Keap vs Kartra vs Close: Which CRM Actually Solves Your Problem? (2026 Comparison)

The Three CRM Universes (And They're Nothing Alike)

You're about to choose a CRM. That's exciting and terrifying in equal measure, because—spoiler alert—90% of CRM comparison articles treat all three platforms like they're competing for the same job. They're not.

Keap automates how you follow up with clients you already know. Kartra builds the entire customer journey from awareness to payment. Close accelerates how fast your sales team dials and closes deals.

Same category, completely different games.

This article won't tell you which one "wins." Instead, we'll show you which one actually solves the problem you're trying to solve right now. By the end, you'll know exactly which platform matches your reality.

Let's dive in.

Why This Comparison Matters Today

CRM buying decisions in 2026 aren't about features anymore—they're about philosophy.

Three camps have emerged:

1. Automation-First: You want a CRM that handles the repetitive nurturing so you don't have to think about it (Keap)

2. Integration-Averse: You want everything built-in, native, no API calls or plugin chaos (Kartra)

3. Velocity-Obsessed: You want your team making more calls, closing faster, with sales engagement as the center (Close)

Pick the wrong philosophy, and you'll spend 6 months fighting the tool instead of fighting your competition.

Part 1: The Benefits You Actually Need

Keap: The "My Business Runs on Automation" Platform

The Core Benefit You Actually Get:
You spend less time on follow-up and more time on strategy. Your leads get nurtured whether you remember or not. Your team knows the next step is automated, so they stop overthinking.

Keap was built by people who understand small business. It solves a specific pain: you close deals inconsistently because follow-up is chaotic. Email gets forgotten. Phone calls aren't logged. The deal dies in the funnel.

Keap's answer? Pre-built, battle-tested automation sequences. You plug in the trigger, it runs the sequence.

Why This Matters:
When your business runs on relationships, automation is freedom. It means a client books an appointment → Keap sends a confirmation → sends a prep email 2 days before → sends a thank-you after → starts a nurture sequence if they don't book again. You don't manage any of it. It just happens.

The results? Users report 28 hours saved per month, 24% increase in client retention, and 35% growth in customer databases. That's not theoretical. That's measured.

Real-World Feeling:
You're a consultant, coach, or agency owner. Your calendar fills up, but not consistently. You miss follow-ups. You know exactly which email should go out next, but you forget to send it because you're busy delivering services.

With Keap, you set up your sequences once, and they become your 24/7 sales assistant. No thinking. No manual steps. Just business growing in the background.

And Keap's support isn't robotic. When you get stuck, actual humans answer. The community feedback is unanimous: "It feels like having a real team member who has your back."

The Numbers:

• Ignite: $249–$299/mo (annual–monthly pricing, 1,500 contacts, 2 users)

• Grow: $329–$399/mo (2,500 contacts, 3 users)

• Scale: $499–$599/mo (5,000+ contacts, 5 users)

• Plus: $499 one-time Expert Coaching (included with setup)

• 200,000+ small businesses trust it

• 28 hours saved per month on average

• 4.5/5 rating across platforms

• 24% increase in client retention (documented)

Kartra: The "One Platform, Zero Integrations" Platform

The Core Benefit You Actually Get:
Everything you need to run an online business lives in one login. Build pages. Collect leads. Send emails. Deliver products. Process payments. Host webinars. Manage affiliates. Track results. No switching tabs, no waiting for Zapier to sync data, no broken integrations killing your flow.

Kartra obsesses over one thing: making the entire customer journey native. Not integrated. Native. Built in. No API calls. No third-party risk.

Why This Matters:
Every integration adds friction. Every tool adds cost and complexity. Every data sync creates latency.

What if you didn't need any of that?

Kartra lets you build a complete sales funnel—landing page, email sequence, checkout with upsells, delivery portal, course access—without leaving the platform. The customer never bounces to another tool. You never have to babysit a broken integration.

This translates to faster launches, more reliable workflows, and measurably better conversions because nothing gets lost in translation.

