ClickFunnels is one of the leading all-in-one platforms for marketing, lead generation, e-commerce, and digital product creation, hosting, and delivery.
Despite its great features, users who are looking for a cheaper alternative or specific tools, such as communities, may want to consider an alternative platform, such as Podia.
- ClickFunnels starts at $147 per month
- ClickFunnels is rated as the #3 platform on SupplyGem
- ClickFunnels has a rating of 4.5/5 on Trustpilot
- ClickFunnels is the winner
- Podia has a free plan
- Podia is not ranked in SupplyGem’s top 10 list
- Podia has a rating of 3.5/5 on Trustpilot
- Podia is a great alternative platform if you're just starting out
Key Takeaways:
- ClickFunnels is an all-in-one platform that has websites, landing pages, funnels, digital and physical products, marketing, integrations, and a 60-day, risk-free trial.
- Podia focuses on courses, communities, and downloadables and has a basic website and email builders.
Main Differences between ClickFunnels and Podia
There are many differences between ClickFunnels and Podia that prospective customers should be aware of:
- Primary Focus – ClickFunnels is chiefly a marketing platform with powerful digital product builders; on the other hand, Podia primarily provides digital product creation, hosting, and delivery tools.
- Marketing Features – ClickFunnels has an extensive range of tools for marketing, such as forms, landing pages, email, SMS integration, and automation. In contrast, Podia is much more limited and only has a website builder.
- Digital Products – ClickFunnels has native course and membership site builders, whereas Podia supports courses, communities, and coaching products.
- Annual Discount – ClickFunnels offers a generous discount of up to $3,468 per year when purchasing its annual plans; on the other hand, Podia offers a flat 17% discount for annual subscribers.
- Email Marketing – Even though Podia does have a native email builder, its features and tools are far more basic than ClickFunnels’s.
| ClickFunnels | Podia | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $147 per month | Free plan available |
| Discounts | $240-$3,468 per year | Up to 17% annual discount |
| Transaction Fees | 0% | Up to 8% |
| Type of Platform | All-in-one | All-in-one |
| Native Builders | Landing pages, funnels, websites | Website, email marketing |
| Native Digital Products Supported | Courses, membership sites | Courses, communities, coaching |
| Native E-Commerce Solution | ✅ | ❌ |
| Native Email Marketing | ✅ | ✅ |
| Native Automation | ✅ | ✅ |
| Integrations and API Access | ✅ | ✅ |
What Are ClickFunnels and Podia?
ClickFunnels is an all-in-one platform for online and offline businesses to generate sales and deliver products.
The platform’s features and tools include:
- Websites
- Landing pages
- Funnels
- Courses
- Membership sites
- Digital downloadables
- Global Products (e-commerce)
- Email marketing
- Workflows (automation)
- Integrations and API Access (Zapier)
Due to its extensive range of features and tools, ClickFunnels can be used by almost all businesses across all sectors.
Podia is chiefly a digital product creation, hosting, and delivery solution with several supporting features, including websites and basic email marketing.
The digital products it supports include:
- Courses
- Communities
- Coaching
- Webinars
- Digital downloadables
Although Podia is an all-in-one platform, the typical subscriber will likely have an online presence already built and is looking to integrate digital products into their existing setup.
Pros and Cons of ClickFunnels
Pros
- All-in-One – ClickFunnels is an all-in-one platform, meaning that it has all of the features and tools to run a business, and no third-party subscriptions are required.
- Annual Discount – The platform has a large discount of up to $3,468 per year for annual plan subscribers.
- Easy to Use – ClickFunnels has an easy-to-navigate dashboard, prompts to help users create assets, and guides and live chat support in case you get stuck.
- 60-Day, Risk-Free Trial – New subscribers can combine ClickFunnels’s 30-day free trial with its 30-day money-back guarantee to use the platform for 60 days risk-free.
Cons
- Pricing – The platform is expensive, especially for new businesses. ClickFunnels’s subscription plans start at $147 per month and go up to $297 per month.
- Overwhelming – Because ClickFunnels has so many features and tools, new users can feel overwhelmed by the learning curve.
