In the battle between ClickFunnels vs Shopify, which one is the ultimate champion of eCommerce? If you are about to start or expand your online business, the tool you select can make or break your business.

While both of them are capable of connecting you with customers and increasing sales, they serve different purposes and meet unique business requirements. For e-commerce-heavy needs and complex operations, Shopify emerges at the top. For sales funnel and info-products, ClickFunnels has the advantage. 

But it cannot be forgotten that both can also be used together for entrepreneurs who wish to have the best of both worlds. Honestly, with all the guides and e-commerce available today, it does get complicated to determine which e-commerce site is the ideal place for you to sell your items. So, which one best fits your business?

In this ClickFunnels vs Shopify for e-commerce, we walk you through the features, pros, and cons of both platforms and help you make the right choice. So let’s get started!

ClickFunnels vs. Shopify: Overview 

Online business owners are very well acquainted with the names ClickFunnels and Shopify, or at least have heard of them once. Both of these platforms are wonderful in their own way.

ClickFunnels is a sales funnel builder founded in 2014 by US entrepreneurs Russell Brunson and Todd Dickerson. It helps businesses automate their online marketing and sales processes. The tool allows you to create sales pages, membership sites, order forms, and landing pages. The main intent of ClickFunnels is to generate high revenue and optimize leads. 

To make it a more advanced e-commerce tool, ClickFunnels launched its updated version in 2021, known as “ClickFunnels 2.0”. It comes with some additional features like a website builder, an online course selling tool, and an in-built CRM system. 

On the other hand, Shopify is an all-in-one e-commerce platform founded in Canada in 2006 by German-born entrepreneur Tobias Lütke. It provides a variety of features, including inventory management, a large app store, and payment gateways. You may have observed multi-million dollar businesses (with Shopify Plus) running successfully and proving their efficiency.

This tool is no less than a golden ticket for businesses of different sizes and works great in terms of scalability. Now, let’s get deeper into both concepts to help you make a more logical decision on which is the right one for your business needs. 

What is ClickFunnels?

ClickFunnels is a fully integrated SaaS tool that includes sales, marketing, e-commerce, and analytics tools in one platform. Its wide range of functionalities and features makes it easy to sell your products and services online. Whether you sell digital products such as courses and eBooks or even physical items, ClickFunnels guides you in creating a step-by-step sales process that converts visitors into buyers.

It offers an easy-to-use interface and a simple drag-and-drop editor that allows users to customize sales that too without any coding. You can consider it as a one-stop destination for built-in marketing and affiliate management tools. 

ClickFunnels has numerous types of funnels, including opt-in funnels (for capturing leads), sales funnels (for making sales), webinar funnels (for live or recorded webinars), and even membership funnels (for subscription businesses). And, it is very easy to integrate with other tools, so it is flexible and adaptable for any marketing purpose.

How Does ClickFunnels Work?

Getting started with ClickFunnels is pretty simple. You just need to go to their official website and sign in. Once you are done with sign-in, you can start making your sales funnel using the drag-and-drop editor. Whether you’re looking to build a landing page with a fantastic picture, introduce a special discount with a pop-up, or add a sales video, it helps you do all with an easy-to-use design. 

It also offers pre-designed templates that can be modified to suit your brand image. You can even personalize everything from layout to colors and create sales funnels that work for your business in the best possible manner. 

The charm of ClickFunnels lies in the way it designs the customer journey. Every page of the funnel is for a specific purpose, such as gathering email addresses, showcasing a product, or offering upsells of other services. Your visitors are led step by step through the funnel toward completing your desired action—whether that is a purchase, signing up for a webinar, or becoming a lead.

In addition to that, ClickFunnels comprises automated features like conversion tracking, automation features, and A/B testing. You are able to monitor the performance of your sales funnel and compare strategies. You are able to automate a function that will answer the customers automatically and make a seamless and easy process of selling.

What is Shopify? 

Shopify is one of the best e-commerce websites which facilitates businesses in developing and operating an online store. It provides companies with everything required to set up, operate, and expand their e-commerce business.

It is a feature-rich app store with integration of payment gateway, order management, inventory, SEO, marketing apps, tools, management, banners, etc. And, it helps handle important back-end operations like inventory management, order fulfillment, and payment acceptance.

Shopify is also among the best because it grows with your business. It has generated over $1 trillion in sales and is used by millions of merchants across 175 countries. As Builtwith.com, Shopify powers over 5.5 million online businesses. 

