TL;DR: Tired of ClickFunnels' high costs and crippling limitations? This review breaks down a powerful, self-hosted WordPress alternative using tools like Thrive Themes and FastComet. You can build more flexible, faster, and fully-owned sales funnels while saving over $3,000 a year.
Let's have some real talk. For years, ClickFunnels has dominated the sales funnel conversation, powered by a massive marketing machine and an almost cult-like following. It’s a machine built by a master marketer, Russell Brunson. But you're here because you suspect there's a better way—a cheaper, more flexible alternative that puts you in control. You're either new and looking for a smart start, or you've been burned by the hype and high prices of ClickFunnels in the past. Either way, you're in the right place.
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Bottom Line: This WordPress-based funnel stack is perfect for entrepreneurs, course creators, and marketers who want full control, ownership of their assets, and significantly lower costs. If you're technically capable of managing a WordPress site, this is a no-brainer. However, if you are completely tech-averse and need an all-in-one, hand-holding solution (and are willing to pay a premium for it), you might want to stick with a closed platform like ClickFunnels.
ClickFunnels is Overpriced and Restrictive: With plans at $97/mo and $297/mo, you face limits on funnels, pages, and traffic. You're essentially renting your business assets.
A WordPress Stack Offers Freedom: By combining WordPress with quality hosting (FastComet), a page builder (Thrive Themes), and an email service (Sendinblue), you gain full control and ownership.
Massive Cost Savings are Possible: You can build a complete, professional funnel system for as little as $27/month, saving you up to $3,240 per year compared to ClickFunnels' top plan.
You Aren't Sacrificing Power: This alternative is not just cheaper; it's often more powerful, with better page speed, more design flexibility, and the ability to expand into courses, quizzes, and more without extra costs.
Instead of locking you into a single, proprietary platform, this solution is a "stack" of best-in-class tools built on the free and open-source WordPress platform. It gives you a professional-grade sales funnel builder without the "rental" model. You own the website, the content, the funnels, and your data—permanently. It combines dedicated WordPress hosting for speed, a conversion-focused page builder for creating high-converting landing pages, and a powerful email marketing service to nurture your leads. This is how you build a long-term, scalable online business asset, not just a temporary funnel.
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“I would go as far as to say that about 80% of the people recommending click funnels only does so to get the juicy affiliate commissions that come with it. That and of course everybody wants to be part of the two-comma Club.”
Here's a clear breakdown of the costs. There are no hidden fees here. The ClickFunnels pricing is what they advertise, but the limitations are what push you into the expensive plan. Our WordPress stack is transparent and grows with you.
Plan
Price
Best For
ClickFunnels Basic
$97/month ($1,164/year)
Beginners who are willing to overpay for a locked-in system with strict limits.
ClickFunnels Platinum
$297/month ($3,564/year)
Users who need unlimited funnels and the buggy built-in email/affiliate tools.
Our Budget WP Stack
~$27/month ($324/year)
New entrepreneurs who want full power and ownership without the high monthly cost.
Our Recommended WP Stack
~$74/month ($888/year)
Serious marketers who want premium speed and a higher email sending capacity.
The WordPress stack costs come from: FastComet Hosting (~$8/mo) + Thrive Themes (~$19/mo) + Sendinblue (Free or $25/mo). Even the premium recommended stack with Kinsta hosting ($30/mo) is cheaper than ClickFunnels' most basic plan. You save thousands.
Complete Content Ownership
Unlike ClickFunnels, where your funnels disappear if you stop paying, everything you build on WordPress is yours forever. You can move hosts, change tools, and your business asset remains intact.
Unbeatable Value
For as little as $27 a month, you get tools that are arguably more powerful than what ClickFunnels offers for $297. The cost savings are astronomical, allowing you to reinvest that money into traffic or other parts of your business.
Superior Speed and Performance
With quality WordPress hosting like FastComet or Kinsta, you have control over your site's speed. Fast-loading pages are critical for conversions, and ClickFunnels pages are notoriously slow, costing you visitors and sales.
Limitless Flexibility
WordPress is infinitely extensible. With the Thrive Suite, you can build funnels, create online courses (with Thrive Apprentice), generate leads (Thrive Leads), and build quizzes (Thrive Quiz Builder) all under one roof for just $19/month.
Slightly Higher Learning Curve
You have to connect a few different pieces (hosting, WordPress, plugins). It's not a single login like ClickFunnels. This requires a bit more setup time on the front end.
