Unbounce launched in 2009 with a specific, valuable promise: marketers should be able to build, test, and optimize landing pages without waiting for a developer. Rick Perreault founded the company after a conversation where he realized that building a landing page for a campaign took three weeks when the development team was the bottleneck. The drag-and-drop builder, the A/B testing engine, and the integrations with ad platforms addressed a real pain point for performance marketing teams.
The landscape has shifted on two dimensions. First, Unbounce's pricing has increased significantly, particularly after the acquisition by Mediafly in 2021. Plans that cost $80 per month in 2019 now run at significantly higher price points. Second, the competitive field has expanded. Carrd proved that a landing page tool could cost a fraction of what Unbounce charges. Webflow demonstrated that design freedom beyond a drag-and-drop editor was achievable without code. Swipe Pages and Landingi offered comparable features at lower cost. The question of whether Unbounce's premium over alternatives is justified requires an honest evaluation of what each tool actually delivers.
This article evaluates ten landing page building alternatives, covering ease of use, conversion optimization features, integrations, pricing, and the marketing contexts each serves best.
"The best landing page is the one that matches the ad, loads in under two seconds, and asks for exactly one thing. The tool matters less than the alignment." — Oli Gardner, co-founder of Unbounce, Call to Action Conference, 2018
Key Definitions
Conversion Rate: The percentage of landing page visitors who complete the desired action (form submission, button click, purchase). The primary metric landing page tools are designed to improve.
A/B Test: An experiment comparing two versions of a page to determine which produces a higher conversion rate. Statistical significance is required for results to be actionable.
Multivariate Test: An experiment testing multiple variables simultaneously across multiple page versions. More complex to set up and interpret than A/B testing, requiring higher traffic volumes.
Lead Capture Form: A form on a landing page designed to collect visitor information (name, email, company) in exchange for content, a demo, or a free trial.
Smart Traffic: Unbounce's AI feature that routes visitors to the landing page variant most likely to convert them based on visitor attributes. Several competitors have launched similar AI routing features.
Message match: The alignment between the copy in an ad and the copy on the landing page it leads to. Strong message match reduces bounce rates by fulfilling the implicit promise made by the ad.
Landing Page Builders Compared
| Tool | A/B Testing | Drag-and-Drop | CRM Integration | Entry Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Instapage | Advanced (multivariate) | Yes | Yes | $199/mo | High-volume CRO teams |
| Leadpages | Yes | Yes | Yes | $37/mo | Small business, guided templates |
| Carrd | No | Yes | Basic | $19/yr | Simple lead capture, minimal budget |
| Webflow | No (3rd party) | Visual code | Yes | $18/mo | Design-intensive web projects |
| Swipe Pages | Yes | Yes | Yes | $29/mo | Mobile-first, Google Ads campaigns |
| ClickFunnels | Yes | Yes | Built-in | $147/mo | Full multi-step funnel systems |
| GetResponse | Yes | Yes | Built-in email | $19/mo | Email marketing + landing pages bundle |
| Landingi | Yes | Yes | Yes | $24/mo | Agencies, high volume, cost efficiency |
| HubSpot | Yes | Yes | Native CRM | $20/mo/seat | HubSpot users, CRM-connected lead capture |
| Mailchimp | Basic | Yes | Built-in email | Free | Mailchimp users, simple lead capture |
Instapage: The A/B Testing Specialist
Instapage was founded in 2012 with an explicit focus on post-click optimization: the experience a visitor has after clicking an ad. Its feature set reflects this focus. Heatmaps, A/B testing, multivariate testing, and collaboration tools for design review are among the most developed in the category.
What Instapage Does Well
Instapage's collaboration features allow marketing and design teams to annotate pages in real time, leave comments, and manage approval workflows — reducing the email back-and-forth that slows campaign launches. The AdMap feature visualizes the connection between ad campaigns and their corresponding landing pages, which helps marketing teams maintain message match at scale. Heatmaps and scrollmaps are included without a third-party integration requirement.
