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ClickFunnels vs GoHighLevel lawsuit: how it ended (2026). The ClickFunnels patent lawsuit against HighLevel is over, and HighLevel won. On July 2, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Etison LLC v. HighLevel, Inc., ruling ClickFunnels' two funnel-builder patents claim ineligible abstract ideas. No court ever decided whether HighLevel copied anything. For two years, "ClickFunnels is suing GoHighLevel" has floated around agency communities as a half-understood rumor, invoked in platform debates and occasionally inflated into predictions that one product or the other was about to disappear. The case is now finished, all the way through appeal, and the record is public. This is the full story, sourced from the court documents themselves. What was the lawsuit actually about? In April 2024, Etison LLC, the company doing business as ClickFunnels, sued HighLevel, Inc. in federal court in Delaware. The case, Etison LLC v. HighLevel, Inc., No. 1:24-cv-00502, was a patent infringement claim, not a trademark fight or a poaching dispute, which is how it was often misdescribed in YouTube commentary at the time. ClickFunnels asserted two patents: U.S. Patent No. 10,846,357 and No. 11,361,047. Both describe a "website creation system" for building sites with a "series of directional webpages," which is patent language for the thing both companies sell: a funnel builder that walks a visitor through a fixed sequence of pages toward a purchase. The accusation, in plain terms, was that HighLevel's funnel builder infringed ClickFunnels' patented approach to guiding users through step-by-step page sequences. If the patents had held up, the case could have threatened the funnel-building core of the GoHighLevel platform. Why did the district court throw the case out? HighLevel never had to argue about copying. Instead it moved to dismiss on a threshold question: whether the patents should have been granted at all under Section 101 of the Patent Act, which bars patents on abstract ideas. On March 31, 2025, the district court agreed with HighLevel and dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning ClickFunnels could not refile it. In the written opinion, Judge J. Campbell Barker found the patents were directed to the abstract idea of "filtering information based on user preferences to arrive at a final result," and that nothing in the claims added an inventive concept beyond running that idea on generic computers. The claimed efficiency gains, in the court's reading, came from the filtering itself, not from any new technical machinery. The opinion works through the standard two-step test from the Supreme Court's Alice decision. Step one asks whether the claims are directed to an abstract idea; the court said yes, comparing the funnel claims to earlier cases like IBM v. Zillow and Intellectual Ventures I v. Capital One, where presenting, selecting, and filtering information on a screen was held abstract. Step two asks whether the claims add an inventive concept that transforms the idea into something more; the court said no. ClickFunnels' specifications touted reduced processing power, memory, and communication load, but the court found those benefits flowed from the filtering idea itself running on ordinary components, not from any novel technical arrangement. "Dismissed with prejudice" at the pleading stage is about as decisive as patent defense outcomes get. The court did not weigh evidence about HighLevel's conduct; it ruled that the patents themselves claim an unpatentable abstraction. Why do software patents keep failing this test? The outcome surprised patent lawyers far less than it surprised the GoHighLevel and ClickFunnels communities. Since the Supreme Court decided Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank in 2014, courts have invalidated a long line of software patents that describe a familiar business practice and add the words "on a computer." Guiding a shopper through a sequence of pages toward a purchase is a sales technique older than the web; the courts' framework treats a patent on that concept as an attempt to own the idea itself rather than a specific technical invention. That context matters for reading the result correctly. The ruling is not a statement that funnel builders are trivial software, or that ClickFunnels did not pioneer the category commercially. It is a statement that the legal system will not grant any one company a monopoly on the concept of directional page sequences. Every funnel tool on the market, from the smallest startup to both parties in this case, benefits from that line being held. What happened on appeal? ClickFunnels appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the specialized court that hears every patent appeal in the country, in case No. 25-1711, filed April 29, 2025. On July 2, 2026, the Federal Circuit affirmed. Judge Stark, writing for the panel, agreed the patents are ineligible under Section 101, according to IPWatchdog's analysis of the opinion. The panel did find one procedural flaw in the district court's work: it had treated a single claim as representative of all of them without properly resolving ClickFunnels' argument that certain dependent claims, with their "one or more triggers" limitations, deserved separate analysis. The appeals court called the error harmless, because those claims had been examined at the second step of the eligibility analysis anyway, and the outcome stood. The panel also left a note for future cases that patent lawyers will recognize as the real doctrinal takeaway: "It is important for courts to resolve any disputes over representativeness and clearly state which claims are, and are not, adequately represented by others." The opinion sketches how that dispute should run: once the party challenging the patent shows the claims are substantially similar, the burden shifts to the patent owner to make