Best Landing Page Builder – Turning Visitors Into Customers

by Lewis Ogden | Last Updated: May 27, 2022 | Blogging, Content
best-page-builder

Landing pages convert visitors to customers, encourage them to sign up for newsletters, and they increase sales for a business. So choosing the best landing page builder for your business can really move the needle.

These landing page should be direct, targeted, and optimized. But they shouldn’t take months or even weeks to develop an intuitive and effective design. And that is where landing page builders come in.

The best landing page builder is easy to use, regardless of programming experience. It should offer enough landing page features so that your pages are simple and effective.

It should also integrate into any third-party platform you use, for example, WordPress, as well as inbound marketing and pipeline platforms like HubSpot.

There are a lot of options available. To help you pick through them, we’ve listed and reviewed 10 of the best to help you find the one that suits your needs, requirements, and budget

Landing Page Builders – What You Need To Know

A landing page usually consists of a headline or title, a brief description of what you’re offering, and the benefits of your service. It may also include comments from satisfied users, typically taken from social media or a review site like Trustpilot, and your Call To Action (CTA).

Although a landing page is usually used to collect the email address and some personal details of your prospects, it can include a payment button, social media button, or another element, dependent on your chosen CTA.

Usually designed to meet your business branding, the page should be clutter-free, very easy to read, and it should guide your visitors neatly towards the CTA, of which there should only be one.

For such a simple page, the landing page is notoriously difficult to get right. Many website owners confuse their visitors by offering too much information, demanding too much data, or trying to use too many CTAs on a single page. Forms break, pages take too long to load, or they look too salesy or completely unrelated to your business site.

Using a landing page builder, it is possible to combat most of these potential problems and create a good looking and effective page.

The Benefits of Using A Page Builder

You can, of course, design and develop a landing page yourself. You can dive into the programming of your website, whether it uses WordPress, custom HTML and CSS, or PHP, and create your own pages to collect data or make sales.

But, this takes time and it demands that you have a good understanding of the programming language being used. Even if you do know HTML, a landing page builder still offers certain benefits over a more manual approach.

No Programming Experience Necessary

A landing page should be simple, clean, and clutter-free, but it may also include elements like contact forms, payment buttons, and social reviews.

Once a user clicks the submit or payment button, the page also needs to do something with the information submitted, whether this is to email them a download link or add them to your email marketing list.

All of this requires programming. While it might be possible to Google results and end up with a perfectly serviceable landing page, is that the best use of your time? And will it yield the best results? In most cases, the answer to these questions is “no”.

Rapid Deployment

It will also take a lot of time to learn even the most basic code. And, if you do have programming experience, do you have the time to keep generating and then optimizing and deploying new pages when you launch a new product, provide a new offer, or want to add a new landing page for a new campaign? A good page builder will let you copy and amend existing landing page details, so that you can design and add a new page, often in just a few minutes.

Collaborative Effort

You will also find that a lot of landing page builders detail a maximum number of users. This is done so that you can collaborate with other team members or liaise with clients to get the best results.

If you have a content writer, video editor, graphic designer, and a marketing professional working on a page, using a page builder with collaborative tools means that you can all work on the page simultaneously, provide updates at major milestones, and generate the best possible page for all team members.

Integration With Other Software

The best page builders offer templates for you to work from, and they allow the addition, removal, and editing of content blocks or page elements. These elements can include text, images, video, and forms or payment buttons.

They can also incorporate features like analytics and split testing code. Payment buttons, split testing, and even contact forms are not necessarily included as standard in basic packages, and this is especially true of payment buttons. There are many payment gateways out there, including the likes of PayPal, Stripe, and even BitPay, and you will need to find and integrate the appropriate code unless your landing page builder does this for you.

