Chatfuel SDK vs GoHighLevel
GoHighLevel rents you a platform you may put your logo on. Chatfuel SDK hands you the application — the source, the domain, the sign-up and the price are yours.
Side by side
| Feature | GoHighLevel | Chatfuel SDK |
|---|---|---|
| What you get | ||
What it is | A platform you rent and may re-brand | The application itself, handed over |
Source you can read and change | ||
Licence | Proprietary — “a personal, royalty-free, non-assignable, revocable, and non-exclusive license” | MIT |
Where it runs | Their platform; no self-hosting or source-code option is published | Vercel, your own server or Docker |
What leaves with you | CSV exports, and Snapshots — clones of a sub-account that move to another HighLevel account | The app, its source, and the deployment you already control |
Your data after you stop paying | Kept ninety days, then deleted “in its sole discretion” | Nothing to retrieve — it never left your deployment |
Selling or transferring the account | “Platform Accounts are non-transferable.” | It is your codebase; it sells with the business |
| Your brand, your customer | ||
Your logo when a client logs in | ||
How far the branding may go | Their terms: your customisation may not “appear to be independently developed” | No ceiling — it is your repository |
Your own domain | ||
A mobile app under your name | A $497/month add-on, included with Enterprise | |
The price you may advertise | No lower than “HighLevel’s then-current standard pricing” for a similar plan | Whatever you decide — you are not reselling a plan |
Your own sign-up and your own price | SaaS Mode, on the $497 Agency Pro plan | The auth module, on any plan |
Who the customer is dealing with | You are “fully liable to your customers for their access to and use of the Platform” | Your app, your terms, your customer |
Saying you built it | Their terms forbid “implying an association with HighLevel when reselling access” | You did build it — the commits are yours |
| What one client costs you | ||
The plan selling it as your own needs | Agency Pro, $497 a month | Any plan — Business is $20 a month |
Client accounts included | 3 on Starter at $97; unlimited on Unlimited at $297 and Pro at $497 | One bot on Business, three on Agency S, no limit from Agency M |
AI for a client | $50 or $97 a month per sub-account, or pay-per-use tokens | One balance the whole workspace shares |
WhatsApp for a client | $10 a month per WhatsApp-enabled sub-account, plus Meta’s rates and a 5% Stripe fee | No per-bot channel fee |
A client portal | A branded app at $49 a month per sub-account | The app is the portal — your customers sign in to it, at no charge a client |
Rebilling with a markup | Phone and email on Unlimited; with markup on Pro | Nothing to rebill — you invoice, and none of it is taken |
What is metered | Phone numbers, SMS, email, AI and Workflow Premium Features, from an Agency Wallet that recharges your card | AI tokens, and a cent a conversion event, from the plan’s balance |
| Where a conversation starts | ||
Instagram and Facebook post comments | ||
Replying under the comment | Up to ten replies, one picked at random | |
A DM back from the comment | Yes, inside a seven-day window | |
Instagram story replies | An open request on their own ideas board — 157 votes, no official response | |
Ad comments as their own entry point | Not published | |
A click from a Meta ad into WhatsApp | ||
TikTok | US-registered business accounts only; not in the EEA, Switzerland or the UK | |
Entry points published | Facebook and Instagram comments, click-to-WhatsApp, TikTok in the US | 17, over Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok and the web widget |
| The AI, and the app around it | ||
An AI that answers the chat | ||
How much it is allowed to do | Three modes for the agent — “Off”, “Suggestive”, “Autopilot” | Per entry point: fifteen settings on each of seventeen sources |
Channels the AI covers | SMS, email, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, chat widget and live chat | Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, TikTok and the web widget |
A knowledge base it answers from | ||
Conversions reported to Meta | A Conversions API workflow action | 14 names plus your own, on 7 triggers, 30 event sets a bot |
Funnels, websites, courses and communities | ||
Telephony and payments | ||
Social publishing | Social media management across networks | Instagram feed, Reels, Stories and carousels |
Modules with a surface | A far longer list than ours — funnels, sites, telephony, payments, courses, reputation, listings | 12: inbox, contacts, deals, bookings, knowledge base, automations, copilot, flows, ads, publishing, auth, admin |
| Money and terms | ||
Published price | $97, $297 and $497 a month; Enterprise on request | $20 for one bot, $100 to $2,050 for an agency |
Trial | 14 days on any plan | A trial the wizard opens, and a promo code worth $100 of credits |
Contract | Month to month, no long-term contract | Month to month, and the code is yours either way |
Refunds | All fees “are non-refundable… regardless of whether you actually accessed or used the Platform Account” | The SDK costs nothing; only the workspace is billed |
Your own screen inside the app | A menu link: “Embedded Page (iFrame)”, “New Browser Tab” or “Current Browser Tab” | A route in your own React tree |
API access | Basic on Starter and Unlimited; Advanced and Agency API keys on Agency Pro | The Chatfuel API through your own proxy, on every plan |
Support | 24/7 on every plan; premium support at $500 a month | Discord and GitHub |
Standing a client up quickly | A Snapshot clones a configured sub-account into the next one | The setup is the repository — deploy the same app again, and add the bot |
When to choose which
Choose GoHighLevel if
- You want funnels, websites, courses and communities in one subscription, and you are not going to build them.
- Your clients need a mobile app with your name on it — theirs is a $497/month add-on, and we do not ship one at all.
- You want telephony and payments in the same bill — numbers at $1.15 a month, and Stripe, PayPal, NMI, Authorize.net, Square, Adyen or Razorpay behind the checkout.
- You want 24/7 support on every plan. Ours is a Discord and a GitHub issue tracker.
- You need HIPAA compliance: theirs is a $297-a-month add-on, included with Enterprise.
Choose Chatfuel SDK if
- The product your clients log into should be yours down to the source, not a platform you may put a logo on.
- You do not want a ceiling on the branding, or a floor under the price you advertise.
- Every client bot on one balance beats a per-sub-account meter on the AI, on WhatsApp and on the portal.
- Comments, story replies, ad clicks and ig.me links are all places you want the AI answering — seventeen of them over five platforms.
- You want the code under MIT, a coding agent that knows it, and nothing to retrieve if you stop paying.
Try it on one client
One command scaffolds the app, and the modules you pick are the only ones written. Point it at a client’s bot and the app is theirs to log into the same afternoon — under your name, on your domain.
- Run the wizard, pick the modules, give it your name and your logo.
- Connect the client’s bot, and set the AI per entry point rather than once for the whole agent.
- Add the auth module when you want the client signing in to you, not to a platform.
- Deploy to Vercel, your own server or Docker — the same source runs on all three.
Questions
Yes, and there is no clause about how far. The wizard asks for the app name and a logo and writes them in; colour, radius and spacing are one token file. GoHighLevel do let you white-label the desktop web app, but their terms add that you may not be able to customise the Platform to the extent that your customisation would appear to be independently developed. Ours already is — you compiled it.