PRICING BREAKDOWN · 2026

Kartra pricing

Every Kartra plan, the 5% entry-tier transaction fee and the hard contact ceilings in one place: what the all-in-one actually costs in 2026 at realistic scale.

Pricing verified June 2026 for our full Kartra review, which is the source for every number on this page.

The short answer

Kartra costs $59 per month on the entry Essentials plan, or $52 per month billed annually, with Starter at $119/$99, Growth at $229/$189 and Professional at $549/$429; annual billing saves roughly 17%, there is no free plan, and a 14-day free trial rolls into Starter. Those are the stickers. The two numbers that actually shape your bill are different: a 5% transaction fee on every checkout sale that applies only to Essentials, and hard contact ceilings with no overage option on every tier.

For most serious users the real entry point is not $52. A typical solo creator or coach with a growing email list lands on Growth at 12,500 contacts, which is $189 a month annual, about $2,268 a year, or $2,748 a year paying monthly. That is the honest budget line for Kartra, and it is why we frame it as the pricier end of our best all-in-one marketing platform picks: genuinely all-in-one, but you pay for the consolidation.

Plans and limits in 2026

Kartra has four tiers and no free plan. Every plan bundles the full stack our review verified: email and automation, funnels, checkout, courses, video hosting, and affiliate management, with webinars, quizzes, certificates, the Funnel Simulator and the help desk arriving on Growth. The controlling variable is contacts.

Plan	Monthly	Annual (per mo)	Contacts	Seats	Domains
Essentials	$59	$52	500	—	1
Starter	$119	$99	2,500	5	1
Growth	$229	$189	12,500	10	3
Professional	$549	$429	25,000	20	5

Two tier details worth reading twice. Essentials limits you to one course and 30 AI uses a month, while Starter unlocks unlimited courses, pages, videos, products, emails and SMS. And Kartra AI is capped by tier throughout: 30 uses a month on Essentials, 100 on Starter, 500 on Professional.

The 5% transaction fee: the Essentials trap

Essentials is the only tier that carries a 5% transaction fee on checkout sales, charged on top of whatever Stripe or PayPal already takes. The arithmetic is unkind to exactly the low-revenue users the cheap plan is supposed to serve: on $1,000 a month in sales, 5% is about $50, which roughly doubles the real cost of the $52 plan. Sell $2,000 a month and the fee alone exceeds the plan.

The fix is one tier up. Every plan from Starter onward is fee-free, so your payment processor is your only sales cut. The moment you sell anything, Starter at $99 a month annual is almost always the smarter buy than Essentials, because it removes the 5% fee and the 500-contact cap in the same move.

What you will really pay: three realistic setups

The new coach on Essentials: about $102 per month

Annual Essentials at $52 plus the 5% checkout fee on $1,000 of monthly sales ($1,000 × 0.05 = $50) lands at roughly $102, before Stripe’s own cut. With a 500-contact cap and one course allowed, the cheaper-on-paper plan is the expensive one in practice. Jumping straight to fee-free Starter at $99 costs about the same and removes both limits.

The established creator on Growth: $189 per month

This is Kartra’s sweet spot. An 11,000-contact list fits Growth at $189 a month annual, about $2,268 a year, and that price includes webinars for up to 300 attendees, quizzes, completion certificates, fee-free checkout and the help desk. It replaces an ESP, a course platform, a webinar tool and an affiliate manager on one bill, which is the consolidation math that justifies Kartra at all.

The list that crosses 12,500: $429 per month

There is no per-contact overage, so contact 12,501 forces the jump from Growth to Professional: $429 a month annual instead of $189, more than double, an extra $240 a month or $2,880 a year. Budget against the ceiling you are approaching, not the one you are sitting in.

Monthly vs annual: the 17% math

Plan	Monthly ×12	Annual ×12	You save
Essentials	$708	$624	$84/yr
Starter	$1,428	$1,188	$240/yr
Growth	$2,748	$2,268	$480/yr
Professional	$6,588	$5,148	$1,440/yr

Annual billing saves roughly 17% across the ladder, worth $480 a year at the Growth tier most serious users land on. The order of operations: take the 14-day trial (historically promoted as a $1 trial), remember it rolls into the Starter plan if you let it run, and only lock in a year once you know which contact ceiling you will actually live under.

