Verdict first: ClickFunnels is a genuinely powerful funnel platform, and it is also $97/month before you have made a single sale. That gap is why most people searching for a ClickFunnels alternative are really asking one question: can I get 90% of the funnel for 10% of the price? For solo creators, the answer is yes — Systeme.io is the best ClickFunnels alternative overall, because it has a real free plan (no credit card), starts at $17/month, and charges 0% transaction fees on every tier. ThriveCart is the better pick if you mainly want a high-converting checkout rather than a page builder, and Kajabi is the better pick if you are running a mature course business and price is not the constraint.
Who this is for: solopreneurs, coaches, course creators and small agencies who want funnels and email without a $97-297/month habit, and who would rather validate an offer before paying for one.
Who this is not for: teams who need ClickFunnels' full ecosystem — deep workspace collaboration, the highest contact/email tiers, or the agency-level features on the $297+/month plans. If you are already at 100K contacts, this article will not save you money; you have outgrown the alternatives too.
Why people leave ClickFunnels (the honest version)
None of this is a knock on the product. It is a pricing-shape problem:
- The floor is high. ClickFunnels' entry plan is $97/month ($81/month billed annually). That is the price of a paid tier at almost every alternative in this list, for the entry tier here.
- Email and contact caps are tiered tightly. The $97 Launch plan includes 10,000 contacts and 50,000 emails per month. Cross 50K sends in a month — easy with a modest list — and you are jumping to the $197 Scale plan or buying extra send volume.
- Feature bloat for simple funnels. ClickFunnels now spans funnels, websites, ecommerce, email, courses, CRM and community. If all you need is landing page → thank-you → follow-up emails, you are paying for four products you will not open.
- "Unlimited Funnels" is limited-time. The pricing page labels it exactly that. Plan features you can rely on, not features with an asterisk.
ClickFunnels pricing in 2026
| Plan | Monthly | Annual (per month) | Key limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch | $97/mo | $81/mo | 1 workspace, 2 members, 10K contacts, 50K emails/mo, 3 courses, 5 domains |
| Scale | $197/mo | $164/mo | 5 workspaces, 5 members, 75K contacts, 300K emails/mo, 6 courses |
| Optimize | $297/mo | $248/mo | 10 workspaces, 10 members, 150K contacts, 750K emails/mo, 10 courses |
| Dominate | Annual only | $5,997/yr (~$500/mo) | 20 workspaces, 20 members, 400K contacts, 1.2M emails/mo, 20 courses |
There is no free plan. The pricing page says "Start Free Trial" but does not state the trial length or whether a card is required; ClickFunnels' own affiliate page refers to a 14-day trial. Treat the trial terms as unconfirmed until you reach the signup form. On the plus side, ClickFunnels charges 0% transaction fees — you keep what you sell — and the plans include unlimited hosting and unlimited visitors.
The 7 ClickFunnels alternatives at a glance
| # | Tool | Entry price | Free plan / trial | Transaction fees | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Systeme.io | $0 (paid from $17/mo) | Free forever, no card | 0% all tiers | Cheapest working funnel + email + course in one account |
| #2 | ThriveCart | $47/mo or $444/yr | 30-day trial | 0% | Checkout and upsells that convert |
| #3 | Kartra | $59/mo | 14-day trial | 5% on Essentials only | All-in-one marketing with built-in helpdesk |
| #4 | SamCart | $79/mo | 7-day trial | Payment processor fees only | Digital-product checkout and order bumps |
| #5 | Podia | $49/mo (annual $42/mo) | 30-day trial, no card | 5% on Mover only | Simplest possible course + downloads store |
| #6 | Kajabi | $179/mo (annual $143/mo) | 14-day trial | 0.5–2% on third-party gateways | Mature course businesses with high-ticket offers |
| #7 | Teachable | $39/mo (annual $29/mo) | 7-day trial + 30-day refund | 7.5% on Starter | Selling courses only, no funnel needed |
The alternatives, one by one
#1 Systeme.io — best overall ClickFunnels alternative for solopreneurs
Systeme.io is the only tool in this list you can use indefinitely for $0, and I know that because I built a working funnel on the free plan myself — opt-in page, thank-you page, a 3-email welcome campaign and an automation rule, in about 30 minutes, without entering a card (full walkthrough: how to build a sales funnel for free).
