I’m Kayla. I build pages for a living, and sometimes for fun. I’ve used both ClickFunnels and Unbounce on real campaigns that had real money on the line. I’ve had wins. I’ve had small messes. You know what? Both tools can work. But they’re not the same job.
Quick note: if you’d like the full blow-by-blow version with extra screenshots and spreadsheets, you can skim my expanded launch report right here: my hands-on ClickFunnels vs Unbounce breakdown.
Let me explain.
For an even wider lens on how the two platforms differ in features, pricing, and user feedback, you may want to dive into this comprehensive comparison of ClickFunnels and Unbounce.
What I used them for (real stories)
- ClickFunnels: I ran a live webinar to sell my $297 course on email writing. I used a full funnel: signup page, confirmation, live room, order page, one-click upsell, and a small add-on.
- Unbounce: I ran Google Ads for my printable planner (a $29 digital product) and a lead form for a local yoga studio’s summer bootcamp. Think fast pages, tight tests, and clear tracking.
Different goals, different tools. That’s the big theme.
ClickFunnels: When I needed the whole store, not just the front window
For my webinar launch, I wanted a smooth flow. People signed up, got reminders, watched, bought, and then saw an upsell. I didn’t want to stitch five tools.
Here’s how it went:
- Build time: one weekend. I used their sections/rows to stack pages fast. The templates looked “funnel-y,” if that makes sense.
- Money bits: I connected Stripe in minutes. I added an order bump for $27 and a one-click upsell at $97.
- The numbers:
- 2,300 ad clicks
- 38% signed up (874)
- 41% showed up live (359)
- 7.9% bought the $297 course (28 sales = $8,316)
- 16 people took the $27 bump ($432)
- 6 people took the $97 upsell ($582)
- With ad spend near $2,700 and one month of fees, I ended up in the green.
What I liked:
- One place for pages, checkout, upsells, and emails. Less duct tape.
- The order bump and upsell were dead simple. No code. No tears.
- Their training videos gave me clear steps, even if the tone is a bit hype-y.
What bugged me:
- Page speed. Some pages felt heavy on mobile. Not awful, but not sleek.
- Design control is blocky. Pretty good, not pixel-perfect.
- A/B tests work, but the data view is basic. I had to double-check with my ad platform.
- Customer chat was helpful, but slow on a Sunday—right when my nerves were hot.
Would I use it again? Yes—when I need checkout, upsells, members, and emails in one neat box.
Unbounce: When I needed speed, clean tests, and paid ads magic
For my planner and the yoga studio, I cared about fast pages and tight ad matching. This is Unbounce’s sweet spot.
Here’s what I did:
- I built three versions of a landing page from scratch. Precise spacing. Clean typography. No fuss.
- I used dynamic text to match the ad keywords. “Daily Planner for Students”? The page said that. “Daily Planner for Moms”? The page shifted text to match.
- I ran split tests and turned on Smart Traffic. It sent each visitor to the version most likely to convert.
The numbers:
- Planner campaign: from 2.6% to 5.1% conversion after two weeks of testing. Same ad spend. Double the sales. That felt nice.
- Yoga bootcamp leads: went from 3.2% to 6.8% after headline and form tweaks. The sticky bar with a deadline helped near the end of the month.
While digging around for inspiration on local-search landing pages, I also looked at how niche review hubs structure their geo pages. A good example is Rubmaps New Berlin — check it out and you’ll see how tightly packed location cues, user ratings, and trust badges can nudge foot-traffic style conversions, ideas you can lift straight into an Unbounce or ClickFunnels build aimed at local audiences.
What I liked:
- The builder is smooth. It feels like design software. Pixel-perfect stuff.
- Pages load fast. My quality score held up in Google Ads.
- A/B testing and Smart Traffic were simple. The data made sense at a glance.
- Popups and sticky bars helped me push gentle promos without getting pushy.
What bugged me:
- No native checkout. I had to send buyers to a separate cart for the planner. That meant more steps.
- Building a “funnel” means linking pages by hand. It’s fine, but it’s not a full system.
- You pay by plan tiers tied to traffic and conversions. I had to watch my monthly counts.
Would I use it again? Every time I buy traffic and want clean control.
Design feel: block builder vs freehand
- ClickFunnels felt like Lego bricks. Fast to stack. Harder to make “bespoke.”
- Unbounce felt like a blank canvas. I could nudge a button one pixel and it stuck.
I like both, for different reasons. For a flash sale? I’ll take the Lego speed. For a paid search page that needs tight message match? Canvas, please.
Speed, SEO, and tracking
- Unbounce pages loaded faster in my tests. That helped my ad costs and bounce rates.
- ClickFunnels was fine for email traffic and social. For search ads, I saw better results with Unbounce.
- Tracking: Unbounce made it easy to place pixels and goals. ClickFunnels worked, but I had to do extra checks when I ran multiple upsells.
Email and follow-up
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ClickFunnels 2.0 let me send broadcasts and sequences from the same account.
I’ve also run ClickFunnels head-to-head with GetResponse to judge their email and automation chops—my honest, metric-by-metric verdict is laid out in this comparison: ClickFunnels vs GetResponse. -
With Unbounce, I sent leads to Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign through native links and Zapier. It worked, but it’s one more chain to watch.
Bonus idea: Some growth hackers swear by direct messaging campaigns on chat apps to move prospects into a micro-funnel before they ever hit a landing page. If you want to try that route, you can browse a regularly updated list of popular Kik contacts at this archive of Kik usernames—it’s a quick way to locate real users and seed your outreach tests without starting from zero.
Pricing and value (how it felt on my wallet)
- ClickFunnels ran me in the low-to-mid hundreds per month, depending on plan. Worth it when I used checkout, upsells, and members together. Overkill if I only needed one page.
- Unbounce started lower for the smaller plan and climbed with traffic and features. Felt fair for ad-heavy months because the extra conversions covered the fee.
I know prices change, so check current plans. I’m sharing how it felt, not a rate card.
Little wins and small gripes
- Mobile editing: Unbounce gave me tight control. ClickFunnels worked, but I fussed more with spacing.
- Templates: ClickFunnels has a ton. Some look “internet-market-y,” which can be good or not, based on your brand.
- Support: Unbounce answered a script question fast on a weekday. ClickFunnels helped me fix a checkout issue, but it took longer than I hoped.
So… which one should you use?
Pick ClickFunnels if:
- You sell a product or course and want checkout, order bumps, and one-click upsells in one place.
- You want a webinar or challenge funnel with emails and a members area.
- You’d rather move fast with templates than finesse each pixel.
Pick Unbounce if:
- You run Google Ads or social ads and care about fast, high-quality landing pages.
- You test a lot. Headlines, layouts, forms—daily tweaks.
- You already have email and checkout tools, and you just need pages that convert.
If you’d like to see how ClickFunnels and Unbounce compare to a wider field of landing-page platforms, check out this side-by-side breakdown for extra context before you decide. For more paid-traffic insights, I also ran a direct shoot-out between ClickFunnels and Instapage—you can read the first-person recap here: Instapage vs ClickFunnels.
And if Kartra is floating around in your “maybe” column, I’ve documented exactly where ClickFunnels pulls ahead (and where it lags) in this candid comparison: ClickFunnels vs Kartra.
For readers who want to get granular on integrations, membership capabilities, and niche use-cases