(TLDR – while both landing page builders offer impressive functionality, Leadpages‘ lower pricing makes them more accessible for the majority of marketers and business owners, and therefore our pick of the two. You can visit their site here.)

If you’re looking to see which landing page builder is right for you, ClickFunnels or Leadpages, then you’re in the right place, as we’ll be reviewing them both and comparing them head-to-head in terms of:

• Overview
• Page templates
• Design capability including drag and drop editors
• Their ability to drive and manage traffic and leads
• Performance analysis
• Costs and pricing levels

ClickFunnels vs Leadpages

Two of the most popular landing page builders are ClickFunnels and Leadpages. Both platforms aim to make it easier to build a standalone landing page that converts visitors into customers, and each one has some pretty nifty features to help you do things like driving traffic, retargeting leads or building out sales funnels.

But, given that each one is equipped with a different set of tools, it might be difficult for anyone unfamiliar with the platforms to work out which one will best meet their needs.

Having used both of these pieces of software at various stages of our careers, we’ve prepared a full run-down of the platforms which we hope will help you decide which is right for you. We’ve even put together a handy comparison chart at the bottom of the page which will give you an idea of their advantages and drawbacks at a glance.

Why Do I Need A Landing Page Builder?

For anyone running an online business, it’s vital to be able to convert website visitors into customers (or at least potential customers or leads) as often as possible.

Whatever it is that you’re selling, the key is to guide people through the process as effectively as possible – most businesses accomplish this through some kind of custom landing page, or a series of pages, often called a funnel.

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, a landing page is a standalone web page that a user is directed to once they have clicked on a search result on Google, or an advert from Facebook or another marketing channel. The page is designed to be as compelling as possible, and usually has the sole objective of ‘converting’ visitors into leads or customers by encouraging them to enter their information or make a purchase.

Different Types Of Landing Pages

There are a few different types of landing page, depending on what you’re looking to get out of your visitors.

• Lead pages (also known as squeeze pages or capture pages) are designed to collect contact information from the visitor, enabling the business to communicate with them later down the line. Capture pages gather more detailed information from the lead, which can be useful for those with higher-ticket items or who prefer to follow up on leads in person or over the phone

• Sales pages help businesses to start selling their products or services right away by making things like the purchase process and up-selling as easy as possible

• Events pages are optimised for online events, such as webinars. These pages are great for things like increasing registrations and views, and often come with a range of hosting and retargeting options

The downside is that building landing pages can be expensive. Or time-consuming. Or tricky for those without a programming background. Getting the right look, feel and user experience for a landing page generally requires somebody with pretty detailed technical knowledge. If that’s you, then chances are you probably have bigger fish to fry in the day-to-day running of your business. If it means hiring a developer, then it could result in a hefty added expense that your balance sheet could do without.

Thankfully, there is a much simpler solution. By signing up to one of the numerous providers of landing page software available on the market, you can design a page that fits your sales model without touching a single piece of code.

Overview

ClickFunnels is an all-in-one sales funnel software which promises everything you need to market, sell and deliver your products or services online. With dozens of easy-to-use templates, you can build effective sales funnels, and then use the software’s integrated marketing programmes to turn those leads into customers.

Leadpages, is a more specialist piece of software. Again, the platform enables you to build professional-looking landing pages that you can use to collect sales leads. The platform’s seamless integration with Facebook and Instagram makes it easy to drive traffic to your page, and it’s also is compatible with a range of marketing tools to help you follow-up on the leads you capture.

Page templates

The main thing you’re going to be doing with these platforms is building web pages, so it makes sense to start by comparing the design process. When it comes to choosing which type of landing page best suits your business model, both platforms provide a variety of options that should match your needs.

ClickFunnels offers templates for all three types of landing page, so the first step is decide which one suits your business model.

Its lead funnels come in two varieties: a ‘squeeze’ funnel, for grabbing email addresses; and an ‘application’ funnel, which collects more detailed information, such as name and phone number.

Then there are three types of sales funnel. The first is a ‘tripwire’ funnel which reels customers in with an attractive deal, before taking them to a second page where they are encouraged to add to their purchase. The next is a ‘sales letter’ funnel, which gives businesses the chance to provide more information about higher-ticket products or services. Finally, a ‘product launch’ funnel uses a staged approach to deliver videos about a new product or service, building excitement among your registered leads.

The final template type is for online events. The first option is a webinar funnel, where the webinar itself is hosted through third-party software, but the landing page helps to boost conversions through an optimised sign-up process. One really cool feature of this funnel is a webinar replay page, which allows you to send a link to the recorded webinar for people who didn’t see it the first time around. The autowebinar funnel works in almost exactly the same way, except that the event is not live, so it’s great for people who already have a webinar video recorded and simply need a page that will help them to increase registrations and boost views.

Leadpages also offers a variety of page types to choose from: splash pages (for introducing visitors to a product or service), squeeze pages (for logging email addresses), capture pages (for harvesting even more information) and sales pages (for making sales straight away). There are also plenty of webinar funnels to choose from, though again you’ll have to host them through a third-party provider such as GoToWebinar.

Verdict

In truth, there’s little to choose between the two platforms when it comes to page templates. Perhaps the main difference is the sheer number of them they offer; ClickFunnels boasts ‘dozens’ of free templates (though of course you can buy individual landing pages or whole funnels from their marketplace), while Leadpages counts over 150 potential starting points. The more in-depth, integrated features may lead some to opt for ClickFunnels, but the choice might ultimately come down to which platform is closest to the look and feel you want your page to have.

Page design

As soon as you’ve chosen the best template type for you, the next step is to build and customise your funnel.

Here, the ClickFunnels platform’s drag-and-drop Etison Editor makes the build process incredibly easy, even for those with no technical expertise. Swap out logos, images and videos to change the look and feel of your page, with the help of numerous video guides and high-converting funnel examples.