What you get free: 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 15 funnel steps, 1 automation rule, 1 course and 1 custom domain, with unlimited emails and unlimited file storage on every tier — that last part is rare and it is the exact thing ClickFunnels meters.
Paid tiers: Startup $17/mo (5,000 contacts, 10 funnels), Webinar $47/mo (10,000 contacts, evergreen webinars), Unlimited $97/mo. On annual billing: $170 / $470 / $970 per year. Transaction fees are 0% on all four tiers, and the annual plans include two months free plus free migration.
The funnel I built on Systeme.io's free plan: an opt-in step and a thank-you/download step, created from a template in one click.
Where it loses to ClickFunnels: the page editor and templates are more basic, and the design ceiling is lower. Split-testing and webinar features sit on the $47 tier. If pixel-perfect, agency-grade funnel design is your main requirement, ClickFunnels earns its price.
Best for: a solopreneur who wants funnels, email and a course in one login, starting at zero and growing into $17/month.
#2 ThriveCart — best if the checkout is the product
ThriveCart is not really a funnel-page builder; it is a conversion-focused cart that sits in front of whatever pages you have. Standard is $47/month or $444/year (~$37/month); Pro+ is $87/month or $804/year (~$67/month). There is a 30-day trial, 0% platform transaction fees, and ThriveCart also lists a lifetime one-time option — the price for that is not published on the pricing page, only available through a checkout link, so treat it as unconfirmed.
The honest catch: the growth features that make ThriveCart interesting — multiple order bumps, subscription dunning, an affiliate centre with automatic payouts — are on Pro+, not Standard. Annual billing is not a cheap escape hatch either at $444/$804.
Best for: creators who already get traffic and want better upsells, order bumps and cart recovery than their all-in-one platform gives them.
#3 Kartra — best all-in-one with helpdesk and built-in marketing
Kartra is the closest philosophical match to ClickFunnels on this list. Plans: Essentials $59/mo ($52/mo annual), Starter $119/mo ($99/mo annual), Growth $229/mo ($189/mo annual), Professional $549/mo ($429/mo annual), with a 14-day trial.
Read the entry tier carefully, because it is the trap: Essentials carries a 5% transaction fee, 500 contacts, 10,000 emails/month and a very small allowance of pages and products (5 pages, 1 product, 1 course). The 0% fee and unlimited pages/products only start at $119/mo. In other words, the "cheap" Kartra plan is more expensive than it looks once you sell anything.
Best for: businesses that want one platform for funnels, email, helpdesk and affiliates, and are ready to pay the $119+/month tier.
#4 SamCart — checkout specialist for digital products
SamCart does checkout and order bumps extremely well. Core is $79/month and Pro is $199/month, with a 7-day trial and an optional $19/month human-support add-on. There is no platform transaction fee — you pay your gateway (SamPay is 2.9% + 30¢) — but Core limits you to one seat, one marketplace and thinner AI/video allowances; the affiliate centre and advanced analytics are Pro features.
One practical note: SamCart advertises 25% off yearly billing, but the monthly-equivalent figure did not render on the pricing page when we checked it, so we are not quoting an annual price. SamCart also does not publish a public affiliate program — the "Affiliate Center" is a feature for its merchants.
Best for: sellers whose bottleneck is cart conversion, not page building.
#5 Podia — best for the simplest possible start
Podia is the most beginner-friendly option here, and the trial terms are the friendliest: 30 days free, no credit card required. Plans are Mover $49/mo ($42/mo annual), Shaker $99/mo ($84/mo annual) and Earthquaker $179/mo ($150/mo annual).
The trade-off is the same shape as everywhere else: Mover takes a 5% transaction fee and caps you at 100 email subscribers and 50 products. The 0% fee starts at Shaker. Subscriber limits are hard walls, and annual plans are only refundable within 72 hours of payment.
Best for: someone selling one course or a handful of downloads who wants the least intimidating interface and the longest free look.
