What’s the average optin rate you get on your WordPress site/blog? If you’re using only basic forms in the sidebar, it’s probably something in the 0.5% range (or less). Meaning, for every 200 visitors to your site, only *1* ends up subscribing to your email list.
Great, huh?
But what if you could improve your conversions by even 1000% – that’s one thousand percent (we’ve had it happen)?
What would that mean for your business, and how much faster it could grow?
As suspicious as it might sound, there are tools out there that promise they can give you results of that caliber. Let’s find out what makes them so special!
Today, we’re comparing 4 of the most popular email optin tools for WordPress sites: OptinMonster, LeadPages, Sumo, and Thrive Leads . We’re looking into the features, the pros and cons of each tool, what sets each of them apart, and which of them you should choose based on your individual needs.
We’ve also reached out to the creators of those tools and asked them about the two things that make their tool different from the competition. You can read their answers below.
Let’s start with the basics. Here’s the side-by-side:
OptinMonster | LeadPages | Sumo | Thrive Leads | |
Price / m | $9 | $25 | $0 | $67 |
$19 | $48 | $39 | $97 | |
$29 | $199 | (annual billing) | $147 | |
$49 | (annual billing) | (one time payment) | ||
(annual billing) | ||||
Easy to use form builder | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Landing page builder | N | Y | N | N**** |
Pop-up forms | Y | Y | Y | Y |
In-line forms (in your blog content) | Y | N | Y | Y |
On-click triggered forms | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Floating bars at the top / ribbons | Y | N | Y | Y |
Slide-in forms | Y | N | Y | Y |
Mobile-friendly | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Sidebar/widget forms | Y | N | N | Y |
Blank canvas forms / fully editable forms | Y | Y* | Y***** | Y |
Fullscreen pop-up forms / scroll mat forms | Y | Y* | Y | Y |
Exit-intent forms | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Ready-made form designs | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Can you have multiple forms of the same type? | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Tracking and stats | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Page targeting | Y | N** | Y | Y |
A/B testing | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Unlimited campaigns | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Email platform integration | All major tools (e.g. MailChimp, Brevo, GetResponse) | Most major tools | Most major tools | Most major tools |
Google Analytics integration | Y | Y | Y | Y*** |
API (connect your own app) | Y | N | N | N |
Support | Knowledge base, ticketing system, email contact | 1:1 support and coaching, email, live chat, phone | Knowledge base, ticketing system, email contact | Knowledge base, ticketing system |
Price | 10 | 6 | 10 | 9 |
Ease of use | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
Features | 10 | 7 | 6 | 10 |
Support | 9 | 10 | 9 | 8 |
OVERALL | 9.5 | 8.3 | 9.2 | 9.3 |
VISIT |
** LeadPages creates custom landing pages for you, instead of integrating with existing pages.
*** Thrive Leads is a WP plugin, so the GA integration you have on your blog will work with Thrive Leads no problem.
**** There’s another plugin called Thrive Landing Pages that pairs with Thrive Leads and gives you landing page functionality.
***** Read about the specifics here.
Full review comparison of the top email optin tools for WordPress
OptinMonster
Overview
OptinMonster is your all-in-one tool when it comes to optin forms and optin optimization on your WordPress blogs.
It allows you to create all kinds of optin forms (and every one of them is designed very nicely), measure their conversion rates, do A/B testing, and basically have every aspect of your optin management handled in one easy to grasp place.
Also, you can have OptinMonster installed on multiple websites, and manage them all through a single dashboard.
Main features
- Drag-and-drop form builder.
- Tens of ready-made form templates.
- Multiple types of optin forms available.
- Blank canvas forms – put any HTML in them.
- Exit intent forms – convert the visitors who were just about to leave your site.
- Segment your customers with behavior personalization.
- A/B testing – really easy to use.
- Great stats and analytics.
- On-click triggered forms.
- Full-screen welcome gate.
- Floating bars.
- Slide-in forms.
- Sidebar forms and widgets.
- Good-looking form animations.
Price
Pros
- Great and easy to use A/B testing feature. You can create new variations of your forms and test them against each other. No technical skills needed for that.
- OptinMonster allows you to create entirely custom pop-ups. This means you’re not limited to optin forms only. For instance, use this to link to your popular content, display pricing tables, buy buttons, and etc.
