If you are not merely a collector of certificates and want to seek knowledge that can be applied in the real world, then CXL can be the perfect choice for you.
CXL excels at offering marketing and business development courses taught by industry professionals, and it can be your perfect upskilling partner.
Let’s dive into this CXL review.
CXL Review: An Overview
- CXL’s wide range of courses and mini-degrees provide a perfect playground for versatile marketing training in CRO, digital marketing, branding, eCommerce, and more.
- CXL is the perfect place for intermediate-level digital marketing professionals to hone their skills.
- CXL can cost a little more than the typical courses, and some courses need updating.
- CXL’s most popular certification programs are Growth Marketing, Content Rate Optimization, Digital Analytics, and Brand and Product Marketing.
Let’s take a quick look at the different parameters of CXL for better understanding:
| Parameters | Details |
|---|---|
| Starting Price | $289.00/month + applicable tax |
| Discount Available | 35% on the ‘Quarterly All-Access’ plan & 65% on the ‘Annual All-Access’ plan+1 month free |
| Best For | Intermediate to advanced-level marketers |
| CXL Offerings | 120+ courses, mini-degrees, blogs, and CXL Lite (free course snippets) |
| CXL Key Features | Course transcription, Adding and removing members, Learning roadmaps |
My CXL Review Methodology
To understand the platform’s ins and outs, I signed up for the CXL Lite membership and enrolled in some top-selling courses with my friends, who had already been eyeing them for a long time.
I have been using CXL for some time now and am almost on the verge of completing my growth marketing mini-degree. However, there’s a lot more to it, so I enlisted the help of my friends who have been eyeing it for some time.
After reviewing it and getting insights from my friends (who also opted for the courses), I compiled everything related to the platform’s user interface, customer support, and extra resources.
This article will help you get a complete overview of the platform to decide whether you should opt for CXL while considering the price per value offered by the courses listed.
What Is CXL?
CXL is a popular training platform for those wanting to improve their digital marketing and growth optimization skills. The best part is that it offers courses taught by industry experts.
These experts have compiled a well-segmented list of 120+ courses, which help the trainees deepen their knowledge across the entire spectrum of marketing disciplines.
Advertised for individuals and teams, CXL is a complete package if you need to sharpen your team’s marketing skills or advance your career even further.
What Does CXL Offer?
CXL has various things to offer, and a few of those are as follows:
1. Courses
CXL offers more than 120+ courses in short and digestible format with course transcripts for better understanding.
Created by the top industry experts, these courses offer everything from deep skills in analytics, growth, and conversion optimization to a wide variety of broad skills in various areas.
These courses cover popular topics such as digital strategy, conversion optimization, analytics, and growth.
2. Mini-degrees
The CXL mini-degrees hold the Gold standard for on-demand marketing training.
The mini-degrees have 90+ hours of on-demand content from the world’s best marketers who teach you practical applications through the assignments to your current role and help you learn better by solving real problems.
You can also access vast resource packs and hundreds of playbook templates to accelerate the learning impact.
3. Blogs
If you want to understand CXL, you can visit their blog sections on the homepage. It features the best and most in-depth information on marketing, SEO, sales, copywriting, and brand-building topics.
The blogs contain some helpful golden nuggets that can even allure beginners, making them worthy of reading.
Courses Offered By CXL
CXL has categorized its courses into ‘Deep’ and ‘Broad Skills.’
These courses cater to the needs of both the intermediate-level and advanced-level marketers.
The ‘Deep skills’ sections include courses like:
- Marketing Analytics
- Growth Marketing
- CRO
The ‘Broad Skills’ section includes courses like:
- Research
- Brand Management
- Technical Content Marketing
- Ecommerce
- Marketing Psychology
- Digital Marketing
- Product Marketing
- Marketing Strategy and Management
CXL Key Features
CXL is one of the most popular marketing training platforms and offers features like:
- 120+ in-depth online courses on conversion optimization, growth marketing, and analytics.
- Certifiable “mini-degree” programs
- In-detail course descriptions
- Expert instructors who teach the courses in-depth
- Clear learning outcomes
- Clear skill level categorizations like; ‘Deep skills,’ ‘Broad skills,’ and ‘Fast skills.1
Some of the key features that CXL offers are as follows:
Course Transcripts
The CXL course content included reliable transcriptions that users could use whenever they wanted to.
These transcriptions are handy for some challenging topics, as users can read what the instructor says in text format. I mainly found them helpful when I needed to jump between two topics covered in the same video lecture.
