How To Create A Blog On Lead Pages

Leadpages Review 2022: What's Good and What Could be Better

With the average landing page conversion rate at just 9.7%, there's definitely room for improvement.

But as an industry giant, is Leadpages the solution you need to build high converting landing pages?

In this review, we'll be taking a closer look at what Leadpages has to offer to help you determine whether or not this is the right tool for your online business.

Let's find out if it's still holding up or if it's become a bit of a dinosaur.

1. What is Leadpages and what is it used for?

Leadpages is a popular landing page builder that's been around since 2012.

It helps you build landing pages, alert bars, and pop-ups so you can generate leads and grow your business.

At first glance, Leadpages looks like it does the same thing as all of the other landing page builders on the market.

They promise code-free publishing and ready-made templates.

They aim to help you:

Create your online business
Collect qualified leads
Grow your business

Again — the same as any other landing page builder.

However, Leadpages is used by Amy Porterfield, an online marketing expert worth $13 million, as well as over 40,000 small businesses — so there must be something setting them apart.

Let's find out.

2. Leadpages' features

Leadpages has 8 main features that we'll explore below.

We'll discuss the quality of these features and point out which ones aren't included in the Standard plan ― (their most affordable plan).

2.1. Landing page builder

Leadpages has a comprehensive builder, as it should, considering it's a landing page builder.

This feature (not to be confused with the site builder which we'll discuss next) refers to Leadpages' landing page, alert bar, and pop-up building capabilities.

Before we go into detail, here's a list of the sub-features:

5 free sub-accounts
99.9% uptime
Automatic saving
Custom and hidden fields
Custom social media preview
Drive-specific preview
Digital file hosting and delivery
Duplicate and edit
Easy drag-and-drop interface
Fast page load speed
Image library
Lead backup/CSV download
Lead generation form builder
Lead notifications and routing
Mobile responsive pages
Online sales and payments
Page grouping
Revert to last published version
SEO-friendly pages
Unlimited page publishing
Unlimited traffic and leads
Tracking and third-party analytics
Widgets

While this list is exhaustive — most of these are just standard builder features.

Let's look at the ones that stand out.

With 99.9% uptime (system reliability), Leadpages is making a huge claim for its system reliability.

The number is not evidenced — but if it's true, it's very impressive.

The issue of autosave vs. manual saving is contentious.

This is why systeme.io has chosen to use a manual save button — this gives users the flexibility to undo what's been set and reminds them to save changes before exiting a page.

Their offering of unlimited traffic, leads, and publishing is generous ― and it's exactly what you need if you're trying to grow a business.

Digital file hosting and delivery means you can sell digital files such as guides, ebooks, or videos.

So if you're interested in selling digital products, Leadpages can host (store) your digital files, and deliver them when a sale is made.

The online sales and payments aren't included in the standard plan.

2.2. Site builder: Leadpages sites

The builder sub-features overlap massively with those of the site builder.

Before 2019, Leadpages could only build landing pages, alert bars, and pop-ups ― then it introduced Leadpages sites.

This list refers specifically to Leadpages' features for building a website:

Drag-and-drop website builder
Website preview
Mobile-responsive menu
Drop-down menu
Drag-and-drop website menu
Integrated conversion tools
Website SEO
Website templates
Pre-built add-on pages
Built-in 404 page
Global website footer
Website style settings
Website publishing
Free custom domain

Leadpages sites promises an easy way to build a website with no high-tech skills or developers needed.

Unfortunately, easy-to-use builders sometimes mean limited customization because you're using bits and pieces from pre-built code.

But if you haven't got coding skills, Leadpages customization is enough for a simple site and it's easy enough to use ― so it's well-suited for beginners.

Using Leadpages sites also means you'll have consistency across your site, landing pages, pop-ups, and alert bars.

This is something you might not get if you combine a site you built on another software with Leadpages' landing pages, pop-ups, and alert bars.

You may have noticed that there's no blog feature listed here.

This is disappointing because blogs are fantastic for SEO — they generate traffic to your websites, and this can get you new customers.

They also help you gain authority in your field and allow you to build an audience.

If blogging is important to you, you can build your site on blog-specific software such as WordPress, and you can still use the rest of Leadpages' features.

This of course creates the problem of using multiple tools which can be inconvenient (and costly!).

2.3. Conversion tools

The aim of any marketing software is always to help you make as many conversions as possible.

And with their promise to turn clicks into customers, Leadpages is no different.

These are their conversion tools:

10 Opt-in text campaigns
Clear campaign ROI (return on investment)
Email trigger links
Exit-intent pop-ups
Real-time optimization tips
Real-time analytics
Third-party analytics
Unlimited A/B split testing
Unlimited alert bars
Unlimited pop-ups

The clear campaign ROI creates detailed pictures so that you can assess your return on investment easily.