Uses For Landing Page Builders

In this context, a landing page is a standalone page where a visitor enters the site after clicking through a search engine listing, social media post, email link, or another advertisement. These pages are sometimes referred to as a lead capture page, giving some idea of their most common use. However, landing page builders can be used to create landing pages for a number of uses, including:

Choosing The Best Landing Page Builder

There are a lot of landing page builders on the market. Some, like Hubspot, are included as part of a more extensive marketing automation platform. Some offer very specific landing page styles, like Shortstack’s competition entry page builder.

Then the likes of Elementor works as a WordPress plugin, rather than a standalone editor. Finally, we found a ton of standalone builders that are great, as long as all you want to do is to build one or more landing pages.

With so much choice, it can be difficult to find the one that best meets your needs, and you will need to consider the following factors when choosing the right software.

Platform

We found that the vast majority of page builders were standalone, web-based platforms. You sign up for an account, login, and start your design. Many of the platforms offer a WordPress plugin or integrate with other publishing platforms, or you may need to provide DNS records to allow the software to publish to your site.

Alternatively, some editors work directly in WordPress. Although these tend to have limited functionality, they are very simple to use and allow you to keep everything in one single location. Downloadable, desktop-based editors are rare.

Ease Of Use

One of the benefits of using a landing page builder is that they are easier to use than developing your own page and publishing it yourself. As such, you want something intuitive and easy to use, but that still offers effective results.

All of the options in our list use a drag-and-drop editor, but some do offer the capability to add and amend HTML and CSS details, allowing you to fully customize the look and functionality of your page. The less experience you have with coding, the more simplistic the editor you want.

Templates

Nothing offers greater simplicity than using a template, but not all templates are equal, and you will want to be able to customize the template so that it matches the branding of your website or business.

While the aim of a landing page is for a user to land directly on that page and then complete the desired action, they may want to stick around and look at the rest of your site.

If the landing page has a completely different look to other pages, it looks unprofessional. Look for templates that are easy to work with and that look professional and offer the functions you require.

Number Of Landing Pages

Most builders offer a subscription-style package and, as such, they have some kind of limitation. Some restrict the number of unique visitors per month to your pages, while others restrict the number of landing pages that you can create.

While some websites might only have one or two landing pages, others have landing pages for dozens of products, multiple different email subscriptions, and a host of offers.

Be realistic about the number of landing pages you want and, if you’re unsure, choose a subscription that allows you to upgrade and increase the number in the future.

Email Marketing And Other Integration

Lead capture forms are rarely if ever, used on their own. They gather data that is then used to send emails, catalogs, or downloads. They are used to build a list, and this list requires careful management.

If you are using lead capture pages to develop an email list, check to see whether your existing email management software offers a page builder. Alternatively, look fr a page builder that integrates with list management and email automation software. Combining the two could save you money, and it will make it easier to integrate the two packages.

Payment Buttons

Landing pages can be used to sell products and services directly, rather than gather lead data. In this case, you will need to be able to add payment buttons straight onto the landing page.

This isn’t a standard feature with all packages, so look for the builder that can integrate Swipe or PayPal, or whatever payment gateway you use, and check to see whether this integration is included as part of the standard package or if you will need a more advanced, hence more expensive, package.

Reporting And Analytics

Every marketing campaign should include tracking. This allows you to see what is working and what isn’t. If you answer to a board or, worse still, to clients, then you will need to show that your efforts and their investment are paying off.

Integrating analytics into your landing page lets you determine how effective your marketing and advertising efforts are, and which are yielding the best conversions. Furthermore, advanced analytics can allow you to improve your landing page results.

Page Testing

As well as tracking results, you need to take action according to your analytics and visitor data. To properly optimize a website, you will need to test changes, and one of the most effective ways of doing this is through split or A/B testing.

Essentially, this means serving two or more versions of a landing page to your visitors. Good split testing software will split visitors according to factors like demographics, location, and the type of device they’re using, which enables you to optimize and serve pages according to these factors, and eke out every last possible conversion.