Where Instapage Falls Short
Instapage is expensive. The Build plan starts at $199 per month (billed annually). For teams that do not run high volumes of A/B tests or do not need the collaboration features, the premium is difficult to justify against alternatives at a quarter of the cost.
Pricing
Build plan at $199 per month (annual). Convert plan (with A/B testing and collaboration) requires enterprise pricing engagement.
Leadpages: Approachable with Strong Templates
Leadpages was founded in 2012 in Minneapolis by Clay Collins. It targets small businesses and entrepreneurs with a template library and drag-and-drop editor designed for non-designers. The template quality is genuinely high: mobile-responsive, conversion-focused, and covering a wide range of industries and use cases.
What Leadpages Does Well
Leadpages' conversion guidance feature shows real-time feedback on whether a page has the elements typically associated with high conversion rates. Alert bars and pop-ups (LeadBoxes) extend lead capture to existing web pages without rebuilding them. The integrated analytics show conversion data alongside the page builder without requiring a separate analytics platform.
The Standard plan at $37 per month (annual) is among the more affordable options for a full-featured landing page builder with A/B testing.
Where Leadpages Falls Short
Leadpages' design flexibility is limited compared to Instapage or Webflow. Advanced users frequently find themselves constrained by the template-based approach. The page builder does not offer the same free-form placement that pixel-perfect designers want.
Pricing
Standard at $37 per month (annual). Pro at $74 per month (annual).
Carrd: The Remarkably Cheap Option
Carrd is a single-page website builder created by Andy Comer, initially as a side project. It allows users to build single-page sites with clean, responsive templates, custom domains, and form integrations in minutes. The price is extraordinary: the Pro Lite plan starts at $19 per year.
What Carrd Does Well
For a simple landing page, Carrd does everything necessary: displays a message, collects an email address, connects to Mailchimp or ConvertKit, works on mobile. The simplicity is a feature. There is no bloat, no training required, and no marketing automation hidden behind upgrade walls. For indie hackers, freelancers, and small businesses with basic lead capture needs, Carrd is the most cost-effective tool in this comparison by a significant margin.
Where Carrd Falls Short
Carrd has no A/B testing, no conversion analytics, and no advanced form logic. It is a single-page builder, not a conversion optimization platform. Growing teams that need testing, tracking, and integration depth will outgrow Carrd quickly.
Pricing
Free plan (with Carrd subdomain). Pro Lite at $19 per year. Pro Standard at $49 per year. Pro Plus at $99 per year.
Webflow: Design Freedom at the Cost of Simplicity
Webflow was founded in 2013 by Vlad Magdalin, Sergie Magdalin, and Bryant Chou. It targets designers who want to build production-quality websites without writing code, using a visual editor that generates clean HTML, CSS, and JavaScript rather than bloated plugin-dependent markup.
What Webflow Does Well
Webflow's design canvas has the most flexibility in this comparison. Any layout, any animation, any responsive behavior is achievable through the visual editor. The output code is clean and performant. For landing pages that need to match a sophisticated brand identity or demonstrate product experiences with animation, Webflow is the only no-code tool in this comparison that does not constrain the designer.
Webflow's CMS capabilities also allow landing page templates to be populated dynamically, which is useful for programmatic SEO landing page strategies at scale.
Where Webflow Falls Short
The learning curve is substantially higher than Unbounce, Leadpages, or Carrd. A marketer without design experience will find Webflow overwhelming. Native A/B testing is not built in; it requires integrating a third-party tool.
Pricing
Basic site plan at $18 per month (annual). CMS plan at $29 per month. Business plan at $49 per month. Workspace plans for agencies start at $28 per month.
Swipe Pages: Mobile-First Landing Pages
Swipe Pages, launched in 2019, positions itself as an AMP-first landing page builder. AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is a Google-backed open standard for ultra-fast mobile pages. Swipe Pages generates AMP-compliant landing pages that load in under one second on mobile, which can improve Google Ads quality scores and reduce bounce rates on mobile traffic.
