Anyone else seeing people move off GoHighLevel to their own custom setups?

Question

Been noticing a pattern lately worth throwing out here. A lot of investors and agencies that built everything on GoHighLevel are starting to peel pieces off into their own custom setups, mostly for cost and control.

Not knocking GHL at all. It's a great foundation and probably the fastest way to get something running. But once the volume climbs, the monthly cost and the SMS and voice billing start stacking up, and the workflow builder can only bend so far before you're fighting it. That seems to be the point where people start looking at their own stack that's cheaper per message and does exactly what they want.

The tradeoff is real though. Custom means you own every problem and there's no support line to call, so it's not automatically the better move for everyone.

Curious where everyone lands on this. Are you all-in on an all-in-one like GHL, or have you started pulling pieces out into your own setup? And if you went custom, was it actually worth the headache?

Daniel Clas · Answer

Yeah I'm seeing the same thing. GHL is a great on-ramp but the per-message pricing and the workflow builder start to feel like a cage once volume picks up.

The catch with going fully custom is you become the support line. Most operators I talk to don't actually want to own the whole stack, they just want one or two pieces that do exactly what they need without the monthly creep.

I've been building small, single-purpose tools for investors that sit alongside their CRM instead of replacing it. Pulls data out, does one job well, doesn't try to be the whole business. Seems to hit the sweet spot for people who outgrow the all-in-one but don't want to become a dev shop.

What pieces are you seeing people peel off first? Is it usually the messaging, the reporting, or something else?

Pelumi Adamolekun · Answer

I made my own called DealBumble

Janice Carter · Answer

@Rauph Souleimanov I think it depends on the size of the business and the volume of leads. For many agents and investors, an all in one platform like GHL is a great starting point. However, as operations grow, building a more customized tech stack can make sense if the cost savings and added flexibility outweigh the extra maintenance.

Anyone else seeing people move off GoHighLevel to their own custom setups?

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