While not every home cook will start with the same groceries, cook the same dishes in the same order, or even include gravy on the menu, each one will put their energy into creating a delicious, heart-warming meal that brings together friends and family. And most of them will succeed (with maybe just a few minor burns along the way).
Successful digital marketing is exactly the same. It's like cooking a Thanksgiving dinner—just without the turkey and cranberry sauce.
In the world of digital marketing, you start out with a dream, a whole lot of raw data, and some trusted research and advice. There's no precise recipe to follow, but there are definitely tools, techniques, and recommended best practices that can help you along the way.
One of those is the concept of sales funnels. A sales funnel is a marketing term that describes the journey potential that customers go through on their way to making a purchase. Its stages include awareness, interest, decision, and action.
Sales funnels can be structured in many different ways, depending on your marketing model and goals. But what all sales funnels share in common is that they aim to capture leads and move them through a series of carefully curated steps toward an ultimate purchase (lead conversion).
As you can imagine, designing and building a successful sales funnel takes a great deal of time, research, tech skill, and industry knowledge. For those reasons, there are many different tools and platforms available to simplify and streamline the process.
If you've done any research at all into sales funnels, you've almost certainly heard of ClickFunnels—one of the original and best-known funnel-building software on the market.
In this article, I'll take a close look at ClickFunnels along with some of its viable competitors. By the end, you’ll hopefully have a good sense of which platform may be the right fit for your particular circumstances and business goals.
Comprehensive digital marketing platform that offers tools for agencies to manage leads, websites, funnels, calendars, and more!
Designed by marketers and currently used by thousands of marketing agencies around the world, GoHighLevel has quickly become a force to be reckoned with and a marketing industry standard.
GoHighLevel's pricing starts at \$97 monthly for its Single Business plan and ranges up to \$497 per month for its Agency Pro Account. While not inexpensive, GoHighLevel is less pricey than ClickFunnels, and it offers much more in the way of CRM, automation, and flexibility.
While ClickFunnels is mainly a funnel builder with some additional features, GoHighLevel is an all-in-one digital marketing platform that includes a high-quality funnel builder.
For a more in-depth comparison of these two software solutions, read my complete analysis of GoHighLevel Vs. ClickFunnels.
Landing page builder with features like social media monitoring, traffic analysis, A/B testing, and integrations with other software, although it lacks some capabilities like sales funnel tools, shopping cart, blogging, and email marketing.
Leadpages is a powerful and advanced landing page builder with over 200 free templates (plus thousands more if you're willing to pay). Its drag-and-drop builder makes landing page development a breeze, and you can also take advantage of its other features (see below). Like social media monitoring, traffic analysis, A/B testing, mobile responsive websites, and tons of integrations with other software.
Leadpages is not an all-in-one digital marketing solution like GoHighLevel. But if you're looking for a ClickFunnels alternative that really delivers when it comes to building conversion-optimized landing pages, Leadpages may be a great fit for you. With digital marketing giants like Facebook, Mailchimp, WordPress, and Wix on its client list, it's the real deal.
Website building is possible with Leadpages, but the platform falls short when it comes to sales funnel tools. Also, it lacks an efficient shopping cart, blogging, and email marketing capabilities.
Price-wise, Leadpages has three paid plans: the Standard plan is $37 per month, the Pro plan is $74 per month, and the Advanced plan is $299 per month. There’s also a 14-day free trial.
ClickFunnels is a comprehensive sales funnel builder, while Leadpages is more laser-focused on landing pages. Both are strong tools, but it really depends on what you're looking for.
A user-friendly landing page builder with more than 500 templates and integrations, but it is expensive at $149 per month. It offers a new technology called Instablocks for building scalable landing pages.
Like Leadpages, Instapage is primarily a landing page builder. With more than 500 available templates and a plethora of integrations, it's a solid option for landing page optimization.
But it’s also very expensive. $149 per month.
So, why would I recommend a software solution that's more expensive and less comprehensive than ClickFunnels? Two reasons, actually.
Firstly, Instapage is incredibly user-friendly. If you need an incredible landing page builder that involves almost zero learning curve, it's a great choice. Secondly, I'm a big fan of Instapage's new Instablocks technology, which allows you to build scalable landing pages that you can repeatedly use for different projects.
While ClickFunnels is a full-service sales funnel builder and marketing platform, Instapage is a front-runner in the more specialized landing page niche.
Kartra is a comprehensive sales funnel building solution with business tools like email marketing, a shopping cart system, campaign management features, and web hosting, at a slightly more affordable price point than ClickFunnels.
Like ClickFunnels, Kartra promotes itself as a comprehensive sales funnel building solution with a supporting cast of business tools. These include email marketing, a shopping cart system, campaign management features, web hosting, and more.
Though not as well-known as ClickFunnels, Kartra is a decent funnel building option at a slightly more affordable price point. Kartra's plans start at $99 and range up to $499 and all marketing tools are available at every subscription tier.
Kartra and ClickFunnels are similar platforms. ClickFunnels is better known and has more traction in the digital marketing industry, but Kartra is a reasonable and more affordable alternative.
