7 Best GoHighLevel Alternatives for SaaS (2024)

Are you launching a new SaaS product?

Do you need recurring payments?

Are you concerned about TAX/VAT?

All the platforms offer identical solutions to GoHighLevel, but small and sometimes important differences (like merchant of records) are lost in the weeds. This article goes over the key aspects when looking for a GoHighLevel alternative.

We will be outlining only the following differences that matter between each platform:

1. Are they the merchant of record?
2. Do they support recurring transactions?
3. Do they collect TAX/VAT?
4. How much do they cost?
5. Do they offer chargeback or fraud protection?

This article has no particular ordering, and none of the companies are paid sponsorships. Our analysis is based on our customers who resell ChipBot’s white label.

Also, one common pattern you will see is a lot of 😡 angry reviews on all the platforms covered here. I suspect it’s because people have bad products and blame the platform instead of what they’re selling. Just a guess.

Merchant of record: Stripe
Recurring transactions: Yes
Tax/VAT management: Yes
Cost: minimum $18/mo, 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction
Chargeback protection: Yes via Stripe

Notes:

• Adds software on top of Stripe’s APIs. It makes sense why they’re cheaper since you couldn’t use Moonclerk alone to operate.
• Reviews: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/moonclerk.com
  • Here’s more: https://www.g2.com/products/moonclerk/reviews

Merchant of record: Lemon Squeezy
Recurring transactions: Yes
Tax/VAT management: Yes
Cost: It’s complicated. 5% + 50¢ per transaction. $10/mo intro price for “other stuff.”
Chargeback protection: Yes, but they will 💣 destroy you if you have too many.

Notes:

• This is their chargeback disclaimer: “If your account has had too many chargebacks issued against it, our team may get involved and your account may be suspended.”
• They have an excellent article on VAT and compliance. It’s worth a read if you’re selling in the EU. https://www.lemonsqueezy.com/blog/eu-saas-vat
• Reviews (not enough in my opinion): https://www.trustpilot.com/review/lemonsqueezy.com

Merchant of record: Sellfy or PayPal (depends)
Recurring transactions: Yes
Tax/VAT management: Yes
Cost: minimum $29/mo, 14-day free trial
Chargeback protection: Partial (yes if PayPal or other gateways, no if Sellfy)

Notes:

• You’ll have to do some extra work to collect VAT correctly. See their help guide around this here. It still talks about BREXIT but has more relevant information than other parts of their website. https://docs.sellfy.com/article/43-how-does-sellfy-handle-the-new-eu-vat-laws#How_do_I_enable_VAT_collection
• 💩 Reviews are somewhat stinky. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/sellfy.com. I suspect some merchants don’t have a great product to sell. You should always sell a good product.

Merchant of record: Stripe, PayPal. Their help docs mention Bitpay but not their pricing page.
Recurring transactions: Yes
Tax/VAT management: Yes (very well done)
Cost: $9/mo + 5% per transaction
Chargeback protection: No

Notes:

• Their reviews are the best in this list, but they also have the highest transaction fee. Everything is a give and take. https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.sendowl.com

Merchant of record: Stripe, Authorize.net, PayPal, WePay, Worldpay
Recurring transactions: Yes
Tax/VAT management: Yes
Cost: $0 for first 20 subscriptions, then $59/mo
Chargeback protection: No

Notes:

• Definitely the cheapest and most reliable platform listed here.
• Reviews: … good luck finding them. Because Zoho has other products that are more well known than Zoho Subscriptions, it’s really hard to find reviews. Here here’s their main review page if you want to check yourself: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.zoho.com

Merchant of record: Yes
Recurring transactions: Yes
Tax/VAT management: Yes
Cost: 5% + 50¢ per transaction
Chargeback protection: Yes

Notes:

• Very well known. You probably are indundated with ads before you saw this article by Paddle.
• Reviews. Tale of two cities:
  • The semi-good reviews: https://www.trustpilot.com/review/paddle.com
  • The bad reviews: https://www.producthunt.com/products/paddle/reviews

Merchant of record: Stripe, PayPal, Chargebee, Gumroad, etc…
Recurring transactions: Depends
Tax/VAT management: Depends
Cost: $$ to $$$$$
Chargeback protection: Depends

So you want to 🔥 burn all your cash. This is the solution for you!

Just kidding. 🃏

This might be the best option if you can code or hire a competent developer.

Everyone has different needs and requirements, and something out of the box may not be sufficient for your requirements.

So, when does it make sense to build your custom portal?

• When you manage multiple white label products
• When you have an existing custom product
• When you have unique needs that GoHighLevel and other alternatives don’t meet your requirements

If you can code or have access to developers, you can cut down on monthly fees and hidden costs that other platforms deploy.

So, how would you build this?

1. Create a standalone marketing page. Try to keep this governed by you and not by the developer. You don’t want to incur costs that SquareSpace, Wix, or Webflow can do for you out of the box.
2. Create a standalone payment page. If you use Stripe, PayPal, or Chargebee, they provide standalone payment links that you can use to link to your plans from your marketing page. These platforms have a redirect setting that you configure after a successful payment.
3. Create the portal. This is easier said than done, but this is the part you want your developer to focus on. Your developer creates a UI around everything, and then you can “IFRAME” the actual website of your white label SaaS into the UI. All the customer info would be managed in a database. Basically this is a portal + pseudo CRM.

If you go down this route, set clear requirements and budget for your developer.

That joke I posted early was half-kidding. I have seen other businesses burn $5,000 weekly with no usable portal.

This is one of those things that you don’t want to go out of control. And if you have more questions on this, ping us on social media or through our support. We would be happy to share more details on how our customers deploy a solution like this.