Tips For Better Landing Page Results

It’s almost impossible to predict what your landing page conversion rate should be. It’s dependent on industry, traffic source, type of conversion you’re looking for, and much more. However, estimates suggest that a decent average is somewhere more manual approach, while the more manual approach conversions.

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. – Ernest Hemingway

Rather than aiming for some industry standard or overall average conversion rate, you should look for ways to improve your own results. Whether you’re putting your first landing page design together or looking for ways to improve results, try the following tips to enjoy optimal conversions. But remember that what works for one page won’t necessarily work for another, so the most important tip here is to test, optimize, and test again.

Use Dynamic Text

Whether traffic arrives through organic or paid search results, they may be some subtle differences in the search query they used to land on that page. Dynamic text allows you to use a single landing page, but customize it to the exact wording and phrasing that your visitor used.

It will feel more targeted to those visitors and you should reap the rewards in improved conversions. However, you should only do this for differently worded phrases that mean the same thing. Different queries altogether will benefit from a better-optimized copy.

A/B Test Your Form Positioning

Moving your form from the right sidebar to the center could improve your conversion rates by nearly 50%, and with a decent landing page builder, that’s a few minutes of tweaking. Using A/B testing, you can easily check results, and move the form back if it doesn’t give you improved conversions.

Replace “Submit” As Your CTA

Complete the phrase “I want to”, as though you are submitting your own form, and then consider whether this would make a better CTA button copy than the stock “Submit”. 9 times out of 10, there is something better than “Submit”.

Make sure it’s relevant to the service or product that you’re offering. Your visitors will appreciate it, but it may take some experimentation and testing to find the best result.

Incorporate Video

Landing page videos can turn complex and lifeless messages into something much simpler and characterful. It also catches the eye and works extremely well on mobile, convincing visitors to perform the desired action.

As long as it’s done well, of course. And that doesn’t have to mean spending a fortune. Relevance is important, and no video is better than a poor quality or irrelevant video clip.

Add Social Proofing To Your Landing Pages

Research suggests that people are inclined to believe the reviews of others, even if they don’t know that person. Social proofing your landing pages means adding reviews from social media influencers to your landing pages.

Use founders, CEOs, and people that are perceived to be in a position of authority. Include pictures of the influencers that leave reviews. Even elements like social counters and share counters can impact a person’s decision and influence whether they trust you and your service.

The 10 Best Landing Page Builders

1. Leadpages

You will struggle to find a cheaper alternative to Leadpages. The web-based drag and drop editor is easy to use, there are around 200 free templates for you to choose from, and advanced packages include features like A/B testing and even sub-accounts for clients. However, you will need the more expensive packages for the best features, and although the editor is simple, it isn’t that powerful.

Leadpages offers a simple web-based editor. Log on, choose your template, and then click on the sections that you want to change. Once highlighted, these become the focal center of attention and you can customize the design according to your branding and web design.

You can also add page features including video, forms, and other elements. While the editor is easy to use, and there are plenty of free templates, the quality isn’t as high as some other services. You should be able to get a decent looking landing page, but you will struggle to customize it exactly how you want.

The platform integrates easily into WordPress. If you want to integrate it with marketing tools like Marketo and Hubspot, you will need to pay for the “Pro” package, but this also offers A/B testing capability, multiple user accounts, and it increases the number of leads you can collect to 2,500.

It costs around double the price of the “Standard” package and, if you have the extra money, it is well worth the investment. It also enables opt-in text campaigns. With online sales and payment options, it can even be used to set up single-product e-commerce pages.

The lower price point of Leadpages, coupled with its simple but simplistic editor, means that it is better suited to small businesses. Sign up for at least the “Pro” package, for improved integration options and the A/B testing, though, and it is impossible to beat it at the equivalent of $50 per month.

2. Unbounce

To get A/B testing from Unbounce, you have to pay more than twice as much as you do with Leadpages. Unbounce is well suited to offline professionals that are looking for online lead conversions.

