As a firm owner for over a decade, I rely upon software and automation to simplify procedures and provide outcomes. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene couple of years back, it absolutely caught my focus GoHighLevel Gig Image.
The concept was appealing– an all-in-one customer management system with marketing, sales, and solution devices incorporated together. As an entrepreneur constantly looking to streamline and scale my company, it seemed like a desire happened on paper. That wouldn’t want a solitary service 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 change to this popular new software. You’ll find out:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your own organization needs, ideally you can pick up from my agonizing blunders and pumped up assumptions.
Spoiler: I do NOT suggest GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, begin with this checklist of ideal CRMs instead. I utilize Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re searching for a sales, marketing, and project administration option to GoHighLevel, after that right here are a few we suggest.
Backstory: Why I Took Into Consideration Changing from Keap
To comprehend what attracted me to GoHighLevel to begin with, you require context concerning my previous configuration. For over 5 years I had been gladly relying on Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) to meet all my client management and automation demands.
I located Keap intuitive to make use of and it managed whatever I required– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, membership websites, and client support.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are developed to help small businesses maintain their clients while including new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with emails and texts, guaranteeing leads and customers get the appropriate messages at the right time. Usage site and social media sites forms to enhance lead follow-up, and manage your growth with very easy appointment organizing and lead monitoring. Boost sales with automated pricing estimate, invoicing, and payment handling, freeing up your time. With Keap, small companies can save 10 hours each week and increase revenue by 39%. Start with a 14-day free trial, no bank card called for.
Why we like Keap
Keap provides a thorough customer relationship administration (CRM) and marketing automation solution tailored for small businesses and entrepreneurs. We value Keap’s concentrate on streamlining sales processes and nurturing customer relationships through powerful automation devices. The platform’s all-in-one method incorporates CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and job administration, making it specifically appealing for services seeking to combine their tech pile.
Generally, it just functioned dependably with minimal difficulty or upkeep required. My open and click-through prices were excellent (like 35% wonderful). Automations ran efficiently without any problems.
So why in the world was I tempted to uproot my whole operational foundation from a system that functioned to attempt something unproven and untried?
In hindsight I can confess I got attracted by the alarm call of “shiny object syndrome”. You recognize the sensation: when every person’s speaking about a new device that will certainly reinvent your service … The turf typically looks greener beyond, and I questioned whether GoHighLevel may lower rubbing factors that I would certainly discovered to tolerate over the years with Keap.
I resisted in the beginning, however a couple of even more disappointments led me to assume possibly it was time for a change.
The Investment: Moving My Agency to GoHighLevel
Earlier this year I made a decision to start. I signed up for HighLevel’s Company plan at $297/month, spending considerably more than the $97/month starter price.
This had not been a decision I took lightly. I understood switching over platforms was mosting likely to call for migrating all my Keap data and essentially restoring my entire tech framework from square one making use of all of the GoHighLevel integrations available.
Below’s an introduction of simply a few of the effort required:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ email client documents
- Recreating lots of automations and workflows
- Moving client accounts, notes, and task data to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe invoicing integration
- Establishing landing pages, discounts, and sales funnels throughout once more
- Learning an entirely international UX and user interface design
Done in, I spent around 30-40 laborious hours of setup work transitioning whatever over– and also handling lost efficiency throughout the switch.
However ultimately, it was a computed financial investment I wanted to make. I figured some short-term pain would certainly repay with GoHighLevel supplying a much better long-term option for my organization, Dripify. Oh just how wrong I was …
It just took me concerning a month of hands-on use to realize I had actually made a huge mistake. The problems began accumulating quickly, till it reached a point I had to cut my losses and change back to Keap completely.
Let’s walk through the horrible problems I came across.
Safety And Security Issues & Many Bugs
Given GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation system, I took care to meticulously recreate every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These consisted of series for onboarding brand-new email clients, onboarding new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending out event tips, managing subscription expirations and much more.
Every little thing seemed to be operating fine … up until instantly it had not been. One early morning, I woke up to locate 171 totally unnecessary e-mails had actually been sent to individuals that must NOT have gotten them. This occurred 3 days straight, with a various batch of 160 individuals daily.
I hysterically tried fixing and rebuilding the automation from scratch. However the problem continued.
