RUN, Do not walk away from Swiftpage ACT!
Updated March 24, 2021
RUN, Do not walk away from Swiftpage ACT!
Score 1 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Software Version
Sage Act! Pro,Sage Act! Premium
Overall Satisfaction with Swiftpage ACT!
We have used ACT! initially for a business then for several non-profit organizations. When we started over 20 years ago ACT! was cutting edge and the software actually worked well. Version 21 is an unqualified disaster. Please RUN, do not walk away from this product. Find a company that actually values their clients enough to give them functioning software. Bulk email with EMarketing was awful and now ACT! Marketng Automation has figured out to be even worse. So we recently installed Version 23 which was reported as a major fix. It disrupted all printing on Dymo label printers that has still not been solved. You can't find trend lines and consistent bad performance.
- Swiftpage ACT! unilaterally and retroactively changed the terms of all clients previously with ACT! Premium. We renewed September 2019 but they essentially cancelled this contract two months into the 12 month period. The really know how to increase revenue with nearly a 50% price increase. If you are a Swiftpage stockholder you are pretty happy about all of this. We clients are not.
- No known strengths.
- Many of us need to send a lot more emails than our standard email accounts will allow. We all also need to conform to federal laws about sending emails. So working with reputable firms that do bulk emails is essential. So we have to use third party services. EMarketing was awful. We would revise a template, dutifully save it multiple times, confirm our changes had been captured, and then send out an email campaign we were comfortable was going to work. Well, despite having done QC and being diligent about saving our work, Swiftpage sent out a version that reflected few if any of our changes. We totally lost confidence with EMarketing.
- So Swiftpage's answer to the bulk email problem they created with EMarketing was to tell all their clients if they did not immediately move to version 21 they were going to lose all email capability. EMarketing was being shut down and all of us would have no capability to send emails. So let's do a little extortion and say with a nearly 50% increase in price we can help you.
- Best of luck getting ACT! Marketing Automation to actually work! We have already wasted a lot of hours and have nothing to show for the lost time. The reason we are so convinced no one should have to endure the loss we have already suffered.
- The software is so badly written customers are either forced to pay technical support to solve problems their software coders created or look to replace ACT.
- Total waste! We have lost vastly more time than is reasonable for any client to absorb.
- The subscription fee increase is outrageous but your total loss is vastly higher with all the wasted time trying to get defective software to work.
At this point we know we can only go up, we have hit bottom with version 21. Version 23 that we just installed says we are still where we were. No improvement.
Do you think Act! CRM delivers good value for the price?
No
Are you happy with Act! CRM's feature set?
No
Did Act! CRM live up to sales and marketing promises?
No
Did implementation of Act! CRM go as expected?
No
Would you buy Act! CRM again?
No
Using Swiftpage ACT!
1 - Marketing, communication, group planning, running small not-for-profit organizations. A wide range of business functions where a database product presumably can be helpful.
Swiftpage requires over 10 hours a month of IT support to get the features to operate that they claim will work. We cannot afford the price of the program and the price of the IT support staff that is required.
- Convening groups.
- Communicating with groups and individual members within a group.
- Compiling historical record that can be easily accessed.
- We hoped to do bulk emailing but Swiftpage could not do this effectively.
- Task management is something we all need but best of luck with ACT and the Task List and Dashboard.
- The situation has gotten so bad with Version 23 we are looking for another product.
Evaluating Swiftpage Act! and Competitors
Yes - We previously were using database products and spreadsheets. These worked well enough but the inclusion of the notes capability with the original ACT software argued for the conversion to ACT.
- Product Features
The Notes feature was critical.
We would not trust any ACT marketing claims. If customers will Fly Before Buy they will be smart enough to know not to proceed with ACT.
Swiftpage Act! Implementation
- Implemented in-house
Yes - First phase was basic records creation. Each record was subsequently developed over time based on the level of relationship.
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled - Delay updating any new version of ACT because of how buggy their upgrades are.
- Finding features ACT claims exists but were over promoted and didn't actual work at all.
- Finding ACT features that did not work well.
Swiftpage Act! Support
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
None | Slow Resolution Poor followup Less knowledgeable Problems left unsolved Not kept informed Escalation required Difficult to get immediate help Need to explain problems multiple times Support doesn't seem to care Slow Initial Response |
Our staff has 25+ years of experience with an extensive array of different and complex software. Swiftpage appears to have a business model of writing software that is so bad they can count on additional revenue from premium support. If you don't go with a paid support plan you will find there are no humans available to do anything to help; just some poorly written FAQs.
Yes - Today we reported a problem Version 23 created with our printer. It is directly related to the install procedure. Total disavowal of any responsibility.
I was one of Pat Sullivan's original customers. There hasn't been anything exceptional in the past 10~ years. Really disappointing how bad things have gotten.
Using Swiftpage Act!
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
None | Do not like to use Difficult to use Not well integrated Inconsistent Slow to learn Cumbersome Feel nervous using Lots to learn |
- Creating a new record is clerical typing.
- Reports is a critical function that performs abysmally.
- Literally no or poor integration with MS Office.
- Bulk emails just awful.
Yes - Best of luck trying to get your smartphone synched with your laptop. We have 13K+ records, ACT insists all of these have to be on our phones; who thinks this is smart? ACT is so poor with mobile devices we have had to purchase a third-party app, more dollars. to get any connection.