Having trouble deciding which landing page builder to use? Maybe you’re wondering what the best landing page tool is? In this article, I break down 5 different categories of landing page software and give my recommendations for the best overall builder.
In general, there are basically 5 categories of tools for building landing pages as I see them
- The “Big Five” dedicated builders
- Lesser-known dedicated builders
- WordPress page builders
- All-in-one platforms
- Specialty builders and custom solutions
Let me quickly break down each one and some of the popular options:
The “Big Five” dedicated builders
These are Unbounce, Instapage, Leadpages, Landingi and ClickFunnels. All are very popular, and accessible by pretty much anyone with an $80-$200/month budget. I call them “dedicated” builders, because landing pages are the core feature.
Sure, some of these platforms do other stuff—like Unbounce’s popups or Leadpages checkout functionality—but at their center is a robust landing page builder.
Lesser-known dedicated builders
These are not as well-known as the big guys, but still might be a good option for folks on a budget or who have something against the ones mentioned above.
The ones I know of and hear about the most are Swipe Pages, Pagewiz, and Lander.
They may not have all the bells and whistles, but depending on your needs, you could find exactly what you’re looking for here.
WordPress page builders
Back in the day, most WordPress landing page work had to be done at the theme level, but now with the advent of “page builder” plugins, you can layer a drag-and-drop page builder on top of pretty much any theme.
This is a very flexible and robust solution for folks who are most comfortable working within WordPress.
Popular options here include Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, and Thrive Architect.
In this category, Elementor is the clear market leader, and what I use for this site, but the other builders all have their own loyal followings as well.
All-in-one platforms
I’m talking about tools like HubSpot, Marketo, and ActiveCampaign here.
Landing pages are just one of many features they each offer. So don’t expect a best-in-class page-building experience. These tools are jack of all trades, master of none.
But if you’re already using one of these platforms, you might just want to use it for this purpose too instead of stacking on a separate builder. Personally, I find pretty much all of these landing page builders to be rather clunky and feature-poor when compared side-by-side with the “big five” builders mentioned above.
Specialty builders and custom solutions
This is my “catch all” category for anything that doesn’t neatly fit in one of the four categories above.
An example would be a tool like Webflow, which is very robust, but not exactly a dedicated landing page builder. It is usually deployed for entire website projects. But I’ve seen people use it for landing pages many times with success.
Other tools that might fit here would be “quickie” website builders such as Wix, Weebly, Squarespace, Carrd, and Tilda. None are meant specifically for landing pages, but they can get the job done in most cases.
Which builder do I recommend?
If you’re looking for a dedicated builder and you don’t mind spending the extra bucks, then Unbounce is my #1 recommendation as the best landing page builder on the market. You can get a free 14-day trial here and save an additional 20% with this special link.
In my opinion, it’s the most robust platform on the market and can do pretty much everything you need it to do. And oh, they have an amazing community and a great support team behind them! Did I mention they have an awesome conference every year too?
However, if you’re already using WordPress, and don’t mind a little extra work configuring everything properly, Elementor is a great, budget-friendly choice.
Whatever tool you decide, make sure to try it before you buy it and look for the specific features you know you need. And if you have any questions along the way, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter.
And once you decide on the right tool for your next landing page project, don’t forget to learn the secrets to high-converting landing page design, which in many cases is much more important than the tools you use.
