As a firm proprietor for over a years, I depend on software application and automation to simplify operations and provide results. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene couple of years back, it absolutely captured my attention GoHighLevel For Entrepreneurs.
The idea was appealing– an all-in-one customer administration platform with marketing, sales, and solution devices incorporated together. As a business owner constantly looking to streamline and scale my organization, it felt like a dream come true theoretically. That would not desire a solitary remedy that does it all?
However in this in-depth GoHighLevel evaluation, I’ll take you inside my tragic trip of attempting (and stopping working) to switch to this prominent new software. You’ll discover:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your own company demands, hopefully you can pick up from my unpleasant errors and blew up assumptions.
Spoiler: I do NOT advise GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, start with this listing of finest CRMs rather. I utilize Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re seeking a sales, marketing, and job administration choice to GoHighLevel, after that here are a few we advise.
Backstory: Why I Considered Switching from Keap
To comprehend what attracted me to GoHighLevel to begin with, you require context regarding my previous arrangement. For over 5 years I had been gladly relying upon Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) to meet all my customer administration and automation requirements.
I discovered Keap instinctive to utilize and it managed everything I required– CRM, email marketing, sales funnels, subscription sites, and client support.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are developed to aid small businesses maintain their customers while including brand-new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and texts, making sure leads and customers get the ideal messages at the correct time. Usage site and social networks types to improve lead follow-up, and handle your growth with simple appointment organizing and lead monitoring. Boost sales with automated pricing estimate, invoicing, and settlement handling, liberating your time. With Keap, small companies can conserve 10 hours each week and boost profits by 39%. Begin with a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
Why we like Keap
Keap uses a thorough customer connection administration (CRM) and marketing automation solution customized for local business and business owners. We appreciate Keap’s concentrate on streamlining sales procedures and supporting client relationships via powerful automation devices. The system’s all-in-one strategy integrates CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and job management, making it specifically eye-catching for organizations seeking to settle their technology stack.
Generally, it simply worked dependably with very little difficulty or maintenance needed. My open and click-through prices were fantastic (like 35% wonderful). Automations ran efficiently without concerns.
So why on earth was I lured to uproot my entire functional foundation from a system that functioned to attempt something unproven and untested?
In hindsight I can confess I obtained seduced by the alarm call of “shiny object syndrome”. You recognize the sensation: when everyone’s speaking about a brand-new tool that will certainly transform your service … The lawn commonly looks greener beyond, and I questioned whether GoHighLevel could decrease friction points that I would certainly discovered to endure throughout the years with Keap.
I withstood at first, however a few more irritations led me to think maybe it was time for an adjustment.
The Investment: Migrating My Firm to GoHighLevel
Earlier this year I determined to start. I enrolled in HighLevel’s Firm plan at $297/month, spending significantly greater than the $97/month starter cost.
This had not been a decision I took lightly. I knew switching platforms was going to require migrating all my Keap information and basically rebuilding my whole tech infrastructure from square one using all of the GoHighLevel integrations readily available.
Below’s an overview of simply a few of the effort needed:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ e-mail subscriber records
- Recreating lots of automations and workflows
- Moving client accounts, notes, and job information to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe billing integration
- Setting up landing pages, discounts, and sales funnels all over again
- Learning a totally foreign UX and user interface design
Done in, I spent around 30-40 tedious hours of configuration work transitioning whatever over– in addition to dealing with shed productivity during the button.
But ultimately, it was a calculated financial investment I was willing to make. I figured some temporary pain would repay with GoHighLevel providing a far better lasting option for my company, Dripify. Oh exactly how wrong I was …
It only took me regarding a month of hands-on usage to understand I had actually made a huge error. The problems began piling up promptly, up until it got to a factor I needed to reduce my losses and switch over back to Keap totally.
Let’s walk through the nightmarish issues I experienced.
Security Issues & Several Bugs
Provided GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation system, I made sure to meticulously recreate every workflow from my old Keap account.
These consisted of sequences for onboarding brand-new email clients, onboarding new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending event reminders, managing subscription expiries and a lot more.
Whatever seemed to be operating penalty … up until unexpectedly it wasn’t. One morning, I awoke to find 171 completely unimportant e-mails had actually been sent to individuals who should NOT have actually received them. This took place 3 days in a row, with a various set of 160 people each day.
