As an agency owner for over a years, I depend on software program and automation to enhance operations and supply outcomes. So when GoHighLevel emerged on the scene couple of years back, it most definitely caught my interest GoHighLevel Vs Pipedrive.
The concept was attractive– an all-in-one client management system with marketing, sales, and service devices integrated together. As a business owner always aiming to simplify and scale my business, it felt like a desire happened on paper. That wouldn’t want a single remedy that does it all?
However in this in-depth GoHighLevel evaluation, I’ll take you inside my tragic trip of attempting (and failing) to switch to this prominent new software. You’ll learn:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own service needs, with any luck you can learn from my unpleasant errors and blew up expectations.
Looter: I do NOT suggest GoHighLevel. If you need a CRM, start with this listing of best CRMs instead. I utilize Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re seeking a sales, marketing, and task monitoring alternative to GoHighLevel, then here are a couple of we recommend.
Backstory: Why I Thought About Switching from Keap
To recognize what attracted me to GoHighLevel to begin with, you require context concerning my previous arrangement. For over 5 years I had been happily depending on Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to fulfill all my client management and automation needs.
I discovered Keap instinctive to use and it managed every little thing I needed– CRM, email marketing, sales funnels, subscription websites, and customer assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are created to assist local business maintain their clients while adding new ones easily. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and texts, making sure leads and clients get the best messages at the correct time. Use website and social media sites forms to enhance lead follow-up, and manage your development with very easy appointment scheduling and lead tracking. Boost sales with automated estimating, invoicing, and repayment processing, liberating your time. With Keap, small companies can save 10 hours weekly and increase income by 39%. Begin with a 14-day free trial, no credit card called for.
Why we like Keap
Keap offers a detailed client relationship administration (CRM) and marketing automation remedy tailored for small companies and entrepreneurs. We value Keap’s concentrate on improving sales processes and supporting customer partnerships with powerful automation devices. The system’s all-in-one strategy integrates CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and task management, making it especially attractive for organizations looking to consolidate their technology pile.
Essentially, it just worked accurately with marginal fuss or upkeep required. My open and click-through rates were wonderful (like 35% terrific). Automations ran efficiently without any problems.
So why on earth was I attracted to uproot my entire operational structure from a system that functioned to attempt something unproven and untried?
In hindsight I can admit I obtained seduced by the siren phone call of “glossy object syndrome”. You know the feeling: when every person’s discussing a new device that will certainly transform your business … The grass commonly looks greener beyond, and I asked yourself whether GoHighLevel might lower friction factors that I ‘d learned to endure throughout the years with Keap.
I withstood in the beginning, however a few more stress led me to think maybe it was time for a modification.
The Financial investment: Moving My Company to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I determined to start. I registered for HighLevel’s Agency plan at $297/month, investing dramatically more than the $97/month starter price.
This had not been a choice I took lightly. I recognized changing systems was going to require migrating all my Keap information and basically reconstructing my whole technology infrastructure from square one utilizing every one of the GoHighLevel integrations offered.
Below’s an overview of just a few of the effort called for:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ email client documents
- Recreating loads of automations and workflows
- Moving client accounts, notes, and project information to the brand-new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe billing integration
- Establishing landing pages, coupons, and sales funnels all over again
- Learning an entirely foreign UX and interface style
Done in, I spent around 30-40 tiresome hours of configuration job transitioning every little thing over– and also handling shed productivity during the switch.
But ultimately, it was a computed investment I was willing to make. I figured some short-term pain would repay with GoHighLevel supplying a much better long-lasting option for my business, Dripify. Oh how wrong I was …
It only took me about a month of hands-on usage to understand I had made a big error. The issues started piling up swiftly, till it reached a factor I needed to cut my losses and switch back to Keap entirely.
Let’s go through the nightmarish problems I ran into.
Safety And Security Issues & Several Vermin
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 consisted of sequences for onboarding new e-mail subscribers, onboarding new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending out event reminders, taking care of subscription expirations and a lot more.
Everything appeared to be working fine … till suddenly it wasn’t. One morning, I awoke to locate 171 entirely unimportant emails had been sent out to customers that should NOT have received them. This occurred three days in a row, with a various set of 160 individuals each day.
I anxiously attempted troubleshooting and reconstructing the automation from the ground up. But the problem lingered.