- It’s the most affordable solution on this list (except the free version of Sumo), and it certainly has the best “price to value” ratio.
- OptinMonster integrates with every email marketing solution that I know of; including obvious ones like MailChimp, but also a range of alternatives (speaking of alternatives, check this out).
- Great API for advanced users. You can build your own apps and have them integrated with OptinMonster.
- You can work with unlimited websites on the Pro plan.
- Integrates with your site through a WordPress plugin.
Cons
When the official WordPress plugin updates are released, you need to be quick installing them. Sometimes all your optin forms can stop being displayed if you’re not on the most recent version.Update. It’s been pointed out to me that OptinMonster has now moved to the SaaS model, and only uses the WordPress plugin to establish an API connection. This should solve the problem.- The ready-made form templates are not fully editable. The only way around this is to use the blank canvas form, and put custom HTML in it. Requires some technical skill, though.
Who’s OptinMonster best suited for?
Get OptinMonster if you:
- want to have your optin forms handled inside one easy to use interface,
- want an affordable yet incredibly powerful solution,
- want to be able to create optin forms that just work and don’t require any design or development knowledge on your part,
- manage more than one site.
Here’s what Syed Balkhi, the founder of OptinMonster had to say when asked, “What are the 2 things that make your tool different from the competition?”
OptinMonster has an extensive events API which trumps everything else in the market. We also allow you to create 100% custom popups that doesn’t have to be just an email optin. For example, you can include shortcodes to display payment forms, related blog posts, related eCommerce products, and basically anything else that you want.
Syed BalkhiLeadPages
Overview
LeadPages is one of the most popular email optin solutions on the market. Although simply calling it a “solution” doesn’t do it justice. LeadPages is so much more.
Where most tools focus on letting you create a couple of forms to capture email addresses, LeadPages goes a lot further. The other tools on this list are about individual optin forms, LeadPages is about landing pages.
The main advantage of LeadPages is that you can take your idea and turn it into a fully functional landing page in less than five minutes.
Apart from that, you also get many optin generation tools that work on every site, not just in WordPress.
Main features
- Easy to use tool for building landing pages and getting them online.
- Large library of landing page designs that can be sorted by conversion rates (this is huge!),
- Designs are mobile-friendly and responsive.
- On-click triggered forms.
- Capture email addresses through SMS text messaging.
- Works with unlimited sites.
- It takes care of delivering your email gifts for you – the resources you might have promised your audience for subscribing.
- There’s tracking and analytics.
- A/B testing.
- Hosts your landing pages for you.
- You can also publish your forms to Facebook.
- Integrates with your site through a WordPress plugin.
Price
Pros
- Truly impressive scope of features when it comes to landing pages. Especially useful if you want to test a number of different things, or when you manage more than one site.
- The forms and landing page templates can be sorted by conversion rates. This means that you can choose and work with only the best converting templates.
- Integrates with most of the popular email service providers.
- LeadPages is big on educating their customers and sharing their findings openly. You’ll learn a lot about email marketing when working with LeadPages, which will improve your results even further.
- No coding skills required at all to work with LeadPages.
Cons
- The price. LeadPages is the most expensive solution on the list.
- While LeadPages delivers great optin features through its landing page templates, it’s not as great for working with individual optin forms. For example, when you just want to display a form in your blog’s sidebar, or on some pages that you already have on the blog. This is not possible with LeadPages.
Who’s LeadPages best suited for?
Get LeadPages if you:
- want to work with custom landing page designs more than you want to work with individual optin forms,
- want to take advantage of a tested library of landing page templates that have been proven to generate good conversions,
- want to be a part of the most frequently updated and added-to solution in the email optin space.
👉 Learn more about ClickFunnels vs LeadPages here
Sumo
Overview
Sumo is a very interesting tool, and especially if you don’t want to invest any money right off the gate.
It gives you access to a range of tools, not only for email. Each of them is nicely customizable, plus easy to use.
In the email optin department, you get great pop-up forms, scroll boxes, floating bars, and something called a welcome mat – an optin form that takes up the entire screen.
Main features
- Customizable pop-up form with a nice set of templates.
- Customizable floating bar form.
- Scroll-box form.
- Welcome mat – full-screen form.
- Adjustable display mode (set your forms to appear after a certain delay).
