Kartra Checkouts has also been designed to remember previous customers and users. As a result, when they visit the checkout page, every vital detail will be pre-filled and ready to click on the Confirm Order button.

They both come from a marketing background where being able to set up your own customized checkout pages, collect income through a PayPal or Stripe integration, and basically do one-click upsell opportunities.

If you’re not familiar with what that means, it basically means once somebody has purchased the primary product, you can just with one click, allow them to buy an additional product without putting their credit card information in again.

So, both of these tools really do that job.

Video Hosting & Webinars

Groove and Kartra allow us to upload and host videos on your website or sales funnels directly to the platform. That is a huge win, that is something that entrepreneurs have been asking for a couple of years. Now they have nuances and differences.

GrooveVideo

GrooveFunnels is also known for hosting videos as well as customizing them to your preference.

Additionally, you will be able to upload an unlimited number of videos when using the lifetime plan, unlike a limited number of 15 videos when using the free plan.

And when it comes to webinars they have webinars built-in, and I would say that really, this is very much one of their newer features so it is in beta, but it is coming.

Kartra Video

With Kartra video, you will have access to the following marketing features;

  • Receive all essential data and analytics you require to know where your subscribers are least and most engaged in your videos.
  • Add a powerful call to action at any point in your video, such as an add-to-cart button.
  • Upload your product and marketing content video to Kartra and embed them anywhere.
  • Trigger action based on the viewers’ behavior, like viewing a part or all of your video.
kartra video features

When it comes to webinars, Kartra does not actually have webinars built-in, but they are also the founders of WebinarJam and EverWebinar.

So, it’s an additional payment on top of what you pay for with the platform, but you can then have webinar functionality.

This means that if a webinar is a vital part of your marketing strategy, then GrooveFunnels will be the best option over Kartra because they have a webinar tool built-in and it can integrate with the rest of the tools.

Booking Calendars

Calendars are a great option for business owners who need to schedule appointments with their clients. A lot of people already use a calendar tool such as Acuity or Calendly.

You can continue to use your own calendar tool, but what’s really nice about having your calendar tool embedded into your landing page builder and your all-in-one platform is that you can trigger automations to follow up with people and it’s all in one seamless place.

So right now, Kartra is definitely taking the lead on this. They recently just revamped their calendar, and it is very nice.

And Groove is more of a coming soon type of thing. It’s on their plan roadmap, but it is not released at all. Not even in beta at this point.

Opt-In Forms

With any platform you should be asking yourself, how do I grow my audience? How do I build an email list? Well, to build an email list and to generate interest in what you do, you need opt-in forms.

And Kartra definitely has an edge in terms of opt-in forms.

While it could be a little bit more complex to understand at first, there’s a lot more flexibility there when it comes to their forms.

kartra forms

You can set up unlimited forms in different various ways and each of those forms can link to their own sets of automations, putting people into sequences.

So far, Groove allows you to collect the information, but it’s definitely organized in a different way but they’re continuing to work on that functionality.

Quizzes & Surveys

This one is an exciting thing because oftentimes your quizzes are a great way to collect email information and build rapport and truly customize the experience for your audience so that you can help give them the types of content, resources, and tools that best fit where they’re at in their business.

And it is a functionality that Kartra has promised. I’ve seen them talk several times about the fact that quizzes and surveys are on their way, will be launched, but they have not indicated as of when.

There’s no estimated launch date right now but I have high hopes and I’m pretty excited about it.

And the same thing over at Groove. It’s on their planned roadmap. I will say that it’s more planned, they’ve been much more open about the fact that they’re building it.

So, both of these things are coming soon. In the meantime, you could always use third-party quiz softwares, and then use software like Zapier to connect the information and put them into your database.

Blogging

Blogging is one of the things that Kartra is missing in a big way. It’s one of the things that hold me up and hesitates me from wholeheartedly recommending it to all types of businesses.

