Act! CRM vs. Salesflare

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

Salesflare is recommendable for any business that runs a lean sales setup with a website for lead generation, empowered with maybe cold outreach and/or lead nurturing. Mostly so for small-to-medium sized businesses: they can save a ton of time/money generating more revenue with their human sales efforts, while Salesflare does the rest of the job.

• Data Analysis. ACT! does a good job of allowing us to create meaningful reports.
• Keeping track of communication. ACT! integrates with Outlook to record all client communication by e-mail.
• Custom dashboards. We have created custom data entry pages that simplify what we are trying to collect.

Incentivized

• Workflows are easy to create and very effective for bulk messaging.
• I like the email templates that I can set up and re-use - very convenient!
• The phone app is good - I can access a contact right from my phone and call them. When I make a call, it automatically opens a note for me to create a time-stamped record of the call.
• I also like that fact that I can add customized contact and account fields. This is a big help in allowing me to do pretty precise "sorts".

• Creating reports or creating searches for specific fields is not intuitive.
• Email marketing add-on service is far from user friendly and outdated in flexibility for creating useful emails.
• Installing updates creates issues, even though Swiftpage ACT! functioned properly before the update.
• Figuring out how best to organize contacts into specific, searchable groups requires expert assistance and is not intuitive.
• Support from Swiftpage ACT! is marginal at best; we rely on outside consultant instead, for an extra cost.

Incentivized

• Salesflare automatically captures and organises data about leads so it can effectively surface the ones that require your attention. It also provides you with the tools to do just that. What it doesn't cover as much right now is feeding top of the funnel: I would for example happily pay extra to have a website visitor identification functionality into the mix.

Once our current subscription expires, we no longer plan to use ACT. We are moving to a more complete CRM system that allows us, as a project based service company, to track projects, contacts, time and employees all with one software program. ACT has very limited modules to integrate these functions and therefore is no longer a good fit for us.

Incentivized

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!

The pipeline, which is the core of the platform, is very clear and full of features. On top of that Salesflare added automations, integrations, plugins and emails. You can easily get your leads there from any platform and nurture your leads until you get the deal done. I think any business can benefit from using this sales CRM.

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.

Hit them on Chat support, and you are gonna get a response within a few minutes (if not in a few hours, during weekends) But they are gonna keep following with you till they make sure that your query has been resolved. Keep it up!

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

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 learning curve and ease of use are virtually non-existent, and the interface is straightforward. Other products we've tried or evaluated have been too complicated and customizable. It's easy to start using Salesflare right away. Salesflare can be thought of as a better Pipedrive. With the same easy-to-use, low-barrier approach to getting started, it ups the ante when dealing with data, enriching and automating it.

• Very poor return on investment. It is now quite costly and the support service no longer offers assistance except if the program crashes.
• Swiftpage seems to have replaced their skilled UK based support team with a call centre?? The service I got was dreadful. This is a difficult program to use and support is vital.
• You will need some IT skills to properly use ACT! Don't rely on their support which is not good.

• I save dozens of hours each month managing new clients and leads, Salesflare easily pays for itself each month
• Between the great mobile app and integration with Gsuite, Salesflare is the perfect CRM for the mobile user. I no longer feel chained to a desktop to manage my leads.
• I used to have a Love-Hate relationship with CRMs but now actually enjoy using a CRM since using Salesflare and feel like I actually realize the value of using a CRM.

Incentivized