As a firm proprietor for over a decade, I depend on software application and automation to simplify procedures and deliver outcomes. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene couple of years back, it definitely caught my attention GoHighLevel Weekly Roundup.
The idea was enticing– an all-in-one customer monitoring platform with marketing, sales, and service devices incorporated with each other. As a business owner constantly aiming to simplify and scale my service, it seemed like a dream come to life theoretically. That wouldn’t want a solitary option that does it all?
But in this thorough GoHighLevel review, I’ll take you inside my devastating trip of trying (and falling short) to change to this preferred new software program. You’ll find out:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your own business requirements, ideally you can learn from my uncomfortable errors and pumped up expectations.
Spoiler: I do NOT advise GoHighLevel. If you need a CRM, start with this checklist of best CRMs rather. I make use of Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re searching for a sales, marketing, and task administration choice to GoHighLevel, then below are a couple of we advise.
Backstory: Why I Took Into Consideration Switching Over from Keap
To comprehend what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you require context about my previous arrangement. For over 5 years I had actually been happily counting on Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to fulfill all my client administration and automation demands.
I discovered Keap user-friendly to utilize and it managed whatever I needed– CRM, email marketing, sales funnels, subscription sites, and client assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are created to help local business maintain their clients while including new ones easily. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and texts, making certain leads and clients obtain the right messages at the right time. Usage internet site and social media sites types to simplify lead follow-up, and handle your development with easy consultation scheduling and lead monitoring. Boost sales with automated pricing quote, invoicing, and payment processing, liberating your time. With Keap, small companies can conserve 10 hours per week and boost profits by 39%. Start with a 14-day free trial, no bank card needed.
Why we like Keap
Keap offers an extensive customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation solution customized for small businesses and business owners. We value Keap’s concentrate on enhancing sales processes and nurturing consumer partnerships through powerful automation tools. The platform’s all-in-one strategy incorporates CRM, email marketing, invoicing, and task monitoring, making it especially attractive for companies wanting to combine their tech pile.
For the most part, it simply functioned accurately with minimal fuss or maintenance needed. My open and click-through prices were fantastic (like 35% excellent). Automations ran efficiently with no concerns.
So why in the world was I tempted to uproot my entire functional foundation from a system that functioned to try something unproven and untested?
In knowledge I can admit I obtained seduced by the alarm phone call of “glossy things disorder”. You recognize the feeling: when every person’s speaking about a brand-new tool that will certainly transform your company … The grass usually looks greener on the other side, and I questioned whether GoHighLevel might decrease friction factors that I ‘d discovered to endure for many years with Keap.
I stood up to initially, however a few even more aggravations led me to think perhaps it was time for an adjustment.
The Investment: Moving My Firm to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I decided to take the plunge. I registered for HighLevel’s Agency plan at $297/month, spending considerably greater than the $97/month starter price.
This wasn’t a decision I took lightly. I recognized switching over systems was going to need migrating all my Keap data and basically rebuilding my entire technology infrastructure from square one utilizing every one of the GoHighLevel integrations offered.
Right here’s an overview of simply some of the initiative called for:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ e-mail customer records
- Recreating dozens of automations and workflows
- Moving customer profiles, notes, and project information to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe billing integration
- Setting up landing pages, coupons, and sales funnels all over once more
- Learning a completely international UX and interface style
Done in, I invested around 30-40 laborious hours of configuration job transitioning everything over– as well as handling lost productivity throughout the button.
Yet inevitably, it was a computed financial investment I was willing to make. I figured some temporary discomfort would settle with GoHighLevel giving a better long-lasting service for my company, Dripify. Oh how wrong I was …
It only took me concerning a month of hands-on use to recognize I had actually made a large blunder. The problems started piling up promptly, up until it reached a factor I needed to cut my losses and change back to Keap entirely.
Allow’s walk through the horrible troubles I experienced.
Safety Issues & Several Vermin
Given GoHighLevel placed itself as an all-in-one automation platform, I took care to meticulously recreate every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These consisted of series for onboarding new e-mail customers, onboarding brand-new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar enrollments, sending out event tips, managing membership expiries and a lot more.
Whatever appeared to be working penalty … till unexpectedly it had not been. One morning, I awoke to find 171 entirely irrelevant e-mails had been sent to individuals who must NOT have received them. This happened three days straight, with a various set of 160 people each day.
