In the fast-paced world of marketing automation and CRM tools, a growing number of businesses are moving away from SharpSpring and embracing HighLevel. This shift isn’t happening by chance it’s driven by the need for more integrated solutions, better value, and platforms that keep up with modern marketing demands. If you’re considering a SharpSpring to HighLevel migration, you’re not alone, we’ll explore why so many companies are making the switch, highlight HighLevel’s key benefits over SharpSpring, discuss common challenges when migrating, and explain how VA Matters can help ensure a seamless transition to your new platform.
HighLevel has quickly become a favorite for marketing agencies and businesses looking for an all-in-one solution. Here are some of the top reasons users are leaving SharpSpring for HighLevel:
All-in-One Platform: HighLevel offers an all-in-one marketing platform that includes CRM, email marketing, 2-way SMS texting, sales funnels, landing pages, appointment scheduling, membership sites, and even reputation management all under one roof. In contrast, SharpSpring often requires additional third-party tools (for things like advanced texting, call tracking, or review management), which means juggling multiple subscriptions.
Cost Savings and Value: HighLevel is significantly more cost-effective than SharpSpring for what you get. SharpSpring plans is quite high whereas HighLevel’s plans are affordable. Which allows you to serve multiple clients without extra fees. This affordability, combined with HighLevel’s broad feature set, means you can often replace several tools (and their fees) with HighLevel alone. Businesses switching report saving hundreds or even thousands of dollars monthly by consolidating onto HighLevel’s platform.
Built for Agencies (Scalability): Unlike SharpSpring, which serves a broad range of businesses, HighLevel is tailored for digital agencies. It allows agencies to create unlimited sub-accounts for clients, fully white-label the platform with their own branding, and manage all clients in one place. HighLevel’s pricing doesn’t increase with each new client or with more contacts, making it ideal for agencies that are scaling up. This agency-focused model is a huge draw for SharpSpring users who felt constrained by SharpSpring’s pricing or account structure.
Ongoing Innovation and Support: HighLevel is a relatively newer platform and has been rapidly rolling out new features (including AI-driven tools) and improvements. In fact, HighLevel recently climbed to the #1 position in marketing automation software usage, surpassing long-time players, which reflects its fast-growing adoption. On the other hand, SharpSpring users have noted a slowdown in feature updates, especially after SharpSpring’s acquisition by Constant Contact in 2021. HighLevel also offers 24/7 support and a large community of users, so help is readily available when needed. Agencies appreciate having a platform that’s evolving and backed by robust support.
In short, HighLevel offers more bang for your buck and simplifies your tech stack. It’s easy to see why an increasing number of SharpSpring users are deciding that HighLevel is the better fit for their business needs.
Switching CRM or marketing platforms is a significant project. If not done properly, a migration from SharpSpring to HighLevel can encounter some pitfalls. Here are common migration challenges users face:
Incomplete or “Dirty” Data: One major risk is migrating dirty or incomplete data from the old system. Over time, CRMs accumulate duplicate contacts, outdated information, and miscellaneous data that may not cleanly fit into the new system’s structure. If you simply export everything “as is,” you might import a mess into HighLevel. Good data hygiene (cleaning up contacts, fields, and records before migration) is essential to avoid garbage-in, garbage-out issues.
No Clear Migration Strategy: Migrating without a solid plan can lead to chaos. Users sometimes jump into a platform switch without mapping out the process, which can result in missed data, prolonged downtime, or confusion. A clear migration strategy and timeline are crucial. This includes deciding what data to migrate, in what order, and how to handle features in SharpSpring that don’t have an exact one-to-one match in HighLevel.
Downtime and Business Disruption: During a migration, there’s a risk of downtime – for example, forms might stop capturing leads or marketing automation might pause if not transitioned carefully. If the switch isn’t timed and executed properly, businesses can experience interruptions. Minimizing downtime (or having zero downtime) during the changeover is a key challenge that needs to be managed with careful planning and testing.
Rebuilding Workflows and Assets: SharpSpring and HighLevel have different architectures for things like email templates, automation workflows, landing pages, and pipelines. A migration isn’t just about moving contacts; you also need to recreate your email campaigns, funnels, and automation sequences in HighLevel. This can be time-consuming and, if done manually, prone to errors or omissions. Missing a critical automation step or mis-configuring a campaign in the new system could impact your marketing until it’s fixed.
