Customer Reviews
To Upgrade, or Not To Upgrade (NOT!) 
2008-07-08
I am currently using ACT 2005, V7. Using is a generous word given all the diffculties documented in this space, which I have experienced. Main source of problems were database migration years ago (finally fixed it) but it is a HUGE memory hog that freezes my computer which has plenty of RAM. Wonder of wonders, I was informed I could participate in a class action suit against Sage becasue of this bootleg software they were selling. I just got my check, $45. Not a lot, but I thought surely Sage has fixed these problems 3 years and 3 versions later, I should spend the $45 to upgrade. Read on, and obviously they have not. If Sage wants to send me a free copy I'll invest the time to try it and report back fairly. I'll even pay for the upgrade if it works as they advertise. But as of right now I am going to buy a case of beer with my $45 and call it a day.
Yes, I agree...Act is back! 
2008-06-27
I owned the older 6.0 version and loved it. I purchased the 8.0 version and HATED it because of the many flaws. I purchased the 10.0 act a month ago and I really am impressed. I was so worried about the transition but it really wasn't a problem at all. It runs smoothly and does a lot more than my old 6.0 version. I am really happy with the product. Make sure your PC has at least 2Gs of RAM and at least 3Gs of processing speed. It'll run great. Hopefully you won't have to talk to Tech support in India. It was a real waste of my time. I found the answer to my problem on my own.
Not as bad as I feared - in fact, pretty good 
2008-06-26
I have been a long time act user, going from dos 2.0 to act 6.0 (and now to act 10). I got a new computer, and needed to upgrade as it came with office 2007. I had read the terrible reviews and was terrified of upgrading. I did the upgrade by following all instructions and knowledge base articles to the letter. I was waiting for the computer to explode or the devil to show up in my office, but everythign went exactly as it should.
The program has worked exactly as it should. There are a few things I dont like, but that is probably more due to me being used to doing things one way for the last 5 years.
For the record, this is a one person install of a private database with no network requirements (ie pulling a shared database off of a server.) In addition, the new computer is very high end (4 gigs ram, 2.5 dual core, etc.)
Hope this helps.
ACTRE 10. Prem 2008-05-31
I upgraded from ACT 6. Yes there were problems to overcome and some are ongoing. But not all can be blamed on Sage or ACT. Don't forget MS does not like to play well with others, not to mention my Sony Viao is not recommended by me either as it is the worse computer in our office and I think the worst one I have ever used. I do recommend purchasing the 1 yr warranty highly. The upgrades from ACT 6 are worth it all, and I liked 6 a lot.
PLEASE recommend an alternative to ACT! 2008-05-28
If anyone has a suggestion for an alternative to ACT!, PLEASE tell me. I just upgraded to Version 10 and I am so sorry I did. Rescheduling activities dropped from 35 seconds/activity to 7-10 seconds after working with Tech Support. This is unacceptable. The first person got the time down to the 7-10 seconds, but subsequent support staff could do no better. And not being able to drag & drop multiple activities only adds to my frustration. ACT! had bugs in the past, but I was able to deal with them and they were eventually worked out. From the reaction of each Tech Support person, it seems as if these problems are here to stay ~ at least for awhile. Unfortunately, I can't afford to wait.
If you haven't upgraded, DON'T. If you are looking to buy ACT!, DON'T.
Jeff
NO Problems Yet! Except my Rebate. 
2008-05-04
Some say success flows within life by the number of contacts one has - and can make use of. Manage your contacts well. Who knows? ACT is a proven way. With over 2.7 million users and 41,000 corporate customers, ACT! has maintained its position as #1 for 20 years because it's renowned for being easy to learn and use, and is an effective solution for anyone who regularly works with contacts. ACT! can be used out-of-the-box or customized to suit your needs, and also integrates with everyday tools like Microsoft Outlook, Word, and Excel. With ACT! you'll have critical contact details at your fingertips so you can focus on what's most important to your business - building strong customer relationships.
ACT! is for individuals and small business customers in a variety of industries looking to organize contact information, manage daily responsibilities, and communicate more effectively to improve your productivity. ACT! 2008 MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS - Client Installation - 32-bit versions of Microsoft Windows XP Home (Service Pack 2), XP Professional (Service Pack 2), Windows XP Media Center (Service Pack 2), Server 2003 Standard Edition, Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, Server 2003 Web Edition, 2003 Small Business Server operating systems (all Server 2003 need Service Pack 2), Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Ultimate, Windows Vista Enterprise
A Big Step in the Right Direction 2008-04-19
I am a professional magician, and have used ACT! for a few years to track clients, vendors, etc. The jump from ACT! 2004 to 2005 was terrible. The program used ridiculous amounts of resources, and seemed to freeze constantly. ACT! 2006 and 2007 were riddled with problems themselves, and I was very close to jumping ship and finding a new contact management program.
Enter ACT! 2008. They seem to have streamlined the program, and the results are very obvious. It load faster, uses less resources, and never freezes on me. No more worries about losing the contact info in the middle of typing it. Add the increased functionality with Outlook, and you have a GREAT CRM program.
Kevin Viner
Corporate Magician
[...]
ACT! is back! 2008-04-14
I have used ACT! since the first DOS version came out over 14 years ago. Yes, ACT! had serious problems from 2005-2007, which is why I stopped recommending it after version 6. After spending 3 months living in the new ACT! 2008, I am thrilled with version 10 (2008) and can highly recommend it.
