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ConvertKit vs Ontraport: Features, User-Experience and Pricing

By: Puranjay Singh   Last updated: 20 Sep 2017

An in-depth comparison between ConvertKit vs Ontraport. Which of these is the right marketing automation tool for you?

  ConvertKit


Features

User-Experience

Pricing & Support

Overall

Best for: Bloggers, authors infopreneurs, very small businesses

Plans from: $29/month

Ontraport


Features

User-Experience

Pricing & Support

Overall

Best for: Small businesses, solopreneurs, digital infopreneurs

Plans from: $79/month

ConvertKit vs Ontraport Overview

Although I've clubbed both Ontraport and ConvertKit in the same category of marketing automation software, they differ widely in their features and target audience.

ConvertKit is by-and-large, an email automation tool with some marketing automation capabilities. It's winning feature is how easy it makes it to send automated emails. While it has some marketing automation features, they exist largely to help people segment lists and send emails faster.

Consequently, ConvertKit's target market is very different as well - bloggers, authors and solopreneurs. If you have a large team, you will find ConvertKit largely underwhelming. For solo marketers, however, its ease of use and low cost make ConvertKit a great choice.

Ontraport, on the other hand, is an "all-in-one" integrated marketing solution. It doesn't just want to help you automate your emails; it wants to automate your entire business.

Ontraport's list of features makes it quite obvious as well. While marketing automation is the star of the show, there is also a lot of focus on sales, e-commerce, a CRM and even sending direct email.

In other words, Ontraport adopts a "marketing in a box" approach, whereas ConvertKit is mostly for sending emails.

These differences will become more apparent as we dive deeper into ConvertKit and Ontraport's features, user-experience, pricing and support.

About ConvertKit and Ontraport

Before we look at their features and user-experience, let's take a quick glance at ConvertKit and Ontraport.

  ConvertKit Overview

Headquarters: Remote
Year Founded: 2013
Total Employees: 20+
Company Status: Privately Owned
Funding Raised: None
Key People: Nathan Barry (Founder & CEO)
Website: ConvertKit.com
Social:     

ConvertKit homepage screenshot

ConvertKit is exactly like the audience it serves: small, nimble and bootstrapped. The company was founded by influential designer and author Nathan Barry to serve his own needs. Although it has grown to over 20 people, the company is entirely remote and has no central office.

ConvertKit is run like a startup. This means lower stability but more personal attention.

Ontraport Overview

Headquarters: Santa Barbara, CA (USA)
Year Founded: 2006
Total Employees: 106
Company Status: Privately Owned
Funding Raised: NA
Key People: Landon Ray (Founder & CEO)
Website: Ontraport.com
Social:     

Ontraport homepage screenshot

With over 100 employees, Ontraport is finally moving from "small" business to "medium-sized" business status. It has the revenues ($10M+) and growth to show for it.

This places it in the sweet spot of a large-ish company with the ethos of a smaller company. Meaning you can expect stability and security while still getting personalized service.

I will look at ConvertKit and Ontraport's features, user-experience, pricing, support and community below before giving my final verdict.

ConvertKit vs Ontraport: Features Comparison

ConvertKit and Ontraport differ greatly in the range, depth and user-friendliness of their features. While Ontraport offers customers an integrated marketing and sales solution, ConvertKit focuses almost entirely on email automation.

Thus, Ontraport has a number of non-marketing related features such as a CRM, sales automation, e-commerce pages, etc.

ConvertKit, on the other hand, has limited features beyond email. What it does have is stellar user-experience and low price.

Let's compare ConvertKit and Ontraport's features in more detail below:

  ConvertKit

Ontraport

  ConvertKit

1. Marketing automation

Limited event-based marketing automation with if-then triggers to create automation rules.

  • Visual campaign builder
  • Drag-and-drop automation
  • Behavior-based triggered messages
  • Pre-made automation campaign templates
  • No CRM integration
  • No content personalization
  • No split testing

2. CRM

ConvertKit does not have a built-in CRM. You will have to look at Zapier for a third-party integration.

  • Website activity tracking
  • Orders, appointments and interactions history
  • In-depth segmentation
  • Task management
  • Full-featured mobile CRM
  • Social CRM
  • Built-in calling & call recording
  • Role management & permissions

3. Sales Features

ConvertKit does not offer any sales-focused features. You will need to buy another tool to manage your pipeline, score leads or send quotes.

