As an agency owner for over a years, I count on software application and automation to improve operations and deliver outcomes. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene few years back, it most definitely captured my interest GoHighLevel Number Pool.
The idea was enticing– an all-in-one client monitoring system with marketing, sales, and solution tools incorporated together. As an entrepreneur always wanting to simplify and scale my service, it appeared like a desire become a reality on paper. Who wouldn’t desire a solitary remedy that does it all?
But in this comprehensive GoHighLevel review, I’ll take you inside my disastrous journey of attempting (and failing) to switch over to this popular brand-new software program. You’ll learn:
If you’re thinking about whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own business needs, ideally you can pick up from my excruciating mistakes and inflated expectations.
Spoiler: I do NOT recommend GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, begin with this checklist of ideal CRMs rather. I make use of Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re searching for a sales, marketing, and task monitoring choice to GoHighLevel, after that here are a couple of we suggest.
Backstory: Why I Took Into Consideration Switching from Keap
To comprehend what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you require context regarding my previous arrangement. For over 5 years I had been happily relying upon Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to fulfill all my customer management and automation needs.
I discovered Keap intuitive to use and it dealt with every little thing I required– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, subscription sites, and client assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are developed to help small companies keep their clients while adding brand-new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with emails and texts, making certain leads and clients receive the appropriate messages at the correct time. Use internet site and social media sites kinds to simplify lead follow-up, and manage your development with simple visit organizing and lead monitoring. Boost sales with automated pricing quote, invoicing, and repayment processing, maximizing your time. With Keap, local business can conserve 10 hours each week and increase revenue by 39%. Start with a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
Why we like Keap
Keap uses a comprehensive client relationship administration (CRM) and marketing automation solution tailored for local business and entrepreneurs. We appreciate Keap’s focus on enhancing sales procedures and supporting client relationships via effective automation tools. The system’s all-in-one method integrates CRM, email marketing, invoicing, and job monitoring, making it specifically appealing for companies aiming to consolidate their tech pile.
For the most part, it simply functioned dependably with very little hassle or upkeep needed. My open and click-through prices were great (like 35% terrific). Automations ran efficiently without issues.
So why in the world was I lured to uproot my entire operational foundation from a system that worked to attempt something unverified and untried?
In knowledge I can admit I obtained seduced by the siren call of “shiny object syndrome”. You understand the feeling: when everyone’s discussing a new device that will certainly transform your company … The lawn commonly looks greener beyond, and I asked yourself whether GoHighLevel might lower friction points that I ‘d discovered to endure over the years with Keap.
I resisted at first, however a few even more frustrations led me to assume maybe it was time for an adjustment.
The Financial investment: Moving My Company to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I chose to take the plunge. I registered for HighLevel’s Agency plan at $297/month, spending significantly more than the $97/month starter cost.
This wasn’t a choice I took lightly. I knew switching over systems was going to call for migrating all my Keap data and basically rebuilding my entire tech facilities from the ground up making use of every one of the GoHighLevel integrations readily available.
Below’s a summary of simply a few of the effort needed:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ email customer records
- Recreating dozens of automations and workflows
- Relocating client accounts, notes, and job information to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe billing integration
- Setting up landing pages, promos, and sales funnels around once again
- Learning a completely international UX and interface design
Done in, I spent around 30-40 tiresome hours of setup work transitioning everything over– and also taking care of lost performance during the switch.
But ultimately, it was a computed investment I was willing to make. I figured some short-term discomfort would repay with GoHighLevel giving a better long-lasting option for my service, Dripify. Oh just how incorrect I was …
It only took me concerning a month of hands-on use to recognize I had actually made a large mistake. The problems started accumulating quickly, till it reached a point I needed to reduce my losses and switch over back to Keap totally.
Let’s go through the nightmarish troubles I encountered.
Safety And Security Issues & Numerous Vermin
Offered GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation system, I made sure to meticulously recreate every workflow from my old Keap account.
These included sequences for onboarding brand-new e-mail clients, onboarding new clients, automating follow-ups for webinar enrollments, sending occasion reminders, taking care of membership expiries and a lot more.
Everything appeared to be operating fine … till all of a sudden it had not been. One morning, I awoke to find 171 entirely unimportant emails had been sent to users that need to NOT have actually gotten them. This occurred 3 days straight, with a various batch of 160 individuals each day.