I desperately tried repairing and rebuilding the automation from the ground up. Yet the problem lingered.
When I desperately connected to their assistance group, they slightly declared “web server problems” were at fault. However this explanation didn’t make any type of sense, because the errors proceeded taking place each morning like clockwork unconnected to any type of downtime.
In my mind, this massive failing was totally inappropriate and simply didn’t benefit my organization. I have countless get in touches with relying upon my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be absolutely undependable, how could I delegate mission-critical workflows and sensitive client data to their innovation?
The unintuitive user interface only intensified these issues …
Aggravating UX
Originating from Keap where everything was smooth and instinctive, GoHighLevel’s learning contour really felt steep and difficult.
Easy tasks like modifying workflows included excavating through menu systems that were all over the place. Key settings were unexplainably scattered in completely different areas. Moving between features really felt disjointed or complicated.
I’ll tell you what I indicate by talking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 separate setups panels to manage total, specific, and product setups. Yet for some insane factor, the links to access each of these core settings were expanded on contrary sides of the display. What!?
As someone that values clean, thoughtful layout, this seriously frustrated me.
It strengthened that GoHighLevel still felt like a work-in-progress as opposed to a sleek item ready for prime-time use. Their top priorities seemed focused on packing in every feature under the sun, with inadequate functionality as a second thought.
And speaking of features, I quickly understood the small cost tag featured costly compromises …
Deceptive Pricing GoHighLevel For Entrepreneurs
One of GoHighLevel’s most significant selling factors is the budget friendly cost for access to many features. But I promptly learned this cheap base cost was deceptive.
They nickle-and-dimed customers with occasional fees for core capability. All of a sudden my charge card statements had unclear $10 charges from GoHighLevel here and there.
As it turned out, you obtain charged whenever you send an e-mail via their web servers. So for high quantity customers, this added up to numerous bucks in unanticipated costs.
Between these per-email costs and paying added for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “budget-friendly” GoHighLevel membership wound up setting you back substantially greater than my Keap plan.
The reduced price tag was appealing, yet just not realistic in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor taste in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The final dealbreaker was seeing my thoroughly supported email open prices drop virtually over night after switching to GoHighLevel.
Formerly, my audience engagement regularly struck 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. Once I migrated their records over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked immediately to a worthless 9% open price.
Regardless of just how much I optimized my sending out practices or tried every fixing technique, I can hardly nudge open rates back right into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decline from my previous benchmarks GoHighLevel For Entrepreneurs.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and emails unexpectedly had awful involvement. The only thing I can assume that would certainly be creating this was whatever was happening behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For a company so based on email marketing, this was a big deal.
In between the crippling deliverability concerns, concealed fees, broken features, and terrible user interface, I had actually lastly reached my restriction …
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after moving my agency to GoHighLevel, I knew I had actually made a massive error. The disadvantages dramatically surpassed any benefits.
No software is best, however the sheer volume of troubles was past acceptable.
At the end of the day, software program comes down to count on. If I can not trust it to handle critical functions properly or believe a vendor has my benefits in mind, after that it’s time to leave– even after spending significant time, money, and effort migrating.
So I made the tough contact us to reverse course and return back to Keap completely just weeks after going all in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s discover what I picked up from this ordeal.
Trick Takeaways: What I Gained from My GoHighLevel Blunder
My time with HighLevel can be summarized as a costly misadventure. However in hindsight, it showed me a few crucial lessons:
- Stay with what jobs. Do not distress what’s working unless something is definitively much better across the board. Adjustment brings danger.
- Veterinarian declares completely. Marketing buzz around new software program typically covers bigger underlying defects. Deep due persistance is important.
- Select simplicity over features. Properly designed devices must make your work life less complicated, not much more complicated and unpleasant.
- Openness constructs depend on. Opaque pricing, unethical reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert troubles damages count on.
- Seek honest evaluations. Delighted assistance evaluates suggest much less if too much concerns suggest inadequate overall functionality.
- Perfection is difficult. No solitary service can completely satisfy every unique service need. Locate the least-bad fit.
- Advancement over transformation. Incremental improvements generally exceed high-risk wholesale reinvention of what currently works penalty.
Simply put, I found out to be a lot more hesitant of “as well good to be true” marketing insurance claims and less lured by the appeal of glossy brand-new things. The tools you make use of daily need to make trust through openness and efficiency, not glossy advertising.