Best Lead Generation Tools: Pros, Cons & How to Choose

To keep your business running smoothly and actually grow it, you NEED a consistent stream of leads. 

So, take control of yours with the best lead generation tools. 

There are all kinds of platforms out there, which is great… but if you don’t know where to start? It can also feel overwhelming and confusing.

So, start here! We rounded up the top lead generation tools, including simple overviews, pros and cons to help you find the right one for you.

Benefits of collecting leads

First things first: why exactly should you collect the email addresses of those who visit your business website or engage with your brand?

• Direct communication – Contact these people directly by showing up in their inbox, even after they leave your website, socials or other platforms
• Personalisation – Some tools allow you to do so in a more targeted way, like referencing their situation or the products they actually looked at. This can boost both engagement and conversions!
• Marketing opportunities – Once you’ve collected those email addresses, you can send them more targeted and relevant campaigns 
• Relationship building – Kickstart and maintain a relationship with these potential customers by sending them valuable emails
• Lead nurturing – Keep engaging with them and sending personalised offers, discounts and communications, turning even more of them into paying customers 
• Feedback collection – Use some of these tools to gain important insights from your website visitors and other potential customers who engaged with your brand
• Increasing sales and customer retention – Being able to contact your audience directly and in a personalised way = selling more 
• Product updates – Keep your audience informed, and direct your website visitors to your newest collections, products or offers
• Exclusive offers – Send the best discounts and offers based on each prospect’s situation and touchpoints
• Brand loyalty – By sending them relevant communications directly, you’ll help these people trust and favour your brand
• Data for analysis – The best lead generation tools collect information that goes beyond a standalone email address, and you can then use it to inform your marketing 

So, when you fail to retain your website visitors and other potential customers who engaged with your brand? You leave A LOT of money on the table.

Let’s help you stay in touch with them, then, shall we?

Here are the best lead generation tools to do that.

1. ScoreApp

ScoreApp (yes, that’s us!) is a complete quiz marketing platform to attract warm leads, gain useful insights and increase sales.

You’ll get to create a FULL funnel to turn more of your audience into subscribers and eventually customers.

How does it work? Simple. With ScoreApp, you will:

• Grab your audience’s attention (website visitors, social media followers and more) by offering them a compelling quiz as a free lead magnet 
• Get to know them by asking them strategic questions
• Wow them with valuable and personalised quiz results
• Segment and nurture them with targeted email sequences
• Direct them to the best service or next step for them
• Collect juicy data to guide your marketing and sales process

For example, if you’re a business coach, you could rely on a “What’s holding your business back?” quiz. 

Your participants will receive an in-depth scorecard showing them what they’re already doing well and what they still need to improve, followed by an automated email sequence. 

Once they’re warm? You can recommend a specific service or invite them on a call to discuss their results, offering the right solution to their current problem.

Much more effective than a generic “Subscribe to my newsletter” or “Have you got time for a call?”

Pricing 

Freemium and starting from £24/month

Pros

• Full sales funnel – Some lead generation tools only allow you to capture someone’s email address. With ScoreApp, you get a complete system that keeps bringing you leads, nurturing them and upselling for you
• Easy to use – Make the most of our templates, pre-written questions and intuitive drag-and-drop builder. It’ll be a breeze to create a show-stopping quiz and funnel, even as a complete beginner
• AI – Simplify and speed things up even further with AI. Use it to create your entire lead-generation funnel in 3 minutes
• Customisable – From your initial landing page to your quiz and results, you’ll get to personalise your funnel so that it matches your branding
• Integrations – Connect your ScoreApp quiz with your usual email and marketing tools so that everything works in synergy. You can also choose to host your initial landing page on your existing website
• Versatile – +4200 businesses are already using ScoreApp to generate leads: agencies, accountants, coaches and consultants, financial advisors, podcasters and many more. The full funnel is especially handy for service-based businesses and SaaS
• Advanced analytics and testing – We’re not fans of guesswork. So, we make it easy for you to run A/B testing and understand your data to find out what works best for your customers. Then, you can optimise your lead generation funnel accordingly
• Budget-friendly – You’re bound to find a plan that matches your needs and budget. In fact, you can even create a full quiz for free!