Real-time optimization tips and analytics are useful because you can keep up with what's working and what needs to be improved to make your conversion strategies streamless.

A/B testing is a game-changing feature where you can test which version of a page gets you more conversions.

But Leadpages' split testing only works if you use the standard editor and not the drag-and-drop one.

Unfortunately, the A/B testing is not included in their Standard plan.

2.4. Design and templates

Leadpages is known for having a massive range of professionally built templates ― all of which are free.

Here's what Leadpages offers in terms of design and templates:

Section templates
Shutterstock premium images
Built-in icon library
OpenTable embed widget
Countdown timers
Custom branding
Customizable templates
Global page style settings
HTML and Custom Code Editing
Keyboard shortcuts
Mobile-responsive templates
Calendly embed widget
Social share buttons
Thank you and confirmation pages
Device-specific display
Video embed widget
On-page section links

These features should cater to customization and brand identity-building.

However, if you're starting with one of their 200+ templates, remember that Leadpages is used by over 40,000 other businesses ― that leaves you with a ratio of 1 template for every 200 businesses.

You may end up with very familiar-looking landing pages when you're aiming to stand out.

But, having over 200 templates is rare ― Mailchimp only offers about 100.

Also noteworthy is their inclusion of Shutterstock premium images.

An entry-level Shutterstock subscription costs $29/month, and Leadpages includes access to these at no extra charge.

Example of a Leadpages template

Leadpages sorts their templates by conversion rate.

This is unique and clever, but it doesn't give you the raw data that these results are generated from.

It doesn't tell you things like how popular a template is or how much it's been customized.

The top-converting template could be so new that it's never had the chance to miss a conversion, or it could be so heavily customized that its success has nothing to do with the original template.

Also, HTML and custom code editing are difficult to use, meaning that with Leadpages you have a steep learning curve ahead.

These features are included in both plans.

2.5. Education and support

If you're a budding entrepreneur using Leadpages to get your business off the ground, you'll need support and guidance wherever possible.

These are Leadpages education and support resources:

1-on-1 quick start call
Free Leadpages virtual workshops
Chat and email support
Knowledge base
Weekly group coaching

The workshops, knowledge base, and group coaching are available on all Leadpages pricing plans.

However, the rest aren't.

Standard users only have access to email support, while chat support is only accessible for Pro users.

The knowledge base is categorized according to what users are looking for.

Once a category is selected, lists of blogs that relate to the query appear and users can choose which step-by-step, how-to article they'd like to read.

This is supposed to be like an owner's manual, but it won't make up for the lack of phone support on their plans.

The workshops and group coaching could provide invaluable knowledge and inspiration for new business owners, but is that enough?

2.6. Integrations

To keep your business running smoothly, integrating your software is key.

Limited integration massively restricts the scope of what you can achieve.

Let's see how Leadpages handles integrations:

40+ standard integrations
Major email service integrations
Zapier integration

The 40+ standard integrations, major email service integrations, and Zapier integration are available to all users.

Integrations connect your various apps and save you loads of time, so these are essential for the success of an online business.

Major email service integrations will help you connect with your leads and hopefully convert them into customers.

In theory, having over 40 integrations should be enough for a smaller business, and having Zapier integrated opens your business up to over 3,000 apps.

However, in a review, one Chief Operations Officer said she believes the integrations are lacking and that Leadpages is not powerful enough to exist without Zapier.

2.7. Publishing

Publishing is the step where your hard work behind the scenes finally takes center stage on your website.

Here's a list of Leadpages' publishing features:

Connect your domains
Flexible publishing options
Free hosting
Simple WordPress plugin
Free Leadpages domain (only for the first year of your plan)
Unlimited publishing to your domain or website

Leadpages allows you to publish flexibly to your own domain or the free domain they offer you ― this publishing is direct and unlimited.

You can connect existing domains to Leadpages and publish directly to them, or you can make use of a free Leadpages domain for the first year of your subscription.

The free domain, hosted by Hover, offers both free and paid-for domains.

So you can access a free domain or use the offer like a coupon towards a paid-for one ― you'll have to pay the balance if it costs more than what your coupon is worth.

It may be a free domain, but depending on what you choose, this might not always be the case.

After the first year, the offer will expire, and you'll pay the standard fee (and tax) for your chosen Hover domain.

Changing your domain after your "free" year runs out is an easy process, but it may badly affect your SEO performance, as well as your backlinks.

The number of domain connections varies depending on your price plan.

2.8. Security

Securing your sites is imperative for protecting both you and your users.

