Choosing the right CRM can make or break your practice’s efficiency. Many advisors ask how Cloven compares with GoHighLevel.

It’s essential to understand their differences to make an informed decision for your business needs as a Canadian Financial Advisor. Here’s a closer look at four key factors to consider.

Data & Integrations

Cloven stores all data in Canada, helping advisors stay compliant with regulations like PIPEDA.

GoHighLevel, on the other hand, stores data on globally distributed infrastructure with compliance to GDPR, CCPA, and PCI DSS, but there is no guarantee your data will reside in Canada. For some advisors, this is a non-negotiable compliance requirement. If this is you, then GoHighLevel is a no-go, if not — then please read on!

Both Cloven and GoHighLevel offer best-in-class capabilities when it comes to third-party integrations. They both integrate emails, calendars, and contacts with Office 365 and Google Workspace. They also support Zapier and offer a fully open API for custom integrations and workflow automation — though in GoHighLevel, API access isn’t included in the Starter Plan (more on this in pricing).

For most advisors, industry-specific integrations are where the real difference shows. Cloven supports tools widely used across the Canadian financial landscape, including BlueSun Advisor, SideDrawer, and NDex. GoHighLevel, while highly flexible, focuses more on marketing and lead generation tools — with less emphasis on the Canadian financial advisor ecosystem.

The winner? Both platforms integrate well, but if local data residency is important to you, Cloven is the clear choice.

Functionality

GoHighLevel is not built for financial advisors. Out of the box, it’s designed as a flexible marketing and sales system for a wide range of service-based businesses. To make it work for financial services, agencies have created custom add-ons — but these are typically US-focused and not designed for Canadian compliance requirements.

In practice, this means Canadian advisors would need to spend significant time and resources configuring pipelines, client records, and workflows to reflect their day-to-day processes. And advanced custom modules or objects (for example, storing investment accounts) are not included in the Starter Plan (more on this in pricing).

Cloven, by contrast, is purpose-built for Canadian advisors, right down to the pipelines, automation, and terminology. From day one, users get access to pre-built workflows, client onboarding sequences, and advisor-specific fields that reflect how Canadian practices actually operate. This means less time spent on setup and more time actively using the platform to manage compliance, renewals, client touch points, and policy updates— all while still giving you flexibility to customize anything for your specific processes.

Beyond core CRM functionality, Cloven includes a Productivity Suite with online forms, calendar bookings, and even website tracking — all at no extra cost.

If we had to pick a winner, for advisors who want a system built for their industry from the start, it would be Cloven.

Customer Support

GoHighLevel offers 24/7 live chat, along with onboarding assistance, an extensive knowledge base, and an active user community. Their support model is built for a wide range of industries and is ideal for users who are comfortable with a mix of live help and self-serve resources.

Cloven offers unlimited 1-on-1 support and training, with a team that’s specifically trained to work with Canadian financial advisors. The focus is on advisor-specific workflows, allowing users to get personalized help with setup, automation, and day-to-day questions.

The winner for this category depends on your preference. If you prefer around-the-clock chat and self-serve tools, choose GoHighLevel. If you prefer personalized, advisor-specific guidance, choose Cloven.

Pricing

Cloven costs CA$105 per user per month, with all Productivity Suite tools — including online forms, calendar booking, e-signatures, email marketing, and more — included at no additional cost.

GoHighLevel’s Starter plan costs about CA$130 per month (US$97) for up to three users. For API access or white-labeling, teams need the Agency Unlimited plan at about CA$410 per month (US$297). This covers the entire organization. Like Cloven, GoHighLevel also includes a broad set of productivity features such as forms, scheduling, and email marketing. However, some advanced capabilities – like advanced custom modules or objects – are gated to higher plans at CA$685 per month (US$497).

The winner? If you want organization-wide pricing, then GoHighLevel may be more attractive. If you want predictable per-user pricing with all tools included, then Cloven is the better choice.

Conclusion

Both platforms bring value, but in different ways. In short, GoHighLevel is well suited for teams that want a flexible, marketing-driven platform with organization-wide pricing.

Cloven is built specifically for Canadian financial advisors, with compliance-friendly data residency, advisor-focused workflows, and personalized support. So, for advisors who want a CRM designed for their industry from day one, Cloven is the clear choice.

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Choosing the right CRM can be the difference between growth and chaos. If you’re a financial advisor exploring options, Cloven and Laylah have likely come across your radar. In this post, we compare the two platforms across four key categories: Data & Integrations, Functionality, Support, and Pricing. Our goal with this Cloven vs Laylah comparison is to provide a balanced review that helps you choose what’s best for your firm.

