1 August 2026 · Comparison
Kartra vs GrooveFunnels (2026): Only One Is Still Open
The short answer
if you need a platform that is actually accepting new customers, with stable pricing, native video hosting, and an all-in-one business engine you can start using today.
if you are an existing GrooveFunnels or GrooveLifetime member who wants to understand what carries forward to Scale.gg before deciding whether to stay or move.
Disclosure: SaaSpicious may earn a commission if you purchase through links in this post. This does not affect our verdict. We recommend tools based on what we find, and we call out downsides for every tool we compare. Kartra runs an affiliate program we participate in; GrooveFunnels no longer accepts new customers or affiliate signups, so there is no GrooveFunnels link here.
The Short Verdict
If you are searching “Kartra vs GrooveFunnels” today, the answer is not a feature comparison - it is that GrooveFunnels stopped accepting new customers on July 27, 2026. The company is transitioning to a rebuilt platform called Scale.gg, with a full sunset of Groove.cm targeted for December 31, 2027. You can no longer sign up for GrooveFunnels, and its free accounts are expected to close in a later phase.
That leaves Kartra as the only platform in this comparison you can actually buy today. Kartra is a stable, all-in-one business engine - pages, funnels, email, video hosting, memberships, checkouts, calendars, and more under one login - starting at $59/mo for Essentials and $119/mo for the tier that unlocks 0% transaction fees, unlimited emails, and video hosting.
So the real question for most readers is not “Kartra or GrooveFunnels?” but “Is Kartra the right all-in-one for me - or should I look at a cheaper alternative like Systeme.io or a funnel-first tool like ClickFunnels?”
Who picks what: Pick Kartra if you want one platform that genuinely replaces your marketing stack and you need it now, with stable pricing and active development. Pick “GrooveFunnels” only if you are an existing member deciding what to do with your account during the transition - and note that free accounts are expected to close.
At a Glance
| Kartra | GrooveFunnels | |
|---|---|---|
| New signups | Open (14-day free trial) | Closed July 27, 2026 |
| Current status | Active, stable product | Sunsetting into Scale.gg by Dec 31, 2027 |
| Entry price | $59/mo (Essentials) | No longer purchasable |
| Full-featured entry | $119/mo (Starter: 0% fees, unlimited email, video hosting) | N/A for new users |
| Free tier | Trial only (14 days) | Was free, expected to close (Phase 3) |
| Transaction fees | 5% on Essentials; 0% Starter+ | Was 0% (legacy) |
| Native video hosting | Yes (with behavioral tagging) | Was yes (GrooveVideo) |
| All-in-one breadth | 15+ tools under one login | Was 20+ apps across the suite |
| Migration risk | None - you sign up fresh | Existing members face phased migration |
| Best for | Coaches, course creators, membership operators | Existing Groove members planning their move |
Prices accurate as of August 2026; check the vendor’s site for current rates.
The Big News: GrooveFunnels Is Not Taking New Customers
The GrooveFunnels pricing page no longer shows plans. It shows a transition announcement dated July 21, 2026:
- Phase 1 (began July 27, 2026): No new Groove.cm users. Existing users keep access.
- Phase 2 (~30 days later): The Groove website redirects to Scale.gg.
- Phase 3 (timing TBD): Free and non-paid accounts are expected to close. Free users must upgrade to a subscription before this phase or risk losing their data.
- Phase 4 (working target Dec 31, 2027): Full sunset of Groove.cm. Roughly 18 months of runway for members to migrate.
GrooveLifetime members get designated lifetime access to replacement Scale.gg apps (GrooveSell to Scale.gg, GroovePages to PageBuilder, GrooveMail to MailBaser, GrooveMember to Courses.gg, GrooveVideo to VideoPlayer.gg, GrooveBlog to BlogBaser, GrooveWebinar to WebinarBaser, GrooveKart to MyStore.gg) plus eight additional apps.
If you are a free GrooveFunnels user, the announcement is explicit: plan to upgrade before Phase 3 or you can lose stored data.
