ClickUp vs HighLevel

ClickUp vs. HighLevel for Marketing Agencies: Overview

When it comes to choosing a CRM platform, ClickUp and HighLevel stand out for their distinct features and functionalities tailored to enhance business operations. ClickUp is renowned for its project management capabilities, offering tools that facilitate task organization and team collaboration. In contrast, HighLevel emphasizes comprehensive customer relationship management with a focus on marketing automation and client engagement.

In this comparison, we'll explore their key features, pricing models, and overall benefits to help you determine which solution aligns best with your marketing agency's needs. We'll also explore folk as a viable alternative that has proven to be the optimal CRM solution for marketing agencies with 20-50 team members.

👉🏼 Try folk now to set up customizable pipelines and email sequences faster than ClickUp or HighLevel

What is ClickUp?

ClickUp is a project management and productivity platform designed to help teams and individuals organize tasks, track progress, and collaborate in one workspace. Although it is primarily a project management tool, ClickUp includes some CRM elements that can benefit marketing agencies managing client projects.

Key features of ClickUp

• Task management: ClickUp allows users to create, assign, and track tasks with custom statuses, providing flexibility in managing work processes across different marketing campaigns and client projects.
• Custom views: The platform offers multiple views like lists, boards, calendars, and Gantt charts, enabling marketing teams to visualize campaign timelines and client deliverables in a format that suits their workflow preferences.
• Goal tracking: Users can set, track, and manage campaign goals within ClickUp, aligning tasks and projects with broader client objectives and agency KPIs.
• Time tracking: ClickUp includes a built-in time tracking feature to log time spent on client projects, allowing agencies to monitor productivity and accurately bill clients for services rendered.
• Workflow automation: Automation in ClickUp enables marketing teams to reduce manual tasks by setting up rules that trigger actions, such as status updates or client notifications, based on predefined campaign milestones.
• Custom fields: The platform allows users to add custom fields to tasks, enabling agencies to track specific client data points or categorize projects according to service offerings.
  

What is HighLevel?

HighLevel is a comprehensive platform designed to streamline digital marketing efforts for agencies and businesses. It offers features such as lead capture, automated booking, customer nurturing, and membership site creation. The platform provides tools to help marketing agencies build their digital marketing engine, automate client workflows, and drive business growth for their clients. It also includes a white-label option for agencies to brand as their own service.

Key features of HighLevel

• Lead capture tools: HighLevel provides customizable forms, surveys, and landing pages to help marketing agencies effectively capture and manage leads for their clients across multiple campaigns.
• Automated workflows: Automate client communication tasks like follow-ups, appointment scheduling, and campaign reminders, saving agency time and ensuring consistent client engagement.
• Customer nurturing tools: Engage with client prospects through email campaigns, text messages, and automated drip sequences to convert leads into loyal customers for agency clients.
• Membership site creation: Build and manage membership sites directly within the platform, offering valuable resources or courses to clients as part of comprehensive marketing packages.
• White-label platform: Marketing agencies can fully brand HighLevel as their own, delivering a seamless branded experience to their clients without revealing the underlying technology.

ClickUp vs. HighLevel: Feature Comparison

Let's break down the key features of these two platforms and take a closer look at their sales automation, email marketing tools, and contact management capabilities for marketing agencies.

1. Sales Pipeline Management

ClickUp does not have a dedicated pipeline management feature designed specifically for sales or CRM purposes, but users can create customizable pipelines using task lists, boards, and custom statuses. This flexibility allows marketing teams to tailor their client workflows, though it might require more setup for sales-specific needs and client relationship management.
HighLevel CRM's sales pipeline management feature enables marketing agencies to create pipelines tailored to their client acquisition and retention processes. It provides tools to track prospects, monitor deal progress, and view opportunities through a comprehensive dashboard designed for agency workflows.

2. Ease of use

ClickUp is known for its intuitive interface, making it easy for marketing teams to manage client projects and campaign tasks. HighLevel, while feature-rich for agencies, may present a steeper learning curve due to its extensive CRM functionalities and customization options, which can be overwhelming for new agency team members without prior CRM experience.

3. Contact enrichment

ClickUp does not offer a contact enrichment feature as part of its core functionality. Marketing agencies can manually store and organize client and prospect contact information, but the platform does not automatically pull in additional data about contacts from external sources. HighLevel CRM does not appear to offer dedicated contact enrichment features for agency client management.

4. Outreach

ClickUp lacks a dedicated outreach feature for external client communication, relying on custom workflows for outreach tasks. HighLevel CRM includes robust outreach tools, such as email campaigns and automated sequences, facilitating lead and customer interactions for agency clients, though setup can be time-consuming for marketing teams.

5. Automation

ClickUp's automation is versatile but not CRM-specific, requiring customization for advanced client management needs. HighLevel offers comprehensive automation tools for lead follow-ups and marketing campaigns, streamlining agency tasks but needing time to configure complex workflows effectively for multiple clients.

