OptinMonster vs Sleeknote

Looking to ramp up your website conversions? Let’s break down the pros and cons of OptinMonster and Sleeknote
to see which one is the best option for you.

To help you navigate, we’ve also created a table of contents:

Which Is Right for You?

Are you looking for a software that can help you drive traffic, boost leads, and increase conversion rates? If so, you’ve probably come across many companies.

Two popular options that often pop up are OptinMonster and Sleeknote. Both do a great job of helping small to medium-sized businesses grow their email list. That said, there are some substantial differences between the two software.

So, in this OptinMonster vs. Sleeknote comparison, we’re going to look at the following aspects of each company:

  1. Campaign types
  2. Campaign design
  3. Campaign targeting and triggers
  4. Email service provider integrations
  5. Documentation and support
  6. OptinMonster vs. Sleeknote: Which is best for you?

Let’s get started.

OptinMonster vs. Sleeknote: Campaign Creation

So here’s the thing with Sleeknote that we should get out of the way right up front: our entire team is a big fan of their marketing strategy and their web design.

They’ve done a great job branding, and it’d be wrong to say otherwise. So as we would expect, Sleeknote’s campaign building process is detailed, intuitive, and easy to understand.

They walk you through all 6 steps when it’s time to build your build campaign and force you to define your goals upfront.

That said, it quickly becomes obvious that Sleeknote’s campaign options are more limited than OptinMonster.

This is evident as soon as it’s time to choose your campaign type:

Sleeknote campaign type selection min

As you can see, you have 3 options for a campaign. To be more accurate, you have 2 options at this stage (and one more later, but we’ll get to that in a second).

  • Center screen popup
  • Slide-in on either the right or left-hand side

With OptinMonster, you have 5 different campaign types to choose from:

  • Popup
  • Fullscreen
  • Slide-in
  • Floating Bar
  • Inline
OptinMonster choose your campaign

But then with these 5 options, you can also build:

  • Sidebars
  • Spinning Wheel Optins
  • Content Lockers
  • Countdown Timers (static or dynamic)

You can show all of those campaigns through anchor texts with shareable MonsterLinks™. Another popular campaign type is a sidebar widget (mentioned in the list above) for optin forms on the side of your content.

You’ve probably seen those before. Sidebar optins look like this:

OptinMonster sidebar widget 1

Again, when it comes to OptinMonster campaign types, we’ve got loads to choose from!

This means that, right away, the scale tips toward OptinMonster for clients looking to build a variety of campaigns across their site or sites.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The very first thing that Sleeknote asks you to do is define your goal:

What do you want to use Sleeknote for

Your selection will determine which campaign templates you see. Choosing your goal upfront helps you get more clarity on what you want to achieve and helps you design a more targeted campaign throughout the entire process.

But what about the customers who want access to all the templates right from the get-go and have the ability to filter options if needed.

Because there may be a template that matches the campaign design you want, but you’d never see it if you chose the wrong goal.

That’s why at OptinMonster, our engineers created over 50 templates that we show you upfront. Then on the side, you can filter all those templates depending on your specific goals:

OptinMonster template filters min


We know you have a particular style in mind for your campaign, so we want to give you all the options to choose from if it can save you time.

Again, two different approaches, but a big enough consideration to mention here.

As we continue this comparison, we’re going to choose Sleeknote’s Center Screen Popup so we can Collect Email Addresses. Now, we can explore the templates.

Sleeknote has 50 templates to choose from (45 themed templates and 5 blank ones). They allow you to filter between themed and blank templates though we’re not 100% sure why this filter exists:

Sleeknote template selection min

It doesn’t change your options or simplify your template choice. If you want to see the blank templates, you can scroll to the bottom of the page.

There’s also another thing to point out at this stage. Only 3 of the 50 templates allow you to create a Multistep campaign (which is the equivalent of OptinMonster’s high converting Yes/No campaign):

Sleeknote multistep selection min

This is important because Yes/No optins are super effective.

They rely on the Zeigarnik effect, which suggests that people are more likely to finish a process once they’ve started. So if you ask your wesbite visitors a simple Yes or No question, they’re more likely to engage with the campaign:

OptinMonster Yes No Campaign 2

Consequently, there’s a good chance they’ll finish by opting in because they’ve already begun the process of doing so.

That’s why OptinMonster allows you to make any template a Yes/No campaign. It turns most site visitors into subscribers. So out of all our 50+ templates, you can use the power of the Zeigarnik effect with all of them!

Making the transition to a Yes/No campaign is how ChinaImportal boosted webinar attendance by 18%, subscriber growth by 200%, and recovered 11% of abandoned visitors.

