How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Rankite is independent; if a vendor ever pays for a featured spot, that listing is clearly labeled Partner.
Key takeaways
- ClickFunnels remains the reference all-in-one at $97 a month, with pages, checkout, email, and courses under one login and a 14-day free trial.
- Systeme.io is the standout free option: a free-forever plan with 2,000 contacts and 3 funnels, no credit card required, with paid plans from $17 a month.
- ThriveCart sells as a one-time or lifetime option rather than a monthly subscription, which changes the math for sellers on tight margins.
- If you only need pages, Leadpages at $99 a month avoids paying for an email platform and CRM you may never open.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 ClickFunnels | Running full sales funnels in one account | $97/month (Launch; $81/month billed annually) | Free trial (14 days) |
 Systeme.io | Starting and testing funnels at no cost | Free (Startup plan $17/month) | Yes |
 Kartra | Coaches and experts replacing a whole tool stack | See website | Free trial |
 Kajabi | Course creators selling a learning experience | See website | Free trial (14 days) |
 ThriveCart | High-converting checkout without a monthly bill | See website | No |
 Leadpages | Landing pages when email and checkout live elsewhere | $99/month (Grow) | Free trial |
 GetResponse | Email-first businesses adding funnels cheaply | From $15.58/month (Starter) | Yes |
 ActiveCampaign | Sophisticated follow-up automation after the opt-in | From $15/month (billed annually) | Free trial (14 days) |
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
The best funnel building software
Starting price$97/month (Launch; $81/month billed annually)
Free planFree trial (14 days)
ClickFunnels is the product most people mean when they say funnel builder. The page builder, checkout, email tools, CRM, and course delivery all run from the same account, so a funnel that captures a lead, sells a product, and follows up afterward does not require multiple subscriptions. Its own 2026 comparison page confirms the current pricing: Launch at $97 a month, Scale at $197, Optimize at $297, with annual billing bringing those down to roughly $81, $164, and $248.
The watch-outs are the caps that sit inside the plans. Launch allows 10,000 contacts and 3 courses, so a course business with more than a few products outgrows it fast. And the price climbs with contacts and email volume, which is really a CRM and email cost, not a page cost. If you use the whole suite, one bill replaces four or five. If you only build landing pages, you are funding machinery you will never open.
What we like- Funnel builder, checkout, email, CRM, and course delivery in one login
- Checkout built for upsells, downsells, and order bumps
- 14-day free trial on every plan
Watch out for- Course limits are capped on every plan (3 on Launch)
- Contact-based pricing pushes the cost up as your list grows
Starting priceFree (Startup plan $17/month)
Free planYes
Systeme.io's free plan is genuinely free: it never expires, needs no credit card, and covers 2,000 contacts, 3 sales funnels, 1 course, and unlimited email sends, per its own pricing page. That is enough to launch a lead magnet funnel and make real sales before spending anything. Paid tiers stay cheap too, with Startup at $17 a month and the top Unlimited plan at $97, the same as ClickFunnels' entry tier.
The trade-off is depth. Page templates look less current than tools built around design, and the automation builder covers the basics rather than deep conditional logic. For a coach or creator launching a first offer on a budget, that is a fair exchange. For a team running sophisticated segmentation across a big list, the savings stop feeling like savings once workarounds pile up.
What we like- Free-forever plan with 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, and unlimited email sends, no card required
- 0% transaction fees on every plan
- Affiliate management included even on free
Watch out for- Templates and design polish lag behind design-first builders
- Automation is basic once you need complex behavior-based sequences
#3
Kartra
Best for: Coaches and experts replacing a whole tool stack
Visit kartra.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planFree trial
Kartra is built for the expert business: coaches, consultants, and creators who want one login for pages, email, checkout, memberships, webinars, and even customer support. Its own site describes it as a fully integrated platform where pages, email, cart, CRM, and memberships all live together, plus native video hosting, calendar scheduling, and surveys that most competitors sell separately.
That breadth is the whole pitch and the main risk. One subscription replaces a stack of five or six tools, which is real money back for a small business. But it also means committing your pages, email list, courses, and checkout to a single vendor, so migration later is work. Kartra suits the business that wants one system to run on, not the tinkerer who enjoys picking best-of-breed tools.