Because if your business relies on creating new content and new articles on a daily basis, this is probably not the platform for you.

Can you have a blog on the Kartra platform?

Yes, you absolutely can.

However, it’s not built like a blogging platform so, in order to create galleries or sidebar elements that recommend other articles, all of that must be built manually.

Now, I want to say that I’ve heard some rumors that this functionality is coming, but nothing official, and although it is on their Trello roadmap, there’s not a lot of activity happening when it comes to blogging.

So, let’s move on to Groove. Groove has launched a GrooveBlog. It’s actually quite nice, very simplified.

If you’re looking for something where you can just put a picture up and a video and just write the text and keep it really simple, very simple blogging platform.

They jumped on that functionality very early and that’s pretty cool and impressive.

Membership & Online Courses

Many people will be interested in not just the funnels but creating membership sites and online courses. So, let’s take a look at memberships inside GrooveFunnels.

GrooveMember

GrooveFunnels has a membership area but it is very basic and has a lot of bugs right now.

So, if you are looking to switch to GrooveFunnels or move to GrooveFunnels on the basis of membership area, GrooveMember is not quite there yet although…

Again, GrooveFunnels creators say that everything here inside GrooveFunnels will be best in class when they finish it, so watch out for how GrooveMember develops over the coming weeks and coming months.

I am very excited about it, but right now Kartra is a level ahead in terms of membership.

Kartra Membership

Kartra allows you to host all your content inside a membership portal, branded, have different access levels.

kartra membership

You can customize your member’s area to your heart’s content and have access to the full suite of Kartra marketing features including email to help build up your membership site.

Additionally, it supports drips content and various formats, including audio, texts, and videos.

Highlights are progressive trackers, making it relatively easy to track your subscribers’ activities and analytics that will provide you in-depth info on your user’s preferences and behaviors. Moreover, you can design several membership sites and track them on one dashboard.

Kartra is even comparable with dedicated course-building platforms like Teachable as I explain in this Kartra vs Teachable review

SEO Capabilities

Now, let’s talk about SEO that’s search engine optimization, which basically means that you can put page level detail into your pages, blog posts, et cetera.

Kartra SEO

Inside Kartra, under the SEO parameters, it’s really laid out nicely.

Kartra SEO parameters

You can have your page title, you can have a page meta description, you can have keywords put in.

And I’ll be honest, I don’t know exactly where those keywords pull from, but I always put them in just in case they’re even more useful.

And then you can have a page author, an OG title, an OG Description, and an OG image.

What is OG?

It stands for open graph, and that is the type of image, title, and description that is most commonly used on our social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, that sort of thing.

I really love that they allow us to choose an image on every single individual page and all of these details.

GrooveFunnels SEO

All right, when it comes to Groove, Groove has a site settings section, and this section kind of has a little bit of everything.

GrooveFunnels SEO settings

It has the business or the website name, the favicon for the page, which you can also set in Kartra.

And they kind of jumbled their tracking codes and SEO, everything’s sort of on one page level.

So far, I’ve really only been able to tell that they have the open graph image to choose from as well as the OG title.

But there is no OG metadata description, and we can’t enter keywords.

So when it comes to SEO Kartra optimization Kartra has an edge.

GrooveFunnels vs Kartra: Pricing

Now, for the part that you’re probably wondering what do these softwares cost?

Let’s take a look at the pricing.

GrooveFunnels Pricing

And this is where things get really interesting because GrooveFunnels right now has 2 plans.

groovefunnels pricing
  • Free plan – $0
  • Platinum plan – $1397 one time payment

GrooveFunnels Free Plan

GrooveFunnels does have a free plan. And the free plan is what has made GrooveFunnels so popular so far.

And this is a free lifetime membership so it’s not a free plan, and then it goes away.

It’s not an unlimited trial, it’s a free lifetime membership.

