This put up could include affiliate hyperlinks. See our affiliate disclosure for extra.
As an company proprietor for over a decade, I depend on software program and automation to streamline operations and ship outcomes. So when GoHighLevel emerged on the scene few years again, it undoubtedly caught my consideration (really simply known as “HighLevel” however discovered at “GoHighLevel.com”) .
The concept was interesting – an all-in-one shopper administration platform with advertising and marketing, gross sales, and repair instruments built-in collectively. As an entrepreneur all the time seeking to simplify and scale my enterprise, it appeared like a dream come true on paper. Who wouldn’t desire a single resolution that does all of it?
However on this in-depth GoHighLevel assessment, I’ll take you inside my disastrous journey of making an attempt (and failing) to modify to this in style new software program. You’ll study:
- The backstory of why I made a decision emigrate to GoHighLevel
- How a lot money and time I invested within the transition
- The myriad points that emerged as soon as I used to be totally onboarded
- How poor assist left considerations unresolved
- Why I finally regretted consuming the GoHighLevel Kool-Help
When you’re contemplating whether or not GoHighLevel is correct to your personal enterprise wants, hopefully you may study from my painful errors and inflated expectations.
Spoiler: I do NOT suggest GoHighLevel. When you want a CRM, begin with this checklist of greatest CRMs as a substitute. I take advantage of Keap.
- Watch out for Shiny Object Syndrome: Keep away from the temptation to modify to new, unproven software program platforms just because they appear extra thrilling. Stick to what’s working until a brand new resolution gives clear, across-the-board enhancements.
- Prioritize Simplicity: Select well-designed instruments that simplify your work life relatively than complicate it. An intuitive and user-friendly interface is essential for effectivity.
- Demand Transparency: Search for transparency in pricing and phrases. Be cautious of hidden charges and unclear reseller fashions, as these can erode belief within the software program supplier.
- Search Unbiased Evaluations: Depend on unbiased, complete opinions and testimonials when evaluating software program. Take note of the general usability and performance relatively than simply assist opinions.
Backstory: Why I Thought-about Switching from Keap
To know what attracted me to GoHighLevel within the first place, you want context about my earlier setup. For over 5 years I had been fortunately counting on Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to fulfill all my shopper administration and automation wants.
I discovered Keap intuitive to make use of and it dealt with all the pieces I wanted – CRM, e-mail advertising and marketing, gross sales funnels, membership websites, and shopper assist.
For probably the most half, it simply labored reliably with minimal fuss or upkeep required. My open and click-through charges had been nice (like 35% nice). Automations ran easily with no points.
So why on earth was I tempted to uproot my complete operational basis from a system that labored to strive one thing unproven and untested?
In hindsight I can admit I bought seduced by the siren name of “shiny object syndrome”. You realize the sensation: when everybody’s speaking a few new device that may revolutionize your small business… The grass usually seems to be greener on the opposite facet, and I puzzled whether or not GoHighLevel may cut back friction factors that I’d discovered to tolerate over time with Keap.
I resisted at first, however just a few extra frustrations led me to suppose possibly it was time for a change.
The Funding: Migrating My Company to GoHighLevel
Earlier this 12 months (2023) I made a decision to make the leap. I signed up for HighLevel’s Company plan at $300/month, investing considerably greater than the $97/month starter price.
This wasn’t a call I took evenly. I knew switching platforms was going to require migrating all my Keap knowledge and primarily rebuilding my complete tech infrastructure from scratch.
Right here’s an outline of simply a few of the effort required:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ e-mail subscriber data
- Recreating dozens of automations and workflows
- Shifting shopper profiles, notes, and mission knowledge to the brand new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe billing integration
- Establishing touchdown pages, promos, and gross sales funnels once more
- Studying a completely overseas UX and interface design
All in, I invested round 30-40 tedious hours of setup work transitioning all the pieces over – to not point out coping with misplaced productiveness through the swap.
However finally, it was a calculated funding I used to be keen to make. I figured some short-term ache would repay with GoHighLevel offering a greater long-term resolution for my enterprise, Dripify. Oh how incorrect I used to be…
It solely took me a few month of hands-on use to comprehend I had made a giant mistake. The problems began piling up rapidly, till it reached a degree I needed to reduce my losses and swap again to Keap solely.
Let’s stroll via the nightmarish issues I encountered.
Safety Points & Numerous Bugs
Given GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation platform, I took care to meticulously recreate each single workflow from my outdated Keap account.
These included sequences for onboarding new e-mail subscribers, onboarding new shoppers, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending occasion reminders, managing membership expirations, and far more.
All the pieces appeared to be functioning superb…till immediately it wasn’t. One morning, I awoke to search out 171 fully irrelevant emails had been despatched to customers who ought to NOT have obtained them. This occurred three days in a row, with a distinct batch of 171 folks every day.
I frantically tried troubleshooting and rebuilding the automation from scratch. However the issue persevered.