Data & Integrations Comparison

Laylah’s standout feature is its live data feeds. It connects directly with many Canadian carriers and back-office systems to automatically sync policy and investment data. This is helpful for small teams with limited admin support. That said, it doesn’t cover every carrier or data source, so it’s important to confirm which feeds apply to your book of business.

Cloven doesn’t yet offer carrier data feeds but integrates with NDEX to pull investment data from over 8,500 sources. It also syncs with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace and can connect external tools via Zapier or Cloven’s open API.

If we had to pick a winner for this category, it would be Laylah, for automatic data feeds. But if your goal is flexibility and tech consolidation, Cloven deserves a closer look.

Functionality Comparison

Laylah is designed as a smart data hub. It lets advisors manually assign tasks, identify gaps in coverage, and run financial needs analysis.

Cloven takes a more proactive approach, offering pre-built templates tailored to help advisors get started quickly. From there, advisors can customize every part of the system using an intuitive drag-and-drop editor. Cloven turns client data into automated, actionable steps that streamline operations and help uncover new opportunities—automations can trigger emails, assign tasks, request e-signatures, or prompt clients to upload documents securely via SideDrawer or WorkDrive.

Built-in apps as part of Productivity Suite for email marketing, scheduling, and form building (powered by Zoho One) allow advisors to manage everything in one place.

If we had to pick a winner for this category, it would be Cloven, for its robust automation, customization, and all-in-one functionality.

Support Comparison

Laylah offers in-app chat and video calls as needed. Onboarding includes a self-serve checklist and free setup support. Their help centre is well-documented and available in both English and French.

Cloven provides 1-on-1 onboarding and training, data migration assistance, and ongoing support at no extra cost. Advisors can have unlimited 1-on-1 training calls, access help guides, and connect with the team via in-app chat or phone.

Winner? It depends on your learning style. Laylah suits advisors who prefer a lighter setup and self-serve resources, while Cloven is ideal for those looking for hands-on support and deeper customization.

Pricing Comparison 

Laylah charges $120CAD/user/month, whereas Cloven charges $105CAD/month/user.

Cloven also includes tools that often require external subscriptions—like e-signature, email marketing, scheduling, and forms—at no additional cost. They offer discounts for large teams, and a 90-day money-back guarantee.

If we had to pick a winner for this category, it would be Cloven for offering more built-in value and helping firms lower their overall tech costs

Conclusion 

Both CRMs are built for Canadian financial advisors—but with different strengths. Laylah is ideal if you need automatic data syncing. Cloven is a stronger choice if you want to take action on your data, automate processes, and consolidate your tools in one platform. Ultimately, the best CRM is the one that matches your team’s processes, growth goals, and client experience vision.

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It’s no secret that Cloven is built on the Zoho platform. In fact, we have many financial advisor clients who used to use Zoho CRM, before switching over to Cloven.

What did these clients consider in order to make the switch?

In this blog, we’ll review the differences between the two platforms, and the important factors to consider when evaluating the two.

Integrations

Zoho CRM offers a broad marketplace of integrations across many industries and use cases. Through its API and developer tools, it can connect to most third-party systems, but custom connections need to be built and maintained separately, which requires both time and expense.

Cloven includes pre-built integrations with several data sources used in Canada, such as Canada Life, NDEX, Investia, iA Private Wealth, BlueSun Advisor, and Univeris (Quadrus). Cloven also integrates with advisor-focused platforms such as HeyAdvisor, Focal.ai, and SideDrawer. These integrations are already developed within the Cloven environment, which eliminates the need for any custom work. Cloven also has a fully-open API for additional integrations through their APIs where required.

The winner for this category is Cloven as it offers key integrations with important data sources and tools to streamline your operations.

Customer Success

Both Cloven and Zoho CRM have a locally-based sales team. After the sales process, Cloven keeps their customer success local, whereas Zoho CRM leans on overseas support- which can cause time-zone and language-related issues.

The Zoho CRM support team is excellent with technical issues, as they have direct access to the Zoho development team. Cloven excels with advisor-specific issues and best practices since they work within the industry all-day, everyday.

Zoho CRM offers an import tool for systems such as ACT!, Salesforce and Maximizer, and Cloven expands this list to Wealthbox, Equisoft and RedTail. For all migrations, Cloven provides hands-on support.

If we had to pick a winner for this category, it would be Cloven given the local, industry-specific support, and the fact that with Cloven you get access to BOTH support teams.

Customizations

To start, Zoho CRM is a blank canvas for every type of business. It offers easy-to-use customizations to enable advisors to fine-tune the CRM to their practice. This process can take up to 6 months– depending on business’ complexity and your tech-savvyness.