  • Pipeline/deal management
  • Custom quote creation
  • Lead scoring
  • Custom sales reporting
  • Forecasting
  • Data import/export
  • Sales gamification & leaderboards

4. Online Sales/E-Commerce

ConvertKit does not have any built-in e-commerce capabilities, though it does plug into a number of e-commerce solutions such as Gumroad, Samcart, Shopify, etc..

  • Order forms
  • Online storefront
  • Shopping cart
  • One-time & recurring payments
  • Order fulfillment
  • Smart card reader
  • Point of sale (POS)
  • Inventory management

5. Other Features

  • Affiliate management
  • Custom marketing & sales reports
  • Income reports
  • Mobile-optimized templates
  • Landing page builder
  • Mobile app
  • Content predictions/recommendations
  • Membership sites
  • Content/document management
  • Data visualizations

6. Integrations

Most integrations are limited to blogger-friendly tools such as membership sites, webinar tools, course sites, etc. There are no integrations for enterprise software.

  • WordPress plug-in
  • API access
  • Salesforce
  • Quickbooks
  • Gmail
  • Outlook
  • SAP
  • Netsuite
  • Zapier

Overall

As you can see, ConvertKit's features are limited to basic marketing and email automation. That's because it serves a very different need than ActiveCampaign. On the whole, if you want an all-in-one marketing software, go with ActiveCampaign. For simple email automation, pick ConvertKit.

Ontraport

1. Marketing automation

Highly customizable campaign builder with if-then triggers to create complex automation rules.

  • Visual campaign builder
  • Drag-and-drop automation
  • Behavior-based triggered messages
  • Pre-made automation campaign templates
  • CRM integration
  • Content personalization
  • Built-in split testing

2. CRM

Ontraport's built-in CRM useful and improving rapidly in capabilities.

  • Website activity tracking
  • Orders, appointments and interactions history
  • In-depth segmentation
  • Task management
  • Full-featured mobile CRM
  • Social CRM
  • Built-in calling & call recording
  • Role management & permissions

3. Sales Features

It's no Salesforce, but Ontraport's sales automation features are solid and perfectly adequate for businesses with smaller sales teams.

  • Pipeline/deal management
  • Custom quote creation
  • Lead scoring
  • Custom sales reporting
  • Forecasting
  • Data import/export
  • Sales gamification & leaderboards

4. Online Sales/E-Commerce

Ontraport gives you simple e-commerce options (such as checkout pages) but lacks a built-in payment processor. Good enough for basic e-commerce.

  • Order forms
  • Online storefront
  • Shopping cart
  • One-time & recurring payments
  • Order fulfillment
  • Smart card reader
  • Point of sale (POS)
  • Inventory management

5. Other Features

  • Affiliate management
  • Custom marketing & sales reports
  • Income reports
  • Mobile-optimized templates
  • Landing page builder
  • Mobile app
  • Content predictions/recommendations
  • Membership sites
  • Content/document management
  • Data visualizations

6. Integrations

Ontraport has an API and a growing list of integrations with most popular software. Integrations are mostly focused on small-business software.

  • WordPress plug-in
  • API access
  • Salesforce
  • Quickbooks
  • Gmail
  • Outlook
  • SAP
  • Netsuite
  • Zapier

Overall

Ontraport all-in-one approach means that it does a lot of things, but nothing particularly stands out. The marketing automation is the best feature. Even though it lacks a visual component, it gives users a lot of power and flexibility.

Other features such as CRM and sales automation, are less powerful though still useful. The good part is they are all integrated perfectly to give you a smooth user-experience.

ConvertKit vs Ontraport: User-Experience Comparison

How user-friendly a software is often determines how likely you (or your team) is to use it. For complex softare like marketing automation, the UI/UX become even more important.

ConvertKit is one of the easiest email marketing tools you will ever use. Ontraport, on the other hand, is relatively simple to use but suffers from some design issues.

Let's look at how ConvertKit and Ontraport compare in their user-experience below.

  ConvertKit

Ontraport

  ConvertKit

1. Navigation & Search

ConvertKit form builder

Since ConvertKit's features are limited, finding the right tool is quite easy. Search functionality is limited, but you won't usually have trouble finding what you want.

2. User-Interface

The homescreen focuses on subscriber count

ConvertKit's UI is clean and easy on the eyes. Functions are well-labeled and the design is self-explanatory. The software is built for people who like to "figure things out" themselves.

