OptinMonster Vs Leadpages – Which Tool is Better in 2024?

In this objective product and service review, we compare the 2 most popular email opt-in tools for WordPress – OptinMonster Vs Leadpages. We look at their pros and cons to help you decide which of these 2 amazing softwares is better for you and your business

OptinMonster vs LeadPages. Which tool is better? Two amazing products, but which should you spend your hard earned cash on?

OptinMonster Vs Leadpages: Which of these two leading software will help you collect more leads out of your traffic?

And which of them will help you make more money out of your websites?

This comparison post explains it all in the simplest way possible. So let’s get started right away!

But first, 2 quick questions to get us started in deciding between OptinMonster Vs Leadpages.

What is OptinMonster?

OptinMonster is the world’s premiere lead generation software.

Starting only in 2013, OptinMonster has grown to service ~1.5 million small and large businesses who use it to extract more leads and more money from their traffic.

Thanks to their quality product that’s super easy to use, OptinMonster has grown to dominate the market today. And if you have a website and are looking to deploy effective optin campaigns, then OptinMonster (is probably) the tool for you.

But let’s not get ahead of us here.

And What Exactly is Leadpages?

Leadpages is a popup, landing page and an entire website builder bundled up into one product. 

Their proclaimed goal is to help small businesses capture more leads and make more sales; and they present themselves as a one-stop-solution for small businesses who’re thinking of getting started online, but don’t know where to begin and what to do first.

As a small business using Leadpages you can design a beautiful website, create custom landing pages for your lead magnets, and deploy optin campaign powered up by some of the most advanced technology on the market today (exit-intent popups, I’m talking about you).

Comparing OptinMonster Vs Leadpages -Head to Head

The first thing you need to know is that OptinMonster and Leadpages belong to different classes of products, built to serve different audiences.

For example, OptinMonster is not  a website builder, so it can’t really compare with Leadpages in that area.

However, there’s also a large overlap in the tools’ capabilities and in this OptinMonster vs Leadpages comparison post, I’ll be talking about:

•  the features they have in common;
•  how they compare one against the other;
•  and which one is better value for your money.

Now if you’re ready, let’s get the (comparison) show on the road.

#1- Lead Generation Methods

In order to fight popup fatigue, you need to have diverse optins in place so that users can never really get accustomed to any one of them.

OptinMonster really shines in this area!

Here are the types of optins you can build with them:

• Slide-in scroll box;
• Lightbox popup;
• Floating bar;
• Fullscreen welcome mat;
• Sidebar widgets;
• Gamified popups;
• Countdown timers
• Content Lockers;
• Inline campaigns.

Using a combination of these ensures that your visitor will not get bored, and will not learn to ignore your offer. And most importantly, they will subscribe, if not the first time, then definitely on repeat visits.

However, all is not ideal here.

There’s a large chink in OptinMonster’s shiny armor. Yes these campaigns options exist, but you don’t get them all on every plan.

As plans progress in price, so does the variety of campaign types at your disposal.

For example, I’m on a Pro plan and I don’t have access to gamified campaigns, which is a shame as I’d sure like to try setting up one of those coupon wheels. I have a hunch those would convert superbly.

As for Leadpages, they offer a more limited campaign variety.

These are:

• Popups;
• Alert bars;
• Sidebar widgets.

This is nowhere near what OptinMonster offers. But the good thing about LeadPages is that all campaign types are immediately available on all LeadPages plans, including the cheapest one.

Which is a better tool for lead generation?

I can’t decide that for you, but I use OptinMonster and love it. Even with my limited plan, I’m still able to create effective campaigns that earn me money on autopilot while I sleep.

For example, this Semrush free trial popup has already earned me hundreds of signups, and I only had it published for a few months.

#2- Campaign Editor Comparison

Both OptinMonster and Leadpages give you an intuitive, WYSIWYG popup editor that even a child can learn to use in less than 10 minutes.

Within the popup builder you can change copy with a click of the mouse. You can also add or remove blocks, set SEO and display rules and much more.

Both tools are very similar in this area. And honestly, I can’t say that OptinMonster is easier to use. That’s even though I’m now very used to it, and I’ve only started using Leadpages for the purpose of writing this comparison post.

There’s nothing more to say here except that with hundreds of templates available, plus unrestricted ways to modify them, both tools let you create unique campaigns that the web has never seen before.

Here, your imagination is your biggest obstacle.

However, the clear advantage OptinMonster has is its display rules.

One of the major problems and mistakes you want to avoid is bombarding your visitors with optins they have clearly said (by not paying attention to them the first time) they don’t want to see anymore.

Within the OptinMonster campaign builder, you can set campaigns to never repeat to the same visitor, or that they show up again only after 30 days.

This is wonderful for not ruining the image of your brand as you won’t be overwhelming your repeat visitors with the same optin again and again.

