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We strongly recommend that you stay away from GoHighLevel and anyone who is trying to get you to purchase a license through them.
What GoHighLevel is actually trying to build (instead of, you know, good software), is a MLM scheme where someone who knows little about actually creating software can re-sell and mark up software subscriptions to their audience. Avoid 🚩
Avoid HighLevel As a CRM
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Best for trade-services businesses with $250K+ revenueGoHighLevel markets itself as an all-in-one sales and marketing tool designed for agencies and small businesses. They "offer" CRM capabilities, automated emails and sms, and even landing page and funnel building capabilities.
The main shtick with GoHighLevel is that they offer a white-label solution. What this means is that a marketing agency can customize the platform and then sell the platform to their clients for a subscription. So for one monthly fee, you get the software, but also the ability to re-sell the software to other customers.
GoHighLevel does not have a good reputation.
So with GoHighLevel you have these layers on top of layers that are selling you the software. It has attracted a lot of people looking for an “online business” or “side hustle” or “way to make money online”. But do not be fooled, these are not folks you should be purchasing software for your business from.
Even worse? You don't own any of your data (you are just buying a sub-license to GoHighLevel).
More than that, instead of getting customer service or product support from a software company, you are now relying on a marketing agency (or worse, an individual person) to support your software.
Gosh, can I be honest in terms of what we're seeing? The community using GoHighLevel tends to be people who are looking for a way to make a living and sell to others.
Because the platform encourages people to resell it, a lot of the promotion around GoHighLevel comes from individuals selling subscriptions rather than from the software company itself.
We’ve seen firsthand how this plays out.
My physical therapist got sold on GoHighLevel at a certain point. When he ran into issues with the tool and questioned some of the spammy tactics being used, the person who sold it to him basically told him he was “just complaining” and “not working hard enough.” Instead of addressing the software issues, the blame was placed on the user, which is very icky in our opinion.
This kind of behavior has caused some of our viewers to decide against using GoHighLevel after seeing the aggressive and negative nature of the community in the comment section when we tried to warn others against using the tool (just visit our video above on YouTube and head to the comments section to see for yourself).
While GoHighLevel is marketing themselves as this huge cost-saving software that replaces all the other tools on the market, the reality is that they are nowhere near as good as the other tools out there.
Want a thoughtful user experience for the software you use? Well, you won't get it with GoHighLevel. What you get instead is software that has just tried to tie as many mediocre features together to market it to you as "it can do everything". Oh, let's not forget the UI lag that comes with it since it's so bloated with features.
GoHighLevel should not be used by any serious business.
GoHighLevel says they do CRM/Pipeline Management, Sales Funnels, Website Building, Surveys, Email Marketing, Workflow Automations, Appointments, Call Tracking, Reputation Management, Communities, and even Document Signing. The reality is that while they "do" these things, you will quickly find the features are lackluster and kludgy to use. You will constantly be frustrated by the missing 20-40% of the features that any of the stand alone apps will do.
If you purchase GoHighLevel directly (not through a re-seller), you need to be technical enough to configure GoHighLevel (users report there is a big learning curve). This is not an "out-of-the-box" software, so prepare to spend dozens of hours configuring it.
GHL automation workflows and funnel builders designed for lead generation campaigns. Agencies often use these to build marketing funnels for their clients, capturing leads through landing pages and pushing them into automated SMS or email follow-ups.
But there are a lot of reviews that claim the landing pages aren't reliable, breaking down at random times. When you're paying for ads that are going to a dead landing page, it's devastating. And that's the risk with using GHL.
And if you have more than 3-5 team members using it, expect your job to turn into being a full-time GHL administrator. Why? Because your team will constantly be pinging you because features are not working "Why didn't my SMS's not send? I can't see my appointments for the day. Why are our landing pages not loading?" and on and on.
More than that, the entire user experience is not prioritized. You need to click one thing, then another, then another just to get to a feature that you're looking for. There are even SPELLING TYPOS in the user interface! This would literally never ever happen and any reputable software companies. But this happens at GHL because they just want to quickly build features to tick a marketing box that says "we do this" but no one cares how WELL it actually works.
Unless you want to constantly stare at your software wondering "why is this so frustrating?" then do not use GoHighLevel.
One of GoHighLevel's defining features is its ability to be completely white-labeled. Agencies can brand the platform as their own software and resell subscriptions to their clients. While this creates a business opportunity for agencies, it also means many businesses end up buying software through a reseller instead of directly from a software company.
But this is what you have to know: GHL is essentially a MLM. The entire reason it exists is so that someone can "start a business" and "sell something".
GoHighLevel allows agencies to manage multiple client "sub-accounts" within one platform. This makes it easier for agencies to run marketing campaigns for several businesses at once, but it also means that many users operate inside someone else's master account environment. Speaking of...
Another issue that worries us is how accounts are structured when the platform is purchased through a reseller.
Because GoHighLevel is designed to be resold by agencies, your account often lives inside the agency’s master account. That's a huge risk for you and your business, because if your relationship with the agency changes, migrating your data, workflows, automations, phone numbers, or integrations away from that setup can become difficult, messy, and time-consuming.
Most modern SaaS tools give you direct ownership of your account and your data. GoHighLevel’s structure just creates a layer of dependency that many business owners aren’t comfortable with once they realize how it works, but by that point... it's too late.
Is GoHighLevel worth it? It's definitely not. Don't get lured in by the "cost savings" especially if you have an established business.
What should you use instead of GoHighLevel? We have a list of the best CRM software on the market, that is run by actual software companies that have hundreds of employees managing and improving the product. If you have a service based business, you should also check out our Wonderly Review as they are a new AI-first all-in-one tool.
GoHighLevel fits into multiple categories based on what it actually helps you do. Each category highlights a different strength and the efficiency points it earned, helping you compare tools not just by features, but by how well they actually perform.
Keep exploring the best software across categories, or explore GoHighLevel alternatives