Pros and Cons of Podia
Pros
- Inexpensive – Podia has a free plan that makes it great for getting started, and its most expensive subscription, the Shaker plan, costs $89 per month.
- Zapier – The platform does support Zapier, but to gain access to “triggers” and ‘“actions,” then customers must have the most expensive plan.
- Many Digital Products – Podia supports various digital products, including courses, communities, coaching, and webinars.
Cons
- Limited Builders – The platform only has a basic website and email builder; it lacks tools such as landing pages, funnels, and advanced marketing tools.
- Native Automation – As the platform lacks native automation and workflows, businesses will likely need a third party, such as Zapier, to do this.
- E-Commerce – Podia has no e-commerce features, meaning many businesses may require an additional platform subscription.
Use Experience: ClickFunnels vs Podia
ClickFunnels and Podia provide customers with a great user experience.
They do this by having easy-to-navigate dashboards, prompts, explanations when you create assets, and a range of resources and guides for when you get stuck.
For example, when you create a digital product on Podia, the platform populates it with a template and then has a guide explaining how to use it.
ClickFunnels has similar help features, but the one we liked the most was its live chat support. We found the customer support staff responsive and extremely helpful when we got stuck.
As it had this additional live chat feature, we’d say that ClickFunnels is the winner for this user experience comparison.
Websites, Funnels, and Landing Pages: ClickFunnels vs Podia
Websites
ClickFunnels and Podia have website builders for businesses to create an online presence, list their products and services, and provide customer login areas.
Both platforms have the following website builder features and tools:
- Drag-and-drop builder
- Embed multimedia
- Templates
- Login area
- Custom domains
ClickFunnels also has an additional feature: blogging lets businesses directly build a blog on their site.
One thing we liked about Podia is that when users create a site, they go through a two-step questionnaire asking them what type of site they’d like to create and then the language they’d like to publish it in. Once complete, you can then customize the site with the drag-and-drop editor.
Overall, ClickFunnels has the better website builder as it has more tools, such as blogging, and is easier to integrate with other assets created on the platform.
Funnels
ClickFunnels has a powerful funnel builder for gathering leads and generating sales.
Their funnel builder has the following tools:
- Drag-and-drop builder
- Templates
- Sell products and services
- Multimedia
- Upsells
- Order bumps
On the other hand, Podia does not have a specific funnel feature. If businesses would like to use funnels, then they’d have to use a third-party platform.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that ClickFunnels wins this comparison.
Landing Pages
ClickFunnels has a landing page builder to generate leads, advertise, and sell products and services.
ClickFunnels’s landing page tools include:
- Drag-and-drop builder
- Templates
- Opt-in form
- Call to actions
- Event registrations
- Sell products and services
- Supported payment types
- One-time
- Subscriptions
- Upsells
- Order bumps
Podia does have an opt-in form that businesses can create to gather leads, but it is very basic and lacks many of ClickFunnels’s tools.
Therefore, ClickFunnels is the clear winner for the landing page comparison.
Courses: ClickFunnels vs Podia
ClickFunnels and Podia have native course creation, hosting, and delivery solutions for businesses.
To create courses, both platforms have the following tools:
- Templates
- Video hosting
- Drip content
- Scheduling
- Payment types
- Free
- One-time
- Subscription
- Pre-sell courses
- Bundle courses
- Quizzes
- Analytics
Cohort-based courses are a tool exclusive to Podia, which can be used to enhance the sense of community among learners.
ClickFunnels also has an exclusive feature: internal note-taking, which allows creators to add notes to specific course lessons.
After testing ClickFunnels and Podia, we’d say that the two platforms’ course builders were tied, and there was no clear winner.
Communities: ClickFunnels vs Podia
Podia has a community tool that can accompany and enhance a course or be sold as a standalone digital product.
Businesses have access to the following features when creating them:
- Organization
- Topics
- Follow topics
- Member Directory
- Multimedia supported
- Text
- Images
- Videos
- Embedded content
- Payment Options
- Free
- Subscription
- One-time payment
- Open and closed communities
- Tiered memberships
In contrast, ClickFunnels does not have a community feature, meaning businesses must use a third-party platform for hosting and delivery.
