Kartra vs Systeme.io: What Each Charges for the Same List

The short answer: for a coach with 2,500 contacts, Kartra Starter costs $119 a month and Systeme.io holds the same list on Startup for $17, a gap of $102 a month on monthly billing (Kartra plans, Systeme.io pricing, checked on 26 October 2026). Choose Kartra if your job is a membership that members use daily, with course video hosted in the account and, from Growth, a helpdesk for their questions. Choose Systeme.io if your job is getting a course, a list and a checkout running at the lowest fixed cost, with room to grow to an unlimited list at $97.

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Both sell the same promise, one login for pages, email, checkout and courses, and they price it from opposite ends. Systeme.io starts at zero: its free plan has no end date and needs no card, and it climbs in four steps set mostly by contacts (pricing FAQ). Kartra starts at $59 and spends the difference on what happens after the sale: membership portals, video hosting, calendars, then automations, affiliates and a helpdesk as the tiers rise (plans page). One is built to be cheap to begin. The other to be complete once you are running.

What to count first:

1. The gap at your list size. For example, at 10,000 contacts Kartra needs Growth at $229 and Systeme.io Webinar costs $47, so $229 - $47 = $182 a month, or 12 x $182 = $2,184 a year on monthly billing, from the Kartra and Systeme.io pricing pages.
2. The entry plan against the free one. For example, a month with $1,500 of net sales on Kartra Essentials costs $59 + 0.05 x $1,500 = $134, because of the 5% fee in its fees article. Systeme.io's free plan holds 2,000 contacts and lists 0% transaction fees (pricing); your card processor's fee applies on both.
3. The tools you already pay for. The video host, the booking calendar, the webinar tool, the support inbox. Write each one's monthly cost beside it. A platform saves only what you cancel.
4. The number you will judge it on. Members still paying after their first rebill. Take it from your payment processor's subscription report before you move anything, so the new platform is measured against the old one.

Roughly $100 a month on each

Monthly billing, read on 26 October 2026 on the Kartra plans page, the Systeme.io pricing page and Systeme.io's MCP guide. Billed yearly, Kartra's four plans cost $52, $99, $189 and $429 a month; Systeme.io's paid plans cost $170, $470 and $970 a year.

Three places they part

What a member meets after paying

Kartra's plans are written around delivery: membership portals, video hosted and streamed from your account on Starter, a helpdesk on Growth and live chat in it on Professional (plans page). Its pricing FAQ adds checkout pages in 24 languages, Dutch, French and German among them, set to one language or switched by the visitor's location. Systeme.io covers the course and the community with lighter tools and wider limits: unlimited students on every paid plan, and payments through Stripe, PayPal, Apple Pay and four regional processors, plus cash on delivery (pricing).

How the bill reacts to growth

Kartra never refuses a lead. Its FAQ says that past the plan's contact cap the account moves up a tier automatically, with a mid-cycle reconciliation fee, while domains and team members simply stop at the limit with no add-ons for sale (plans page). The same FAQ calls the subscription a flat rate with never any extra fees. Yet the Essentials card lists 5% transaction fees, and the fees article invoices them monthly and separately, even on a plan paid yearly (fees article). Both statements are on Kartra's own pages; the fee is the one that reaches your card. Systeme.io moves by your choice: cancel and the account returns to the free plan at the next billing date (pricing FAQ).

Who else can work in the account

Kartra counts people: 5 team members on Starter, 10 on Growth. Systeme.io gives unlimited assistant accounts and unlimited sub-accounts on every plan, each with the main plan's limits (pricing). For software agents the gap is wider. Systeme.io documents an MCP server that manages contacts, emails, funnels, offers, automation rules and courses (MCP guide); a search of Kartra's help centre for MCP returned no article on 26 October 2026.

Rebuilding a course outline with an agent

If the move is from Kartra to Systeme.io, the slow part is recreating the course structure. Systeme.io's MCP server creates courses, modules and lectures, and can activate or deactivate each lecture (MCP guide).

1. Create an MCP key under Settings, then MCP & API keys. Keys last at most 90 days and two can exist at once.
2. Add Systeme.io to Claude as a custom connector and set the write tools to Needs approval, one of the three permission levels the Claude guide describes.
3. Paste the module and lesson titles from your Kartra membership and ask the agent to create the course with every lecture deactivated.
4. The human check: the course owner lays the new outline beside the old one, uploads the videos, and activates lectures one module at a time after watching each through.

Nothing reaches a student until a person has switched a lecture on.

Free first, then the trial

Build the Systeme.io version on the free plan while Kartra keeps running: one course, 500 students and 2,000 contacts cost nothing and need no card (pricing FAQ). If Kartra is the candidate instead, its trial page gives 14 days on any plan and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

That trial limits sending to 1,000 emails, while Starter is sized for 2,500 contacts (trial page, plans page). The first send to your whole list therefore happens after Kartra's first monthly charge. Mail a segment of under 1,000 during the trial and read its delivery before the rest of the list sees anything.

Kartra is the pick when the job is

• A paid membership whose members expect answers in a helpdesk and, on Professional, live chat.
• Hosting course video in the same account that sells access to it.
• Selling to buyers in several languages, with the checkout switching to theirs.

Systeme.io is the pick when the job is

• Launching a first course and list before there is revenue to pay for software.
• Growing past 12,500 contacts without the bill following, on Unlimited at $97 (pricing).
• Letting an AI assistant build courses, offers and automation rules under a person's approval.

More on each: the Kartra entry and Systeme.io entry; how to use Kartra sets up a paid membership, and how to use Systeme.io a lead magnet funnel. Each also faces ClickFunnels, in Kartra vs ClickFunnels and Systeme.io vs ClickFunnels.

FAQ

Does Kartra charge a transaction fee?

On Essentials only: 5% of sales and rebills minus refunds and chargebacks, invoiced monthly, per the fees article. Starter, Growth and Professional list 0% on the plans page, and no new fees are charged after an upgrade.

What happens when my list outgrows the plan?

Kartra moves you up automatically and bills a mid-cycle reconciliation fee; past 12,500 contacts that means Professional at $549 a month (plans page). Systeme.io asks you to choose the next plan, and past 10,000 contacts Unlimited costs $97 (pricing).

Is Systeme.io's free plan enough for a membership?

For a small one: 1 course, 1 community, 500 students and 2,000 contacts, with 0% transaction fees (pricing). Startup, at $17 a month, lifts the student limit to unlimited and allows 5 courses.