11 Best sales funnel builders and what to look for

TL;DR Learn why and how your sales funnel builder software can power your marketing strategy, and find the best tool for your business.

If you’re here, you’re probably looking for a way to take your digital marketing strategy to the next level. But have you considered that the secret to reaching your online marketing’s full potential is by going back to day one business and sales fundamentals?

We’re referring to the sales funnel.

You might not have thought about the simple sales funnel since the first day of your Business: 101 class, but it’s a foundational concept for a reason, and it just might be the key to unlocking your marketing strategy. 

Building a strong sales funnel is essential to creating a successful business. And fortunately for business owners focused on digital goods, there are a host of software solutions specifically designed to make building, maintaining, and optimizing your sales funnel as simple as possible.

We’ll break down the different parts that make up a sales funnel, discuss why it’s so important for you to build one, and look at the 11 best sales funnel builders on the market to help you get started.

We’ll take a look at the best features, what businesses each one serves, and the pricing structure.

Let’s get started!

At its core, a sales funnel is your customers’ journey from beginning to end. The sales funnel starts with brand awareness and ends with people converting to customers or clients. It’s called a funnel because as you move through it, fewer and fewer people will make it through each step. 

Every person who interacts with your business is at a different part of the funnel. Where you make money is in your ability to move as many people as possible from the top of the funnel to the bottom, and as quickly as possible.

For a more detailed explanation of the funnel, check out Flodesk’s free Marketing Funnel course. But to quickly explain, here are the five stages your potential customers will move through:

Stage 1: Awareness. This is the largest part of the funnel. In this stage, people are aware they have a problem or a need for a solution to fix it. At this stage, your goal is to let people know that you exist and can solve their problems.

Stage 2: Interest. Customers in the interest stage are now looking a little more actively for a solution. They may have subscribed to your email list or started reading reviews, but no decision is imminent.

Stage 3: Consideration. At this point, consumers are deciding between the available alternatives and it’s your goal to make your product stand out as the best choice among your competitors.

Stage 4: Conversion. Customers make a final decision at this stage. Your objective is to make it as painless as possible for people to purchase from you.

Stage 5: Loyalty and advocacy. After that purchase decision, it’s crucial to maintain a strong relationship with your customers so they become repeat buyers. They will eventually advocate for your business, helping drive even more people to the top of the funnel.

The sales funnel is at the core of any great marketing strategy. Marketing is built on sales funnels in the same way that calculus is built on the foundations of multiplication and division. Even though you might not think about it that way, every decision you make in the process of marketing your business is about moving customers through your funnel.

So, let’s discuss how technology can help you better understand the sales funnel process.

A sales funnel builder is software designed to help you create a sales funnel and better visualize your customers’ journey through every part of that funnel. Sales funnel builders can help you design each of the marketing touchpoints needed for the five stages and give you the data to optimize them.

You can make more informed decisions about your marketing process with the analytics from your sales funnel builder, too. For example, if your checkout process has multiple steps, a sales funnel builder can show you where customers are falling off of that checkout process and where you can improve.

Using a sales funnel builder will help you manage everything from your landing pages and email marketing lead generation to email marketing campaigns and online payments. Typically, you would do this by using a variety of different software services and paying multiple subscription fees, but a sales funnel builder makes it simple.

A sales funnel builder can help you:

The sales funnel is a crucial part of marketing for every type of business, and can be greatly beneficial in virtually every industry. For businesses both large and small.

Customers are much more likely to make it all the way through your funnel if it’s simple and easy to do so. It’s the same way for you as an entrepreneur. No one likes to deal with the hassle and busy work of monitoring an assortment of software tools to accomplish one task.

The simpler it is for you to build a sales funnel, and monitor and optimize it, the more likely you are to follow through. This is true no matter what type of business you run. 

Companies and entrepreneurs that sell digital products online are the most obvious beneficiaries of a sales funnel builder. Since your entire customer journey can take place online, a sales funnel builder will capture data at every point of the process. Software tools like Flodesk Checkout also let you manage your customers’ purchase experience in one central place. The entire process can take place on one beautiful, easy-to-create landing page—no website required.

Don’t sell products online? You can still benefit from a sales funnel builder. As technology progresses and our shopping habits change alongside it, the list of use cases for sales funnel builder tools only grows. One example of the way technology trends are creating more use cases for sales funnel builders is the restaurant industry. 

Over the past couple of years, QR code menus have become increasingly popular, creating a new digital touchpoint between customers and businesses. Many restaurants have taken the opportunity provided by a digital menu to turn their customers into subscribers by capturing information like email addresses and phone numbers. 

