Best ClickFunnels Alternatives for Beginners: The Sales Funnel Builders We Use
I have always been fascinated with the idea of building attractive and effective sales and marketing funnels for my online business. And that’s why I have played with many funnel builder tools in the past. Recently, one such funnel builder tool caught my attention. And that was ‘ClickFunnels’.
Right now, ClickFunnels is one of the most important tools you need to have to succeed online or SO I THOUGHT! Because the army of affiliates who are promoting this funnel builder tool right, left and centre, made me believe so.
If you don’t know what ClickFunnels is, it an all-in-one sales and marketing funnel builder and automation tool using which you can build and launch your funnels in a matter of minutes. And because everything looked attractive and intriguing, I decided to take the plunge and sign up for the ClickFunnels monthly subscription.
Everything went on well until I arrived at the pricing page. When I looked at the pricing structure, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Are you kidding me! Here’s what it costs to get a monthly subscription of ClickFunnels.
ClickFunnels standard plan costs $97/month. With this plan, you can only create 20 funnels and 100 pages. You can have 3 payment gateway integrations, can connect 3 domains, and there are no follow-up funnels. Follow-up funnels allow you to connect with your audience through emails and text.
You can use this to send follow-up sequences to contacts on the ClickFunnels email lists. Surprisingly, even after paying $97/month in the standard version you don’t get access to follow up funnels.
The premium plan on ClickFunnels is called ‘ClickFunnels Platinum’ which costs $297/month. With this plan, you can build unlimited funnels, have unlimited pages, access 9 payment gateways, can connect 9 domains, and more importantly, get unlimited access to follow up funnels.
When I saw the pricing, I knew ClickFunnels wasn’t for me. At least, not now. I can’t afford to spend $97/month on a funnel builder and automation tool, that only allows me to create 20 funnels! The worst part? I will lose all my funnels, if I cancel my subscription after few months, even after paying such a high fee.
And that’s when I started searching for ClickFunnel alternatives that are beginner-friendly and also don’t cost a fortune.
Surprisingly, I found many good alternatives for ClickFunnels software, which almost have the same features (if not all) that ClickFunnels has.
And also, they only cost a fraction of what ClickFunnels costs. If you are looking for cheap ClickFunnels alternatives one of this should be your choice.
Here Are The ClickFunnels Alternatives I Found
Thrive Theme Membership
This is my first and favourite recommendation when it comes to alternatives to ClickFunnels. Thrive Architect, which is one of the plugins inside Thrive membership, is a page and funnel builder WordPress plugin. This is the page builder plugin I use on many of my WordPress websites.
This plugin can be purchased as a stand alone plugin for a low one time price of $67 that gives you lifetime access to updates and 1 year support.
It can also be purchased as a part of the Thrive Membership plan, which is nothing but a suite of WordPress plugins that are created with conversion and sales in mind.
Thrive Architect plugin can be easily incorporated with your existing WordPress theme. Once activated you can use the editor in Thrive Architect to edit the existing content or create new ones.
The editor is completely drag-and-drop and helps you create almost any kind of marketing page you want.
You can create opt-in pages, sales pages, webinar registration pages, thank you pages, review pages and more, using this page builder plugin from Thrive. There are more than 300 premade landing page templates available inside Thrive Architect for you to get started.
Plans and Pricing
As mentioned above, you can either buy the Thrive Architect plugin as a stand alone product or buy it as a part of Thrive membership. Thrive membership gives you access to a suite of products including Thrive Architect. Other products included in Thrive Membership are as follows.
Check out Thrive Membership Plans from Here
Thrive Theme Builder + Shapeshift
This is the visual theme builder plugin included inside Thrive membership which allows you to build a marketing focussed WordPress website with the visual front end editor that is completely drag-and-drop.
Thrive Quiz Builder
Helps you create stunning quizzes in minutes. You can create beautiful and complex quizzes using this plugin, without the need to code. These quizzes have a tendency to gain a quick momentum on social media. These can grow your email list fast and bring in a lot of social signals that can help boost your SEO.
Thrive Leads
Thrive Leads is an email capture and lead generation plugin. We use this plugin on our site to create beautiful pop-ups.
You can use almost any kind of opt-in form using Thrive Leads. You can create pop-up lightboxes, sticky ribbons, inline forms, 2-step opt-in forms, slide-in forms, opt-in widgets, overlays, scroll mat and more using this plugin.
