With a wave of legacy Act! users rushing to upgrade their software before the embedded 3rd party licensing service officially stops working on December 31st, many are asking whether they need to go to an Act! subscription product, or will Act! Pro suffice for their needs.

 

This is not a new conundrum, as we've published a few article son this question before, including the following links:

However, with the introduction of many new features in recent years, we thought it useful to review which would be available in one version vs the other of Act! v21. In short, any new features like Act! Companion, Act! Marketing Automation, Act! Connect, Dynamic Sales Pipeline, Ask Alexa, and Insights reporting all use the WepAPI, and are therefore would be exclusively available in the Act! Premium product line.

 

Naturally custom table improvements in Act! Premium Plus would also limited to the Act! Premium product line, as well.

 

Act! Pro v21, on the other hand, saw improvements in the user interface, MS Office compatibility, licensing support, enhanced SQL and .NET security, and better Outlook integration with inbound email History attaching, as well as a host of bug fixes that are ushered in with every new version. And support for Act! emarketing was also added to Act! Pro with v21, which was a pleasant surprise.

 

If you're a Pro user considering Premium just on account of mobility, you can also consider coupling your Act! Pro v21 purchase with Handheld Contact, which puts all your critical Act! data at your fingertips.

 

In short, if you have a team of 1-9 users with low security needs, that work inside the same office, intend to use the contact, company, group and opportunity tables like they have before, and do not need any web API or web enabled features, than Act! Pro could support your needs quite adequately. And the best part is selecting Pro doesn't remove any future options for growth either, as you can easily upgrade your Pro database to Premium if your needs change.