Tool Comparisons

    Act! vs Artisan: CRM Platform vs Sales Engagement Platform Comparison

    Compare Act! (CRM platform) and Artisan (sales engagement platform) side by side. See pricing, features, and integrations to decide which one, or both, your stack needs.

    September 4, 20266 min read
    Share:
    The short answer

    Compare Act! (CRM platform) and Artisan (sales engagement platform) side by side. See pricing, features, and integrations to decide which one, or both, your stack needs.

    Reviewed and updated September 4, 2026

    Act! vs Artisan: CRM Platform vs Sales Engagement Platform Comparison

    Sales teams building an outbound stack often weigh Act!, a CRM platform for customer relationship management and sales pipeline tracking, against Artisan, a sales engagement platform for multi-channel sales outreach and engagement tracking. They cover different parts of the workflow, so this comparison covers what each one does, what each one costs, and where they overlap.

    The Quick Answer

    Act! is a CRM platform for customer relationship management and sales pipeline tracking; Artisan is a sales engagement platform for multi-channel sales outreach and engagement tracking. By each vendor's own wording, Act! lists full-featured crm and mobile app and email marketing, and Artisan lists ava, the ai bdr and ai-powered prospect identification.

    Act! publishes an entry price of $30/mo; Artisan uses custom pricing, so the two cannot be compared on list price.

    If your priority is organizing contacts, tracking deals, and forecasting revenue, Act! is the one built for it; for coordinating outreach across email, phone, and social channels, that is Artisan. Many teams run one of each.

    Understanding the Core Difference

    Act! is Act! is a CRM and marketing automation platform for small and midsize businesses that unites sales, marketing and customer management in one platform. It is sold as Act! Advantage cloud plans and an Act! Premium Desktop on-premises edition.

    Artisan is AI BDR platform whose agent Ava finds leads, runs autonomous email and social campaigns from your own sending domains, handles replies and books meetings, with a dialer add-on for reps.

    The two platforms take different approaches to solving the same core challenge.

    Pricing Comparison

    $30/moAct! entry plan

    Act! Advantage Standard

    Contact SalesArtisan entry plan

    Team

    Entry pricing for Act! and Artisan, as published on each vendor's own pricing page.

    Act! Pricing (as of September 2026)

    PlanPriceEmails
    Act! Advantage Standard$30/moBasic Email Marketing (includes 2,500 sends/mo)
    Act! Advantage Professional$45/moEmail Marketing Plus (includes 25,000 sends/mo)
    Act! Advantage Ultimate$60/moMarketing Automation (includes 50,000 sends/mo)
    Act! Premium Desktop$40/mo-
    Enterprise EngagementContact Sales-

    Source: Act! Pricing

    Artisan Pricing (as of September 2026)

    PlanPriceContacts
    TeamContact Sales~2,500 leads contacted/mo
    ScaleContact Sales~6,000 leads contacted/mo
    EnterpriseContact Sales-

    Source: Artisan Pricing

    Pricing Analysis

    One or both platforms use custom or contact-based pricing for some tiers. Reach out to their sales teams for exact quotes based on your usage needs.

    Act! offers 5 pricing tiers compared to Artisan's 3, giving you more granularity as you scale.

    Features Breakdown

    Act! lists
    • Full-featured CRM and mobile app
    • Email marketing
    • Interactive quotes and payments
    • Online appointment scheduling
    • Forms, surveys, website chat and event management
    • Reports and interactive dashboards
    • and 4 more listed below
    Artisan lists
    • Ava, the AI BDR
    • AI-powered prospect identification
    • Autonomous email and social campaigns with calls queued
    • Intent signal campaigns
    • CRM reengagement and cross-sell campaigns
    • Autonomous replies and meeting booking
    • and 4 more listed below
    What Act! and Artisan each list on their own pages. The split is by exact wording, so a capability both offer can appear on both sides under different names.