What we like- Pages, email, cart, CRM, memberships, video hosting, and helpdesk in one platform
- Done-for-you campaigns and templates
- Replaces 8 to 12 separate tools per its own site
Watch out for- Pricing figures were not shown on the pages checked
- Templates feel less current than newer builders
#4
Kajabi
Best for: Course creators selling a learning experience
Visit kajabi.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planFree trial (14 days)
Kajabi is built around the course itself, not just the sale that leads to it. Progress tracking, drip content, quizzes, and a student community come standard, and the marketing automation ties to how a student is progressing rather than only whether they bought. For a business whose product is the learning experience, that depth shows.
It costs accordingly. Kajabi has long carried one of the highest entry prices among funnel platforms, and its per-website pricing means running two brands doubles the bill. If your main product is a physical good or a one-time digital download, you are paying for course machinery you do not need. If courses are the business, the premium buys a student experience that cheaper tools struggle to match.
What we like- Course delivery with progress tracking, drip content, and community built in
- Email and funnels tied to student behavior
- Polished student experience
Watch out for- Among the highest starting prices in this category
- Charges per website, so a second brand means a second full subscription
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
ThriveCart takes a different commercial shape from everything else on this list: instead of a monthly subscription, it is sold with a lifetime option, and its own homepage says pricing plans can be changed or upgraded at any time. For a seller doing steady volume, paying once and never again changes the long-term math dramatically compared with $97 or more every month.
The catch is that ThriveCart is a cart, not a full funnel platform. It handles checkout, upsells, order bumps, subscriptions, and affiliates, and its newer releases add page building, but email marketing and course delivery largely live in other tools you connect to it. Pair it with a page builder and an email service, and it anchors a stack with no recurring cart fee. Expecting it to be the whole business in one login will disappoint.
What we like- Available as a lifetime option instead of a recurring subscription
- Checkout with upsells, order bumps, and affiliate management
- No monthly bill afterward
Watch out for- No free plan or trial to test with
- It is cart-first, so pages and email live elsewhere
Starting price$99/month (Grow)
Free planFree trial
Leadpages does one thing on purpose: pages that convert. Its own comparison page puts the Grow plan at $99 a month with AI-generated pages, A/B testing, and conversion analytics, and stresses that there are no visitor caps and the price never climbs with your contact count, because you are not paying for an email platform in the first place.
That makes it the right pick for a business that already has an email tool and a checkout and just needs the page layer. It is the wrong pick for someone who wants funnels, email, and courses in one bill, because Leadpages connects to those tools rather than replacing them. Judge it on that basis and it is honest value; judge it as an all-in-one and it looks incomplete.
What we like- No visitor caps on any plan
- A/B testing included from the entry tier
- Price does not rise with your contact list
Watch out for- No email marketing, CRM, or full checkout, so it only replaces one piece of a funnel stack
- Design templates trail some newer builders
Starting priceFrom $15.58/month (Starter)
Free planYes
GetResponse started as an email tool and grew funnel features around it, which is exactly why it fits email-first businesses. Its own pages confirm a conversion funnel builder, landing pages, and automation workflows, with the Starter plan published at $15.58 a month and the Marketer plan at $48.38 for unlimited automation workflows. For a small list, that is the cheapest route on this list to funnels plus real email marketing.
The limitation is that funnels here are an extension of an email platform, not the center of the product. Page design, checkout logic, and course delivery do not go as deep as the funnel-first tools. If your emails drive the business and you need simple opt-in and webinar funnels, it is a bargain. If funnels are the business, the all-in-one platforms above give you more to work with.
What we like- Sales funnel software and landing pages included at low price points
- Visual automation builder with behavioral triggers
- Webinars and e-commerce features on higher tiers
Watch out for- Funnel features are shallower than dedicated funnel platforms
- Automation depth is gated behind pricier plans
Starting priceFrom $15/month (billed annually)
Free planFree trial (14 days)
ActiveCampaign is the automation specialist of this list rather than a page-first funnel builder. Its own site publishes plans starting at $15 a month billed annually, with a 14-day free trial that needs no credit card. The automation builder goes deeper than anything else here: behavioral triggers, conditional splits, lead scoring, and predictive send times, all connected to a built-in CRM.
That makes it the engine room for funnels rather than the storefront. You will still want a page builder and a checkout, but the follow-up sequences, the abandoned-cart emails, the win-back campaigns, can run at a level the all-in-one tools rarely match. The price of that power is contact-based pricing that climbs steadily and a learning curve that rewards the time you put in.
