When we compare ClickFunnels vs WordPress, it is important to understand how each of these platforms caters to different needs. If you are new to the business world, you might be wondering why this comparison even exists in the first place. Although both of these platforms serve different purposes, both have a common ground when it comes to building a website. And having a website built around your business is very important for the business to grow.
WordPress and ClickFunnels are popular choices when it comes to building and managing websites for business. And why is a website necessary for your business? A website helps possible customers to know what your service provides and how credible your business is. ClickFunnels is a SaaS platform that helps create various sales funnels for lead generation and convert them into possible customers. Whereas, WordPress is a versatile platform that helps users to manage and create websites from scratch for businesses.
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ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels is a marketing tool that provides all the necessary functionalities you will need to launch a business. It offers the ability to create funnels with drag-and-drop page builders. Its pricing plans include a basic plan that starts at $127/month. The pro plan starts at $157/month, and the funnel hacker plan starts at $208/month. However, with its wide range of features, it really does justice to the price. Not only that, but the beginner-friendly interface of this platform has kept users hooked.
So, how does ClickFunnels work? And how will it help your business grow?
To answer this question, we can take a metaphor from the name itself, i.e., ClickFunnels. Yes, the Funnels part is the main feature of this platform, i.e., focusing on funnel building. It uses the AIDA model to create a sales funnel, which stands for:
A: Making potential buyers aware of the products and services.
I: Making the potential buyers gain interest in the products and services using ratings or websites.
D: Making the products and services desirable to the users by maintaining relationships with customers.
A: Prompting the users to perform an action through landing pages, websites, or emails. Possibly, converting visitors to customers is also called lead conversion.
This main feature of ClickFunnels works in favor of businesses because it keeps the customers hooked, increasing customer engagement. With features like sales funnel builders, pre-built funnel templates, marketing funnels, review funnels, and many more, users don’t have to have technical skills to make sales funnels.
Benefits and Features
The potential of ClickFunnels lies in its sales funnels that offer a range of features for building and growing a business. A sales funnel is a series of steps designed to guide visitors from interest to purchase. There are many advantages of a sales funnel, which are provided below.
- Built-in templates: ClickFunnels provides a visual page builder with a built-in funnel builder for building a website or funnel. This means users can use ClickFunnels to create sales funnels without any coding knowledge.
- Testing funnels: You can know how well your website is doing by testing. A/B testing is a feature in ClickFunnels that allows users to test variations of their funnel pages or funnels to see which performs better.
- Third-party integrations: In your funnel pages, you can integrate various third-party tools to automate the sales funnel. Additionally, this feature is helpful for integrating email marketing software.
- User-friendly: ClickFunnels is easy to use and manage. It has drag-and-drop page builders, making the website/landing page setup process fast and easy.
- Tracking and analysis: We can integrate Google Analytics in ClickFunnels. This helps in tracking funnel interactions and traffic sources and overall provides analytics of our funnels and their performance. Knowing this analytics greatly helps in optimizing the funnels for better performance.
- Payment integration: ClickFunnels comes with three pricing plans. It allows the integration of multiple payment gateways in websites. Likewise, PayPal and Stripe are two popular payment methods in ClickFunnels.
How does it help businesses with sales funnels and marketing campaigns?
We have already discussed the AIDA strategy while using ClickFunnels. Similarly, during each step, the entrepreneur decides what each funnel in every business aspect can represent. Because it has a drag-and-drop website builder, it is very easy for users to create a website or landing pages. Similarly, we can use sales funnels to increase email lists by asking for customers’ emails in exchange for the next proceeding step or service. This is a trick most business owners use to generate a wider audience and maintain a relationship with them.
Third-party tool integrations help funnels become more functional and efficient. Furthermore, another important part is the Customer Relationship Management feature that it provides. Similarly, ClickFunnels is much more than just sales funnels. Effective funnels can be used to serve e-commerce platforms and online stores. Also, marketing funnels can be built and integrated with social media platforms. This can be really useful for advertising products and services for global outreach.
A website or a landing page is a single-point entry for many customers. That’s why building sales funnels and landing pages representing your business contributes so much to growing a successful business.