Systeme.io is a ClickFunnels alternative that offers an all-in-one digital marketing platform for start-ups and enterprise level businesses, including a solid sales funnel builder, blogging, courses, email campaigns, automations, A/B testing, and more.
Systeme.io is a pretty compelling ClickFunnels alternative. More similar to GoHighLevel in its breadth and scope, Systeme.io was released in French in 2018. Now available in eight languages, it’s a serious up-and-comer on the global digital marketing scene.
Systeme.io is meant to be an all-in-one digital marketing platform for start-ups and enterprise level businesses alike. Along with a solid sales funnel builder, the platform also supports blogging, courses, email campaigns, automations, A/B testing, and much more.
For all of that, the price point is outstanding. While GoHighLevel starts at $97 monthly and ClickFunnels starts at $127 monthly, Systeme.io starts at—well—$0. That's right, Systeme.io offers a completely free monthly plan. That being said, its paid plans are also outrageously affordable, ranging from $27 per month for its Startup plan to $97 per month for its Unlimited plan. (Yes, we said unlimited.)
ClickFunnels is a sales funnel building behemoth while Systeme.io is a jack of all trades trying to break into the top echelons of digital marketing software. So far, it's doing a great job. Keep your eye on this one!
Unbounce is a landing page builder known for its beautiful designs and advanced AI features like SmartTraffic and SmartCopy. It offers a free 14-day trial, but paid plans start at $90 per month. It is not a standalone marketing solution and will require additional software.
Unbounce is another landing page builder. What sets it apart from the others? Primarily, its beautiful designs and advanced AI.
Similar in feel to Photoshop, Unbounce doesn't require any coding and also boasts some interesting machine-learning solutions such as SmartTraffic (an AI algorithm that learns which variant of your page is most likely to convert a customer based on the source of the traffic, keywords they used, etc.) and SmartCopy (an AI copywriting assistant).
Unbounce does offer a free 14-day trial, but its paid plans start at $90 per month and range up to $575 per month. The platform is not a standalone marketing solution, so you'll definitely also need to invest in other software.
As with all the landing page builders I've reviewed, Unbounce is a more specialized software solution than ClickFunnels. If you want a comprehensive funnel builder with a suite of marketing features, go for ClickFunnels instead.
SamCart is an e-commerce platform focused on the checkout stage of the funnel and provides options for creating a visually appealing, seamless, and customized checkout experience for digital products.
Unlike ClickFunnels, SamCart is not a comprehensive sales funnel builder (though you can use it to build simple sales funnels). Rather, this platform focuses on the purchase stage of the funnel and provides options for creating a visually appealing, seamless, and customized checkout experience.
SamCart is focused on e-commerce—helping users build online stores, showcase their products, and streamline the checkout process. Overall, it’s probably best suited for digital products since it doesn't arrange for couriering options. SamCart also provides software for creating courses and has a good reputation for customer support.
SamCart's pricing plans start at $59 per month and range up to $299 per month. All payment tiers include unlimited products and pages, courses, video upload, memberships, and full access to all templates.
While ClickFunnels is a comprehensive funnel-building platform, SamCart is hyper-focused on the e-commerce and checkout experience end of the spectrum.
OptimizePress is a WordPress plugin that offers landing page and sales funnel templates and allows users to build a membership portal. It requires users to host and manage their own website and has a learning curve.
OptimizePress is a WordPress plugin that offers a wide range of landing page and sales funnel templates. It also allows you to build a Membership Portal on your site. Used by more than 125,000 businesses worldwide, OptimizePress requires you to host and manage your website on your own.
OptimizePress is similar to ClickFunnels in scope and function, but it's only accessible to WordPress users. Instead of automatically integrating sales funnel and website building, it allows for more flexibility and customization as you decide how best to integrate its features onto your web pages. Because it’s more flexible and customizable, OptimizePress has a bit more of a learning curve and is best suited for slightly more advanced users.
Unlike most of its competitors, OptimizePress bills annually instead of monthly. Its least expensive plan starts at $99 per year, which works out to $8.25 per month. Yes, you read that right. OptimizePress is a wickedly affordable option.
ClickFunnels and OptimizePress are both sales funnel-building software solutions. While ClickFunnels is more comprehensive and user-friendly, OptimizePress (for WordPress users only) is more flexible but requires a bit more knowledge to use effectively.
Builderall is an all-in-one digital marketing platform that includes a blog builder, e-commerce builder, course builder, magazine builder, webinar builder, app creator, email marketing, SEO features, and much more. It offers a lot of features but does not excel in any particular area.
Alright, I’m getting close to the end of our list here. But let's not forget Builderall—an affordably priced all-in-one digital marketing platform. Like GoHighLevel and Systeme.io, Builderall goes beyond just funnel and page building. It also includes a blog builder, e-commerce builder, course builder, magazine builder, webinar builder, app creator, email marketing, heatmaps and A/B testing, SEO features, a photo editing design studio, and an animator platform.
