As an agency owner for over a years, I count on software application and automation to streamline procedures and supply results. So when GoHighLevel emerged on the scene few years back, it absolutely captured my focus GoHighLevel TikTok Lead Forms.
The idea was attractive– an all-in-one client administration platform with marketing, sales, and service tools incorporated with each other. As an entrepreneur always wanting to simplify and scale my business, it seemed like a dream come true on paper. Who would not desire a single service that does it all?
However in this extensive GoHighLevel testimonial, I’ll take you inside my dreadful trip of attempting (and failing) to switch to this preferred brand-new software program. You’ll find out:
If you’re taking into consideration whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own service needs, hopefully you can gain from my uncomfortable blunders and pumped up expectations.
Spoiler: I do NOT suggest GoHighLevel. If you need a CRM, begin with this listing of ideal CRMs rather. I use Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re looking for a sales, marketing, and job administration choice to GoHighLevel, after that here are a couple of we recommend.
Backstory: Why I Thought About Changing from Keap
To comprehend what attracted me to GoHighLevel to begin with, you require context concerning my previous arrangement. For over 5 years I had been happily relying on Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) to fulfill all my customer monitoring and automation demands.
I discovered Keap intuitive to use and it took care of every little thing I needed– CRM, email marketing, sales funnels, subscription websites, and customer support.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are created to aid small companies keep their clients while adding brand-new ones easily. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and texts, ensuring leads and clients obtain the right messages at the correct time. Usage site and social media sites forms to enhance lead follow-up, and manage your growth with simple consultation scheduling and lead tracking. Boost sales with automated pricing quote, invoicing, and settlement handling, maximizing your time. With Keap, small companies can conserve 10 hours weekly and rise revenue by 39%. Beginning with a 14-day free trial, no bank card needed.
Why we like Keap
Keap offers a thorough consumer partnership administration (CRM) and marketing automation service tailored for small companies and entrepreneurs. We value Keap’s concentrate on enhancing sales processes and nurturing client relationships with effective automation tools. The system’s all-in-one strategy integrates CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and task management, making it especially attractive for businesses looking to settle their technology stack.
For the most part, it just worked accurately with minimal hassle or upkeep called for. My open and click-through rates were terrific (like 35% fantastic). Automations ran smoothly without problems.
So why in the world was I lured to uproot my entire functional structure from a system that functioned to attempt something unverified and untested?
In hindsight I can admit I obtained attracted by the alarm telephone call of “shiny things syndrome”. You understand the sensation: when everyone’s talking about a brand-new device that will certainly change your company … The yard usually looks greener beyond, and I asked yourself whether GoHighLevel might lower rubbing points that I ‘d discovered to endure over the years with Keap.
I withstood at first, yet a few even more disappointments led me to assume perhaps it was time for an adjustment.
The Investment: Moving My Firm to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I decided to start. I enrolled in HighLevel’s Company plan at $297/month, spending dramatically more than the $97/month starter expense.
This wasn’t a decision I ignored. I understood switching over platforms was mosting likely to need migrating all my Keap information and basically reconstructing my whole technology infrastructure from scratch using all of the GoHighLevel integrations available.
Here’s an introduction of simply a few of the effort called for:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ email client records
- Recreating dozens of automations and workflows
- Moving client accounts, notes, and task information to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe invoicing integration
- Setting up landing pages, coupons, and sales funnels throughout once again
- Learning a totally international UX and interface design
Done in, I spent around 30-40 tedious hours of configuration job transitioning everything over– in addition to handling lost performance during the button.
Yet eventually, it was a calculated financial investment I was willing to make. I figured some temporary pain would certainly pay off with GoHighLevel giving a much better lasting option for my company, Dripify. Oh exactly how wrong I was …
It only took me regarding a month of hands-on usage to recognize I had made a big error. The concerns began piling up promptly, till it got to a point I had to reduce my losses and change back to Keap totally.
Allow’s walk through the horrible issues I experienced.
Safety And Security Issues & Several Bugs
Offered GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation platform, I made sure to diligently recreate each and every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These consisted of series for onboarding brand-new email subscribers, onboarding brand-new clients, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending event reminders, handling membership expirations and a lot more.
Every little thing seemed to be functioning fine … up until suddenly it had not been. One morning, I awoke to discover 171 entirely irrelevant emails had been sent to individuals that ought to NOT have actually obtained them. This happened three days straight, with a various batch of 160 individuals each day.
