As an agency proprietor for over a decade, I count on software and automation to simplify operations and deliver results. So when GoHighLevel emerged on the scene couple of years back, it certainly caught my interest Can GoHighLevel Replace Your Existing CRM.
The concept was enticing– an all-in-one client administration system with marketing, sales, and service devices integrated with each other. As an entrepreneur always aiming to streamline and scale my service, it appeared like a dream come true on paper. That wouldn’t desire a solitary remedy that does it all?
But in this extensive GoHighLevel evaluation, I’ll take you inside my disastrous journey of trying (and failing) to switch over to this prominent brand-new software program. You’ll learn:
If you’re thinking about whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own company requirements, with any luck you can gain from my uncomfortable errors and inflated assumptions.
Spoiler: I do NOT advise GoHighLevel. If you need a CRM, start with this listing of finest CRMs rather. I make use of Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re seeking a sales, marketing, and task management alternative to GoHighLevel, after that here are a couple of we recommend.
Backstory: Why I Considered Switching Over from Keap
To recognize what attracted me to GoHighLevel to begin with, you need context about my previous arrangement. For over 5 years I had actually been gladly relying on Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to satisfy all my customer administration and automation needs.
I located Keap user-friendly to make use of and it dealt with whatever I required– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, subscription websites, and customer support.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are developed to aid local business keep their customers while including brand-new ones easily. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and texts, making sure leads and clients obtain the best messages at the correct time. Usage web site and social networks kinds to streamline lead follow-up, and handle your growth with very easy consultation organizing and lead tracking. Boost sales with automated estimating, invoicing, and payment processing, liberating your time. With Keap, small companies can save 10 hours per week and increase revenue by 39%. Begin with a 14-day free trial, no bank card called for.
Why we like Keap
Keap uses a thorough consumer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation solution customized for small businesses and business owners. We value Keap’s concentrate on streamlining sales procedures and supporting customer relationships via powerful automation tools. The platform’s all-in-one technique combines CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and job administration, making it particularly appealing for businesses wanting to settle their tech stack.
Essentially, it just worked dependably with marginal difficulty or upkeep called for. My open and click-through prices were fantastic (like 35% wonderful). Automations ran smoothly without problems.
So why in the world was I tempted to uproot my whole functional foundation from a system that functioned to try something unverified and untried?
In knowledge I can confess I got attracted by the alarm phone call of “glossy object disorder”. You understand the feeling: when everybody’s talking about a brand-new tool that will certainly reinvent your company … The turf usually looks greener on the other side, and I wondered whether GoHighLevel might lower friction factors that I ‘d discovered to endure throughout the years with Keap.
I stood up to in the beginning, however a few more disappointments led me to believe perhaps it was time for an adjustment.
The Investment: Moving My Firm to GoHighLevel
Earlier this year I determined to take the plunge. I signed up for HighLevel’s Agency plan at $297/month, spending considerably more than the $97/month starter price.
This had not been a decision I took lightly. I knew changing systems was going to need migrating all my Keap information and essentially rebuilding my whole tech facilities from scratch utilizing every one of the GoHighLevel integrations available.
Right here’s an overview of just a few of the initiative needed:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ e-mail subscriber records
- Recreating lots of automations and workflows
- Relocating customer profiles, notes, and job information to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe payment integration
- Setting up landing pages, promotions, and sales funnels all over again
- Learning a totally foreign UX and interface style
Done in, I spent around 30-40 tedious hours of arrangement job transitioning every little thing over– and also dealing with lost performance during the button.
But eventually, it was a calculated financial investment I wanted to make. I figured some temporary discomfort would repay with GoHighLevel providing a far better long-lasting remedy for my company, Dripify. Oh just how incorrect I was …
It only took me about a month of hands-on usage to recognize I had actually made a big blunder. The issues started accumulating quickly, up until it got to a factor I needed to reduce my losses and switch back to Keap totally.
Allow’s walk through the horrible troubles I came across.
Safety Issues & Several Vermin
Given GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation system, I took care to carefully recreate each and every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These included sequences for onboarding new e-mail clients, onboarding brand-new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar enrollments, sending out occasion pointers, managing subscription expirations and far more.
Everything appeared to be operating fine … till suddenly it had not been. One morning, I awoke to find 171 completely irrelevant emails had been sent out to users that need to NOT have gotten them. This took place three days straight, with a various set of 160 individuals every day.