You’ll get:

  • GrooveSell
  • GrooveAffiliate
  • GroovePages Lite.

GroovePages Lite is the funnel builder, but you only get up to 3 funnels inside.

You can put custom domains in them, you can put whatever you want on them, but you only have a maximum of 3.

And this has been really, really popular, and people have been using the free plan just to test it out or just to see if they will migrate over to it and then upgrade into platinum later on.

GrooveFunnels Platinum Plan

If you’re in this for the long-term, then you might want to consider taking GrooveFunnels and the lifetime membership.

There’s no monthly recurring subscription like with ClickFunnels.

And you get lifetime access to all 17 GrooveApps products for just a one-time price.

So, you get in the entire business platform for life, never pay anything again for a one-time payment of $1397.

So, if you look into that and thinking, well, how does that compare to a monthly pricing system?

And it’s worth noting as well that this lifetime membership is only for a limited time.

Once GrooveFunnels officially launches, it’ll go to the monthly fees:

  • Silver plan – $99/month
  • Gold plan – $299/month
  • Platinum plan – $299/month

So really you need to be comparing whether you think this one-time fee of $1,397 is worth it overpaying $299 a month.

And if you do the math, then it definitely is because it’s only going to take you 6 months of monthly payments to reach that fee.

So, you can use this for years, you know, and never have to pay these monthly fees again.

And one last thing I wanted to go over, just in case you are still in doubt about the value of the GrooveFunnels lifetime plan.

Take a look at this infographic that’s being created to show you exactly what each of the GrooveApps inside GrooveFunnels will be replacing and their equivalents and pricing.

You’re saving $17,000 worth of business costs if you were to subscribe to all these for just a one-time payment of $1397, and you’ll never ever have to pay any more for anything inside GrooveFunnels ever again.

Kartra Pricing

Kartra right now has 3 different pricing tiers:

  • Starter plan – 119/month
  • Silver plan – $229/month
  • Platinum plan – $549/month
Kartra pricing

Some of the things you’re looking at when it comes to the pricing plans, which start at $99 a month, or you can save up to 25% if you move into an annual plan.

So, looking at the nuances of this, you’ll see that if you’re doing an annual plan, you can pay as little as $79 a month for all of these features because Kartra doesn’t lock away any of the features even on the lowest plan which is really, really cool.

Besides that, Kartra offers a trial that you can extend to up to 30 days.

And everything on Kartra, it’s going to come out of the box, completely stabilized. You don’t have to worry about anything being in beta or anything changing over time in a big way because they’re still working out kinks or features. Kartra has been around a lot longer, so they’re ready to go.

Kartra vs GrooveFunnels: And The Winner Is…

Which one is right for you? This is that part in the GrooveFunnels vs Kartra review where I tell you who’s the winner.

Is it Kartra or is it Groove? And the answer is it depends. It depends on where you’re at in your business.

But a better solution overall for most people is Kartra. It’s a much more comprehensive platform and provides you with more robust tools like marketing automation, video hosting, funnel builder, CRM, and real-time analytics, just to name a few.

Choose GrooveFunnels If

Groove is one of those early adopter experiences where if you get in now, you’re basically a founding member, that’s going to have a better price than anybody ever has.

But it’s not ready to go right out the box so if you need things to work seamlessly, you don’t want to lose any sleep over, wondering if things are going to break, or if this bug has been fixed yet in the software, then that’s not your best bet.

Choose Kartra If

On the other hand, Kartra is a better option for more advanced entrepreneurs and digital marketers who need a more advanced platform and prefer having a complete campaign where things automatically flow across the tools.

And I fully love and support everything they’re doing over at Kartra.

They continue to innovate, they’re rising on the Inc 5,000 list, I believe, and all in all, I just feel like the community, the support, and the functionality are completely solid.

So those are my recommendations for you. I highly recommend you to try both platforms, test it out, and see for yourself.

👉 Try Kartra 30 day trial

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