The GoHighLevel Starter plan costs $97 per month (or $970 per year) and gives you three sub-accounts, unlimited contacts, unlimited users, and access to every core feature the platform offers — making it a capable entry point for solo marketers, small agencies, and businesses that want to replace several separate tools with one platform. The main ceiling is the three-sub-account cap: once you outgrow it, you will need to upgrade. Based on HighLevel's published pricing and help-center documentation (checked October 2026), here is everything you need to know before you commit.
What the Starter Plan Costs
HighLevel's pricing page (checked October 2026) lists two billing options for the Starter plan:
- Monthly: $97 per month
- Annual: $970 per year — equivalent to roughly $80.83 per month, based on dividing the stated annual price by 12
There is no long-term contract on either option. HighLevel operates month-to-month, and you can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel any time from your dashboard. A mid-month upgrade is charged the prorated difference. Prices can change, so confirm current figures on HighLevel's pricing page before you sign up.
The 14-Day Free Trial
Every plan, including Starter, comes with a 14-day free trial. You get full access to the features of your chosen tier so you can build funnels, set up automations, and test the CRM before you pay anything. A few details worth knowing up front:
- Billing begins automatically at the end of the trial unless you cancel.
- Usage-based fees — phone numbers, SMS, calls, emails — can apply during the trial period.
- No credit card is required to start the trial according to HighLevel's pricing page FAQ.
Starting with the trial before committing to annual billing makes sense if you have not used the platform before. See our full GoHighLevel review for a broader picture of what life on the platform looks like day-to-day.
What Is Included in the Starter Plan
Three Sub-Accounts
Sub-accounts are the client workspaces inside your agency dashboard. On the Starter plan you get three. Each sub-account gets its own CRM, pipelines, funnels, automations, calendar, and inbox — a complete environment for one client or business location. If you are a solo marketer managing your own business plus one or two clients, three sub-accounts is often enough to start.
Unlimited Contacts and Users
HighLevel's pricing page states that all plans include unlimited contacts and unlimited users. This is a meaningful differentiator: many competing platforms charge per seat or cap your contact database at the plan level. With HighLevel Starter, you can add as many team members and as many contacts as you need without triggering a tier upgrade — within those three sub-accounts.
All Core Features
The Starter plan unlocks HighLevel's full feature set, not a stripped-down version. Based on the published pricing page (checked October 2026), that includes:
- Website and funnel builder with domain management
- CRM and sales pipelines
- Custom dashboards and reporting
- Email and SMS marketing (usage-based costs apply — see below)
- Inbound and outbound calling
- Unified conversations inbox
- Social media management
- Workflow automation
- Forms, surveys, and quizzes
- Booking calendars
- Ad Manager
- Online reputation management
- Payments and invoicing
- Courses and communities
- HighLevel mobile app
- 24/7 support
AI features labeled with an asterisk on the pricing page carry usage-based charges. The help center notes that AI Assistants are available at no additional subscription cost for agency users, subject to fair use, but AI Agents (which handle ongoing conversations and calls) remain paid add-ons.
White-Labeling the Desktop App
Even on the Starter plan you can white-label the desktop web app — clients who log in see your logo and branding, not HighLevel's. You can also connect custom domains for funnels and websites. What you do not get on Starter is the white-label mobile app, which is a separate add-on priced at $497 per month (or $1,491 per quarter, per the help center's Pricing Guide).
What the Starter Plan Does Not Include
The Starter plan is genuinely capable, but three features are reserved for higher tiers. Understanding them helps you decide whether Starter is enough or whether you should start on the Unlimited plan instead.
Sub-Account Cap: Only Three
This is the most common reason agencies outgrow Starter. The Unlimited plan ($297/month) removes the cap entirely. If you are actively onboarding clients, hitting three sub-accounts can happen quickly. On Starter, your only option at that point is to upgrade — you cannot purchase additional sub-accounts as an add-on.
No Rebilling of Phone and Email Costs
On the Starter plan, usage-based phone and email costs come out of your agency wallet, and there is no built-in mechanism to bill those costs back to clients. Rebilling without markup is available on the $297 plan; rebilling with your own markup — where you turn those costs into a revenue line — requires the $497 Agency Pro plan. If passing telecom costs on to clients is important to your model, Starter is not the right tier.
No SaaS Mode or Advanced API
SaaS Mode — which lets you automate sub-account creation and sell HighLevel as your own branded software product — is an Agency Pro ($497/month) feature only. Basic API access is on the Unlimited plan; advanced API access requires Agency Pro. If you are building an automated client-onboarding workflow or a custom integration at scale, plan accordingly.
