The creator economy is booming, which is great! But in a bustling digital market, finding the right leads — and turning them into paying customers — can be, well, a little daunting. You might have the best digital product offering around, but you won’t earn much from it if you don’t have a way to generate great leads.
And that’s where lead generation tools and software step in to save the day. These tools are designed to help you through various steps of the lead generation process, from capturing your leads’ contact info to converting them from prospective into paying customers.
Lead generation software is often used by big businesses, but there are tons of these tools out there geared towards creators, entrepreneurs, and small business owners, offering the right features and (perhaps most importantly) the right price point.
Here, we’re looking into the best lead generation tools and software available for creators, including the best free tools for lead generation. Read on to learn how the options stack up, and how they can help you supercharge your income.
Nurture and convert leads with The Leap’s built-in email marketing features. Start free!Different types of lead generation tools
As mentioned, there are lots of different types of lead generation tools available online. Some of these are all-in-one platforms that help you nurture your leads through every step of the journey, while some are designed to tackle a specific portion of the lead generation process.
Here are the different types of lead generation tools that best serve creators:
- All-in-one platforms: These platforms include an array of features, including opt-in forms, email automations, and CRMs, that help you through every step of the lead generation journey, from capturing leads to nurturing them to converting them.
- Opt-in forms: Also known as lead capture forms and sign-up forms, these tools help you capture leads by prompting them to fill in their contact information.
- Lead magnets: These lead-capture tools are freebies that are offered up in exchange for your leads’ contact information.
- Live chat: These chatbots provide website visitors with customer support, prompt them through your sales funnel, and capture their contact information.
- CRM: These tools store your leads’ contact information and help you segment your email list so you can send tailored, targeted marketing campaigns to the right leads.
- Email automation: These tools help you nurture leads easily with targeted automated email flows. It’s targeted email marketing on auto-pilot.
- SEO tools: These tools help you create best-in-class search engine optimized content that will drive more leads to your website.
Set lead nurturing on autopilot with The Leap’s email features.
12 Best lead generation tools and software
Let’s dive into some of the best lead generation tools for creators:
- The Leap
- Mailchimp
- Benchmark
- Kartra
- OptinMonster
- Typeform
- Zapier Interfaces
- Notion
- Intercom
- HubSpot
- Surfer
- Demio
Lead generation tools comparison
Don’t have time to read all that? Here’s a quick overview of the best lead generation tools on the market.
| Tools | Features |
| The Leap | Best for: All-in-one lead generation tool Free plan? ✅ Pricing: Free plan (up to 500 contacts) |
| Mailchimp | Best for: Email marketing automation Free plan? ✅ Pricing: Paid plans starting at $20/month for 500 contacts |
| Benchmark | Best for: Email marketing and lead capture Free plan? ✅ Pricing: Paid plans start at $13/month for 500 contacts |
| Kartra | Best for: Entrepreneurs Free plan? ❌ Pricing: Plans start at $119/month |
| OptinMonster | Best for: Advanced opt-in forms Free plan? ❌ Pricing: Plans start at $18/month |
| Typeform | Best for: Custom opt-in forms Free plan? ✅ Pricing: Basic: $25/month (100 responses/month) Plus: $50/month (1,000 responses/month) Business: $83/month (10,000 responses/month) |
| Zapier Interfaces | Best for: Zapier users Free plan? ✅ Pricing: Professional: $19.99/month Team: $69/month |
| Notion | Best for: Lead magnet creation Free plan? ✅ Pricing: Paid plans start at $10/month |
| Intercom | Best for: Live chat lead capture Free plan? ❌ Pricing: Plans start at $29/month |
| HubSpot | Best for: CRM Free plan? ✅ Pricing: Custom pricing, starting at $20/month |
| Surfer | Best for: SEO lead generation Free plan? ❌ Pricing: Plans start at $69/month |
| Demio | Best for: Webinars as lead magnets Free plan? ❌ Pricing: Plans start at $42/month |
1. The Leap
Best for: All-in-one lead generation tool
Looking for a lead generation tool that does it all? Then look no further than The Leap. The Leap is an all-in-one creator store that provides you with all the tools you need to capture, nurture, and convert leads into paying customers, all from one platform.
