Act! CRM vs. Apptivo

Swiftpage ACT! would be well suited if you are using a desktop computing environment. ACT! is an old product and they were on the desktop for many years (and still are). Also, ACT! would also be well suited if you are not as concerned about implementing a CRM product that might require a little more training (e.g. if you had employees/salespeople that needed to be trained). Also, ACT! seems to be more generic than some of the industry focused products you see nowadays. For example, MethodCRM works well with non-profits that are on the cloud.

Incentivized

I would absolutely recommend Apptivo! We have used Apptivo for years, and we wouldn't consider another platform to keep all of our contacts together in one place. It's easy to export certain lists for certain mailings and to add/remove new contacts and move things around as needed over time. There's freedom to adding new contacts and the pricing is phenomenal

Incentivized

• Integrated Email Marketing: For a small business, you can have a strong method to handle email marketing in an integrated non-disparate solution.
• Tailoring: There are no limits on what data you can store in the system and the ease of making changes can be done by a nontechnical person.
• User Interface: The tool is easy to get around in both the desktop (fat client) and (webclient) which both are quite similar in functionality.
• Integration: The tool integrates with Word, Excel, and Outlook nicely. And, it integrates with Google Mail and Contacts. There is a nice selection of third party tools available for various needs like AddressGrabber which allows for easy input of contacts from various sources such as email signatures, webpages, etc.
• Templates: I have enjoyed being able to store tons of various templates for letters which we use over and over for various communications like sales proposals, quotes, and nudging clients along the funnel and sales process.
• Automation: SwiftPage ACT! has a small business automation engine which allows for reminders and workflow to be administered by the system. It's not as sophisticated as some enterprise workflow automation solutions but for the price it's an awesome addition.
• Maintenance: Very rarely have a problem which needs to be dealt with and costs to upgrade are minimal at best. We hosted the system internally for the web client and implemented it ourselves initially but had upgrades subsequently done by a local partner simply due to time/cost scenario. In other words, less to have someone else do it.

• Built in support for new users.
• Basic crm works...just dont expect it do anything well beyond the basic.
• Price.
• Google Apps integration is better than a lot of the competition who charge and anwful lot more.
• They are open to and try adapt quickly based on customer feedback.

• Not intuitive to use. I will have to contact support for help if I haven't used some functions in a while.
• It's near impossible to delete duplicates as they have to be deleted individually. This is a problem if you have more than 5000 contacts.
• Reporting is difficult.

• Dashboard and interface subsections are a bit clunky re: functionality.
• Built-in email client isn't always a feasible option for efficiency (signatures are different, contacts don't always update accordingly).
• Consistency and integration between apps is not always optimal.

Incentivized

There are a lot of good SaaS options on the market but SwiftPage ACT still has a place in the mix today. It depends on your needs, goals, processes, and people

Try printing reports with each record's notes section - really awful output that you are embarrassed to show anyone. Want to add a new record to a group, ACT will present another record for the group assignment. Want to work seamlessly with email? Forget it!

Without a doubt, the best thing about Apptivo is that it has become a perfect internal and external communication platform. This platform will allow you to know who is taking care of certain tasks with clients and control all projects with your clients. With very affordable plans for your pocket, it has a free version for up to 3 users. It far surpasses quite a few CRMs in the same category. Apptivo CRM allows you to customize many details and work with it does not consume time or resources. You are faced with a very comfortable software to use, simple and well designed.

Incentivized

There has been an ongoing problem with Google synchronisation which no one seems to be bothered about fixing, even though it clearly states on the website that the software synchronises with Google. When the customer-facing support team are on the phone, they are brilliant, it's the back-end development support which is severely lacking.

Apptivo is always quick to respond whenever we have had a problem over out time of using the program. The customer service reps are always very polite and professional in their responses and are very knowledgeable! I have never gone to them with a problem that they don't do everything in their power to help solve, and most times they have (abbreviating states is the only issue we weren't able to solve).

Incentivized

Delay your upgrades! ACT appears to ship out new software with virtually no checking and no concern about bad installs do to their customers.

If you are starting a business and want a free app or nearly free app that can grow with you....then apptivo could be for you. However if you grow faster than them then you will be quickly seeking alternatives

ACT! CRM is more cost effective than like a Salesforce, but that is for a reason, it lacks a lot of the functionality that a Salesforce has. Pipedrive is actually another cost effective platform I've been evaluating as a potential ACT! CRM replacement. I like it's modern day look and feel versus ACT!.

Incentivized

The price was right for what we needed to use Apptivo for (the CRM and the contact management/project management models). And, we needed something basic and easy to implement so we could get up and running with little down time. The other systems we evaluated didn't seem to have the exact pricing and features/functionality we were looking for so we made the determination that Apptivo would be the best fit.

Incentivized

• It's been easy to keep track of progress of goals with the software. This provides the opportunity to know what is working and what is not.
• We have had to adjust a lot of things since the Virus issue took a foothold, but it is providing invaluable to make those adjustments.
• Our ROI has increased at least 30%.

Incentivized

• It allows me to get a vision of what is happening with the business
• control sales, marketing and customer service processes from a single point
• facilitates administrative tasks

Incentivized