As an agency proprietor for over a decade, I count on software and automation to simplify procedures and deliver outcomes. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene few years back, it definitely captured my interest GoHighLevel API 1.0 & API 2.0.
The concept was attractive– an all-in-one customer monitoring system with marketing, sales, and solution tools integrated with each other. As an entrepreneur constantly looking to streamline and scale my business, it seemed like a dream happened on paper. Who would not desire a solitary service that does it all?
But in this extensive GoHighLevel review, I’ll take you inside my tragic trip of attempting (and stopping working) to switch over to this preferred brand-new software application. You’ll learn:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your own organization demands, hopefully you can pick up from my painful blunders and inflated assumptions.
Spoiler: I do NOT suggest GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, begin with this checklist of best CRMs instead. I make use of Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re looking for a sales, marketing, and task monitoring option to GoHighLevel, then below are a few we advise.
Backstory: Why I Took Into Consideration Switching from Keap
To comprehend what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you require context concerning my previous arrangement. For over 5 years I had actually been gladly relying on Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) to meet all my customer management and automation needs.
I discovered Keap user-friendly to use and it dealt with everything I required– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, membership websites, and customer assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are designed to aid local business keep their customers while adding new ones easily. Automate follow-ups with emails and messages, making certain leads and customers obtain the appropriate messages at the correct time. Use web site and social networks types to enhance lead follow-up, and manage your growth with very easy appointment scheduling and lead tracking. Boost sales with automated estimating, invoicing, and repayment handling, maximizing your time. With Keap, small companies can conserve 10 hours per week and rise earnings by 39%. Start with a 14-day free trial, no charge card called for.
Why we like Keap
Keap supplies an extensive client partnership administration (CRM) and marketing automation option customized for local business and business owners. We value Keap’s focus on simplifying sales procedures and supporting client partnerships with powerful automation devices. The system’s all-in-one method combines CRM, email marketing, invoicing, and job administration, making it especially eye-catching for companies wanting to settle their technology stack.
For the most part, it simply functioned accurately with marginal fuss or maintenance needed. My open and click-through rates were excellent (like 35% fantastic). Automations ran efficiently without problems.
So why on earth was I lured to uproot my whole operational structure from a system that functioned to attempt something unverified and untested?
In knowledge I can confess I got attracted by the siren call of “glossy item disorder”. You understand the sensation: when every person’s talking about a new device that will revolutionize your company … The lawn typically looks greener on the other side, and I wondered whether GoHighLevel may lower friction points that I ‘d discovered to tolerate for many years with Keap.
I resisted in the beginning, but a few more irritations led me to think perhaps it was time for a change.
The Financial investment: Migrating My Agency to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I made a decision to take the plunge. I signed up for HighLevel’s Firm plan at $297/month, spending dramatically more than the $97/month starter price.
This had not been a decision I ignored. I understood switching systems was going to call for moving all my Keap data and basically restoring my whole tech infrastructure from the ground up utilizing every one of the GoHighLevel integrations readily available.
Here’s a summary of simply a few of the initiative called for:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ email client documents
- Recreating loads of automations and workflows
- Relocating client accounts, notes, and project data to the brand-new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe payment integration
- Establishing landing pages, promos, and sales funnels all over once again
- Learning an entirely international UX and user interface layout
All in, I spent around 30-40 laborious hours of configuration work transitioning everything over– in addition to taking care of shed productivity during the button.
But ultimately, it was a computed financial investment I was willing to make. I figured some temporary pain would pay off with GoHighLevel supplying a much better lasting option for my service, Dripify. Oh exactly 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 problems started accumulating swiftly, till it reached a point I needed to cut my losses and switch back to Keap totally.
Let’s walk through the horrible problems I encountered.
Safety And Security Issues & Numerous Vermin
Given GoHighLevel placed itself as an all-in-one automation platform, I made sure to meticulously recreate every 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 event tips, handling subscription expiries and far more.
Everything appeared to be functioning penalty … up until unexpectedly it had not been. One early morning, I awoke to locate 171 completely irrelevant emails had actually been sent to users that need to NOT have actually received them. This occurred 3 days straight, with a various set of 160 individuals daily.
I desperately attempted repairing and reconstructing the automation from square one. However the trouble continued.