We’ll show you how we can help you do that in just a minute.

Today, we’ll choose a Multistep campaign from Sleeknote so we can explore everything as thoroughly as possible. Now it’s time to decide whether you want your campaign to be at the center of the screen, or on the bottom left or right-hand side (like we saw earlier):

Sleeknote campaign type selection min 1


Again, we’ll go with Center.

Ok, in Sleeknote, we’re shown the Multistep campaign, and we can begin editing. This multistep feature was frustrating. That’s because it’s broken down into 4 steps:

  • Form I
  • Form II
  • Teaser
  • Success

Here’s Form I of the template we chose:

Form I from Sleeknote min

You’ll notice that right away, your reader is asked to put in their email address. This defeats the purpose of a multistep optin, and, in a second, we’ll explain why. First, here’s a glimpse of Form II:

Form II from Sleeknote min

Form II’s default template asks for a name, phone number, and, for some reason, gender. We can’t imagine a scenario in which this default template meets the majority of their user’s needs without major customization.

So, why does asking for an email in Form I defeat the purpose of a Yes/No (or “multistep”) campaign?

Because the first part of a Yes/No campaign should be as simple as possible with zero information to fill in. After all, that’s what gives these campaigns their power.

Again, notice the first step from one of OptinMonster’s Yes/No campaigns:

Yes No Campgaign is simple with OM

The user is prompted to click Yes or No.

The goal is to get them to take a tiny action so they can warm up to the idea of giving their email address later. Once the email is obtained, if our users need more information, we teach them how to use progressive profiling to get it.

The point is this: each field you ask your users to fill out is another obstacle that can prevent them from doing so.

Put even more simply, more fields = fewer conversions (and vice-versa).

Here’s the second part of our Yes/No campaign for that same template:

Yes No Campaign Optin Form OM

Again, this is as stripped down as can be. Once the user has clicked through the Yes option, they’re asked to provide basic details about themselves, like name and email address.

You can always customize this form to collect more information if you need it, but the default will work out-of-the-box. In fact, our clients have found that most of our templates need very little (if any) customization before putting them on a website.

But not everything about Sleeknote’s template was frustrating. In fact, there was one part that caught our team’s attention (in a good way). Their third form is called a teaser and is a nice addition to their software.

It looks like this:

Teaser from Sleeknote

The teaser is like a miniature version of your campaign at the bottom of their screen. This functions like a Floating Bar from OptinMonster:

OptinMonster Footer min

It’s essentially a 2-step optin that gets users to click something before they see the optin form. This, too, takes advantage of the Zeigarnik effect. With OptinMonster, though, Floating Bars aren’t the only way to use a 2-step optin.

You can also use Inline campaigns or shareable MonsterLinks™.

Both of these options allow you to make smaller campaigns throughout your site and encourage higher click-through rates. Then, once a customer has started the process, they’re more likely to finish.

However, neither of these options are offered by Sleeknote.

Finally, we have the Success page view. This is standard across both platforms. They both allow you to send a warm message to your customers, provide discount or coupon information, or redirect users to a different site.

Success view OM min

So now, let’s move away from the types of campaigns you can build with OptinMonster vs. Sleeknote and look at design customization features.

OptinMonter vs Sleeknote: Campaign Design

In terms of how to customize your campaign with OptinMonster or Sleeknote, our editors are similar. Both have a drag and drop editor with user-friendly customization.

One of the many benefits of OptinMonster is the variety of elements you can add to your drag and drop builder. For this area of campaign design, OptinMonster goes far beyond what Sleeknote allows you to do.

First, let’s look at what Sleeknote lets you add to your campaign’s layout:

  • Text
  • Image
  • Divider
  • Container
  • Countdown
  • Button

Then they have a few form options that you can add, including:

  • Input
  • Numeric
  • Dropdown menu
  • Checkboxes
  • Radios
  • Text area

With OptinMonster, you have all of these options and more! Here are the Blocks you can add to any template design (or when building from scratch!):

  • Button
  • Chatbot
  • Countdown (static or dynamic)
  • Divider
  • Custom HTML
  • Icons
  • Images
  • Spacer
  • Text
  • Video
  • Yes/No buttons
  • Optin fields
    • Name
    • Email
    • Phone number
    • Privacy policy statement
Blocks for OM min

NoteThat custom HTML makes this list unlimited. You can design your campaign to do pretty much anything and are only limited by your JavaScript skills.

But as you can see, we have you covered for anything you could need for your optin campaign.

