You can be forgiven for thinking that Vendasta and GoHighLevel do the same thing. While there are some overlaps, their purpose is quite different.
Vendasta’s capabilities are great, but they’re incredibly complex and hard to master. Therefore, you may just prefer GoHighLevel’s straightforward in-house approach.
Key Takeaways:
- GoHighLevel is suitable for all businesses that need business management tools
- Vendasta is exclusively for experienced digital marketing professionals
- Vendasta costs from $99-$999/month, GoHighLevel costs $97-$497/month
Vendasta vs. GoHighLevel: Quick Overview
| Feature | GoHighLevel Logo | Vendasta |
|---|---|---|
| SupplyGem Platform Ranking | No. 1 | Not ranked |
| SupplyGem Score | 9.7 | 6.4 |
| Trustpilot Score | 4.9 | 4.3 |
| Costs From | $97/month | $99/month |
| Free Trial | Get a Pro plan 30-day free trial (plus extend for another 28 days) | Get a 15-day Starter plan trial |
| Money-Back Guarantee | None | None |
| Platform Pros | – Suitable for marketing agencies and all businesses – Affordable pricing – All features included in-house – Robust platform – Sell white label SaaS – Multi-channel communication – User friendly | – Huge variety of reselling options via its marketplace – Agencies can handle all CRM and lead management in one place – AI-driven tools help optimize communication |
| Platform Cons | – Help articles are often outdated – Customer service is hit or miss – Features are frequently updated, so it can be hard to keep up | – Expensive with lots of add-on costs – Complex to use – Not beginner-friendly – Limited communication options – Heavy reliance on third-party vendors |
| Best for | Anyone who wants an all-in-one solution for running and managing a business online | Experienced marketing professionals |
Vendasta vs. GoHighLevel: Not the Same Thing
Vendasta and GoHighLevel look similar, sound similar, and offer similar features.
But are they really similar?
Not at all.
GoHighLevel is primarily for marketing professionals who want to provide a complete digital solution for their clients and use the features to manage their operations and sales pipelines.
However, it’s just as useful for other business owners who want an all-in-one platform to perform CRM, create marketing campaigns, and sell products.
It’s incredibly versatile and really, anyone with a business will find value in using GoHighLevel’s tools.
Vendasta is also aimed at digital marketing professionals. Like GoHighLevel, it’s designed to facilitate account management and CRM.Â
Users can also create a storefront and resell multiple white-label products and services both from Vendasta and third-party providers.
However, the big difference is that Vendasta is not suitable for anyone other than experienced marketers.Â
So, in short:
- GoHighLevel is for marketing professionals who want to sell services to clients, and it’s for businesses that need tools to manage their online presence and sales.
- Vendasta is for experienced marketing professionals who want to sell a wide variety of products and services to their clients while accessing tools to manage their own operations.
What Are the Similarities?
Despite their differences, Vendasta and GoHighLevel do overlap on the user end and offer comparable features.
Here’s what you can expect to find on both platforms:
- CRM: Contact management and a centralized communication hub.
- Lead and pipeline management: Create pipelines and nurture leads through automation.
- Email and SMS: Both platforms have their own service providers for email and SMS.
- Reputation management: Grow and manage client’s online reputations.
- White labeling and reselling: Sell products and services under your own branding.
- Business performance reports: Show potential clients how well they are performing online.
- AI optimization: Including content creation, chatbots, workflows, and more.
- Automated workflows: Set up complex automated campaigns or administration workflows to reduce manual input.
Vendasta vs. GoHighLevel: Affordability
Vendasta is not cheap. Three plans are available, ranging from the Starter plan at $79 per month to the Premium plan at $999 per month. An Enterprise plan with bespoke pricing is also offered.
The problem? To access all the features, you have to subscribe to the higher plans (I’ll get into that in more detail below).
You do get a 20% discount for paying annually, though:
| Plan | Monthly price | Monthly price paid annually | Total annual price | Discount for annual payment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Startup | $99 | $79 | $948 | 20% |
| Professional | $499 | $399 | $4,788 | 20% |
| Premium | $999 | $799 | $9,588 | 20% |
I feel it’s worth noting that Vendasta has dropped its prices. Screenshots found elsewhere on the web show that the Professional plan used to cost $749 per month, while the Premium plan was $1,579 per month!Â
However, the monthly subscription fee isn’t all you pay. There are add-on costs, too.
To add additional users to your account, you’ll pay the following fees (per user):
- Startup: $10/month
- Professional: $25/month
- Premium: $50/month
And, to create snapshots (insights into a business’s marketing performance), you’ll pay $2 for each one.
GoHighLevel’s pricing is a lot more straightforward. It also has three pricing plans ranging from $97 per month for the Starter plan to $497 per month for the Pro plan.
