As a company owner for over a decade, I rely on software application and automation to simplify procedures and provide results. So when GoHighLevel emerged on the scene couple of years back, it definitely captured my interest GoHighLevel Vs Klaviyo.
The idea was attractive– an all-in-one customer monitoring platform with marketing, sales, and solution devices incorporated with each other. As an entrepreneur constantly seeking to streamline and scale my organization, it looked like a desire happened theoretically. Who wouldn’t want a solitary option that does it all?
However in this comprehensive GoHighLevel evaluation, I’ll take you inside my tragic journey of trying (and stopping working) to switch over to this preferred brand-new software application. You’ll find out:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own service demands, ideally you can gain from my agonizing blunders and pumped up expectations.
Looter: I do NOT advise GoHighLevel. If you need a CRM, begin with this listing of best CRMs instead. I utilize Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re trying to find a sales, marketing, and task management option to GoHighLevel, then here are a couple of we recommend.
Backstory: Why I Thought About Changing from Keap
To understand what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you need context regarding my previous configuration. For over 5 years I had actually been happily relying upon Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to satisfy all my customer management and automation needs.
I found Keap instinctive to make use of and it managed everything I needed– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, subscription sites, and customer support.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are designed to aid local business maintain their clients while including new ones easily. Automate follow-ups with emails and messages, guaranteeing leads and clients receive the right messages at the correct time. Usage web site and social media kinds to streamline lead follow-up, and manage your development with easy visit organizing and lead monitoring. Boost sales with automated pricing quote, invoicing, and repayment handling, freeing up your time. With Keap, local business can save 10 hours weekly and increase income by 39%. Start with a 14-day free trial, no bank card required.
Why we like Keap
Keap provides a thorough consumer relationship administration (CRM) and marketing automation solution tailored for small businesses and entrepreneurs. We value Keap’s focus on improving sales procedures and nurturing consumer relationships via powerful automation tools. The system’s all-in-one strategy incorporates CRM, email marketing, invoicing, and job administration, making it particularly appealing for businesses aiming to combine their tech stack.
For the most part, it just worked accurately with very little hassle or maintenance needed. My open and click-through prices were excellent (like 35% wonderful). Automations ran smoothly with no issues.
So why in the world was I tempted to uproot my entire operational foundation from a system that worked to try something unverified and untested?
In hindsight I can admit I got seduced by the siren call of “shiny object disorder”. You understand the feeling: when everyone’s talking about a brand-new device that will revolutionize your service … The yard usually looks greener on the other side, and I asked yourself whether GoHighLevel might minimize friction points that I ‘d found out to tolerate for many years with Keap.
I stood up to initially, yet a few more irritations led me to believe possibly it was time for a modification.
The Investment: Migrating My Agency to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I decided to take the plunge. I signed up for HighLevel’s Agency plan at $297/month, spending considerably more than the $97/month starter cost.
This wasn’t a decision I took lightly. I knew changing systems was going to call for migrating all my Keap information and basically rebuilding my entire tech framework from scratch utilizing all of the GoHighLevel integrations available.
Below’s a summary of simply a few of the initiative required:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ e-mail subscriber records
- Recreating dozens of automations and workflows
- Moving client accounts, notes, and job data to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe billing integration
- Establishing landing pages, coupons, and sales funnels all over again
- Learning an entirely foreign UX and user interface layout
Done in, I spent around 30-40 tiresome hours of configuration job transitioning every little thing over– as well as managing shed productivity throughout the button.
Yet inevitably, it was a calculated investment I agreed to make. I figured some short-term discomfort would certainly repay with GoHighLevel supplying a far better lasting service for my company, Dripify. Oh how wrong I was …
It only took me concerning a month of hands-on usage to realize I had made a large error. The concerns began accumulating quickly, up until it reached a point I had to cut my losses and change back to Keap completely.
Allow’s go through the horrible troubles I ran into.
Protection Issues & Numerous Vermin
Provided GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation system, I took care to meticulously recreate every workflow from my old Keap account.
These consisted of sequences for onboarding brand-new e-mail customers, onboarding new clients, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending out event tips, managing membership expirations and far more.
Everything seemed to be functioning fine … up until all of a sudden it wasn’t. One early morning, I awoke to locate 171 completely unnecessary emails had actually been sent to individuals that ought to NOT have gotten them. This happened 3 days in a row, with a various set of 160 people daily.