If you read the negative reviews here, most of them admit that they are talking about ACT 2005 and ACT 8. Those reviews have no bearing on the new version 10. I imagine that like most Internet review sites, the people with problems tend to make the most noise, while the majority of happy users have no reason to.
We have over 60,000 users in our ACT! 10 database. This would have taken the old ACT to it's knees. Lookups are lightning fast, and it is scalable to support many more users and contacts than the previous versions. The new version is built on a Microsoft SQL database, which is much more powerful than the old ACT proprietary database format. The few remaining annoying bugs were fixed in the 10.0.2 patch which was released on April 10, 2008.
Remember that when people have problems with software that runs fine for other people, it is generally an issue of computers (older machines without the horsepower of up-to-date units, lack of RAM, etc) and other software causing problems. I was in computer tech support for 10 years, and I can't tell you how many times problems were caused by viruses, spyware, user unfamiliarity, and issues that were related to Microsoft Windows itself, NOT the software they were having problems with.
This is the most powerful version of ACT! ever. I have switched both of my companies over to it, and have had ZERO problems. Don't be scared off by some bad anonymous reviews from people with backgrounds you are unaware of, and with axes to grind about problems from 3 years ago.
ACT! used to be great. Now run, run, run far away 2008-04-05
I have used and implemented Packrat, Lotus, Maximizer, Goldmine and others and I was an early adapter of Palm handhelds. I have installed ACT! at numerous SMB's until version 7. I wanted to give ACT! another shoot with version 10 (2008) since this used to be one of the best contact management software out there. I bought 2 copies. During the upgrade on my test computers I received multiple errors just like everyone else it seems. My Outlook 2007 did not integrate the address book during the installation. I get 2 errors every time I open Outlook as well as SQL related errors. It's a real shame that the captains at Sage seem to be asleep at the wheel. I really want to love this program again but every attempt after version 6 has been futile.
Below is a summery of my ACT! experience over the years.
I have been working in the computer engineering and support field for 25 years.
I have been using ACT! for almost 20 years since ACT! for DOS (1988). I upgraded to Act! 2 for Windows (1994, Symantec), Act! 3 for Windows 95/NT (1996, Symantec), ACT! 4 (1998, Symantec) and ACT! 5/2000 (1999, Symantec). ACT! 5 was probably the best ACT software version but ACT! 2004 (a face-lift and not really much was added in terms features) including ACT! for Palm OS was also very usable. ACT! 2005 (7.0) did not support any ACT! OS for Palm and was an overall horror show for IT professionals. The geniuses at Sage decided to rewrite ACT as a Microsoft SQL application. Actions that where instantaneous in previous versions took now several seconds to almost minutes. Bugs, bugs, more bugs and incompatibilities. Drag and drop does not work anymore in daily calendar window or task window to move an appointment to a different day. Notes can not be edited by simply clicking on the note. The note has to be opened now to edit. NO MORE TAPI support to take advantage of Caller-ID.
ACT! 6 uses between 22meg and 25meg of actual "Memory Usage" (User guide suggests 64 MB of RAM). I have seen ActSage.exe use as much as 155meg actual "Memory Usage" typically around 41meg (User guide suggests min 512 MB of RAM on your system). Not only does ActSage.exe use a lot of memory but since it needs SQL to run you get additional overhead. (SQLserv.exe 40meg and others) It also seems the Palm HotSync.exe grew to over 116meg of actual "Memory Usage" during sync with ACT!, then it returned to about 8meg when sync with other apps (usual less than 2meg in stand-by). The bottom line is that Sage suggests that you need 8 times the memory when you switch from ACT! 6 to ACT! 7 or later. Hoping the software would improve I purchased 2 copies of ACT! 2006 (8.0) which I have been running on 2 test computers for about a year now. Recently I also purchase ACT! 2007 (9.0) including ACT! OS for Palm 2006 (ver 2). After 2 years of testing ACT! 2005/2006/2007 and OS for Palm 2006 and the last 45 days of using ACT! 2007 and OS for Palm 2006 as my primary contact manager on my Notebook and Desktop, I decided to go back to ACT! 6 and ACT! for Palm OS. I am loosing 45 days of data (well not really, I just have to go thru the reports for the past 45 days and inputting everything manual into my ACT! 6 database), but I can not deal with all the problems that this upgrade has given me.
I use and support hundreds of applications and I have worked with much bigger CRM packages all running on SQL, Clientele by Epicor, Microsoft CRM, Service Center now owned by HP but I have to say that ACT! 2005 thru 2008 is one of the most problematic "bloatware" software packages out there.
Sage Support: The [....] Knowledge base is completely useless and does not come up with any resolution to any of the errors I searched for.
They also offer no E-mail support and expect the customer to pay for all problems that the software causes.
In June of 2004 I send 3 different emails to corporatelicensing@act.com and never got the courtesy of a reply.
I September of 2006 I called customer support and was on hold for 38 minutes. The customer support person that finally answered gave no name and after being questioned about the long wait he replied: "Our phones are down, you will wait even longer now" and hung up.
Act 2008 disaster 2008-04-01
I'm a business owner in San Diego with 8 users on Act. We've used Act since the 2003 release, this year we "upgraded" to 2008. Please, whatever you do, do not buy Act 2008. It has been a complete nightmare, I've had to reinstall at least 7 times, currently I'm on the phone with their tech support department, its been over 4 hours! Its a mess, stay away, you will lose money. Act 2006 was fairly stable, stick with that version and transfer your data to another system as soon as you can afford it.
