Are you in the market for a new CRM or Marketing Automation system? You might be looking at ActiveCampaign, Keap/Infusionsoft, Hubspot and maybe even SalesForce.
While there are certainly advantages of choosing a SaaS provider for handling this critical pillar of your business, there are clear benefits to choosing a self-hosted WordPress option instead.
There are many WordPress CRM/Marketing Automation systems to choose from:
- Groundhogg
- ZeroBSCrm
- WP-CRM
- UPI CRM
- Ukuu People
- WPFusion
- And more…
Many business owners skip over WordPress CRM options because they are surrounded by negative myths that give them a bad reputation.
So, let’s bust those myths!
1. It Will Slow Down My Site! False.
The biggest myth that prevents businesses from choosing a WordPress CRM is that your site performance will take a big hit, and no one wants a slow site!
This concern may have been relevant before the advent of PHP 7 and WordPress 5+, however, technology has advanced enough that the “speed” conversation is no longer relevant when it comes to CRM & marketing automation plugins installed on your site.
A decent hosting package, caching, and all manner of behind the scenes tech wizardry will guarantee a wicked fast website.
If your website is mission-critical, don’t buy cheap bargain hosting. Go for the good stuff, anywhere from $30-$50 a month. This will allow you to run your website as well as your CRM system without issue.
2. It Won’t Scale As The Business Grows! False.
This might be true for some WordPress CRMs, but not Groundhogg. The scaling issue has to do with the way CRM data is stored in the database.
Some CRM systems choose to store contact data and other data in the WordPress posts table. So when queries are performed on the site WordPress has to search through all your contact data when looking for something like a simple blog post.
This would not scale well as your contact list goes into the thousands or even tens of thousands. This is why Groundhogg uses custom database tables to store contact information.
By using custom tables, WordPress will never look at contact information unless explicitly told to, saving time and resources!
Another scaling concern is your host’s capacity to store all this information.
The truth is, database records take up only bytes of storage space. Backups, media files, and other files will take up the bulk of your hosting storage capacity.
As your business grows, you will have to scale up your hosting package as well, regardless of whether your CRM is on it or not!
Plugins like WooCommerce, LearnDash, lifterLMS, BuddyPress and other large member plugins will have a much greater effect on your site performance than Groundhogg or other WordPress CRMs.
You should not expect to run a million-dollar business on $10 a month hosting. Good hosting and good web practices will eliminate scaling issues for your business.
3. It’s Not Secure! False.
I can’t speak for all WordPress CRMs, but Groundhogg is incredibly secure. The main security issue comes from other plugins you have installed on your WordPress site.
You can mitigate your risk by eliminating non-essential plugins and only using tools from brand name authors.
The majority of WordPress hacks are what is called Brute Force Attacks. This is when a bot just tries to guess your password.
The kinds of attacks are easy to prevent by using a host which provides this level of security, or by installing a security plugin like WordFence.
4. It’s Not Reliable! False.
In many cases, WordPress CRMs are actually more reliable.
The great flaw of SaaS providers is that when they have system issues, ALL of their clients have system issues. This prevents business from getting done and can give you a real bad headache if a problem happens in the middle of a launch.
WordPress CRMs are not affected by uptime issues since they operate on your site!
Your CRM will be as reliable as your site, so if you have good hosting, and follow appropriate web practices, that will be VERY reliable.
5. It Will Cost More In The Long Run! False.
This belief comes from thinking that hosting costs from scaling will outweigh SaaS CRM costs of scaling.
Let’s run the math for a mid-sized business with a contact list of 10,000 using Groundhogg Vs. ActiveCampaign.
| CRM | ActiveCampaign | Groundhogg |
| CRM Fee | $349/m | $40/m |
| Hosting Fee | $30-100/m | $30-$100/m |
| Sending 50,000 Emails | – | $5/m (AWS SES) |
| Total | $379-449/m | $75-145/m |
| Yearly Total | $4,548-5,388/yr | $900-1,740/yr |
| You Save | $3,648+/yr |
The thing is, whether you have a CRM on your site or not, you’ll still have to pay for good hosting so you can support your Ecommerce, LMS, or other large plugins, so why not reap the benefits of a self-hosted CRM as well?
Plus, with AWS SES you can send email on the cheap! It only costs $5/m to send 50,000 emails with AWS.
As your business goes past 10,000 contacts, your CRM bill can jump into the thousands of dollars a month!
WordPress CRMs, and specifically Groundhogg, do not charge based on the number of contacts you have. Instead, we charge a flat licensing fee for our premium extensions, so whether you have 1,000 contacts or 100,000 you will pay the same flat rate license fee.
6. The Support Isn’t As Good! False.
I’ll only speak for Groundhogg for this, but we offer first-rate support to all our clients. CRM and Marketing automation is a critical pillar of a modern business, and we treat it as such.
If you need proof, check out our 5 star reviews!
Is A WordPress CRM & Marketing Automation Plugin The Right Choice For Your Business?
If you’re looking for flat-rate pricing, more control over your data and deep integration with WordPress, then Groundhogg just might be the right choice for you!
If you think you’re ready to make the move to Groundhogg there are a few ways for you to get started!
- Take our free Official Quickstart Course to get your first lead magnet download funnel operational in under 1 hour.
- You can sign up for our $1 paid demo to test our premium extension offerings.
- If you’re more of a DIYer, download the free plugin from the WP repo and start plugging away at it.
- If this article was super convincing and you think Groundhogg is the right CRM for your business, get your license now!
I’m sure you have questions, and we’re happy to answer them, there are several ways for you to get in touch.
- Message us via live chat. (Bottom right of your browser window)
- Send us a message thru the contact form.
- Join us on Facebook and post in our support group.
If you’d like to book a meeting with me that can be arranged as well, just message our team via any of the above channels and request a booking link!