Cloven provides a “shortcut” to this by providing industry best-practices in an out-of-the-box solution. This will get you 80% of the way there, with the last 20% being tweaks to your specific practice (all Zoho customization tools are still available).

Cloven also provides add-on widgets like the Relationship Tracker and Note Template to enhance Zoho CRM, specifically for advisors.

If we had to pick a winner for this category, it would again be Cloven given that you don’t need to “reinvent the wheel” with industry best practices already built-in.

Zoho One

Zoho CRM is a best-in-class CRM that competes globally with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, etc.. But did you know that Zoho also offers 50+ other applications?

Cloven is built on Zoho One, which is a bundle of all these applications. That means great tools such as online forms, calendar bookings, website tracking, and more- all at no extra cost and fully integrated with the CRM.

Cloven also provides industry-specific training on how top advisors use the different tools together to maximize their productivity.

This category is pretty close to a “tie”, since a Zoho CRM can easily upgrade to Zoho One. With that said, the “tie breaker” would be Cloven’s industry-specific training.

Pricing

Cloven costs $75USD/user/month, whereas Zoho CRM costs $40USD/user/month.

The start-up costs for Zoho CRM are consistently higher than Cloven- since you don’t get the “shortcut” (discussed in Integrations and Customizations). How much higher depends on the complexity of your business and your own tech-savvyness.

If we had to pick a winner for this category, it would be Zoho CRM given the lower ongoing costs.

Conclusion

When it comes down to it, we’ve seen advisors implement both Cloven and Zoho CRM with success. If ongoing costs is your #1 concern, then Zoho CRM will work well for you. If you don’t have the time to build a CRM, you value industry best practices, or you prefer local support– Cloven is going to be your best bet.

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Both Cloven and Equisoft Connect are popular CRMs for financial advisors in Canada. They offer similar functionality, integrations and support- leaving many advisors asking, “Cloven vs Equisoft- what’s the Difference?”, and “What CRM is Best for My Practice?”.

In this article, we review the top criteria when considering a CRM and how these 2 products stack up against each other.

Here are 4 points to consider:

Data & Integrations

Both Cloven and Equisoft Connect store their data in Canada, ensuring compliance with local data protection regulations. Both integrate emails, contacts, and calendars with O365 and G Suite.

Equisoft boasts the most comprehensive suite of data feeds from carriers and investment providers in the Canadian industry. Cloven enables industry-specific data integrations with import tools like their BlueSun integration.

Cloven connects to Zapier and has an open API. Equisoft does not publish an open API.

If we had to pick a winner for this category, it would be Equisoft given it’s data feeds from carriers and investment providers. With that said, Cloven should be considered for advisors using G Suite.

Functionality

Cloven is built on the Zoho One platform, a globally recognized CRM with over 100 million users, ensuring reliability and cutting-edge technology. Cloven is the version of Zoho that is specifically built for Canadian financial advisors.

Equisoft is a custom-built Canadian application, offering more control and highly-specific features tailored to local needs.

Cloven regularly updates its interface for a continually modern look-and-feel:

While Equisoft maintains a constant interface to ensure familiarity:

Beyond CRM functionality, Cloven goes further by providing other tools such as online forms, calendar bookings, and even website tracking. These are at no extra cost and included in Cloven’s “Productivity Suite”.

If we had to pick a winner for this category, it would be Cloven given it’s Productivity Suite, and we prefer a modern UI.

Support

Equisoft Connect is the result of Equisoft acquiring Kronos Technologies in 2018. This acquisition provides stability but fewer updates. Cloven, an up-and-comer, is rapidly evolving with multiple new integrations released in the past year alone.

Both CRMs have support team based in Canada. While they both boast “nationwide” support, Equisoft is Quebec-based and better supports the French-speaking market, whereas Cloven is Ontario-based and better supports the English-speaking market.

For data exports, Cloven allows free, instant exports to a CSV (Excel) format. Equisoft also supports a CSV format, but it’s a manual process for them to extract. For this reason, it can take multiple weeks and up to $5,000 to get your data.

If you are French-speaking, Equisoft is your best bet. If you’re English-speaking and/or want ownership of your data, Cloven is the winner.

Pricing

Cloven costs $95CAD/user/month (with MGA discounts), Equisoft Connect is similarly priced at $105CAD/user/month.

Cloven does not charge for their additional digital tools (Online Forms, Calendar Booking, Email Marketing, etc.). For some advisors, this results in savings of $1,200+ each year.

If we had to pick a winner for this category, it would be Cloven as advisors get savings with it’s Productivity Suite.