Other plugins included in Thrive Membership are
- Thrive Ovation Plugin (Social proof plugin)
- Thrive Comments (Comment plugin)
- Thrive Apprentice (Online courses plugin)
- Thrive Optimize (AB Testing)
- Thrive Ultimatum (Evergreen countdowns)
Thrive Membership can be purchased at a low price of only $19/month (yearly plan) that gives you access to all the Thrive plugins, theme builder, unlimited updates and support. You can use these plugins and themes on up to 25 websites.
That is an absolutely fantastic value for your money!
And that’s the reason why we have listed Thrive Themes at the top of best ClickFunnels alternatives list. You can read our Thrive Architect review for more information.
One of the main differences between Thrive Architect and ClickFunnels would be that you won’t be able to send emails directly from inside Thrive Architect. For sending emails you will have to integrate Thrive with third party email autoresponders like Aweber or GetReponse.
Another thing which Thrive Architect lacks is the ability to collect payments. Then again, this limitation can be easily overcome by incorporating third party platforms like Thrive Cart and SamCart.
Groove Funnels
Groove Funnels is a relatively new platform, that gives you access to a complete sales system. At the time of writing this post, the software was still in Beta.
If you are looking for one tool that can completely replace all the tasks you do with ClickFunnels and can give you many more additional features, that would be Groove Funnels.
This tool is really robust and is one to watch out for, in the days to come. The best part is that you can get started with Groove Funnels for free (This may change in future). Here’s what is included in GrooveFunnels free account.
Free Account Sign Up
GroovePages
You can create 3 full websites with unlimited pages and funnels. All your hosting is taken care of. This feature eliminates the need for using platforms like ClickFunnels.
GrooveSell
You can sell unlimited products and services. This feature can be a great alternative to products like SamCart.
GrooveAffiliate
You can attract and manage all your affiliates from one platform.
GrooveMail
You can send broadcast emails and autoresponder emails from within GrooveFunnels, with the GrooveMail feature. No need to invest in a third-party email marketing service.
GrooveMember
Create a membership site by securing your content and courses with password protection and delivering it to only the subscribed members. A great alternative to platforms like Kajabi.
GrooveVideo
Host your videos and embed them wherever you want. With the free account, you can host 15 of your videos. This feature eliminates your video hosting needs.
GrooveKart
Now you can build your own e-commerce store in GrooveFunnels with the GrooveKart option. You can run your physical product store, drop-shipping business, print-on-demand business and more with this feature. It eliminates the need for the use of third party platforms like Shopify.
GrooveAutomations
Automated triggers to create powerful behaviour driven marketing campaigns. Perfect substitute for Zapier.
GrooveProof
Adds the ‘social proof’ element to your pages. Creates a social proof pop-up that seamlessly integrates with your customer data. This can be an alternative for Provely.
GrooveBlog
With this module, you can create your own SEO rich blog and host it on GrooveFunnels, in a secure environment. You don’t need to use any third-party blogging services like Blogger or WordPress.
GrooveDesk
With this feature, you can manage all your customer support requests. Replaces platforms like ZenDesk.
GrooveCalendar
Now you can schedule meetings with automated follow-ups with GrooveCalendar. This can be a great alternative to Calendly.
GrooveWebinar
With this, you can host live and hybrid webinars from inside GrooveFunnels. Replaces WebinarJam.
GrooveWebinar Automated
This allows you to host scheduled and on-demand webinars and makes them completely automated. This can be a great replacement for EverWebinar.
GrooveStreaming
With this feature, you can directly stream your videos to FaceBook and YouTube live.
GrooveSurvey
Helps you conduct online surveys to create targeted offers and follow-ups.
GrooveQuiz
We can create viral engagement and lead generation quizzes with this GrooveFunnels feature.
GrooveFunnelMapping
Visual funnel mapping tool.
GroovePipe CRM
Track and measure the progress of live sales force.
GrooveSDK
With this feature, you can create plugins and applications that work seamlessly with GrooveFunnels. You can either use these yourself or sell them and earn money.
Plans and Pricing
During the launch period, GrooveFunnels is being offered under 2 plans. Free and Lifetime. This is going to change in future. If you want to make the best out of this launch, you can lock in the lifetime platinum subscription from here.
Learn More From Here
Systeme.Io
First launched in France in the year 2018, Systeme.io now has several thousand users around the globe and is in it for the long run. If you don’t know what Systeme.io is, it is a tool that has all the important features you need to have to run a successful online business.
This software company was started by Aurelian Amacker, a successful entrepreneur himself. Like many of us, he was using separate tools and platforms to handle different tasks of his online business.
Meaning, he was hosting his websites somewhere, sending emails from another platform, managing affiliates using another tool and so on.
