As a firm proprietor for over a years, I rely upon software application and automation to enhance procedures and deliver outcomes. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene couple of years back, it most definitely captured my attention GoHighLevel Proposals.
The concept was enticing– an all-in-one customer management platform with marketing, sales, and service tools incorporated together. As a business owner constantly looking to simplify and scale my company, it seemed like a desire come true on paper. Who would not want a single service that does it all?
But in this comprehensive GoHighLevel evaluation, I’ll take you inside my dreadful journey of attempting (and stopping working) to switch to this popular new software program. You’ll discover:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own business requirements, hopefully you can learn from my unpleasant errors and pumped up assumptions.
Spoiler: I do NOT suggest GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, begin with this checklist of finest CRMs instead. I utilize Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re trying to find a sales, marketing, and task administration choice to GoHighLevel, after that below are a couple of we recommend.
Backstory: Why I Thought About Switching from Keap
To comprehend what attracted me to GoHighLevel to begin with, you need context concerning my previous setup. For over 5 years I had been happily counting on Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) to fulfill all my client administration and automation requirements.
I discovered Keap intuitive to make use of and it dealt with everything I needed– CRM, email marketing, sales funnels, subscription sites, and customer support.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are created to help small businesses maintain their clients while including brand-new ones easily. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and texts, guaranteeing leads and clients obtain the appropriate messages at the correct time. Use website and social networks types to streamline lead follow-up, and handle your development with simple visit organizing and lead tracking. Boost sales with automated quoting, invoicing, and repayment handling, liberating your time. With Keap, small companies can save 10 hours per week and rise profits by 39%. Start with a 14-day free trial, no charge card needed.
Why we like Keap
Keap offers a detailed customer relationship monitoring (CRM) and marketing automation option tailored for small companies and business owners. We value Keap’s concentrate on streamlining sales processes and supporting consumer connections via effective automation tools. The system’s all-in-one method combines CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and task monitoring, making it particularly appealing for businesses aiming to combine their technology pile.
Generally, it simply worked dependably with very little hassle or upkeep needed. My open and click-through rates were wonderful (like 35% excellent). Automations ran efficiently without concerns.
So why in the world was I attracted to uproot my whole operational foundation from a system that worked to attempt something unverified and untested?
In knowledge I can confess I obtained attracted by the siren phone call of “shiny things syndrome”. You understand the sensation: when everybody’s talking about a brand-new tool that will certainly change your service … The turf frequently looks greener beyond, and I asked yourself whether GoHighLevel could minimize rubbing points that I would certainly learned to endure over the years with Keap.
I stood up to in the beginning, however a couple of even more irritations led me to think maybe it was time for a modification.
The Financial investment: Moving My Agency to GoHighLevel
Earlier this year I chose to start. I enrolled in HighLevel’s Agency plan at $297/month, spending dramatically greater than the $97/month starter expense.
This wasn’t a choice I took lightly. I recognized switching over platforms was going to call for moving all my Keap information and basically reconstructing my whole technology framework from the ground up using every one of the GoHighLevel integrations available.
Right here’s an overview of just some of the initiative required:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ email client documents
- Recreating loads of automations and workflows
- Moving client profiles, notes, and task data to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe billing integration
- Setting up landing pages, discounts, and sales funnels around again
- Learning a completely international UX and user interface design
Done in, I spent around 30-40 tedious hours of configuration job transitioning everything over– and also dealing with shed efficiency during the button.
But inevitably, it was a computed financial investment I was willing to make. I figured some short-term discomfort would certainly repay with GoHighLevel giving a better long-lasting service for my business, Dripify. Oh just how wrong I was …
It just took me regarding a month of hands-on usage to realize I had actually made a big blunder. The issues started piling up quickly, till it reached a point I needed to reduce my losses and switch over back to Keap totally.
Let’s walk through the nightmarish issues I came across.
Security Issues & Several Bugs
Provided GoHighLevel placed itself as an all-in-one automation system, I made sure to diligently recreate every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These included sequences for onboarding brand-new e-mail subscribers, onboarding new clients, automating follow-ups for webinar enrollments, sending out occasion reminders, handling subscription expirations and far more.
Every little thing seemed to be functioning penalty … until suddenly it wasn’t. One early morning, I woke up to find 171 entirely unnecessary emails had actually been sent out to customers that need to NOT have actually received them. This occurred 3 days straight, with a different batch of 160 people daily.