You can even choose from a range of useful add-ons to customise your user experience, including:

• One-click upsells to boost cart value
• Specialist order forms to streamline the checkout process
• Membership areas where you can host subscription content online
• Affiliate areas to manage and equip your sales network.

Leadpages also has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop editor to help you build sleek landing pages without touching a single piece of code. As with ClickFunnels, pop-up boxes can be added to any page, helping you to tweak the lead capture process, while the inclusion of checkouts could be just the ticket for sales conversions and speedy upsells. There are also plenty of video guides available to show you how each template can be used most effectively.

Verdict

Again, there isn’t too much of a difference between the two platforms, but ClickFunnels does offer more chance of going beyond the basic landing page format with features such as membership or affiliate software. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that latter is not included in its standard package, so consider your budget before you dive in.

Managing traffic and leads

So, you’ve set up your page and are ready to watch the visitors roll in. Now comes the important part: managing those precious leads – and it’s where the two platforms differ the most.

ClickFunnels offers a couple of different ways you can retarget leads, the added bonus being that these are integrated into the software. With its Automation tab, ClickFunnels enables you to set up emails and messaging sequences using the contact information that your leads have entered. There are a series of pre-designed templates to choose from, each of which can be tailored with logos, images, text and buttons to fit your brand guidelines.

The programme’s Actionetics tool takes this one step further, helping you to establish effective email sequences based on factors such as who your customers are, their purchasing habits and how they arrived at your site. (NB: This tool is also only available in ClickFunnels full ‘Etison Suite’ membership).

Leadpages, in contrast, tends to focus more on helping you to drive traffic to the page. Particularly useful is the integrated Facebook Ad Builder, which pulls information directly from your page into usable ads. It’ll even put a pixel on your landing page automatically to help with analytics and easy retargeting.

That’s not to say that you can’t follow-up on leads with Leadpages: you can, of course. It’s just that you’ll need to do this through one of the existing marketing tools the software is compatible with. Whether you’re looking to set up an automated email sequence or follow up with leads on Messenger, the range of applications that you can use is actually pretty extensive, which is perfect if there’s a particular programme you’re already familiar with.

Verdict

Whereas ClickFunnels has fantastic, integrated tools to help you connect with your leads, the features built in to Leadpages tend to focus more on helping you to drive traffic to the page. Of course, both aspects are important, so overall it’s probably up to you to decide which one you need most help with initially, lead management or traffic acquisition.

Review and analysis

Once you’ve developed a landing page you’re happy with, the only thing left to do is perfect the formula. This is a really crucial stage of the process – learning what works for your visitors and using that information to maximise the amount of conversions you’re making.

ClickFunnels helps you to do this through a split testing option on the funnel page. Here, you can tweak anything from headlines and text to videos and images, with a confidence score indicating how likely it the variation is to outperform the control funnel. There are plenty of other general stats available in the ClickFunnels dashboard, where you can keep an eye on factors such as earnings per click, average cart value, and cost estimate breakdown.

Leadpages offers some great analysis tools designed to help you fine-tune your campaigns. Again, A/B testing enables you to keep what’s working and ditch what doesn’t. Once you’re happy, you can monitor page performance with the platform’s ‘human-friendly’ analytics – clear and simple data charts that show whether or not you’re getting the best return on your investment.

Verdict

Surprise, surprise, this one’s another close call. Both platforms have good split testing options which will help you to make sure you’re getting the best conversion rate, but Leadpages probably shades the contest with a sleek analytics dashboard which is easy to understand even for those without any technical expertise.

Pricing

Cost can play a huge factor in determining which landing page software is right for you. After all, you may be prepared to sacrifice some non-essential functionality in return for a lower price.

ClickFunnels‘ pricing starts at $97/month, but that doesn’t include its actionetics (email automation) software. If that’s a requirement then you’ll have to pay extra.

Here’s one area where there is more of a decisive edge; Leadpages pricing is at a far more accessible cost point. At $37/month or $300/year for the most basic package, many entrepreneurs, marketers and business owners with tighter budgets may opt to go with this option over ClickFunnels, particularly as a lot of the most-used features are included in the standard package.

Summary

Building the perfect landing page can be a big job, often costing whoever builds them a lot of time and money. Both ClickFunnels and Leadpages provide a user-friendly solution to this problem, enabling you to build and manage the perfect page that will turn visitors into leads and customers. The main difference is one of complexity and cost: ClickFunnels offers slightly more flexibility and longevity, but comes in at nearly three times the price of the sleek and simple Leadpages. With that in mind, our advice would be to work out just how advanced you need your landing page to be and decide whether it can be accommodated within your budget.

Be sure to check out ClickFunnels here

and Leadpages here

ClickFunnels vs LeadPages comparison – at a glance

Attribute	ClickFunnels	Leadpages
Page design	Choose from three types of in-depth funnel template, and perfect your design in the drag-and-drop Etison editor	150+ free mobile-friendly templates for you to customise in the software’s drag-and-drop editor
Added extras	Add one-click upsells or specialist order forms, host subscription content and replace complicated affiliate software	Choose from opt-in boxes and payment pop-ups
Traffic driving/ Retargeting	Integrated marketing automation, email and messenger marketing	Boost social media visitors from within the application, then use your favourite marketing apps to follow up on valuable leads
Analytics	Everything organised into one simple dashboard	Analyse performance with human-friendly analytics
Cost/Pricing	Pricing starts at $97/month, but that doesn’t include its actionetics (email automation) software	Pricing starts at $37/month or $300/year, with most of the top features included in the standard package

Have you used ClickFunnels, Leadpages or another landing page builder or funnel builder software not mentioned here? Let us know about your experiences in the comments below.