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.
Act! is a CRM platform for customer relationship management and sales pipeline tracking, priced from $30/mo. Artisan is a sales engagement platform built around Ava, an AI BDR that runs multi-channel outreach, priced through custom quotes. Choose Act! for organizing contacts and forecasting revenue, choose Artisan for coordinating outreach across email, phone, and social, or run both.
Key takeaways
- Act! publishes an entry price of $30/mo for its Advantage Standard plan, which includes 2,500 email sends per month.
- Artisan uses custom pricing across all three of its tiers: Team, Scale, and Enterprise, with no published list prices.
- Act! offers 5 pricing tiers compared to Artisan's 3, giving more granularity for scaling.
- Artisan's Team plan is built for roughly 2,500 leads contacted per month, while Scale supports roughly 6,000 leads contacted per month.
- Act! integrates with tools like Outlook, QuickBooks Online, and Shopify, while Artisan integrates with Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, and Webhooks, with Slack as their only shared integration.
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
Act! Advantage Standard
Team
Act! Pricing (as of September 2026)
| Plan | Price | Emails |
|---|---|---|
| Act! Advantage Standard | $30/mo | Basic Email Marketing (includes 2,500 sends/mo) |
| Act! Advantage Professional | $45/mo | Email Marketing Plus (includes 25,000 sends/mo) |
| Act! Advantage Ultimate | $60/mo | Marketing Automation (includes 50,000 sends/mo) |
| Act! Premium Desktop | $40/mo | - |
| Enterprise Engagement | Contact Sales | - |
Source: Act! Pricing
Artisan Pricing (as of September 2026)
| Plan | Price | Contacts |
|---|---|---|
| Team | Contact Sales | ~2,500 leads contacted/mo |
| Scale | Contact Sales | ~6,000 leads contacted/mo |
| Enterprise | Contact 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
- 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
- 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
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
| Feature | Act! | Artisan |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $30/mo | Contact Sales |
| Top Tier Price | Contact Sales | Contact Sales |
| Total Features Listed | 10 | 10 |
| Integrations | 16 | 4 |
Getting Started Checklist
- Define your customer relationship management and sales pipeline tracking and multi-channel sales outreach and engagement tracking requirements and monthly budget
- Estimate your expected contacts and deals and sequences and engagement actions to find the right tier
- List the integrations your team currently relies on
- Sign up for free trials or demos of both platforms
- Run a small test with each tool before making a commitment
- 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.
Frequently asked questions.
Frequently asked questions- What's the main difference between Act! and Artisan?
- Act! is a CRM platform for customer relationship management and sales pipeline tracking, while Artisan is a sales engagement platform for multi-channel sales outreach and engagement tracking. Act! focuses on organizing contacts, tracking deals, and forecasting revenue, whereas Artisan focuses on coordinating outreach across email, phone, and social channels through its AI BDR, Ava.
- How much does Act! cost compared to Artisan?
- Act! publishes an entry price of $30/mo for its Advantage Standard plan, with tiers going up to $60/mo for Advantage Ultimate. Artisan uses custom pricing across all its tiers, Team, Scale, and Enterprise, so the two cannot be directly compared on list price.
- Can I use Act! and Artisan together?
- Yes, the article notes that many teams run one of each since they cover different parts of the sales workflow. Act! handles CRM and pipeline tracking while Artisan handles multi-channel outreach and engagement, so they can complement rather than replace each other.
- What integrations does Artisan support?
- Artisan connects with Salesforce, HubSpot, Slack, and Webhooks. Its only integration shared with Act! is Slack, while Act! offers a much broader integration list including Outlook, QuickBooks Online, and Shopify.
- Which tool is better for outbound sales, Act! or Artisan?
- Artisan is built for outbound sales, using Ava, its AI BDR, to run autonomous email and social campaigns, identify prospects, and book meetings. Act! is better suited for organizing contacts, tracking deals, and forecasting revenue rather than running outreach campaigns.
About the author.
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
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