WordPress
WordPress is a popular content management system(cms). It was introduced and widely used as a blogging platform but can now be used for many purposes. WordPress CMS has grown in flexibility in terms of its usage, from building business websites to landing pages and portfolios. This was already bad news for its competitors, and WordPress stands out as a stronger competitor in the business world.
Furthermore, WordPress is a self-hosted and managed service. The self-hosted (WordPress.org) service gives free access to WordPress themes and tools. The managed(WordPress.com)service manages your server, security, and hosting so that you can focus on website or content creation. Although the managed service is simple to use and has numerous features, it is a bit expensive compared to the self-hosted one. However, with the features they provide, they do justice to the price paid.
Benefits and features
We are comparing the key features of ClickFunnels VS WordPress to help provide you with a clear comparison. Take a look:
User-friendliness
WordPress has a simple interface. Similarly, building a WordPress site is quite easy. There is no need to know coding; one can easily create basic websites without technical knowledge. Users can install WordPress plugins and themes to add advanced features. Users may need help selecting the right hosting and installing suitable themes and plugins. The WordPress community is one of the most active ones. Similarly, there are numerous resources to help beginners learn about the platform.
ClickFunnels comes with a simple drag-and-drop visual editor and an easy-to-use interface. Beginners can easily use the platform to build sales funnels. There is no need for technical or coding knowledge. ClickFunnels offers a range of easily customizable funnel templates that users can use to match their brand identity. The built-in tools also help create and design funnels without coding. ClickFunnels provides a step-by-step onboarding process that is helpful for beginners. They can use it to understand how the platform works and use its features effectively.
Customization and flexibility
WordPress is a versatile platform and highly customizable. There are limitless possibilities, and you can create any website, from personal blogs to online businesses. Various tools and resources exist to create and design the website that suits your image. The availability of free and premium themes makes WordPress sites further flexible. Most themes come equipped with ready-to-use modules. Similarly, many themes also come with page builder features, which make customization easier.
Compared to WordPress, ClickFunnels offers less customization and flexibility. Unlike WordPress, which is open-source, ClickFunnels is a closed system. Users can customize the pre-built templates and funnels, but this has limitations. Customizing the colors, fonts, and other elements to match your brand identity is possible.
Tools and SEO
WordPress is widely used as a publishing tool due to its intuitive editor and customization options. Whether creating or publishing content, the platform offers a wide array of features, such as scheduling posts for publishing in advance. WordPress also seamlessly integrates with third-party tools like Google Analytics, SEO plugins, and more. The SEO plugins help optimize the content and boost its ranking in search engine results.
Meanwhile, ClickFunnels mainly focuses on sales funnel building rather than content publishing. Hence, the platform has limited publishing tools. ClickFunnels 2.0 has a new Blog feature for creating and publishing blogs. You can use the platform to build a website or funnel. ClickFunnels offers various marketing tools than WordPress. It has features like email integration, A/B testing, and others to boost sales through funnels.
E-commerce and integration
WordPress also integrates easily with different e-commerce plugins. One popular e-commerce plugin is WooCommerce, which is perfect for creating online business websites. Similarly, WooCommerce offers multiple payment gateway options like PayPal, Evalone, Stripe, and more. It also provides flexibility. Users can control the designs and functions of products, categories, and purchasing processes. It offers a unique user experience and helps boost your brand’s online presence.
Unlike WordPress, ClickFunnels takes care of ecommerce by directly integrating it into the platform. Hence, there is no need to install a plugin or additional coding to manage online business sites and stores. Similarly, it integrates with different payment gateways and is more convinent. It optimizes your sites and stores for higher conversion and simplifies purchasing. ClickFunnels handles the setup and maintenance of e-commerce.
Security
When it comes to security, WordPress doesn’t have built-in security features. Hence, users have to be responsible for the security of their sites by themselves. For this purpose, you can install security plugins. You should also update your site with the latest WordPress version for securing your sites. The platform allows you to schedule automatic updates when a new version is released. But you can also manually update your site to ensure your current themes and plugins do not clash with the latest release version.
