I have consulted in Act for over 20 years. As a result I am often asked by my clients whether they should remain in Act or move to Zoho. The response varies on a case by case basis. Here are a few things to ask yourself when deciding between Act! or Zoho:
- What am I unhappy about with Act!? If you have outgrown Act! and need more powerful usage such as integration to other systems then moving to Zoho CRM or Zoho One makes sense. If you are unhappy with one small aspect of Act! you have to weigh that unhappiness against the time and effort it will take you to move to another solution.
- Am I willing to spend the money to convert my existing database? You will have to pay someone if you want to have things like notes and histories moved from Act! to Zoho
- Am I willing to spend the time to learn a new system?
Both Act! and Zoho are great products. I personally moved to Zoho One after using both Act! and QuickBooks for twenty years. I made the move because I wanted several things including telephony integration, seamless CRM to accounting integration and better automation of my business processes. In Act! I had to rely on a series of addon products to run my business. For example, I had an addon that shared my QuickBooks data to Act!, and I used Zapier to view my GoToWebinars registrants in Act!. With Zoho One all these processes are integrated plus I’m saving a lot of money.
Zoho CRM comes in a number of flavors, or you can move to Zoho One which includes over 40 applications including Zoho CRM Enterprise.
I hope this help! If not, feel free to reach out to the Act and Zoho Consultants at Tech Benders!
I’ve been using ACT since Windows 3.1, back then for my small business and/or sales roles, but over the last 15 years or so I am using the application only as a personal contact manager, ie managing personal contacts and calendar for the family (2 licenses, synced). I’ve been a Tech Benders client for a while, upgrading my 2 ACT licenses every 3 years or so, but the pricing is increasingly prohibitive to continue this practice. For a number of years, I’ve been looking around for a practical alternative that can provide the features above but I have found a clear winner. I know Swift Page is geared towards the business customer, but would be great if ACT had a low cost subscription model for home users, even with limited features. The Microsoft 365 subscription model comes to mind.
So, I thought I’d reach out to you for your help, any suggestions?
Agreed, the Act! prices are getting higher and higher but I have a few low cost alternatives. The first things you need to ask yourself:
• Am I willing to be 100% cloud based?
• Am I willing to learn a new product?
• Will I be happy to just have my basic contact information and not my old notes, histories and activities?
If you answer yes to all of those questions here are a few products to consider:
• Act! CRM Starter ($18/month or $144/year). This is a very basic product and you won’t be able to add custom fields..
• Zoho Bigin Express: ($9/month or $84/year)
• Zoho Bigin Premier: ($15/month or $144/year)
My choice would be Bigin Express. It gives you the most “bang for your buck” including:
• Integration with Microsoft 365
• 50,000 records
• 10 custom fields per module