One thing I wasn’t overly keen on was the traffic limitations placed on an account. For $120/month, you get 30,000 visitors and 1,000 conversions. Most small businesses and local service providers are unlikely to reach this level, but other services offer unlimited traffic, at the very least.

Unbounce is another service with a simple, web-based drag-and-drop editor, though, and it is really good. It is better than Leadpages’ editor in some ways. There are templates for the likes of dentists and restauranteurs.

There aren’t as many templates as Leadpages, but there’s still more than 100 to choose from and there is greater freedom when it comes to customization. You can add, remove, and change elements anywhere on the page. This can have mixed results, but the freedom to create is certainly there.

One feature that really sets Unbounce apart from some of its rivals is in its dynamic keyword inclusion. Adding dynamic keywords to a page means that they are replaced with your user’s search keywords.

They see precisely the phrase they were searching for, which makes the page and your newsletter/product/service seem more highly targeted, and should improve conversion rates.

A/B testing should be considered a vital step in landing page design. It lets you determine what is and what isn’t working. It allows you to make tweaks and changes, and see whether they improve or destroy your conversion rate.

Like Leadpages, Unbounce does offer this feature but only as part of its Optimize package, $120/month, and above. It’s expensive, but you will want it.

Unbounce is a great service. Its editor is easy to use but offers greater freedom and flexibility than the overly simplistic Leadpage’s editor. However, it’s pricey and it has traffic and conversion limitations with every package.

3. Instapage

Instapage is another web-based drag and drop editor, but it has a few handy features that others don’t. It also dispenses with the multiple subscription packages and offers a single account, although customized enterprise packages are also available for power users.

Unfortunately, it isn’t cheap at $149 per month, but that does give you unlimited traffic and conversion allowances, and server-side A/B testing.

We found one of Instapage’s best features was that of Instablocks. Instablocks enables you to design individual blocks for your pages, and then save these for use later.

If you want to use the same sign-up form on every capture page, add a specific video to multiple pages, or you composed a great looking and great sounding About section, you can save these blocks and reuse them later.

Not only does it save time for users with a lot of landing pages, but it also enables uniformity and branding across your landing pages. There’s dynamic text replacement, too, so that your visitors will see exactly what they were searching for.

A/B testing is included, as standard, although for the price you pay for Instapage you can get this on all other platforms for less. You also gain access to heatmaps so that you can track visitor behavior and activity.

Your account dashboard gives you access to conversion analytics so that you can see how well your pages are converting, which need improvement, and what elements are working in real-time.

Instapageis clearly targeted at website owners that have, or plan on having, a lot of landing pages. The Instablocks feature makes it easy to set up and reuse content blocks, while analytics, heatmaps, and testing features allow you to optimize and enhance every page.

It is expensive, but not if you plan on having a dozen or more landing pages and then consider its unlimited traffic and conversion allowances.

4. Landingi

Landingi is a cheap web-based landing page builder that offers surprisingly professional results, especially thanks to its multitude of high-quality templates. You can choose a template according to industry, with a good variety of choices, or according to the product or service you’re trying to promote, for example, ebook downloads or newsletter subscriptions.

The editor is easy to use. Click on any of the elements in your chosen template, and you can edit it in the right sidebar. Landingi also allows you to make custom CSS changes, so you can get really finicky over the placement and size of elements. However, if you do want to mess with the HTML or change a lot of the elements, such as the font you use, then you’re going to need more than just the basic package.

With the basic package, you do get basic analytics and dynamic content, but you’ll have to pay more for A/B testing.

When it comes to allowances, you get unlimited conversions, but you are only permitted a few thousand unique visitors with the basic package. This increases to 50,000 with the next package level, and you can pay extra to increase this figure, so your account can expand with your results.

This is another decent platform for professional marketers that are looking to build landing pages for clients. However, in this case, you will want to avoid the cheapest package.