Phew! That's a lot of features. But consensus on Builderall seems to be that, while it offers an impressive selection of capabilities, none of them are necessarily outstanding. It's kind of the multi-tool of digital marketing, with no dedicated focus to hang its hat on.
That being said, Builderall is a more affordable option than ClickFunnels. Its cheapest (and most limited) plan is just $16.90 per month—but that's really more of a trial tester. Its serious plans range from $76.90 to $87.90 per month.
If you want sales funnels done really well, choose ClickFunnels over Builderall. But if you feel that ClickFunnels offers too little for too high a price, Builderall might just be your perfect solution.
GetResponse is an affordable all-in-one digital marketing platform with great automation capabilities trusted by Shaw, Stripe, and IKEA. It offers features like email marketing, landing pages, sales funnels, and e-commerce integrations, and its automations allow users to build funnels and processes that can run themselves.
Our last ClickFunnels alternative is GetResponse—an affordable all-in-one digital marketing platform with awesome automation capabilities. Trusted by brands including Shaw, Stripe, and IKEA, GetResponse is no joke.
Like most of the other comprehensive marketing solutions I've looked at in this article, GetResponse offers features ranging from email marketing to landing pages, sales funnels, e-commerce integrations, and marketing automations. These automations are probably GetResponse's most major selling point because they allow you to build funnels (plus many more processes) that can essentially run themselves—freeing you up to do higher-level, more creative work.
GetResponse has a few different pricing tiers. It does provide a free account with limited features as well as an Email Marketing plan for just $15.58 per month. For access to broader capabilities, you'll be looking at either the Marketing Automation plan ($48.38 per month) or the E-commerce Marketing plan ($97.58). No matter which you choose, I feel that GetResponse is reasonably priced for what it offers.
ClickFunnels is a dedicated funnel building solution, while GetResponse comes with a whole slew of broader digital marketing features.
I can't tell you what the right choice is for you, but I can unequivocally tell you what the right choice has been for me. At SerpFocus, I switched over from ClickFunnels to GoHighLevel quite some time ago and haven't looked back once.
As an agency, GoHighLevel suits my business needs perfectly. In addition to page and funnel-building software that easily rivals what ClickFunnels' has to offer (actually exceeds it in many ways, in my opinion), it also provides top-notch CRM and automation, plus it eliminates the need to purchase and integrate at least 12 other software solutions. Not only that, it is flexible, customizable, and infinitely scalable.
For SerpFocus, the winner is clear: It's GoHighLevel. Hands down.
As I said at the beginning of this article, creating a digital marketing strategy is a lot like cooking a Thanksgiving dinner. There's more than one way to get to your goal, and it definitely helps to have the right tools to help you along the way.
Do you have experience with ClickFunnels or some of the alternatives mentioned in this article? I'd love to hear from you to share your opinions. I'd also be happy to answer any lingering questions about funnel-building software, digital marketing, and SEO in general.
Reach out to me at SerpFocus today to advance your SEO and digital marketing journey!
Though ClickFunnels has a strong reputation as a funnel-building software pioneer and continues to garner positive reviews from a wide swath of its clientele, it’s far from perfect.
So, before you jump on the bandwagon and start paying for an annual subscription, let's talk about some of ClickFunnels' imperfections:
Price Point - In my opinion, ClickFunnels is super pricey! With a base plan that starts at $127 per month (plus additional add-ons, if you so desire), it had better be delivering a lot more than the competition. But that's not always the case.
Limited Flexibility and Customization - ClickFunnels has a reputation for being super user-friendly, especially for beginners. But there's a flip side to that coin. It doesn’t offer flexibility or customization options for more advanced users. So, once you've opted in to ClickFunnels, you've built yourself into a relatively rigid marketing model.
Limits on Almost Everything - Unlike some of its competitors, ClickFunnels limits accounts, domains, funnel templates, and many other features—even at its agency-level plan. This is frustrating and definitely limits scalability (your business' potential to grow and expand with ClickFunnels).
Add-Ons - The ClickFunnels experience is a bit like ordering from an a la carte menu. The platform does offer a fairly comprehensive suite of marketing tools, but you have to pay extra for some of them.
Poor Support (Basic Plan) - Customer support may improve as you increase your subscription level, but ClickFunnels' starter plan has a poor reputation for personalized customer support. Definitely worth noting if you're thinking of investing.
I've already pointed out that ClickFunnels' pricing starts at $127 per month for its Basic plan. Prices range all the way up to $208 per month for its Funnel Hacker plan.
Most alternate software solutions that include funnel builders are less pricey so let’s take a peek:
On the least expensive end of the spectrum, there are free funnel-building solutions like Bitrix24 and Systeme.io's free, full-featured plan. Of course, free software always comes with limitations. So, what else is out there?
Well, you've got options ranging from roughly $10 per month all the way up to about $200.
In the sections below, I'll provide you with an overview of what I consider to be the top 10 ClickFunnels alternatives currently on the market. In addition to price point, I'll examine each platform's features and compare it directly to ClickFunnels.
Only you can be the judge of that. But, here are some guiding questions to help you evaluate your needs as you read through the options below:
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