I hysterically tried fixing and reconstructing the automation from square one. But the problem continued.
When I desperately reached out to their assistance team, they vaguely claimed “web server issues” were responsible. However this description really did not make any type of feeling, since the mistakes proceeded occurring each morning like clockwork unassociated to any downtime.
In my mind, this massive failure was completely undesirable and just really did not help my business. I have hundreds of contacts relying upon my automated campaigns running smoothly.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be totally unstable, how could I leave mission-critical workflows and sensitive client data to their technology?
The unintuitive user interface just worsened these problems …
Aggravating UX
Originating from Keap where every little thing was smooth and instinctive, GoHighLevel’s learning contour really felt steep and difficult.
Straightforward tasks like editing workflows included digging via menu systems that were all over the place. Key setups were unexplainably spread in completely various areas. Relocating in between features really felt disjointed or complex.
I’ll inform you what I suggest by speaking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 separate setups panels to handle overall, specific, and item setups. Yet for some crazy factor, the links to accessibility each of these core setups were expanded on contrary sides of the display. What!?
As somebody that values clean, thoughtful design, this seriously upset me.
It strengthened that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress rather than a refined item all set for prime-time usage. Their concerns appeared concentrated on packing in every feature under the sun, with bad usability as an afterthought.
And speaking of features, I soon recognized the affordable price tag included pricey concessions …
Misleading Pricing GoHighLevel Proposals
One of GoHighLevel’s most significant selling factors is the cost effective cost for access to so many features. Yet I quickly learned this inexpensive base price was deceptive.
They nickle-and-dimed users with occasional costs for core functionality. Suddenly my bank card statements had vague $10 costs from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it ended up, you get charged whenever you send an e-mail via their web servers. So for high quantity customers, this amounted to numerous dollars in unforeseen prices.
In between these per-email fees and paying extra for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “budget friendly” GoHighLevel subscription ended up setting you back substantially greater than my Keap plan.
The low sticker price was alluring, however simply not realistic in practice. This bait-and-switch left a negative preference in my mouth.
Email Fees Suffered
The final dealbreaker was seeing my very carefully nurtured email open prices plunge nearly over night after changing to GoHighLevel.
Formerly, my audience engagement consistently hit 35-40% open prices in Keap month after month. Once I moved their documents over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked instantly to a useless 9% open price.
Regardless of just how much I enhanced my sending out techniques or attempted every fixing trick, I can hardly nudge open rates back right into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous standards GoHighLevel Proposals.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and emails instantly had terrible involvement. The only thing I could think that would be triggering this was whatever was taking place behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For a firm so depending on e-mail marketing, this was a big deal.
Between the crippling deliverability concerns, concealed fees, busted features, and awful user interface, I had actually lastly reached my limit …
Why I Give up GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Just 45 days after moving my agency to GoHighLevel, I understood I had made a significant blunder. The cons significantly outweighed any benefits.
No software program is perfect, but the sheer quantity of problems was beyond appropriate.
At the end of the day, software comes down to trust. If I can not trust it to manage vital features competently or think a vendor has my benefits in mind, after that it’s time to walk away– also after spending significant time, cash, and initiative moving.
So I made the difficult contact us to reverse course and return back to Keap entirely just weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s discover what I picked up from this debacle.
Trick Takeaways: What I Learned From My GoHighLevel Blunder
My time with HighLevel can be summarized as a costly misadventure. Yet in knowledge, it showed me a few key lessons:
- Stay with what jobs. Do not disturb what’s functioning unless something is definitively better across the board. Adjustment brings threat.
- Vet declares thoroughly. Marketing buzz around brand-new software program usually covers larger underlying flaws. Deep due diligence is essential.
- Pick simpleness over features. Properly designed tools ought to make your work life simpler, not a lot more complex and untidy.
- Transparency builds trust. Opaque pricing, shady reseller terms, and finger-pointing to evade issues damages trust.
- Seek honest testimonials. Delighted assistance assesses suggest less if excessive problems imply bad total usability.
- Perfection is difficult. No single service can perfectly meet every special company demand. Find the least-bad fit.
- Evolution over change. Step-by-step renovations typically exceed high-risk wholesale reinvention of what already functions fine.
In short, I found out to be more cynical of “as well great to be true” marketing cases and much less tempted by the allure of shiny new items. The devices you utilize daily must make depend on with openness and performance, not slick advertising.