Beyond this, browsers warn users when a site is not secure which will cause an exodus of users from your site.

This is how Leadpages can secure your site:

Automatic SSL encryption
GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliance

Typically, you'd pay for an SSL certificate above your chosen software, so their automatic SSL encryption is a welcomed feature.

Without SSL encryption, any information your users divulge ― on a form or in any other format ― can be intercepted and manipulated.

Similarly, GDPR refers to legislation on data protection and privacy in the European Union.

Failure to comply with GDPR will result in fines of between 10 and 20 million Euros.

And you don't want those, so this is also a welcomed feature.

3. Leadpages' community

As an entrepreneur, you may think you're going into business alone.

However, having an active community to learn from and be inspired by can transform the way you do business.

It's also useful to have easy access to help, in case things get rocky.

3.1. Help center

Let's take a look at what Leadpages help center can do for you.

The help center gives you 3 options:

Help center
Email us
Support history

The help center offers a search bar where you can search for the solutions to your problems.

The results it presents are various articles from their blog that may answer your question.

You also have the option to select a category from below the search bar and browse related articles.

If you can't find what you're looking for, the next step is to select "Email us".

Here you can fill out a form to receive email support when a consultant becomes available.

The massive downfall here is that they only provide this kind of support on weekdays during Eastern Standard Time (EST) working hours.

They also say they'll reply within 48 hours ― imagine the impact of your site being down for that long!

On top of that, different plans receive different types of support.

We'll get into this when we discuss the plans and pricing below.

The support history subsection shows you a list of any previous support in case you need to revisit a previous query.

There's also an FAQ section that isn't attached to the help center (or even the community section) ― you'll find this floating around under "Company".

We tried to use the FAQ section while writing this review, and it's so incredibly slow that it's not even worth considering.

3.2. Facebook group

The Leadpages Facebook group has over 18,000 members!

It comes with strict guidelines to ensure that the group is a meaningful space where Leadpages' customers can share advice and ideas, ask questions, and show results they're proud of.

The group is only open to Leadpages' customers and employees.

3.3. Webinars

Leadpages offers free marketing webinars to anyone that signs up ― you don't have to be a Leadpages user.

The webinars focus on marketing training, so you can amplify your skills and grow your brand.

To get access, you have to sign up using your email address, which will make you a part of their email list ― and a potential lead.

You'll be kept up to date about which webinars are happening, and when you sign up for one, you'll be emailed a Zoom link.

Some webinars are only available for 48 hours, while others do not expire.

This free resource could be useful to anyone, even if you choose not to purchase a Leadpages subscription.

3.4. Blog and podcast

The Leadpages blog posts once a week and covers categories spanning case studies, design, product updates, and more.

As we mentioned earlier, blogging is a fantastic way to get traffic to your website because it's great for SEO.

Leadpages clearly recognizes this when it comes to their website, and this makes us wonder why they don't have a blog feature on their builder.

There's a discussion at the bottom of each blog where readers can respond and interact, but, in general, the discussion is desolate.

The Leadpages podcast is called The Lead Generation podcast.

It contains two seasons with over 20 episodes each, so there's plenty ready to binge.

The podcast is mostly interviews with entrepreneurs who share their secrets to success.

Each podcast comes with a written post that shares top takeaways, resources, and transcripts from the podcast, making them browsable.

However, their podcasts are very outdated ― there hasn't been a new episode since 2019.

4. Leadpages' pricing

By now you must be wondering how much Leadpages costs.

Leadpages offers 2 pricing plans:

Pro — $59/month billed annually, or $79/month billed month-to-month
Standard — $27/month billed annually, or $37/month billed month-to-month

The Pro plan is the most popular plan.

Its support comes in a chat form, which is not nearly as good as phone support but so much better than email.

It offers online sales and payments, unlimited A/B split testing, email trigger links, and 10 opt-in text campaigns ― these are not offered on the Standard plan.

The Pro account allows users to have 3 sites.

The Standard plan is the cheapest and most basic plan that only gives users access to 1 site.

The Standard plan offers these features:

Landing pages, pop-ups, and alert bars
Unlimited traffic and leads
Free hosting
Mobile-responsive site templates
Lead notifications
Email tech support
40+ standard integrations

The real crisis here, as we've touched on already, is the email support which is beyond inefficient.

If the Standard plan is the only one you can afford, the lack of sufficient support is something you seriously need to consider.

It's important to note that month-to-month contracts don't include the free custom domain.

If you're feeling unsure about Leadpages, there's a 14-day free trial that requires credit card details.

5. Leadpages' pros

Leadpages is an industry giant and it does have lots to offer.