Plus, where Sleeknote offers a “Container” as an option to put into your campaign, OptinMonster offers many versions called “Columns:”

Columns with OptinMonster min

These allow for more personalized campaigns than any single column addition. But how can you target your customers once you’ve built the perfect optin form?

Campaign Targeting and Triggers

When it comes to creating custom rules to display your campaign, there’s no beating OptinMonster, and Sleeknote is no exception.

And let’s be clear: this is nothing against Sleeknote. OptinMonster has the advantage of having been around for many years and working hard to make our campaigns as targeted as possible.

It’s one of the areas where our software shines brightest, and there’s not a competitor on the market who can outperform us there.

That said, Sleeknote does have a few good options for targeting campaigns:

  • Timed (which can be customized)
  • Scroll depth
  • Exit-Intent®
  • Click
  • Custom JavaScript triggers
Sleeknote Triggers min

They also have a Smart Trigger functionality that tracks your most popular campaigns and then shows them accordingly. While this is good in theory, we recommend never taking your hands off the wheel like this.

Like self-driving cars, it sounds cool until something crashes. There’s no better way to target your audience than monitoring, tracking, and tweaking your campaigns over time after seeing what your visitors engage with most.

Then Sleeknote has a variety of conditions to personalize when these campaigns are triggered, including:

  • URL rulesets
  • Geo-targeting
  • URL paths
  • Page count
  • Times a campaign has been viewed
  • Site data
  • Newsletter subscribers
  • New visitors
  • Return visitors
  • UTM parameters
  • Cookies
  • Queries
  • Referrals
  • HTML detection rules

As we played around with creating rulesets, there was one thing that bothered us from a user’s standpoint. The trigger default is set to Timed (for 7 seconds), which is fine. But the following condition by default is set to Hide Campaign If in smaller writing:

Hide-campaign-if-Sleeknote

When you change the first default condition, you want to make sure you’re setting it to hide specific campaigns rather than Show If. When it’s your first time creating a campaign with Sleeknote, this small detail can lead to building a campaign that is hidden from the people you want to see it most.

If you would like to set a Show If campaign, then you need to activate those conditions further down the screen.

OptinMonster, on the other hand, has all of these triggers and more. Plus, they are organized more intuitively.

In fact, there are too many triggers to list here because OptinMonster has over 30 unique triggers for each campaign, each of which has its own sub-conditions to make the targeting more accurate for your audience.

In other words, we have the same triggers as Sleeknote and more.

One of the examples of unique targeting tools that stands out is our AdBlocker, which helps display campaigns to your users who may have ad blocking software.

OptinMonster adblocker

All too often, clients build campaigns with one of our competitors only to learn that the majority of their traffic never even sees the campaign!

We’ve worked hard to make sure that our campaigns reach the right people, at the right time, with the right message. That includes getting around ad blocking software, which is crucial for lead generation.

Some other targeting options OptinMonster gives you that are not available with Sleeknote include:

  • Advanced targeting by date and time
  • WordPress and Smart Tags
  • URL anchor text

Again, with OptinMonster, you can rest assured that your campaigns will be seen by the exact type of client you’re targeting.

Now that we’ve created, designed, and made rules for our campaign, let’s compare how many email service provid

OptinMonster vs. Sleeknote: Integrations and Support

Once you have your leads, most marketers want to store them in their email marketing service. That way, they can feed the leads into an automated email series to nurture the relationship and grow a solid base of lifelong customers.

As of right now, Sleeknote is more limited in the number of integrations they offer. They currently have 14 email provider integrations available. We should also mention that some of these are small companies such as Apsis, Dot Digital, and Ubivox.

But to be fair, they do have a few of the bigger players like Mailchimp, Active Campaign, and HubSpot as well.

OptinMonster, on the other hand, offers over 35 integrations for all of your favorite email service providers.

Email Service Providers by OM

We also offer lead storage directly on our platform with Monster Leads so you can keep track of and monitor your new leads from OptinMonster.

The difference in the number of integrations offered is important to point out for two reasons.

First, it’s more likely that you’re going to have your current email service provider with OptinMonster than with Sleeknote. To be more accurate, you’re 2.5x more likely to find that we offer whichever email service provider you currently have.

But second, and more importantly, you may decide to change email service providers as your company grows. In fact, you should change email service providers as you scale.

Over time, your needs may change, and you may find another provider has a better offer to suit your email list building needs. When that’s the case, you want to make sure that you don’t paint yourself into a corner because your conversion optimization software doesn’t have the right integration.

So while it may seem less important now, we’ve found that many of our clients are happy to have as many options for their integrations as possible.

Documentation and Support

In this last section, we can’t do anything other than tip our hats to the team at Sleeknote. We started this post by saying how impressed we are with their marketing team.