So, no matter if you’re first starting out with just a few products or running at scale, Shopify will expand your business. And with its huge app store, you can integrate additional tools for marketing, customer service, and accounting to make your store that much more powerful.

How does Shopify work?

To get your business started with Shopify is incredibly easy. Once you sign up for an account, follow a step-by-step process to create your store. You start by selecting a theme for your store from Shopify’s collection of professionally crafted templates. 

All the themes can be easily customized to fit your brand using the drag-and-drop editor. You can even modify layouts, colors, and fonts without writing a single line of code.

Once your store design is in place, start adding your products. Shopify lets you easily upload product images, add descriptions, set prices, and even handle variations. You can even categorize your products into different groups to simplify navigation for your customers. 

Shopify also integrates with popular payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe so that your customers can pay easily and securely. With Shopify Payments, you can even avoid third-party fees and process transactions directly within Shopify.

When orders begin to arrive, Shopify provides you with everything you need to handle fulfillment. You can see and process orders, print shipping labels, and monitor deliveries– all through single dashboards. 

A Quick Comparison: ClickFunnels Vs Shopify 

Aspects	ClickFunnels	Shopify
Best For	Companies focused on sales funnels and lead generation.	Companies focused on e-commerce, expanding their online store and dropshipping
Sales Funnel Tool	Advanced, specially designed for funnel building	Basic (needs third-party apps for more advanced funnels)
Design and Customization	Pre-designed funnel templates and limited store option	Highly customizable storefront and themes
Payment Gateway	Supports apps like Stripe, PayPal, and Authorize.net	Support multiple payment apps, including Shopify payment
Online Store Management	A limited number of store features	Complete store management
Third-Party Integrations	Limited third-party app	Huge app store with thousands of integration
Ease of Use	Easy drag-and-drop funnel builder	User-friendly store builder with customizable themes
Customer Support	Email and live chat only during business hours only	24/7 support through email, live chat, and phone

ClickFunnels vs Shopify: A Detailed Side-by-Side Comparison

Now let’s do side by side comparison of ClickFunnels vs Shopify and decide which is better option for business. 

1. Sales Funnel

ClickFunnels is specifically designed to build and optimize sales funnels. It has several pre-built templates that can converted, which means they can allow prospects and revenues to be created out of the visitors. The platform offers robust features for creating, managing, and optimizing funnel-driven marketing campaigns. 

Shopify, in contrast, is geared more toward being an end-to-end eCommerce site. Though you can establish essential sales funnels through add-on programs, it cannot keep up with the level of detail and precision offered by ClickFunnels in terms of funnel creation.

Final Take: If you are looking for an advanced sales funnel, then ClickFunnels is a great option, But if your preference is to create an online store, then you can consider Shopify.

2. Pricing

You’ve got four pricing plans with the Shopify ecommerce platform, costing you $39, $105, $399, and going up to $2300 per month. Besides the monthly expenses, Shopify also charges transaction fees from its users for credit card usage. It drops or rises according to the plans.

Conversely, ClickFunnels has standard pricing tiers as well. But most people won’t be satisfied with where they begin. The starting package will cost you $97/month, where you receive 3 domains, 100 landing pages, and 20 sales funnels. The ClickFunnels Pro tier will cost you $248/month, where you receive 9 domains and unlimited landing pages and funnels.

Final Take: If you want to create an advanced sales funnel and need a more specialized tool, then ClickFunnels justifies its higher price. And, if you’re someone searching for affordable and scalable options to build an online store, then Shopify is a must-go option. 

3. CRM System

ClickFunnels is generally used to create leads and has simple CRM capabilities such as lead segmentation and tagging. It is made to guide prospects through the funnel, but remember, it doesn’t have the same customer management as Shopify.

Although Shopify has more advanced CRM capabilities, it also allows customers to handle customer information and purchase history. They can even divide their customers for select promotions. Shopify also includes abandoned cart recovery and built-in customer rewards programs.

Final Take: ClickFunnels is excellent at lead generation and funnel nurturing, but as a complete CRM solution, Shopify is superior.

4. Inventory Management System

If you are using Shopify, it will be extremely simple for you to maintain a good track of existing as well as new stock. You simply need to add a product, create different variants, and upload some of the most appealing images.

Now, you set the item numbers that you have in your shop. Shopify will be your buddy to see how many things you have sold and, most importantly, alert you on what will be out of stock in the coming time.

