HighLevel SaaS Mode is the bundle of features you unlock on the $497/month Agency Pro plan: the ability to sell HighLevel as a subscription product under your own brand, with sub-accounts provisioned automatically when someone signs up, phone and email rebilling with your own markup, and advanced API access — all layered on top of what the $297/month Unlimited plan already gives you. You keep the difference between what HighLevel charges you and what you charge your clients.
SaaS Mode isn’t one system, even though it’s usually described that way. HighLevel runs it on two different billing architectures with real feature gaps between them, and which one you land on changes whether the profit math on reselling actually holds up. That’s the detail worth understanding before you commit to the $497/month plan.
How HighLevel SaaS Mode Works
Underneath the marketing, SaaS Mode is what HighLevel’s own pricing page lists as exclusive to Agency Pro: the SaaS Mode subscription-selling capability itself, automated sub-account creation on signup, phone and email rebilling with markup, user/agent reporting, and advanced API access, on top of the unlimited sub-accounts and at-cost rebilling already included on the Unlimited plan. Custom domains and desktop-app branding aren’t actually gated behind this upgrade — HighLevel’s own pricing FAQ confirms both are available without singling out Agency Pro as a requirement, so don’t upgrade purely to get your logo on the login screen. A fully branded mobile app is a separate paid add-on on any plan, listed at $497/month, and it’s only bundled for free on the custom-quoted Enterprise tier.
Each client gets their own sub-account, which is the same underlying container HighLevel uses on its lower plans. You’re not licensing a copy of the software — you’re reselling access to an instance of it that you administer.
What HighLevel SaaS Mode Costs
HighLevel’s own pricing page confirms three tiers: Starter at $97/month ($970/year), Unlimited at $297/month ($2,970/year), and Agency Pro at $497/month ($4,970/year). Annual billing works out to roughly 17% less than paying monthly on every tier. Agency Pro’s $497 covers unlimited sub-accounts under your agency, you aren’t billed per client on top of it.
On top of the base subscription, usage-based charges apply for things like SMS, calling, and email, billed through an agency wallet rather than included in the flat fee — email usage, for example, runs $0.675 per 1,000 emails on every plan. The part worth knowing before you upgrade: the Unlimited plan already lets you rebill sub-accounts for phone and email usage at cost, with no markup. Agency Pro adds two things Unlimited doesn’t have at all — the ability to add a markup on that rebilling, and AI Employee usage rebilling, which isn’t available on Unlimited in any form, marked up or not. The markup, not the rebilling itself, is the actual mechanic behind the “profit” every SaaS Mode pitch talks about.
SaaS V1 vs SaaS V2: The Split That Decides Your Profit Math
HighLevel runs SaaS Mode billing on two separate architectures, SaaS V1 and SaaS V2, and a sub-account can only run one at a time.
SaaS V1 is Stripe-based. Stripe is the system of record for products, customers, subscriptions, and invoices, and your agency connects Stripe at the agency level. SaaS V2 is HighLevel-based. Your agency’s master sub-account becomes the system of record instead, client sub-accounts link to contacts in your HighLevel account rather than Stripe customers, and you can plug in payment providers beyond Stripe, including Square, Adyen, Mercado Pago, NMI, and Authorize.net
V2 isn’t simply a newer version of V1, it’s a different design, and it currently lags V1 on several features that directly affect how much revenue you actually collect from clients:
| Feature | SaaS V1 | SaaS V2 |
|---|---|---|
| Prorations on upgrade/downgrade/cancel | Available | Not currently available |
| Coupon deflection on cancel attempts | Available | Not currently available |
| Self-serve reactivation after failed payment | Available | Not currently available |
| Client self-serve card updates | Available | Not currently available |
| Switching monthly ↔ yearly billing | Available | Not currently available |
| Payment providers supported | Stripe only | Stripe, Square, Adyen, Mercado Pago, NMI, Authorize.net |
This matters more than it looks. Coupon deflection and self-serve reactivation are the mechanisms that automatically try to save a subscription when a client attempts to cancel or a card fails — without them, every failed payment or cancellation attempt becomes a manual support job for you. Profit projections built around 10, 20, or 50 clients paying a flat monthly rate assume payment recovery is happening in the background. On V2, right now, it isn’t happening automatically. That’s a real cost that doesn’t show up in a spreadsheet until you’re the one chasing down a declined card.
