As a firm proprietor for over a years, I rely on software and automation to simplify operations and provide results. So when GoHighLevel emerged on the scene couple of years back, it definitely caught my attention How Do You Get Paid on GoHighLevel.
The concept was attractive– an all-in-one client administration system with marketing, sales, and solution devices integrated with each other. As a business owner constantly seeking to streamline and scale my business, it appeared like a desire happened theoretically. That would not want a single option that does it all?
But in this in-depth GoHighLevel evaluation, I’ll take you inside my tragic journey of trying (and falling short) to switch to this popular brand-new software program. You’ll discover:
If you’re taking into consideration whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own business needs, with any luck you can pick up from my agonizing blunders and pumped up assumptions.
Looter: I do NOT recommend GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, begin with this list of finest CRMs rather. I utilize Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re searching for a sales, marketing, and job monitoring option to GoHighLevel, after that here are a couple of we suggest.
Backstory: Why I Considered Switching from Keap
To understand what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you need context regarding my previous arrangement. For over 5 years I had been happily relying on Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to fulfill all my client management and automation demands.
I found Keap instinctive to utilize and it took care of every little thing I needed– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, subscription websites, and client assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are made to aid small businesses keep their clients while adding new ones easily. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and messages, guaranteeing leads and clients get the appropriate messages at the right time. Use web site and social media kinds to enhance lead follow-up, and manage your development with easy appointment organizing and lead tracking. Boost sales with automated pricing estimate, invoicing, and payment handling, freeing up your time. With Keap, small businesses can conserve 10 hours each week and boost earnings by 39%. Beginning with a 14-day free trial, no bank card called for.
Why we like Keap
Keap offers an extensive client partnership monitoring (CRM) and marketing automation solution tailored for small businesses and entrepreneurs. We appreciate Keap’s concentrate on simplifying sales processes and nurturing customer connections with powerful automation tools. The system’s all-in-one approach combines CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and task management, making it specifically eye-catching for companies wanting to combine their tech stack.
Essentially, it just functioned reliably with very little fuss or upkeep needed. My open and click-through rates were fantastic (like 35% terrific). Automations ran smoothly with no concerns.
So why on earth was I tempted to uproot my entire operational foundation from a system that functioned to attempt something unverified and untried?
In knowledge I can confess I got attracted by the siren phone call of “shiny item syndrome”. You know the sensation: when everybody’s discussing a brand-new device that will revolutionize your business … The grass often looks greener on the other side, and I questioned whether GoHighLevel might lower rubbing factors that I ‘d discovered to endure for many years with Keap.
I resisted in the beginning, however a couple of even more irritations led me to assume perhaps it was time for a change.
The Investment: Migrating My Company to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I made a decision to take the plunge. I enrolled in HighLevel’s Agency plan at $297/month, spending significantly greater than the $97/month starter expense.
This had not been a choice I took lightly. I recognized switching systems was going to require migrating all my Keap data and essentially reconstructing my entire tech facilities from square one utilizing all of the GoHighLevel integrations readily available.
Here’s an introduction of just a few of the initiative required:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ email client records
- Recreating lots of automations and workflows
- Relocating client accounts, notes, and task information to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe billing integration
- Establishing landing pages, discounts, and sales funnels throughout again
- Learning a completely foreign UX and user interface design
Done in, I spent around 30-40 tedious hours of arrangement job transitioning everything over– as well as managing lost efficiency during the button.
Yet eventually, it was a computed investment I was willing to make. I figured some temporary pain would pay off with GoHighLevel supplying a better lasting option for my company, Dripify. Oh how incorrect I was …
It only took me regarding a month of hands-on usage to understand I had made a big error. The issues began piling up rapidly, until it got to a factor I had to cut my losses and switch back to Keap entirely.
Let’s walk through the nightmarish troubles I experienced.
Safety Issues & Numerous Bugs
Given GoHighLevel placed itself as an all-in-one automation system, I took care to diligently recreate each and every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These included sequences for onboarding new e-mail subscribers, onboarding new clients, automating follow-ups for webinar enrollments, sending out occasion pointers, managing membership expiries and much more.
Everything appeared to be operating fine … till unexpectedly it wasn’t. One early morning, I awoke to discover 171 totally unimportant e-mails had actually been sent out to customers who ought to NOT have received them. This occurred 3 days in a row, with a different set of 160 individuals daily.
