Ask what a sales funnel costs and you get three different answers: a software price, an agency quote and a shrug. That is because people mix up three separate bills. Here we split them apart, show typical ranges for each type of funnel, and give you simple maths to check whether one will pay for itself before you spend a penny.
A sales funnel has three costs. Software usually runs about $29 to $500 a month. A done-for-you build typically starts around £1,000 to £1,500 ($1,500 to $2,000) for a simple opt-in funnel and can reach five figures for a high-ticket funnel with copy, video, automation and ads. Then you pay to run and improve it.
Who this is for: Coaches, consultants and founders weighing up whether to pay someone to build a sales funnel.
Most pricing pages only show you one slice. A tool vendor quotes the monthly fee, an agency quotes the build, and nobody mentions what it costs to keep the thing working. We find it easier to think in three layers.
The build is usually the biggest single cheque. Running costs are the ones that catch people out, because a funnel that nobody tests or feeds with traffic slowly goes quiet. If you want to see what a build involves step by step, our guide on how to set up a sales funnel walks through it.
When you compare quotes, ask each person which of the three layers their price covers. Two quotes that look miles apart are often covering different things.
The type of funnel matters more than anything else. A one-page opt-in is a small job. A high-ticket funnel with video, applications and a long email sequence is a project. The figures below are typical ranges commonly quoted by freelancers and studios at the time of writing, for the build only, not software or ad spend.
| Funnel type | What is usually included | Typical build cost | Typical timeline | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple lead magnet funnel | Opt-in page, thank-you page, free guide or checklist, 3 to 5 welcome emails | About £1,000 to £3,000 | 1 to 3 weeks | Growing an email list from content you already post |
| Webinar or VSL funnel | Registration page, video or webinar script, sales page, reminder and follow-up emails | About £3,000 to £10,000 | 3 to 6 weeks | Mid-priced courses and programmes that need explaining |
| Quiz funnel | Quiz logic, result pages, tagging by answer, segmented email sequences | About £2,500 to £8,000 | 3 to 5 weeks | Offers with several customer types or entry points |
| High-ticket application funnel | Positioning, long-form page, video, application form, booking, nurture and no-show emails, often ads | About £5,000 to £25,000+ | 4 to 10 weeks | Coaching or consulting priced in the thousands |
If you are deciding between the middle two, our explainers on the VSL funnel and the quiz funnel show how each one works in practice.
Two funnels of the same type can still be priced very differently. The things that usually push a quote up are:
Who builds it matters too. Doing it yourself costs only software and your time, often a lot of it. A freelancer is usually cheaper and fine for one clear piece, though UK freelance marketers commonly charge around £300 to £400 a day, so days add up. An agency brings a team but may hand you a template. A done-for-you studio builds the whole thing and then keeps running it with you.
Here is the simplest check we know. Divide the total first-year cost by the price of your offer. That tells you how many extra clients the funnel needs to bring in to break even.
Say the build is £5,000 and software is about £1,000 a year. That is £6,000. If you sell a £3,000 coaching programme, you need two extra clients in a year. If you sell a £50 ebook, you need 120 extra sales. The first looks very reachable. The second needs a lot of traffic, which is why higher-priced offers usually suit bigger builds. Our guide to the high-ticket sales funnel goes deeper on this.
Be honest with yourself about two things before you pay anyone, though.
If either is true, keep your money for now. A free tool and a simple page will teach you more than an expensive build.
Paying for a build makes sense once you have an offer people already buy, some steady attention from content or ads, and a clear sense that leads are slipping away between "interested" and "paid". At that point the maths usually works, and your time is better spent on clients than on wiring up email tags.
It is also worth paying when you have tried to build it yourself and it is stuck half-finished, or when it is live but nobody watches the numbers. A funnel that is built and then left alone tends to slowly stop working. Most of the gains come from the weeks after launch, when you see which step people drop out of and fix it.
That is the kind of work we do at Unbury. We find where your marketing is losing customers, build the fix (pages, emails, automations and follow-up) and run it with you week to week. If you are a coach, our guide to a sales funnel for coaches shows what that usually looks like. We price each project on a call, because the right funnel depends on your offer and traffic.
If you would like to know which funnel fits and roughly what it would take, start with a free audit and we will tell you honestly, including if you are not ready yet.
Funnel builder software commonly costs around $29 to $499 a month at the time of writing, depending on the plan and how many pages, contacts or features you need. That price is only the tool. It does not include the copy, design, emails or setup that make the funnel work.
For a simple opt-in funnel, freelancers and studios commonly quote from around £1,000 to £3,000. Webinar, VSL and quiz funnels often sit in the low to high thousands. A full high-ticket funnel with copy, video, automation and ads can reach five figures.
In cash, yes, because you only pay for software. In time, often not, as copy, design, email setup and testing can take weeks if you are learning as you go. DIY works well for a first simple lead magnet funnel while you prove your offer.
A simple lead magnet funnel usually takes one to three weeks. Webinar, VSL and quiz funnels tend to take three to six weeks. A high-ticket application funnel with video and ads can take two months or more, mostly because of copy and filming.
Send us your setup and we will tell you honestly where it is leaking customers and what to fix first. Free, no pitch.