Act! CRM vs. Sage CRM

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Act! CRM
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Act! CRM (formerly Swiftpage) aims to empower small businesses to build and manage client relationships and leads, so the user always has a pipeline of new, repeat, and referral business under control. Users can manage their businesses with Act! CRM every day, since it’s more than a CRM – it’s designed to present everything needed to stay on top of relationships, see what’s most important and actionable, and run sales and marketing in one place.
$22
per month
Sage CRM
Score 7.7 out of 10
Mid-Size Companies (51-1,000 employees)
Sage CRM is an SMB-oriented CRM platform offered in both SaaS and on-premise editions. Unlike the Sage SalesLogix product, the SaaS version is a true multi-tenant offering. The platform offers excellent integration with Sage ERP and accounting products. It is also a good global solution and is available in many languages and is used by over 12,000 customers worldwide, with many customers in Europe.
$33
per month
Pricing
Act! CRMSage CRM
Editions & Modules
Essentials
$22
per user, per month
Act! Premium - Basic
$37.50
per user, per month (billed annually)
Standard
$40
per user, per month
Expert
$55
per user, per month
Select - Extra Features
$79
per user, per month (billed annually)
Complete - Extra Features
$199
per user, per month (billed annually)
Advanced - Extra Features
$399
per user, per month (billed annually)
Sage CRM (cloud)
$45
Per User per Month
Sage CRM (on premise)
Lifetime License per Seat
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Act! CRMSage CRM
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsFor SaaS version, discount available for annual subscription.Tiered pricing is available for multiple users.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Act! CRMSage CRM
Considered Both Products
Act! CRM

