As a firm proprietor for over a decade, I rely upon software and automation to streamline operations and supply results. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene couple of years back, it most definitely captured my focus ClickFunnels GoHighLevel Lawsuit.
The concept was attractive– an all-in-one client management platform with marketing, sales, and service devices integrated with each other. As a business owner always looking to streamline and scale my company, it appeared like a desire come true on paper. Who would not desire a single solution that does it all?
Yet in this extensive GoHighLevel testimonial, I’ll take you inside my disastrous journey of attempting (and failing) to switch over to this prominent brand-new software. You’ll learn:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own organization requirements, hopefully you can gain from my uncomfortable mistakes and inflated assumptions.
Spoiler: I do NOT suggest GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, begin with this list of best CRMs instead. I use Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re looking for a sales, marketing, and job management option to GoHighLevel, then here are a couple of we advise.
Backstory: Why I Took Into Consideration Switching Over from Keap
To understand what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you need context about my previous configuration. For over 5 years I had been gladly relying upon Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) to fulfill all my client administration and automation requirements.
I located Keap instinctive to make use of and it took care of whatever I required– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, subscription websites, and customer support.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are designed to assist small companies maintain their clients while including brand-new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and messages, making sure leads and customers get the right messages at the correct time. Usage site and social networks kinds to simplify lead follow-up, and handle your growth with very easy visit organizing and lead tracking. Boost sales with automated pricing estimate, invoicing, and settlement handling, liberating your time. With Keap, small businesses can save 10 hours weekly and rise revenue by 39%. Start with a 14-day free trial, no bank card needed.
Why we like Keap
Keap uses an extensive client connection management (CRM) and marketing automation service customized for small businesses and entrepreneurs. We value Keap’s focus on improving sales processes and nurturing client relationships with powerful automation devices. The platform’s all-in-one approach incorporates CRM, email marketing, invoicing, and task management, making it particularly eye-catching for services looking to combine their technology stack.
Generally, it just functioned accurately with very little fuss or upkeep required. My open and click-through rates were excellent (like 35% terrific). Automations ran smoothly without any issues.
So why in the world was I tempted to uproot my whole functional foundation from a system that functioned to attempt something unverified and untested?
In knowledge I can admit I got seduced by the siren phone call of “glossy things disorder”. You know the sensation: when every person’s discussing a new device that will revolutionize your business … The lawn commonly looks greener on the other side, and I asked yourself whether GoHighLevel could lower rubbing factors that I would certainly discovered to endure over the years with Keap.
I resisted initially, however a few more disappointments led me to believe perhaps it was time for a change.
The Financial investment: Migrating My Company to GoHighLevel
Earlier this year I made a decision to take the plunge. I registered for HighLevel’s Agency plan at $297/month, investing substantially more than the $97/month starter expense.
This had not been a choice I took lightly. I knew changing platforms was mosting likely to call for migrating all my Keap data and basically restoring my whole technology infrastructure from scratch making use of every one of the GoHighLevel integrations available.
Right here’s a summary of just several of the effort required:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ e-mail client documents
- Recreating loads of automations and workflows
- Moving customer accounts, notes, and project data to the brand-new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe invoicing integration
- Setting up landing pages, coupons, and sales funnels all over again
- Learning a completely international UX and interface layout
Done in, I spent around 30-40 tedious hours of setup work transitioning everything over– not to mention handling lost efficiency during the switch.
Yet ultimately, it was a calculated financial investment I agreed to make. I figured some short-term discomfort would certainly settle with GoHighLevel supplying a much better long-lasting option for my business, Dripify. Oh exactly how incorrect I was …
It just took me about a month of hands-on use to recognize I had actually made a huge mistake. The concerns began piling up quickly, up until it got to a factor I needed to reduce my losses and change back to Keap entirely.
Allow’s go through the horrible troubles I ran into.
Security Issues & Lots of Vermin
Provided GoHighLevel placed itself as an all-in-one automation system, I made sure to carefully recreate each and every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These included series for onboarding brand-new email customers, onboarding brand-new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar enrollments, sending out occasion pointers, taking care of subscription expirations and much more.
Everything seemed to be working penalty … up until suddenly it wasn’t. One early morning, I awoke to locate 171 completely irrelevant e-mails had actually been sent to individuals who need to NOT have gotten them. This happened 3 days straight, with a different batch of 160 people each day.
