GoHighLevel is built for agencies, and owners pay for that in hours
What are the downsides of GoHighLevel? For a business owner there is mainly one. It hands you a set of builders at a low price, and somebody still has to build, run and update everything inside them.
GoHighLevel, also called HighLevel, is a capable product. It puts a CRM, funnel and form builders, calendars and automated messaging in one place for less than most of those tools cost separately. Agencies like it for good reasons.
Nearly every comparison you will find is written for those agencies, or for people choosing between do-it-yourself tools. This one is for the owner of a single company who was told GoHighLevel would run the front office, and is now looking at a dashboard full of things to configure.
What GoHighLevel costs
Its pricing page lists three plans and a 14-day trial.
| Plan | Price | Who HighLevel says it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $97 a month | Smaller businesses and solo marketers |
| Unlimited | $297 a month | Growing agencies |
| Agency Pro | $497 a month | Agencies that want to resell it as their own software |
Read the third column again. Two of the three plans are described as agency plans. The product is designed around someone who sets it up for many clients and does that for a living.
The downsides an owner feels
You are the builder
The platform gives you the builders. The funnels, forms, pipelines and automations are yours to design and connect. That is the point of the product, and it is real work. If you do not do it, you pay an agency to.
Someone has to keep it running
A front office changes all the time. Prices go up, a service is added, hours shift for the holidays. Each change means a person opening the builder and updating the forms and automations that depend on it.
The sticker price leaves out the hours
U.S. private employers pay an average of $46.89 for every hour worked. Ten hours a month spent building and fixing is $469 of paid time on top of the plan. For an owner doing it at night, the cost is the evening.
What the setup work is
It helps to see the job written down. To get a front office out of a builder platform, someone has to do all of this.
- Build the forms, including the questions that let you price a job.
- Set up the calendars and the rules for when you can be booked.
- Build the pipeline and decide what moves a lead from one stage to the next.
- Write the confirmation, reminder and follow-up messages, and the automations that send them.
- Connect payments and build the invoice flow.
- Test every path, then fix what breaks when a real customer does something unexpected.
None of it is beyond a capable owner. All of it takes hours, and the last item never fully ends.
When GoHighLevel is the right choice
It is the right choice if you run an agency, if you want to resell software under your own name, or if you enjoy building funnels and have someone whose job is to maintain them. For those buyers it is hard to beat on price.
It is a poor fit if nobody at your company has the hours to operate it. A tool that needs an operator does not help a company that does not have one.
HubSpot or GoHighLevel?
They are built for different users. HubSpot is a CRM for a company with its own sales and marketing team. GoHighLevel is built around agencies that run marketing for many clients.
Both are tools your team operates. If the problem is that nobody has time to operate a tool, switching between them changes the logo and leaves the problem.
A done-for-you alternative
Xaedros is the same front office, set up and run for you: lead capture forms that price the job, online booking, confirmations, follow-up, invoicing and a built-in CRM. It is $499 a month with setup included, a 14-day free trial and no contract.
That is two dollars more than Agency Pro. The difference is what the money buys. With Xaedros our team does the build, and adjusts it when your company changes. See what done-for-you covers.
Questions to ask before you switch to anything
These apply to every alternative, including ours.
- Who does the build, and is that in the price?
- Who makes the change when my prices or services change?
- Is there a contract, and how long is it?
- How long until it is running?
For Xaedros the answers are: our team, our team, no contract, and most companies within 24 hours of the call.
What switching involves
Moving off a platform is the part people put off, so here is what happens.
- Our importer brings over your contacts and files from GoHighLevel. It also imports from Monday and Asana.
- Our team sets up your forms, booking and invoicing around how you already work.
- Most companies are running within 24 hours of the call.
Your customer list comes with you. If you want to see a company that runs this way, read how Tidy Up Services runs without a front desk.