The hard ceilings: how Kartra reprices itself

The contact limits are hard ceilings, not soft meters. A growing list does not nudge your bill up gently; it snaps you onto the next plan, and the steps are steep: 500 to 2,500 to 12,500 to 25,000 contacts, priced at $52, $99, $189 and $429 a month annual. The Growth-to-Professional step is the one that hurts, because list growth is the thing a working funnel produces automatically. This is the same forced-upgrade pattern we flag in ClickFunnels pricing, and in both cases the defense is identical: know your list-growth rate, and price the tier above you into the budget from day one.

Is it worth it? Kartra vs the alternatives on price

Tool	Entry price	Free plan	Best for
Kartra	$59	No	Established creators wanting true all-in-one
Systeme.io	$0	Yes	Budget-first solos and beginners
Kajabi	$$$	No	Course and membership creators
Ontraport / Keap	$$$	No	CRM-heavy automation for SMBs

The sharpest contrast is Systeme.io, the budget disruptor of the category: a genuine free plan and paid tiers that undercut Kartra by a wide margin, which is why the two are compared so often. If price is the deciding factor, Systeme.io pricing wins before Kartra’s polish or depth enters the conversation. What Kartra buys you for the difference, per our full review, is stronger automation, deep funnel tooling and a genuinely integrated stack, at the cost of a steeper learning curve and a support reputation that drags its own ratings.

How to pay less for Kartra

• Skip Essentials if you sell anything: the 5% checkout fee turns $1,000 of monthly sales into a $50 surcharge, roughly doubling the $52 plan. Fee-free Starter at $99 usually costs less in practice.
• Pay annually: roughly 17% off saves $240 a year on Starter, $480 on Growth and $1,440 on Professional.
• Budget for the ceiling you are approaching: crossing 12,500 contacts moves you from $189 to $429 a month with no overage option, so plan the jump before your list makes it for you.
• Count the tools you replace: Growth bundles webinars (300 attendees), courses, checkout, affiliates and a help desk; the consolidation only pays if you were actually paying for those separately.
• Use the 14-day trial deliberately: it rolls into the Starter plan, so decide before it ends whether Starter or Growth is your real tier.
• Watch the AI caps: 30 uses a month on Essentials and 100 on Starter run out fast; if AI matters to your workflow, price the higher tiers on that limit, not the contact count.

FAQ

How much does Kartra cost in 2026?

$59 a month for Essentials ($52 billed annually), $119/$99 for Starter, $229/$189 for Growth and $549/$429 for Professional. Annual billing saves roughly 17%. Most established creators land on Growth, which is about $2,268 a year on annual billing.

Does Kartra have a free plan?

No. There is no free plan. Kartra offers a 14-day free trial, historically promoted as a $1 trial, which rolls into the Starter plan. The cheapest ongoing tier is Essentials at $59 a month, or $52 a month billed annually.

What is the cheapest Kartra plan?

Essentials at $52 a month on annual billing or $59 monthly, but it caps you at 500 contacts and one course and adds a 5% transaction fee on checkout sales. Once you sell anything, fee-free Starter at $99 annual is usually the better value.

Why does the entry plan have a transaction fee?

Essentials is the only tier with a 5% fee on checkout sales, charged on top of your Stripe or PayPal processing. On $1,000 a month in sales that is about $50, roughly doubling the plan’s real cost. Every tier from Starter up is fee-free.

What happens when I hit a contact limit?

There is no per-contact overage. Exceeding a tier’s ceiling forces an upgrade to the next plan: crossing 12,500 contacts moves you from Growth at $189 a month annual to Professional at $429, more than doubling the bill.

Does Kartra offer refunds?

Our review found no published money-back guarantee to rely on; the documented testing window is the 14-day trial that rolls into Starter. Treat that trial as your due diligence and decide your tier before it converts.

How much do I save by paying annually?

Roughly 17%. In dollars: $84 a year on Essentials, $240 on Starter, $480 on Growth and $1,440 on Professional versus paying the same tier monthly.

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