Cons

• White-labelling – At this stage, we haven’t got an option to remove our branding altogether. It doesn’t seem to be a problem for the +4200 businesses that are already using ScoreApp quizzes with their customers. But if it’s a deal-breaker for you, we wouldn’t be the right fit
• Not for e-commerce – You can create a lead generation quiz for product-based businesses, too. However, ScoreApp wasn’t built to recommend specific e-commerce items based on someone’s results. So, the full funnel is better suited for serviced-based and SaaS businesses

Create your FREE lead-generation quiz today

Drift

This is also one of the best AI marketing tools: it’s a chatbot using AI to provide human-like conversations to your website visitors 24/7.

Drift offers smooth and personalised communications and directs your audience to the right next step for them. For example, this could be a link to a blog post or tutorial that answers their question or even booking a 1:1 conversation with your sales team.

However, you won’t get to rely on a full funnel, and its pricing could easily be too much for small and medium-sized businesses. But if you run a large company and already get thousands and thousands of website visitors, it can be a good solution to assist them.

Pricing 

Starting from £1,983.15/month 

Pros

• Good for websites with a lot of traffic – Drift assists your website visitors on your behalf, capturing their contact details whenever possible
• Time-saving – You or your team won’t have to waste time answering the same questions 
• Pre-qualification – Drift can pre-qualify your leads for you, booking more calls with warm prospects
• AI – As well as saving you time, its conversational AI creates more human-sounding interactions
• Integrations – You can connect Drift with a satisfactory range of external tools 

Cons

• Limited use – Drift only helps you capture people who are already on your website. So, if you were hoping to take full control of your entire lead generation funnel, you’d be disappointed
• Can be expensive – It’s not a typo (we triple-checked it!): Drift starts at $2,500/month, which is just under £2,000. So, realistically, it’s only an option for the largest businesses

Hello Bar

This is a lead capture software to create all kinds of floating bars, sliders and pop-ups on your website. 

Unlike the most traditional static options, though, Hello Bar is not a cookie-cutter solution. It uses advanced targeting to show the right message at precisely the right time for each website visitor. For example, if someone has already followed through with a specific call to action, you can prevent them from seeing that message again.

Hello Bar won’t help you attract more leads and create a full funnel, though. But if you just want to retain your existing website traffic, it can be a good solution, especially as an e-commerce business.

Pricing 

Freemium and from £19.03/month

Pros

• Easy – Even as a complete beginner, it won’t be hard to create your first floating bars and pop-ups
• Customisable – You can choose among different types of opt-in forms and messages, which you can then edit and personalise 
• Targeted – It helps you boost your conversions through its smart features, showing more personalised and effective messages to different website visitors 
• Integrations – It’s not the most impressive list, but Hello Bar does work with most websites and email marketing platforms as well as a few additional tools

Cons

• Limited use – Well, it’s in the name: Hello Bar is mostly about floating bars and pop-ups. And if that’s all you need, it’s fab! But if you wanted to take full control of your lead generation funnel, it might not be the best option for you
• Can be expensive – It’s not well advertised, but it does offer a free plan. However, it’s very limited. So, realistically, you’re looking at £19.03 or £32.52 per month (or more). Considering it’s not a full funnel builder, not every business might be able to justify its pricing

LeadChat 

Unlike AI-powered chatbots, LeadChat is all about instant and human communication on websites. 

It offers live chats 24/7 thanks to a network of sales agents: they’ll reply to your audience’s messages and enquiries within 10 seconds. 

Due to its pricing and limited use, it’s unlikely to be a viable option for small businesses and individuals. But if you’re a fairly large business ready to outsource parts of your customer service, LeadChat can save you time and money.