The advantage of ClickFunnels is that it is a SaaS platform. It comes with built-in security features. Hence, users do not have to worry about periodically installing or updating security measures. The platform has two security features: an SSL certificate and two-factor authentication. These two features secure your site and its data from potential breaches and threats.
Pricing
WordPress is an open-source and free platform. However, users must pay for a domain name, web hosting, premium themes/plugins, and website development. The cost of a domain name can range around $20 per year. WordPress website requires hosting services. For web hosting, you can choose from various types of hosting (shared hosting, dedicated hosting, or VPS hosting) and provide. It can range from $75 to $100 per month.
There are free themes and plugins, but premium themes can cost around $30 to $50, and premium plugins can cost $50 to $100. Meanwhile, the sales funnel plugins cost $97 per year. Website development costs can be pretty high if you hire a development agency or WordPress developer. The service can cost $2500 or more. However, WordPress is still more economical as it offers different pricing options for every service.
ClickFunnels operates on a subscription model (monthly or yearly). Currently, it has two models: Startup and Pro. You can take a ClickFunnels free trial for 14 days before opting for either model. The Startup’s annual model cost is $97 per month. The plan includes 3 brand workspaces, 3 team members, unlimited funnels, courses, members, contacts, pages, and domains. The Pro’s annual model cost is $297 per month. It includes 10 brand workspaces, 10 team members, unlimited funnels, courses, members, contacts, pages, and domains. Users can select either plan based on their requi
How does it help businesses with Website design and Content management?
When it comes to website building, integrating the website with the necessary information is highly beneficial. You can structure your website by integrating it with social media platforms. Furthermore, a website made by using WordPress can contain many information. Product information and it can provide easy access to customer service as well. With WP’s SEO capabilities, you already know the website will be optimized, updated, and visible in search engines. Likewise, integration of third-party tools can be very useful for managing and growing businesses.
By integrating API and affiliate links, what website owners can do is put their best work to attract users and give access to the service in exchange for their email addresses. With this method, you can increase engagement with customers. Moreover, you can encourage social shares with social media platforms integrated into your websites or content. Don’t like the quality of the product? Truly satisfied with the service? Rate us and let your friends on Facebook know. These types of marketing strategies help in social advertising the services provided by businesses. With thousands of themes provided, you can create an attractive UI for business websites and content.
Pros and Cons: Clickfunnels vs WordPress
WordPress and ClickFunnels serve different purposes. Although different from one another, they share similarities, which can make it hard for people to choose the best one. And surely, choosing between ClickFunnels and WordPress depends on the needs and requirements of the users. However, knowing what the best of the best they can provide and what the worst of the worst they can have can help make an informed decision.
Pros of ClickFunnels:
- ClickFunnels provides built-in templates for funnel builders. It streamlines the process of making sales funnels easier.
- It is an all-in-one solution. That means it allows users to create a sales funnel and market businesses. Overall, ClickFunnels takes care of ecommerce platforms by offering a wide range of features.
- One of the main advantages of ClickFunnels is its simplistic drag-and-drop website builder.
- Like WordPress, to optimize the funnels, ClickFunnels provides features like A/B testing.
- ClickFunnels offers a range of pre-built options like upsell or down-sell funnels and follow-up funnels. These funnels help in increasing the conversion rates.
- ClickFunnels excels at providing customer service. Compared to WordPress, it provides customer service through email, live chat, or community support.
- ClickFunnels also has an upgraded version, ClickFunnels 2.0, for advanced themes and plugins.
Cons of ClickFunnels:
- ClickFunnels operates on a subscription, which is quite expensive.
- ClickFunnels may be easy to use, but they are not customizable. That limits users to the features it only provides.
- ClickFunnels has a steeper learning curve for the advanced features it provides with the premium plans.
- It has basic SEO features that can limit the optimization needed to generate higher traffic.
- One of the main cons of ClickFunnels is its load time. Most of the complaints about this platform are about its slow processing speed.
- A saas platform like ClickFunnels can take over the ownership of your content.
Pros of WordPress:
- WordPress is highly customizable due to the availability of its numerous features.
