Act!

What is Act!?

Act! is a CRM that stores contacts, activities and opportunities, and adds email marketing, landing pages, surveys, interactive quotes and online appointment booking. The cloud product is Act! Advantage; Act! Premium Desktop installs on your own machines and works offline. Act! Connect moves data to and from apps such as Outlook, Google Contacts, Slack, Shopify, Zendesk, QuickBooks Online and Xero. The company says the product has been on the market for nearly 40 years and has more than 800,000 users.

Who is it for?

Small businesses that sell on relationships, with industry pages for insurance, financial services and manufacturing. It also fits firms that want an on-premises CRM. Teams that need a sales dialer, sequencing or deep pipeline analytics should look at Close, HubSpot or Pipedrive.

Pricing

• Standard: $30/user/mo (annual), CRM and mobile app, basic email marketing with 2,500 sends/month, Office 365 and Gmail integration, quotes, scheduling, forms, website chat, 15 GB storage.
• Professional: $45/user/mo (annual), adds Email Marketing Plus, AI history summaries and writing assistant, accounting integration, project management, 25,000 sends/month, 25 GB storage.
• Ultimate: $60/user/mo (annual), adds marketing automation, lead scoring, custom industry tables, customer portal, enhanced support, 50,000 sends/month, 35 GB storage.
• Premium Desktop: $40/user/mo (annual), on-premises install with networked and offline access.
• Enterprise Engagement: custom pricing for private hosting.

Add-ons change the bill: desktop sync $10/user/mo, extra 2,500 email sends $15/mo, SMS from $19/mo, customer portal $100/mo, Email Marketing Plus $79/mo and Marketing Automation $199/mo per account. Billing is annual. There is a 14-day trial with no card. Prices checked on 6 October 2026.

Strengths

• Cloud or desktop: Premium Desktop runs on your own network and works offline, which few current CRMs offer.
• Email marketing included: every cloud plan sends campaigns, landing pages and surveys from the CRM.
• Quotes and booking: interactive quotes and online appointment scheduling sit in every cloud plan, and Act! Payments takes payment on them.
• Accounting links: Professional and Ultimate connect to accounting software, and Act! Connect adds QuickBooks Online, Xero and FreshBooks.
• Onboarding: each subscription includes a dedicated account manager and free onboarding.

What to consider

• No monthly billing: all list prices are annual commitments.
• Email sends are capped at 2,500, 25,000 or 50,000 a month by plan; extra sends cost $15 per 2,500.
• Marketing automation and lead scoring need Ultimate.
• Desktop sync with the cloud costs $10/user/mo extra.
• Each Act! Connect recipe on the connections page does one job, such as adding a contact from a new Facebook lead or creating a Zendesk customer from a new contact. Check that the recipe you need exists before buying.

Bottom line

Shortlist Act! if you run a small business that wants contacts, quotes and email campaigns in one tool, or needs a CRM installed on your own servers. Before buying, count your monthly email sends and check whether you need Ultimate for automation.