That compliment extends to their thorough documentation and friendly support team, too.

While they don’t have many video-based tutorials, they have an extensive resource hub to help users troubleshoot any issues. It’s easy to navigate, detailed, and overall impressive.

They also have the following support features:

  • Blogs
  • Library
  • Webinar
  • Podcast
  • Free demos

When it comes to reaching their contact team, they have a live chat feature for questions. The live chat runs through standard business hours.

Otherwise, you can send them a message via their site, in an email, or (we suppose) write them a letter the good old fashioned way.

As for OptinMonster, we only hire people who are the absolute best at what they do.

And that includes our support team, too.

Our staff is trained to not just answer any and all questions our users have but to go out and hunt for answers if they aren’t sure.

This is true of people who reach out to us via Facebook, Twitter, email, live chat, or our YouTube channel.

Speaking of which, it’s our killer video tutorials that also set apart our support.

Our YouTube channel is jam-packed with tutorials that help you with every aspect of working with OptinMonster:

OptinMonster Youtube Channel min


Plus, many of those videos can be found in our documentation to save you time when you have trouble:

OptinMonste Adblock detected documentation

So what’s the verdict for support and documentation when it comes to OptinMonster vs. Sleeknote?

Sleeknote does this well. But our video tutorials and hand-picked support staff give OptinMonster the winning edge.

OptinMonster vs. Sleeknote: The Final Word

If we thought for a second that there was a product better than OptinMonster on the market, we’d be in the wrong business.

OptinMonster has more functionality, templates, email integrations, and triggers than any of our competitors, Sleeknote included.

And when it comes to price, we’re just as competitive as well.

Sleeknote currently has a 7-day trial. But after that, you’re looking at:

  • $55/month for their Basic package
  • $103/month for their Plus package
  • $255/month for Pro
  • $375/month for Premium
  • $599/month for Enterprise
Sleeknote pricing page

Now let’s check OptinMonster. With us, you have all of Sleeknote’s functionalities (and way more) for:

  • $14/month for Basic
  • $30/month for Plus
  • $47/month for Pro
  • $80/month for Growth

NoteThe pricing in the image above is from a promotion we’re currently running. You can see the original price underneath the red line. Or you can head over to our pricing page to see if the promotion is still available at the time you’re reading this!

Yes, you read those prices correctly. Our most comprehensive package is still less expensive than Sleeknote’s more limited Plus package. Comparing OptinMonster vs. Sleeknote’s functionality gives us the winning edge. Comparing our price to Sleeknote’s?

It’s not even a contest.

So when you look at each company’s capabilities, ease of use, and support, we think the verdict is pretty clear:

OptinMonster is and remains the world’s #1 optimization conversion toolkit by a landslide.

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Effective Lead Gen Solutions Made Simple

OptinMonster’s Drag & Drop Builder and simple but powerful triggers and targeting make it easy to get started.

Simple yet Powerful Targeting

Easily create and launch beautiful campaigns that are proven to convert in 5 minutes or less without needing a coder or designer!

Easy to Customize Templates

Quickly create stunning campaigns using proven playbooks, ready to customize templates or your own custom design.

Affordable AND Scalable

Use behavior personalization to display page-specific campaigns based on each unique visitor’s interactions on your website.

Proven, Ready-to-Use Playbooks

Convert abandoning visitors into subscribers and customers at the precise moment they attempt to leave

Verifiable Leads using TruLead

Create a 2-step optin campaign from any link to improve lead generation and grow your email list fast. Proven to boost conversions by over 785%.

Award Winning Support

Easily personalize your website with dynamic smart content for higher engagement and conversions.

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In only 7 months, we added more than 95,654 names to our email list using OptinMonster’s Exit Intent™ technology. We strongly recommend it!

Michael Stelzner - Best Lead Generation Tool

Michael Stelzner

Founder Social Media Examiner

I hate popups, so I was hesitant to try one on my site. But the results from OptinMonster exit-intent popup speak for themselves. I doubled my subscription rate immediately without annoying my users. I haven’t had a single complaint. My only regret is that I didn’t start using OptinMonster sooner. I can only imagine how many subscribers I could have added to my email list! If you have a blog, then I highly recommend you start using OptinMonster. I’ve researched them all, and it’s the best in market.

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Michael Hyatt

New York Times Bestselling Author Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World

Exit-intent popups have doubled my email opt-in rate. When done right, you can see an instant 12% lift on driving sales. I highly recommend that you use OptinMonster for growing your email list and sales.

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Neil Patel

Founder QuickSprout