8 Act! Alternatives That Won't Surprise You With Price Hikes
You just got the Act! renewal email and the price jumped. Again. Every other list of Act! alternatives is written by a CRM vendor trying to sell you theirs. We don't sell a CRM - so let's just find you the right one.
Our Picks
| Tool | Best For | Starting Price | Free Plan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freshsales | Best value overall | $9/user/mo | Yes (3 users) |
| Pipedrive | Pipeline-focused teams | $14/seat/mo | No |
| Zoho CRM | All-in-one ecosystem | $14/user/mo | Yes (3 users) |
| Less Annoying CRM | Simplicity, no surprises | $15/user/mo | No (30-day trial) |
| HubSpot CRM | Free starter CRM | $15/user/mo (paid) | Yes |
| Keap | Automation-heavy SMBs | $249-$299/mo | No |
| Bitrix24 | CRM + project mgmt | ~$49/mo flat | Yes |
Why People Leave Act!
Act! carries a 2.6/5 on Trustpilot across 19 reviews and a 3.9/5 on G2 across 510 reviews. It isn't broken - it's just expensive for what you get in 2026. Standard starts at $30/user/mo, Professional at $45, Ultimate at $60, plus $199/month per account if you want Marketing Automation. That puts you deep into HubSpot territory without HubSpot's ecosystem.
The triggers we've seen most often:
- Price hikes on cloud migration. One Trustpilot reviewer describes being pushed from $180/year per user to roughly 3x that on the "new" cloud platform.
- Outlook email linking breaks after moving to cloud - and support can't fix it for months.
- Sync issues, crashes, and database errors common enough that IT firms publish entire playbooks for troubleshooting them.
One r/CRM poster with 40,000+ contacts was actively seeking paid migration help. That's how badly they wanted out.
Your Act! database has years of stale emails and dead numbers. Import that into a new CRM and you'll bounce on day one. Prospeo verifies emails at 98% accuracy with a 7-day refresh cycle - so you migrate only contacts that actually reach someone.
Verify 75 emails free before you import a single contact.
The Best Act! Replacements
Freshsales
Most CRM comparison lists skip Freshsales entirely. That's a mistake.
Free for up to 3 users, the Growth plan at $9/user/mo billed annually includes built-in chat, email, and phone - no add-ons required. That built-in phone matters because one of the biggest Act! pain points is cobbling together email sync, calling, and contact management from separate tools. Freshsales ships all three out of the box, and the 21-day free trial doesn't need a credit card.
Pro at $39/user/mo and Enterprise at $59/user/mo scale up with AI scoring, but most Act! refugees will be fine on Growth.
Our verdict: The strongest replacement for SMBs under 15 people. We've tested all of these, and Freshsales consistently delivers the most for the least money.
Pipedrive
If your team thinks visually about deals, start here. The kanban-style pipeline view is genuinely intuitive - G2 reviewers consistently say it's easier to set up and admin than Act!.
Lite starts at $14/seat/mo billed annually, Growth at $39, Premium at $59. The 14-day trial requires no credit card. Pipedrive shines at deal management and sales pipeline enforcement, but it's weaker than Freshsales for all-in-one needs: no built-in phone on the base plan, and marketing features require add-ons like LeadBooster at $32.50/mo and Campaigns at $13.33/mo.
Zoho CRM
The real play with Zoho isn't the CRM alone - it's the ecosystem. Zoho Books for accounting, Zoho Desk for support, Zoho Campaigns for email marketing. Free for 3 users, Standard at $14/user/mo, Enterprise at $40/user/mo.
The tradeoff is complexity. The interface isn't as clean as Pipedrive's, and the configuration options can overwhelm small teams. But for a 5-15 person company that wants CRM, invoicing, and helpdesk under one roof, Zoho is the closest thing to an SMB operating system. Skip it if you just need a simple contact manager.
Less Annoying CRM
Use this if: You want what Act! used to be - a simple, affordable contact manager. $15/user/mo flat. One plan. No tiers, no upsells. The 30-day trial has no limitations.