Students can also save a lot of time by directly jumping to the section they want to revise without having to rewatch the entire course video. Currently, CXL only provides English transcriptions.
Add And Remove Seats
The CXL team plan greatly simplifies aspects like team management and learning. The Teams plan allows the owner to manage all team activities in one single place.
The responsibilities are divided into three categories: the owner, the manager, and the member. The managers can add and remove members, create roadmaps, and track team progress.
On the other hand, the owners can do everything the managers do, assign roles, and view billing details. I can imagine myself adding and removing members from the team plan. It is pretty convenient.
Learning Roadmaps
CXL roadmap is a personalized sequence of courses that helps you stay organized and committed to your goals.
To create one, on your dashboard, go to the Training Roadmap > Create a roadmap.
Once here, the users can set up their study time, select courses, and prioritize them based on their learning goals.
I found this feature handy as it took away a few stressors about the management of my courses and also helped with the time allocation. Lastly, you can re-edit the roadmap as often as you like and continue with your courses.
Top CXL Certification Programs
Some of the programs that made their way into the “Popular Programs” list are:
1. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
This program offers you a chance to become a certified expert in the field of CRO.
Here, users learn to build and run world-class optimization programs from scratch and master A-B testing.
The course also ensures the immediate application of the learnings thanks to the hundreds of playbooks that it offers to cement the insights derived from the course.
A Reddit user who did the CRO mini degree and a few others left a review, which you can see in the image below.
The Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) course looks promising and will teach you top-level research skills.
2. Growth Marketing
This degree is one of the most popular on the platform. The course was well-segmented, and the topics followed logically.
Plus, the instructors provided case studies and walkthroughs that helped me assimilate the learnings better.
While I skipped through the course, I also found the teachers, Peep Laja and Michael Aagard, engaging, making the lessons fun.
There was also some slightly outdated content, but this was not a dealbreaker since some could still be applied in the real world.
I would have liked it if some lectures were not split into smaller videos unnecessarily, as it sometimes disrupted my flow.
The course also aptly covered basic and intermediate Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Excel, sheets for marketers, landing page optimization, product messaging, and much more.
In short, it was worth it. Plus, CXL updates its courses occasionally, so it is only a matter of time before it polishes this one.
3. Digital Analytics
This course includes 57 hours of training, plus slides and written content. It provides a well-structured path that covers advanced topics like Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Google Big Query, and Data Studio.
Initially, the program’s in-depth appearance was pretty scary, but knowing everything would be condensed in one place also felt good.
The lessons were well made with Google Analytics screenshots and definitions and aimed at building the right mindset.
Chris Mercer, a top contributor to blogs like Content Jam and ConversionXL, taught the section Google Analytics for beginners (one of the six courses in the mini-degree).
Even though the course title suggests a ‘beginner-level’ overview of the analytics dashboard and methods for approaching it, I found it much more holistic than any similar courses I have viewed.
4. Product Marketing
The CXL Product Marketing mini-degree features almost 20+ courses. Different instructors teach the courses.
Derek Gleason and Patrick Campbell stood out in terms of their teaching style, which was pretty straightforward.
Plus, the course sections that stood out the most to me were the product launch course and the messaging.
The messaging and product launch courses felt more valuable, and I liked how they were segmented.
The course titled ‘Working with the Product Team’ was an essential addition to the mix, but it felt boring as it was purely theoretical.
The course provided some excellent frameworks and super-deep insights to get started.
CXL User Testimonials
The best way to determine the quality of a product, service, or course is to read its testimonials. I have included a few that describe them precisely, which will prove useful for your decision-making.
#1: This Reddit user described CXL as ‘Elite Level’ and recommended three courses. You can see the names of each in the screenshot attached below.
#2: One of the users left a review saying, “What I love most is their approach to creating well-rounded marketers.” She also went on to describe that she disliked that some of the courses were not updated quickly.
#3: A Quora user described it as “highly impactful” and defined the course as highly actionable and impactful.
CXL has garnered some of the most positive reviews online, and the credit goes to its approach toward training marketers with high-quality content, valuable resources, and templates that it provides.
CXL Pricing
The complete breakdown of CXL’s monthly, quarterly, and annual plans is in the table below.
| Plans | Monthly | Quarterly | Savings for quarterly plans | Annual | Savings for the annual plans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal | $289/month + applicable taxes | $177/month + applicable taxes | 35% ($112 per month) | $100/month + applicable taxes | 65% ($2269 per month) |
| Teams (Up to 50 seats) | $1499/month + applicable taxes | $833/month + applicable taxes | 55% ($666 per month) | $625/month + applicable taxes | 60% ($10,489 per month) |
| More than 50 seats | You can contact CXL’s sales team for more information. | You can contact CXL’s sales team for more information. | – | You can contact CXL’s sales team for more information. | – |
CXL comes with a 7-day refund policy on all of its plans. Plus, you can verify the pricing by visiting the CXL institute’s official pricing page.