First and foremost, The Leap empowers you to create lead magnets (i.e. freebies offered in exchange for your followers’ email addresses) easily with its AI-powered authoring tool. Just how easily? Well, The Leap can have you pumping out lead magnets in just minutes, which means you can watch your email list grow faster than you can even say “lead generation.” The platform also allows you to add opt-in forms throughout your storefront to capture even more contacts.
Once you’ve captured them, all of your contacts are added to your Leap store’s built-in mini CRM, which allows you to store and manage your email list, and view your customers’ analytics, including orders placed and amount of revenue generated. It also enables you to segment your audience based on interests, behaviors, and demographics, so you can send tailored offerings to specific groups based on their preferences and past interactions.
After that, The Leap allows you to put nurturing on autopilot with automated email marketing. With the platform’s automation flows, you can simply write your email and leave the rest to The Leap with automated email funnels that guide your leads through your value ladder and convert them into paying customers. What’s more is that The Leap’s AI assistant can write your email drafts for you and help you create your value ladder, saving you more time and brain power.
Features
- AI-powered digital product builder helps you create lead magnets fast
- Email opt-in forms
- Email automation
- Audience segmentation
- AI assistant helps create your value ladder and write emails
- Mini-CRM hosts your email list and provides audience analytics
Pricing
- Free plan (up to 500 contacts)
- Pro plan: $19/month (up to 5,000 contacts)
- Elite plan: $59/month (up to 25,000 contacts)
Want to start converting leads into cold hard cash, like, right now? Try The Leap for free today.
2. Mailchimp
Best for: Email marketing automation
Looking to convert leads into customers with powerful, personalized email campaigns? Then Mailchimp is the tool for you.
Mailchimp is one of the most popular lead generation tools thanks to its powerful email marketing capabilities and user-friendly design. This tool uses data from up to 300 integrations, including Shopify, to create personalized customer journeys that will convert leads into paying customers and boost your revenue.
The platform’s CRM allows you to store, organize, and manage your customer data. After that, the platform’s segmentation tool allows you to send targeted campaigns based on your contacts’ engagement, shopping, and website data.
What’s more is that the platform’s AI assistant helps you craft compelling, high-converting email copy and designs, so you can hit “Send” faster.
Features
- Email marketing automation
- AI assistant helps write and design emails
- CRM hosts email contacts and provides analytics
- Audience segmentation
Pricing
Mailchimp offers a free plan with limitations. Its paid plan pricing works on a sliding scale, placing limits on how many email contacts you can capture and how many emails you can send per month. Its lowest tier paid plan is $20/month for 500 email contacts and 6,000 emails/month. You can check out a comprehensive breakdown of Mailchimp’s pricing on its website.
3. Benchmark
Best for: Email marketing and lead capture
Want an email marketing tool that does more for your lead generation efforts? Meet Benchmark. This comprehensive marketing platform takes you from lead capture to lead conversion with a wide spread of features (from opt-in forms to email automations) through every step of the lead-to-customer journey.
To boost your lead capture efforts, Benchmark provides features like customizable email sign-up forms (which can be embedded on your website or ecomm), as well as an easy drag-and-drop landing page builder that can be tied into your email campaigns.
The platform’s CRM helps you manage your email list, including segmenting your audience by demographics and interests, so you can send the most relevant content to all your subscribers.
After that, Benchmark’s powerful email automation tools help you make smarter email campaigns, with automated flows based on the activities and interactions of your customers. With this feature, you can automate responses based on opens and clicks in your email campaigns, so you can meet leads where they’re at and convert them into paying customers.