Real-World Feeling:
You're a course creator, coach, or entrepreneur launching a digital product. You need a landing page that converts → an email funnel that nurtures → a checkout that upsells → a course platform that drip-feeds content → analytics showing what's working.

Most people patch together 5–7 tools. With Kartra, it's all one platform. You build a landing page, add an email sequence, set up a checkout with a $97 upsell, deliver a course—all without a single integration. The data flows seamlessly. You see the complete picture.

And unlike sprawling enterprise tools, Kartra's interface is designed for builders, not administrators. You drag, you drop, you launch. Hours to build what would take weeks with integrations.

The Numbers:

• Essentials: $52/mo (annual) or $59/mo (monthly) — 500 contacts, 5% transaction fee

• Starter: $99/mo (annual) or $119/mo (monthly) — 2,500 contacts, 0% transaction fee

• Growth: $189/mo (annual) or $229/mo (monthly) — 12,500 contacts, 0% transaction fee

• Professional: $429/mo (annual) or $549/mo (monthly) — 25,000 contacts, 0% transaction fee

• 4.5/5 Capterra rating

• Native everything: Pages, email, checkout, webinars, courses, memberships, affiliate management, analytics

• 14–30 day free trial (standard 14 days, extended offers available)

• 30-day money-back guarantee

• All features on all plans (only Agency white-labeling restricted to higher tiers)

Close: The "Your Sales Team Makes 3x More Calls" Platform

The Core Benefit You Actually Get:
Your reps stop dialing and waiting. The Power Dialer handles the mechanical part (dialing, routing, recording). Your reps handle the human part (selling). Result: 2–3x more calls per day and faster deal closures.

Close is built by people who ran sales teams. They understand the pain: reps spend 60–70% of their time doing busywork (dialing, checking voicemail, logging calls). Only 30–40% selling.

Close's solution is brutal simplicity: native calling, SMS, email, and pipeline management integrated into one CRM.

No integrations. No switching between Dialpad and Salesforce. No logging calls manually. Everything happens inside the platform.

Why This Matters:
Velocity selling is math. More conversations = more deals. The team that talks to 100 prospects per week closes more than the team that talks to 30.

Close's Power Dialer automates the mechanical parts:

• Rep queues up a lead list

• Dialer calls the next number automatically when the current call ends

• If it's voicemail, dialer drops a pre-recorded message

• If it's a dead number, dialer skips it

• When someone answers, rep speaks (no "press 1 for sales")

• Call is recorded, AI summarizes it, transcript is auto-logged

Rep's job: talk to the human. Everything else is automated.

The mathematical result? 2–3x more contacts per day. More contacts = more meetings = more deals.

Real-World Feeling:
You're an SDR manager or sales leader. Your team's bottleneck isn't skills—it's volume. You want reps on calls, not clicking through multiple tools or manually logging activities.

Close lets you watch the pipeline in real-time, listen in on live calls for coaching ("whisper" mode), and see which reps are hitting their numbers based on actual conversation data, not hope.

Teams love this because they feel the immediate difference. More calls = more pipeline = less stress about quota.

The Numbers:

• Solo: $9/mo (annual) or $19/mo (monthly) — 1 user max, 10K contact limit, perfect for solopreneurs

• Essentials: $35/mo (annual) or $49/mo (monthly) — Unlimited contacts, basic CRM

• Growth: $99/mo (annual) or $109/mo (monthly) — Power Dialer included

• Scale: $139/mo (annual) or $149/mo (monthly) — Predictive Dialer + unlimited recording

• Note: All plans are per-seat (multiply cost by number of users)

• Unlimited contacts on all plans (no per-contact cost)

• 2–3x call volume increase (documented by users)

• SMS + Voice + Email + CRM (all native)

• 14-day free trial

Part 2: How the Features Create These Benefits

Keap: Automation That Scales

What makes Keap actually save 28 hours per month?

Feature Translation to Benefit:
All of this means one thing: your business runs on rules, not memory. You define the rule once (if this, then that). It runs forever. You never think about it again. That's where the 28 hours per month comes from.

Kartra: The All-in-One Ecosystem

What makes Kartra so powerful that it replaces 10+ other tools?