One day an idea clicked and he came up with a plan. A plan to build a software that had all of the features he needed under one roof which was also simple and easy to use. And that’s what resulted in Systeme.io.
Another great thing about Systeme.io that makes it one of the best alternatives to ClickFunnels is its pricing. You can get started for only $27/month, that allows you to manage up to 5000 customers. Here are some of the important features of Systeme.io.
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Sales Funnels
You can easily build sales funnels in 3 simple clicks.
Email Marketing
You can send unlimited emails from inside the Systeme.io dashboard. You can easily set up newsletters and sequences.
Sell Products
You can connect your Stripe or PayPal accounts with Systeme.io and start selling your products. You can also easily add upsells, downsells and order bumps to your sales funnels.
Automations
Create unlimited powerful automations and workflows.
Dropshipping
You can create high converting sales funnels to sell physical products.
Online Courses and Memberships Websites
Easily launch your first online course from inside Systeme.io. Building membership websites is pretty easy as well.
Affiliate Programs
You can create and run your own affiliate programs from inside this platform. The people at Systeme.io use this exact affiliate program feature to run their affiliate program which generates over $300,000 in sales every month.
Blog
You can start blogging from inside your Systeme.io account. No need to depend on third party blogging platforms and hosting.
Webinars
You can run evergreen webinars.
Systeme.io Plans and Pricing
You have 3 plans to choose from. Start up, Webinar and Enterprise plan. There is also a free trial.
Start-Up Plan: Costs $27/month
This is what you get.
- 5,000 contacts
- Unlimited emails
- Unlimited sales funnels
- Unlimited blogs
- 3 membership sites
- 0 custom domains
- Unlimited file storage space
- Unlimited membership site members
- Marketing automation
- 1 click upsells
- Order bumps
- Stripe integration
- Paypal integration
- Run your own affiliate program
- 24/7 email and chat support
Webinar Plan: Costs $47/month
- 10,000 contacts
- Unlimited emails
- Unlimited sales funnels
- Unlimited blogs
- 5 membership sites
- 2 custom domains
- Unlimited file storage space
- Unlimited membership site members
- Marketing automation
- 1 click upsells
- Order bumps
- Stripe integration
- Paypal integration
- Run your own affiliate program
- 24/7 email and chat support
- 3 evergreen webinars
- Coupon codes
- A/B tests
Enterprise Plan: $97/month
- 15,000 contacts
- Unlimited emails
- Unlimited sales funnels
- Unlimited blogs
- Unlimited membership sites
- 5 custom domains
- Unlimited file storage space
- Unlimited membership site members
- Marketing automation
- 1 click upsells
- Order bumps
- Stripe integration
- Paypal integration
- Run your own affiliate program
- 24/7 email and chat support
- Unlimited evergreen webinars
- Coupon codes
- A/B tests
- 1-on-1 kickstart coaching session
GetResponse
This isn’t exactly a funnel builder. It is an email marketing service that also allows you to build attractive marketing pages and sales funnels. If you are on a shoestring budget, GetResponse is the perfect alternative for ClickFunnels. We use the same service for our email marketing needs.
GetResponse offers a free trial of 30 days for anyone who wants to test out their product. Once the trial period is over, you can keep your account active for only $15/month which allows you to manage up to 1000 subscribers.
Here are the stellar features GetResponse offers for a low monthly price.
Email Marketing Features
GetResponse is a powerful email marketing software that comes with hundreds of beautiful email templates, and easy design tools. You can send broadcast emails, autoresponder emails, automation emails, perfectly timed emails, transactional emails and more from inside your GetResponse account.
Sales Funnels, Landing Pages and Conversion Tools
You can create landing pages and sales funnels using GetResponse’s drag-and-drop editor. There are also templates to quickly get you started in creating lead magnet funnels, list building funnels, webinar funnels and more.
You can easily generate new leads and grow your email list with beautiful sign up forms that can be embedded anywhere. There are also options to create pop-ups, countdown timers and E-commerce tools.
Marketing Automation
With this feature, you can easily create workflows to welcome or win back your customers. You can also do upsells and more, with this feature. Some of the important modules inside GetResponse’s automation include Tags and Scores, prebuilt workflow templates, abandoned cart emails, website visitor tracking, and product recommendations.
Paid Ads
There are tools inside GetResponse dashboard that allow you to manage and run paid ad campaigns. You can easily set up and run Facebook and Instagram ads. There is also 1-click pixel integration and social ads creator tool.