Features
- Email automation
- AI-powered email builder
- Opt-in forms and landing pages
- CRM
- Audience segmentation
Pricing
Benchmark’s free plan includes its email builder, opt-in forms, and up to 500 email list contacts. However, if you want access to email automation, landing pages, and more contacts you’ll need to upgrade to the Pro plan, which starts at $13/month for 500 contacts.
4. Kartra
Best for: Entrepreneurs
Kartra is an all-in-one marketing platform that integrates various tools to streamline and supercharge your lead generation efforts. On top of several creation tools like an online course builder and AI-powered copy writer, the platform offers several powerful tools targeted specifically towards capturing and nurturing leads.
Firstly, Kartra’s powerful Form Builder allows you to create opt-in forms, which you can personalize with your own branding, tailor with specific fields, and integrate seamlessly into your own website.
The platform’s CRM provides you with valuable insights into your contacts’ and customers’ habits, and allows you to segment your audience using custom tags and filters so you can create more targeted marketing campaigns. Once you’ve got your email list, you can use the platform’s powerful email automation tools to create the campaigns and funnel sequences that will drive conversions. Its AI assistant can also help you write your email campaigns, saving you time and effort.
Kartra is geared towards entrepreneurs, from content creators to life coaches. However, its steep pricing might be a blocker for those just starting out or with smaller businesses.
Features
- Opt-in forms
- Email automation
- CRM hosts contacts and provides analytics
- AI assistant helps write emails
- Audience segmentation
Pricing
Kartra offers a free 30-day trial. Its Starter plan includes AI features and starts at $119/per month. Its Growth plan is $229/per month, and its Professional plan is $549/per month.
5. OptinMonster
Best for: Advanced opt-in forms
As its name suggests, OptinMonster is a lead generation platform that specializes in the art of the opt-in form. On its homepage, the platform boasts that it’s the “best conversion optimization toolkit in the world.” And a peek into the platform’s powerful and flexible features shows why this claim isn’t just hyperbole.
OptinMonster enables users to create highly personalized and relevant opt-in forms designed to help you build your email list, generate leads, and grow your income. The platform provides users with over 700 different opt-in form templates, including classic full-screen welcome mats, fun gamified wheels, and urgency-inducing countdown timers.
Using advanced targeting and segmentation tools, OptinMonster allows you to integrate opt-in forms at strategic points during your visitors’ journey. These include exit intent pop-ups that engage visitors based on their behavior to ensure the right message reaches the right audience at the right time, so that you never lose out on an email contact.
OptinMonster integrates easily with all major email marketing software, like Mailchimp, and CRM software, like HubSpot, so you can leverage your lead-gen data wherever you are.
Features
- Opt-in forms
- Advanced targeting
- A/B testing
- Audience analytics
- Third-party integrations
Pricing
OptinMonster doesn’t offer a free plan. Its four tiers of paid plans go from $18 to $123/month.
6. Typeform
Best for: Custom opt-in forms
Want to get creative with your opt-in forms? Try Typeform.
This lightweight lead generation tool is designed specifically to help creators and businesses build beautiful, engaging digital forms of all kinds. Its most popular category? You guessed it: lead generation forms.
Typeform provides users with tons of pre-made lead generation form templates that can be customized to fit your business’ needs and your audience’s preferences. And these templates aren’t just your run-of-the-mill “Name? Number? Email address?” In addition to simple “Get in touch” forms, Typeform provides users with forms for beauty consultations, client intake, and contest registration, as well as fun lead-capturing quizzes, which can be embedded onto your website — or wherever your audience is.
Typeform offers a free plan with limited features. Its paid plans start at $25/month for 100 form responses per month, which is great for those just starting out. However, if you want more responses (i.e. the ability to capture more than 100 leads per month), you’ll need to shell out for a Plus or Business plan.
Features
- Lead capture form builder
- Lead capture quiz maker
- Third-party integrations (with HubSpot, Zapier, and more)
Pricing
Typeform offers a free plan. Its Basic plan starts at $25/month (100 responses/month), its Plus plan costs $50/month (1,000 responses/month), and its Business plan costs $83/month (10,000 responses/month).