You Are Responsible for Maintenance
You'll need to handle WordPress and plugin updates yourself. While modern hosting makes this easy (often with one-click updates), it's still a task you're responsible for.
Support is Segmented
If you have an issue, you'll contact your hosting provider for hosting issues, or Thrive Themes for page builder issues. It's not one central support desk, though providers like FastComet offer incredible, fast support.
“Be the owner of your own content versus renting the content like on ClickFunnels... in other words, no lock-ins.”
Budget-Conscious Entrepreneurs: Anyone starting out who wants professional tools without the crippling monthly fees of ClickFunnels.
Course Creators: With Thrive Apprentice included in the Thrive Suite, you can build and sell courses directly from your site without paying extra to platforms like Teachable.
Affiliate Marketers: Build fast, high-converting landing pages and review sites that you fully own and control for the long term.
Control Freaks: Marketers who want to control every aspect of their funnel, from page speed to design to integrations.
The Completely Tech-Phobic: If the idea of logging into a hosting account or installing a WordPress plugin sounds terrifying, the simplicity of a closed system might be worth the extra cost to you.
Massive Teams Needing One Login: Larger organizations that prefer a single, unified dashboard for multiple users might find a SaaS solution simpler to manage.
For just $19/month, Thrive Suite is the engine of this setup. It's not just a page builder; it's a complete conversion-focused WordPress toolkit. You get Thrive Architect, a drag-and-drop visual editor that's built for speed and conversions. You also get Thrive Leads for creating pop-ups and opt-in forms, Thrive Apprentice for building professional online courses, and Thrive Quiz Builder to create engaging quizzes that segment your audience. This one subscription replaces at least 4-5 different services you'd otherwise need to pay for.
Forget Mailchimp's crappy deliverability and high costs. Sendinblue offers a fantastic free plan that gives you 300 emails per day and unlimited contacts. This is more than enough for anyone starting out. Unlike competitors, they don't penalize you for growing your list; their pricing is based on sending volume, which is a much fairer model. Their deliverability is excellent, ensuring your emails actually land in the inbox.
Your funnel is only as good as its foundation. FastComet provides WordPress-optimized hosting that is both affordable and incredibly fast. Their support is legendary, with response times often under 10 minutes. This is crucial when you're managing your own site. While their cheapest plan is okay, the 'ScaleRight' plan offers the best balance of resources and speed to ensure your pages load instantly for visitors.
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The main alternative is, of course, ClickFunnels. As we've detailed, ClickFunnels offers convenience at a very high price with significant limitations in speed, ownership, and flexibility. Other alternatives like Leadpages or Instapage focus purely on landing pages and are also subscription-based, often lacking the full funnel and marketing suite that the Thrive Themes + WordPress combination provides for a fraction of the cost. The WordPress stack is the only solution that gives you world-class tools with complete ownership and no monthly lock-in.
“This gives you a total of twenty seven dollars per month. That's a whole seventy dollars per month cheaper than the cheapest ClickFunnels plan, and you get so much more.”
Don't fall for the marketing hype. You do not need to pay $297 a month to build successful sales funnels. The WordPress stack outlined here is more than just a "cheaper" alternative; it's a smarter, more sustainable business decision. You get more power, more flexibility, and 100% ownership of your digital assets, all while saving potentially over $3,000 per year. It requires a small amount of initial setup, but the long-term benefits are undeniable for any serious online entrepreneur.
Category
Score
Ease of Use
7/10
Features
10/10
Value for Money
10/10
Support
9/10
Overall
9/10
If you can set up a basic WordPress blog, you can do this. There are countless tutorials for each step. It's more involved than a single login, but it's not "hard." It's a skill that will pay dividends for years.
Yes. While Thrive Themes handles the pages, you can add a tool like CartFlows (which has a free version) to easily create one-click upsells and downsells within WordPress.
That's the beauty of this system. You can easily upgrade your hosting plan with FastComet or move to a more powerful host like Kinsta or WP Engine without having to rebuild anything. Your site grows with you seamlessly.
In my opinion, yes. Thrive Architect is faster, more intuitive, and produces cleaner, quicker-loading code. The ClickFunnels editor has been known to be buggy and slow.
The ClickFunnels plugin is just a way to display your funnels (hosted on their servers) on your WordPress site. You're still paying the high monthly fee and are completely dependent on their platform. You don't own the pages.
Excellent. FastComet is known for its incredible 24/7 support. Thrive Themes has an extensive knowledge base and a responsive forum-based support system. You are well-supported with this stack.
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