I hysterically tried repairing and reconstructing the automation from scratch. But the trouble continued.
When I frantically reached out to their assistance team, they vaguely claimed “web server concerns” were responsible. But this description didn’t make any type of feeling, because the mistakes proceeded taking place each morning like clockwork unassociated to any downtime.
In my mind, this substantial failing was totally inappropriate and simply didn’t help my business. I have thousands of calls counting on my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was mosting likely to be entirely unstable, exactly how could I hand over mission-critical workflows and delicate client information to their modern technology?
The unintuitive interface just intensified these issues …
Frustrating UX
Originating from Keap where everything was smooth and user-friendly, GoHighLevel’s learning contour really felt high and difficult.
Basic jobs like modifying workflows entailed digging via menu systems that were all over the place. Key settings were unexplainably spread in absolutely different areas. Relocating in between features really felt disjointed or complex.
I’ll inform you what I imply by speaking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 different settings panels to take care of total, specific, and item setups. Yet for some insane reason, the links to accessibility each of these core settings were expanded on opposite sides of the display. What!?
As somebody who values tidy, thoughtful design, this seriously upset me.
It reinforced that GoHighLevel still felt like a work-in-progress rather than a refined item prepared for prime-time usage. Their priorities seemed concentrated on packing in every feature imaginable, with bad functionality as an afterthought.
And speaking of features, I soon understood the affordable price tag came with pricey compromises …
Deceptive Pricing ClickFunnels GoHighLevel Lawsuit
One of GoHighLevel’s largest selling points is the affordable price for access to numerous features. But I rapidly discovered this low-cost base cost was misleading.
They nickle-and-dimed individuals with erratic fees for core functionality. Instantly my charge card declarations had vague $10 fees from GoHighLevel here and there.
As it ended up, you obtain charged every time you send an email through their web servers. So for high volume users, this amounted to hundreds of bucks in unanticipated prices.
Between these per-email costs and paying additional for deliverability attachments like Mailgun, my “inexpensive” GoHighLevel registration wound up costing considerably greater than my Keap plan.
The low sticker price was appealing, however just not sensible in practice. This bait-and-switch left a bad preference in my mouth.
Email Fees Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my carefully supported e-mail open rates drop virtually over night after changing to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my audience engagement consistently struck 35-40% open prices in Keap month after month. Once I migrated their documents over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked quickly to a worthless 9% open rate.
Despite how much I optimized my sending methods or tried every repairing method, I can hardly push open prices back into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decline from my previous benchmarks ClickFunnels GoHighLevel Lawsuit.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and emails all of a sudden had horrible engagement. The only point I could assume that would be triggering 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 crippling deliverability issues, concealed charges, broken features, and awful user interface, I had finally reached my limit …
Why I Quit GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after moving my agency to GoHighLevel, I knew I had actually made a big error. The disadvantages dramatically outweighed any advantages.
No software application is excellent, but the sheer volume of problems was past appropriate.
At the end of the day, software program comes down to trust fund. If I can not trust it to deal with important functions effectively or believe a supplier has my benefits in mind, then it’s time to leave– also after spending significant time, cash, and effort migrating.
So I made the difficult call to turn around course and return back to Keap completely simply weeks after going all in on GoHighLevel. Let’s explore what I learned from this debacle.
Trick Takeaways: What I Learned From My GoHighLevel Error
My time with HighLevel can be summarized as a costly accident. However in hindsight, it educated me a couple of crucial lessons:
- Adhere to what works. Do not disturb what’s working unless something is definitively far better across the board. Adjustment brings threat.
- Veterinarian asserts thoroughly. Marketing buzz around new software program typically covers larger underlying imperfections. Deep due persistance is crucial.
- Pick simpleness over features. Well-designed devices need to make your work life simpler, not a lot more complex and messy.
- Openness builds count on. Opaque pricing, shady reseller terms, and finger-pointing to escape problems ruins depend on.
- Seek honest evaluations. Pleased support reviews imply much less if too much problems suggest bad overall functionality.
- Excellence is difficult. No single remedy can completely satisfy every unique organization requirement. Locate the least-bad fit.
- Evolution over transformation. Incremental improvements usually surpass high-risk wholesale reinvention of what already works penalty.
In other words, I discovered to be more doubtful of “as well great to be true” marketing cases and much less tempted by the attraction of shiny brand-new items. The devices you utilize daily must earn depend on through transparency and efficiency, not slick advertising.