    Act! Key Features

    • Full-featured CRM and mobile app
    • Email marketing
    • Interactive quotes and payments
    • Online appointment scheduling
    • Forms, surveys, website chat and event management
    • Reports and interactive dashboards
    • Marketing automation
    • Lead scoring
    • Project management
    • Accounting integration

    Artisan Key Features

    • Ava, the AI BDR
    • AI-powered prospect identification
    • Autonomous email and social campaigns with calls queued
    • Intent signal campaigns
    • CRM reengagement and cross-sell campaigns
    • Autonomous replies and meeting booking
    • 250M+ verified B2B contacts
    • Two-way Salesforce and HubSpot sync
    • AI dialer add-on, per seat
    • Send approvals with tone locks and banned phrases

    The two lists below are a diff of each vendor's own feature list by exact wording, so a capability both tools offer can appear on either side under a different name.

    Listed only by Act!

    • Full-featured CRM and mobile app
    • Email marketing
    • Interactive quotes and payments
    • Online appointment scheduling
    • Forms, surveys, website chat and event management
    • Reports and interactive dashboards
    • Marketing automation
    • Lead scoring
    • Project management
    • Accounting integration

    Listed only by Artisan

    • Ava, the AI BDR
    • AI-powered prospect identification
    • Autonomous email and social campaigns with calls queued
    • Intent signal campaigns
    • CRM reengagement and cross-sell campaigns
    • Autonomous replies and meeting booking
    • 250M+ verified B2B contacts
    • Two-way Salesforce and HubSpot sync
    • AI dialer add-on, per seat
    • Send approvals with tone locks and banned phrases

    Integration Ecosystem

    Act! Integrations

    Act! connects with: Outlook, Google Contacts, Slack, Eventbrite, SurveyMonkey, Wufoo, BigCommerce, Ecwid, Shopify, Volusion, Facebook, Freshdesk, Zendesk, FreshBooks, QuickBooks Online, Xero.

    Artisan Integrations

    Artisan connects with: Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, Webhooks.

    Shared Integrations

    Both tools integrate with: Slack.

    Integrations listed only by Act!: Outlook, Google Contacts, Eventbrite, SurveyMonkey, Wufoo, BigCommerce, Ecwid, Shopify, Volusion, Facebook, Freshdesk, Zendesk, FreshBooks, QuickBooks Online, Xero.

    Integrations listed only by Artisan: Salesforce, HubSpot, Webhooks.

    Use Case Recommendations

    Best Fit for Act!

    • Budget-conscious teams looking for an affordable CRM platform
    • Organizations with complex tech stacks needing broad integration support (16 integrations)
    • Enterprise buyers who prefer custom pricing and dedicated support

    Best Fit for Artisan

    • Enterprise buyers who prefer custom pricing and dedicated support
    • SDR teams running multi-channel outreach sequences
    • Sales managers tracking team engagement metrics
    • Revenue teams coordinating email, phone, and social touches

    Feature Comparison Summary

    FeatureAct!Artisan
    Starting Price$30/moContact Sales
    Top Tier PriceContact SalesContact Sales
    Total Features Listed1010
    Integrations164

    Getting Started Checklist

    1. Define your customer relationship management and sales pipeline tracking and multi-channel sales outreach and engagement tracking requirements and monthly budget
    2. Estimate your expected contacts and deals and sequences and engagement actions to find the right tier
    3. List the integrations your team currently relies on
    4. Sign up for free trials or demos of both platforms
    5. Run a small test with each tool before making a commitment
    6. Evaluate the onboarding experience and support quality

    Final Thoughts

    Act! serves the customer relationship management and sales pipeline tracking side of an outbound stack and Artisan the multi-channel sales outreach and engagement tracking side. Act! publishes an entry price of $30/mo, while Artisan uses custom pricing for its plans, so compare on features and on the quote you receive. Your decision should weigh pricing against the specific features that matter most for your workflow.

    Start with a trial of each to see which platform fits your team's daily process. The best tool is the one your team actually uses consistently.

    Pricing and features verified as of September 2026. Visit Act! and Artisan for current information.

    Act!ArtisanCRM PlatformSales Engagement PlatformComparisoncrmsales-engagement
    Byline

    About the author.

    Tim Carden

    Tim Carden is CMO / CTO at RevenueFlow, which builds and operates outbound revenue engines for B2B companies. Studied at McGill University.

    Tim Carden · CMO / CTO

    Connect on LinkedIn →
    Your next move

    Ready to scale your outreach?

    We build GTM engines that book real meetings. See the receipts.

    Further reading

    Related articles.