In the realm of digital marketing, having efficient tools at your disposal can make a world of difference. ClickFunnels has been a cornerstone for many marketers, offering a comprehensive suite of features designed to streamline the process of creating sales funnels and generating leads. As we step into 2024, it’s essential to take a close look at Click-Funnels and evaluate its features, advantages, and drawbacks.
ClickFunnels: At a Glance
- ClickFunnels, headquartered in Ada County, Idaho, and established in 2014, serves as a comprehensive marketing solution.
- At its heart lies a robust sales funnel builder, empowering users to enhance lead conversion rates efficiently.
- Apart from its primary focus on sales funnels, ClickFunnels provides a user-friendly drag-and-drop tool for building websites and landing pages, along with features like CRM, automated workflows, customer centers, and additional functionalities.
- Furthermore, Click-Funnels offers extensive customization options through numerous integrations, APIs, and webhooks, allowing users to tailor the platform to their specific needs.
Pros
ClickFunnels excels in facilitating the creation of advanced online sales funnels for businesses, enabling them to efficiently transform website visitors into leads and subsequently into customers.
This is achieved primarily through its user-friendly drag-and-drop editor for building landing pages, simplifying the process significantly. Additionally, Click-Funnels offers a diverse array of features including marketing automations, workflows, and the capability to construct monetized membership sites or online courses, further enhancing its value proposition for businesses.
Cons
Contrarily, ClickFunnels presents challenges in terms of user-friendliness due to its steep learning curve. For businesses aiming for quick implementation, the platform may fall short as it requires considerable time investment to master. Additionally, its pricing is comparatively high compared to top competitors, and many users have experienced issues with slow-loading web pages. Such performance issues could potentially deter prospective customers, counteracting the platform’s intended purpose.
How ClickFunnels Works
ClickFunnels, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketing tool, is tailored to assist businesses in constructing sophisticated sales funnels to boost lead generation and sales. Through a comprehensive suite of features, Click-Funnels facilitates the conversion of leads into customers. These features include a website builder, landing pages, CRM system, automated workflows, email marketing automation, and additional functionalities. Collectively, these components synergize to form a powerful lead conversion mechanism.
ClickFunnels Core Features
ClickFunnels primarily serves as a funnel-building software but extends its capabilities beyond that core function. Alongside funnel creation, it provides a user-friendly drag-and-drop tool for building websites and landing pages, a customer relationship management (CRM) system, email marketing functionalities, analytics, and additional features.
Sales Funnels
At the heart of Click-Funnels lies its sales funnel builder, offering users access to an extensive library of pre-designed funnels tailored to various objectives like lead generation, summits, carts, books, webinars, product launches, storefronts, and more.
Moreover, users have the option to craft their own funnels from scratch. However, utilizing the sales funnel editor, though contemporary in appearance, requires a learning curve and may not be immediately intuitive for beginners. Dedicate time to familiarize yourself with Click-Funnels to construct a functional and effective funnel, whether from templates or built from the ground up.
Website Builder
While ClickFunnels’ drag-and-drop website builder offers simplicity, its design options are notably restricted. Presently, users have access to only eight themes, fewer compared to the offerings of most website builders. Additionally, the site editor lacks intuitiveness for integrating advanced website elements like product listings and links. Furthermore, users commonly encounter issues with sluggish website speeds, posing challenges for both user experience and search engine optimization (SEO).
Email Marketing
ClickFunnels incorporates an email marketing platform within its suite of tools; however, its usability leaves much to be desired. In our assessment, it stands out as one of ClickFunnels’ weaker aspects. While it does feature DKIM email authentication to enhance deliverability, its functionality falls short compared to leading email marketing software. Using it proves cumbersome, showcasing poor software design from the start.
For instance, users are required to input basic email information before accessing email templates. Additionally, selecting a sender email address is necessary but lacks clarity, as it doesn’t automatically include the email used for account signup and lacks clear instructions for adding an email address from the given screen.
Analytics
Click-Funnels incorporates an email marketing platform within its suite of tools; however, its usability leaves much to be desired. In our assessment, it stands out as one of ClickFunnels’ weaker aspects. While it does feature DKIM email authentication to enhance deliverability, its functionality falls short compared to leading email marketing software. Using it proves cumbersome, showcasing poor software design from the start.