You choose V1 or V2 during setup based on whether you connect Stripe directly or connect a provider through your master sub-account, and switching later means disabling and re-enabling SaaS on that sub-account with the other option.
What Happens If You Turn SaaS Mode Off
Disabling SaaS Mode on a sub-account cancels the subscription attached to it and permanently deletes the wallet balance tied to that account. Your agency gets notified of the balance by email afterward, and any refunds owed to that client have to be handled manually — there’s no automatic payout or restoration path.
In practice, this means downgrading a client off SaaS Mode, or backing out of SaaS Mode for your whole agency, isn’t a reversible toggle. If a client has prepaid credit sitting in their wallet when you disable it, that money doesn’t move anywhere on its own. Plan any downgrade or account transfer around this before you touch the setting, not after.
Who Should Use HighLevel SaaS Mode
SaaS Mode fits agencies ready to actually sell HighLevel as a subscription product — setting a price, letting clients sign up and get provisioned automatically, and keeping a markup on the usage you rebill them. If you’re still onboarding clients by hand and billing them outside the platform, or you’re happy passing usage costs through at cost with no markup, Unlimited already covers that.
It’s a weaker fit if you’re just starting out with one or two clients, since $497/month is a fixed cost you’re carrying before any client revenue offsets it, or if you run a done-for-you service where clients never touch the platform at all — automated selling and rebilling markup add cost without adding anything your clients would notice.
Trade-Offs To Know Before You Upgrade
No plan is free of downsides, and SaaS Mode has a few worth weighing honestly:
- You become tier-one support. HighLevel supports you, the agency owner, not your individual clients. Every login issue, billing question, or feature confusion from a client lands on your desk first.
- Verification requirements apply regardless of your settings. Email verification is mandatory for sub-accounts even if you’ve turned off other security prompts, and only phone verification can be disabled independently.
- Auto-recharge has card limitations. Cards that only support 3D Secure authentication (3DS-only) aren’t compatible with automatic wallet recharges; manual recharge is the fallback.
- The branded mobile app costs extra, on top of the $497/month. It’s priced separately at $497/month or $1,491/quarter regardless of which plan you’re on. Budget for it as its own line item rather than assuming it’s bundled into the Agency Pro subscription.
HighLevel SaaS Mode vs Agency Unlimited
| Criterion | Agency Unlimited ($297/mo) | SaaS Mode / Agency Pro ($497/mo) |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-accounts | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Rebilling phone & email usage | At cost only, no markup | At cost or with your own markup |
| Rebilling AI Employee usage | Not available at all | Available, with markup |
| Client subscription plans / SaaS Configurator | Not available | Available: build plans, attach pricing, automate provisioning |
| User/agent reporting | Not included | Included |
| API access | Basic | Advanced |
| White-label mobile app | Separate paid add-on, same price regardless of plan | Same separate paid add-on, not included free |
The deciding factor isn’t branding, both tiers let you rebill clients for their usage. If you’re just passing usage costs through at cost, Agency Unlimited covers the same core platform for $200/month less.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. HighLevel runs month-to-month at every plan level, including Agency Pro, with no long-term contract — you can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel directly from your dashboard at any time.
Only on SaaS V1. Taxation on wallet recharges and reselling is currently available on V1 but not on V2, so if a sub-account is running V2, you’re responsible for figuring out and remitting any applicable tax on what you bill that client outside the platform.
No. HighLevel prorates the difference when you upgrade mid-month, so you only pay the incremental cost between the two plans rather than a fresh full month on top of what you already paid. That’s separate from the proration behavior covered earlier for individual client subscriptions under SaaS V1 vs V2 — this is about your own agency-level plan, not your clients’ billing.
Not necessarily. The V1/V2 choice is made per sub-account at the time you set up billing for that client, not once for your whole agency. If you started some clients before switching your default approach, or set certain accounts up differently on purpose, you can end up with a mix — some clients with self-serve reactivation and coupon deflection, others without, inside the same agency. It’s worth auditing which version each active sub-account is running rather than assuming they match.