GoHighLevel Alternative for Consulting Agencies
GoHighLevel is a marketing automation platform — it has no understanding of consulting engagements, advisory retainers, or professional services delivery. Your consulting firm needs to manage client engagements from scoping through implementation, track billable hours against retainers, and share deliverables like strategy decks and audit reports through a professional portal. GHL offers none of this. AgencyPro provides engagement-centric management, native retainer billing, and client portals that match how consulting firms operate.
If you're a Consulting agency looking for an alternative to GoHighLevel, you're not alone. Many Consulting teams switch when they outgrow GHL's capabilities — particularly around no real project management or task tracking. AgencyPro is purpose-built for agencies like yours, combining project management, client portals, and billing into one platform.
Why Consulting Agencies Struggle with GoHighLevel
GoHighLevel's pipeline tracks leads through a sales funnel, not consulting engagements through discovery-strategy-implementation-advisory phases with proper milestones and deliverable gates
Sharing strategy documents, audit findings, and implementation plans with consulting clients requires email attachments because GHL's client portal only shows marketing dashboards
Tracking senior consultant and analyst billable hours against different retainer agreements is impossible in GHL — it has no time tracking, utilization metrics, or retainer management
GHL's feature bloat (funnels, SMS marketing, website builder, reputation management) is completely irrelevant to consulting firms and creates a confusing, overwhelming user experience for your team
Why Consulting Agencies Switch to AgencyPro
Engagement-Centric Structure
Consulting work follows a clear trajectory: scoping, discovery, strategy, implementation, and ongoing advisory. GHL flattens this into a sales pipeline that ends when a deal is "won." AgencyPro structures each engagement with proper phases, deliverable milestones, and client approval gates. Your engagement managers see exactly where every client relationship stands.
Professional Client Portals
Consulting clients expect a polished, professional experience — not a marketing dashboard. AgencyPro gives each client a branded portal where they access strategy decks, review recommendations, track engagement progress, and communicate with your team. It's the professional services experience your clients expect, delivered through technology instead of email attachments and calendar invites.
Native Retainer & Hourly Billing
Consulting firms bill by the hour, by the engagement, or against monthly retainers. GHL's payment system handles product purchases and subscriptions. AgencyPro lets you define retainer terms per client, track billable hours by consultant and engagement, and generate detailed invoices automatically. Monitor utilization rates across your entire practice to ensure profitability.
Consultant Utilization Management
Your consulting firm's profitability depends on utilization rates. GHL can't show you whether your senior consultants are at 60% or 90% utilization, which engagements are profitable, or where you have capacity for new work. AgencyPro provides real-time utilization dashboards, engagement profitability analysis, and resource planning that consulting leadership needs.
AgencyPro vs GoHighLevel: Key Feature Comparison
Engagement Management
Structure client engagements with phases, deliverables, and milestones. Track progress across discovery, strategy, implementation, and advisory stages with clear timelines.
Retainer Billing
Define retainer agreements by hours or deliverables, track utilization in real-time, and auto-generate monthly invoices with detailed breakdowns of consultant time and deliverables.
Client Deliverable Portal
Branded dashboards where clients access strategy documents, review recommendations, approve deliverables, track engagement progress, and communicate securely with your team.
Consultant Time Tracking
Track billable hours by consultant, by engagement, and by deliverable type. Time entries flow directly into retainer utilization calculations and invoice generation.
Pipeline & CRM
Manage prospects from inquiry through proposal to signed engagement. Track pipeline value and conversion rates alongside active engagement delivery in one platform.
Utilization Reporting
Monitor consultant utilization rates, engagement profitability, retainer burn rates, and revenue per engagement manager in dashboards designed for consulting firm leadership.
Key Features for Consulting Agencies
Engagement Management
Structure client engagements with phases, deliverables, and milestones. Track progress across discovery, strategy, implementation, and advisory stages with clear timelines.
Retainer Billing
Define retainer agreements by hours or deliverables, track utilization in real-time, and auto-generate monthly invoices with detailed breakdowns of consultant time and deliverables.
Client Deliverable Portal
Branded dashboards where clients access strategy documents, review recommendations, approve deliverables, track engagement progress, and communicate securely with your team.
Consultant Time Tracking
Track billable hours by consultant, by engagement, and by deliverable type. Time entries flow directly into retainer utilization calculations and invoice generation.
Pipeline & CRM
Manage prospects from inquiry through proposal to signed engagement. Track pipeline value and conversion rates alongside active engagement delivery in one platform.
Utilization Reporting
Monitor consultant utilization rates, engagement profitability, retainer burn rates, and revenue per engagement manager in dashboards designed for consulting firm leadership.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does AgencyPro compare to GoHighLevel for consulting firms?
They serve completely different purposes. GHL is a marketing automation platform for funnels, email/SMS, and reputation management. AgencyPro is a professional services management platform for engagement tracking, retainer billing, client portals, and consultant utilization. Consulting firms that adopted GHL for its CRM typically find they still need a separate system for actually managing and delivering engagements.
Can consulting clients access engagement deliverables in AgencyPro?
Yes. Each client gets a branded portal where they view their engagement timeline, download strategy decks and audit reports, review and approve recommendations, track upcoming milestones, and communicate with your team. This replaces the email-and-shared-drive approach that most GHL-based consulting firms rely on for deliverable sharing.
Does AgencyPro handle different consulting billing models?
AgencyPro supports hourly billing with time tracking, retainer billing with monthly allocations and utilization monitoring, fixed-fee project billing with milestone payments, and blended models where a client has both a retainer and project-based work. GHL's payment system only handles simple product or subscription transactions.
Can I keep GHL for lead generation and use AgencyPro for delivery?
Absolutely. Many consulting firms use a CRM or marketing tool for business development while running engagement delivery in AgencyPro. This is cleaner than trying to force GHL into an engagement management role it was never designed for. AgencyPro handles everything from signed engagement through delivery and billing.
Switching from GoHighLevel Is Easier Than You Think
Switching from GoHighLevel to AgencyPro is straightforward. Our team helps migrate your projects, client data, and workflows so nothing falls through the cracks. Most Consulting teams are fully operational within a week.
GoHighLevel Alternatives for Other Industries
Other Alternatives for Consulting Agencies
Learn more about AgencyPro for Consulting Agencies
View the Consulting Agencies use case page →Your Consulting Firm Needs Engagement Management, Not Marketing Automation
Replace GoHighLevel with AgencyPro's engagement tracking, retainer billing, and client portals built for professional services delivery.