3. Dashboard

ConvertKit dashboard

ConvertKit's dashboard shows very limited, but meaningful data (such as open rates). It is heavily text-focused with few visualizations. A stronger visual flair would have helped.

Marketing Automation Builder

ConvertKit marketing automation builder

Although the campaign builder isn't visual, its two-pane layout is self-explanatory. You can stack several "rules" on top of each other to create complex automations.

Email Editor

ConvertKit sequence builder

There is no better email editor as far as sending text emails is concerned. It looks and feels like writing a blog post. Creating visual emails, however, can be a challenge.

Ease of Learning

Every aspect of ConvertKit is easy to learn. Most users won't even need to consult the documentation to get started.

Finding Help

You can find help through support tickets easily, though phone and live chat support are missed.

Overall

ConvertKit's standout feature is its ultra-easy to use email scheduler and automation builder. It takes all the pain out of creating an email series and automating simple marketing tasks.

Ontraport

1. Navigation & Search

Template library in Ontraport

Ontraport's navigation and search is neither great nor bad; it is perfectly adequare. Most features are easy to find and the search functionality is useful, if not stellar.

2. User-Interface

Ontraport automation builder intuitive design

While most features are well-labled and accessible, Ontraport's UI still looks outdated despite an update. This might be a sore point for some users.

3. Dashboard

Ontraport dashboard

Ontraport's dashboard shows you a lot of data but in an uninteresting, unintuitive way. There are too many numbers and too few charts, graphs and customization options.

Marketing Automation Builder

The automation builder in Ontraport

Despite not being "visual", the campaign builder is surprisingly easy to use. It also gives a lot of customization options - great for power users.

Email Editor

Ontraport email editor

The email editor is nothing to write home about. It's neither good nor bad - it gets the job done. Although text emails are harder to create, visual emails are a breeze.

Ease of Learning

ConvertKit is easy to learn intuitively for most users. You won't need to consult the documentation to get started.

Finding Help

You can find help through email and live chat, though easy accesst to phone support is hard.

Overall

Ontraport does an okay job of making a complex piece of software easy to use. It won't "wow" you, but it won't lead to crushing disappointment either. The campaign builder will appeal to power users. It's a perfectly okay "3.5/5" tool.

ConvertKit vs Ontraport: Pricing Comparison

ConvertKit and Ontraport have very different feature profiles and target audiences. The latter is aimed at small businesses, agencies and startups. The latter targets solopreneurs, bloggers, authors and "one-man" marketing operations.

As such, there is a big difference in their pricing. Don't be mislead by Ontraport's low initial price - this plan gives access to very limited features. You will have to pay at least $279/month to access the recommended plan.

ConvertKit and Ontraport also follow different pricing patterns. ConvertKit gives unlimited emails and all features to all users; you only pay for subscribers.

Ontraport, on the other hand, gives you a fixed number of contacts and features with each plan. This will be more apparent in the tables below:

ConvertKit Ontraport
Starting Plan $29/month $79/month
Recommended Plan $29/month $279/month
Starting Contacts 1,00 1,000
Starting No. of Users N/A 1
Onboarding Fee None None
Contract Term 1 Month 1 Month
Minimum Billing
  • For 5k Contacts
  • For 10k Contacts
  • For 20k Contacts
 $348/year
$948/year
$1,428/year
$2,148/year
 $3,348/year
$3,348/year
$3,348/year
$3,348/year
Refund Policy 30-day 90-day
Demo On Request On Request
Overall Rating

A few things to keep in mind:

  • Neither Ontraport nor ConvertKit charge any onboarding fee. Ontraport offers a 2-hour account setup with Pro plan.
  • Neither Ontraport nor ConvertKit require an upfront commitment. You pay for each month and can cancel anytime.
  • ConvertKit's pricing changes as you add more subscribers. You get all features from the start, regardless of subscriber count.
  • You can buy several different add-ons for Ontraport based on your requirements (such as extra contacts).

Summary

ConvertKit has a transparent pricing. You get all the features (and unlimited sending) regardless of how many contacts you have. The pricing also scales up nicely - for the same number of contacts, you can expect to about 60% of Ontraport's pricing each year.

Ontraport is affordable at a starting price of $79/month, but this plan includes very limited features. The recommended plan at $279/month is expensive, but doesn't require annual commitment or onboarding. This makes it more economical than some alternatives like Infusionsoft.