For instance, users are required to input basic email information before accessing email templates. Additionally, selecting a sender email address is necessary but lacks clarity, as it doesn’t automatically include the email used for account signup and lacks clear instructions for adding an email address from the given screen.
What Sets ClickFunnels Apart
ClickFunnels distinguishes itself with its sophisticated sales funnel builder, setting it apart from competitors. Although it includes features common among other providers like website builders, landing page builders, CRM, and email marketing tools, its emphasis on funnel creation is unparalleled. The platform offers extensive educational resources, not only covering platform usage (which can be exhaustive) but also providing insights on leveraging funnels effectively to boost sales.
ClickFunnels Pricing
Basic | Pro | Funnel Hacker | |
---|---|---|---|
Price With Annual Billing | $127 per month | $157 per month | $208 per month |
Price With Monthly Billing | $147 per month | $197 per month | $297 per month |
Number of Websites | One | One | Three |
Funnel Limit | 20 | 100 | Unlimited |
User Limit | Three | Five | 15 |
Contact Limit | 10,000 | 25,000 | 200,000 |
Unlimited Courses | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Unlimited Workflows | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Unlimited Pages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Unlimited Products | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Unlimited Email Sequences | Yes | Yes | Yes |
API Access | No | Yes | Yes |
Money-Back Guarantee | 30 days | 30 days | 30 days |
Support | Live chat and email | Live chat and email | Live chat and email |
Basic
The ClickFunnels Basic plan serves as the introductory tier, priced at $127 per month for annual billing or $147 per month for monthly billing. This plan encompasses one website, allows for up to three users, accommodates up to 20 funnels, and supports up to 10,000 contacts. Additionally, users enjoy unlimited access to workflows, courses, pages, projects, products, and email sequences. Notably, unlike the Pro and Funnel Hacker plans, API access is not included. Nevertheless, subscribers benefit from a 30-day money-back guarantee for annual subscriptions.
Pro
Priced at $157 per month for annual billing or $197 per month for month-to-month billing, the Pro plan builds upon the offerings of the Basic plan. In addition to providing one website, it extends access to up to five users and supports up to 100 funnels, accommodating up to 25,000 contacts. Furthermore, it includes all features available in the Basic plan.
Funnel Hacker
The Funnel Hacker plan by ClickFunnels stands as its premium offering, priced at $208 per month for annual billing or $297 per month without a contract commitment. Despite the higher cost, subscribers receive all features included in the Basic and Pro plans, supplemented by two additional websites for a total of three, allowance for up to 15 users, unlimited funnel creation, and support for up to 200,000 contacts.
ClickFunnels Setup
Registering for a new ClickFunnels account is a simple process, involving the input of contact information and payment details, even for the free trial. However, navigating the platform and setting up funnels requires a learning curve. Nevertheless, ClickFunnels offers extensive educational resources, providing comprehensive guidance on software usage. Though it may not be immediately intuitive, ample information is accessible to aid users in mastering the platform.
ClickFunnels’ User-Friendliness
ClickFunnels faces criticism for its lack of user-friendliness, a sentiment echoed by many users. Despite offering a comprehensive suite of tools in one place, it falls short in terms of intuitiveness for newcomers. Learning to utilize ClickFunnels effectively requires a significant investment of time and effort.
Interestingly, this initial learning curve often leads to another issue: while users may not favor ClickFunnels, they are reluctant to migrate to other platforms due to the prospect of rebuilding their work from scratch.
A notable example of ClickFunnels’ unintuitive design is evident in the process of setting up redirects. Unlike most content management systems where redirects are configured within individual pages, ClickFunnels users navigate to a separate section for redirect setup. While not inherently challenging, this deviation from conventional practices can pose difficulties for users accustomed to other platforms.
ClickFunnels Security
ClickFunnels implements several internal security measures to protect user accounts and sensitive data. However, it lacks extensive security features for users. Notably, the platform does not support two-factor authentication. Instead, users can utilize the “Collaborators” feature to assign specific user roles and permissions. Nonetheless, the inability to customize roles or permissions may pose limitations in certain scenarios.