When I desperately connected to their assistance team, they slightly declared “server problems” were responsible. However this description didn’t make any kind of feeling, considering that the errors proceeded taking place each morning like clockwork unassociated to any type of downtime.
In my mind, this massive failing was entirely unacceptable and just really did not help my company. I have thousands of get in touches with counting on my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was mosting likely to be absolutely unreliable, exactly how could I delegate mission-critical workflows and sensitive customer information to their innovation?
The unintuitive user interface only worsened these issues …
Discouraging UX
Coming from Keap where whatever was smooth and instinctive, GoHighLevel’s learning contour felt steep and complex.
Straightforward jobs like editing and enhancing workflows involved digging via menu systems that were all over the place. Secret settings were unexplainably spread in completely various areas. Relocating between functions felt disjointed or complex.
I’ll tell you what I mean by discussing their funnel builder as an instance. There were 3 separate setups panels to manage overall, private, and product configurations. Yet for some insane reason, the links to gain access to each of these core settings were expanded on contrary sides of the display. What!?
As someone who values clean, thoughtful style, this seriously irritated me.
It enhanced that GoHighLevel still felt like a work-in-progress instead of a polished item ready for prime-time usage. Their priorities appeared concentrated on stuffing in every feature imaginable, with bad usability as an afterthought.
And talking features, I quickly recognized the low cost tag featured costly concessions …
Misleading Pricing GoHighLevel API 1.0 & API 2.0
One of GoHighLevel’s most significant selling points is the inexpensive price for accessibility to numerous features. But I rapidly discovered this affordable base expense was deceitful.
They nickle-and-dimed customers with erratic charges for core functionality. Instantly my bank card declarations had unclear $10 fees from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it turned out, you get billed every time you send an e-mail via their servers. So for high volume customers, this added up to hundreds of dollars in unforeseen costs.
Between these per-email costs and paying extra for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “inexpensive” GoHighLevel membership wound up costing substantially greater than my Keap plan.
The low sticker price was alluring, however simply not practical in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor preference in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my very carefully supported e-mail open rates plummet virtually overnight after switching over to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my audience interaction continually hit 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. Once I moved their documents over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked immediately to a pitiful 9% open price.
Despite how much I enhanced my sending out techniques or tried every repairing method, I could hardly push open rates back right into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decline from my previous standards GoHighLevel API 1.0 & API 2.0.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and e-mails instantly had dreadful engagement. The only point I could assume that would certainly be creating this was whatever was taking place behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For an agency so depending on e-mail marketing, this was a big deal.
In between the debilitating deliverability issues, hidden charges, broken features, and terrible user interface, I had ultimately reached my restriction …
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after migrating my agency to GoHighLevel, I recognized I had made a significant mistake. The cons dramatically exceeded any benefits.
No software program is ideal, however the large quantity of troubles was beyond acceptable.
At the end of the day, software application boils down to trust fund. If I can’t trust it to manage essential functions competently or believe a supplier has my benefits in mind, after that it’s time to walk away– even after spending considerable time, money, and effort moving.
So I made the challenging phone call to turn around training course and return back to Keap entirely simply weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Let’s explore what I picked up from this ordeal.
Secret Takeaways: What I Learned From My GoHighLevel Blunder
My time with HighLevel can be summarized as a pricey misadventure. However in hindsight, it taught me a few key lessons:
- Stay with what jobs. Do not distress what’s working unless something is definitively better across the board. Adjustment brings danger.
- Vet claims completely. Marketing buzz around new software frequently obscures larger underlying defects. Deep due diligence is crucial.
- Select simpleness over features. Well-designed tools should make your work life easier, not a lot more difficult and unpleasant.
- Transparency develops trust. Opaque pricing, shady reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert issues damages trust fund.
- Look for honest testimonials. Happy assistance reviews indicate less if too much concerns indicate poor total use.
- Excellence is difficult. No single solution can completely fulfill every one-of-a-kind business need. Discover the least-bad fit.
- Advancement over transformation. Step-by-step renovations usually exceed high-risk wholesale reinvention of what already works penalty.
Simply put, I found out to be much more skeptical of “as well great to be real” marketing insurance claims and much less attracted by the appeal of shiny new things. The tools you use daily should earn count on through transparency and efficiency, not glossy advertising.