I hysterically attempted troubleshooting and reconstructing the automation from square one. But the problem persisted.
When I seriously reached out to their assistance group, they slightly asserted “server concerns” were responsible. However this explanation didn’t make any kind of sense, since the errors continued taking place each morning like clockwork unassociated to any type of downtime.
In my mind, this massive failing was totally undesirable and simply really did not work for my service. I have hundreds of get in touches with relying on my automated campaigns running smoothly.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be absolutely unreliable, just how could I turn over mission-critical workflows and sensitive client information to their innovation?
The unintuitive interface just compounded these concerns …
Discouraging UX
Originating from Keap where whatever was smooth and instinctive, GoHighLevel’s learning curve felt steep and challenging.
Simple jobs like editing workflows entailed digging through food selection systems that were all over the place. Secret setups were unexplainably spread in entirely different areas. Relocating in between features really felt disjointed or complicated.
I’ll tell you what I indicate by speaking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 different setups panels to manage general, individual, and item configurations. Yet for some crazy factor, the links to accessibility each of these core settings were spread out on opposite sides of the display. What!?
As a person that values tidy, thoughtful layout, this seriously upset me.
It reinforced that GoHighLevel still felt like a work-in-progress instead of a refined item ready for prime-time use. Their top priorities seemed concentrated on packing in every feature imaginable, with bad functionality as an afterthought.
And speaking of features, I soon recognized the affordable price tag featured costly compromises …
Misleading Pricing GoHighLevel TikTok Lead Forms
Among GoHighLevel’s greatest marketing points is the economical price for accessibility to numerous features. However I promptly discovered this affordable base price was deceptive.
They nickle-and-dimed customers with occasional costs for core performance. Unexpectedly my credit card statements had obscure $10 fees from GoHighLevel here and there.
As it ended up, you get charged whenever you send an e-mail via their servers. So for high volume users, this added up to thousands of bucks in unexpected expenses.
Between these per-email fees and paying extra for deliverability attachments like Mailgun, my “cost effective” GoHighLevel subscription ended up costing substantially MORE than my Keap plan.
The reduced price tag was alluring, but simply not practical in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor preference in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The final dealbreaker was seeing my meticulously supported e-mail open prices plunge nearly over night after switching over to GoHighLevel.
Formerly, my target market interaction continually hit 35-40% open prices in Keap month after month. Once I moved their records over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked quickly to a pitiful 9% open rate.
Despite just how much I optimized my sending out methods or attempted every fixing technique, I might hardly push open prices back into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decline from my previous criteria GoHighLevel TikTok Lead Forms.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and e-mails all of a sudden had terrible involvement. The only thing I could assume that would certainly be creating this was whatever was taking place behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For a company so dependent on e-mail marketing, this was a big deal.
Between the debilitating deliverability issues, hidden costs, broken features, and terrible 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 recognized I had actually made a big error. The disadvantages significantly exceeded any kind of advantages.
No software application is best, however the sheer quantity of issues was beyond appropriate.
At the end of the day, software application comes down to trust fund. If I can’t trust it to take care of essential features effectively or believe a vendor has my benefits in mind, after that it’s time to walk away– even after spending substantial time, cash, and initiative migrating.
So I made the tough call to reverse program and return back to Keap totally simply weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s discover what I learned from this debacle.
Trick Takeaways: What I Picked up from My GoHighLevel Blunder
My time with HighLevel can be summed up as a costly misadventure. However in hindsight, it educated me a couple of crucial lessons:
- Stay with what jobs. Don’t upset what’s functioning unless something is definitively much better across the board. Modification brings risk.
- Vet declares thoroughly. Marketing hype around new software program frequently covers larger underlying imperfections. Deep due diligence is essential.
- Pick simpleness over features. Well-designed tools should make your job life much easier, not extra challenging and messy.
- Openness constructs depend on. Opaque pricing, shady reseller terms, and finger-pointing to escape problems damages count on.
- Look for objective reviews. Delighted assistance examines mean less if excessive concerns indicate bad total usability.
- Excellence is difficult. No single remedy can perfectly satisfy every one-of-a-kind business need. Locate the least-bad fit.
- Advancement over revolution. Step-by-step renovations typically surpass dangerous wholesale reinvention of what currently functions fine.
Basically, I found out to be more skeptical of “as well great to be real” marketing insurance claims and less tempted by the allure of glossy brand-new objects. The tools you use daily must gain trust fund via transparency and performance, not slick advertising.