ClickFunnels Customer Service and Support
Support through live chat is accessible around the clock from Monday to Friday, while weekend availability extends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET. ClickFunnels asserts that email support operates 24/7; however, responses may be delayed, rendering it less suitable for urgent inquiries. Moreover, the platform features an AI-powered live chatbot that proves surprisingly helpful, alongside a comprehensive educational hub known as the “success center.”
ClickFunnels Alternatives and How They Compare
ClickFunnels | Shopify | Wix | Squarespace | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Starting Price (Billed Annually) | $127 per month | $29 per month | $16 per month | $16 per month |
Free Trial | 14 days (credit card required) | 3 days (no credit card required) | Not available | 14 days (no credit card required) |
Landing Page Builder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Website Builder | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Number of Templates or Themes | Eight | 12 free themes; hundreds of premium themes | 800-plus | 100-plus |
Sell Subscriptions | Yes | Yes | Yes, with Business plans | Yes |
Membership Sites | Yes | Yes, via an app | Yes | Yes |
Build Online Courses | Yes | Yes, via an app | Yes, via an app | Yes, available as an add-on |
Built-In Email Marketing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Built-In CRM | Yes | No | Yes | No, via integrations only |
Money-Back Guarantee | 30 days | Not available | 14 days | 14 days |
Customer Support Channels | Live chat and email | Live chat and email | Live chat, email and phone | Live chat or email |
24/7 Support | No, 24 hours per day Monday through Friday | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Learn More | — | – | – | – |
Read More | — | – | – | – |
ClickFunnels vs. Shopify
ClickFunnels and Shopify, while distinct platforms, share several features. ClickFunnels primarily focuses on funnel building, whereas Shopify specializes in e-commerce website construction. Nevertheless, it’s feasible to create websites using ClickFunnels and sales funnels using Shopify. Regarding pricing, Shopify offers more affordable options starting at $29 per month, significantly lower than ClickFunnels’ starting price of $127 per month.
Unlike ClickFunnels, Shopify lacks a native CRM but integrates seamlessly with leading CRM systems. It also boasts various selling tools, including email marketing with automations and segmentation, live chat support, and a form builder to boost lead generation.
In summary, online retailers seeking a user-friendly, code-free website with built-in marketing tools may prefer Shopify. Conversely, ClickFunnels is better suited for established businesses aiming to optimize their sales funnels.
ClickFunnels vs. Wix
When comparing ClickFunnels to Wix, a notable distinction lies in their primary functions. Wix primarily serves as a website builder with extensive customization options afforded by its vast library of apps and integrations. Unlike ClickFunnels, it doesn’t specialize in funnel building but offers robust marketing capabilities conducive to lead generation and conversion. Moreover, Wix is notably more cost-effective, starting at $16 per month with annual billing, and boasts a larger selection of templates. Similar to ClickFunnels, it also features a built-in CRM and email marketing tools.
For the average small business seeking an easily customizable website with integrated marketing tools, Wix is likely the preferable option. Conversely, ClickFunnels caters more to businesses seeking to enhance sales performance, especially those with existing websites.
ClickFunnels vs. Squarespace
Squarespace emerges as a noteworthy alternative to ClickFunnels, offering an all-in-one website building solution tailored to enhance online marketing for small businesses. With superior user-friendliness, a broader selection of templates, and integrated email marketing tools, Squarespace stands out. It also boasts customization options, including CRM functionality, and is more cost-effective at $16 per month with annual billing.
Primarily, Squarespace caters to small businesses and startups embarking on their online journey, aiming to establish a digital presence and execute marketing strategies. Conversely, ClickFunnels targets businesses with an established online presence and refined marketing strategies, seeking to optimize sales performance through advanced funneling techniques.
Who Is ClickFunnels Best For?
ClickFunnels is ideal for businesses with a solid foundation seeking to enhance and automate their digital marketing efforts through advanced sales funnel techniques. This could apply to businesses experiencing satisfactory sales with their current strategies but encountering challenges in further improving performance.
Conclusion
ClickFunnels proves beneficial for online retailers aiming to amplify their digital sales through a strategically designed system, provided they commit to learning its intricacies. However, it may not be the optimal choice for typical small businesses or startups in their initial stages. This is due to its high cost, steep learning curve, and reliance on an established contact list and substantial web traffic to yield significant benefits—resources that many small businesses and new ventures may lack.