Skip this if: You need marketing automation, built-in calling, or a database over ~50,000 contacts. For a 2-5 person team that just needs contacts, tasks, and pipeline without bloat, this is the spiritual successor to what Act! was before the price hikes started.
HubSpot CRM
HubSpot's free tier is genuinely useful for contact management and basic deal tracking. Sales Hub Starter at $15/user/mo is reasonable.
Here's the thing, though: HubSpot is the most dangerous CRM on this list. Marketing Hub Professional jumps to $800/mo and often comes with a $3,000 onboarding fee. Enterprise is $3,600/mo. We've watched teams start on free HubSpot and end up paying more than they ever did for Act!. Go in with eyes open.
Keap
Keap starts at $249-$299/mo with required paid implementation. It's built for automation-heavy SMBs who want sophisticated email sequences, lead scoring, and payment processing in one tool. If you're leaving Act! because of price, Keap isn't the answer.
Bitrix24
Bitrix24 offers a free plan with unlimited users and paid plans from ~$49/mo flat - not per user. The interface tries to do everything - CRM, tasks, chat, video calls - and it shows. But for teams that want project management and CRM in a single platform without per-seat pricing, the value-per-dollar is hard to argue with.
Pricing Comparison
| Tool | Free Plan | Entry Price | Mid-Tier | Free Trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Act! (current) | No | $30/user/mo | $45/user/mo | 14 days |
| Freshsales | Yes (3 users) | $9/user/mo | $39/user/mo | 21 days |
| Pipedrive | No | $14/seat/mo | $39/seat/mo | 14 days |
| Zoho CRM | Yes (3 users) | $14/user/mo | $40/user/mo | 15 days |
| Less Annoying | No | $15/user/mo | N/A (one plan) | 30 days |
| HubSpot | Yes | $15/user/mo | $800/mo (Mktg) | Free tier |
| Keap | No | $249-$299/mo | Custom | 14 days |
| Bitrix24 | Yes | ~$49/mo flat | ~$99/mo flat | Free tier |
Clean Your Data Before You Migrate
Here's what nobody tells you about CRM migration: your new tool is only as good as the data you put in it. Act! databases accumulate years of stale emails, dead phone numbers, and contacts who changed jobs three times. Importing that mess into Freshsales or Pipedrive defeats the purpose of switching.
In our experience, a simple CSV export takes 1-3 days. Complex migrations with notes, activity history, and custom fields can take 1-3 weeks and $1,000-$5,000 if you hire a consultant.
Before you import, run your exported contacts through Prospeo. With 98% email accuracy and a 7-day data refresh cycle, it catches stale records that other email verification tools miss. At roughly $0.01 per email verified, the free tier covers 75 emails/month - enough to test a sample of your database before committing. Upload a CSV, get back verified vs. invalid results, and only import contacts that'll actually reach someone.
A new CRM won't fix bad data. Prospeo's CSV enrichment returns 50+ data points per contact at a 92% match rate - updated emails, verified phone numbers, current job titles. At ~$0.01 per email, it costs less than one month of Act!'s price hike.
Start your migration with data you can actually trust.
FAQ
Can I export my contacts from Act!?
Yes - Act! supports CSV export for contacts, companies, and notes. Simple databases take 1-3 days to export and re-import. Complex setups with activity history and custom fields take 1-3 weeks; consider a migration consultant for databases over 20,000 records.
What's the cheapest Act! alternative?
Freshsales and Zoho CRM both offer free plans for up to 3 users. Freshsales Growth at $9/user/mo billed annually is the cheapest full-featured paid option. Less Annoying CRM at $15/user/mo is the simplest flat-rate choice with no tier upgrades.
How do I clean my contact data before migrating?
Export your Act! database as a CSV and run it through an email verification tool before importing into your new CRM. Cleaning first prevents bounced emails, protects your sender reputation, and stops you from wasting CRM seats on dead contacts.