I frantically tried fixing and reconstructing the automation from scratch. However the issue continued.
When I seriously connected to their assistance group, they vaguely declared “web server concerns” were at fault. But this explanation didn’t make any type of feeling, because the errors proceeded happening each early morning like clockwork unassociated to any kind of downtime.
In my mind, this substantial failure was totally undesirable and just really did not work for my business. I have thousands of calls relying on my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be completely unreliable, exactly how could I leave mission-critical workflows and delicate customer information to their technology?
The unintuitive interface just compounded these problems …
Discouraging UX
Originating from Keap where every little thing was smooth and user-friendly, GoHighLevel’s learning contour really felt high and complicated.
Straightforward jobs like editing workflows involved digging through food selection systems that were all over the place. Secret settings were unexplainably scattered in entirely various areas. Moving between functions really felt disjointed or complicated.
I’ll tell you what I mean by discussing their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 separate settings panels to take care of total, individual, and item arrangements. Yet for some insane factor, the web links to gain access to each of these core setups were expanded on contrary sides of the display. What!?
As a person who values clean, thoughtful layout, this seriously frustrated me.
It reinforced that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress instead of a refined item all set for prime-time usage. Their concerns seemed focused on packing in every feature imaginable, with inadequate use as an afterthought.
And talking features, I soon realized the affordable price tag included pricey compromises …
Misleading Pricing Can GoHighLevel Replace Your Existing CRM
Among GoHighLevel’s most significant selling points is the economical rate for access to so many features. However I swiftly learned this economical base price was deceptive.
They nickle-and-dimed individuals with erratic charges for core capability. Unexpectedly my credit card declarations had obscure $10 costs from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it turned out, you get billed every time you send out an e-mail through their web servers. So for high quantity customers, this added up to hundreds of dollars in unforeseen expenses.
In between these per-email charges and paying additional for deliverability attachments like Mailgun, my “budget-friendly” GoHighLevel membership ended up setting you back considerably greater than my Keap plan.
The low price tag was alluring, but just not practical in practice. This bait-and-switch left a negative preference in my mouth.
Email Fees Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my very carefully nurtured e-mail open rates plunge virtually over night after switching over to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my target market engagement consistently hit 35-40% open prices in Keap month after month. Once I migrated their records over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked promptly to a worthless 9% open rate.
Regardless of how much I maximized my sending methods or attempted every repairing method, I might barely nudge open rates back right into the teens– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous criteria Can GoHighLevel Replace Your Existing CRM.
Let me repeat: my exact same audience and emails suddenly had horrible engagement. The only thing I could think that would certainly be creating this was whatever was happening behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For an agency so dependent on e-mail marketing, this was a big deal.
In between the crippling deliverability issues, hidden fees, broken features, and awful interface, I had actually ultimately reached my restriction …
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Just 45 days after migrating my firm to GoHighLevel, I understood I had made a significant mistake. The disadvantages substantially outweighed any benefits.
No software application is excellent, yet the large quantity of issues was beyond acceptable.
At the end of the day, software program boils down to trust. If I can not trust it to manage vital functions capably or believe a supplier has my benefits in mind, after that it’s time to walk away– also after spending considerable time, cash, and initiative migrating.
So I made the tough call to reverse program and return back to Keap completely just weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Let’s discover what I picked up from this ordeal.
Trick Takeaways: What I Learned From My GoHighLevel Mistake
My time with HighLevel can be summed up as an expensive accident. However in knowledge, it showed me a few vital lessons:
- Adhere to what works. Do not upset what’s functioning unless something is definitively much better across the board. Change brings threat.
- Veterinarian declares completely. Marketing buzz around new software application commonly covers larger underlying defects. Deep due diligence is crucial.
- Choose simplicity over features. Properly designed devices must make your job life much easier, not much more challenging and unpleasant.
- Openness constructs trust. Nontransparent pricing, unethical reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert troubles damages depend on.
- Look for honest reviews. Happy assistance assesses indicate much less if too much issues indicate bad general usability.
- Excellence is impossible. No solitary service can perfectly meet every distinct company requirement. Locate the least-bad fit.
- Development over transformation. Step-by-step improvements usually surpass dangerous wholesale reinvention of what already works penalty.
Simply put, I learned to be much more hesitant of “also good to be true” marketing insurance claims and less lured by the attraction of glossy brand-new objects. The tools you utilize daily should earn trust with openness and performance, not slick advertising.