I've built in pretty much every platform coaches and healers use. Kajabi. Kartra. Squarespace. Showit. WordPress. Dubsado. HoneyBook. ActiveCampaign. ConvertKit. ClickFunnels. FG Funnels (which is actually High Level, just reskinned by a different agency, believe it or not). Teachable. Thinkific. I've spent more hours than I'd like to admit inside the backends of all of them, figuring out what they're good at, what they're terrible at, and when they're the right tool for a specific person's specific business.

So when I tell you I build most of my clients' businesses in HighLevel, it's not because it's the only thing I know. It's because after building in pretty much everything, it's the one I keep coming back to. Here's my honest take on why, and also why it might drive you absolutely insane.

What I love about it

The all in one thing is real. I know every platform claims this, but HighLevel actually delivers on it in a way I haven't experienced elsewhere. Website, funnels, email sequences, automations, CRM, calendar, invoicing, social scheduling, course hosting, order forms, opt-ins, all of it in one place, all talking to each other, without Zapier, without mysterious disconnections, without five separate subscriptions to five separate tools that each do one piece of what HighLevel does on its own.

For the coaches and healers I work with, who are constantly evolving their businesses, adding new offers, moving from one-on-one into group, launching courses, running sales pages and opt-ins and coffee chat bookings all at the same time, this matters enormously. Most platforms handle one or two of these things well and quietly fall apart on the rest. HighLevel handles all of it.

The analytics are genuinely good. Everything in one dashboard without messing around with Google Analytics or figuring out why your tracking pixel isn't firing. You can see exactly what's working, what isn't, and where people are dropping off, all in one place. For someone running a business solo or with a tiny team, this is a bigger deal than it sounds.

Once it's set up properly, it just runs. The automations handle the follow-up. The emails go out on schedule. The funnels move people through their journey. The calendar books calls. The invoices get paid. You go on a hike, disappear into a spicy romantasy for the weekend, and your business is still doing exactly what it's supposed to do without you hovering over it. That's not magic. That's just what good infrastructure feels like.

And the price. At $97 a month to start, it's almost certainly replacing software you're already paying for separately. Your email platform. Your funnel builder. Your scheduling tool. Your CRM. Your website. Your course hosting. It can be surprising how fast that adds up. Switching to HighLevel often saves money rather than adding to the budget.

Oh, and before you ask—yes, I am a HighLevel affiliate (it would be dumb not to be as an agency owner). But I only use that affiliate link when I'm actually working with clients on their systems, not with random strangers on the internet, because that's just kinda weird. I'm recommending this because I use it every day and it works.

What's annoying about it

Oh, where to start.

The learning curve is real and it is steep. This is not a platform you open up, poke around in for twenty minutes, and figure out. It is robust to the point of being genuinely overwhelming if you don't know what you're doing. There are settings buried inside settings. There are a billion tiny things to configure just to get one small thing working correctly. Setting up a calendar in HighLevel, for example, is significantly more involved than just using Calendly. Calendly is honestly easier. I say that without hesitation.

Designing a beautiful site in HighLevel also takes real skill. The out of the box templates look like they were made in 2014 by someone having a bad day. Getting it to look like something you'd actually be proud to send people to requires knowing what you're doing with design. Squarespace, Showit, even a well-themed WordPress site will look more polished right out of the box with significantly less effort. If design matters to you and you're doing this yourself, that's worth knowing before you commit.

It's also less intuitive than some of the simpler platforms. Things that should be obvious sometimes aren't. Things that should be easy sometimes require you to go find a tutorial video and watch someone explain it for fifteen minutes before you understand where the setting is hiding. This will annoy casual users. If you're someone who likes to just figure things out by clicking around, prepare to be occasionally furious.

Who it's actually good for

Coaches, healers, and service providers who have a real business with multiple moving parts and need everything in one place. If you're running one-on-one sessions and that's it, HighLevel is probably overkill and something simpler will serve you better right now. But if you have or want to have courses, group programs, sales funnels, email sequences, a website that actually converts, and a client management system that doesn't make you want to scream—HighLevel is genuinely worth the setup investment.

It's also great for businesses that are still evolving, which is most of the people I work with. Whatever you need next, HighLevel almost certainly already has it. You don't outgrow it the way you outgrow simpler platforms.

The learning curve problem and what I do about it

Because the setup is genuinely a lot, and because a badly set up HighLevel account is just a very expensive source of frustration, I build it for my clients rather than teaching them to build it themselves.

We always start with The Flow Intensive, where we figure out exactly what the business needs before we touch a single piece of software. The strategy gets built around how the business actually works, weird quirks and all. Then we build it out in HighLevel in a way that makes sense for their specific offers, their specific clients, their specific way of working.

And I want to be honest: if HighLevel isn't the right tool for a specific client's situation, I'm not going to force it. I build custom, always. If a different system I'm comfortable building in is the better fit, we use that. And if what someone needs is outside my wheelhouse entirely, I have people I trust across every major platform and I'll point them to the right one. The goal is always a system that fits, not a system that's convenient for me.

Once it's built, my clients use me as an ad hoc team member when they need adjustments or something breaks or they want to add something new. That's not a formal retainer situation, it's just how I work with the people I've built for. It means they're never stuck staring at a broken automation at 11pm trying to figure out what went wrong.

One more thing

I never recommend switching tech for tech's sake. If what you have is working, leave it alone. Switching platforms is a project and projects take time and energy and both are finite.

But if you've been putting off getting your brand and website sorted because the whole thing feels like too much. If your client acquisition system is held together with digital duct tape and good intentions. If you're exhausted by the patchwork of tools that barely communicate with each other and you're spending more time managing your tech than running your actual business... that's the moment to do it all at once and do it right.

Just make sure whoever builds it actually knows what they're doing. HighLevel in the wrong hands is a very expensive mess. HighLevel built properly is the last platform you'll ever need to switch to.

Curious whether HighLevel is the right fit for your business? Start with The Flow Intensive. We'll figure out exactly what you need, build your strategy around how you actually work, and then build it out in a system that you'll love. Book Your Right Fit Call →

Kara Jordan has spent over a decade building marketing systems for coaches, healers, and service providers who are brilliant at their work, but their businesses feel hard. She's the person you call when you want someone who actually gets it before you finish explaining. She's a little woo, deeply practical, and allergic to marketing that makes people feel bad. Also: kiln owner, tea enthusiast, cat-obsessed, suspected witch