6. Integration

ClickUp integrates with various third-party tools like Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, and Dropbox, enhancing workflow efficiency and team collaboration within marketing agencies. HighLevel also offers integrations designed to streamline agency operations by enabling users to connect HighLevel with their existing marketing technology stack and tools. However, the range of integrations may require additional setup and configuration to align with specific agency business needs.

7. Artificial Intelligence

ClickUp's AI integration, through 'Chat', connects tasks and knowledge, aiding in campaign management and content writing for marketing agencies. HighLevel lacks prominent AI features, focusing instead on manual configuration and automation without AI-driven functionalities for agency workflows.

Price and plans comparison

Let's take a closer look at the pricing and plans of both ClickUp and HighLevel for marketing agencies.

ClickUp prices

ClickUp offers a free forever plan for personal use. Premium options are available as either a monthly and annual subscription plan. The following is a high level overview of the annual subscription plans available for marketing teams.

• Unlimited: $7/user/month.
• Business: $12/user/month.
• Enterprise: Undisclosed.

HIghLevel prices

HighLevel has two price tiers designed for marketing agencies to choose from.

• Starter: $97/seat/month.
• Unlimited: $297/seat/month.

Introducing folk CRM: the best alternative to ClickUp and HIghLevel

Looking for an affordable alternative that's specifically designed for marketing agencies? We recommend folk. A multiple award-winning CRM platform that has become the go-to solution for marketing agencies with teams of 20-50 people. folk's intuitive design and powerful features make it perfect for agencies managing multiple client relationships, campaigns, and lead generation efforts. folk can support multiple business functions including sales, marketing, client management, and recruitment, making it the ideal choice for growing marketing agencies that need a comprehensive solution.

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Key features

• Contact management: Bring all your client and prospect contacts into one place seamlessly, from social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Instagram and X to multiple inboxes including Gmail and Outlook - perfect for agencies managing diverse client portfolios.
• Notes and reminders: Attach detailed notes directly to a contact's profile in folk, and access them on the go. Assign reminders for client check-ins and campaign follow-ups so your agency team knows exactly when to reach out.
• Sales pipeline dashboard: Manage your entire client acquisition cycle and prospect pipeline with a highly customizable sales pipeline dashboard that can be used in Kanban-board view or list format - ideal for agencies tracking multiple opportunities.
• Ease of use and customization: Easily customize the pipelines, dashboards, automation, email sequences, so that marketing agencies can use it across client acquisition, campaign management, and other business functions such as recruitment and vendor management.
• Social media integration: Import prospects and companies from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, and X within a click thanks to folk's Google Chrome extension - essential for agency business development.
• Contact sync from Gmail and Outlook: Full email sync enabling agency teams to manage all client communications directly from the CRM without switching between platforms.
• Find email addresses in a click: Contact enrichment powered by Apollo, and Dropcontact so marketing agencies can fill in missing prospect data points with 1-click for better outreach campaigns.
• Email sequences: Send personalized email sequences with automated reminders if prospects don't reply to your initial outreach. It includes an AI integration allowing agencies to personalize email at scale for better client conversion.

Price and plans

folk has a 14-day free trial perfect for marketing agencies to test the platform. After that, there are affordable monthly or annual subscription plans designed to scale with growing agencies. The annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month.
• Custom: Starts from $80 per user, per month.

ClickUp vs. HighLevel: What's the verdict?

ClickUp is not a traditional CRM platform for marketing agencies, although it has some CRM elements suitable for project management. While HighLevel stands out with its marketing automation features, it can be complex and costly for agencies with 20-50 team members. For marketing agencies seeking a more personalized approach to client relationship management, folk CRM stands out as the clear winner. It combines ease of use with powerful customization specifically designed for marketing agencies of 20-50 people, making it an ideal choice for agencies looking to streamline their client acquisition and retention processes.

👉🏼 Try folk now to manage contact-based reminders and never miss an agency follow-up

FAQ

Is ClickUp a CRM for marketing agencies?

ClickUp is a project management tool with some CRM-like features. It has no dedicated sales pipeline, contact enrichment, or outreach, and requires customization to act as a CRM for client work.

What is HighLevel used for?

HighLevel is built for agencies to run marketing: lead capture, automated workflows, email/SMS campaigns, pipelines, and white-label. It is powerful but can be complex and pricier per seat.

How do ClickUp and HighLevel pricing compare?

ClickUp (annual): Unlimited $7/user/mo, Business $12, Enterprise undisclosed. HighLevel: Starter $97/seat/mo, Unlimited $297/seat/mo. Features and onboarding effort differ notably.

What is a good alternative to ClickUp and HighLevel?

folk CRM offers customizable pipelines, contact enrichment, and email sequences with simple setup. Annual plans: Standard $20/user/mo, Premium $40, Custom from $80. Try folk with a 14-day free trial.