Act CRM Pricing: March 2022

Act CRM in 2022 should be called Act CRM Millennial.  Or Act CRM Constant Contact.  Or Act CRM MailChimp.  For long time Act software users is chocolate when you were simply looking for vanilla.  As of 3-7-2022 Act has four offerings for consumers:

Act CRM | Cloud Based: $144 to $600 per year (not my first recommendation) | Rank: 2 out of 10

Act Premium v24 | Self Hosted: $350 to $450 per year.  Traditional Physically Installed Act Desktop Software | Rank: 8 out of 10

Act CRM Classic (introduced Fall 2020) Cloud Based Only | $360 per year | No software to install | Few Technical Issues | Not promoted directly by Act | I use it and love it | Rank: 8 out of 10

Act Pro v24 | Traditional One Time Purchase of Act Desktop Software | Rank 6 out of 10 | Not heavily promoted by Act

When you visit www.act.com you will find a free trial to Act software’s newest iteration of Act.  It is totally different than the Act software long time Act software users are used to.  I am not saying it is bad.  I am saying it is very different.  My concern regarding the new software stems from the fact that when you do the free trial can give you the wrong impression of acts software.  Act has three offerings and I would like to review those with you here.  Act CRM: currently on Act’s website is a free 14-day free trial and it is very different and best suited in my opinion for people that are focusing on email marketing, and bells and whistles.  The software seems more concerned with adapting to other software that it does to offering a good product.

In fairness to the good folks at Act software they are in a Catch-22.  Their client base is aging and they need to develop software for new generation and this is what they are attempting to do with Act CRM in 2022.  This iteration of Act CRM was developed in the fall of 2021.  One of the huge weaknesses of the software for traditional longtime Act users is that there is currently no way to upload your current database to this version of Act software.  That is a dealbreaker in my mind.  It is great for people just starting out or people that have a lot of their data and Microsoft Excel.

Before we go much further what is Act CRM? Does anyone call it CRM?

I have been working with Act software for more than 25 years and in all that time I could probably count on one hand that people referred to Act as CRM software.  It has always been just Act.  Because of Act’s age it started as software that you physically installed on your computer.  It has stood the test of time and through the years adapted to using it via a web browser.  Most CRM products that compete with Act today are purely web-based.  For example, Salesforce.  Just for the record in my opinion sales forces for larger companies and Act has many small business users and individuals.

My thoughts on subscriptions vs. one-time purchases

Long time Act users are used to buying Act wants and potentially never having to pay for it again.  The thought of paying for a subscription drives them crazy.  One of the biggest advantages to any of the subscriptions that Act offers is their Act email marketing or Act Marketing Automation.  I often hear “I do not need any of that email marketing”.  If Act users feel that way it is our fault.  My fault.  We have not educated you in the best ways to use this option.  Most people think about email marketing as sending out an email to thousands of contacts and that is possible with this tool.  However, you can use this tool in a much more subtle manner.  Starting in April, I am going to be offering monthly training for free and Act Marketing Automation.

After my training I asked that you reconsider this tool as an important part of your sales, marketing, and customer service follow-up tool belt.