GoHighLevel vs Make.com: $97 Platform or $9 Automations

Short answer: they are not the same kind of tool, and the price shows it. GoHighLevel is the whole client stack in one login: CRM, booking calendar, email and SMS, funnels, invoices and the workflows that tie them together, for $97 a month for up to 3 client accounts (pricing page, 8 October 2026). Make.com is only the wiring between tools you already pay for, and its Core plan is $9 a month billed yearly ($10.59 monthly) for 10,000 credits, which covered 2,500 bookings of our own 4-step booking flow. If you run an agency and want to replace each client's CRM, calendar and email tool with one platform, HighLevel is the one to trial. If you or your client already have a calendar, Gmail and a spreadsheet and only need them to talk to each other, Make Core does it for a tenth of the price.

This is our own Make account plus a source roundup of HighLevel, and we keep the two apart. Every Make cost per booking below we measured ourselves, on a Make Free account we have run since 18 September 2026. We have never opened a GoHighLevel account, trial or otherwise. Every HighLevel statement on this page comes from its pricing page or its help centre, captured on 8 October 2026, with the date shown. That is why this page has no rating. How we draw that line: how we test.

What we ran and what we only read

We have not built a HighLevel workflow, booked a slot on its calendar or connected it to Make. We cannot tell you how its builder feels to a non-technical owner, because nobody on our side has logged in.

The real difference: a whole platform or the glue between tools

HighLevel replaces tools. Its pricing page lists the core features on every plan: CRM and pipelines, booking calendars, email and SMS marketing, website and funnel builder, forms and surveys, payments and invoicing, courses, communities and workflow automation. Its own FAQ says most users replace "their CRM, funnel builder, email marketing software, appointment scheduler, SMS marketing tools, and review management software". That is HighLevel's claim, not something we have checked, but it is what the $97 is priced for.

Make connects tools. It has no CRM, no calendar and no inbox of its own. You build a scenario: when a booking lands in one app, send an email from another, add the event to a calendar, mark the row in a sheet. Each of those steps is a module, and Make's pricing page says "each module action in your scenario ... counts as one credit". We saw exactly that: our booking automation had four modules, and one booking moved the counter from 0 to 4.

So the question is not which automation builder is better. It is whether you want to keep your current tools and wire them together, or move your clients onto one platform that already has the parts.

The per-client math

Here is what each costs at the size most small agencies and consultants start at. This is our arithmetic from the two pricing pages and our measured Make credits.

If a client already runs Google Calendar, Gmail and a spreadsheet, Make Core is the cheap answer: $9 a month carries the bookings of several small practices. If a client has none of those, or has five tools you would rather manage in one place, the HighLevel figure to compare against is not $9. It is $32.33 against the sum of their CRM, scheduler, email tool and funnel builder.

What HighLevel's workflows cost on top of the plan

Workflow automation is in every HighLevel plan, and most steps cost nothing extra. Its pricing guide says the agency "is not charged for free triggers and actions, only for the premium triggers and actions", at $0.01 per execution, and that some premium actions such as ChatGPT have their own pricing.

Two details matter for anyone moving automations over from Make:

• The inbound webhook is a premium trigger. That is the step that lets an outside form, store or app start a HighLevel workflow. HighLevel's help article says each sub-account gets 100 free executions once premium actions are switched on, then they bill at $0.01 each from the agency wallet.
• The allowance is per client account. HighLevel sells a Workflow Pro add-on: $10 a month for 10,000 premium executions, $25 for 30,000, $50 for 65,000. Its FAQ answers "Is the execution allowance per account or per sub-account?" with "Per sub-account", and the plan is bought from inside the sub-account.

In money: a client account that receives 1,000 leads a month through an inbound webhook pays nothing for the first 100, then about $10 a month after that, either at $0.01 each or on the $10 tier. Small next to the $97 plan, but it is per client, and on the $97 Starter plan you cannot pass it on (rebilling starts at $297, per the same guide). If a workflow passes its allowance mid-month, HighLevel says it keeps running and bills the overage. On Make, at 0 credits, our scenarios showed Active and our webhook answered Accepted while nothing ran until the monthly reset.

Using both: Make inside a HighLevel agency

You do not have to pick one. Make has a GoHighLevel app, and its documentation (updated 7 October 2026) lists modules to watch events, search, create, update and delete contacts, work with opportunities and tasks, add a contact to a campaign and add a note, plus a general API call.

Two things to know before you plan on it. Make says you need "a GoHighLevel account" and "a custom app created on GoHighLevel Marketplace" to connect it, so this is not a one-click link. And every module is a Make credit: sending a lead from an outside tool into HighLevel with a "Create a Contact" step costs at least 1 credit per lead on Make, plus whatever the workflow that picks it up costs on HighLevel. That makes sense when a client uses a tool HighLevel does not connect to. It makes no sense to pay twice for something HighLevel's own forms and calendar already do.

Where Make stops, and where HighLevel's $97 stops

Make Free gives 1,000 credits a month with no time limit, 2 active scenarios and a 15-minute minimum schedule. Our account ran out after 10 days and 7 hours on a 15-minute check alone, and the booking that came in at zero waited for the reset. Move to Core ($9 billed yearly) the month you need a third automation, a schedule, or more than about 250 full bookings. The whole test is in make.com free plan, and whether Core or a higher tier fits is in make.com pricing.

HighLevel Starter stops at 3 client accounts. The fourth client means $297 a month on Unlimited, the same plan you need to rebill phone and email usage to clients. Agency Pro at $497 adds SaaS Mode and rebilling with a markup. The plan-by-client-count breakdown is in gohighlevel for consultants, and the $497 step in gohighlevel saas mode.

Which to pick, by what you run

You run an agency or a consultancy and set up each client's CRM, booking, follow-up and SMS. HighLevel. One login per client, workflows built in, and at three clients $32.33 a month each before usage. Trial it on Starter and price the move to $297 into your fourth client's fee.

You are a coach, clinic or consultant with your own calendar, Gmail and a sheet, and you want confirmations and reminders to send themselves. Make. Start on Free, and move to Core at $9 when you need a third automation. The full booking chain we built is in best booking system for coaches.

You manage clients on HighLevel but one of them lives in a tool HighLevel does not connect to. Both: keep HighLevel as the system of record and add Make for that one connection.

You want email marketing, funnels and courses, not a phone system. Neither may be the cheapest. We put HighLevel against Systeme.io, which has a $0 plan and unlimited client accounts on every tier, in gohighlevel vs systeme.io.

Who should skip HighLevel

If you are a solo owner with one business and the tools you already pay for work, HighLevel's $97 buys you a CRM, a phone system and a funnel builder to move into before any automation saves you time. When we opened the trial signup form on 16 September it asked for a card at step 2 (we stopped there), and the pricing page says billing starts automatically when the trial ends unless you cancel. If all you need is for a booking to send an email and land in your calendar, Make Free does that today at $0, and Core does it at $9 when you outgrow it.