Webinars
You can do screen-sharing, conduct on-demand webinars, do polls and surveys and much more.
GetResponse Pricing
You can either pay monthly or yearly to get the GetResponse subscription. Here is how much the monthly plans cost for 1000 subscribers. You can always upgrade and downgrade your plans.
Basic Plan: Costs $15/month
You can do the following with the BASIC plan.
- Do email marketing
- Set up Autoresponders
- Create unlimited landing pages
- Have access to unlimited automation templates
- Create one sales funnel
- Create unlimited lead funnels
- Manage and run Facebook ads
- Sell digital products
Plus Plan: Costs $49/month
Here’s what you can do with the PLUS plan.
- Everything in the BASIC plan.
- Create 5 automation workflows
- Run webinars with up to 100 attendees at a time
- Ability to score and tag your contacts
- Create up to 5 sales funnels
- You can add up to 3 uses to work together
- Can create up to 5 webinar funnels
Professional Plan: Costs $99/month
Here’s what you get access to in the PROFESSIONAL plan.
- Everything in the PLUS plan.
- Create unlimited automations
- Web push notifications
- Paid webinars
- Run webinars with up to 300 attendees at a time
- Create unlimited sales funnels
- Create unlimited webinar funnels
- Can have 5 team members working together
- Can set up on-demand webinars
Finally there is the GetResponse MAX plan for established marketers which gives access to additional features like
- Transactional emails
- Dedicated support
- Dedicated IP address
- Microsoft Dynamics integration
- Deliverability consulting
- Single sign-on (SSO)
- Webinars (max 500 attendees)
- Email campaign consulting
You will need to get a custom quote for this plan, depending on your audience size and requirements.
LeadPages
This list of best ClickFunnels alternatives wouldn’t have been complete without LeadPages. This is a software which is close to our hearts and we have been using it from many years. LeadPages isn’t a complete marketing platform. What it is, is a page builder software that has some of the best lead capture and conversion boosting features in the industry.
We have been building beautiful landing pages with LeadPages for a long time. Here are some of the popular features you get access to with a LeadPages subscription.
Unlimited landing pages
You can create unlimited landing pages no matter what LeadPages plan you have. There is also no restriction on the number of visitors you can have and the number of leads you can collect.
Drag and Drop Website Builder
You can create an entire stand-alone website from within your LeadPages dashboard. No need to pay for third party hosting and website building tools.
Lead Notifications
You can set up automated notifications to get new subscriber data automatically sent straight to your email inbox. You don’t need a third party email service provider to use this feature.
Beautiful Pages
We can confidently tell that the pages created with LeadPages are really beautiful. They are extremely responsive too. That means, they look beautiful no matter what type of device your viewers are using.
Digital file hosting & delivery
You can use the built-in lead magnet delivery system to automatically email digital files and ‘opt-in bribes’ whenever a new subscriber joins your mailing list.
Integrations
LeadPages has some of the best integration features among the page builder tools. It gives you access to more than 40 standard integrations. You also get advanced integrations Hubspot, Marketo, and Salesforce/Pardot. If you want more, there is the Zapier integration that allows you to connect with 1000+ Apps.
LeadPages Pricing and Plans
Let’s quickly look at the LeadPages pricing.
LeadPages is available in 3 different plans. Here are the prices you need to pay if you decide to go with the monthly billing cycle.
LeadPages Standard Plan : Costs $37/month
- 1 Site
- Landing Pages, Pop-Ups, Alert Bars
- Unlimited Traffic & Leads
- Free Custom Domain with annual purchase
- Free Hosting
- Mobile-Responsive Templates
- Lead Notifications
- Tech Support (via Email)
- 40+ Standard Integrations
Pro Plan: Costs $79/month
- Everything in the Standard plan and the following.
- Online Sales and Payments feature
- Unlimited A/B Split Testing
- Email Trigger Links
- 10 Opt-in Text Campaigns
Advanced Plan: Costs $321/month
- Everything in the Standard and the Pro plan and the following.
- Advanced Integrations
- Includes 5 Pro Sub Accounts
- 50 Extra Opt-in Text Campaigns
- 1-on-1 Quick Start Call
Conclusion
If you want total control over your funnels and marketing pages and also want a cost efficient alternative for ClickFunnels, Thrive themes membership should be your choice. You have total control over your pages because they are hosted on your servers, unlike other cloud-hosted solutions which you don’t own.
If you don’t have a WordPress website and don’t want to deal with any of the technicalities involved in managing WordPress plugins, choose one of the other 4 cloud solutions mentioned above.