As an agency proprietor for over a decade, I depend on software application and automation to streamline operations and deliver results. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene few years back, it most definitely captured my attention GoHighLevel Pay-Per-Lead (PPL).
The concept was appealing– an all-in-one customer management system with marketing, sales, and solution devices integrated with each other. As an entrepreneur always seeking to streamline and scale my service, it seemed like a dream come to life on paper. That would not want a single service that does it all?
Yet in this in-depth GoHighLevel evaluation, I’ll take you inside my dreadful journey of attempting (and falling short) to change to this preferred brand-new software. You’ll learn:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your own service requirements, hopefully you can learn from my painful blunders and inflated expectations.
Looter: I do NOT advise GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, begin with this list of finest CRMs instead. I use Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re trying to find a sales, marketing, and job management choice to GoHighLevel, then below are a few we advise.
Backstory: Why I Considered Changing from Keap
To understand what attracted me to GoHighLevel to begin with, you need context about my previous configuration. For over 5 years I had been happily relying on Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to satisfy all my client monitoring and automation needs.
I discovered Keap instinctive to make use of and it managed everything I needed– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, subscription sites, and client assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are developed to help local business maintain their clients while adding brand-new ones easily. Automate follow-ups with emails and texts, making sure leads and customers receive the right messages at the correct time. Usage internet site and social networks kinds to streamline lead follow-up, and handle your development with easy appointment organizing and lead monitoring. Boost sales with automated estimating, invoicing, and settlement processing, liberating your time. With Keap, small businesses can conserve 10 hours weekly and increase profits by 39%. Start with a 14-day free trial, no bank card called for.
Why we like Keap
Keap offers an extensive consumer relationship monitoring (CRM) and marketing automation option tailored for local business and business owners. We appreciate Keap’s concentrate on enhancing sales processes and supporting client connections through powerful automation tools. The system’s all-in-one technique combines CRM, email marketing, invoicing, and job management, making it specifically attractive for companies aiming to combine their tech pile.
For the most part, it simply worked dependably with marginal fuss or upkeep called for. My open and click-through rates were fantastic (like 35% wonderful). Automations ran efficiently with no issues.
So why in the world was I lured to uproot my entire functional foundation from a system that functioned to try something unverified and untested?
In hindsight I can admit I obtained attracted by the siren call of “shiny item syndrome”. You understand the feeling: when everyone’s talking about a brand-new device that will transform your service … The grass usually looks greener on the other side, and I questioned whether GoHighLevel could lower friction points that I would certainly found out to endure over the years with Keap.
I resisted initially, yet a few more disappointments led me to believe perhaps it was time for a modification.
The Investment: Migrating My Company to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I determined to start. I registered for HighLevel’s Firm plan at $297/month, spending substantially more than the $97/month starter cost.
This had not been a decision I took lightly. I knew changing platforms was going to require migrating all my Keap data and basically reconstructing my whole technology framework from scratch making use of all of the GoHighLevel integrations available.
Right here’s an overview of simply several of the effort needed:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ e-mail subscriber documents
- Recreating lots of automations and workflows
- Moving client profiles, notes, and task information to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe payment integration
- Establishing landing pages, coupons, and sales funnels all over once again
- Learning a totally foreign UX and interface style
All in, I spent around 30-40 tiresome hours of configuration work transitioning whatever over– not to mention handling shed productivity during the button.
But ultimately, it was a computed investment I wanted to make. I figured some short-term discomfort would pay off with GoHighLevel providing a much better long-lasting remedy for my service, Dripify. Oh exactly how incorrect I was …
It only took me concerning a month of hands-on usage to realize I had actually made a huge error. The concerns started accumulating quickly, up until it got to a point I had to cut my losses and switch back to Keap completely.
Allow’s walk through the nightmarish troubles I came across.
Safety Issues & Lots of Bugs
Given GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation system, I made sure to thoroughly recreate every workflow from my old Keap account.
These included series for onboarding brand-new e-mail clients, onboarding new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending event tips, taking care of membership expirations and a lot more.
Everything appeared to be functioning fine … up until instantly it had not been. One early morning, I awoke to find 171 completely unnecessary emails had been sent out to individuals that ought to NOT have actually received them. This took place 3 days in a row, with a various set of 160 people daily.
I frantically tried troubleshooting and rebuilding the automation from the ground up. However the trouble continued.