Pricing 

Custom quotes including a fixed monthly account fee and a per-lead fee (starting from £78.52/month)

Pros

• Human conversations – Instead of AI, your website visitors will get to chat with real people, and this can help you stand out
• Time-saving – By outsourcing this, you’ll free up your time or that of your in-house team
• Pre-qualification – These agents can answer common questions and direct the right prospects to the best next step for them, capturing their details

Cons

• Third-party reliance – Your audience will interact with different people who do the same for all kinds of businesses. So, these sales agents might not be as prepared and knowledgeable about your products and systems, especially when compared to an in-house team
• Can be expensive – LeadChat isn’t very transparent about its pricing model, forcing you to request a custom quote. Looking elsewhere, though, it appears it starts at £78.52/month. It’s certainly cheaper than a full in-house team or even some AI-powered competitors (like Drift), but definitely more expensive than most of the best lead generation tools on this list

OptinMonster

This is a popular lead generation tool built around exit intent pop-ups. 

OptinMonster helps you turn more website visitors into customers or subscribers (especially when they’re about to leave empty-handed) by showing them the right message for them.

So, a person browsing a collection for the first time will get a different message than someone who’s visited your website before and looked at a separate set of products. 

However, OptinMonster won’t help you get more people onto your website in the first place or build a full funnel. It can certainly allow you to retain your current traffic, though.

Pricing 

From £12.58/month

Pros

• Easy – You can choose among +400 templates and use the drag-and-drop builder to get started
• Versatile – You can display all kinds of messages for your website visitors, like pop-ups, floating bars, spin-to-win wheels and more
• Targeted – Instead of showing the same message to everyone, it analyses your website visitors’ behaviour for a more personalised experience

• E-commerce – Its higher plans include interesting features for product-based businesses in particular, helping them reduce cart abandonment, too
• Integrations – It’s not the longest list, but you can certainly connect OptinMonster with quite a few tools
• Budget-friendly – The cheapest plan is advertised as being £12.69/month but usually discounted to £7.14

Cons

• Limited use – OptinMonster is a fantastic lead generation tool to convert some of your existing website traffic. It’s just not a full funnel builder to also attract more visitors and nurture them strategically 
• Limited features – Some users couldn’t connect it with their usual tools, they found that the analytics could use some improvement, or they were hoping for features that just aren’t available 

Manychat 

This lead generation tool is another chatbot, but instead of focusing on websites, it’s mainly for Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger.

So, it won’t be relevant for you if you were hoping for a full lead generation funnel builder or a tool that could capture your website visitors’ contacts.

But you can definitely use it to answer your audience’s questions on those social media platforms, engage with them and collect leads 24/7.

Pricing 

Freemium and from £11.90/month

Pros 

• Social aspect and integrations – Manychat can be a good solution for businesses that tend to get the same questions from their audience or that are focusing on social media in particular
• Fairly easy – It offers a drag-and-drop interface. So, setting up a basic chatbot shouldn’t be too complicated
• Time-saving automation features – Manychat can save you plenty of time by answering the same questions for you, following specific workflows and bringing you leads
• Budget-friendly – It’s an affordable solution for small businesses, too

Cons 

• Limited use – At this stage, Manychat is only for Facebook Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp. If you want to provide 24/7 support to your audience elsewhere (like your website), it won’t work
• Learning curve – Many users struggled to familiarise themselves with Manychat beyond its most basic functions. They were also disappointed with its levels of training and support

Wisepops

This lead generation tool is a pop-up builder to display different messages on your websites, turning more visitors into subscribers or paying customers.

Wisepops includes interesting smart features to show targeted pop-ups based on someone’s behaviour and preferences. 

However, it feels a bit pricey. But if you have a good budget and already get lots of website visitors, it can certainly help you make the most of your traffic.