Most features are included in all plans. The difference is that the Unlimited plan lets you create unlimited client accounts and a branded desktop app. And, the Pro plan unlocks SaaS whitelabelling.
Paying annually gives you a 16.6% discount:
| Plan | Monthly Price | Annual Price | Discount for Paying Annually |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | $97 | $970 | 16.6% |
| Unlimited | $297 | $2,970 | 16.6% |
| Pro (white label) | $497 | $4,970 | 16.6% |
There are no extra charges for adding users to your account.Â
The prospecting tool (similar to Vendasta snapshots) offers a free option that allows users to generate up to 50 basic reports daily. Alternatively, users can pay a flat rate of $29 per month for unlimited premium reports.
The Vendasta Marketplace Sounds Great… In Theory
Vendasta gives you the ability to create lots of white-labeled products and services, which, admittedly, does sound great. However, it can quickly become a logistical (and costly) nightmare if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Here’s what happens…
You use Vendasta’s platform to create your storefront. Then, you hop onto the marketplace and search for products and services to add to your store.
The good thing is that there are hundreds of options on the marketplace, but Vendasta does not necessarily provide them.
Vendasta does provide some stuff, but most of it is provided by third-party vendors.
You pay the wholesale price of the product or service, add your markup, and then sell it in your store.
Simple reselling, right?
The problem is that you’re creating a patchwork of third-party services and relying on many different vendors to get the job done.
For example, you can pay a vendor to create a website for your client. Then, you can pay another vendor for an SEO package. Then, you can pay another vendor to write content for the site.
Also, you don’t have any control over the wholesale prices. Some are hefty (and more expensive than going to the vendor outside of Vendasta).
GoHighLevel Provides Everything In-House
In stark contrast to Vendasta, GoHighLevel allows you to perform all services and product creation without using third-party vendors.
- Building websites? Unlimited at no extra cost.
- Building funnels? Unlimited at no extra cost.
- Blog posts? Unlimited at no extra cost.
- Calendars and bookings? You get the idea.
It even has its own email service and phone provider available.
Best of all, you can set your own prices and have full control over exactly what you offer your clients.
The downside? You or your team have to carry out the work yourself, so you need to know what you’re doing.Â
Or, you can still outsource the work, but you’re not restricted to a particular marketplace. So you are free to search for anything you want and negotiate on price.
That’s not to say that GoHighLevel isn’t compatible with third-party vendors. It is, but they’re not essential to the platform’s functionality.
They’re also well-known services and offered at a true wholesale price (so you can add your markup and not feel like you’re ripping anyone off).
Here’s a quick example of what you can use:
- WordPress hosting
- Yext
7 Additional Reasons Why Vendasta Is a Letdown (and Why GoHighLevel Is Better)
1. Plan Restrictions
One of the top reasons to choose GoHighLevel is that most of its features are unlimited. The cherry on the cake is that these features are available on all plans—even the cheapest one.
This makes it an appealing option for those who want the most bang for their buck—I definitely do!
In contrast, Vendasta’s plans limit the number of features you can access. For instance, the Starter plan only gives you about 50% of the features.Â
Of course, if you want all of them, you have to subscribe to the most expensive Premium plan.
Simple stuff like customizing sales pipelines and using the Zoom integration are things I’d expect to have access to on a lower-level plan, but with Vendasta, you have to upgrade and pay more.
Personally, I’d much rather have feature limits than be forced to pay through the nose just to get the functionality I need.
2. Ease of Use
I long held the belief that GoHighLevel was one of the harder platforms to grapple with.Â
It still is, but the newly crowned champion of difficult platforms goes to Vendasta.
With GoHighLevel, you can pretty much set up an account, start browsing the platform, and mostly understand where everything is and what it’s for within a few minutes.
It’s intuitive, and while it’s not quite beginner-friendly, I’d say beginners can still pick it up and learn it in a relatively short time.
Plus, you can get an extended free trial of 30 days, which can be extended for another 28 days. This gives you almost two months to learn the platform before committing financially (head to this page to get that).
Yes, there’s a learning curve, but it pretty much applies to the automation capabilities (super complex and comprehensive and setting up things like rebilling and SaaS products.
I’ll add that GoHighLevel constantly works to improve its user experience. The platform is a lot easier to use than it was a couple of years ago.
Vendasta? Different story.
Most people struggle to explain what this platform is or does, let alone use it out of the box.
Although the interface looks identical to GoHighLevel’s at first glance, beware that the learning curve is steep.Â
It’s not easy. It’s not for beginners. You also have to understand how software platforms work to a good degree.
And I’m not alone. According to anecdotal evidence on Reddit, many users regret signing up for an expensive plan only to find they have to spend six months figuring out how the platform actually works.