a non-frivolous argument that specific claims deserve their own analysis. It is the kind of procedural guidance that will be cited in Section 101 briefs for years, in a case that most of the marketing world followed only for the brand names on the caption. For ClickFunnels, the affirmance closed the realistic paths forward. A dismissal with prejudice, affirmed on appeal, leaves only a petition to the Supreme Court, which takes a vanishingly small number of patent eligibility cases and has declined every invitation to revisit Alice for over a decade. What the ruling did not decide. One point gets lost in every partisan retelling, so it deserves its own section. No court in this case ever ruled on whether HighLevel copied ClickFunnels. The entire case lived and died on patent eligibility. The courts held that the two patents claim an abstract idea that cannot be patented by anyone, ClickFunnels included. That is a statement about the patents, not an exoneration or a condemnation of either company's product decisions. Anyone claiming the ruling proves GoHighLevel "didn't copy" ClickFunnels, or that ClickFunnels "proved" copying but lost on a technicality, is reading things into the record that are not there. What does the outcome mean for users of either platform? For anyone running funnels on either platform, the practical answer is: nothing changes, and the residual legal risk that hung over the market is gone. That risk was always smaller than the community chatter suggested, but it was not zero while the appeal was pending. * GoHighLevel's funnel builder was never enjoined and now faces no threat from these patents. Agencies building client funnels on GHL can ignore the lawsuit entirely. * ClickFunnels' product is unaffected. The company lost two patents' enforceability, not any part of its software. * The competitive fight returns to the product, which is where it has been decided anyway. The two platforms have diverged: ClickFunnels stayed focused on funnels and courses, while GoHighLevel built out the agency stack of CRM, SaaS Mode, and AI features. The two-year backdrop is worth remembering when evaluating either company's marketing. The rivalry is real and occasionally litigious, and it colors how each side's affiliates talk about the other. Independent numbers matter more than partisan claims; the ClickFunnels comparison breaks down where each platform actually wins on features and pricing. Get 30 Days Free With Its Partner Link * | Full access for 30 days * | No charge during the trial * | Cancel any time No charge for 30 days Join 2.2 million businesses already running on GoHighLevel Timeline of Etison LLC v. HighLevel, Inc. | Date | Event | | April 2024 | Etison LLC (ClickFunnels) sues HighLevel, Inc. for patent infringement in federal court in Delaware, No. 1:24-cv-00502 | | March 31, 2025 | District court grants HighLevel's motion to dismiss with prejudice; patents ruled ineligible under Section 101 | | April 29, 2025 | ClickFunnels appeals to the Federal Circuit, No. 25-1711 | | July 2, 2026 | Federal Circuit affirms the dismissal; representative-claim error deemed harmless |

GoHighLevel vs Keap: which CRM wins in 2026? July 3, 2026 · Esslam Mansour Here is the quick answer: GoHighLevel is the better choice for agencies, consultants, and anyone running marketing for multiple clients. Keap fits a single small service business that wants a guided, hand-holding CRM and is willing to pay a premium for it. GoHighLevel starts at $97 per month with unlimited contacts and unlimited users. Keap now sells a single plan at $299 per month that includes 2 users and 1,500 contacts, with add-on fees for everything beyond that. Both platforms bundle CRM, email marketing, automation, and sales pipelines into one subscription, but they were built for different buyers, and in 2026 the gap between them is wider than it has ever been. This comparison covers what each platform does well, what you will actually pay once add-ons are counted, and which one fits your situation. For a deeper look at the platform Leadstruct recommend for most readers, see its full GoHighLevel review. The core difference. GoHighLevel was built agency first. Every account supports sub-accounts, which are separate client workspaces with their own contacts, funnels, calendars, and automations. You can white label the entire platform and, on the top plan, resell it as your own software. If you serve clients, the architecture works in your favor from day one. Keap, formerly Infusionsoft, was built for a single small business. It focuses on guided onboarding, coaching, and prebuilt automations that help a non-technical owner follow up with leads without hiring a marketer. There is no concept of client sub-accounts and no white labeling. In late 2024, Thryv Holdings acquired Keap for $80 million, and Keap now operates inside the Thryv ecosystem. Existing features have stayed intact so far, with Thryv promising deeper integration of its lead generation and reputation tools over time. So the core difference is structural: GoHighLevel is a platform you can build an agency on, while Keap is a tool you run one business with. Pricing compared. GoHighLevel keeps the same three plans it has run for years, and Leadstruct re-verified the numbers in July 2026. Starter costs $97 per month and includes 3 sub-accounts. Unlimited costs $297 per month and removes the sub-account cap, so you can add as many clients as you want with no change in software cost. Agency Pro costs $497 per month and adds SaaS Mode, which lets you resell GoHighLevel under your own brand with automated Stripe billing. Every plan includes unlimited contacts and unlimited users, annual billing cuts roughly 17 percent off, and there is a 30-day free trial. Keap simplified its pricing in the opposite direction. The old tiered plans are gone, and there is now one plan at $299 per month billed monthly, or $2,988 per year, which works out to an