Usage-Based Costs on the Starter Plan
The $97 monthly fee covers the platform subscription. Anything that goes through the phone or email system is billed separately from your agency wallet. HighLevel publishes its rates in the LC Phone Pricing and Billing Guide (updated October 2026). Here are the US rates:
Phone Numbers
- Local number: $1.15 per month
- Toll-free number: $2.15 per month
SMS and MMS
- Outbound SMS: $0.00747 per segment, plus carrier pass-through fees
- Inbound SMS: $0.00747 per segment, plus carrier pass-through fees
- Outbound MMS: $0.022 per segment
Calls
- Outbound calls: $0.0166 per minute (total)
- Inbound local calls: $0.01165 per minute (total)
- Call recording: $0.0025 per minute
- Transcription: $0.024 per minute
LC Email costs $0.675 per 1,000 emails on all plans. For a sense of scale, sending 50,000 emails in a month means a usage charge of $33.75 — but note that you get that figure by multiplying 50 (the number of thousands) by $0.675, based on the published per-1,000 rate. Your actual monthly email cost depends entirely on your sending volume; calculate it by dividing your expected sends by 1,000 and multiplying by $0.675.
A2P 10DLC Registration (US Business Texting)
If you plan to send business text messages in the US, federal rules require A2P 10DLC registration. HighLevel's help center (modified September 2026) lists these fees:
- One-time bundled fee: $22.50 for sole proprietor or low-volume standard brands; $64.00 for high-volume standard
- Monthly campaign fee: $2.00 for sole proprietor; $10.00 for standard use cases
- Additional campaign vetting: $15.00 each
These are pass-through fees, not HighLevel markups. For full detail, see HighLevel's A2P 10DLC help article and the Campaign Registry for background on the registration ecosystem.
Starter vs. Unlimited vs. Agency Pro: A Plain Comparison
If you are deciding which plan to start on, here is what changes between the three tiers (all figures from HighLevel's pricing page and help center, checked October 2026):
- Sub-accounts: 3 (Starter) / Unlimited (Unlimited) / Unlimited (Agency Pro)
- Monthly price: $97 / $297 / $497
- Annual price: $970 / $2,970 / $4,970
- Contacts: Unlimited on all three
- Team members: Unlimited on all three
- Rebill phone and email (no markup): No / Yes / Yes
- Rebill phone and email with markup: No / No / Yes
- SaaS Mode: No / No / Yes
- Automated sub-account creation: No / No / Yes
- API access: None / Basic / Advanced
- White-label desktop app: Yes on all three White-label mobile app: Add-on ($497/month) on all three
For a deeper breakdown of every plan, fee, and add-on, see our GoHighLevel pricing guide.
Add-Ons Available on the Starter Plan
Even on the lowest tier, you can bolt on optional capabilities. These are billed monthly in addition to your $97 subscription fee (prices from the pricing page, checked October 2026):
- AI Employee Growth Plan: $50 per sub-account per month
- AI Employee Unlimited Plan: $97 per sub-account per month
- Branded Client Portal App: $49 per sub-account per month
- Dedicated email IP: $59 per IP per month
- HighLevel Certification Program: $97 per month
- HIPAA compliance: $297 per month
- Online listings management: $30 per sub-account per month
- Premium prospecting tool: $29 per sub-account per month
- Premium support: $500 per month
- SEO (powered by Search Atlas): $79 per sub-account per month
- WhatsApp integration: $10 per sub-account per month
- WordPress hosting: from $10 per site per month
- White-label mobile app: $497 per month
Note that on the Starter plan, most add-ons are available for your own use but cannot be resold with a markup to clients — that requires Agency Pro. Confirm the current resell eligibility of each add-on on the pricing page before building your client packages around them.
Who the Starter Plan Fits Best
Solo Marketers and Freelancers
If you manage your own business and one or two clients, three sub-accounts is usually enough. You get every core feature — funnels, CRM, automation, email, SMS, calendars — and the platform consolidates tools you may already be paying for separately. The $97 price point is low relative to what it replaces.
Small Agencies Just Getting Started
If you are building your first agency client roster and not yet sure of your client volume, starting on Starter and upgrading when you hit the sub-account ceiling is a logical path. You are not locked in, and upgrading is done from the dashboard with a prorated charge for the month.
Businesses Using HighLevel for Their Own Operations
A single business that wants a CRM, funnel builder, appointment system, and email/SMS platform in one place can run entirely within one sub-account. Starter is more than sufficient for that use case, and the unlimited contacts and users mean growth does not trigger a plan change.
Who Should Skip the Starter Plan
- Agencies with more than three active clients — upgrade to Unlimited ($297/month) from the start.
- Anyone who needs to rebill telecom costs to clients — rebilling is not available on Starter.
- Agencies building a SaaS business on top of HighLevel — SaaS Mode and automated sub-account creation require Agency Pro.
