Act! vs Nutshell

Act!

• Small businesses that want CRM and email marketing from one vendor
• Insurance, financial services and manufacturing firms, which Act! targets
• Teams that need a self-managed desktop CRM with offline access

Nutshell

• Small sales teams that want a low per-user entry price
• Teams that want lead capture forms and basic email marketing inside the CRM
• Companies that value live support and onboarding help on every plan

Act!

• There is no free plan, and every listed price is billed annually; the pricing page shows no monthly option.
• AI tools, project management and accounting integration start on Professional; marketing automation and lead scoring need Ultimate.
• SMS text messaging is an add-on from $19 a month, and Desktop Sync adds $10 per user a month to cloud plans.
• On Standard, surveys, website chat, web forms and event pages each include only one designated user.

Nutshell

• There is no free plan; the free trial lasts 14 days.
• Foundation is limited to 100 active leads, 1 pipeline and 10 custom fields.
• Sales automation, multiple pipelines and the meeting scheduler start at Pro, $42 per user / month billed annually.
• Two-way SMS and social inboxes ($16 per user / month) and proposals and invoices ($79 a month) are paid add-ons.

Act!

Contact and activity management

Each contact record holds emails, documents, notes and history alongside scheduled calls, meetings and to-dos, with groups, lookups and advanced queries to segment the database.

Opportunity pipeline

Opportunities follow a configurable sales process and can be worked on a drag-and-drop kanban board or in a pipeline view with KPIs such as close rate and closed-won value.

Built-in email marketing

Email campaigns with a template editor and tracking come with every cloud tier, with monthly send limits of 2,500, 25,000 and 50,000. Nurture campaigns start on Professional.

Quotes, payments and scheduling

Interactive online quotes, card and ACH payments through Act! Payments and online appointment booking are included. A shared team booking calendar needs Professional.

Forms, surveys, chat and events

Web lead forms, online surveys, website chat and event sign-up pages feed contacts into Act!. Standard includes one designated user for each; higher tiers cover all users.

AI tools

AI History Summary recaps recent contact activity and the AI Writing Assistant drafts marketing content. The pricing page lists both from the Professional tier.

Nutshell

Leads and pipelines

A drag-and-drop board shows where each lead stands. Foundation and Growth have one pipeline, Pro has 5, Business 10 and Enterprise unlimited.

Email and calendar sync

Two-way sync with Gmail and Outlook keeps emails and calendar events attached to contacts, with email templates and one-click bulk emailing.

Sales automation

Growth adds lead assignment rules and custom stage goals, and Pro adds sales automation for routine pipeline tasks.

Reporting and quotas

Growth adds activity reports and sales quotas, and Pro unlocks advanced reporting. Enterprise includes read-only SQL access to the data.

AI outcomes and assists

AI outcomes cover call and meeting summaries, lead research and email campaign drafts, metered at 10 to 150 per user a month by plan. Lighter AI assists are unlimited.

Forms, chat and email marketing

Every plan includes a form builder, landing pages, web chat with an AI chatbot and 150 free marketing emails a month. Larger email volumes and SMS are paid add-ons.

Act!

• Act! Advantage Standard$30

  per user / month, billed annually

  Cloud CRM and mobile app, basic email marketing with 2,500 sends a month, quotes, payments, scheduling, reports and 15 GB of storage.

• Act! Premium Desktop$40

  per user / month, billed annually

  Self-managed, on-premises edition with networked and offline access; you deploy the software and control when it updates.

• Act! Advantage Professional$45

  per user / month, billed annually

  Adds 25,000 email sends a month, nurture campaigns, AI History Summary, AI Writing Assistant, accounting integration, project management and 25 GB.

• Act! Advantage Ultimate$60

  per user / month, billed annually

  Adds marketing automation with 50,000 sends a month, lead scoring, custom industry tables, an online customer portal and 35 GB of storage.

• Enterprise EngagementCustom

  Private hosting, custom deployment, a dedicated project manager and a custom enterprise agreement. Priced by phone quote.

Nutshell

• Foundation$13

  per user / month, billed annually ($19 billed monthly)

  Unlimited contacts and storage, email and calendar sync, AI chatbot, form builder and landing pages. 1 pipeline and 100 active leads.

• Growth$25

  per user / month, billed annually ($32 billed monthly)

  Adds activity reports, sales quotas, lead assignment rules, custom stage goals and hot leads, with unlimited active leads.

• Pro$42

  per user / month, billed annually ($49 billed monthly)

  Adds 5 custom pipelines, advanced reporting, sales automation, AI lead recaps and next steps, and a meeting scheduler.

• Business$59

  per user / month, billed annually ($67 billed monthly)

  Adds 10 custom pipelines, the advanced meeting scheduler, audit log and changelog, and additional teams and territories.

• Enterprise$79

  per user / month, billed annually ($89 billed monthly)

  Adds unlimited pipelines and custom fields, enterprise SSO, read-only SQL data access and phone support.

Act!

No public discounts listed.

Nutshell

• Annual discount

  Lower per-user price with annual billing

  The pricing toggle advertises 15% off for annual billing. Listed savings run from $6 to $10 per user a month: Foundation is $13 instead of $19, Enterprise $79 instead of $89.