No answer on this topic

Sage CRM
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Act! CRMSage CRM
Sales Force Automation
Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of Product A and Product B
Act! CRM
6.5
3 Ratings
17% below category average
Sage CRM
8.8
17 Ratings
14% above category average
Customer data management / contact management9.83 Ratings9.017 Ratings
Workflow management7.42 Ratings8.616 Ratings
Territory management8.52 Ratings8.517 Ratings
Opportunity management9.53 Ratings8.917 Ratings
Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)1.73 Ratings9.016 Ratings
Quote & order management4.01 Ratings9.016 Ratings
Interaction tracking9.42 Ratings9.216 Ratings
Channel / partner relationship management1.42 Ratings8.716 Ratings
Contract management00 Ratings8.514 Ratings
Customer Service & Support
Comparison of Customer Service & Support features of Product A and Product B
Act! CRM
6.0
2 Ratings
22% below category average
Sage CRM
8.1
16 Ratings
8% above category average
Case management1.92 Ratings8.016 Ratings
Call center management8.22 Ratings8.215 Ratings
Help desk management8.01 Ratings8.214 Ratings
Marketing Automation
Comparison of Marketing Automation features of Product A and Product B
Act! CRM
2.1
3 Ratings
113% below category average
Sage CRM
8.7
16 Ratings
14% above category average
Lead management2.13 Ratings8.816 Ratings
Email marketing2.13 Ratings8.715 Ratings
CRM Project Management
Comparison of CRM Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Act! CRM
4.0
2 Ratings
62% below category average
Sage CRM
9.0
17 Ratings
17% above category average
Task management8.02 Ratings9.016 Ratings
Billing and invoicing management1.01 Ratings9.015 Ratings
Reporting3.02 Ratings9.113 Ratings
CRM Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Act! CRM
4.8
3 Ratings
45% below category average
Sage CRM
8.6
17 Ratings
12% above category average
Forecasting4.02 Ratings8.716 Ratings
Pipeline visualization4.73 Ratings8.416 Ratings
Customizable reports5.52 Ratings8.717 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Act! CRM
3.2
3 Ratings
81% below category average
Sage CRM
8.6
17 Ratings
13% above category average
Custom fields7.83 Ratings8.517 Ratings
Custom objects2.02 Ratings8.516 Ratings
Scripting environment2.01 Ratings9.016 Ratings
API for custom integration1.12 Ratings8.314 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Act! CRM
8.0
2 Ratings
4% below category average
Sage CRM
8.7
17 Ratings
4% above category average
Single sign-on capability7.01 Ratings8.717 Ratings
Role-based user permissions9.02 Ratings8.813 Ratings
Integrations with 3rd-party Software
Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of Product A and Product B
Act! CRM
1.8
3 Ratings
119% below category average
Sage CRM
9.0
14 Ratings
23% above category average
Marketing automation1.83 Ratings9.114 Ratings
Compensation management00 Ratings8.912 Ratings
Platform
Comparison of Platform features of Product A and Product B
Act! CRM
2.1
3 Ratings
112% below category average
Sage CRM
7.8
16 Ratings
4% above category average
Mobile access2.13 Ratings7.816 Ratings
Social CRM
Comparison of Social CRM features of Product A and Product B
Act! CRM
-
Ratings
Sage CRM
9.4
13 Ratings
26% above category average
Social data00 Ratings9.513 Ratings
Social engagement00 Ratings9.313 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Act! CRMSage CRM
Small Businesses
Salesmate
Salesmate
Score 9.8 out of 10
Salesmate
Salesmate
Score 9.8 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
Enterprises
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Act! CRMSage CRM
Likelihood to Recommend
2.3
(18 ratings)
8.9
(28 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.0
(2 ratings)
5.1
(11 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(7 ratings)
8.9
(11 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
1.9
(14 ratings)
7.9
(8 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
1.0
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Act! CRMSage CRM
Likelihood to Recommend
ACT! LLC
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.
Read full review
Sage
as it is a very flexible software that can be adapted to any business model, other functions human resource management, manufacturing and supply chain planning, all these functions are housed in a highly technological interface. I liked this system because it made automating accounts payable so much easier.the control of the basic accounting of any type of company
Read full review
Pros
ACT! LLC
  • 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.
Read full review
Sage
  • When in client profile, it is very intuitive, allowing you to easily transcribe notes in the clients profile.
  • Sage allows 3rd party plugins, so if you utilize a particular phone services or would like to import something as simple as google drive, its compatible.
Read full review
Cons
ACT! LLC
  • 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.
Read full review
Sage
  • Reliance on Apache Tomcat causes a lot of headaches. There are common issues trying to start up the server, resulting from Apache Tomcat misconfigurations, or Java. Some forum posts on Sage City address common issues, but digging into server logs seems to be an often occurrence.
  • Support is somewhat lacking, less user install base means error messages are sometimes hard to find quick answers for. Most of the knowledge found on the internet is in the Sage City forum.
  • Integration with Microsoft 365 causes you to have to turn off some security features. This will result in your 365 tenants running lower security standards than recommended, it may put you at risk for targeted attacks.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
ACT! LLC
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
Read full review
Sage
There are really no other words to say, it is a very easy to use application that is more straightforward and has provided better results with the bulk of features that appeal to a very broad amount of users. There may be other CRM platforms out there that are more prevalent, but I have found them to be much more clunky and less intuitive than Sage CRM.
Read full review
Usability
ACT! LLC
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!
Read full review
Sage
Excellent integration with the most important social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter) to get leads. The mobile app is quite useful for speeding up the tasks at hand and not relying on the computer or being in the office to get them done.
Read full review
Performance
ACT! LLC
No answers on this topic
Sage
Sage works very quickly based on the network you are using it on. It is internet based so if your network is slow, it will perform slowly. Reports seem to run reasonably fast, if there is too much information it is trying to populate that could slow it down a little. When Sage CRM is integrated with a Sage ERP product it doesn't tend to slow down either system at all
Read full review
Support Rating
ACT! LLC
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.
Read full review
Sage
Support team is really slow and they need to work on this really. Sometimes it takes days to resolve a simple query and there is no way to get it expedited. Rest the product is is amazing but the team should look into the costumer support and get it working
Read full review
In-Person Training
ACT! LLC
No answers on this topic
Sage
Most training would come after a upgrade. Otherwise we would self teach new employees. Training was with a Sage Software partner SWK technologies.
Read full review
Implementation Rating
ACT! LLC
Delay your upgrades! ACT appears to ship out new software with virtually no checking and no concern about bad installs do to their customers.
Read full review
Sage
The implementation and upgrades were rather quick and straight forward. Attempting to link Sage CRM with Sage 100 ERP however was a nightmare and will be avoided by us in the future due to numerous issues.
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
ACT! LLC
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!.
Read full review
Sage
Whilst SAGE CRM was selected around 10 years ago and we became a partner, the main contenders would have been at the time Sales Logix and MS CRM 4.0. However, we had extensive experience of the mid-market CRM's and decided on SAGE CRM since it had a clean, easy to understand interface and importantly offered both workflow automation and Self Service capability, all of which across both the Case and Sales and Marketing functionality was seamless and saved time. As it was pure browser based, access was from anywhere we wanted. In my view, SAGE CRM still stacks up well against all the other mid-market CRM systems and offers good value for money, but more importantly, it is an easy to operate and customisable solution which user like. Again, we can teach administration users very quickly to support and customise themselves since the admin. function are clear as well.
Read full review
Return on Investment
ACT! LLC
  • 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%.
Read full review
Sage
  • It is very affordable in pricing, compared to competitors
  • Lead management and convertion into prospects is also a very easy process
  • Lead capture from web pages should be available, and better ways to capture leads from tradeshows by uploading directly from scanned business cards
Read full review
ScreenShots