What's actually cheaper than ClickFunnels, once you count the whole stack?

Sticker price vs stack cost

ClickFunnels bundles pages, funnels, email and courses into one price, so its plan cost already reflects several tools most builders would otherwise pay for separately. A genuinely cheaper alternative has to be judged the same way: plan price, plus any transaction fee, plus whatever extra tool you still need to add. Compare only the sticker price and you can end up on a platform that looks cheaper and costs more once the stack is complete.

Three real candidates for 'cheaper than ClickFunnels', each cheap for a different reason.

Systeme.io: the lowest entry point

Systeme.io has the lowest floor of the three: the Free plan runs 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels and 1 custom domain at no cost, and paid plans start at $17 per month (the pricing page notes this rate may be promotional). The Unlimited plan, at $97 per month, removes the contact cap entirely, which matters because it's the ceiling, not the entry price, that usually drives a ClickFunnels-style plan upgrade.

Annual billing is advertised as 2 months free; the pricing page does not itemise annual per-plan amounts. Current amounts: the official Systeme.io pricing page.

The Startup price displayed may reflect a promotional rate.

Pick this if you want the lowest total cost and are fine building funnels, email and courses on one plan rather than assembling a stack.

Podia: low price, but check the transaction fee

Podia starts at $42 per month, and every plan, including Mover, already includes community, courses, downloads, coaching, events, a website and a custom domain. The catch is the Mover plan's 5% Podia transaction fee; Shaker and Earthquaker charge none. Add the standard card-processing fee (roughly 2.9% plus 30 cents per charge, varying by country) on every plan regardless of tier.

Pick this if your revenue is modest enough that 5% on top of card fees is cheaper than the jump to Shaker, or your volume already justifies the higher plan with no Podia fee.

Run your actual monthly revenue against both scenarios in the cost calculator before deciding which Podia tier is really cheaper.

ThriveCart: no public price, and it's not a full replacement

ThriveCart doesn't publish plan prices. The site lists Standard, Pro+ and Enterprise tiers and mentions a lifetime option, with exact amounts shown only at checkout, so treat any number you see elsewhere as unverified and check the official ThriveCart pricing page directly. What is certain is the scope: ThriveCart handles checkout, order bumps, upsells, subscriptions and affiliate management, and expects you to bring your own page builder. Its real cost is a ThriveCart account plus whatever you use for pages, which can still land below a ClickFunnels plan if you already own the page tool.

Pick this if you already have pages you're happy with and only want to fix the checkout and upsell layer.

How to actually compare: run the numbers

None of these numbers mean anything until you add your own: contact count, monthly revenue, any transaction fee, and whatever extra tool fills the gap the alternative leaves open. The cost calculator runs all of that side by side for two or three setups so the comparison uses your numbers, not a generic one. If ClickFunnels itself is still in the running, its detailed plan breakdown is in the ClickFunnels plans page.