I desperately tried fixing and rebuilding the automation from scratch. But the issue persisted.
When I desperately reached out to their assistance group, they slightly declared “web server problems” were responsible. Yet this explanation didn’t make any feeling, considering that the mistakes proceeded taking place each early morning like clockwork unrelated to any kind of downtime.
In my mind, this large failing was totally inappropriate and just really did not help my organization. I have thousands of contacts relying on my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be absolutely unreliable, how could I leave mission-critical workflows and sensitive customer data to their modern technology?
The unintuitive user interface only compounded these problems …
Irritating UX
Originating from Keap where everything was seamless and intuitive, GoHighLevel’s learning contour felt high and complicated.
Easy tasks like modifying workflows entailed digging via menu systems that were all over the place. Trick settings were unexplainably spread in entirely various sections. Moving between functions really felt disjointed or complicated.
I’ll inform you what I indicate by talking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 separate settings panels to take care of general, specific, and product configurations. Yet for some crazy reason, the links to access each of these core settings were expanded on opposite sides of the display. What!?
As someone that values tidy, thoughtful layout, this seriously irritated me.
It enhanced that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress rather than a polished item prepared for prime-time use. Their concerns seemed focused on cramming in every feature imaginable, with inadequate functionality as a second thought.
And speaking of features, I quickly realized the affordable price tag included pricey concessions …
Misleading Pricing How Do You Get Paid on GoHighLevel
Among GoHighLevel’s largest marketing factors is the inexpensive price for accessibility to so many features. But I quickly discovered this affordable base expense was misleading.
They nickle-and-dimed individuals with erratic charges for core capability. Suddenly my credit card statements had obscure $10 costs from GoHighLevel here and there.
As it ended up, you get charged every single time you send an e-mail with their web servers. So for high volume customers, this amounted to thousands of bucks in unanticipated expenses.
In between these per-email charges and paying additional for deliverability attachments like Mailgun, my “economical” GoHighLevel registration wound up setting you back dramatically MORE than my Keap plan.
The reduced price tag was appealing, however just not realistic in practice. This bait-and-switch left a negative taste in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The final dealbreaker was seeing my thoroughly supported e-mail open rates plunge practically overnight after changing to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my audience involvement consistently hit 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. But once I migrated their documents over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked promptly to a pitiful 9% open price.
No matter how much I maximized my sending techniques or tried every fixing technique, I might barely push open prices back right into the teens– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous standards How Do You Get Paid on GoHighLevel.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and emails all of a sudden had horrible involvement. The only thing I can assume that would certainly be creating this was whatever was occurring behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For a firm so depending on e-mail marketing, this was a big deal.
Between the debilitating deliverability problems, hidden costs, broken features, and terrible interface, I had ultimately reached my limit …
Why I Give up GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after moving my firm to GoHighLevel, I understood I had made a substantial mistake. The cons dramatically exceeded any advantages.
No software program is excellent, however the large quantity of troubles was beyond acceptable.
At the end of the day, software program comes down to depend on. If I can not trust it to handle critical functions competently or believe a vendor has my best interests in mind, then it’s time to leave– also after spending substantial time, money, and initiative moving.
So I made the hard call to turn around training course and return back to Keap completely just weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s explore what I learned from this ordeal.
Key Takeaways: What I Learned From My GoHighLevel Blunder
My time with HighLevel can be summed up as a pricey ill fortune. However in hindsight, it showed me a few essential lessons:
- Stick to what jobs. Don’t disturb what’s functioning unless something is definitively far better across the board. Modification brings risk.
- Vet claims thoroughly. Marketing hype around brand-new software program often covers larger underlying imperfections. Deep due diligence is vital.
- Choose simplicity over features. Properly designed devices need to make your job life simpler, not a lot more complicated and unpleasant.
- Transparency builds trust. Nontransparent pricing, shady reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert problems damages trust fund.
- Seek unbiased reviews. Pleased assistance reviews mean less if excessive concerns indicate inadequate general functionality.
- Excellence is difficult. No solitary solution can flawlessly meet every special business requirement. Find the least-bad fit.
- Advancement over change. Step-by-step improvements typically exceed high-risk wholesale reinvention of what currently works penalty.
In short, I found out to be a lot more skeptical of “as well excellent to be true” marketing claims and much less tempted by the allure of glossy new items. The devices you make use of daily need to gain depend on through openness and performance, not glossy advertising.