However, ClickFunnels is not a store-building platform, and thus, we cannot expect it to have inventory management in its feature list.

Final Take: If your business needs a good inventory management tool then you can consider Shopify. 

5. Integrations

ClickFunnels also provides seamless integration with several third-party applications, such as payment gateways, email marketing software, and webinar platforms. It is an app marketplace, though not as broader as Shopify.

Shopify’s app store is more extensive and comes with hundreds of integrations across sales, marketing, and shipping. You can easily expand and customize your store using numerous apps. 

Final Take: Here, Shopify takes the lead with more advanced integration. 

6. Online Store Builder

ClickFunnels does provide store-building features but is specifically designed around creating funnels. As it is not an e-commerce solution at its core that’s why its online store functions are very limited. 

Shopify is best as an integrated e-commerce platform. It provides all sets of tools in one place that are required for building, customizing, and running an online store. Shopify’s templates, themes, and robust app make it easy to create a professional-looking online store.

Final Take: For creating a large and scalable online store, Shopify is the winner.

7. Customer Support

Shopify provides the finest customer support services to its users. The organization makes sure that every client has access to a customer adviser who is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all year round. Moreover, the clients can inquire or pose some issues via emails, chat, and calls and receive replies or get some solutions within seconds.

Their customer support is also nearly similar, with the option of live chat that has been recently added as an effort to offer solutions for problems customers might have faced during their operations. ClickFunnels has the same type of support. It’s a tie between these titans.

Final Take: When it comes to 24/7 support, Shopify takes the first position in customer support services. 

8. SEO

ClickFunnels provides basic SEO features like customizable descriptions and meta titles. However, it lacks an offering advanced SEO capabilities such as image optimization and automatic sitemap generation.

Whereas, Shopify offers a great range of SEO features. With integrated sitemap tools, image optimization, and schema markup, Shopify makes your store rank higher in search results. It also has a blog feature to enhance content marketing efforts.

Final Take: Shopify is the better choice if Search Engine Optimization is a concern for your business.

9. Payment Gateway

ClickFunnels also integrates payments with big payment processors such as Stripe, although it lacks its own payment processor.

Shopify also has traditional gateways such as PayPal and Stripe but also has its own payment processor, Shopify Payments. This is in an effort to reduce transaction fees for Shopify merchants.

Final Take: Shopify wins when it comes to payment processing capabilities because it has an integrated payment system.

10. Analytics

ClickFunnels offers funnel-centric analytics. You can monitor visitors, track conversions, and see how effective every step of your sales funnel is.

Shopify provides more eCommerce-wide analytics. You can monitor sales, customer activity, and store performance as a whole. Shopify also integrates with third-party tools such as Google Analytics to provide more in-depth insights.

Final Take: If you want in-depth funnel analytics, use ClickFunnels. For eCommerce-wide analytics, Shopify is the way to go.

ClickFunnels Pros and Cons

Pros of ClickFunnels:

1. Customizable Templates

ClickFunnels can be thought of as an all-in-one business for online business. It is an incredible array of pre-existing funnel templates that can even be adjusted further by users according to their desires and needs.

2. Holistic Solution

And if you’re still thinking ClickFunnels is a good choice just for building a landing page, then sorry, but you’re wrong here. It has wonderful tools and features concerning marketing, email, and autoresponder.

3. Integration skills

You can select and customize any of these templates as per your requirements with ease as a user. It is in no way difficult to integrate ClickFunnnels with the majority of third-party software and services. 

4. No Additional cost

You have a CRM tool, email marketing tool, and automation tool built into Clickfunnels. No need to subscribe to another service.

Cons of ClickFunnels:

1. Cost

Slightly higher price point than some other platforms, which could be a turn-off for small businesses or new startups.

2. Slow-loading pages

For most users, it has been a reality that landing pages take forever to load. Taking forever to load one page is taking too long, and this could have very immediate effects on conversion rates. 

3. Steep learning curve

No question this platform has this incredible set of features, but it may take a while for new entrants to grasp its functionality.

4. Bugs and Glitches

The customers have lodged a lot of complaints regarding the frequent occurrence of bugs and glitches on the platform. They also complain about the lag in including a funnel, which gets frustrating at times.

Shopify Pros and Cons

Pros of Shopify: 

1. 24/7 Customer Support 

No matter which pricing plan you choose, Shopify still provides you with round-the-clock customer support services. Additionally, they offer a number of means like live chat, email, and telephone to users to connect with their team. 

