The Act! product was officially retired on 9/15/23. Apparently, a lot of existing Act! Pro customers either didn’t receive the message or don’t want to believe the message as I am being bombarded with questions from existing Act! Pro users.
Keep in mind that Act! Pro had a “perpetual” license which meant that you could continue to use your copy of Act! Pro year after year without further payment. With the retirement of Act! Pro there is no longer a way to purchase an Act! Perpetual License. Period.
Ninety percent of the inquiries I receive about Act! Pro contain the same exact messaging:
- I’m a long time Act! user
- I refuse to pay an annual subscription
- I don’t want to move to the “cloud”
- I want a product that looks and works just like Act!.
Sorry folks, I can’t help you. Act! is over 35 years old; the newer CRM products are all pretty much web-based. And they don’t look like Act!. And they carry an annual subscription. And no, I don’t happen to have a few boxes of Act! Pro lying around; in fact, it’s probably been over 10 years since Act! was sold “in a box.”
So what are the alternatives? I can think of three:
- Move to something like HubSpot or SalesForce. They are both extremely well known. Just remember that you will be paying approximately ten times the cost of Act!. You will have to pay to convert your data over and it doesn’t look like Act!.
- Move to Zoho. It has more functionality that either Hubspot or SalesForce at a fraction of the price. Zoho pricing runs from $84 – 444/user/year depending on the level of service you chose. Again, Zoho doesn’t work just like Act! although it can be made to look just like Act! if you are will to pay for some additional programming.
- Sign up for an Act! Premium Desktop or an Act Premium Cloud subscription. Yes, you will have to pay a yearly fee but I often have access to great sales and discounted pricing. And yes, the Act! Premium Desktop product looks and feels exactly like the Act! you are accustomed to. And you won’t have to pay to convert your database.
Need help in deciding what to do? Tech Benders is here to help! Send us an email with your questions!
I have ACT pro V16 2018. I think and they did say that they can send me a licence for my copy.
If I cannot purchase a copy of ACT Pro and I don’t want an annual subscription, that leave me with the ZOHO route.
I have never used ZOHO, so I’m not sure how it compares with the ease of using ACT. maybe you can advise.
If I move forward with Zoho
1. If I wanted to move all my contact details, notes, histories and possibly attachments, what would be the cost of doing that?
2. Can I use some of my ACT templates from Word and will Zoho mail merge into my sales templates?
3. Where can I learn more about Zoho?
Gary,
There is NO WAY to use your existing license for a new install. The licensing company that Swiftpage was using for v16 went out of business. Swiftpage didn’t reissue new licenses for v16 users. Period.
Clarification: Zoho is also an annual subscription; however there are less costly versions of Zoho as compared to Act!. As far as which product is “easier” that would be like telling you that a Volvo is easier to drive than a Lexus. It’s 100% based on personal preference. The conversion cost is directly proportional to the size of your database and is dependent on your number of contacts, custom fields, notes, histories, etc. And yes you would have to recreate your templates although you could “copy/paste” the old information into the new templates.
I would suggest checking out some of these videos to learn more about Zoho.
Hi , I was wondering if you supply the ACT crm software, maybe an older version that is not subscription based?
Hi Sid,
Yes, I sell Act. I will save you a lot of time & trouble: there are no “older versions that are not subscription based.” Act Pro was the last “perpetual” (non subscription) product and it was retired on 9/15/23. And be careful of purchasing an “older version” on the Internet; chances are extremely high that you won’t be able to register it. I can help you get the best pricing for an Act subscription, or talk to you about a lower priced alternative like Zoho.
I have a question for you. I have used Act Pro for many years as my main contact manager. This is my main source for contacts. Because the company I work for uses Dynamics for its CRM I do most of my work in Dynamics.
I have Act! Pro Version 24.0.204.0, Update 8.
Is my version discontinued? If so, What are my options with the understanding of how I use Act?
Does my version have a mobile version?
Hi Dave,
In answer to your questions:
• Is my version discontinued? Yes, which means you can no longer get Swiftpage support and that no future updates to your product will be created. You might also find that if you have already installed Act! on two computers you won’t be able to install it a third time should you get a new one.
• If so, What are my options with the understanding of how I use Act? It doesn’t matter HOW you use Act!; if you want to continue to use Act! you will need to move to a subscription at some point. You can purchase the Act! Premium Desktop subscription or the Act! Premium Cloud subscription.
• Does my version have a mobile version? No, but there are third party products that I recommend that would allow you to access all of your Act! data from your Smart Phone.
Today, I only use it for phone numbers, email addresses and personal notes from the past. I’m running V18 & V21 which I believe I was told would be the last “official” version. Did you guys buy the rights and are pressing ahead?
If I did purchase this, it would only be used in case of an emergency as happened when I took a lightning strike and replaced my motherboard with the identical board. Should work, right? Nope! ACT would not run and could not be activated(V18).
Hi Jack,
I think there is a question in here; I’m not really sure what you are asking. First of all, I’m not sure who told you v21 would be the last “official” version. Perhaps you mean Act! Pro; in that case the last version was Act! v24 which was discontinued on 9/15/23. No one “bought the rights” to Act!; Act! is alive and well. There are currently 2 versions of Act!: Act! Premium for Desktop and Act! Premium for Web. They do both require an annual subscription.
I’m also not sure why you were using both v18 and v21 “in case of emergency.” V18 can’t read a v21 database and vice versa.
I’m an old client of yours, which no doubt you’ll see in your well-organized act database 🙂 I stopped using ACT! a number of years ago and would like to revive it. Please give me a ring to discuss what my options are when you have time. I look forward to hearing from you Karen!
Nice to hear from you after all this time. But, although I still am a major reseller of Act!, I personally switched by business to Zoho a number of years ago. The biggest thing to know about Act! is that it is now only sold as a subscription. You have two choices: Act! for Web or Act! for Desktop. I’d recommend the Desktop version if you are the only user and the Web product if you have multiple users in various locations and/or don’t want to maintain a server.
Hi! Just wanted to verify the status of the ACT! Pro. I am a sole proprietor who has been using ACT! for a long time. After a recent hard-drive failure, I have tried to recover the ACT! functionality, but see that they won’t activate older version of Pro. I have been able to reload the software and database is open, running on a trial basis. I have zero interest in paying $360/yr for Premium.
Hi Jeff, sorry about the hard drive crash but no, there is nothing that can be done to avoid an annual subscription if you want to remain in Act!. In fact, I don’t know of any CRM that will let you install it without paying an annual subscription. I do offer Zoho, a lower cost Act! alternative, but you would have to learn something new and pay to convert your data if you want to retain your notes.