How I Got Interested in Building an Open Source Alternative to ClickFunnels

I wouldn't call myself an expert in software development.

However, I have spent the last decade reading and learning about how WordPress can be used to create software. And I have probably spent 10,000 hours practicing and tweaking it in my own life.

Over the years, I've built various self-hosted platforms for my clients that replace Facebook Groups (for self-hosted communities), CRMs, funnel builders, LMS, and integration tools.

Recently, I've created a more standardized version of product launch software called the Hustlefree Platform that helps my clients launch their coaching or online courses.

Here's how I first got interested in creating the Hustlefree Platform…

Most coaches or creators I work with launch products. "Sales Funnels" are the bread and butter of these launches.

When I started my career as a digital marketer in almost a decade ago, I was trained bt Russell Brunson, the founder of ClickFunnels.

When it comes to SAAS for launching products online, I still believe that ClickFunnels has a better page builder than all its compitition.

But… it's still a SAAS.

About a year ago, one of my clients, Vasco Duarte (Keynote Speaker and the host of Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast), asked me for suggestions on an alternative to ClickFunnels.

He needed the ability to go from idea to selling products and money in the bank in hours, not weeks or months…

1. A short or no learning curve, easily replicable funnels, and better integrations.
2. Native integrations that just work without using third-party tools such as Zapier (which is another clunky tool in a funnel tech stack).
3. Integration with Ontraport (his main CRM) and Kajabi (an LMS platform he uses for membership access). Try to make ClickFunnels work with these two and you'll know what you're up against here.
4. Ownership of his data, funnels, automations, pages, and everything else that goes into selling his products. (My client's 8+ years of funnels were held hostage on the older version of ClickFunnels, and the company was trying to upsell him on a new version and rebuild everything from scratch).
5. Meaningful conversations with support. (Do you remember a time when you contacted support and they either don't give you generic answer that don't apply to you or they refer you to their online documentations only to waste more of your time).

The problem was every single SAAS tool that I have worked with claims to have fancy integrations, but they rarely work exactly the way you need them.

As a result, people have no other way than to use another tool such as Zapier that processes your data outside of your platforms, adding another point of failure to your system.

And Zapier fails more than ClickFunnels.

Technically, this is normal among all SAAS.

The problem at hand then is more philosophical than technical: How can we go from having an idea to money in the bank in hours and not weeks or even months?

No SAAS can solve this no matter how smoothly they market themselves: There's always a learning curve, design limitations that make you sell the way they allow you, and their system breaks with support staff sending you generic replies or links to their support documentation to read.

The answer: You need to build your product launch platform in-house. Oh, and it shouldn't cost you more than what you pay to ClickFunnels anyway.

And that's how the Hustlefree Platform was invented. Well, more like innovated on top of WordPress Core, an open-source base to build your foundation on.

Currently, a couple of my clients are using this platform. You can see Product Owner Summit as an example of a funnel built on it.

Another benefit of using WordPress as a base is that it's now extremely easy to find or train non-marketing and non-tech staff to handle the funnels.

When I designed the Hustlefree Platform, I wanted to make a platform that a total beginner can operate while having a punch more powerful than established SAAS tools.

So my goal over the next couple of months is to…

Figure out how it could be useful for those who have never built a funnel before. It's not an urgent problem for me to solve, but it's something on my mind.

Context: Even though the Hustlefree Platform is an intuitive and super easy tool to help you take your products from ideas to market in no time, it's a tool for power users of funnels.

If you find this interesting and would like to see how I can help you launch better, faster, and hassle free, please reach out using this link for a quick chat.

(NOTE: This post was first published on my blog here).