Choose either the Create package for up to 10 unique domains or the Automate package for 20 domains, according to how many clients you have on the books. Again, though, you can increase your domain allowance by adding a little extra to the monthly cost.

And, just in case you were wondering:

5. Hubspot

You’re unlikely to pay for Hubspot’s landing page builder on its own. The basic package is very basic and means that you have to pay $40 per month. At this price, you only get access to a handful of templates and very limited features, although you do also receive access to Hubspot’s other marketing tools including conversation bots, list building and management, email marketing, ad retargeting, and more.

If you’re already paying for Hubspot’s Professional package, though, there isn’t any need to look elsewhere for a landing page builder. And, if you’re looking for a full marketing suite for a unified marketing plan, then you do get a decent page builder as part of that package.

The Hubspot editor is another drag-and-drop offering, and it is easy to use. There aren’t as many templates as with other builders, but they are good looking and mobile-friendly. They also allow for the use of dynamic content and for edits to be made on the fly.

Where Hubspot truly stands out above the rest is in its integration with your other marketing efforts. A/B testing, analytics, and integration with social media marketing, email marketing, and list management make it an extremely powerful tool in your marketing arsenal.

To get the most from Hubspot and its page builder, you will need to invest the equivalent of $800 per month. If you’re just after a simple page builder, this is not the tool for you.

If you want a marketing platform that combines all of your advertising channels into a single, unified campaign, and you have that kind of money available to invest, it is likely to yield exceptional returns on your investment.

6. GetResponse

GetResponse is an email marketing platform that includes a page builder as part of its service. Unlike Hubspot, you don’t have to part with thousands of dollars a year to enjoy the privilege, although Getresponse doesn’t offer nearly as many features or as wide a range of automated marketing channels.

It does work out to be a well-priced and powerful page builder and may prove a good choice even if you don’t require list management.

It is a point and click editor, as is standard, and even the basic package includes 180 landing page templates to choose from. You can also choose from 5,000 stock photos to further personalize your page design, as well as a host of other templates for forms, emails, and more.

Split testing is also part of the basic package, which makes a pleasant change, and it includes unlimited pages and visitors. You can also add PayPal and other payment gateway buttons, allowing you to sell directly from your landing pages.

If you’re only looking for a page builder, there’s no reason to pay for anything more than the basic account, which costs $15/month and is the cheapest way to access templates, split testing, and unlimited allowances.

If you want to combine your landing page efforts with list management and other features, then you should consider upgrading to at least the Plus package. This one costs a little more, $49 per month, but it allows webinars and includes features like contact scoring and event tracking.

GetResponseis designed as an email marketing automation and management tool, that incorporates a landing page builder. But its cost, unlimited visitor and capture form allowances, and payment button integration, make the page builder a worthy investment on its own, even if you have no intention of building an email list.

7. ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels is a sales funnel automation service. It automates the process of marketing to potential visitors, direct your visitors to the most relevant sales page, and uses capture forms to build an email list, payment gateways to convert sales straight away, and allows for retargeting lost customers via email, social media, and other channels.

As such, it is a little more complicated than a standard landing page builder, although the drag-and-drop editor is intuitive and easy to get to grips with.

Sales funnel automation does push the price of subscription up and the basic package is $99/month. If you’re only looking to make few landing pages for a single site, most of this money will effectively be wasted.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to automate the entire sales funnel process from marketing to retargeting, it’s quite a steal.

ClickFunnels is a good option for those looking to sell their own products, like courses or B2B services, online. It enables you to automate most of the steps, and manage all of the steps in the sales funnel.

However, if you only want a landing page builder, then the additional cost means that you will be better looking elsewhere.

8. ShortStack

ShortStack is a bit specialist. It allows you to create contests and giveaways, and then create landing pages for them. It is easy to use, is one of only a few tools we found that offer this kind of program automation, and it integrates well with most social media platforms, which is where contests usually gain the most traction.