7. Zapier Interfaces
Best for: Zapier users
Already have a Zapier account? Then you’ll want to leverage its Lead Capture Template via Interfaces. Zapier’s Interfaces feature provides users with a range of templates that help them build forms, webpages, and basic apps to power their business workflows — no coding required.
This tool enables you to create and customize an online lead capture form that you can embed on your website or landing page. Like any opt-in form, this template enables you to easily collect your prospective clients’ contact info and email addresses, which is then stored in a Zapier table (i.e. your Zapier email list). By connecting automated Zapier workflows, you can even email your new leads directly from the table in a single click.
Features
- Opt-in forms
- Mini CRM
- Email marketing capabilities
Pricing
Zapier Interfaces, including its Lead Capture Template, are available for free to all Zapier users. Plans include:
- Free plan (up to 100 tasks per month)
- Professional: $19.99/month
- Team: $69/month
8. Notion
Best for: Lead magnet creation
When you think of top lead generation tools, Notion might not be the first thing that comes to mind. But hear us out! In recent years, the popular productivity platform has become a go-to tool for creators and entrepreneurs to produce templates (and other informational products) that can be sold as digital products — or offered as lead magnets.
Notion is one of the best tools for creating lead magnets mainly due to its simple, user-friendly interface. Secondly, Notion is geared towards creating templates, which are some of the easiest types of digital products to create. Think to-do lists, calendars, and trackers. These types of products can be tailored towards virtually any niche or specialization. For example, a mindfulness coach might offer a worksheet created on Notion, while a career advice influencer might offer a job interview checklist that lives on Notion.
The best part is that Notion is completely free to use as a lead magnet builder. The tool’s free version provides you with everything you need to create and host your lead magnets.
The downside? Although Notion is great for creating lead magnets, it’s kind of a one-trick pony. Once you’ve created your Notion lead magnet, you’ll need to pay for additional platforms and tools to sell and market your lead magnets. So, unless you already have a storefront or email marketing tool in your creator toolkit, you might want to consider an all-in-one lead generation platform like The Leap, instead.
Features
- Easy-to-use template builder
- Mobile app
Pricing
Notion’s free plan provides you with everything you need to create and host lead magnets. Comparatively, its paid plans start at $10/month.
9. Intercom
Best for: Live chat lead capture
Intercom is one of the top AI-powered live chat tools designed to help businesses engage with and build meaningful relationships with their audiences. But did you know that the platform also has powerful lead generation capacities?
Intercom’s strengths as a lead gen tool lie in its ability to deliver personalized, real-time communication through live chat, automated messaging, and targeted outreach. Rather than using the standard static opt-in forms, Intercom allows you to insert lead capture forms directly within a live chat conversation, allowing you to naturally capture potential customers’ information.
Once you’ve captured your leads, Intercom also helps you convert them into paying customers, easily. Automated chatbots, which start communications with your leads automatically, and customized workflows, allow you to put the nurturing process on autopilot. Robust segmentation and targeting features also allow you to tailor your messaging based on your leads’ specific characteristics and actions, which just increases your likelihood of converting visitors into leads.
Features
- Live chat with lead capture forms
- Chatbot with lead generation automation
Pricing
If you’re a solo creator or entrepreneur, the platform’s Basic plan provides you with features to generate leads and grow your business, all for $29/month.
10. HubSpot
Best for: CRM
The popular all-in-one marketing and CRM platform HubSpot features a broad range of tools designed to attract, convert, and nurture leads, all from one place.
So, how does it work? Your Hubspot is made up of a number of different “hubs” that are all connected to a central Smart CRM, which hosts and tracks data on leads and customers.
The platform’s Marketing Hub is the powerful, all-in-one marketing automation sofatware that helps you collect contacts and engage leads at the right time. This HubSpot arm is kitted out with features like an opt-in form builder and an AI-powered email builder, as well as a marketing automation tool that scores your leads, segments them, and sends automated, personalized email flows based on CRM data.