Can You Use CXL For Free?
You can use CXL for free by opting for the CXL Lite version. CXL Lite offers free lessons and courses to help you understand what the full version is like.
To sign up for the lite version, go to the CXL homepage, click on the Resources tab, and select the CXL Lite option from the list.
Note: The sign-up option for the CXL Lite is free for now but is not guaranteed to be free forever. (As stated in the image above)
Available Discounts On CXL
According to CXL policies, they do not offer discounts. This is primarily because they focus on providing their customers with the highest-quality content.
On the other hand, they have also established a parity pricing system that makes their offerings more affordable to people outside the US. You can pay in your local currency according to your country’s purchasing power.
You can learn more about the discounts on this official CXL page. You might have to scroll down to the FAQ sections.
Is Cxl Worth It?
CXL, as a marketing training platform, is totally worth it. However, the answer also partly depends on your specific needs. Let’s understand this better:
Use CXL If
- You want to learn about various marketing topics from one source. CXL compiles information scattered across the web and in libraries. It saves you time by getting you started with a course of your choice.
- After you complete every lesson in the course, the instructor gives you an empty template to fill in based on your data, which many find super practical.
- You want to learn from the individuals who have walked the walk and not just read from a PPT.
- You are a manager eager to provide your teams with quality training from the best in the business.
Don’t Use CXL If
- You are not very familiar with digital marketing technology. Courses often revolve around the technical aspects, which require a basic understanding of digital marketing.
- CXL can be tough to grasp if you are a complete beginner in the field of marketing. In that case, it is best to first understand the basics from a few YouTube videos.
- You want to learn about a specialized role casually while managing your company full-time or working a tiring job. This requires your total attention.
- You are looking for a quick certification as CXL prioritizes deep learning and practical application.
Most people serious about learning and advancing in their careers will find CXL of utmost value.
CXL Alternatives
Some of the best CXL alternatives that you can opt for instead are:
1. Reforge Growth Series
Reforge is the perfect platform for advanced professionals looking to develop their strategic growth marketing thinking and leadership skills.
Reforge focuses more on high-level growth strategy and product development than technical execution.
Given that it is for advanced marketers, Reforge’s $1,995/year individual plan is a bit pricey.
2. Growth Hackers
Growth Hackers and CXL are both related to the field of digital marketing. However, growth hackers primarily focus on innovative and experimental tactics, often providing rapid results.
Growth Hackers’ courses are backed by popular marketing personalities, such as Sean Ellis.
Growth Hackers is the best platform for optimizing the customer journey by experimenting with creative and sometimes unconventional tactics instead of CXL’s structured strategies.
3. Udemy
Udemy is a formidable competitor of CXL because of its wide variety of courses. Although Udemy is fairly cheaper than CXL, course quality cannot be guaranteed.
Udemy offers many extensive course options. However, the CXL institute triumphs over it in terms of industry-recognized certification from real experts.
This sets it apart from Udemy, especially regarding comprehensiveness and depth.
Also Read:
CXL Review Final Verdict: Should You Go For It?
CXL is worth your time and money. It is the gold standard for all marketing-related training programs. The mini-degrees are worth it if you are looking for intermediate—to advanced-level training knowledge.
I found the platform perfect for my marketing training needs, but it can feel overwhelming for beginners, so it is better that they start with a more basic course from Udemy or LinkedIn Learning first.
However, CXL can work on intertwining its courses with each other so that the users can get better insights into which courses to hop onto next.
Once you grasp the basics, it is wise to understand which course you want to learn more about. CXL offers 120+ options, which can lead to confusion, especially if you choose the all-access plan.
FAQs
CXL is one of the best online marketing training platforms. The certification is highly valued in marketing, and people often refer to it as the “gold standard.”
To cancel your CXL subscription, go to the My Account section > Billing > choose the subscription you want to cancel > click on the ‘Cancel’ option.
CXL offers some of the best courses and industry-recognized certifications for digital marketers, growth professionals, UI/UXers, product managers, and customer-focused marketers.
No, an individual account is meant for one person. Account sharing is prohibited and can result in termination without a refund. You can opt for the team plan instead if you want to share the account.