As Podia is the only platform with a native community feature, it wins this comparison.
Other Digital Products: ClickFunnels vs Podia
Membership Sites
ClickFunnels has a membership site builder, which can host digital products such as videos, courses, webinars, training, and digital downloadables.
Businesses can charge for membership site access on a recurring or one-time payment structure.
Moreover, it provides customers with a membership login area. After logging in, they can access their digital products in one personalized dashboard.
On the other hand, Podia does not have a native membership site feature.
Therefore, ClickFunnels wins this membership site comparison.
Coaching
Podia has a native coaching feature with the following tools:
- Calendar integration
- Custom pricing
- Free
- One-time
- Recurring subscription
- Bundling with courses
However, Podia does not have a native coaching delivery tool; instead, businesses will likely need to use a platform such as Zoom to host sessions.
Similarly, ClickFunnels does not have a native coaching feature.
However, it is possible to use the platform to sell a coaching program, but coaches will need a third-party platform to deliver the sessions and a calendar embed for students to schedule sessions.
Therefore, even though it does not have a native coaching feature per se, it has all of the same features as Podia.
For these reasons, we rated the two platforms as tied for coaching.
Digital Downloadables
ClickFunnels and Podia enable customers to purchase and download digital products.
The range of supported files includes audio files, images, videos, e-books, and PDFs.
Digital downloadables can enhance the learning experience for courses, coaching, and membership sites or be sold separately.
We’d say that ClickFunnels and Podia were tied when we tested their digital downloadable features.
Marketing and Automation: ClickFunnels vs Podia
Email Marketing
ClickFunnels and Podia have an email marketing feature with the following tools:
- Drag-and-drop builder
- Templates
- Broadcasts
- Scheduling
- Segmentation
- Analytics
- Opt-in forms
ClickFunnels also offers additional training to improve deliverability and avoid spam filters.
After testing both platforms, we preferred ClickFunnels’s email marketing since it had a wider range of templates and more advanced automation tools.
Automation
ClickFunnels has a native automation tool named Workflows.
Workflows enable businesses to automate their marketing by connecting different assets on the platform and using logic, triggers, and actions to create the flows.
For example, a company could send a form opt-in email to follow-up about a service or product they’re selling.
Another great thing about Workflows is that users can connect specific third-party platforms using its direct integrations to enhance the functionalities further.
On the other hand, Podia has a more limited automation tool, as it only lets businesses create email automation flows.
Moreover, as it’s not an all-in-one platform, companies would need third-party platforms and a tool like Zapier to create automation flows similar to ClickFunnels’s.
After testing both platforms’ marketing automation features, it’s clear to us that ClickFunnels is the winner.
Reporting and Analytics: ClickFunnels vs Podia
ClickFunnels provides businesses with a set of in-depth reporting and analytics tools for their customers to review, which includes:
- Landing pages, funnels, and websites
- Page views
- Opt-ins
- Orders
- Conversion rate
- Courses
- Completion rate
- Progress tracking
- Membership site
- Active subscriptions
- Email marketing
- Open rate
- Click-through rate
- Orders
Podia also has a range of reporting and analytics tools, including:
- Digital Products
- Subscribers
- Customers
- Members
- Sales
- Revenue
- MRR
- Community
- Posts
- Likes
- Comments
- Email
- Sent
- Open
- Click
- Sale
- Revenue
- Bounce
- Unsubscribe
For more advanced analytics requirements, the platform recommends that subscribers use the platform’s Google Analytics direct integration.
Overall, we’d say that we found ClickFunnels’s analytics and reporting to be more comprehensive and preferred their dashboard design; therefore, we rated it as the winner of this comparison.
Integrations: ClickFunnels vs Podia
ClickFunnels has a limited number of direct integrations, which includes:
- PayPal
- Stripe
- NMI
- ActiveCampaign
- ClickFunnels Classic
- HubSpot
- MailChimp
ClickFunnels does have a limited number of integrations since it’s an all-in-one platform, meaning that businesses don’t necessarily need third-party integrations.