effective $249 per month. That base price includes 2 users and 1,500 contacts. After that, everything scales as an add-on: additional contacts run from about $0.036 per contact per month, extra users cost $39 per month each, and buyers report a one-time implementation fee of around $500. A basic SMS tier is included, with upgrades starting at $24 per month. Current numbers are on the Keap pricing page. The math diverges fast as you grow. A business with 10,000 contacts pays roughly $605 per month on Keap once contact overages are counted (the $299 base plus about $306 in per-contact fees). The same list on GoHighLevel costs $97 per month, because contacts are never billed. Over a year, that is a difference of more than $6,000 for the same database. CRM and automation. Keap's strength is approachability. Its automation builder is one of the friendliest in the industry, with prebuilt templates for lead follow-up, appointment reminders, invoice chasing, and review requests. The platform also handles quotes, invoices, and payments natively, which suits service businesses that bill clients directly from their CRM. Coaching and guided onboarding are part of the pitch, and the implementation fee pays for a structured setup process rather than leaving you to figure it out alone. GoHighLevel's workflow builder is more powerful and more technical. It can trigger actions across email, SMS, voice calls, voicemail drops, social messaging, and webhooks, and it supports branching logic that goes well beyond what Keap offers. The trade-off is a steeper learning curve; GoHighLevel gives you more rope, and new users feel the difference in the first week. Once configured, though, one GoHighLevel workflow can replace several tools that a Keap user would still need to buy separately. Funnels, websites, and lead capture. GoHighLevel ships with a full funnel and website builder, unlimited funnels on every plan, plus calendars, forms, surveys, a reputation management module, and two-way SMS. You can capture a lead on a landing page, book them into a calendar, and enroll them in a nurture sequence without leaving the platform. If funnels are the center of your business, its GoHighLevel vs ClickFunnels comparison goes deeper on that specific matchup. Keap includes landing pages and forms, and they work fine for simple lead capture, but it is not a website or funnel platform. Most Keap users pair it with a separate site builder, which adds cost and another integration to maintain. That is the recurring theme with Keap: the core is solid, but the edges of the platform end sooner, and you fill the gaps with other subscriptions. Support and onboarding. Keap leans on human support. The paid implementation gets you a structured setup with a real person, phone support is available, and the coaching culture from the Infusionsoft era is still part of the product. For an owner who has abandoned a CRM before because setup stalled, that structure has real value. GoHighLevel takes the self-serve route: 24/7 chat support, extensive documentation, and one of the most active user communities in marketing software. Quality of individual support interactions varies, and most users learn the platform through docs, YouTube, and community threads. Expect to be more self-sufficient, and expect the community to answer almost any question faster than a ticket would. Who should choose GoHighLevel. Choose GoHighLevel if you run an agency or consultancy with more than one client, if your contact list is growing past a few thousand and per-contact billing worries you, if you want funnels, websites, calendars, and SMS in the same subscription, or if reselling software under your own brand is part of your plan. It is also the sensible pick for a single business that simply wants more capability per dollar, since $97 per month buys more raw functionality than Keap's $299 plan. Who should choose Keap. Choose Keap if you run one established service business, want a CRM that holds your hand through setup, and value native invoicing and payments over funnels and white labeling. Businesses with small, stable contact lists feel Keap's per-contact pricing the least, and the guided onboarding matters for owners who would otherwise never finish configuring a CRM. If that describes you, and the budget clears $299 per month plus add-ons, Keap remains a polished product. The verdict. For most readers of this site, GoHighLevel wins this comparison, and it is not close. It costs a third of Keap's entry price, never charges for contacts or users, and includes an entire layer of agency functionality that Keap does not attempt. Keap is not a bad product; it is a comfortable CRM for a single small business with a coach-like setup experience. But you pay roughly three times more to get less surface area. The practical way to settle it is to test the winner against your own workflows. GoHighLevel offers a 30-day free trial on every plan, which is long enough to migrate a pipeline, rebuild one funnel, and see whether the platform carries your business better than your current stack does. Ready to try GoHighLevel? Start the 14-day free trial and see if it replaces your tool stack. Enjoyed this? Get the next one. SaaS reviews, tutorials, and deals - straight to your inbox. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