Pricing

From £41.86/month

Pros

• Easy – It should be fairly simple to create your first pop-ups thanks to the drag-and-drop editor and library of +60 templates 
• Smart and advanced features – Wisepops analyses user behaviour and additional data to show targeted pop-ups and messages to your visitors. You can also utilise features like A/B testing to optimise your conversions
• Integrations – You can connect Wisepops with a wide range of CRMs, email marketing platforms and other external tools

Cons

• Limited use – Wisepops is a useful pop-up builder to capture your existing website traffic. But if you also need to attract more people and create a full funnel, it won’t be the best lead generation tool for you
• Can be expensive – It starts at £41.86/month but its plans are based on the number of pop-up views. So, if you have a lot of website visitors, you could end up paying well over £200 per month

Jasper AI

Thanks to Natural Language Processing and the way it analyses data, this AI-powered chatbot platform can also be used to generate leads. 

For example, Jasper AI can recommend personalised outreach tactics, engage with your prospects, pre-qualify them or schedule appointments for you.

Overall, it’s mainly relevant for big marketing and sales teams. 

Pricing

From £30.93/month

Pros 

• AI and time-saving features – This tool relies on advanced NLP and algorithms to provide conversational chats and support. You can also use it to automate repetitive tasks or even create content 
• Versatile – You can use Jasper AI for lots of different tasks, from lead generation to content writing 
• Features for marketing and sales teams – This lead generation tool is especially useful for large teams. For example, it includes functionalities to monitor and score your prospects before sales calls

Cons

• Limited integrations – At this stage, Jasper AI only offers direct connections with a handful of tools (although you might be able to work around this through Zapier)
• Learning curve – It has a fairly user-friendly interface, but many customers struggled to familiarise themselves with the full platform. So, you might need more tech experience than with most of the chatbots and lead generation tools on this list
• Can be expensive – The most popular plan is £46.80/month. It’s certainly worth it if you have a good budget and can utilise all its features. At the same time, it could easily be too much for a small business or individual. The 7-day trial is also unlikely to be long enough to test it properly 

HubSpot 

This is a popular CRM and all-in-one platform for marketing and sales. So, you can use HubSpot to get more people to engage with your brand, turn them into leads and nurture them until they’re ready to buy from you.

It also includes a lead scoring system and automations that make it ideal for large marketing and sales teams.

However, if you were hoping to create a strong but simple funnel, HubSpot could end up being overwhelming and much more than you actually need.

Pricing 

Freemium and from £17/month

Pros 

• All-in-one platform – With HubSpot, you can keep all your marketing and sales tasks in one place, making it easier for different teams to collaborate 
• Advanced features – You’ll find all kinds of lead generation and marketing functionalities (like lead scoring) as well as automations that’ll save you plenty of time. For example, you can pull data from the CRM side of things to offer more personalised experiences to your leads
• Integrations – On top of the tools included within the platform itself, HubSpot can connect with lots of external ones
• Analytics and testing – It offers robust tracking options, especially when compared to the most basic lead generation tools on this list

Cons 

• Learning curve – Luckily, it offers plenty of tutorials and learning resources. Still, HubSpot isn’t the easiest platform to master. If you want to put together a full lead generation funnel, you might need quite a lot of time, trial and effort to get there
• Limited customisation – Compared to other lead generation tools, we found its customisation levels a bit disappointing. For example, to match your branding entirely, you might need to use coding
• Can be expensive – Its pricing model can be a bit confusing because it changes depending on what’s included, but professional plans are a whopping £702/month. So, we only recommend the full platform to large companies that haven’t already got a CRM 

ActiveCampaign

This is an email marketing platform that also includes automation and a CRM. So, you can use it to create a full lead generation funnel.

ActiveCampaign includes impressive features that will make your life easier and your communications more effective, like lead scoring and targeted sequences.

It’s not the most intuitive platform, however. So, we mainly recommend it to large marketing departments or small-to-medium businesses that are after advanced automation, a CRM and a scalable solution overall.