Why this matters for the comparison: every older “Kartra vs GrooveFunnels” article compares two things you could buy. As of August 2026, that is no longer true. Any recommendation to “pick GrooveFunnels” is advice to buy a product you cannot purchase, on a platform that has announced its own sunset. That is the single most important fact in this comparison.
Pricing: What You Actually Pay
Kartra Pricing
Kartra’s pricing page (verified live August 1, 2026) shows five options:
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | Key limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Trial | $0 | $0 | 14 days, 1,000 emails, then converts to Starter |
| Essentials | $59/mo | $52/mo | 500 contacts, 10K emails/mo, 5% transaction fees, 1 domain, 5 pages, 1 product, 1 membership/course, Kartra AI (30 uses) |
| Starter | $119/mo | $99/mo | 2,500 contacts, unlimited email & SMS, 0% transaction fees, 1 domain, unlimited pages/products/memberships, video hosting, 5 team members, calendars, Kartra AI (100 uses) |
| Growth | $229/mo | $189/mo | 12,500 contacts, 3 domains, funnel simulation, webinars (1K guests), automations, affiliates, surveys & quizzes, 10 team members, helpdesk, Kartra AI (250 uses) |
| Professional | $549/mo | N/A | 25,000 contacts, real-time funnel analytics, 5 custom domains, helpdesk live chat |
All plans include a 14-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Two honest notes on Kartra pricing:
- The 5% transaction fee on Essentials is unusual in this market. It disappears at Starter ($119/mo), but the entry tier is a testing tier, not a business tier.
- PayPal is not accepted for Kartra subscription payments - credit/debit cards only.
GrooveFunnels Pricing
There is no current GrooveFunnels price list, because there is no current GrooveFunnels product for new buyers. The pricing page redirects to the transition announcement above.
What this means: any GrooveFunnels price you find in an older review (the legacy free plan, GrooveLite, GroovePlus, or the lifetime deal tiers) is historical. Those plans are no longer sold to new customers.
Feature Comparison: Where Each Wins
Where Kartra Wins
You can sign up today. This is not a marketing point - it is the point. Kartra is actively selling, actively developing, and has no announced end date. Everything else in this section assumes you have a platform that will still exist next year.
Stable, transparent pricing. Four published tiers with clear limits, annual discounts, and a 30-day money-back guarantee. You know what you pay and what you get.
Native video hosting with behavioral marketing. Kartra hosts your videos and lets you insert lead-capture forms, pop offers mid-video, and tag viewer behavior - without stitching together YouTube, a video host, and your email tool.
True all-in-one depth. Pages, funnels, email/SMS, checkouts, memberships, courses, calendars, helpdesk, surveys, affiliate management, and Kartra AI under one login. No integration duct-tape required.
0% transaction fees at $119/mo. The Starter tier keeps all your revenue and adds unlimited emails, video hosting, and calendars.
HIPAA compliance at no extra cost. Relevant for coaches and consultants in health-adjacent niches.
Where GrooveFunnels “Wins” (Historically - and Why It No Longer Counts)
Breadth of apps. The legacy suite spanned 20+ apps - GroovePages, GrooveSell, GrooveMail, GrooveKart, GrooveMember, GrooveWebinar, GrooveVideo, GrooveBlog, GrooveAutomations, and more. On paper, that was a wider ecosystem than Kartra’s.
Aggressive lifetime deals. The GrooveLifetime program sold one-time access that “covered everything.” The transition announcement explicitly honors a designated subset of these for existing GrooveLifetime members.
Here is why those wins no longer count for a new buyer: you cannot purchase any of it. Free accounts are expected to close. The lifetime benefits that carry forward apply to a designated subset of Scale.gg apps - not the entire suite.
Where Kartra Loses
The 5% transaction fee on Essentials feels out of place in a market where 0% is the norm. It makes the $59 entry tier look cheaper than it is for anyone actually selling.
Steep price jumps. $59 → $119 → $229 → $549. Automations and affiliate management are locked behind Growth ($229/mo). Real-time analytics and API access live at Professional ($549/mo). The platform pushes you up the ladder.