I anxiously attempted troubleshooting and reconstructing the automation from square one. However the trouble persisted.
When I frantically reached out to their support group, they slightly claimed “server problems” were responsible. Yet this explanation didn’t make any type of feeling, since the mistakes continued happening each early morning like clockwork unassociated to any type of downtime.
In my mind, this huge failing was totally unacceptable and just really did not help my organization. I have countless get in touches with relying upon my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was mosting likely to be totally unstable, exactly how could I turn over mission-critical workflows and sensitive client data to their technology?
The unintuitive user interface only worsened these issues …
Discouraging UX
Originating from Keap where everything was seamless and intuitive, GoHighLevel’s learning curve felt high and complex.
Simple jobs like modifying workflows entailed excavating through food selection systems that were all over the place. Secret settings were unexplainably scattered in absolutely different sections. Relocating between functions really felt disjointed or confusing.
I’ll inform you what I mean by speaking about their funnel builder as an instance. There were 3 separate settings panels to manage general, private, and item setups. Yet for some insane factor, the web links to accessibility each of these core setups were expanded on opposite sides of the screen. What!?
As somebody who values tidy, thoughtful layout, this seriously frustrated me.
It reinforced that GoHighLevel still felt like a work-in-progress instead of a refined item all set for prime-time use. Their top priorities seemed concentrated on stuffing in every feature imaginable, with bad usability as an afterthought.
And talking features, I quickly understood the small cost tag featured pricey concessions …
Misleading Pricing GoHighLevel Number Pool
Among GoHighLevel’s largest selling factors is the economical rate for accessibility to numerous features. However I promptly learned this inexpensive base cost was deceitful.
They nickle-and-dimed users with occasional charges for core functionality. All of a sudden my credit card declarations had unclear $10 charges from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it ended up, you get billed every time you send out an email with their servers. So for high volume individuals, this amounted to hundreds of dollars in unforeseen expenses.
Between these per-email fees and paying extra for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “budget-friendly” GoHighLevel subscription ended up setting you back dramatically greater than my Keap plan.
The reduced sticker price was tempting, however simply not realistic in practice. This bait-and-switch left a negative taste in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my meticulously supported e-mail open prices drop almost overnight after switching to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my audience interaction consistently hit 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. But once I migrated their documents over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked quickly to a worthless 9% open rate.
Regardless of just how much I enhanced my sending methods or tried every troubleshooting trick, I could barely nudge open rates back into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decline from my previous criteria GoHighLevel Number Pool.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and e-mails suddenly had dreadful involvement. The only thing I could think that would be causing this was whatever was occurring behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For a company so dependent on e-mail marketing, this was a big deal.
Between the debilitating deliverability problems, hidden fees, damaged features, and terrible interface, I had finally reached my limitation …
Why I Quit GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after migrating my agency to GoHighLevel, I understood I had actually made a massive blunder. The cons significantly exceeded any kind of benefits.
No software is perfect, however the large quantity of problems was beyond acceptable.
At the end of the day, software application boils down to depend on. If I can not trust it to take care of vital features effectively or think a supplier has my benefits in mind, after that it’s time to leave– also after investing significant time, money, and effort migrating.
So I made the difficult contact us to reverse training course and return back to Keap completely just weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s explore what I gained from this fiasco.
Key Takeaways: What I Picked up from My GoHighLevel Blunder
My time with HighLevel can be summed up as an expensive misadventure. But in knowledge, it educated me a couple of essential lessons:
- Stay with what works. Don’t disturb what’s working unless something is definitively better across the board. Change brings danger.
- Veterinarian declares extensively. Marketing buzz around new software often obscures bigger underlying flaws. Deep due diligence is necessary.
- Select simpleness over features. Well-designed devices should make your work life easier, not more complex and messy.
- Openness develops count on. Opaque pricing, unethical reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert problems damages trust.
- Seek honest testimonials. Satisfied support examines suggest less if extreme concerns imply bad total functionality.
- Perfection is difficult. No single remedy can flawlessly fulfill every special business requirement. Locate the least-bad fit.
- Advancement over change. Step-by-step enhancements typically outweigh dangerous wholesale reinvention of what already functions penalty.
Basically, I learned to be a lot more cynical of “too excellent to be true” marketing cases and much less attracted by the attraction of glossy new objects. The devices you utilize daily ought to gain trust fund via transparency and efficiency, not glossy advertising.