I have received literally hundreds of inquiries since Act Pro was discontinued. Some of my Act Pro customers understand this decision and ultimately move to the subscription based Act Premium for Web ($360-480/user/year) or Act Premium Desktop ($450/user/year less discounts) version. Others, however, “refuse to move to a subscription” and decide to use their Act Pro version until it literally “stops working.” Unfortunately, my experience has been that their Act Pro stops working at the worst possible time. Sometimes this happens when they have a hard drive or other computer failure and find that they have to reinstall Act; more often than not, they are unable to register their old Act Pro.
Many long-time Act Pro users have very basic needs – and very limited budgets. For those users I often recommend Zoho’s Bigin product for several reasons:
- Bigin Prices range from free to $144/user/year, or can be purchased on a monthly basis for $9 – $15/user/month depending on your needs.
- Bigin offers as many, if not more, features than Act Pro
- There is an easy path to upgrade your data to the full-fledged Zoho CRM, or downgrade your data if you find you are not using all of the functionality
In short, Bigin contains all of the features of Act Pro – with a much smaller price tag:
- Customization: Tailor Bigin to fit your business.
- Pipeline Management: Organize your tasks, activities and pipelines to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks.
- Task Management: Create, follow up and complete tasks directly from within your pipeline.
- Product Management: Bigin includes solutions for your product management.
- Customer Management: Convert Leads into Customers.
- Import, Export and Migrate: Transfer data seamlessly from spreadsheets to Bigin.
- Forms: Create customizable forms and share them across your other channels to gather potential information quickly.
Looking for a Bigin trial? Click HERE.
Need help in deciding where to go from Act Pro? We’re here to help! Reach out to the Act/Zoho Consultants at Tech Benders!
I’m a longtime ACT user with about 1100 contacts in my Act! (Web) Version 24.0.204.0, Update 8, database. I started out with Version 4 or 5 over 20 year. I wish I still had Version 6. I have Act installed on two machines and synchronize between the two.
I’m a mostly retired Real estate broker, and I have my entire business in this software with notes, histories, tasks and contact information. I’ve mostly used Act as a Contact manager, scheduling tasks and keeping track of things. Task list and Calendar, I do not use any of the more extensive features of Act, I do have it setup to keep track of Outlook emails.
After a Windows update, (I’m running 10) about 9 months ago I started receiving an “Act has encountered an error. Please shutdown the application” upon startup, I can ignore it for a few minutes (Act will freeze up if I try to do anything) and then begin using the software. Each time I do a look up I receive the same pop up, (it doesn’t freeze) but click on ok and go about my business.
I dread spending another $450 and contacting tech support, In the past I’ve had Tech Support crash my machine, having to begin from a fresh windows installation, spending days to get back up and running…along with other adventures.
I just found your website and figured out reach out. I need to find an alternative.
I sympathize with your Act! frustration. I see that you signed up for a Bigin trial. We’d have to work really fast to get you up and running by the 5th; I honestly don’t think we have time. You could, however, make a backup of your Act! data, let your subscription lapse, let me work up a quote and then reinstate Act! if you decide to stay there. You do have a 10 day grace period.
There are a few things to consider before moving to another product.
1. Are you willing to learn something new?
2. Are you willing to pay to have your data transferred?
3. How much of your data do you need?
4. Do you need to bring over your old history and activities?
5. How many custom fields do you require?
I see you signed up for Bigin. It’s a great product but it won’t let me import in old activities and histories. If you need those, Zoho CRM would be a better fit for you.
How do I export my Act Pro files that will work in BIGIN?
Hi Duane,
You can export your basic CONTACT information by going to Act’s Contact List and clicking the Export to Excel button. However, this will not export your Notes. If you need to have your Notes as well reach out to me and we can discuss your options.
so, there is no way to transfer Act history (notes, activities, tasks) from Act to Bigin?
Can I migrate my database from Act crm to Bigin?
It’s almost impossible for me to answer this question as you haven’t given me much to go on. It depends on what you mean by “I”, what information you want to export from Act, and which version of Bigin you are talking about. If you are looking to just bring over your contact records without Notes, Histories, and Activities then yes, you could probably do it. If you want to bring over additional information such as Notes you’ll most probably need help. You also haven’t mention which level of Bigin you are thinking about, the size of your database and the number of custom Act fields that you have.
Not sure where you got that. You absolutely can import Notes, Histories & Tasks into Bigin as long as you were able to get them successfully out of Act in the correct format. However, you need to understand that Bigin is a small, low cost CRM. It allows for 500 – 100,000 records. You need to understand that every note is a “record” as is each History, Task and Contact. If you have a lot of data you might need to be using Zoho CRM instead of Bigin.
I would like to prepare an alternative to Act!. I only use Act! For keeping contact names and all of their respective contact info in an easily searchable place. I also use the notes feature a lot with attachments to the notes. Can you suggest a way for me to export everything I have in Act! to a different affordable software that can work for me the same way as I’m using Act!? I see you work with something called Zoho Bigin.
Yes, I can transfer all of your data from Act! to Bigin. You would just need to decide which level works for you; they range from free to $144/year. The smaller plan only allow for 10 custom fields; the large plan allows for 25.
The other important thing is how many “records” you need. Keep in mind a contact is a record, but a note is also a record. The free Bigin plan only allows for 500 records so if you have 300 contacts with each having at least 2 notes you would have over 900 records and would have to move to a different plan. The great thing about Bigin is you can move up plans without data loss. You can even move up to a full version of Zoho CRM if you need more functionality than what Bigin offers.
Hi,
I have Act v19 and am afraid I won’t be able to install in on a new computer when I get it. I have roughly 3,000 contacts, most with one or two notes. Is Zoho Bigin a good fit for me and, if so, can you help me to convert my data from Act to Zoho?
Hi Kris,
I think you would be a good fit for Zoho Bigin. You would either need Express ($84/year or $7/month) or Premier ($144/year or $15/month). Here is the link to the trial; once the trial ends you can pay monthly to begin with and either move up or move down to the version that works best for you.
I hope I was able to answer all of your questions. If not, let me know!