I hysterically attempted fixing and reconstructing the automation from square one. Yet the problem continued.
When I desperately connected to their assistance team, they vaguely asserted “server problems” were responsible. Yet this description didn’t make any kind of sense, because the mistakes proceeded happening each early morning like clockwork unconnected to any type of downtime.
In my mind, this large failure was totally undesirable and just didn’t help my company. I have thousands of calls relying on my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was mosting likely to be entirely undependable, just how could I turn over mission-critical workflows and delicate client data to their technology?
The unintuitive user interface just compounded these concerns …
Discouraging UX
Originating from Keap where whatever was seamless and intuitive, GoHighLevel’s learning contour really felt steep and complex.
Basic tasks like editing and enhancing workflows included excavating with menu systems that were all over the place. Secret settings were unexplainably scattered in completely different areas. Moving between functions felt disjointed or complicated.
I’ll tell you what I imply by discussing their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 separate settings panels to take care of general, individual, and item configurations. Yet for some insane reason, the links to accessibility each of these core settings were expanded on opposite sides of the screen. What!?
As a person that values clean, thoughtful layout, this seriously irritated me.
It enhanced that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress as opposed to a refined item all set for prime-time use. Their top priorities seemed concentrated on cramming in every feature under the sun, with inadequate usability as an afterthought.
And talking features, I quickly recognized the small cost tag came with expensive compromises …
Deceptive Pricing GoHighLevel Weekly Roundup
Among GoHighLevel’s largest marketing points is the inexpensive price for access to so many features. However I rapidly discovered this low-cost base cost was misleading.
They nickle-and-dimed users with erratic costs for core performance. Unexpectedly my charge card statements had unclear $10 fees from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it ended up, you get charged every single time you send out an e-mail via their web servers. So for high quantity users, this added up to thousands of bucks in unexpected costs.
Between these per-email costs and paying added for deliverability attachments like Mailgun, my “affordable” GoHighLevel membership ended up costing considerably MORE than my Keap plan.
The reduced sticker price was tempting, but simply not reasonable in practice. This bait-and-switch left a negative taste in my mouth.
Email Fees Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my meticulously supported email open prices drop practically overnight after switching over to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my audience engagement regularly hit 35-40% open prices in Keap month after month. Once I moved their records over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked promptly to a pitiful 9% open price.
No matter how much I optimized my sending techniques or attempted every repairing method, I might hardly nudge open rates back into the teens– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous benchmarks GoHighLevel Weekly Roundup.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and emails all of a sudden had terrible interaction. The only point I might assume that would be causing this was whatever was occurring behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For a company so dependent on email marketing, this was a big deal.
Between the debilitating deliverability problems, concealed charges, busted features, and awful user interface, I had ultimately reached my limitation …
Why I Give up GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after moving my firm to GoHighLevel, I recognized I had made a huge error. The cons considerably surpassed any benefits.
No software application is excellent, but the large volume of troubles was past appropriate.
At the end of the day, software program boils down to trust. If I can not trust it to take care of vital functions effectively or believe a supplier has my best interests in mind, after that it’s time to leave– even after investing considerable time, cash, and initiative migrating.
So I made the challenging contact us to reverse program and return back to Keap totally just weeks after going all in on GoHighLevel. Let’s explore what I gained from this ordeal.
Key Takeaways: What I Learned From My GoHighLevel Error
My time with HighLevel can be summed up as a costly misadventure. But in knowledge, it instructed me a couple of crucial lessons:
- Stay with what jobs. Do not distress what’s functioning unless something is definitively much better across the board. Adjustment brings danger.
- Vet declares completely. Marketing hype around new software frequently covers larger underlying flaws. Deep due persistance is important.
- Pick simplicity over features. Well-designed tools should make your work life less complicated, not a lot more challenging and untidy.
- Transparency constructs trust fund. Opaque pricing, unethical reseller terms, and finger-pointing to escape issues destroys count on.
- Look for unbiased evaluations. Happy support examines mean less if extreme concerns imply inadequate general functionality.
- Excellence is difficult. No single solution can perfectly fulfill every special company need. Locate the least-bad fit.
- Advancement over revolution. Incremental improvements commonly exceed high-risk wholesale reinvention of what currently works fine.
In other words, I learned to be extra skeptical of “as well good to be real” marketing claims and much less lured by the appeal of shiny new items. The tools you make use of daily must gain trust with transparency and efficiency, not slick advertising.