When I desperately connected to their support team, they slightly asserted “web server issues” were responsible. Yet this description really did not make any kind of sense, because the errors proceeded occurring each early morning like clockwork unconnected to any downtime.
In my mind, this large failure was completely inappropriate and simply really did not help my company. I have countless contacts relying upon my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was mosting likely to be totally undependable, how could I leave mission-critical workflows and sensitive client data to their technology?
The unintuitive user interface just intensified these problems …
Aggravating UX
Coming from Keap where every little thing was seamless and user-friendly, GoHighLevel’s learning curve felt steep and challenging.
Straightforward tasks like editing workflows involved excavating via food selection systems that were all over the place. Secret settings were unexplainably scattered in completely various sections. Moving in between features really felt disjointed or complex.
I’ll tell you what I indicate by speaking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 different setups panels to handle overall, individual, and item arrangements. Yet for some insane factor, the web links to accessibility each of these core settings were expanded on contrary sides of the display. What!?
As somebody who values tidy, thoughtful style, this seriously upset me.
It strengthened that GoHighLevel still felt like a work-in-progress as opposed to a sleek item ready for prime-time usage. Their concerns seemed focused on stuffing in every feature under the sun, with inadequate functionality as an afterthought.
And speaking of features, I soon understood the affordable price tag included expensive concessions …
Deceptive Pricing GoHighLevel Vs Pipedrive
Among GoHighLevel’s greatest selling points is the economical rate for accessibility to a lot of features. Yet I swiftly discovered this cheap base expense was deceitful.
They nickle-and-dimed customers with sporadic costs for core performance. Instantly my charge card statements had obscure $10 costs from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it turned out, you obtain charged every single time you send out an email through their servers. So for high volume users, this added up to hundreds of dollars in unforeseen expenses.
Between these per-email costs and paying extra for deliverability attachments like Mailgun, my “economical” GoHighLevel membership ended up setting you back significantly greater than my Keap plan.
The low price tag was tempting, however just not practical in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor preference in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my thoroughly supported email open rates plunge virtually over night after switching to GoHighLevel.
Formerly, my target market engagement constantly hit 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. Once I migrated their records over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked quickly to a worthless 9% open price.
Regardless of how much I optimized my sending out methods or attempted every fixing method, I might barely push open prices back right into the teens– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous criteria GoHighLevel Vs Pipedrive.
Let me repeat: my exact same audience and emails suddenly had awful involvement. The only point I can assume that would be causing 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 problems, concealed charges, damaged features, and horrible user interface, I had lastly reached my limit …
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Just 45 days after moving my agency to GoHighLevel, I recognized I had made a significant error. The disadvantages considerably surpassed any benefits.
No software is best, but the large quantity of problems was past appropriate.
At the end of the day, software application comes down to trust. If I can’t trust it to manage crucial functions effectively or think a vendor has my benefits in mind, after that it’s time to leave– also after investing considerable time, money, and initiative migrating.
So I made the difficult phone call to turn around course and return back to Keap entirely simply weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s explore what I gained from this debacle.
Key Takeaways: What I Gained from My GoHighLevel Blunder
My time with HighLevel can be summed up as a pricey ill fortune. But in knowledge, it showed me a couple of essential lessons:
- Stay with what jobs. Don’t distress what’s functioning unless something is definitively far better across the board. Modification brings danger.
- Vet asserts thoroughly. Marketing hype around new software frequently covers larger underlying problems. Deep due diligence is necessary.
- Choose simplicity over features. Well-designed tools ought to make your work life much easier, not more difficult and unpleasant.
- Openness constructs count on. Opaque pricing, dubious reseller terms, and finger-pointing to escape problems destroys trust fund.
- Look for unbiased reviews. Happy assistance reviews indicate much less if extreme concerns indicate poor total usability.
- Excellence is impossible. No solitary service can completely meet every distinct business requirement. Find the least-bad fit.
- Development over change. Incremental renovations typically exceed risky wholesale reinvention of what currently works penalty.
Simply put, I found out to be much more unconvinced of “as well great to be real” marketing insurance claims and much less attracted by the attraction of shiny brand-new objects. The devices you use daily ought to earn count on with openness and performance, not glossy advertising.