ClickFunnels Membership Sites — Easy to Build, But Are They Any Good?

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So you’re probably looking to create a membership site and you have come across ClickFunnels — a well-known platform for creating sales funnels.

In this ClickFunnels membership site review, we’ll dive into the essential features ClickFunnels has to offer and show you how to build a membership site from scratch.

This should help you make an informed decision on whether you should build a ClickFunnels membership site or look towards a different platform.

Let’s begin.

1. What is a ClickFunnels membership site?

A ClickFunnels membership site is a variant of sales funnels designed to give users access to pre-made content when they pay a membership for it.

Anyone can build a membership site with ClickFunnels, and that’s partly because of the no-code experience that users enjoy as well as some convenient ClickFunnels membership site features.

So what does that exactly mean for you? Should you go for it?

Let’s look at some of their pros and cons to help you decide.

1.1. ClickFunnels membership site pros and cons

To answer those questions, let’s take a look at the pros and cons of a typical ClickFunnels membership site:

Pros

Easy to set up and use

Diverse payment gateways offerings

Affiliate marketing features

Cons

Pricing is expensive

The software can get buggy

Customization is limited

Native templates are really basic

Memberships sites’ mobile-responsiveness is unreliable

Despite their pros and cons, you might still be asking yourself — How do I build a membership site on ClickFunnels?

Let's investigate.

2. How to create a ClickFunnels membership site

Source: ClickFunnels.com

First, let’s set the stage with this rule:

You should only have 1 membership sales funnel per business.

Creating multiple membership sites for the same business would mean your users would have multiple logins for different membership funnels.

This can cause users to become frustrated and leave your membership site altogether.

To create a ClickFunnels membership funnel, go to the main dashboard on your ClickFunnels account > Build funnel > Sell Your Product > Membership > Configure name and tags > Build funnel.

After that, ClickFunnels should create a simple-looking membership funnel that will include 2 main pages.

ClickFunnels’ membership dashboard

These pages are “Membership Access” and “Membership Area”.

The former is where users would go to first sign up for courses or content, and the latter is for users to log in to said content afterward.

After creating your membership site, select a template for your Membership Access page and edit it with ClickFunnels’ drag-and-drop builder until you’re satisfied.

Of course, you can add other pages, like sales pages and different landing pages, but understanding both membership pages is crucial to the design and success of your membership site.

If you navigate to your ClickFunnels Membership Area page, it will look similar to this:

Source: ClickFunnels.com

Here’s what you need to know:

1. The “Secret Sign Up URL” is the link you use to direct customers to the “Membership Access” page. They’ll use it to sign up in the registration process.

2. The “Login URL” is linked to the “Membership Area” page. Users will use this page every time they want to access online courses or content after signing up.

3. The content is divided into sections, each section can hold a product you’re advertising like online courses or online resources.

4. Sections are divided into individual lessons and modules that customers can access.

For example, if you’re selling multiple courses related to different diets, each diet course is a section, and each video in that diet course is a lesson or module under that section.

And if you’re following the rule we mentioned earlier, you’ll end up with a library of online courses and content, which makes ClickFunnels very appealing as an online course platform.

So now that you know how to use the membership builder (also known as the sales funnel builder) to create membership sites . . . What features are there for you to elevate your business on the ClickFunnels platform?

3. ClickFunnels’ membership features

In online marketing, quality content and uniqueness prevail in giving you an edge over the competition, so you want to have a solid build for your membership site and look sharp at all times.

Here’s how ClickFunnels helps you customize your membership site when building sales funnels:

3.1. Membership funnel templates

ClickFunnels’ membership funnel templates

Source: ClickFunnels.com

No membership site builder is complete without templates.

Optimized templates are proven formulas that work for conversions, and save you time when building pages.

ClickFunnels offers a number of templates based on the type of page you’re creating — Membership Access templates are different from Membership Area templates, for example.

