When it comes to building landing pages, sales funnels and any kind of lead-generating pages, there is certainly no shortage of choice. The one that you will choose though depends a great deal on what it is you are trying to achieve, how experienced you are and what your objectives are for your business in building such online spaces.
Two contenders that go up against all the other options out there are OptimizePress and LeadPages. Both software options provide solid infrastructure and platforms for building landing pages and other conversion/lead generation sales funnels.
Which Is Best, For You?
If you are looking for something that can not only help you build your pages but cover a large array of funnel settings and site management then you are looking in the right place. Because with OptimizePress you can host it on your WordPress site as either a theme or plugin, you are immediately given access to a site builder that serves the ‘What you see is what you get’ (WYSIWYG) purpose with all elements fully customisable to meet your needs and wants. And if you are hosting it on your WordPress site, this obviously means you get instant access to the large selection of wordpress plugin options that can assist in improving your site’s functionality or even overall look and feel.
The difference with LeadPages is that it comes with its own landing page builder platform opposed to OptimizePress needing the wordpress platform in order to run. If ease of use is something you are interested in, then perhaps LeadPages will be more suited for you considering it’s much simpler layout and drag & drop feature builder. But be cautious, sometimes simpler is not always better when it comes to fully customizing your pages and getting it to really appear authentically you in terms of your brand. What you see there in terms of how you can configure the pages is really what you are going to get and if you are not happy with that then this is not the choice for you. Perhaps one of the biggest appeals of LeadPages is the sheer ease of its usability. Pages can be setup within minutes, literally but it seems the price you pay for this is the sacrificing of your own unique customization ability.
Having said that, OptimizePress may not be as easy to use straight away and does require practice. Once you get the hang of it though, you will be well on your way to creating authentic pages that reflect your exact design ideas in a fairly uncomplicated way of getting it done. Bottom line, if you are willing to spend a bit of time putting your pages together, you won’t mind OptimizePress and its features.
LeadPages may appeal to a market of people who want to be able to put pages together and have the knowledge that the templates they are choosing work in terms of conversions and lead generation because LeadPage templates are already market tried and tested and exist based on the fact that they are proven to work. OptimizePress templates are not structured in the same way nor do they give that kind of insight when you are choosing a template, leaving you to see what works best for whatever project you are carrying out. When you do find what works well, be assured that it indeed does, work well.
A point worth keeping in mind is the ownership of your pages in both platforms. With OptimizePress, your pages are yours and nothing gets in the way of that but in LeadPages, should you cancel your subscription, there is the possibility that you lose your pages along with that. It is worth thinking carefully which way you would like to proceed on this taking into consideration the time frame of the project you are running too.
Both platforms are mobile friendly, so you are guaranteed mobile-friendly sites that will ensure that any mobile traffic you pick up will not be lost due to incompatible websites are hard to navigate ones.
Flexibility of use is a big point of comparison to keep in mind with both of these platforms. If you are not into WordPress hosting your site and do not want the extra effort of needing to maintain a wordpress site, then LeadPages is definitely more appealing to you as it is a standalone platform that even offers to host your pages for you should you not want the fuss of doing so.
However, OptimizePress may be a bit more consuming but comes with a whole lot more autonomy on page design compared to LeadPages’ standardised pages. Something that may totally appeal to you also with OptimizePress is the very straightforward approach to setting up sales funnels and membership sites. Perhaps this is where LeadPages begins to show signs of being out of its depth but again this all depends on what you are looking to achieve as to what will be better suited to you.
Price is a big factor for most people when it comes to choosing a platform and in this sense, OptimizePress is a definite strong contender as it offers a basic yearly start off fee of $97 that is affordable to say the least. LeadPages have monthly plans which make it a far more expensive option with what some may say is not as wide a choice of achievables. You may be looking at around $300 a year in comparison to OptimizePress so do take your budget into consideration here.
Autonomy over things like web pages may not seem like a big deal to some people but to others can be an extremely important factor when it comes to where you choose to build your site pages. With OptimizePress, the pages you create and build, remain yours forever. This is because the pages are hosted on your own site and once you have created them using OptimizePress (but maybe discontinued using OP after a certain period) you are entitled to them for a lifetime without any questions. It’s simple. Your site, your content.
The exact opposite is true for LeadPages so this could be your dealbreaker on which software you are going to choose. LeadPages technically hosts all landing pages that are created on their site, whether they appear on your domain or not. This means, that when you stop using LeadPages, you lose the pages you have created in their entirety. In other words, you do not own the pages you have created with LeadPages, you simply lease them for the period of time you continue to pay LeadPages subscription fees.
This may not be so crucial for you if the project you are creating is not something long term and/or of that great importance or impact to your business overall. But, if you are looking at doing something that ultimately leads to building your brand further, you may want to consider using a platform that lets you have full control over your content and pages.
Conclusion
The platform you choose on which to build your pages really is not as clear cut as one or the other. Like previously stated, it all comes down to what you are trying to achieve and perhaps how long – or short – term your projects are. Each platform offers a great set of advantages when it comes to achieving the objectives and it truly is worthwhile considering all things like budget, usability, functionality and ease of use when looking at which option to choose
Our opinion? OptimizePress is a whole lot of bang for your buck and worth the time and effort required to make it work – LeadPages just isn’t as in-depth for us and there is really no point in putting in time and resources unless you know you are getting something of solid value out of it!