No free tier, only a trial. Kartra’s 14-day trial is fine, but competitors like Systeme.io offer a permanent free plan with 2,000 contacts and 0% fees. If you want to test a workflow for months before paying, Kartra is not the tool.
No e-commerce store for physical products. Kartra handles digital products and checkouts well, but physical-product merchants need a separate solution.
API access is locked at the top tier. Kartra does integrate with Zapier, Stripe, Authorize.net, PayPal, Braintree, Twilio, and more natively - but the API, IPN, and custom-app access for building your own integrations sits behind Professional ($549/mo). If your stack depends on custom code integrations, Kartra prices that capability higher than competitors like ClickFunnels (Scale at $197/mo).
Contact caps are restrictive. From 500 on Essentials to 25,000 on Professional - growing past a cap forces a plan jump, and going over a lead limit triggers an automatic upgrade with a mid-cycle reconciliation fee.
Where GrooveFunnels Loses
It is closed to new customers. As of July 27, 2026, you cannot create a Groove.cm account. This is the entire comparison in one sentence.
The platform is sunsetting. The announced working target is December 31, 2027 - roughly 18 months - after which Groove.cm is expected to be fully sunset.
Free accounts are expected to close. Phase 3 of the transition plan states free, non-paid, and non-subscription accounts are likely to be shut down, and free users must upgrade before that phase to avoid losing data.
Existing members face a forced migration. Even if you are happy with GrooveFunnels, the company has told you the product will end. You will be migrating to Scale.gg (or somewhere else) within roughly 18 months.
The old marketing is gone. The famous free-plan and lifetime-deal funnels that drew people to GrooveFunnels no longer apply to new signups - there are no new signups.
The “Both Are From the Same Founder” Wrinkle
One genuinely interesting fact: Kartra and GrooveFunnels share a founder lineage. Mike Filsaime co-founded the company behind WebinarJam, EverWebinar, and Kartra, sold his interest, and then founded Groove.cm - which is now becoming Scale.gg.
That explains why the two tools feel philosophically similar: both are “all-in-one business platforms” from the same builder. It does not change the practical answer - Kartra is the one that is still open for business.
Who Should Pick Kartra?
Pick Kartra if:
- You want a stable, actively developed all-in-one platform and you need it now.
- You are a coach, course creator, or membership operator who wants pages, funnels, email, video hosting, checkouts, and calendars under one login.
- You use video as a core marketing tool and want behavioral tagging and in-player offers without integration duct-tape.
- You want 0% transaction fees, unlimited emails, and video hosting at $119/mo (Starter).
- You value predictable pricing and a 30-day money-back guarantee over chasing deals.
Who Should Pick GrooveFunnels?
This section is honest: for new buyers, nobody should pick GrooveFunnels - you cannot sign up. The only people who “pick” GrooveFunnels now are:
- Existing GrooveLifetime members who want to understand which Scale.gg apps carry forward before deciding whether to stay or move to another platform.
- Free GrooveFunnels users who need to decide, before Phase 3, whether to upgrade or export their data.
If you are in either group, treat the transition announcement as your deadline, not your roadmap.
The Bottom Line
For the person landing on this page in 2026, Kartra is the pick - by default and on merit. By default, because GrooveFunnels closed new enrollment on July 27, 2026 and is sunsetting into Scale.gg. On merit, because Kartra’s Starter tier at $119/mo delivers a genuinely complete business engine - 0% transaction fees, unlimited email/SMS, native video hosting, calendars, and memberships - with stable pricing and no announced end date.
Kartra is wrong for you if: you need a permanent free tier (see Systeme.io), you sell physical products, you need API access below the $549/mo Professional tier, or you expect to grow past 25,000 contacts without paying for plan upgrades.
GrooveFunnels is wrong for you if: you are a new buyer (you literally cannot sign up), or you are a free user waiting for the transition to resolve itself (free accounts are expected to close - act before Phase 3).
See also: Kartra vs ClickFunnels for the funnel-builder head-to-head, Systeme.io vs Kartra for the budget alternative, and our best Kartra alternatives roundup for the full market view.