- Smart display mode – determines the best time to display the forms to a visitor automatically.
- Display rules – set the exact pages where the forms are going to appear, or block them on other pages.
- A/B testing.
Price
Pros
- If you want to just get started collecting emails on your blog as soon as possible, Sumo is for you.
- There’s a free plan available that gives you access to all Sumo modules (with some features limited, though).
- It’s a very popular solution, currently online on more than 180,000 websites.
- Integrates with most of the popular email service providers.
- Doesn’t require any design or development skills.
- Sumo is heavy on educating its users and the community overall. You’ll find some great insights in their newsletters.
Cons
- Quite expensive if you want to have all features enabled ($199 / month).
Who’s Sumo best suited for?
Get Sumo if you:
- want to get started right away and have a pop-up form live on your site in a matter of minutes,
- want a range of other useful marketing tools for free.
Here’s what Noah Kagan, the founder of Sumo had to say when asked, “What are the 2 things that make your tool different from the competition?”
1 – Free
2 – Suite of marketing tools vs just 1.
Thrive Leads
Overview
From the team who brought you Thrive Architect, comes Thrive Leads one of the most feature-rich email optin solutions out there. Unlike the other players on this list, Thrive Leads is a WordPress plugin, and lets you work with your forms within a familiar WordPress interface.
Thrive Leads offers loads of optin form types, and allows you to customize everything to your liking. There are countless templates available, and you don’t need any design or development skills to work with them. On top of that, you get great tracking and analytics.
Main features
- Multiple types of optin forms available (pop-ups, slide-ins, floating bars, widget forms, in-content forms).
- Drag-and-drop form editor.
- A/B testing.
- Exit-intent triggering.
- Full-screen forms.
- Fully editable form designs.
- Shortcodes.
- Every form is mobile friendly.
- Display rules – set the exact pages where the forms are going to appear, or block them on other pages.
- Stats and analytics.
Price
- 15 licenses: $147
- 5 licenses: $97
- 1 license: $67
Pros
- Very affordable due to the one-time payment.
- Easy to use, no tech skills required.
- Multiple form templates available.
- Advanced analytics and focus on conversions – you can really improve your results by paying attention to the suggestions you get from Thrive Leads.
- Frequent updates. Thrive Leads is constantly evolving to deliver new and better features.
- Include your forms anywhere on your blog with shortcodes.
Cons
- If you want to use it with more than one site, you’ll have to install the plugin individually on each site.
Who’s Thrive Leads best suited for?
Get Thrive Leads if you:
- prefer paying just one time, instead of monthly,
- want to have everything handled inside your WordPress dashboard,
- want to be able to create new optin forms within minutes,
- want one of the most feature-rich solutions on the market.
Here’s what Shane Melaugh, the founder of Thrive Leads had to say when asked, “What are the 2 things that make your tool different from the competition?”
1) The speed of development. It’s rare that a week goes by where we don’t add a major new feature a new improvement or a new set of templates to Thrive Leads. We’re relentlessly moving forward with this, listening to customer feedback and making sure the plugin stays well ahead of the curve. And this isn’t just something we claim – you can check our blog to see the constant updates for yourself.
2) True conversion focus: it’s easy to say that a plugin is built for conversions, but it’s quite difficult to back it up. We have a very sophisticated A/B testing engine in Thrive Leads and we’ve spared no expense to make sure that we measure the right kind of data and provide real results. This can make the crucial difference between actually improving your list growth and chasing phantoms that are the result of wrong interpretation of data, so it’s not a trivial matter.
In addition, we have a very extensive reporting suite that provides insights about the effectiveness of your content marketing, the best traffic sources for new leads on your site and much more.
Shane MelaughConclusion
In my opinion, every tool on this list has its place on the market. Please pick the persona that describes you best:
A)
- I’m just getting started and I don’t want to invest any money.
B)
- I want the best “price to value” ratio.
- I want the most feature-rich solution for my email opt-ins.
C)
- I need complete landing pages to work with my opt-ins, not just individual forms.
D)
- I don’t want to use an external tool, I want to have everything handled through a WordPress plugin.
👉 Looking to capture more leads? Read through our review of the best call tracking software.
So that’s us. But what do you think? Are you using either OptinMonster, LeadPages, Sumo, or Thrive Leads on your site? Feel free to share what your experiences are in the comments below.
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