- WordPress allows third-party tool integrations. This is helpful for the functionality and optimization of websites and content.
- WordPress also integrates API and affiliate links while building content. That means you can add multiple external features directly into your WordPress website using APIs.
- With WordPress, we can have full control over the design. Similarly, we can have ownership over our content, including hosting and related data.
- It is a flexible open-source content management system. It also has a large WordPress community for any help.
- Unlike ClickFunnels, WordPress has a free service(WordPress.org) and a budget-friendly service(WordPress.com). For the managed service, the price ranges from $4 to $59 per month.
- It has thousands of free WordPress plugins and tools for making SEO-friendly content.
Cons of WordPress:
- Having full ownership of the content is not only a pro but can also be a con. It means the WordPress website requires to be managed and maintained by the users themselves, unlike ClickFunnels. This includes security, updates, backups, and hosting services.
- With its wide array of features and advanced WordPress editing capabilities, users can find it difficult to use.
- Although it is cost-effective, users have to pay additional fees for benefits like e-commerce features, premium plugins, and themes.
- WordPress may be open source, but it is not beginner-friendly. Thus, WordPress doesn’t offer dedicated customer service.
- Unlike ClickFunnels, WordPress does not have funnels for a smooth customer journey.
Final Verdict: WordPress VS ClickFunnels
ClickFunnels and WordPress are two amazing platforms that are the best of their worlds. On the one hand, with ClickFunnels, you can get a quick setup for sales funnels with added features, but it comes at a hefty price. On the other hand, many businesses use WordPress to build websites. Because WordPress is a self-hosted platform, you have full control over your content, and almost every feature is free. However, technical knowledge is required to maintain the system. You see, there is no better or worse when choosing between WordPress or ClickFunnels. To make it easier for you, I will suggest these:
Choose ClickFunnels if you are:
- Mainly focused on sales and lead generation by building a funnel.
- You prefer an all-in-one business solution with no coding skills required.
- Small business focusing on direct sales and marketing.
Choose WordPress if you are:
- Mainly focused on generating leads with content like websites and blogs.
- You prefer a cost-effective, fully functional, and controllable platform.
- Large or small businesses focused on making customized e-commerce platforms. I also require technical skills to manage business sites.
Therefore, the main difference between ClickFunnels and WordPress is how they help businesses grow. Overall, with the pros and cons of WordPress and ClickFunnels, which one is best for you? This is the question you can only answer. We can also use ClickFunnels with WordPress to generate rich content and maximize sales.
FAQs
Is WordPress better than ClickFunnels?
The choice depends on your requirements. WordPress is the best option if you are looking for a flexible, customizable, budget-friendly platform where third-party tools and SEO features can be integrated. But ClickFunnels is the ideal solution if you are searching for an all-in-one solution for building your business. Also suitable if you want it to be quick and easy with no technical skills. The choice between ClickFunnels and WordPress depends on your needs and requirements.
Which platform is more customizable, WordPress or ClickFunnels?
WordPress is more customizable than ClickFunnels. It has a large selection of free and paid themes and a plugin. Hence, users can freely customize their sites. Users can create a unique and personalized site that matches their brand and identity. ClickFunnels also has a library of pre-built templates primarily for building sales funnels. Also, it offers only limited customization.
What are the disadvantages of ClickFunnels?
ClickFunnels has a few disadvantages. Some of them are:
ClickFunnels is more expensive than other platforms using sales funnels.
The page load speed is high, which can affect the system’s overall usability.
It has limited customization options and provides less flexibility in terms of optimization.
Can you really make money with ClickFunnels?
Yes, you can make money with ClickFunnels. ClickFunnels are designed to drive conversions and increase sales. Businesses use it to generate high traffic to their online stores for higher sales. Moreover, with the right use of sales funnels, you can market your business. With this, you can increase customer engagement and maximize sales.
What is the best alternative to ClickFunnels?
The best alternatives for ClickFunnels are:
WordPress: For creating SEO-rich content.
Wix: For creating highly customizable sites.
Strikingly: For creating websites for free.
Shopify: For creating e-commerce sites