Act! Alternatives With a One-Time License (2026 Guide)
TL;DR: Act! killed its perpetual license (Act! Pro) in September 2023 and went subscription-only. You can still buy a CRM once in 2026: DejaOffice PC CRM (from $69.95) is the closest desktop replacement, CRM in Excel ($70) fits if you want the familiar-tool feel rather than a feature clone, and OfflineCRM is the free fallback.
If you ran your business on Act! for years, you did not choose it because it was fashionable. You chose it because it sat on your PC, held every client and every note, and you paid for it once. That deal quietly disappeared: in September 2023 Act! retired Act! Pro, the last edition you could buy outright, and moved entirely to subscriptions. This guide is for the people who want the old deal back. Disclosure: CRM in Excel is our product and appears below alongside its competitors.
The short answer: the perpetual-license CRM is not dead, it just moved to smaller vendors. DejaOffice PC CRM (from $69.95 one-time) is the closest match to the old desktop Act!; CRM in Excel ($70 one-time) rebuilds the daily contact-and-follow-up routine inside Excel; OfflineCRM is free. Prices checked 13 July 2026. Sources: DejaOffice, OfflineCRM, Sheetify, Lifetime CRM.
What actually happened to Act! Pro
Act! (once ACT!, the tool that practically invented contact management in 1987) sold perpetual desktop licenses for 36 years. Act! Pro was the last edition sold that way; it was retired on 15 September 2023. Existing installations keep running, but there is no new perpetual version to buy, no new machine to move to with a fresh license, and the upgrade path leads to Act! Premium subscriptions. Reviewers of one-time competitors say the quiet part out loud: one DejaOffice user wrote that it "handles all the same functions that ACT used to provide before they switched to that expensive yearly subscription model".
What an Act! veteran is actually shopping for
Strip away the feature lists and the old Act! promise was four things: everything about a client in one place (calls, notes, history), a plan for today (activities and follow-ups), software that lives on your own PC, and a license you own. Judge every alternative against those four, not against Act!'s 2026 subscription feature sheet.
The one-time options in 2026, honestly compared
Prices checked 13 July 2026 on vendor sites.
| Tool | Price (one-time) | What you get | Where it falls short of old Act! |
|---|---|---|---|
| DejaOffice PC CRM | from $69.95 | The closest spiritual successor: native Windows desktop CRM with contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, categories; data on your PC; sync options for phones | Interface feels dated; major version upgrades are paid; no Act!-style opportunity products or mail-merge history |
| CRM in Excel (our product) | $70 | A CRM application built inside Excel for Windows: client database, pipeline, daily follow-up reminders, SMS and e-mail templates; your data is an .xlsm file you own | Not a feature clone: no groups, no opportunity products; single user; needs desktop Excel 2016+; capacity 5,000 clients + 5,000 leads |
| OfflineCRM | Free | Standalone desktop app (Windows/macOS), local data, zero cost | Young product, quiet development; nothing like Act!'s depth; keep regular exports |
| Also advertised: InfoFlo | $99/user advertised as one-time | On-premise CRM with one-time per-user pricing | Pricing and purchase pages are hard to reach; verify current terms with the vendor before counting on it |
How to choose in one paragraph
If you want the same KIND of program (a dedicated desktop CRM window with contacts and a calendar), buy DejaOffice and accept the retro looks. If what you really kept opening Act! for was the daily routine (who do I call today, what did we agree last time) and you already live in Excel, CRM in Excel gives you that routine in a tool you will never have to relearn; the free trial (50 clients + 50 leads) is the honest test. If the budget is zero, take OfflineCRM and export weekly. And if you are still weighing one-time against subscription in general, the full market picture is in our comparison of CRMs without a subscription.
Moving your Act! data (30 minutes, not a weekend)
Act! exports to CSV and Excel. Export your contacts with phones, e-mails, IDs and notes; export activities separately if you need history. Clean the columns once (merge duplicate fields, fix formats) and import into the new tool. The general procedure, including what usually breaks, is in our guide to migrating CRM data to Excel. Two honest warnings: decades of attachments and e-mail history will not migrate cleanly anywhere, and whatever you choose, do the export while your Act! installation still runs.
When the answer is: stay on a subscription
If your Act! use grew into a team database with shared calendars, remote access and marketing automation, a one-time desktop tool will feel like a downgrade, and Act! Premium, HubSpot or Pipedrive is the right call. The one-time path is for the solo operator whose CRM is fundamentally a personal working file. That distinction, and why offline tools fit one-person businesses so well, is the subject of our best offline CRM comparison.
FAQ
Can you still buy Act! without a subscription?
No. Act! Pro, the last perpetual edition, was retired on 15 September 2023; Act! is subscription-only now. Existing Pro installs keep working but have no purchase path forward.
What is the closest replacement for the old desktop Act!?
DejaOffice PC CRM: native Windows desktop, contacts, calendar, tasks, notes, one-time from $69.95, data on your PC. Dated interface, paid major upgrades.
Can Excel replace Act!?
For contacts, notes, follow-ups and a pipeline: yes, and CRM in Excel packages that ready-made for $70. For groups, opportunity products and mail-merge history: no, pick DejaOffice.
How do I get my data out of Act!?
Export contacts (and activities, if needed) to CSV or Excel from Act!'s export menus, clean the columns, import into the new tool. Do it while your installation still runs.
Is there a free Act! alternative?
OfflineCRM: free, Windows/macOS, local data. Young product; keep regular exports.
— Michał B. Fedor