Note: The above stats are based on an experiment where web developers who specialize in Ontraport, Webflow, Bubble and WordPress built the exact same portal.
Note: The above stats are based on an experiment where web developers who specialize in Ontraport, Webflow, Bubble and WordPress built the exact same portal.
Why offer a customer portal?
Customer portals give your customers a secure, self-serve way to manage their experience with your business without phone calls or back-and-forth emails. Whether they’re viewing documents or invoices, checking their progress, accessing purchased content, or updating their contact information, everything is available in one convenient place.
For businesses that offer ongoing services or recurring programs, portals make it easier to deliver consistent value while giving customers more control and visibility.
For businesses that offer ongoing services or recurring programs, portals make it easier to deliver consistent value while giving customers more control and visibility.
How do customer portals improve the client experience?
When your customers can log in and find exactly what they need — whether that’s their content, billing history or next steps — you reduce friction and build trust. Portals also allow for more personalized communication and a sense of ownership over the process, which is especially valuable in coaching, education, or member-based models.
And from your team’s perspective, fewer manual tasks means more time to focus on delivering results.
And from your team’s perspective, fewer manual tasks means more time to focus on delivering results.
Why are more businesses moving toward all-in-one portal tools?
Portals have historically been built by integrating numerous tools together — which means your customer data, content, messaging, and billing systems often live in silos. That leads to clunky workflows, inconsistent experiences, and more tools to manage.
That’s why many teams are turning to all-in-one platforms. When your portal is fully connected to your CRM, automation, payments and website, you can:
It’s a simpler way to deliver a professional, self-serve experience your customers will actually use.
That’s why many teams are turning to all-in-one platforms. When your portal is fully connected to your CRM, automation, payments and website, you can:
- Create custom access based on each contact’s profile
- Deliver personalized content and progress updates
- Automatically trigger reminders, upsells, or renewal notices
- Manage everything in one place — no devs or duct tape required
It’s a simpler way to deliver a professional, self-serve experience your customers will actually use.
Building and running your portal with duct-taped tools vs. an integrated system
The difference in capabilities
error_outline
Building your customer portal with other platforms
You’ll need to:
close
Integrate a CRM system, payments system, calendaring tool and more so you can offer all the functionality you need
close
Hire a developer to set up and maintain the integrations and to do custom coding
close
Ensure the data presented to customers is accurate and up-to-date
close
Ensure customer data is protected through robust encryption and secure data storage practices
close
Ensure the portal can handle a large number of concurrent users without performance degradation
Building your customer portal with Ontraport
You’ll have:
check
All your systems in the same place — no integrations required
check
A visual drag-and-drop interface that you can use intuitively so you won’t need to hire developers
check
A single source of data that displays correct information on your portal in real-time
check
Built-in, robust security and encryption
check
Scalable infrastructure with capacity to handle large numbers of users and file uploads
Setting up your customer portal
What it really takes to launch — with and without Ontraport
Without Ontraport’s Dynamic CMS
Platforms like SuiteDash, Kajabi, MemberSpace, WordPress plugins
- Choose a customer portal tool that works with your existing tech stack
- Customize your portal’s layout, design and branding
- Set up protected pages for invoices, files, contact details and more
- Add forms or third-party tools so customers can update their info
- Build login systems and connect your CRM and payment tools
- Set up rules or workflows to control who gets portal access
- Test everything to make sure data syncs properly
- Publish
With Ontraport’s Dynamic CMS
Using the prebuilt Customer Portal apps
- Toggle on the My Account and My Profile apps in Ontraport
- Customize your pages and automations
- Publish
6 ways to use Ontraport to personalize your customer portals
With Ontraport, your portal is built into the same platform as your CRM. That allows you to tailor every part of the experience based on who your customers are and what they’ve done.
lock_open
Show or hide portal content based on product access
Use automation and dynamic blocks to display the right files, modules or links depending on what each customer has purchased.
create
Pre-fill contact info for quick updates
Give customers access to update their name, email, address or other details in one click, with fields already filled in from their contact record.
library_books
Send targeted emails based on portal activity
Follow up with contacts who haven’t logged in recently, have an open invoice, or updated their info — all based on real-time data in your CRM.
highlight
Display live account details automatically
Show each customer their own subscriptions, payment history, and downloads — no manual setup or segmentation required.
access_time
Trigger automation when customers take action
Kick off internal workflows when a customer updates their info, cancels a subscription, or completes a task inside the portal.
timeline
Keep everything tracked in one place
All activity — logins, updates, cancellations and more — is automatically recorded in the contact’s CRM record, so you can respond faster and stay organized.
Ontraport's dynamic CMS has allowed us to build all sorts of interesting web experiences for our clients — technology that you'd usually pay a lot more for but it's at everyone's fingertips."
Create a custom client portal without integrations
How Ontraport makes your portal accurate, secure and easy to build — no integrations required
Real-time, accurate data
Most customer portal tools require fragile integrations just to display basic info like payment history or appointments — and even then, there’s no guarantee your data will sync correctly.
With Ontraport, everything’s already connected. Your portal pulls live data directly from your CRM so customers always see the most up-to-date information.
Easy to build and update
Create a fully custom portal with Ontraport’s drag-and-drop builder — no code, developers or plugin stack required. You’ll have complete control over the layout and content, with the flexibility to make updates anytime, without waiting on tech support.
Built-in security and scalability
With other platforms, it’s on you to figure out how to store sensitive customer data securely and scale as you grow. Ontraport handles it for you — with robust encryption, secure access controls and infrastructure built to support large file libraries and high traffic.
Create a custom client portal without integrations
How Ontraport makes your portal accurate, secure and easy to build — no integrations required
Real-time, accurate data
Most customer portal tools require fragile integrations just to display basic info like payment history or appointments — and even then, there’s no guarantee your data will sync correctly.
With Ontraport, everything’s already connected. Your portal pulls live data directly from your CRM so customers always see the most up-to-date information.
Easy to build and update
Create a fully custom portal with Ontraport’s drag-and-drop builder — no code, developers or plugin stack required. You’ll have complete control over the layout and content, with the flexibility to make updates anytime, without waiting on tech support.
Built-in security and scalability
With other platforms, it’s on you to figure out how to store sensitive customer data securely and scale as you grow. Ontraport handles it for you — with robust encryption, secure access controls and infrastructure built to support large file libraries and high traffic.
See Ontraport-built portals in action
See Ontraport-built portals in action
arrow_drop_down_circle
Divider Text
Build your customer portal the smarter way
With Ontraport, building your portal is ✅ faster, ✅ more affordable and ✅ infinitely flexible.
Ready to get started?
Want to make setting up your dream portal even faster?
We put together prebuilt apps for some of the most popular customer portal features. Simply pick the ones you want, toggle them on in the App Marketplace and launch.
We put together prebuilt apps for some of the most popular customer portal features. Simply pick the ones you want, toggle them on in the App Marketplace and launch.
Features