PLATFORM
What does Kartra include, and where does the Essentials plan run out of room?
Pages, email, checkout, membership and helpdesk in one platform
Kartra is an all-in-one marketing suite (pages, email, checkout, membership, helpdesk) priced by contact count rather than by feature. Essentials, the entry plan, caps out at 500 contacts, 5 pages and 1 product, per the official pricing page, which suits a single narrow offer more than a growing list. The real cost driver is the contact tier you outgrow, not the feature set.
Choose Kartra for
- A business that wants helpdesk and membership next to the funnel
- Replacing several tools with one bill
Look elsewhere if
- A first offer that only needs a landing page and a checkout
Who Kartra is built for
Kartra targets sellers who want pages, email, checkout, membership and a helpdesk under one login instead of stitching separate tools together, per the official positioning. It fits a single product or a small catalog run by one person or a small team who would rather manage one contact list and one price than reconcile several subscriptions.
It is a poor fit for anyone who needs to onboard client accounts separately, see funnel builder for agencies, or who is starting with zero contacts and no budget yet; the options compared in free funnel builder to start cover that case better.
What Kartra actually does
Per the official pricing page, two facts define the platform regardless of tier:
- Pages, checkout, membership areas, email campaigns and a helpdesk live inside one account, with no separate integrations required for the core stack.
- Pricing scales primarily with contact count rather than with features; once you pick a tier, most tools are available, and the number of contacts you can hold is what changes. Email sending itself is unlimited from the Starter plan upward.
Feature depth inside each module (automation rules, membership drip logic, helpdesk ticketing) is not itemized on the pricing page; verify specifics in the app before committing to a workflow.
The plan ladder
| Kartra | Essentials | Starter | Growth | Professional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $59/mo | $119/mo | $229/mo | $549/mo |
| Billed annually | $52/mo | $99/mo | $189/mo | $429/mo |
| Contacts | 500 | 2,500 | 12,500 | 25,000 |
| Emails per month | 10,000 | · | · | · |
| Custom domains | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Pages | 5 | unlimited | unlimited | unlimited |
| Products | 1 | unlimited | unlimited | unlimited |
| Emails | · | unlimited | unlimited | unlimited |
| Team members | · | 5 | 10 | · |
Annual billing lowers the effective monthly price. 30-day money back guarantee. Current amounts: the official Kartra pricing page.
The jump that matters most is Essentials to Starter: contacts move from 500 to 2,500, pages and products go from capped to unlimited, and email sending becomes unlimited. Growth and Professional then scale contacts again, to 12,500 and 25,000, while adding custom domains and team members.
Essentials is tighter than it looks
Per the official pricing page, Essentials includes 500 contacts, 5 pages and 1 product. That is enough to launch one offer and test it, not to run a full funnel, opt-in page, sales page, upsell and thank-you page, for more than one product at once. A single evergreen campaign with a lead magnet can burn through 500 contacts within weeks for anyone running paid traffic.
Starter removes the page and product caps and raises contacts to 2,500, priced at $119 per month, which is the plan most sellers with a live offer actually need.
The cost driver is your contact count, not your feature list
Because Kartra bills by contacts, the real budgeting question is not which features you need but how many contacts your list will hold in twelve months. A list that grows past a tier boundary forces an upgrade regardless of how the rest of the account is used. Model list growth, not just current size, before picking a tier: run the numbers in the cost calculator.
Annual billing lowers the effective monthly price on every tier, per the official pricing page, which is worth it once you are confident about which tier you will stay in for a year.
Best alternative to consider
Systeme.io covers a similar all-in-one shape, pages, email, courses and automation, with a free plan and a lower entry price than Kartra's Essentials tier, though the two platforms structure their limits differently. See ClickFunnels vs Kartra and Kartra vs Kajabi for direct comparisons, or Kartra alternatives for a broader shortlist.
Next step
Estimate your contact count twelve months out, not today's number, then compare Essentials against Starter with real figures in the cost calculator. If Kartra's all-in-one shape fits but the price curve does not, read Kartra alternatives before signing up. Check current terms on the official Kartra pricing page.
Inside Kartra
Ready to try Kartra?
See the plans · from $59/mo. Compare the whole stack first with the cost calculator if you run other tools.
Questions people also ask
How many contacts and pages does the Kartra Essentials plan include?
Per the official pricing page, Essentials includes 500 contacts, 5 pages, 1 custom domain and 1 product. It is enough to launch and test a single offer, not to run a multi-page funnel with room for list growth.
At what plan does Kartra email sending become unlimited?
Email sending is unlimited starting with the Starter plan, per the official pricing page. On Essentials, email sending is capped at 10,000 emails per month.
Does billing annually change the Kartra price?
Yes. Annual billing lowers the effective monthly price on every plan, per the official pricing page; check the official Kartra pricing page for current annual terms.
What should I check before outgrowing the Essentials plan?
Track your contact count against the 500 cap and your page count against the 5-page limit. Once either is close, moving to Starter removes both caps and adds unlimited email sending, per the official pricing page.