Contests and competitions are a great way to generate leads, especially when conducted on social media. Using ShortStack you can run Twitter hashtag and retweet competitions, Facebook comment and like competitions, and photo competitions.

It can also run random winner competitions, video uploads, and more. But that isn’t all ShortStack does for you, it also has a drag-and-drop competition landing page builder. Create a page for your competition and let ShortStack do the rest for you. It will collect entries and can even inform the winner when the results are in.

ShortStack does offer something a little different. It should prove highly effective if you use competitions and contests to generate leads but will have limited use otherwise. Its landing page builder is geared specifically towards this type of lead generation.

If you are interested, prices range from $99/month for the Business package, which offers up to 10,000 entries and 50,000 views. The $499/month Brand package allows half a million entries and 2.5 million views, and all packages can be split over an unlimited number of competitions.

9. Elementor

Elementor is a WordPress-based landing page builder, and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all, lots of businesses, e-commerce websites, blogs, and other websites are built on WordPress, so there is a good chance that your site is using the popular platform already.

If it is, and if you are only looking for a page builder, with no additional bells or automated marketing whistles, then this is an inexpensive and effective option.

There is a very popular version of this WordPress plugin available for free. It offers around 30 widgets and limited functions, but if you’re looking for a quick and free way to implement email capture landing pages, it could be effective.

With the Pro version, which only costs $49/year, equivalent to just over $4/month, you get 90 widgets. Some of the extra widgets make the Pro version worthwhile.

You can add WooCommerce functions, integrate pricing tables, and add Facebook comments, for example. There are also more than 300 professional templates to choose from, giving you a solid base on which to start your page design.

Elementor can be combined with any other WordPress widget, which means that you can add content forms and email marketing tools to your landing page.

It will take more fiddling than with a lot of the other platforms, but if you’re operating on a tight budget, or you want very precise functionality that isn’t offered by other page builders, then the open-source nature of WordPress and Elementor will allow you to hit the mark.

If you want to build and add pages, manage your email list, and perform other automated functions with one or two clicks, or if you don’t have a WordPress website, you will want to use a different builder.

10. Carrd

Carrd is another lightweight page builder, but this one doesn’t require a WordPress website on which to operate. While it does have a free offering, the functions are too limited to be beneficial, and at a paltry $19/year, we are looking primarily at the Pro package.

This package makes it a viable alternative to some of the more expensive options on the list, although there are still a few problems that may put you off using this platform.

The editor is easy to use. Choose a template, click on one of the elements, and make the changes you want. Unfortunately, the options for moving content blocks around are very limited, so you can only move elements up and down.

This does ensure that the design lines up when you’re finished, but it also restricts the way your landing page looks, on completion. You can add Google Analytics and features like PayPal and Stripe payment buttons. However, you will have to sign up to and use your own split testing, because this isn’t part of the platform.

There is some lack of functionality even with the Carrd Pro version, in particular, the lack of A/B split testing. But for something that costs the equivalent of $1.50 per month, it’s difficult to complain. If we were to complain, it would be about the inability to truly customize pages.

Final Thoughts

We’ve only scratched the surface of landing page builders with this list. Many options incorporate email marketing, social media campaigns, and more. However, the list above represents the 10 best platforms available to you, taking into account their ease of use, availability of templates, and the capability to customize templates and campaigns.

Although there is no doubting the power of Hubspot, it is way too pricey to recommend to anybody that doesn’t already use the Hubspot platform.

We believe A/B split testing to be an integral part of any landing page campaign. It enables you to track, test, and optimize campaigns to get the best results, and when you choose subscription packages that include this feature, Leadpages offers the best value for money.

It is also easy to use, although it doesn’t quite offer the same level of page customization as the likes of Unbounce, and although it places limits on the number of leads you can collect, these should be generous enough for most users.

If optimization is your thing, and you don’t want limits, then Instapage is an even better alternative, but it does come at a cost.

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