#6 Kajabi — for established businesses, not for starting out
Kajabi is excellent and it is not a budget alternative. Basic $179/mo ($143/mo annual), Growth $249/mo ($199/mo annual), Pro $499/mo ($399/mo annual), 14-day trial, no free plan. It also stacks gateway fees on top: 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, 0.5% on Pro when you use a third-party payment processor, and AI credits are metered and sold separately (500 credits for $15/mo).
If you are choosing between Kajabi and ClickFunnels, the decision is about what you sell, not price — see our Kajabi alternatives breakdown.
Best for: coaches and experts with a proven, high-ticket offer who want courses, community, email and CRM tightly integrated.
#7 Teachable — courses only, and cheap if you skip the funnel
If you do not actually need a funnel, Teachable is the cheapest credible route to selling a course: Starter $39/mo ($29/mo annual), Builder $89/mo ($69/mo annual), Growth $189/mo ($139/mo annual), with a 7-day trial and a 30-day refund guarantee.
Starter's 7.5% transaction fee is the highest in this comparison — on $5,000 of course sales that is $375, which is most of the price difference between Starter and Builder. The 0% fee and unbranded experience start at Builder, and certificates and custom permissions sit on Growth ($139/mo annual).
Best for: creators whose offer is simply "buy my course" with no funnel choreography.
How we ranked (read this before you buy)
Ranking is weighted toward cost to a solo operator who is still validating an offer, then on whether the tool can actually carry you from landing page to payment to follow-up. Prices were verified on the vendors' own pricing pages on 2026-09-14 and are quoted in USD.
Honest disclosure about testing: of the tools above, only Systeme.io has been hands-on tested on this site — I registered the free plan and built a real funnel, email campaign and automation rule, and the screenshots in that walkthrough are from my own account (full Systeme.io review). Every other tool in this list is assessed from its official pricing page and published plan limits, not from a paid test; I have not verified their editors or deliverability first-hand. Prices change and tiers get restructured, so re-check the live page before you commit.
On affiliate links: only Systeme.io is an affiliate partner of this site. None of the other six tools pay us anything, and they are in this list because an alternatives article that quietly drops ThriveCart, Kajabi and Teachable would be useless to you.
FAQ
What is the cheapest ClickFunnels alternative?
Systeme.io, because its free plan is a permanent tier rather than a trial — 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course, 1 automation rule and unlimited emails, with no credit card. That covers a lead-magnet funnel end to end.
Is there a free ClickFunnels alternative?
Yes — Systeme.io's free plan is the one we tested. Podia offers a 30-day free trial without a card but has no free tier, and ClickFunnels itself has no free plan at all.
Why is ClickFunnels so expensive?
It is priced as an all-in-one business platform (funnels, sites, ecommerce, email, courses, CRM, community) with 0% transaction fees, so revenue comes from subscription tiers. If you only need funnels and email, you are paying for capability you will not use.
Can I migrate from ClickFunnels to Systeme.io?
Systeme.io advertises free migration on annual plans. Funnel pages themselves do not port automatically between any of these platforms — plan on rebuilding pages and re-importing contacts, which is a few hours of work for a simple funnel.
Which alternative has the best free plan?
Systeme.io. It is the only permanent free tier here, and unlike most freemium plans it does not meter email sends or file storage.
Do any of these charge transaction fees?
Systeme.io (0% on all tiers), ThriveCart (0%), ClickFunnels (0%) and SamCart (no platform fee) do not. Watch the entry tiers elsewhere: Kartra Essentials 5%, Podia Mover 5%, Teachable Starter 7.5%, Thinkific Basic 5% on third-party gateways, and Kajabi 0.5–2% depending on plan.
I'm an affiliate of Systeme.io: if you sign up through my links, I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools I have actually registered and built with — the funnel and screenshots on this site are from my own account. The other tools in this comparison are not affiliate links, and their pricing comes from their own public pricing pages.
Start free (no credit card, 0% transaction fees) → systeme.io
Grab the free checklist (2026 Solopreneur Tool Stack: 10 tools, free tiers, and upgrade moments) → Get the free checklist
Related reading: Systeme.io Review 2026 · Systeme.io vs ClickFunnels vs Kajabi · Best Funnel Builders for Solopreneurs · How to Build a Sales Funnel for Free · Best Kajabi Alternatives
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