Once users subscribe, you can integrate their information into a sales funnel builder to maintain an ongoing relationship, send out campaigns, and encourage customers to move back through each of the stages of the funnel for repeat visits.

There are more and more unique opportunities like this available to businesses from all industries and of all sizes. Even small businesses that sell physical goods can use a sales funnel builder. For example, a small flower shop that promotes itself on Instagram can encourage users to subscribe to an email list. You can then use a sales funnel builder like Flodesk Checkout to encourage spending, moving them through the funnel again.

Read next: Sales page templates & tips!

Some of the primary features and benefits to look for in a sales funnel builder include:

With all of these features in mind, let’s discuss the 15 best sales funnel builders available on the market right now. We’ll examine the key features, compare pricing, and hopefully help you find the best tool for your business.

Flodesk Checkout is the ultimate sales funnel builder for anyone looking to sell digital products and services online through a beautifully branded online experience. The platform helps you build stunning sales, checkout, and delivery pages from an expansive library of templates.

You can create as many pages as you’d like to display your products and quickly accept payments with Stripe. With full flexibility to create post-delivery actions for your customers, Flodesk Checkout offers instant deliverability for downloads, links to scheduling pages, thank you messages with further instructions, or access to content hosted on another page.

Flodesk Checkout also lets you integrate stunning email marketing campaigns into your sales funnel. The Flodesk platform never penalizes your business for growth either. A Flodesk subscription allows for unlimited sales landing pages, customers, and products without raising the subscription price.

For just $38 per month, Flodesk Checkout gives users access to the full functionality of this powerful ecommerce platform. Flodesk doesn’t charge a platform fee for transactions, charging only Stripe’s 3% + $0.30 transaction fee.

Bundling the Flodesk Email marketing platform with Flodesk Checkout brings the price to $64 per month with unlimited email subscribers and sends. But if you pay annually instead of monthly, you can save the equivalent of a free month.

Try out the powerful features available in Flodesk Checkout with a 30-day free trial.

The WishPond platform offers cloud-based online marketing tools like landing pages, online ads, and lead management. The most unique feature WishPond offer is its “contests and promos” feature that allows you to easily run photo contests, giveaways, and other promos to help build awareness for your brand.

WishPond focuses on large enterprise businesses like Walmart and ESPN instead of smaller, digital-first businesses. They also offer consulting services for larger clients, like search engine optimization (SEO) help. 

WishPond offers a free tier for up to 200 users, and from there, pricing starts at $44 per month. Pricing escalates depending on which services you use and how many subscribers/website visitors you have.

Systeme.io offers an impressive suite of features alongside its sales funnel builder, including email marketing, an online course builder, and a website builder. Systeme.io’s sleek editor enables users to quickly build sales funnels that fully integrate into each of its other product offerings.

The integrated nature of the software makes it simple to market your online business and digital products, and Systeme.io even offers a “forever-free” subscription tier. While the sheer number of tools available with Systeme.io make it appealing for more advanced users and larger marketing teams, smaller businesses may find the software overwhelming to implement.

Systeme.io’s pricing plans do include a free-forever tier. However, that tier limits the number of email subscribers users can have to 2,000. To get unlimited email lists, automation rules, and workflows, users will need to upgrade to the $97/month Unlimited plan.

GetResponse is primarily an email marketing platform – it’s one of the biggest SendOwl alternatives. However, over the years, GetResponse created a powerful sales funnel builder as well.

The GetResponse funnel builder allows users to create different types of automated sales funnels for various campaigns. The software offers a number of funnels, including simple opt-ins, lead magnet funnels, and webinar signups. 

Entrepreneurs who sell digital products generally enjoy GetResponse. GetResponse also offers tools designed to help users create Facebook and Instagram ads and pay for targeted campaigns directly within the platform.

GetResponse’s pricing for its sales funnel features start at its Pro tier, which is the middle offering of its five tiers. Their pricing is dependent on list size. So for 1,000 contacts or less, the Pro tier starts at $59 per month, and the price rises as high as $599 per month for up to 100,000 contacts.

Explore top GetResponse alternatives here.

ConvertKit is a popular tool that allows users to sell digital products and create basic marketing emails within one platform. ConvertKit serves entrepreneurs and offers a free tier for up to 1,000 subscribers. 

ConvertKit’s most notable features are its training modules that help you build your business, create landing pages, sell digital products, and customize segmentation. ConvertKit is a great platform for beginner digital product marketers looking for a straightforward, no-frills sales funnel builder.
Check out our recent blog about ConvertKit alternatives to learn more details about the platform.

ConvertKit features a free pricing tier for up to 1,000 subscribers. Any list larger than that, however, requires upgrading to the Creator tier, which starts at $29 per month and increases from there. 