But since so many templates are super basic in terms of content, there are marketplaces where you can buy or freely download funnel templates that are generated by ClickFunnels and their users.

3.2. Drag-and-drop builder

ClickFunnels’ drag-and-drop builder

With ClickFunnels, the basic structure for pages goes something like this:

Sections > Rows > Columns > Elements. And they are color-coded as well.

Sections are like containers that house everything in them, rows contain both columns and elements, and you can use columns in rows to separate 2 or more different styles of elements.

Here’s how can visualize your membership site pages before creating them:

Source: ClickFunnels.com

You can use the drag-and-drop builder in ClickFunnels to add elements to your pages (no code needed):

Images
Videos
Search functions
Headings
Image pop-ups
Drop-down lists

And more.

Adding custom CSS code and customizing templates is very convenient for those who are looking for a quick and productive way of building sales funnel pages.

But that quickly turns into a must if you want to have a responsive membership site that would look as intended on all devices.

That’s because ClickFunnels membership sites don’t have an auto-responsive feature.

Unfortunately, the builder can also get buggy and elements can become unresponsive.

Luckily, the auto-save feature helps so you can resort to refreshing your page without losing all of your progress.

3.3. User experience

ClickFunnels lets their users handle their customers in an odd way, to say the least — this is where some of ClickFunnels' flaws start to become obvious.

For starters, the registration process is separated into two steps: The sign-up page, and the payment processing page.

ClickFunnels then matches the emails between the two pages and if they’re the same, the user can access the course.

But people are people, and some might use a different email on each page, thus, causing there to be membership access issues.

Another big problem is that users are unable to manage their own payment details and canceling a membership can become a chore.

This can result in more admin work for you and an overall bad experience for the users.

As mentioned earlier, the mobile experience for users is very poor.

ClickFunnels’ templates aren’t responsive enough, and course videos hosted on YouTube look out of place.

In a world where more than 54% of traffic comes from mobile devices, having a responsive website is one of the essential features you can’t compromise on.

3.4. Tracking

Being able to track members will help you see how they’re performing and where systems can be improved.

Unfortunately, there’s no real tracking for membership courses on ClickFunnels.

So what does ClickFunnels have?

A setting to add a timer to your lesson.

Once users finish the timer on the course page (the ClickFunnels membership area page), the course will automatically be marked as completed.

Adding a required time for lesson completion

We feel the timer is an ineffective way to track user progress because if a user forgets to pause the timer, the course would be completed without the user having effectively absorbed the content of the lesson.

Would anyone be able to accurately track course completion rates with such variables using just a timer? — We certainly don't think so.

Another issue is that users can’t automatically pick up from the point where they left your membership content.

This shows you that while you can build sales funnels that are successful with ClickFunnels — membership sites are still a leg and an arm behind.

3.5. Payment gateways

Available payment gateways in ClickFunnels

ClickFunnels gets some redemption here as they offer a variety of payment gateways for you to integrate into your ClickFunnels membership site.

Some of these payment processors are:

Stripe
PayPal
Recurly
NMI
Keap (InfusionSoft V2)
Easy Pay Direct

You can use payment processors via API integrations or 3rd-party platforms, like ClickBank.

You should note that a membership site is different from a subscription site.

A membership site can offer its content for free, while subscription sites require a subscription that’s usually paid monthly or yearly depending on what service you’re providing.

3.6. Course management

Source: ClickFunnels.com

Other than pricing, this is the most determining factor you’ll have if you’re assessing the option of building a ClickFunnels membership site.

Why?

Because this is where you need the most important features to have functionality in your membership site that you’d be happy with.

With ClickFunnels, you have the ability to restrict access to certain lessons in your course.

This means that you can lock content away from users who didn’t pay for it.

If the locked lessons are under a section where some free lessons are available, they’ll see that there are more lessons that can be purchased.