I anxiously attempted fixing and rebuilding the automation from square one. Yet the problem persisted.
When I desperately connected to their support team, they slightly claimed “server issues” were at fault. Yet this explanation really did not make any type of feeling, considering that the errors continued taking place each early morning like clockwork unrelated to any kind of downtime.
In my mind, this massive failing was entirely inappropriate and just didn’t work for my company. I have countless calls depending on my automated campaigns running smoothly.
So if GoHighLevel was mosting likely to be entirely undependable, how could I turn over mission-critical workflows and delicate customer data to their technology?
The unintuitive interface just worsened these concerns …
Frustrating UX
Originating from Keap where everything was seamless and intuitive, GoHighLevel’s learning curve felt high and complex.
Basic tasks like editing and enhancing workflows entailed digging via menu systems that were all over the place. Trick setups were unexplainably spread in entirely various areas. Relocating between features really felt disjointed or confusing.
I’ll inform you what I mean by speaking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 different setups panels to take care of total, specific, and product setups. Yet for some insane factor, the links to accessibility each of these core settings were expanded on opposite sides of the screen. What!?
As someone that values tidy, thoughtful layout, this seriously irritated me.
It strengthened that GoHighLevel still felt like a work-in-progress rather than a sleek item prepared for prime-time usage. Their top priorities appeared concentrated on stuffing in every feature imaginable, with inadequate use as an afterthought.
And talking features, I quickly understood the low cost tag featured expensive concessions …
Deceptive Pricing GoHighLevel Vs Klaviyo
One of GoHighLevel’s biggest selling points is the budget friendly price for access to so many features. Yet I rapidly learned this inexpensive base expense was deceitful.
They nickle-and-dimed individuals with occasional fees for core capability. Suddenly my bank card declarations had vague $10 fees from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it turned out, you get charged every single time you send an email through their servers. So for high volume individuals, this amounted to thousands of dollars in unexpected costs.
Between these per-email costs and paying extra for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “budget-friendly” GoHighLevel membership ended up costing substantially MORE than my Keap plan.
The low price tag was appealing, yet just not sensible in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor taste in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The final dealbreaker was seeing my thoroughly nurtured e-mail open rates plunge practically over night after changing to GoHighLevel.
Formerly, my audience involvement continually struck 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. Once I moved their records over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked quickly to a pitiful 9% open price.
Regardless of how much I maximized my sending methods or attempted every fixing method, I might barely nudge open prices back right into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decline from my previous criteria GoHighLevel Vs Klaviyo.
Let me repeat: my exact same audience and emails unexpectedly had terrible engagement. The only thing I might assume that would certainly be creating 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 issues, hidden charges, damaged features, and horrible user interface, I had finally reached my restriction …
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after moving my company to GoHighLevel, I knew I had made a big error. The cons considerably outweighed any type of benefits.
No software program is excellent, yet the large quantity of issues was past acceptable.
At the end of the day, software program comes down to depend on. If I can not trust it to deal with essential functions capably or think a supplier has my benefits in mind, then it’s time to leave– also after investing considerable time, cash, and initiative migrating.
So I made the hard phone call to turn around program and return back to Keap entirely simply weeks after going all in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s discover what I gained from this fiasco.
Secret Takeaways: What I Picked up from My GoHighLevel Error
My time with HighLevel can be summarized as a pricey misadventure. However in knowledge, it educated me a few vital lessons:
- Stick to what works. Do not disturb what’s working unless something is definitively much better across the board. Modification brings risk.
- Veterinarian declares extensively. Marketing buzz around brand-new software program often covers larger underlying defects. Deep due persistance is important.
- Select simplicity over features. Well-designed devices must make your work life simpler, not extra challenging and messy.
- Transparency constructs trust fund. Nontransparent pricing, dubious reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert issues damages trust fund.
- Look for impartial evaluations. Happy support evaluates mean much less if excessive problems suggest bad overall usability.
- Perfection is impossible. No solitary solution can flawlessly satisfy every distinct service need. Discover the least-bad fit.
- Advancement over transformation. Step-by-step improvements normally surpass high-risk wholesale reinvention of what already functions fine.
In short, I found out to be more cynical of “also good to be real” marketing claims and much less lured by the attraction of shiny brand-new objects. The devices you use daily need to earn trust through transparency and efficiency, not slick advertising.