Here are the main things that Leadpages is doing right:

99.9% uptime
Unlimited traffic, leads, and publishing
Over 200 templates
Access to Shutterstock Premium
Webinars, workshops, and group coaching
Suitable for beginners
Free Leadpages domain

99.9% uptime and unlimited traffic, leads, and publishing make Leadpages seem generous and reliable.

And their provision of over 200 templates is ahead of their competitors.

Having access to Shutterstock will save your business money because you won't have to produce your own images or pay for your own Shutterstock account.

The webinars, workshops, and group coaching show Leadpages' dedication to educating their audience — even those who aren't paying customers.

This adds to Leadpages suitability for beginners.

Although the free Leadpages domain is only available for the first year of an annual subscription, it eliminates one start-up cost for new businesses.

Hopefully, by the end of that first year, you'll be making money and can pay for your own domain.

6. Leadpages' cons

Now that you know what Leadpages is doing right, it's time to get into the not-so-good stuff.

This information has been gathered from online review forums as well as from our own experience of using the site.

In summary, these are the main problems we found with Leadpages:

Lack of phone support
Email support is only available during U.S. business hours
Incredibly slow FAQ page
Limited standard editor
Can only do split testing on pages made by the standard editor
Spacing issues
The ratio of templates to users
No longer offer a premium template marketspace

Again, the lack of proper support for the cheaper plans is a massive issue, but so is their incredibly slow FAQ section.

If you're a beginner, you may need help and the support offered is just not ideal.

Also, the fact that Leadpages' email support is only available during US business hours is a huge problem for those trying to start a business outside of their 9-5.

The standard editor is significantly limited, so you won't be able to make landing pages that match your current branding, nor can you use custom fonts.

The drag-and-drop editor changes the size of your elements depending on where you place them ― this is frustrating because you can't resize them once they're placed.

A lot of reviewers have complained about spacing issues such as limited control of the layout and difficulty centering things or choosing column sizes.

Moving onto templates, we've pointed out the unfortunate ratio of templates to users, but we haven't told you that they hardly ever add new ones to the mix.

They used to offer a marketspace where users could purchase premium, third-party templates — but this has since been removed.

One user commented that Leadpages' templates are a trade-off where you sacrifice flexibility for ease-of-use ― it shouldn't have to be like this.

Now, it's time to look at systeme.io as an alternative to Leadpages.

7. What systeme.io does better

Systeme.io is an online business-building tool that keeps things simple, affordable, and intuitive.

We help you grow your online business using a series of proven tools that include (and go beyond) what Leadpages offers.

The most obvious advantage of choosing systeme.io over Leadpages is the price.

We offer 4 pricing plans:

Free — $0/month
Startup — $27/month
Webinar — $47/month
Enterprise — $97/month

As you can see, we offer a free plan where Leadpages is only free for 14 days.

Our Startup plan is $10 cheaper than Leadpages' Standard plan, and our Webinar plan is $32 cheaper than their Pro plan.

And we offer an Enterprise plan with far more features than what Leadpages has on offer with their two plans.

Our product isn't cheaper because it's not as good as Leadpages.

It's cheaper because we, at systeme.io, believe in giving entrepreneurs a fair chance to get started.

We understand that you don't have money to waste when your business is just starting out ― this is because we're a company founded by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs.

The product is already developed, so there's no need for us to charge exorbitant amounts to share it with our fellow entrepreneurs.

But the price isn't the only thing we're better at.

Systeme.io offers powerful features that are extremely simple and easy to work with.

Our specialty is sales funnel building, which Leadpages doesn't offer at all.

It's the easiest funnel builder you'll ever use, and it includes landing pages, pop-ups, and alert bars along with other features to maximize your conversions.

We can also help you jumpstart your marketing with fast and easy emailing.

And our website builder offers the perfect balance of ease-of-use and flexible customization.

All of our tools are fully integrated to create one proven tool that will grow your online business.

And the best part is, once you've set up your site, our automations will start doing the heavy lifting for you.

If you've got any questions about systeme.io, our customer support team is online 24/7 ― now that's what we call support.

Just look at what our customers say about systeme.io:

Visit us at systeme.io to learn more about what we have to offer.

8. Conclusion

We've reached the end of this comprehensive Leadpages review ― now it's time for you to make a choice.

Leadpages has lots to offer, depending of course on which of their plans you can afford.

With 40,000 customers, it's an industry giant, but is it the best?

Hopefully, this review has helped you answer that question for yourself.

It's undeniable that there's plenty systeme.io does better, from value for money to ease of use.

We can help you build a leak-proof sales funnel and increase your lead generation tenfold.

Well, what are you waiting for? Sign up for our Freemium plan today to start landing those leads — no credit card details are required.

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systeme.io is 100% free, forever