For performance marketing campaigns where the majority of traffic comes from mobile, Swipe Pages' load time advantage is measurable in A/B tests. The builder is fast, the templates are clean, and the integrations with Google Ads and Facebook Ads are well-maintained.
The limitation is that AMP's design constraints restrict some creative approaches. Highly animated or JavaScript-heavy pages are not compatible with AMP. Swipe Pages is the right choice when mobile conversion rate is the primary optimization target.
Pricing
Startup at $29 per month (annual). Marketer at $69 per month. Agency at $149 per month.
ClickFunnels: Full Funnel System
ClickFunnels was founded in 2014 by Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson. It builds multi-step marketing funnels: a landing page leads to an upsell page, which leads to a confirmation page, which triggers an email sequence. The all-in-one funnel approach was revolutionary in 2014 and generated significant revenue for the company.
For businesses running sophisticated marketing funnels with upsells, downsells, and order bumps, ClickFunnels provides a complete system. For teams that need a simple landing page for a campaign or product launch, ClickFunnels' complexity and pricing are unnecessary overhead.
ClickFunnels 2.0, launched in 2022, added a website builder, blog, and ecommerce capabilities to the existing funnel builder.
Pricing
Basic at $147 per month. Pro at $197 per month. Funnel Hacker at $297 per month.
GetResponse: Email Marketing Plus Landing Pages
GetResponse is primarily an email marketing platform that bundles landing page building as part of its offering. Founded in 1998, it covers email campaigns, marketing automation, webinars, and landing pages in a single subscription.
For businesses that need both email marketing and landing pages, GetResponse's bundled pricing can represent meaningful savings over subscribing to separate tools. The landing page builder is capable for standard lead capture, with over 200 templates and a form builder. A/B testing is available on paid plans.
The landing page functionality is not GetResponse's core strength; it is a complement to the email marketing product. Teams whose primary need is landing page optimization will find Leadpages or Instapage more specialized.
Pricing
Free plan (limited features, 500 contacts). Email Marketing at $19 per month. Marketing Automation at $59 per month.
Landingi: Cost-Efficient Volume Alternative
Landingi is a Polish landing page platform founded in 2012. It offers over 400 templates, a drag-and-drop editor, A/B testing, form builder, and integrations with major CRM and email marketing platforms at pricing that undercuts both Unbounce and Instapage.
Landingi's feature set covers the standard landing page toolkit: pixel-perfect design, A/B testing, pop-ups, smart sections (reusable content blocks), and basic analytics. The AI section generator and AI image editing features, added in 2023, reduce design effort for teams producing many pages. For agencies and marketing teams that produce high volumes of landing pages and need cost efficiency without sacrificing core testing capabilities, Landingi offers strong value.
Pricing
Lite at $24 per month (annual). Professional at $57 per month (annual). Unlimited at $820 per month for agencies.
HubSpot Landing Pages: CRM-Integrated Lead Capture
HubSpot includes a landing page builder in its Marketing Hub. The integration with HubSpot CRM means form submissions automatically create or update contact records, trigger workflows, and feed into HubSpot's lead scoring and nurturing systems. For organizations already using HubSpot's marketing automation, the landing page builder's CRM connectivity is a genuine advantage over standalone tools.
The landing page builder itself is capable but not exceptional as an isolated tool. The value is in the system integration — a lead captured on a HubSpot landing page is immediately visible to the sales team in the CRM, enrolled in any applicable workflows, and tracked through the full contact timeline without any manual data transfer.
Pricing
Free tools (limited). Marketing Hub Starter at $20 per month per seat. Professional at $890 per month. Enterprise at $3,600 per month.
Mailchimp Landing Pages: Free and Functional
Mailchimp added landing pages to its platform in 2018. For Mailchimp email marketing customers, landing pages are included at no additional cost. The builder is basic — limited templates, no A/B testing on the free tier, and straightforward form-to-list integration.