Feature Translation to Benefit:
These features create zero-integration operations. You launch faster because you don't wait for API connections. You move faster because you're not switching apps. You scale easier because every customer interaction flows through the same system. That's why agencies and course creators become Kartra evangelists.

Close: Sales Engagement on Steroids

What makes Close double or triple call volume?

Feature Translation to Benefit:
These features create sales velocity. Fewer mechanical obstacles = more conversations. More conversations = more qualified pipeline. More pipeline = easier quota achievement. That's why SDR teams using Close report 2–3x call volume increases immediately.

The Direct Comparison Table

Your Decision Framework

Choose Keap if:

You're a service business, consultant, or coach. You need automation to run in the background. Your challenge isn't building funnels—it's following up consistently. You want a CRM that feels like it's on your team. You're willing to invest in excellent onboarding and support.

→ Start with Keap's 14-day trial | Explore Keap on SAASPartout

Choose Kartra if:

You're building digital products, courses, or launching a funnel. You want everything integrated natively (no integration work). You're tired of stitching together 5+ tools. You want to launch fast and scale without worrying about APIs breaking. You might manage affiliate programs or client funnels.

→ Start with Kartra's free trial | Explore Kartra on SAASPartout

Choose Close if:

You're a sales team doing high-volume outreach. Your metric is calls per day and pipeline generated. You want your reps on the phone, not in three different apps. You need team analytics and live coaching tools. (For solopreneurs: Start with Close's Solo plan at $9/mo.)

→ Start with Close's 14-day free trial | Explore Close on SAASPartout

Can You Use More Than One?

Absolutely. In fact, many sophisticated operations do.

Smart combinations:

1. Keap + Close: Outbound sales calling (Close) + inbound nurture automation (Keap). Perfect for B2B service businesses.

2. Kartra + Close: Build and launch funnels (Kartra), generate outbound leads from Kartra, call them with Close. Zero wasted leads.

3. Kartra + Keap: Build funnels and landing pages (Kartra), nurture with smart automation (Keap). Different strengths, perfect together.

4. All three: Enterprise agencies might use Close for the sales team, Kartra for client funnel management, Keap for internal business automation.

The key: use each tool for what it's designed to do.

2026 Trend: Platform Wars Are Over, Specialization Won

In 2018–2020, every platform tried to be everything. Today? Winners specialize.

• Keap stopped pretending to be an enterprise CRM. It owns small-business automation.

• Kartra stopped pretending to sell high-volume calling. It owns funnel building and course delivery.

• Close stopped pretending to compete on email. It owns sales engagement and calling.

This is actually great news for you. It means you're not choosing a "best overall" platform. You're choosing the specialist for your problem.

Next Steps: Stop Reading, Start Testing

All three platforms offer real free trials (not limited-feature demos).

Here's what we recommend:

1. Try Keap for 1 week if you're managing service clients and need consistent follow-up

2. Try Kartra for 1 week if you're building a funnel or launching a digital product

3. Try Close for 1 week if you have a sales team making 50+ dials per day (or start with Solo plan if you're a solopreneur)

After one week with each, you'll feel which one fits your brain and workflow.

Don't choose based on feature lists. Choose based on whether the tool thinks the way you think.

The Bottom Line

Keap automates relationship management. Kartra automates digital product delivery. Close automates sales velocity.

Pick the one that solves your actual bottleneck.

Your team (and your profit margins) will thank you.

Ready to choose? Each platform is designed to show you exactly what's possible in the first week.

• Test Keap's automation - Best for service businesses

• Test Kartra's funnels - Best for product launches

• Test Close's calling - Best for sales teams

Want to explore beyond these three? Discover the complete landscape of CRM and sales engagement tools on the SAASPartout Marketplace—with 100+ vetted alternatives, real user reviews, side-by-side pricing, and feature comparisons to find your perfect match. Or let the SAASPartout AI Assistant analyze your business size, sales process, and growth goals to recommend the ideal platform in minutes instead of weeks. Stop guessing. Get personalized insights.