While HubSpot offers lots of free tools, they arrive with limits on how many emails you can send, contacts you can host, and email automations you can set up. In other words, the platform can prove expensive if you’re trying to scale.
Features
- CRM with customer analytics
- Opt-in forms
- Email marketing automation
- AI-powered email builder
- Lead scoring
Pricing
Hubspot offers custom, mix-and-match plans with varied pricing depending on which “hubs” you want to subscribe to. However, the platform offers a free plan and a Starter plan for $20/month, which are both great options for creators and entrepreneurs.
11. Surfer
Best for: SEO lead generation
Want to drive organic traffic through SEO? Meet Surfer, an AI-powered SEO tool made to help users create written content with a high degree of search engine optimization. Unlike similar AI-driven written content tools, Surfer’s focus is on creating the content you’ll need to raise your search engine rankings — and drive leads to your site.
By leveraging the power of AI, Surfer analyzes huge amounts of web data to provide you with the insights you need to write the webpage content, blog posts, and articles that will rank well on search engines. As a result, users will enjoy improved visibility for your website and products — which means more leads.
The platform’s super user-friendly interface, comprehensive analytics, and precise recommendations make it easy for even the newest of creators to optimize their content and track their performance, so they can make sure their efforts are focused on the strategies that will pay off. And speaking of “effort”? The platform’s equipped with generative AI that can write your content and copy for you, so you can save time and, well, effort in your lead generation efforts.
Features
- AI-driven SEO insights and enhancement
- AI written content creator
- User-friendly interface
- Comprehensive analytics
Pricing
Surfer’s lowest-tier Essential plan is priced at $69/month, and is geared towards small businesses and solo creators.
12. Demio
Best for: Webinars as lead magnets
We’ve already talked about the benefits of offering templates and educational products as lead magnets. But did you know that webinars and live events are some of the most effective lead magnets around? And that’s exactly where Demio comes in.
Demio is a video conferencing platform that allows users to host live webinars and events. So, why are webinars such irresistible lead magnets? For a few reasons. Firstly, webinars have high perceived value compared to other kinds of lead magnets. Secondly, these events feature a sense of urgency that plays on your audience’s “fear of missing out.”
In addition to live events, Demio allows you to host on-demand and automated webinars that will self-run, so you can generate leads while you focus on other things.
The platform also provides users with tons of data and insights into each webinar session, so you can see what worked, what didn’t, and what you can improve to capture more leads.
Features
- Live webinar hosting
- Automated webinar hosting
- Advanced audience analytics
Pricing
Demio’s Starter plan is geared towards solo entrepreneurs and small businesses who are just getting started, and provides you with 50 guests per webinar for $42/month.
Capture and convert leads with The Leap
Now, it’s your turn to leverage one (or a combination) of the tools featured in this article to start capturing and converting those leads — and earning more money.
Don’t want to build a whole lead generation tech stack? Consider using The Leap. The all-in-one creator store doubles as an all-in-one lead generation tool that helps you capture, nurture, and convert leads all on one platform.
The Leap’s powerful lead generation tools include an AI-powered product builder that empowers you to create lead magnets in just minutes, along with opt-in forms, a mini-CRM with advanced analytics, and an email marketing suite with automated email flows, so you can nurture your leads while you sleep.
The best part? It’s free!
Want to start generating leads today? Sign up for The Leap for free now.
Set lead nurturing on autopilot with The Leap’s email features.
Follow The Leap on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube for more creator tool and platform reviews. We also make a newsletter.
Further reading
- What Is a Lead Magnet and How To Create One (10 Ideas and Examples)
- 20 Ways To Grow Your Email List
- Why Build an Email List? 5 Reasons Why You Need One
- How To Build an Email List in 6 Easy Steps (+ Free Mini-Course)
- How To Find Your Target Audience (+ Free Template)
- 12 Best Email Marketing Automation Tools and Software