My tip? Get stuck into all the training materials and resources before you commit to using Vendasta.
Or, you could just go with GoHighLevel.
3. GoHighLevel’s Infrastructure Is Better
Now, let’s talk infrastructure.
GoHighLevel’s infrastructure is totally robust, and all its features work seamlessly together. Why? Because all its tools are contained within the same platform.
The only third-party tool you have to rely on is a payment gateway (Stripe).
When you have to link multiple software apps together, the chances of technical glitches are increased.
Never mind that it’s more complicated to do this, so you can’t be a technophobe if you want to use the platform. Remember, Vendasta is not a beginner-friendly option.
Also, I’m always put off when a SaaS provider’s own website doesn’t work properly. When browsing Vendasta’s site, I encountered multiple broken links, dropdowns, and buttons.
If they can’t even keep their own house tidy, that doesn’t bode well for the rest of the platform, does it?
4. SaaS Capabilities
Both GoHighLevel and Vendasta have white-label capabilities, but as you’ve read, they work very differently.
With Vendasta, you white-label your storefront and then add on white-labeled services from Vendasta or third-party vendors.
With GoHighLevel, you can offer branded client accounts or brand the entire platform and sell it as SaaS.
So, just as you would go to GoHighLevel.com to purchase a software subscription, customers can go to your website and purchase the same software, only it will be under your branding.
You can choose which features to include and create customized pricing plans that fit your business niche. Plus, you have full control over how you price it. And you can sell it an unlimited number of times.
For instance, EasyPeasy Funnels is a business selling GoHighLevel SaaS products under its own name.
It’s just so much more straightforward to use. Your business costs are also clear. You simply pay $497 per month to get the SaaS capability, and that’s it.
5. Multi-Channel Communication
Vendasta has its own email provider and SMS service. As does GoHighLevel. Both also allow you to create an AI-powered website chat widget.
Really, it’s the least you should expect from platforms like these.
But GoHighLevel stretches way beyond these communication methods and offers you so many options, including:
- Social media messaging
- Phone calls
- Voicemail drops
Additionally, you can combine these methods to create true multi-channel marketing campaigns that are precisely tailored to a client’s communication preferences.
6. Automation
Vendasta and GoHighLevel have similar workflow screens where you can build automated sequences for almost anything.
I have to say that Vendasta’s automation tool is pretty good, but you’re constrained by the platform’s limitations.Â
Since it doesn’t have as many features as GoHighLevel, you can’t do as much with it.
For example, GoHighLevel has a native calendar app that allows you to set up automated bookings, payments, and reminders. Vendasta, on the other hand, doesn’t include this.
GoHighLevel has hundreds of automation options, so its capabilities are vast. It also leverages ChatGPT4 to enhance automated communications and elevate messaging.
7. Digital Product Builders
Vendasta does not have any native digital product builders on its platform, and there are no third-party vendors that offer this service.
GoHighLevel provides course and community-building tools that enable you to create engaging learning products to sell to your audience.
I like this feature because A) it means I don’t have to use a third-party platform, and B) it allows me to provide extra value to my clients.
The tools are also easy to use, and you can get a course up and running within a few hours if you already have all the content.
It’s just another way to expand your product range without having to tack on additional apps or costs.
Bottom Line: Why GoHighLevel Is Better for Scaling
Both Vendasta and GoHighLevel are vast platforms with huge amounts of capability. But at the end of the day, I want something easy and straightforward to use, and I want to pay a reasonable price for it.
Sure, Vendasta lets you scale, but the costs increase while the platform becomes increasingly complex to manage.
On the other hand, GoHighLevel is affordable and gives you unlimited scaling possibilities without any additional complexities.
I also feel that GoHighLevel is much more reliable than Vendasta. It listens to its users and ensures that the platform works for them. On the other hand, Vendasta just seems to want to extract vast amounts of money from you!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GoHighLevel or Vendasta Better for Scaling a Business?
GoHighLevel is better for scaling a business because you can upgrade to the Pro plan, pay a fixed monthly fee, and sell the platform as SaaS. For Vendasta, you must select and offer third-party vendor services, which becomes expensive and complicated.
Is GoHighLevel or Vendasta Better for Beginners?
GoHighLevel is a far better beginner option than Vendasta. All its features are native, which makes it less technically challenging to learn. Vendasta relies on third-party apps, which makes it more complicated, plus the platform is not very user-friendly.
Can GoHighLevel or Vendasta Help Me Sell Physical Products?
Both Vendasta and GoHighLevel can help you sell physical products. Use GoHighLevel’s native e-commerce tools or integrate with Shopify. For Vendasta, you must pay for and use a series of third-party tools.