Conclusion

When it comes down to it, both Cloven and Equisoft are solid CRMs. Which one is right for you and your practice will depend on how you prioritize the above factors. In general, we see the solo-advisor go for Equisoft, whereas bigger teams that need collaboration and a process going with Cloven.

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Both Cloven and WealthBox are popular CRMs for financial advisors in North America. They offer similar functionality, integrations and support- leaving many advisors asking, “Cloven vs Wealthbox- what’s the Difference?”, and “What CRM is Best for My Practice?”.

In this article, we review the top criteria when considering a CRM and how these 2 products stack up against each other.

Here are 4 points to consider:

Data & Integrations

Cloven stores their data in Canada, while Wealthbox stores thier data in the US. For some advisors, this is a complete deal-breaker. If this is you, then Wealthbox is a no-go, if not- then please read on!

Both Cloven and Wealthbox offer “best-in-class” capabilities when it comes to 3rd-party integrations. They both integrate emails, contacts, and calendars with O365 and G Suite. They both also offer Zapier support and a fully open API.

For most brokers, industry-specific integrations are hugely important. Both platforms support industry integrations with Cloven focusing on Canadian integrations like BlueSun, NDex and SideDrawer, and Wealthbox focusing on more US-based integrations like TD Ameritrade and MorningStar.

For Canadian Advisors, the stronger fit is Cloven given the Canadian data residency and Canada-specific industry integrations.

Functionality

Cloven is built on the Zoho One platform, a globally recognized CRM with over 100 million users, ensuring reliability and cutting-edge technology. Cloven is the version of Zoho that is specifically built for Canadian financial advisors.

WealthBox is a custom-built application, offering more control and highly-specific features tailored to industry needs.

WealthBox optimizes for simiplicity, which is ideal if you have a simple practice, and you don’t have the time or resources to scale a learning curve. Cloven instead optimizes for customizability. The learning curve maybe steeper, but once mastered, it can adapt to any type of advisory practice and can grow with you as your practice evolves.

Beyond CRM functionality, Cloven goes further by providing other tools such as online forms, calendar bookings, and even website tracking. These are at no extra cost and included in Cloven’s “Productivity Suite”.

The winner for this category depends on your preference. If you prefer a super simple CRM, it’s Wealthbox, but if you prefer a CRM that can be customized to evolve with your practice, it’s Cloven.

Support

Both CRMs have support teams in North America, which is ideal for time-zone purposes. Wealthbox is in the US, and Cloven in Canada, but it ultimately does not have much of an impact on customer support.

For data exports, Cloven allows free, instant exports to a CSV (Excel) format. Wealthbox also offers a free export, but to a XML file format. This requires Microsoft Access knowledge to properly extract.

For this category we are calling it a tie between Cloven and Wealthbox- as support are pretty much identical.

Pricing

Cloven costs $95CAD/user/month (with MGA discounts), whereas WealthBox costs $59 to $99USD/user/month.

Cloven does not charge for their Productivity Suite (Online Forms, Calendar Booking, Email Marketing, etc.). For some advisors, this results in savings of $1,200+ each year.

If we had to pick a winner for this category, it would be Cloven– with the USD exchange rate applied, Wealthbox is ~45% more expensive.

Conclusion

When it comes down to it, both Cloven and Wealthbox are actually very similar CRMs. Wealthbox may suit firms looking for a simple, US-focused CRM that connects to their technology stack, while Cloven is a better fit for Canadian advisory teams that prioritize Canadian data residency, deeper customization and more of their everyday software in one unified platform.

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Both Cloven and Maximizer are popular CRMs for financial advisors in Canada.

They offer similar functionality, integrations and support- leaving many advisors asking, “What’s the Difference?”, and “What CRM is Best for My Practice?”.

In this article, we review the top criteria when considering a CRM and how these 2 products stack up against each other.

Here are 4 points to consider:

Data & Integrations

Both Cloven and Maximizer store their data in Canada, ensuring compliance with local data protection regulations. They both integrate seamlessly with Office 365 and Google Workspace, allowing synchronization of emails, calendars, and contacts.

Maximizer’s newer REST API is currently in beta and limited to read-only functionality. Creating or updating CRM records requires using its more technical, GraphQL-like Octopus API. Cloven provides a fully-open API alongside Zapier connectivity.

For most brokers, industry-specific integrations are hugely important. Both platforms support industry integrations such as BlueSun, SideDrawer and NDex.

For this category we are calling it a tie between Cloven and Maximizer- as these features are pretty much identical.

Functionality

Cloven is built on the Zoho One platform, a globally recognized CRM with over 100 million users, ensuring reliability and cutting-edge technology. Cloven is the version of Zoho that is specifically built for Canadian financial advisors.