This works as a great upsell if you give your first lesson for free and then have the rest behind a paywall the users have to get through before completing the course.

Another good thing about ClickFunnels is the course completion route they offer.

Users can view how many lessons they have left and how many they’ve completed with the ability to go back and forth between lessons.

You can also add drip content to your lessons — you can use this to lock certain lessons behind a time wall.

This will deliver content to users at the pace that you want to have in your course.

Adding drip delay in ClickFunnels

Unfortunately, that’s about everything ClickFunnels has going for it in terms of course management.

There are no quizzes or exams that users can take when going through an online course on your membership site.

There’s also no way to link a particular lesson for you to share with your community — and speaking of a community, you can’t create one with ClickFunnels.

You’ll have to resort to addressing and growing your community in a different social media place, like a Facebook group.

Another thing is that you can’t offer completion certificates for users, and there’s no native video hosting for your lessons, you’ll have to choose a 3rd-party platform like YouTube or Vimeo.

3.8. Other features

We’ve covered all the features that would help you build your membership site with ClickFunnels, but there are a few more that are more relevant to the ClickFunnels experience as a whole:

Affiliate program

You can set up an affiliate access page and any independent ClickFunnels affiliate can sign up and promote your content, and they get referral payments for each sale they make (up to 40% commission).

Email marketing

In ClickFunnels, you can either integrate an email marketing platform or use their basic email marketing tool to better manage your marketing campaigns.

A built-in shopping cart

Provides users with a clean checkout experience. Gives sellers the ability to add one-click upsells as well.

3.9. ClickFunnels’ pricing

This one is a bit of a hard pill to swallow, ClickFunnels has 3 plans:

ClickFunnels’ pricing plans

Basic plan — Build up to 20 funnels with 100 pages combined, access for 1 user, and 3 payment gateways
Platinum plan — Build unlimited funnels and pages, access for 3 users, and 9 payment gateways. You also get access to unlimited follow-up funnels and priority support
TwoCommaClub X plan — Unlimited funnels and pages, access for 9 users, and 27 payment gateways. Unlimited follow-up funnels, VIP phone support, and access to special forums

Siding with ClickFunnels means you’ll be paying a lot to build a membership site.

Let’s introduce you to a much more affordable alternative . . .

4. Systeme.io — The best membership site builder

systeme.io logo

Systeme.io is an all-in-one solution designed to build, refine, and scale online businesses.

With systeme.io, you can build a membership site similar to a ClickFunnels membership funnel but without all the drawbacks:

A drag-and-drop builder suited for a membership space, online courses, landing pages, sales funnels and a blog space
Continuously updated templates
Responsive design that looks great on all devices
Advanced tracking and analytics
Integrated email and affiliate marketing features
Unlimited video hosting

And more!

4.1 Systeme.io's funnels

Compared to ClickFunnels, systeme.io offers a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate and customize.

But what if we told you that it gets even better?

4.1. Systeme.io’s pricing

systeme.io’s pricing options

The pricing with systeme.io is as affordable as it gets:

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

Our Free plan gives you access to all the core features you need to build your membership website, and it’s free forever:

Unlimited emailing
Unlimited file storage space
Space for unlimited students
Zero transaction fees
Affiliate programs (with 60% lifetime and tiered commissions)

And with our amazing customer support reputation, it’s easy to see why people love systeme.io.

5. Conclusion

If you already have sales funnels working for you in ClickFunnels, then you could consider building a ClickFunnels membership site, too.

But if you’re assessing your options, ClickFunnels comes with a number of drawbacks:

Overall bad user experience
Lacks many needed features like proper user tracking and advanced course management tools
Limited customization

Not to mention their pricing which will definitely leave a dent in your wallet.

If you’re looking for an option that’s more affordable, offers excellent email marketing features, and has better membership management capabilities — then turn to systeme.io.

You can get started for free and no card details are required!

Simply sign up to start creating membership sites and watch your online business grow!