With SQL 2014's pending deprecation in early July, many Act! users are facing a tough choice. As we explain HERE, there are only four responsible paths forward for this cohort, and they all begin with the letter "U"—upgrade, update, unplug, or uninstall.

1. Upgrade your Act! to a 64-bit version that supports SQL 2019
2. Update your SQL version to 2016
3. Unplug your computer from the Internet
4. Uninstall Act! and SQL altogether.

For those still using older versions of Act! Pro, the choice to upgrade to Act! Premium or Premium Cloud subscriptions can be daunting since most have not paid CRM fees for years. The first thing to note is that such setups were always time-limited, and users of SQL 2014 had a good 10-year run, but it's over. The savings they accrued along the way are theirs to keep, but it's time to look forward. The fact is upgrading to a Premium subscription can be beneficial for several reasons, especially if your business is growing or has specific needs beyond what Act! Pro offers.

Here are some key advantages of Act! Premium over Act! Pro:

• License Limit: A CRM should help your business grow, not prevent it from growing. Act! Pro licensing is no longer available, so teams that want to add even one user cannot do so. 

• Access Anywhere: Act! Pro does not publish to the web or sync across the Internet, so it is only suitable for small workgroups that are located in the same office. Act! Premium offers multiple deployment options, including a web interface, Internet syncing, and a mobile app. This allows local and remote users to access the database from anywhere, on any device, which is not available out-of-the-box with any version of Act! Pro.

• Advanced Security: Act! Premium provides enhanced security features, allowing managers to limit access to individual records within the database and related fields. Administrators can also limit which users can delete or export data from Act!

• API functionality:  Act! Pro is a standalone desktop with no extensibility. This means you cannot integrate web forms, surveys, online appointment services, or much of anything on the Internet into your database. Act! Premium offers a robust Web API that can integrate your website, online lead generation tools, mobile apps, and many other productivity tools with your database, and place Act! at the center of your software ecosystem.

• Performance Tracking: The Premium version includes built-in Insight reporting and dashboards for tracking individual and team performance, which can be crucial for strategic decision-making. This also applies to your sales team with Dynamic Pipelines, offering modern tools for managing and reporting on your sales opportunities.

• Enhanced features & fixes: Many of the best Act! features are not available in legacy versions of Act! Pro, including custom tables, SMS, Insights Reporting, Emarketing, UI & UX enhancements, MFA, modern Outlook integration, and better handling of RTF/HTML. 
  Each new version of Act! also includes many fixes from past versions, with the 64-bit versions of Act! including an especially long list of such fixes.

• Compatibility and Support: 32-bit versions of Act! Pro already face serious compatibility issues with the deprecation of SQL 2014, but there are limits to what operating systems and versions of MS Office are supported. In fact, Act! Pro cannot be installed on a computer fitted with Windows 11, making it hard to find a new computer to work with it. 
  Act! Premium Cloud also offers a fast, secure, and robust online solution that completely eliminates the need for software.

• E-marketing Integration: Only Act! Premium and Premium Cloud include out-of-the-box marketing automation with many upgrade options to suit most businesses' needs. Act! Pro, on the other hand, has no native email integration aside from mail merges (provided they have a compatible version of Outlook). Yes, third-party add-ons can be purchased, but these typically are at a much higher cost and have limited to no CRM integration to report on click-thru results.

Considering these points, Act! Premium is generally the better choice for businesses that require greater flexibility, more robust features, and the ability to scale as they grow. If these factors align with your business needs, upgrading to Act! Premium or Premium Cloud would be a worthwhile investment.