Maximizer is a custom-built Canadian application, offering more control and highly-specific features tailored to local needs.

Cloven regularly updates its interface for a continually modern look-and-feel:

While Maximizer maintains a constant interface to ensure familiarity:

Beyond CRM functionality, Cloven goes further by providing other tools such as online forms, calendar bookings, and even website tracking. These are at no extra cost and included in Cloven’s “Productivity Suite”.

If we had to pick a winner for this category, it would be Cloven given it’s Productivity Suite, and we prefer a modern UI.

Support

Maximizer is owned by the Concord Group of Companies, a major conglomerate. This provides stability but fewer updates. Cloven is founder-owned and operated, which enables rapid development with multiple new integrations released in the past year alone.

Both CRMs have support teams based in Canada, ensuring localized and accessible customer service.

For data exports, Cloven allows free, instant exports to a CSV (Excel) format. Maximizer also supports a free export, but to BAK file format. This requires SQL knowledge to properly extract, and can take multiple months to prepare.

The winner for this category depends on your preference. If you prefer a big, stable company, it’s Maximizer, but if you prefer a tech-forward innovator, it’s Cloven.

Pricing

Cloven costs $95CAD/user/month (with MGA discount), whereas Maximizer’s financial services plans range from $100 to $125CAD/user/month.

Cloven does not charge for their Productivity Suite (Online Forms, Calendar Booking, Email Marketing, etc.). For some advisors, this results in savings of $1,200+ each year.

The pricing is pretty much identical, but we’re giving this category to Cloven as advisors get further savings with it’s Productivity Suite.

Conclusion

Both Cloven and Maximizer are capable Canadian CRM options. Maximizer may suit firms looking for a more traditional CRM, while Cloven is a stronger fit for advisory teams that prioritize a modern interface, flexible automation and more of their everyday software in one connected platform.

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Are you choosing between Cloven vs Salesforce Financial Services Cloud (FSC) for your CRM needs? When considering CRM solutions, it’s essential to understand their differences to make an informed decision for your business needs as a Canadian Financial Advisor.

Let’s break down the key features and advantages of each platform to help you make an informed decision.

Customization   

Both Cloven and Salesforce FSC do have the ability to customize the CRM to your businesses unique needs.

Customizing Salesforce requires fairly advanced knowledge of the platform. As a result, most financial advisory practices hire a Salesforce admin to build out their Salesforce. This can lead to high upfront costs (we know practices who have spent $100K+), but also slow turn-arounds when you need a quick fix as your practice evolves.

Cloven is built specifically to empower small-medium financial advisory practices by providing a user-friendly interface to customize your CRM without extensive technical knowledge. This enables advisors to tailor their CRM experience themselves or with minimal assistance. This not only saves significant upfront costs but also ensures flexibility as your practice’s needs grow.

Industry-Specific 

Beyond Salesforce’s own Financial Services Cloud, there are partners like XLR8 who have made an advisor-specific version.

The big difference is that these solutions are US-built and focused, whereas Cloven is specific to Canadian advisors.

Cloven’s focus on the Canadian market offers advantages for Canadian advisors- especially with integrations. Cloven integrates with tools used by Canadian MGAs such as BlueSun Advisor- allowing for simple upload of data. What’s more, Cloven integrates with Canada-specific planning software such as SideDrawer.

Full Software Stack   

When it comes to integrating with other software products, both Cloven and Salesforce FSC offer solutions, albeit with differences in approach and pricing. Salesforce requires additional subscriptions and integration efforts to bring in new tools to your software stack. Cloven provides a comprehensive Productivity Suite that seamlessly integrates with the CRM at no extra cost, simplifying the process for users.

This Productive Suite includes E-Signature, Calendar Bookings, Cloud Storage, Social Media Management, Online Form Builder, Receipt Scanner, and Email Marketing.

Pricing   

Pricing considerations play a significant role in the decision-making process for businesses evaluating CRM solutions. The pricing models of Cloven and Salesforce FSC are both per-user, but come at different price points.

Salesforce Financial Services Cloud starts at a higher price point of $325/month, Cloven offers a single-tier pricing structure that includes all integrations and the Productivity Suite for $90/month.

Salesforce Financial Services Cloud and Cloven both provide CRM capabilities for financial advisors, but they take different approaches. Salesforce offers a broad enterprise platform that requires extensive customization, but there’s a large global ecosystem. Cloven is designed specifically for Canadian advisory practices, with Canadian integrations. Salesforce FSC is usually better for large multi-national firms whereas Cloven is better suited to the Canadian focused firm.

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