For small businesses that already use Mailchimp and need a simple lead capture page, Mailchimp Landing Pages eliminate the need for a separate subscription. For teams that need design flexibility, testing, or advanced analytics, the limitations are apparent quickly.
Pricing
Free with Mailchimp account. Included in all Mailchimp plans.
How to Choose
The right landing page tool depends primarily on volume of pages, testing requirements, and budget.
For teams running high-volume conversion optimization with dedicated analytics and testing workflows, Instapage or Unbounce justify their premium. For cost-conscious small businesses and solo marketers, Leadpages covers most needs at half the price of Unbounce. For technically capable designers who need maximum design freedom, Webflow produces better output than any template-based tool. For simple, cheap, fast landing pages, Carrd is extraordinary value. For existing HubSpot or Mailchimp users, the included landing page tools eliminate the need for a separate subscription for basic use cases.
Practical Takeaways
Carrd at $19 per year is sufficient for simple lead capture — only upgrade to a specialist tool when testing or integration needs require it. Instapage's collaboration and testing features justify its price for teams running multiple simultaneous campaigns with A/B testing requirements. Swipe Pages is worth evaluating specifically for Google Ads campaigns where mobile traffic quality scores matter. HubSpot Landing Pages should be the default choice for teams already invested in HubSpot's CRM and marketing automation stack. Webflow requires design skill but produces the highest-quality output among no-code options. ClickFunnels is a full funnel system, not a landing page builder — evaluate it only if you need multi-step sales flows.
References
- Unbounce. (2024). Unbounce pricing. unbounce.com/pricing
- Instapage. (2024). Instapage pricing and features. instapage.com/pricing
- Leadpages. (2024). Leadpages pricing. leadpages.com/pricing
- Carrd. (2024). Carrd pro plans. carrd.co/pricing
- Webflow. (2024). Webflow pricing. webflow.com/pricing
- Swipe Pages. (2024). Swipe Pages AMP landing pages. swipepages.com/pricing
- ClickFunnels. (2024). ClickFunnels 2.0 pricing. clickfunnels.com/pricing
- GetResponse. (2024). GetResponse pricing. getresponse.com/pricing
- Landingi. (2024). Landingi pricing. landingi.com/pricing
- HubSpot. (2024). HubSpot Marketing Hub pricing. hubspot.com/products/marketing/pricing
- Mailchimp. (2024). Mailchimp landing pages. mailchimp.com/features/landing-pages
- Gardner, O. (2018). Oli Gardner on post-click experience. Unbounce Call to Action Conference presentation.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest alternative to Unbounce?
Carrd at $19 per year (Pro Lite) is by far the cheapest for simple single-page lead capture. Mailchimp Landing Pages are free with a Mailchimp account, and GetResponse includes landing pages in its free plan for up to 500 contacts.
Which Unbounce alternative has the best A/B testing?
Instapage has the most sophisticated A/B and multivariate testing, plus built-in heatmaps and team collaboration for annotation and approvals. For teams running frequent conversion experiments, Instapage's toolset justifies its $199/month starting price.
Is Webflow a good alternative to Unbounce?
Webflow is more powerful for design-intensive landing pages but requires significantly more skill — it is a visual code editor, not a drag-and-drop marketer tool. It has no native A/B testing and is better suited to designers building brand-forward web pages than marketers running rapid conversion tests.
What is the difference between a landing page builder and a website builder?
Landing page builders optimize for quick single-purpose conversion pages with built-in A/B testing and form integration. Website builders create multi-page sites with navigation and content management. Tools like Webflow and Carrd blur the line by offering both capabilities at different levels of complexity.
Does ClickFunnels work as a simple landing page builder?
ClickFunnels is a full multi-step funnel system with pricing starting at $147/month — it is unnecessarily complex and expensive for a single lead capture page. Use it only when you need upsells, downsells, and multi-step sequences, not for standalone landing pages.