Is Cardel an alternative to Help Scout or Kartra?

Cardel is a home for your craft: a site of your own with a blog, newsletter, shop, community, and one inbox. It can replace Help Scout or Kartra when you want your work, audience, and sales in one place. The feature list on this page shows where Help Scout and Kartra are marked.

Can I use Cardel with Help Scout or Kartra?

Yes. Cardel pages can link out to other products, so you can keep Help Scout or Kartra for what it does best and bring the rest of your work to Cardel.

How much does Cardel cost compared with Help Scout and Kartra?

You don't pay for Cardel until you publish. Choose Starter, Pro, or Studio when your site goes live. Help Scout and Kartra set their own prices, so check their pricing pages on this page for current plans.

How do I switch from Help Scout or Kartra to Cardel?

Start with Build Your Site, set up your home, and bring your work over at your own pace. You do not have to move everything on day one.

Compare

Help ScoutvsKartra

Help Scout is a human-feeling help desk: shared inbox, Docs, Beacon chat, and AI drafts. Kartra joins checkout, email automation, memberships, and a helpdesk in one system.

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How Help Scout and Kartra compare

Help Scout is support that feels like email from a person. A shared inbox with assignments and saved replies, Docs for a knowledge base, Beacon for chat and self-service, customer profiles, workflows, reports, and AI drafts and summaries help small teams deliver warm, organized support. Nothing about it feels like a ticket number.

Kartra is the operator's all-in-one. Checkouts with one-time, recurring, or installment pricing, email and SMS campaigns that react to what a lead does, membership portals for courses, calendars with paid bookings, a helpdesk with tickets and a wiki, and split tests on up to four page versions. If you run offers, sequences, and a member area as one machine and want the analytics to match, Kartra was built for exactly that.

Where they are different

Help Scout

Help Scout is the support tool beside your site.
Help Scout handles email and Beacon chat for anyone.
Help Scout has no marketing email.

Kartra

Kartra pages are campaign pages first.
Kartra has blog page templates and a WordPress push, not a blog engine.
Kartra's helpdesk takes tickets from a forwarded support address on Growth and up.

Choose Help Scout when a small team needs a warm, organized help desk with a knowledge base.

Choose Kartra when you sell through checkouts and sequences, deliver inside memberships, and want a helpdesk, affiliates, SMS, and split testing wired to the same lead record.

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What's on Help Scout and Kartra

A check means that capability is available. Help Scout and Kartra are marked only when the offer is comparable, not the same product.

Site and brand

Workspace site
Help Scout: Not included
Kartra: Included

Audience and email

Audience
Help Scout: Included
Kartra: Included
Email on your domain
Help Scout: Included
Kartra: Included
Marketing emails
Help Scout: Not included
Kartra: Included
Campaign workflows
Help Scout: Not included
Kartra: Included

Messaging

Built-in chat
Help Scout: Included
Kartra: Included
Messaging Center
Help Scout: Included
Kartra: Included
AI Suggest
Help Scout: Included
Kartra: Not included

Commerce

Shop payments
Help Scout: Not included
Kartra: Included
Scheduling and bookingsLink to external scheduling available on Starter.
Help Scout: Not included
Kartra: Included

Team

Admin users
Help Scout: Included
Kartra: Included
Per-admin permissions
Help Scout: Included
Kartra: Included
AI Assistant
Help Scout: Included
Kartra: Included

Feature comparison for Help Scout and Kartra
Feature	Help Scout	Kartra
Site and brand
Workspace site	Not included	Included
Audience and email
Audience	Included	Included
Email on your domain	Included	Included
Marketing emails	Not included	Included
Campaign workflows	Not included	Included
Messaging
Built-in chat	Included	Included
Messaging Center	Included	Included
AI Suggest	Included	Not included
Commerce
Shop payments	Not included	Included
Scheduling and bookingsLink to external scheduling available on Starter.	Not included	Included
Team
Admin users	Included	Included
Per-admin permissions	Included	Included
AI Assistant	Included	Included

* Note: This table does not capture every feature of Help Scout or Kartra, and is not intended as a comprehensive list. We keep this page current, but Help Scout or Kartra may add or remove features that are not shown here.