If you’re new to Kartra, this guide will help you understand the difference between Products and Checkouts and how to decide which setup works best for your business.

What is a Product in Kartra?

A Product is the item or service you’re selling.

It includes the basic setup needed to make a sale:

Pricing: What your customer pays
Delivery: How they get what they bought
Payment methods: Like Stripe or PayPal
Checkout fields & terms: What info you collect and your terms and conditions
Automations: What happens after a sale (emails, tagging, access, etc.)
Refund policy: How you’ll handle returns

Pro tip

Every Product includes built-in legacy checkout settings, so you can start selling with no extra setup needed.

If you want to offer mobile payment options like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Klarna, or run multiple campaigns, consider creating a Checkout to go with your Product.

What is a Checkout in Kartra?

A Checkout is a customizable sales tool that controls how people complete a purchase.

You can create multiple Checkouts for the same Product. This is great for:

Different sales pages or campaigns
Comparing funnels
Tracking where your sales are coming from

With Checkouts, you can also:

Add pop-ups, embedded forms, or full checkout pages
Accept mobile-friendly payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Klarna (via Stripe Connect)
Customize the look and flow of each Checkout
Enjoy faster load times and better performance

Do I need to use Checkouts?

Not always.

You can simply use the legacy checkout form included in the Product setup. This is the quickest way to get started.

But Checkouts are recommended if you want to:

Offer mobile payments (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna)
Offer bump offers with PayPal (not available in Legacy checkout). Learn more about bump offers.
Run multiple campaigns with the same Product
Customize the look and experience of the checkout
See separate analytics reports for each campaign or funnel
Enable implicit billing terms
Use the newest Kartra improvements

What settings do Products control?

Even when you use a Checkout, the legacy checkout section in your Product still controls important settings. The details added here apply automatically to your linked Checkout:

Checkout fields (name, email, etc.)
Product quantity
Terms and conditions
Bump offers
Cart abandonment tagging

Pro tips

You don’t need to set up your form design inside the Product settings. Just make sure the rest of the settings are complete before linking the product to a Checkout.
If you plan to offer bump products with PayPal, you’ll need to use a Checkout: Legacy checkouts don’t support that combo.

How to get started with Checkouts

Set up your Product, including the checkout settings
Create a new Checkout and link it to that Product
Add the Checkout to your page:
- Use a pop-up or embed it directly
- Or link a button to your Checkout page