Integration and Compatibility Issues: Many businesses have other tools connected to their CRM – such as web forms on their site, advertising platforms, analytics, or third-party integrations. During migration, those connections need to be updated to point to HighLevel. Forgetting to reconnect an integration (for example, a Facebook Lead Ad or a website contact form) could mean lost leads. Ensuring all existing tools integrate with HighLevel (or finding new solutions within HighLevel for them) is a common hurdle. It’s important to audit your current SharpSpring setup to identify everything that needs re-integrating on HighLevel.
User Adoption and Training: Finally, even after a successful technical migration, your team needs to adapt to using HighLevel. HighLevel’s interface is user-friendly, but it’s still a new system for those coming from SharpSpring. A mistake some make is ignoring user training and adoption – which can lead to frustration or inconsistent use of the new platform. Providing adequate training and documentation to your marketing and sales teams ensures everyone gets up to speed quickly and fully utilizes HighLevel’s features from day one.
As you can see, there’s a lot to juggle. These challenges cause some organizations to delay switching platforms, despite the benefits of HighLevel. The good news is that with the right expertise and a thorough process, all these challenges can be overcome. This is where VA Matters comes in.
VA Matters specializes in CRM and marketing platform migrations including moving businesses from SharpSpring to HighLevel with a focus on making the process painless for you. Our team understands both platforms in depth and has a proven process to handle the heavy lifting. In fact, VA Matters offers full-service CRM migration that emphasizes zero downtime and secure data transfer for your business. We don’t just move your data; we make sure your new HighLevel system is set up for success.
Here’s how VA Matters helps businesses migrate from SharpSpring to HighLevel, step by step:
Initial Consultation & Migration Strategy: We begin with a comprehensive assessment of your current SharpSpring setup. This involves identifying all the data and assets you have (contacts, leads, custom fields, campaigns, emails, automation workflows, landing pages, etc.) and understanding your business processes. Based on this, we develop a clear migration plan and timeline. We’ll map out which data will be migrated, how each SharpSpring feature will translate into HighLevel, and how to sequence the transition to avoid disruptions. This planning stage ensures there are no surprises and that everyone is on the same page before any data moves.
Data Backup and Export: Before making any changes, VA Matters will back up your SharpSpring data. We securely export all necessary data – including contacts, companies (if used), deals/opportunities, contact engagement history, email templates, etc. – in a structured format. If your data needs cleaning (for example, removing duplicate entries or standardizing fields), we handle that as part of the export process. By working with clean, complete data, we set the stage for a successful import into HighLevel without the clutter or inaccuracies that could otherwise carry over.
HighLevel Account Setup and Configuration: Next, we help you set up your HighLevel account (if you haven’t already) and configure it to mirror your needs. This includes creating any custom fields in HighLevel that correspond to information you tracked in SharpSpring, setting up your pipelines (sales stages) to match or improve upon your SharpSpring opportunities pipeline, configuring calendars and phone/SMS settings, and enabling any necessary integrations in HighLevel. Essentially, we tailor HighLevel to fit your business so that it can replace SharpSpring seamlessly. By the time we finish this step, your HighLevel environment is prepared to receive the data and workflows from SharpSpring.
Rebuilding Automations, Campaigns, and Assets: This is one of the heavier lifts VA Matters will rebuild your key workflows and marketing assets within HighLevel. Using the exported materials and referencing your SharpSpring setup, we recreate email campaigns, drip sequences, funnel pages, and automation rules in HighLevel’s system. HighLevel’s intuitive funnel and campaign builder makes it easier to replicate and even improve your existing funnels and automations. We take care to ensure that all the triggers, conditions, and actions in SharpSpring (for example, an automated email after a form fill, or moving a lead to a new pipeline stage after an email click) are properly implemented in HighLevel’s Workflow builder. During this process, we’ll also suggest or implement enhancements where possible – taking advantage of HighLevel features (like SMS follow-ups or improved funnel designs) that might not have been used in SharpSpring. The goal is not just to copy-paste, but to optimize your marketing setup on the new platform.