It should be noted that ClickFunnels does offer API access, meaning that subscribers can use Zapier Webhooks.
Podia has many direct integrations that include calendars, email, payments, analytics, and automation.
Here’s the list of some of the key direct integrations:
- Calendar booking
- Calendly
- SavvyCal
- Acuity
- Email
- MailChimp
- ActiveCampaign
- AWeber
- Drip
- MailerLite
- GetResponse
- Payments
- Stripe
- PayPal
- Other Platforms
- Google Analytics
- HotJar
- YouTube Live
- Zoom
- Zapier
Podia wins this comparison since it has more direct integrations; however, we must reiterate that most ClickFunnels subscribers won’t require many integrations with this all-in-one platform.
Payment Options: ClickFunnels vs Podia
Both ClickFunnels and Podia have multiple payment options to offer their customers greater flexibility.
The payment options include:
- Free
- Free trial
- Subscription
- One-time payment
Podia and ClickFunnels have the same pricing options, so we rated them as tied for this comparison.
Affordability: ClickFunnels vs Podia
ClickFunnels has three subscription plans:
- Basic – $147 per month
- Pro – $197 per month
- Funnel Hacker – $297 per month
The key differences between the subscription plans are API access, the number of websites, funnels, domains, and contacts users can host.
Podia also has three subscription plans:
- Free – $0 per month
- Mover – $39 per month
- Shaker – $89 per month
All paid plan holders can create unlimited digital products, and the key tools the Shaker plan holders can access are the affiliate program and third-party code.
It’s clear from the pricing that Podia is the cheaper subscription plan.
However, this doesn’t consider that Podia users would need third-party subscriptions to Zapier for automation; a standalone email marketing platform; and a site, page, and funnel builder to have the same functionality as ClickFunnels.
Therefore, prospective businesses should be aware when picking a platform to assess the total price, including third-party subscription, before purchasing.
ClickFunnels is the cheaper alternative due to being an all-in-one platform.
For this reason, we rated ClickFunnels and Podia as equal for their affordability.
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Bottom Line
After thoroughly testing, reviewing, and comparing ClickFunnels and Podia, it’s clear to us that ClickFunnels is the winner.
The key reasons we crowned it the winner included its all-in-one nature, versatility, use cases, more advanced marketing features, and great value for money.
We still believe that Podia is a good platform, but it is more tailored for businesses with an online presence and looking exclusively for a digital product hosting and delivery solution.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does ClickFunnels Have the Same Features as Podia?
ClickFunnels has more advanced features than Podia. For example, it has native landing pages and funnel builders, membership sites, e-commerce, and automation, which Podia does not have. Podia also has several digital products like coaching and communities that ClickFunnels does not have.
Is ClickFunnels Better than Podia?
Yes, we rated ClickFunnels as better than Podia, as it’s an all-in-one platform with more advanced marketing tools, landing pages, funnels, and automation. Moreover, as an all-in-one platform, businesses do not require additional third-party platform subscriptions.
Is ClickFunnels Cheaper than Podia?
ClickFunnels’s entry-level subscription, the Basic plan, costs $147 per month, and as an all-in-one platform, no additional subscriptions are required. In contrast, Podia’s entry-level subscription is a free plan. This plan charges an 8% transaction fee on all sales, meaning it could be more expensive than the ClickFunnels subscription.
Should I Use ClickFunnels or Podia?
We’d recommend using ClickFunnels as it’s a more flexible solution for all businesses. The features ClickFunnels has include websites, funnels, landing pages, courses, e-commerce, membership sites, automation, integrations, and email marketing. In contrast, Podia users are limited to selling digital products only.
Is ClickFunnels Easier to Use than Podia?
ClickFunnels and Podia are both easy-to-use platforms, as they provide users with intuitive navigation, prompts, and detailed instructions. We’d say that ClickFunnels is better with its great customer support staff that responds to live chats.
Can I Use ClickFunnels or Podia for Free?
Yes, new ClickFunnels users can combine its 30-day free trial with its 30-day money-back guarantee to use the platform for 60 days risk-free. Podia has a free plan but does charge an 8% transaction fee on all digital products sold when on this subscription plan.