ClickFunnels is a popular sales funnel building software because it is extremely easy to use. The platform offers a simple editor with tools that help guide your customers through their entire online journey. 

ClickFunnels features email and Facebook marketing tools within the platform as well as a one-click upsell tool that looks to automatically upsell any buyer who checks out on your website. This tool is best for small business owners looking for a simple all-in-one solution who are also willing to pay for the convenience.

ClickFunnels offers a 14-day free trial but there is no free tier. Their Basic subscription starts at $97 per month with their Platinum subscription, featuring unlimited funnels, landing pages, and monthly visits, starting at $297 per month.

For a deeper dive compare the top ClickFunnels alternatives!

The Hubspot platform provides an impressive suite of tools primarily focused on lead management and tracking. Hubspot shows you every detail about your leads in one simple-to-use dashboard. 

Hubspot allows you to automatically score your leads, or rate leads in terms of likeliness to convert into customers. Hubspot also offers basic email marketing functionalities and a landing page builder to help with lead generation and customer relationship nurturing. 

Hubspot has a variety of service offerings including marketing, sales, customer service, content management systems (CMS), and operations tools with a variety of functionalities that make it a powerful tool for larger businesses but not a great fit for small, digital-focused businesses.

Hubspot offers free tiers for all of its product sets, but each one has various limits put in place. Hubspot’s Starter tier pricing begins at $50 per month for the first 1,000 contacts and an additional $50 per month for every 1,000 contacts after that.

Kajabi is a code-free marketing funnel solution that can help build interest in your product and convert that interest into sales. Its landing pages are simple to create and offer a straightforward, professional look with minimal set-up.

The platform also features a built-in shopping cart functionality with no transaction fees, useful marketing automation, and a fully customizable checkout page. Kajabi is a rather expensive sales funnel builder tool, so it may not be best for small businesses working on a tight budget.

Kajabi’s basic plan starts at $149 per month for up to three products and 10,000 contacts. To sell 100 products, you’ll need to upgrade to the $399 per month Pro tier.

ActiveCampaign is primarily a customer experience platform designed for email automation and other communications. Automation features are its strongest selling points, enabling things like automatic follow-up thank you emails and abandoned cart emails. 

While ActiveCampaign’s automation features are impressive and are helpful for companies who have very mature product funnels looking to outsource simple email tasks, the tool isn’t intended to completely take over the full sales funnel.

ActiveCampaign’s marketing and email automation software packages begin at $15 per month for up to 500 contacts and increase from there (depending on subscriber count). To build custom landing pages, you will have to subscribe to the $70 per month Plus tier for up to 500 email contacts before prices rise.

Check our out guide to ActiveCampaign’s top competitors for more.

GrowSurf’s sales funnel builder targets tech companies with high margins. The platform seeks to maximize sales by encouraging existing customers to refer new leads. The platform features tools like an automatic link generator, fraud detection, and rewards programs. 

GrowSurf’s tool is fully customizable and white-labeled, meaning users will only ever see your brand on the product. This isn’t necessarily a tool for small business owners, and it isn’t priced as such. But if you run a tech startup and want to generate new leads, GrowSurf may be a great option for you.

GrowSurf’s software is not intended for small businesses and starts at $775 per month for its Startup tier.

OptimizePress is designed to be the sales funnel builder for WordPress sites. It’s a simple solution that lets users create sales funnels directly on their WordPress sites, so if you already use WordPress to manage your business online, this may be the software for you.

OptimizePress features all the essential tools you’ll need to build and manage a marketing funnel, including building landing pages and collecting payments via Stripe. Unfortunately, OptimizePress doesn’t offer any email marketing features of its own, but it does seamlessly integrate with most other available tools.

To take advantage of OptimizePress’s sales funnel capabilities, you’ll need to subscribe to the Suite subscription tier, which costs $199 per year. This tier features unlimited pages, leads, and traffic.

Flodesk Checkout offers the best-looking and most versatile set of sales funnel features for the lowest price. Our easy-to-use templates offer an unmatched level of flexibility, designed with digital entrepreneurs in mind. 

Give your customers a delightful experience at every stage of the sales funnel by using Flodesk Checkout and Flodesk Email together. Flodesk has everything you need to effortlessly deliver high-quality campaigns that not only move your customers through the funnel one time but also bring them back again and again.

Best of all, we’ll never punish you with higher rates for growing your subscriber list or doing more business. No complicated tiers, no feature limits, no paywalls. Your subscription price stays the same whether you have 1,000 contacts or one million.

Ready to start building your sales funnel with Flodesk? Sign up for a free 30-day trial of Flodesk.