On the whole, ConvertKit's pricing is perfectly suited for its target audience of bloggers. Ontraport is more expensive, but the lack of annual commitment makes it more suitable than some alternatives.

ConvertKit vs Ontraport: Support & Community Comparison

Support and community are often overlooked, but are critical for a smooth user-experience. Marketing automation software is often complex; good support will make using the software far easier and enjoyable.

Similarly, a strong community means you will have other business owners to work with and learn from. It also makes finding freelancers and consultants easier.

Let's compare ConvertKit and Ontraport in terms of their support and community quality below.

ConvertKit vs. Ontraport: Support

When evaluating ConvertKit and Ontraport, I've considered the range and responsiveness of available support. I expect every software tool to at least offer email support, if not phone support (free or paid).

I've also considered the quality of documentation and whether there is any kind of training (video, recorded webinars, live training, etc.).

Support Feature ConvertKit Ontraport
Phone Support
Email Support
Live Chat Support
Training Videos
In-Person Training
Migration Services
Support Responsiveness Fast Fast
Documentation Quality Average Good
Overall Rating

ConvertKit vs. Ontraport: Community

For me, community covers everything from private Facebook groups to conferences. If the software has a vibrant community, it will have a large following among bloggers (who, consequently, can be a great source of advice and expertise). It will also have plenty of freelancers and consultants helping you get the most out of the software.

Let's see how ConvertKit and Ontraport compare on these two counts below:

Community Feature ConvertKit Ontraport
Blog ConvertKit Blog Ontraport Blog
Podcast AC Podcast None
Conference Craft + Commerce Ontrapalooza
Agency Partner Program Not Available Available
Live Events Poor Good
Freelancer Availability Poor Good
Overall Rating

In terms of search interest, ConvertKit and Ontraport are neck and neck. However, when you consider that ConvertKit has been around for just over four years while Ontraport is a much older company, this search graph is quite remarkable.

Search trends for ConvertKit and Ontraport

You can chalk this up to ConvertKit's popularity among bloggers and authors. These bloggers have helped create informal "communities" that are often more vibrant than ConvertKit itself creates.

These communities are ConvertKit's biggest strength as far as finding help and like-minded people is concerned.

Ontraport used to be a blogger darling at a point, but that has changed as the company has moved towards enterprise customers. As the list of features has grown, so has the community reachout towards influencers and bloggers.

Which is to say, Ontraport doesn't have much focus on online communities because it is targeting small to medium-sized businesses who already have implementation teams to make software deployment a success.

In terms of support and community, there isn't much to choose between Ontraport and ConvertKit. ConvertKit's blogger-friendly features make it a favorite online, but it has few live events. Ontraport's business-focused features have lost it support among bloggers, but it does offer more training and networking opportunities than ConvertKit.

It's a mixed bag. If you want an intimate community of helpful marketers, you'll like ConvertKit. However, if you want a more professional community of business owners and enterprise marketers, you'll like Ontraport more.

ConvertKit vs Ontraport: Final Verdict

Ontraport is clearly the better software if you want a marketing automation platform. The campaign builder gives you a lot of power and flexibility, while the CRM, e-commerce and sales force automation features make it attractive to small business owners.

Ontraport's pricing is also attractive since it doesn't require annual commitment or onboarding. You also get a lot of contacts (25,000) in the recommended plan, saving you from additional spending.

ConvertKit, however, does a remarkable job of making email marketing fun to use. It's marketing automation capabilities are basic, but they are easy and intuitive. You won't need help figuring out this software.

The pricing is similarly friendly. At just $29/month, any blogger can try it out without an upfront commitment.

Ultimately, choosing between ConvertKit and Ontraport is simple: if you have a low budget and need email marketing, get ConvertKit.

However, if you have a small business with at least 1-2 people on your marketing team, you will appreciate Ontraport more.

Choose ConvertKit if you:

  • Send a lot of text-heavy emails
  • Want an easy way to send scheduled emails
  • Have an existing CRM/sales solution (or don't need one)
  • Run a small (under 3 people) marketing team

Choose Ontraport if you:

  • Want to automate your business, not just your emails
  • Want a simple CRM solution
  • Want flexibility and customization
  • Have a limited team size

Not sure if either ConvertKit or Ontraport is right for you? Then check out our other comparisons such as Infusionsoft vs. Ontraport and Infusionsoft vs. ConvertKit.