We paid GHL $13,200 in 2025. I just cancelled.
March 2026. I'm looking at our GHL invoice. $1,100.
That's $13,200 a year. For a CRM. For a platform we were fundamentally fighting against every week - workflows that broke, data we didn't own, pricing that climbed every time we added a feature.
So I cancelled.
What we replaced it with
The goal was simple: replace every GHL function with something better, cheaper, and owned by us. Not rented. Not dependent on a company's pricing decisions.
Here's the full stack:
CRM: Jarvis (built on OpenClaw, open source, local DuckDB). Free.
Email: Resend. $20/mo for up to 100k emails/month.
SMS: Twilio direct. ~$15/mo at our volume.
Calendar: Cal.com. Free.
Voice AI: Retell. Usage-based - we pay for what we use.
The number that matters
$1,100/mo to $35/mo. That's $12,840 back in our pocket every year. Not because we cut capabilities - because we stopped renting and started owning.
The painful part? The new stack is better. Jarvis knows more about our contacts than GHL ever did. Resend has better deliverability. Twilio SMS actually works.
Why I'm sharing this publicly
3,000 people in the AI Avengers community are running some version of this problem. Paying $200, $500, $1,000/mo to platforms that own their businesses. The sovereign stack isn't just about GHL - it's a mindset shift.
You should own your data. You should own your tools. You should own your stack.
Over the next 10 days I'm documenting the full migration in real time. Every script, every tool, every decision. If you want to follow along and replicate it, join AI Avengers Lab - founding price is $20/mo for the next 7 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I really replace GHL for $35/mo?
Yes - if your volume is similar to ours (3,000 contacts, email + SMS outreach, basic CRM). The stack we use: Jarvis CRM (free), Resend ($20/mo), Twilio (~$15/mo), Cal.com (free). Total: ~$35/mo vs $1,100/mo GHL.
What do you lose by leaving GHL?
The drag-and-drop funnel builder and the all-in-one dashboard. If you rely heavily on GHL's visual builders, the migration takes longer. But for CRM, email, and SMS - the sovereign stack is functionally equal or better.
Is Jarvis available for others to use?
Jarvis is built on OpenClaw (MIT open source). The full setup guide is inside AI Avengers Lab. We're documenting every step of the build.
How long does the migration take?
We did the core migration in one weekend. Exporting contacts, setting up Resend, configuring Twilio - about 6-8 hours of actual work. The Jarvis CRM setup took another day.
What about GHL's AI features?
We use Claude Code directly via the API instead of GHL's AI wrapper. It's faster, smarter, and costs a fraction. GHL's AI is just a wrapper around the same models you can access directly.
Building AI businesses in public. Replaced $1,100/mo GHL with a $30/mo sovereign stack. Documenting every step so you can replicate it. Follow along on YouTube and LinkedIn.