2. Suitable to All Businesses

Shopify is a solution suited for small and big retailers that have features supporting businesses wherever they may be on their path.  Even options choosing the basic package still enjoy support for unlimited product inventory as well as having access to numerous sales channels.

3. Easy Interface

You will seldom discover any user complaints related to the Shopify interface. Due to its user-friendly nature, Shopify enables both tech-mindful and non-tech users to maintain their online stores.

4. Secure and Reliable

Your Shopify stores rely on SSL certificates to maintain site security and contact with security update systems. The platform delivers owners of stores an immense feeling of peacefulness because of its security features.

Cons of Shopify: 

1. Apps cost

No surprise, the Shopify app store is enormous, but the downside is that the majority of them are paid apps that have monthly charges. Now, as your store grows, it needs more apps, and this places extra weight on your wallet.

2. Content Restrictions

Shopify is an online shop that comes equipped with a blogging feature, but you sacrifice part of the full-featured content management that you get with some of the separate CMS solutions.

3. SEO limitations

Shopify offers you simple SEO features but with some constraints, such as URL format and different aspects. It can affect your business if you strongly rely on organic search.

4. Transaction fees

Shopify also charges additional transaction fees to the shop owners who don’t choose Shopify payments.

Who is Shopify most suitable for?

1. Small Startups and Businesses: Shopify’s user-friendly interface and long list of features make it an ideal platform for small businesses and startups in need of full-featured e-commerce solutions.
2. Large inventory companies: If you sell a lot of products, Shopify’s robust inventory management system is ideal.
3. Multi-channel selling: If you want to sell on various platforms (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Amazon), Shopify’s integrations are superior.
4. E-commerce Business: Shopify covers all the business needs of merchants selling physical or digital products through online stores.
5. Creative Entrepreneur: Theme customization and a variety of pre-built templates in Shopify make it the best platform for entrepreneurs who desire to showcase their brands in a creative manner.

Who is ClickFunnel most suitable for?

1. Online Business Marketers: For those companies that sell ebooks, courses, or software, ClickFunnels’ delivery methods are ideal.
2. Content Creators of Digital Products: Companies that make digital products or want to build or create their brand presence.
3. Consultants and Coaches: ClickFunnels is suitable for companies that require lead capture and direct them through a sales funnel.
4. Webinar-based selling: ClickFunnels has great functionality for the creation and sustaining of webinar funnels.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Does Shopify integrate with ClickFunnels?

A. Yes, you can integrate ClickFunnels with Shopify either through the Funnels Orders app or other third-party integration tools available for download in the Shopify App Store. It has the ability to create a funnel in ClickFunnel while running orders in Shopify.

Q2. Is ClickFunnels for an e-commerce business?

A. ClickFunnels is an excellent tool for e-commerce businesses. It lets users easily add products and descriptions, upload product images, and customize the store with a drag-and-drop editor. 

Q3. Which tool is better, value for money for startups and small businesses?

A. The best value necessarily depends on your business requirements and your ability to maximize the use of the platform. Nevertheless, it is better value for money for small businesses and startups because it has a lower entry-level pricing plan.

Q4. What is the most significant disparity between Shopify and ClickFunnels?

A. The difference between the two platforms is very basic. ClickFunnels tends to function best with designing sales funnels for marketing and promotions, while Shopify mainly produces and maintains an e-commerce store.

Q5. Which is a better option for e-commerce – Shopify or ClickFunnels?

A. To be honest, implementing both platforms comes with its own benefits and drawbacks. However, Shopify is great for developing and operating an online store, while ClickFunnel excels in creating sales funnel and marketing campaigns.

Conclusion 

In conclusion, it is pretty clear that ClickFunnels and Shopify are both the best in the niches. ClickFunnels is better at lead generation, conversion, and optimizing sales funnels and can be a great tool for businesses that are primarily targeting these. On the other hand, Shopify is great if you are building an online store and require an extensive e-commerce tool. It provides you with everything from inventory management to a payment gateway. 

The most important thing is the decision between Shopify and ClickFunnels comes down to your particular needs and objectives. Ultimately, regardless of whether you use Shopify, ClickFunnels, or both, you need to tie your decision back to your end goals, target market, and specific goals. We hope this comprehensive reading comparing ClickFunnels vs Shopify has given you valuable insight to make informed decisions. So start building your success story today!

Also Read: Top 5 Shopify Apps to Increase Sales of a New Product