What we like- Deep automation builder with conditional logic and predictive sending
- 14-day free trial with full access and no card required
- 900-plus integrations
Watch out for- Pricing scales with contact count, so costs rise as your list grows
- No free plan
- Landing pages only from the Plus tier up
How we chose
We worked from each vendor's own pages for pricing and plan details, including official pricing pages and vendor-published comparisons, checked in October 2026. We weighed how deep the funnel building goes past a single landing page, what runs on autopilot versus what needs manual work, how clear the pricing is beyond the headline number, and how steep the learning curve is for a non-technical owner. Public review sites such as G2 and Capterra and community discussions on Reddit helped us see how the tools behave in real businesses. We favored tools that fit small and mid-size US companies and excluded anything whose homepage could not be verified. Nothing here is based on hands-on testing.
How to choose the right funnel builder for your business
Start by naming the job. If the job is "run my whole online business from one login," shortlist the all-in-ones: ClickFunnels, Systeme.io, Kartra, and Kajabi. If the job is "I need pages and my email tool already exists," Leadpages or a page builder plus ThriveCart for checkout will cost less and fit better. If the job is "my follow-up emails are the business," ActiveCampaign or GetResponse put the automation first.
Then read the pricing the way the vendor actually charges. Several of these tools price by contacts or email volume, which means the entry price is not your price six months from now. Map your current list size against the plan tiers, add a year of realistic growth, and see which plan you land on. A $17 plan that jumps to $97 at 10,000 contacts is still cheap, but you should know the jump is coming.
Finally, test the checkout before you commit to anything. Funnels live or die at the payment step, so run a real test purchase during the trial: check the upsell flow, the receipt emails, and how the buyer gets access to what they bought. A builder with beautiful pages and a clumsy checkout will cost you more in lost sales than any monthly fee.
Do you need an all-in-one or just pages and checkout?
The industry pushes everyone toward all-in-one, but the honest answer depends on what you already pay for. If you have no email tool, no course host, and no cart, an all-in-one replaces four or five subscriptions and one bill genuinely saves money and integration headaches. That is the ClickFunnels, Systeme.io, and Kartra case, and for a new business it is usually the right call.
If you already run an email platform you like, or your courses live on a dedicated host, the all-in-one forces you to pay twice or migrate. In that case, a page-first tool plus a cart like ThriveCart, or an automation engine like ActiveCampaign behind pages you already have, gives you the funnel without the duplicate subscriptions. Count what you already pay before you decide the all-in-one is cheaper; sometimes the bundle costs more than the stack you have.
Frequently asked questions
What is funnel building software?
It is software that builds the connected sequence a visitor follows from first click to purchase: landing pages, opt-in forms, checkout with upsells, and automated follow-up emails. Instead of wiring separate tools together, the funnel builder runs the whole path in one system.
How much does funnel building software cost?
Entry prices in 2026 run from free (Systeme.io's free-forever plan) to around $97 a month for all-in-one platforms like ClickFunnels, with course-focused tools priced higher. Most tools scale the price with contacts or email volume, so check what your list size will cost in a year, not just today.
Is there really a free funnel builder?
Systeme.io's free plan is the genuine article: free forever, no credit card, with 2,000 contacts and 3 funnels. GetResponse also offers a free plan. Free tiers have real limits, but they are enough to launch and validate an offer before spending.
ClickFunnels vs Systeme.io: which is better for beginners?
Systeme.io wins on price and simplicity for a first funnel, since the free plan removes all risk. ClickFunnels offers deeper checkout logic and a bigger template ecosystem for a business ready to pay $97 a month. Start free, and move up when the limits start costing you sales.
Do I need a funnel builder if I already have a website?
Not necessarily. If your site converts and you only need better landing pages, a page builder like Leadpages plugs into your existing stack. A funnel builder earns its place when you want the pages, checkout, and follow-up emails managed as one connected system.
Sources we checked (8)
- https://www.clickfunnels.com/blog/best-sales-funnel-software/
- https://systeme.io/pricing
- https://kartra.com/
- https://www.kajabi.com/blog/how-to-create-and-sell-online-course-2026
- https://thrivecart.com/
- https://leadpages.com/blog/clickfunnels-pricing
- https://www.getresponse.com/blog/best-marketing-automation-tools-for-saas-companies
- https://www.activecampaign.com/lp/affiliate
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has spent more than a decade helping SaaS and e-commerce brands grow through search. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.