- Developers needing API access — basic API requires Unlimited; advanced API requires Agency Pro.
- Organizations needing HIPAA compliance — HIPAA is an add-on, but it is only available through the Enterprise plan according to HighLevel's pricing page. Confirm this with HighLevel's sales team before signing up.
How to Set Up Your Starter Account
HighLevel's onboarding is self-serve. Here is the general flow based on the platform's published documentation and our daily use of the platform running client accounts:
- Start the 14-day trial on the pricing page — choose Starter at step one of the sign-up flow.
- Complete your agency profile and set your branding so sub-account portals reflect your logo and colors.
- Create up to three sub-accounts — one per client or business you are managing.
- Connect your custom domain (or domains) for funnels and client-facing pages.
- Fund your agency wallet and set a minimum balance so phone and email usage does not interrupt mid-campaign.
- Complete A2P 10DLC registration before sending any SMS to US numbers — it is a compliance requirement, not optional.
- Explore the HighLevel Certification Program ($97/month add-on) if your team needs structured training on the platform.
For more context on how the platform works in practice, our GoHighLevel review covers the day-to-day experience from inside an agency running client accounts on it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many clients can I manage on the GoHighLevel Starter plan?
The Starter plan includes three sub-accounts. Each sub-account is a separate workspace, typically used for one client or one business location. You can have unlimited contacts and unlimited team members within those three sub-accounts, but you cannot add a fourth client workspace without upgrading to the Unlimited plan at $297 per month. There is no way to purchase additional sub-accounts as a one-off add-on on the Starter tier.
Does the Starter plan include email and SMS marketing?
Yes. Email and SMS are included as core features on the Starter plan. However, the actual sending costs are usage-based and billed separately from your agency wallet — not included in the flat $97 fee. Email via LC Email costs $0.675 per 1,000 emails. SMS costs vary by direction and type (for example, outbound SMS is $0.00747 per segment plus carrier pass-through fees). See HighLevel's LC Phone Pricing and Billing Guide for the full rate card.
Can I white-label GoHighLevel on the Starter plan?
You can white-label the desktop web app on all plans, including Starter — clients who log in see your branding, not HighLevel's. You can also use custom domains for funnels and websites. The white-label mobile app is a separate add-on at $497 per month (or $1,491 per quarter) and is available across plans, but it is not bundled into Starter. The Enterprise plan includes the white-label mobile app in its package.
Is there a free trial for the Starter plan?
Yes, all HighLevel plans including Starter come with a 14-day free trial. You get full access to the features of your chosen plan tier during the trial. Billing starts automatically at the end of the trial unless you cancel. Usage-based fees (phone, SMS, email) can apply during the trial period, so fund your wallet accordingly and watch your usage if you are testing at volume.
What happens if I need more than three sub-accounts?
You will need to upgrade to the Unlimited plan at $297 per month, which removes the sub-account cap entirely. Since HighLevel is month-to-month with no long-term contracts, you can upgrade any time from your dashboard and will be charged the prorated difference for the remainder of the billing month. There is no penalty for upgrading mid-cycle.
Can I resell HighLevel services to clients on the Starter plan?
Not in the built-in rebilling sense. Rebilling phone and email costs to clients (without markup) requires the Unlimited plan at $297 per month. Rebilling with your own markup — turning those usage costs into a revenue line — requires the Agency Pro plan at $497 per month. On Starter, you absorb usage costs yourself; there is no native mechanism to pass them through to clients or add a margin.
Is GoHighLevel Starter good value compared to separate tools?
Based on HighLevel's published positioning, the platform is designed to replace a CRM, funnel builder, email marketing tool, SMS platform, appointment scheduler, and reputation management software in one subscription. Whether that consolidation saves money depends on what you currently pay for each of those tools individually. The Starter plan at $97 per month gives you all core features, so the comparison is straightforward: add up your current tool stack and compare. We cover this in more detail in our GoHighLevel review.
The Bottom Line
The GoHighLevel Starter plan at $97 per month (or $970 per year, as of October 2026) is a strong pick for solo marketers, freelancers, and small agencies with three or fewer active clients. You get unlimited contacts, unlimited users, and every core feature the platform offers — a genuinely full toolset, not a lite version.
The ceiling is clear: three sub-accounts, no rebilling to clients, and no SaaS Mode. If any of those matter to your business model right now, start on the Unlimited plan ($297/month) instead and skip an inevitable upgrade mid-campaign.
If you are not sure yet, the 14-day free trial lets you build out a real setup before you commit. See current plans and start your trial at HighLevel's pricing page. And if you want to understand every fee before you sign up, our GoHighLevel pricing breakdown covers every plan, add-on, and usage charge in detail.