Data Import to HighLevel: Once HighLevel is configured and foundational campaigns are set up, we import your data. VA Matters will upload your contacts (typically via CSV import or via HighLevel’s migration tools) and ensure all contact details, tags/segmentations, and notes carry over correctly. We also import other data such as lead scores, deal records, or email subscription statuses as needed. During this step, we double-check that each piece of data landed in the right place (for example, custom fields matched correctly, and all contacts are associated with the proper campaigns or pipelines). Our meticulous approach means no lead is left behind in the old system and your team can pick up in HighLevel right where you left off.
Integrations and Third-Party Connections: VA Matters will reconnect or re-establish any integrations that you rely on. If you had your website’s contact forms feeding into SharpSpring, we’ll update them to feed into HighLevel (or use HighLevel’s native form/widget where suitable). If you were using analytics or ad platforms (Facebook, Google Ads) connected to SharpSpring, we will integrate those with HighLevel so your lead tracking continues uninterrupted. Moreover, because HighLevel can replace some standalone tools, we help identify which subscriptions you might cancel. For instance, if you were using a separate landing page builder or SMS tool with SharpSpring, you can likely drop those in favor of HighLevel’s built-in capabilities simplifying your stack and saving costs.
Testing and Quality Assurance: Before we declare the migration complete, we perform thorough testing in the HighLevel system. This includes sending test emails and SMS messages, submitting test form entries, running through funnel steps, and exercising the automation workflows to ensure every trigger and action works as expected. We also verify that data is populating correctly (for example, new leads via your website show up in HighLevel with all the right info, and pipeline deals move through stages properly). Any issues discovered in testing are fixed promptly. Our motto here is measure twice, cut once by testing extensively, we prevent hiccups when you go live.
Team Training & Go-Live Support: A successful migration isn’t just technical – it’s also about your team confidently using the new system. VA Matters provides training and support to help your staff get comfortable with HighLevel’s interface and features. We can schedule training sessions (virtual or in-person) to walk your team through common tasks in HighLevel, ensuring they know how to find contacts, send campaigns, track performance, and so on. When it’s time to go live (fully switch over to HighLevel as your system of record), we’ll be right beside you. We typically schedule the final switch at a low-traffic time for your business, and we monitor the system closely as you begin using HighLevel in real operations. If any post-migration issues arise, our team is on hand to address them immediately. This ongoing monitoring and support means you get a truly seamless transition with no downtime surprises.
By following this comprehensive process, VA Matters handles the migration from start to finish, so you don’t have to worry about the technical details or potential pitfalls. Our migration service covers everything needed to get you up and running on HighLevel quickly and confidently. The benefit to your business is huge: you avoid data loss, prevent costly downtime, and skip the headaches of figuring everything out yourself. Instead, you can focus on your business while knowing experts are implementing your new HighLevel platform the right way. As a result, you’ll start enjoying HighLevel’s advantages immediately without the usual transition pains.
Migrating from SharpSpring to HighLevel can be one of the best moves you make for your marketing operations. You’ll gain a more powerful, unified platform and likely save on costs and complexity in the long run. And with the right partner guiding the migration, the process can be smooth and stress-free. VA Matters is here to ensure exactly that. We’ve helped companies large and small transition to better platforms without a hitch, and we’re ready to help your business too.
Don’t let the fear of migration hold you back from upgrading to a superior system. If you’re ready to harness HighLevel’s capabilities and leave SharpSpring’s limitations behind, let VA Matters handle the heavy lifting. Our experts will manage your SharpSpring to HighLevel migration with precision and care – zero downtime, no lost data, and no hassle. It’s time to join the many businesses already benefiting from HighLevel’s all-in-one power. Contact VA Matters today to schedule a consultation and take the first step toward a seamless migration. Your future marketing success awaits on HighLevel and we’ll get you there painlessly. Let’s make the switch together!
Stop worrying about technical headaches and lost subscribers. VA Matters is here to make your SharpSpringto HighLevel migration smooth, fast, and 100% accurate.
Contact us today to get your free migration audit and see how easy it is to upgrade to HighLevel!
Migrating from SharpSpring to GoHighLevel doesn’t have to be overwhelming. With the right preparation and expert support from VA Matters, you can make the transition smooth, efficient, and stress-free. Contact us today to start your journey toward a more powerful and integrated marketing platform!
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