With LeadPages you don’t have these sophisticated options. Your popup is shown to everyone and repeated to everyone. And in my view, this significantly lowers their impact and could also tarnishes your brand’s image.

#3- Targeting Rules

Designing a winning optin is only half the battle won.

The other half is showing it to the right people so that it really has a chance of converting them.

Let’s start with LeadPages this time.

They offer a few basic options for displaying their campaigns.

These are:

• Exit-intent- this triggers the popup just about as the visitor is getting ready to leave your site.
• Time delay- here the popup is triggered after the user has spent some time on your page. (Pro tip: to know exactly when to display your popups so most users see it, take the average dwell time of target page X and divide that by half plus 5 seconds. ) This way you still show it to everyone but you’re not displaying too early and breaking the eflow.
• Image button and link triggers- here popups are shown as soon as the click happens.

As for OptinMonster?

First, OptinMonster has everything Leadpages has.

These are:

• MonsterLink- the equivalent of link trigger for Leadpages;
• Time Delay- equivalent of time delay trigger in Leadpages;
• Exit Intent- the same as with LeadPages. (In fact, Exit Intent was once an OptinMonster-exclusive feature, and it would appear that Leadpages copied it from them)

Second, OptinMonster has a  lot more targeting rules you can use.

Some of these are:

• AdBlock Detection– detects AdBlock using users and asks them politely to turn it off- works ~75% of the time.
• OnSite Follow Up Campaigns–  Show campaigns based on whether someone is a repeat visitor or not.
• Referrer Detection: Show specific campaigns for specific referral sources. For example, you can set up a specific campaign for visitors coming from X site where you guest posted on, and where you know there will be some sweet referral traffic flowing your way.
• InactivitySensor- here the optin shows only if your visitor has been idle for a while.
• Campaign Scheduling- you can schedule campaigns to run only during a specific time period. For example during Black Friday and Cyber Monday
• Scroll Trigger- this rule triggers a campaign after someone has scrolled a certain portion of the page.
• And more!

When it comes to targeting, it’s clear that OptinMonster is a clear winner here.

However, it is worth remembering that some campaign triggers and display rules are not available on lower tier Optinmonster plans.

For example Exit Intent is the most valuable campaign trigger there is. This is because it helps you capture some of the leaving visitors. However, that campaign type is only available on the Pro and Growth plans, while the Basic and Plus plans don’t have it.

On the other hand, LeadPages gives every feature they offer with every plan.

So if you’re specifically interested in having Exit-Intent technology on your site, then going with Leadpages’s cheapest plan is your best choice.

#4- Pricing

Here’s the pricing for LeadPages:

• Standard- $25/month;
• Pro- $48/month;
• Advanced- $199/month.

And here’s the pricing for OptinMonster:

• Basic: $9/month (maximum 3,500 pageviews);
• Plus: $19/month (maximum 15,000 pageviews);
• Pro: $29/month (maximum 50,000 pageviews);
• Growth: $49/month (maximum 250,000 pageviews).

As you can see, Leadpages are significantly more expensive than OptinMonster and ideally, you should choose the latter.

However, it’s not that simple

For example, if you need a website builder, then you need Leadpages as OptinMonster can’t help you build a website.

Secondly, OptinMonster plans don’t differ just based on how many visitors you can have, but also by features you have access to.

Take a look  at these huge differences:

Finally, OptinMonster pricing can be a bit (should I say) misleading because the prices you shown above are per month, but paid yearly.

Meaning, for example that you can’t buy OptinMonster for 3 months.

With OptinMonster, you have to buy a year’s worth of a plan.

However, Leadpages have a clear edge here.

With LeadPages you can purchase a plan for a month, if a month is the duration you need to get things done.

Finally, Leadpages give a 14-day free trial combined with a 30-day refund guarantee. And Optinmonster have only a 14-day money back guarantee.

OptinMonster Vs LeadPages FAQ- All Your Questions Answered!

This OptinMonster vs Leadpages guide would be woefully incomplete without a thorough FAQ section.

People have questions about both OptinMonster and Leadpages and how they compare, and my guide has the answers

They’re right below!

OptinMonster Vs Leadpages – Conclusion

Here’s the deal.

Both of these tools are amazing. But they’re also different and built for different audiences.

If you want  a premium popup builder, go with OptinMonster.

If you want to build a presence online by building a website and popups are just a nice bonus to have, and not an absolute necessity, then go with Leadpages.

Or you can choose to buy both, Leadpages for website creation and OptinMonster for displaying popups.

However, that would be hugely ineffective. Instead you should consider my winning combination:

A website built with WordPress (preferably on some cheap hosting) held together with OptinMonster for lead generation through content marketing.

What do you think?

OptinMonster vs Leadpages – Your Turn

Let me know what you think in the comment section below, thanks!