When I frantically reached out to their assistance group, they slightly claimed “web server concerns” were at fault. Yet this explanation didn’t make any type of feeling, because the errors continued taking place each morning like clockwork unconnected to any type of downtime.
In my mind, this huge failing was totally unacceptable and just really did not help my company. I have hundreds of contacts depending on my automated campaigns running smoothly.
So if GoHighLevel was mosting likely to be completely unstable, just how could I delegate mission-critical workflows and delicate customer data to their innovation?
The unintuitive user interface just intensified these issues …
Aggravating UX
Originating from Keap where whatever was smooth and user-friendly, GoHighLevel’s learning contour felt steep and complex.
Straightforward jobs like editing workflows involved excavating via menu systems that were all over the place. Secret settings were unexplainably spread in entirely various sections. Relocating in between features really felt disjointed or complicated.
I’ll inform you what I imply by talking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 different setups panels to manage overall, specific, and item configurations. Yet for some insane factor, the links to accessibility each of these core settings were expanded on contrary sides of the display. What!?
As someone that values clean, thoughtful layout, this seriously upset me.
It reinforced that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress as opposed to a refined item prepared for prime-time use. Their priorities appeared focused on packing in every feature under the sun, with poor usability as an afterthought.
And speaking of features, I quickly understood the low price tag came with pricey compromises …
Misleading Pricing GoHighLevel Pay-Per-Lead (PPL)
Among GoHighLevel’s largest selling factors is the economical rate for access to numerous features. Yet I swiftly discovered this affordable base cost was deceptive.
They nickle-and-dimed customers with erratic fees for core performance. All of a sudden my credit card statements had vague $10 fees from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it turned out, you get billed every time you send out an e-mail with their servers. So for high quantity individuals, this added up to hundreds of bucks in unexpected prices.
In between these per-email fees and paying additional for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “affordable” GoHighLevel registration wound up setting you back substantially MORE than my Keap plan.
The reduced price tag was tempting, but simply not sensible in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor preference in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my thoroughly supported e-mail open prices plummet almost overnight after switching to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my target market involvement consistently struck 35-40% open prices in Keap month after month. But once I moved their records over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked instantly to a worthless 9% open rate.
Regardless of how much I optimized my sending methods or tried every fixing technique, I might hardly nudge open rates back into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous standards GoHighLevel Pay-Per-Lead (PPL).
Let me repeat: my exact same audience and e-mails unexpectedly had terrible engagement. The only point I can assume that would be creating this was whatever was taking place behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For a company so based on email marketing, this was a big deal.
Between the debilitating deliverability concerns, hidden fees, busted features, and awful user interface, I had actually finally reached my limitation …
Why I Give up GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Just 45 days after migrating my company to GoHighLevel, I knew I had made a big mistake. The cons substantially exceeded any advantages.
No software application is ideal, yet the sheer volume of issues was beyond acceptable.
At the end of the day, software comes down to trust. If I can not trust it to handle vital features capably or believe a vendor has my best interests in mind, then it’s time to leave– also after investing significant time, cash, and initiative migrating.
So I made the difficult phone call to reverse program and return back to Keap entirely simply weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s explore what I picked up from this debacle.
Trick Takeaways: What I Learned From My GoHighLevel Blunder
My time with HighLevel can be summed up as a costly ill fortune. Yet in hindsight, it taught me a few key lessons:
- Adhere to what works. Do not distress what’s working unless something is definitively better across the board. Adjustment brings risk.
- Vet claims extensively. Marketing hype around brand-new software program commonly obscures bigger underlying defects. Deep due diligence is important.
- Select simplicity over features. Properly designed devices should make your job life easier, not extra difficult and untidy.
- Openness constructs trust fund. Nontransparent pricing, questionable reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert troubles damages trust.
- Look for honest reviews. Happy assistance reviews suggest less if too much concerns indicate bad total functionality.
- Excellence is difficult. No solitary remedy can perfectly satisfy every special business requirement. Locate the least-bad fit.
- Evolution over transformation. Step-by-step renovations normally outweigh dangerous wholesale reinvention of what already functions penalty.
Basically, I found out to be more doubtful of “also excellent to be true” marketing claims and much less tempted by the appeal of glossy new items. The tools you make use of daily need to earn depend on with openness and efficiency, not glossy advertising.