Pricing

From £23/month

Pros 

• All-in-one platform – You can bring all your tasks or even different teams together
• Automation – Once you’ve set everything up, ActiveCampaign can save you plenty of time and energy 
• Advanced features – As well as the usual lead generation functionalities, it offers audience segmentation, targeted communication, lead scoring and workflows

Cons 

• Learning curve – It hasn’t got the most intuitive interface. So, it might take you some time to master all its features, especially those that go beyond a simple email funnel
• Can be expensive – Its pricing model is a bit confusing as you can opt for the full package or standalone sets of features. Either way, it goes up based on your number of subscribers. So, you could end up paying hundreds of pounds per month

Keap 

Previously Infusionsoft, this is primarily a CRM, but it includes several lead generation features, too.

So, you can use Keap to collect contact details through website forms, track your audience’s interactions with your business and automate different follow-ups.

Oddly enough, it’s marketed as a CRM for small businesses but its pricing model is better suited for bigger companies with large budgets. 

Pricing

From £126.13/month

Pros 

• Full CRM – Keap is more than a basic lead generation tool: you can use it to manage and nurture your prospects, too
• Advanced features – It’s a scalable platform, and it includes functionalities that can save you time and help you make more money (like A/B testing, automation, e-commerce or lead scoring)
• Integrations – It’s not the biggest list, but it’ll work for most businesses, and you can add additional connections using Zapier

Cons 

• Learning curve – Several users struggled to master this platform, especially when setting up more advanced automations
• Can be expensive – The cheapest plan starts at £126.13/month, and it can go up even further based on your number of subscribers. So, even though it’s marketed as a CRM for small businesses, it can easily be too pricey for many of them

Insightly

This is a CRM platform to grow your leads, manage them and nurture them, all automatically.

Insightly performs particularly strongly when it comes to building and maintaining relationships with your leads. It also includes a project management tool.

So, this all makes it a logical option for small-to-medium-sized businesses looking to bring their marketing and sales teams together.

But if you already have a CRM or were only after a simple lead generation funnel, it’d make more sense to choose a standalone tool.

Pricing

From £23.01/month

Pros 

• Full CRM – You get to keep all your leads and tasks in one place, which is particularly handy for marketing and sales teams
• Lead nurturing – It has advanced features that help you map and keep track of your relationships with your prospects
• Integrations – Apparently, you have +2000 to choose from
• Can be affordable – If you only need the basic plan, it can be a budget-friendly option for small businesses

Cons 

• Learning curve – Insightly might not be the most intuitive CRM and lead generation tool for beginners 
• Can be expensive – If you need to go beyond the basic plan (for example, to schedule outbound emails), it can get a bit pricey

Mailchimp

This is an email marketing platform first and foremost, but it offers simple lead generation features, too.

For example, you can put together a basic landing page or pop-ups and use them to collect more contact details. You can then create a basic funnel by segmenting them and setting up automated sequences.

Mailchimp is just not as advanced as complete funnel builders. So, we only recommend its lead generation features to small businesses that are already using it to send emails.

Pricing

Freemium and from £10.36/month 

Pros

• Fairly easy – Use its drag-and-drop builder and templates to get started
• Integrations – You can connect your landing page and simple email funnel with several external platforms 
• Simple analytics – They might not be the most advanced, but they’re good enough to look at metrics like clicks and conversions
• Can be affordable – You can build lead-generation landing pages even with the free plan

Cons 

• Can be expensive – You just won’t get the most advanced features and automations with the cheapest plans. But the biggest downside is probably getting charged for your unsubscribed contacts, too
• Limitations – Mailchimp works better as an email marketing platform than a lead generation tool. It lacks features that you might take for granted (like being able to make your landing pages SEO-friendly to generate leads via Google), and it offers fewer templates than most options on this list

Ontraport

This is an all-in-one CRM, marketing and sales automation platform with interesting lead generation features.

You can collect leads through its landing pages and forms, set up automated email sequences and track your relationship with your prospects.

However, Ontraport can easily be more than what you actually need, especially as an individual or small business. It can get quite pricey, too. 