After I desperately reached out to their assist staff, they vaguely claimed “server points” had been responsible. However this rationalization didn’t make any sense, for the reason that errors continued taking place every morning like clockwork unrelated to any downtime.
In my thoughts, this huge failure was fully unacceptable and simply didn’t work for my enterprise. I’ve hundreds of contacts counting on my automated campaigns working easily.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be completely unreliable, how might I entrust mission-critical workflows and delicate shopper knowledge to their expertise?
The unintuitive interface solely compounded these points…
Irritating UX
Coming from Keap the place all the pieces was seamless and intuitive, GoHighLevel’s studying curve felt steep and complex.
Easy duties like enhancing workflows concerned digging via menu programs that had been in all places. Key settings had been unexplainably scattered in completely completely different sections. Shifting between capabilities felt disjointed or complicated.
I’ll let you know what I imply by speaking about their funnel builder for instance. There have been 3 separate settings panels to handle total, particular person, and product configurations. But for some loopy motive, the hyperlinks to entry every of those core settings had been unfold out on reverse sides of the display. What!?
As somebody who values clear, considerate design, this critically aggravated me.
It bolstered that GoHighLevel nonetheless felt like a work-in-progress relatively than a sophisticated product prepared for prime-time use. Their priorities appeared targeted on cramming in each characteristic below the solar, with poor usability as an afterthought.
And talking of options, I quickly realized the low price ticket got here with expensive compromises…
Deceptive Pricing
Considered one of GoHighLevel’s greatest promoting factors is the reasonably priced value for entry to so many options. However I rapidly discovered this low cost base price was misleading.
They nickle-and-dimed customers with sporadic charges for core performance. Out of the blue my bank card statements had obscure $10 costs from GoHighLevel right here and there.
Because it turned out, you get charged each time you ship an e-mail via their servers. So for top quantity customers, this added as much as lots of of {dollars} in surprising prices.
Between these per-email charges and paying further for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “reasonably priced” GoHighLevel subscription ended up costing considerably MORE than my Keap plan.
The low sticker value was tempting, however simply not reasonable in observe. This bait-and-switch left a nasty style in my mouth.
E-mail Charges Suffered
The ultimate dealbreaker was seeing my fastidiously nurtured e-mail open charges plummet virtually in a single day after switching to GoHighLevel.
Beforehand, my viewers engagement persistently hit 35-40% open charges in Keap month after month. However as soon as I migrated their data over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked immediately to a pathetic 9% open fee.
Irrespective of how a lot I optimized my sending practices or tried each troubleshooting trick, I might barely nudge open charges again into the kids – nonetheless a 50%+ decline from my earlier benchmarks.
Let me repeat: my EXACT SAME AUDIENCE AND EMAILS immediately had terrible engagement. The one factor I might suppose that may be inflicting this was no matter was taking place behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For an company so depending on e-mail advertising and marketing, this was a giant deal.
Between the crippling deliverability points, hidden charges, damaged options, and horrible interface, I had lastly reached my restrict…
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 45 Days
Simply 45 days after migrating my company to GoHighLevel, I knew I had made an enormous mistake. The cons dramatically outweighed any advantages.
No software program is ideal, however the sheer quantity of issues was past acceptable.
On the finish of the day, software program comes right down to belief. If I can’t belief it to deal with crucial capabilities competently or consider a vendor has my greatest pursuits in thoughts, then it’s time to stroll away – even after investing important time, cash, and energy migrating.
So I made the robust name to reverse course and return again to Keap solely simply weeks after going all in on GoHighLevel. Let’s discover what I discovered from this debacle.
Key Takeaways: What I Realized From My GoHighLevel Mistake
My time with HighLevel may be summed up as an costly misadventure. However in hindsight, it taught me just a few key classes:
1. Persist with what works. Don’t upset what’s working until one thing is definitively higher throughout the board. Change brings threat.
2. Vet claims completely. Advertising and marketing hype round new software program usually obscures greater underlying flaws. Deep due diligence is crucial.
3. Select simplicity over options. Nicely-designed instruments ought to make your work life simpler, no more difficult and messy.
4. Transparency builds belief. Opaque pricing, shady reseller phrases, and finger-pointing to evade issues destroys belief.
5. Search unbiased opinions. Pleased assist opinions imply much less if extreme points indicate poor total usability.
6. Perfection is not possible. No single resolution can completely meet each distinctive enterprise want. Discover the least-bad match.
7. Evolution over revolution. Incremental enhancements usually outweigh dangerous wholesale reinvention of what already works superb.
Briefly, I discovered to be extra skeptical of “too good to be true” advertising and marketing claims and fewer tempted by the attract of shiny new objects. The instruments you employ every day ought to earn belief via transparency and efficiency, not slick promoting.
Lesson discovered.
Hold the dialog going…
Over 10,000 of us are having every day conversations over in our free Fb group and we would like to see you there. Be part of us!