Answering service with HighLevel integration. Capture, organize & convert more leads with AnswerFirst's HighLevel integration. For growing businesses, every inbound call has the potential to become a new customer. But when your team is busy serving clients, managing campaigns, or working through daily operations, it's not always possible to answer every call. HighLevel (or GoHighLevel) helps businesses centralize lead management, customer communication, and marketing automation in one platform. By combining HighLevel with AnswerFirst's 24/7 live answering services, businesses can ensure every call is answered and every lead is captured. With this integration, call details can be automatically routed into HighLevel through Zapier, helping your team stay organized, respond faster, and move prospects through the sales pipeline more efficiently. What is the AnswerFirst-HighLevel integration? HighLevel is an all-in-one CRM and marketing platform designed to help businesses manage leads, automate communication, schedule appointments, and track customer interactions. AnswerFirst provides professional 24/7 live answering services from U.S.-based Customer Service Professionals (CSPs). With the AnswerFirst-HighLevel integration, information collected during customer calls can be automatically sent into HighLevel using Zapier. This ensures that every inquiry, lead, and customer interaction is documented and ready for follow-up. Who is this integration for? This integration is ideal for businesses that use HighLevel to manage sales, marketing, and customer communication. Marketing agencies, home service providers, healthcare practices, legal offices, consultants, real estate professionals, and other service-based businesses can all benefit from connecting AnswerFirst with HighLevel. By integrating the two systems, businesses can ensure that no lead is missed, even when calls come in after hours or during busy periods. Key features of the AnswerFirst-HighLevel integration. By connecting AnswerFirst with HighLevel through Zapier, businesses can automate lead capture and improve how customer information flows through their sales and marketing processes. * Automatic Lead & Contact Creation: When a prospect calls your business, AnswerFirst can capture their contact information and inquiry details, then automatically create a new contact or lead in HighLevel through Zapier. * Detailed Call Notes & Customer Information: Its Customer Service Professionals gather important information from callers, including contact details, service requests, and message notes. These details can be transferred directly into HighLevel, giving your team valuable context before following up. * Faster Follow-Ups & Lead Response Times: Because call information is added to HighLevel in real time, your team can quickly review inquiries, reach out to prospects, and move opportunities through the sales pipeline. * Reduced Administrative Work: Instead of manually entering call information into your CRM, the integration automates the process. This saves time, improves data accuracy, and helps keep records organized. * Enhanced Marketing & Workflow Automation: Once contacts are added to HighLevel, businesses can trigger automated workflows such as email campaigns, SMS messages, appointment reminders, lead nurturing sequences, or internal notifications. AnswerFirst + HighLevel via Zapier. The AnswerFirst-HighLevel integration is available through Zapier, a no-code automation platform that connects thousands of business applications. How Zapier works with AnswerFirst & HighLevel. Zapier allows businesses to customize how information moves between AnswerFirst and HighLevel. For example, when AnswerFirst handles a call, Zapier can automatically create a contact, trigger a workflow, or notify team members about high-priority inquiries. This flexibility allows businesses to build automations that fit their unique sales and customer communication processes without requiring custom development. How AnswerFirst & HighLevel work together for growing businesses. Imagine a home services company running digital marketing campaigns that generate calls throughout the day and evening. When a prospective customer calls after business hours, AnswerFirst answers the phone, gathers the caller's contact information and service needs, and records the details. Through Zapier, that information is automatically added to HighLevel as a new contact. The next morning, the sales team logs in and sees a fully documented lead complete with call notes and contact information. Automated follow-up workflows can even begin immediately, helping ensure a timely response. This process helps businesses stay responsive, improve lead management, and capture more opportunities. Why choose AnswerFirst? For more than 25 years, AnswerFirst has helped businesses improve customer communication with professional, reliable answering services. By integrating with platforms like HighLevel, AnswerFirst Communications, Inc. help businesses capture every lead, maintain organized customer records, and streamline follow-up processes. The combination of live answering and CRM automation helps businesses operate more efficiently while delivering a better customer experience. Getting started with the AnswerFirst-HighLevel integration. Getting started is simple. Its team will work with you to determine how call information should be captured and how it should flow into HighLevel through Zapier. Once configured, the integration creates a seamless connection between incoming customer calls and your CRM, helping your business stay organized, responsive, and focused on growth. Fill out the form below for more information. Please complete all required fields to submit the form. Once submitted, one of its Business Development Specialists will reach out to you with more details about its answering services and integration capabilities. Name (Required) Please DO NOT click the SUBMIT button multiple times. If you do not receive an email from AnswerFirst Communications, Inc. within the next 10 minutes please check your SPAM folder. AnswerFirst Communications, Inc. value your privacy & do not sell your personal information to any third party. Your data is used solely to enhance your experience with its services & provide relevant communications. Russell Scherker | IT Manager Russell Scherker leads AnswerFirst's technology operations and integrations. With decades of IT experience, he ensures its systems run smoothly and securely while keeping its platform connected to the tools its clients rely on.