But if you run a large company or e-commerce (and haven’t already got a CRM), it can be a valuable platform. 

Pricing

From £19.04/month

Pros

• All-in-one platform – You’ll get a full CRM and functionalities to bring your marketing and sales teams together
• Advanced features – You can utilise segmentation, targeting, automation and workflows to personalise your customer journeys and convert more leads
• Versatile – Ontraport can work for both service-based businesses and e-commerce websites

Cons 

• Learning curve – Several customers had to invest a lot of time and effort to start using this platform 
• Limitations – It did surprise us with some advanced features. At the same time, it lacked others that are usually offered by most CRMs, or they just weren’t as in-depth and reliable (its users seem to struggle with tag management and reporting, in particular)
• Can be expensive – If you need to go beyond the basic plan (for example, to set up split automation or transactional emails), you’ll have to budget for around £100/month… or more!

Zoho

This is a CRM that includes lots of additional tools and features, from an HR platform to project management and much more. So, you can use Zoho to bring all your departments together. 

When it comes to lead generation, it mainly helps you collect contact details through sign-up forms, pop-ups and landing pages. You can then manage them through the CRM side of things. 

Realistically, Zoho could easily end up being more than you need as a small business or individual. But if you’re after a budget-friendly all-in-one platform for lots of departments, it’s one of the best. 

Pricing 

From £12/month 

• All-in-one platform – You can opt for smaller packages too, but Zoho is mainly useful as a complete suite of products. You can bring all your department in one place, and it has impressive collaborative features 
• Versatile – Zoho is customisable and has modules, features and workflows for different needs
• AI – It incorporates an AI assistant to simplify and speed up your processes
• Integrations – On top of its own suite, it offers connections with lots of external tools 
• Can be affordable – Its basic plans tend to be great value for money. If that’s all you need, Zoho will be pretty budget-friendly for you 

Cons 

• Can end up being expensive – If you need to go beyond its basic plans, you’ll have to invest in add-ons and pricier options. Not a problem for large companies, of course. But if you’re a small business or individual with specific requirements, you might end up paying more just to access those features
• Challenging – Some users reported problems with features like integrations (not always smooth) or reporting (not as in-depth as they were hoping for)
• Learning curve – Zoho isn’t necessarily the most intuitive lead generation tool, especially when you try to use the full suite

Customer.io

This is an all-in-one messaging platform to send targeted communications to your users based on their behaviours and interactions.

For example, you can use Customer.io to generate and nurture leads via email, push notifications and SMS.

It has interesting segmentation and automation features that can save you time and make your communications more effective.

However, given its pricing model, it’s only really an option for large businesses with big budgets, and particularly those that are planning on focusing on behavioural marketing. 

Pricing 

From £79.27/month

Pros

• Multi-channel lead generation – Customer.io is mainly built around email marketing, but you can also get and nurture leads via SMS and push notifications
• Advanced features – You can boost your conversions with personalised communication and real-time triggers
• Integrations – You have an extensive list to choose from

Cons 

• Limited use – Customer.io is a great platform to generate and nurture leads via messaging campaigns. If you were hoping for a full funnel builder, however, you’d be disappointed
• Learning curve – It can be a challenging platform to get used to, even more so if you’re new to behavioural marketing. In fact, some users ended up requiring assistance from developers!
• Can be expensive – Customer.io starts from £79.27 per month, but that plan can go up as your list of subscribers grows. And the premium option? You’re looking at a minimum of £792.69

All prices correct at the time of publishing this article

Pick the best lead generation tool for your business

Stop losing money by letting your audience and website visitors leave without sharing their email addresses!

With the best lead generation tools, you’ll get to keep in touch, nurture your relationships and turn more of them into actual customers. 

Fancy putting your entire lead generation funnel on autopilot? 

A ScoreApp quiz will KEEP collecting leads, communicating with them in a more personalised way and generating sales for you.

So, take full control of your lead generation today: create your ScoreApp quiz for FREE.