When I seriously reached out to their assistance team, they slightly asserted “server problems” were responsible. Yet this description didn’t make any kind of feeling, since the mistakes continued occurring each early morning like clockwork unconnected to any downtime.
In my mind, this enormous failure was completely inappropriate and simply didn’t benefit my organization. I have thousands of contacts relying upon my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was mosting likely to be totally unstable, just how could I leave mission-critical workflows and sensitive customer information to their technology?
The unintuitive interface just worsened these concerns …
Frustrating UX
Coming from Keap where whatever was smooth and user-friendly, GoHighLevel’s learning curve really felt high and challenging.
Straightforward tasks like editing and enhancing workflows included excavating via food selection systems that were all over the place. Key settings were unexplainably spread in absolutely various sections. Moving in between features felt disjointed or confusing.
I’ll tell you what I mean by discussing their funnel builder as an instance. There were 3 different setups panels to handle total, specific, and item configurations. Yet for some insane reason, the web links to access each of these core settings were expanded on opposite sides of the display. What!?
As someone that values clean, thoughtful design, this seriously upset me.
It strengthened that GoHighLevel still felt like a work-in-progress instead of a sleek item all set for prime-time usage. Their top priorities appeared focused on cramming in every feature under the sun, with bad functionality as an afterthought.
And speaking of features, I quickly understood the low price tag featured costly compromises …
Deceptive Pricing GoHighLevel Gig Image
One of GoHighLevel’s greatest selling points is the budget friendly price for accessibility to so many features. However I swiftly discovered this cheap base expense was deceitful.
They nickle-and-dimed users with occasional costs for core capability. Unexpectedly my credit card statements had obscure $10 fees from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it turned out, you get charged each time you send out an e-mail with their servers. So for high quantity individuals, this amounted to thousands of bucks in unforeseen costs.
In between these per-email costs and paying extra for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “cost effective” GoHighLevel subscription ended up costing considerably greater than my Keap plan.
The reduced price tag was tempting, but just not realistic in practice. This bait-and-switch left a negative taste in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my thoroughly supported email open rates drop practically over night after changing to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my target market engagement constantly hit 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. Once I moved their records over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked instantaneously to a pathetic 9% open rate.
No matter how much I enhanced my sending techniques or tried every troubleshooting trick, I can hardly nudge open rates back right into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous benchmarks GoHighLevel Gig Image.
Let me repeat: my exact same audience and e-mails all of a sudden had awful involvement. The only point I could believe that would certainly be causing 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.
Between the crippling deliverability concerns, hidden fees, damaged features, and horrible interface, I had actually lastly reached my limit …
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after moving my company to GoHighLevel, I knew I had actually made a significant blunder. The cons substantially exceeded any kind of advantages.
No software application is excellent, but the sheer volume of problems was past acceptable.
At the end of the day, software program boils down to trust fund. If I can not trust it to take care of important functions properly or believe a vendor has my best interests in mind, after that it’s time to walk away– even after spending substantial time, money, and effort migrating.
So I made the challenging call to reverse course and return back to Keap completely simply weeks after going all in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s discover what I picked up from this debacle.
Key Takeaways: What I Learned From My GoHighLevel Blunder
My time with HighLevel can be summarized as a pricey misadventure. However in knowledge, it showed me a few essential lessons:
- Adhere to what works. Do not disturb what’s working unless something is definitively far better across the board. Modification brings risk.
- Vet asserts thoroughly. Marketing buzz around brand-new software application often obscures larger underlying defects. Deep due diligence is essential.
- Choose simplicity over features. Properly designed tools must make your work life easier, not much more difficult and untidy.
- Openness builds depend on. Nontransparent pricing, dubious reseller terms, and finger-pointing to escape issues destroys trust fund.
- Look for objective reviews. Happy support assesses indicate much less if extreme problems imply poor total functionality.
- Perfection is impossible. No solitary remedy can completely satisfy every special business requirement. Find the least-bad fit.
- Advancement over transformation. Incremental enhancements normally surpass high-risk wholesale reinvention of what already works penalty.
Simply put, I discovered to be much more unconvinced of “as well good to be real” marketing insurance claims and much less tempted by the allure of shiny brand-new things. The devices you utilize daily must gain trust fund with transparency and efficiency, not glossy advertising.