CRM migration

Migrate from Act! to HighLevel

Field-level mapping, validation, and rollback between Act! and HighLevel. We move data and schema; workflows are rebuilt natively in HighLevel.

Get a quote See object mapping
Act! logo

Act!

Source

HighLevel

Destination

HighLevel logo

Compatibility

73%

8 of 11

objects map 1:1 between Act! and HighLevel.

Complexity

BStandard

Timeline

3-5 weeks

Rollback included Accuracy guarantee Field-level validation

Overview

What this migration involves

HighLevel is the destination of choice for agencies and resellers running multiple client accounts under one platform. The unique consideration is HighLevel's sub-account architecture: your Act! data may need to split across multiple HighLevel sub-accounts (one per client), or consolidate into a single sub-account if your Act! installation served only your own business. We confirm the architecture during scoping. Act!'s Contact-centric model maps cleanly to HighLevel Contacts; Opportunities → HighLevel Opportunities within Pipelines; Activities → HighLevel Tasks and Appointments. The interesting Act!-to-HighLevel-specific work is in marketing-automation continuity: HighLevel's built-in email, SMS, and workflow automation is often the explicit reason to switch from Act! + AMA, so we capture AMA audiences and email templates during migration for re-creation in HighLevel's Workflow builder.

Field-level fidelity

Every standard and custom field arrives verified.

Schema-aware mapping

AI proposes the map; you confirm before any record moves.

Relationships preserved

Parent–child, lookups, and ownership stay linked.

Full activity history

Calls, emails, meetings — with original timestamps.

Attachments & notes

Documents, uploads, and inline notes move with the record.

Act! logo

Source platform

Act! platform overview

Scorecard, SWOT, gotchas, and pricing for Act!.
HighLevel logo

Destination platform

HighLevel platform overview

Scorecard, SWOT, gotchas, and pricing for HighLevel.

Data migration guide

The complete GoHighLevel migration guide

Data model, import mechanisms, field mapping strategy, pitfalls, and cutover — by the engineers running it.

Destination checklist

GoHighLevel migration checklist

Pre- and post-cutover tasks for moving onto HighLevel.

Why teams make this switch

Two sides of the same decision

Leaving

Act! logo

Act!

What's pushing teams away

  • Dated UI and on-premise legacy feel — long-time Act! Desktop users describe the experience as 'Office 2007-era' compared to modern cloud CRMs, and the upgrade path between major versions historically requires reinstalling and re-syncing data.
  • Limited modern integration ecosystem — Act!'s Zapier and native integration count is in the low double digits, where HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive all measure integrations in the thousands.
  • Act! Premium Desktop's reliance on SQL Server, IIS, and Windows Server makes IT maintenance an ongoing cost — patching, backups, and disaster recovery fall on the customer's IT team rather than the vendor.
  • Team collaboration features lag modern CRMs — Act!'s historical strength is the individual contact owner, and shared pipelines, real-time activity feeds, and built-in chat are weaker than HubSpot, Pipedrive, or monday.
  • Reporting is functional but inflexible — most users export to Excel rather than build inside Act!, where modern CRMs ship dashboards, pivot charts, and embedded BI as core features.

Choosing

HighLevel logo

HighLevel

What's pulling them in

  • Agencies choose HighLevel to consolidate CRM, email, SMS, scheduling, and funnels into one subscription, eliminating monthly bills for five to ten separate SaaS tools they previously stitched together.
  • The flat-rate pricing model bills per sub-account rather than per contact, so growing a contact database from 1,000 to 100,000 records does not trigger a billing surprise—a common pain point avoided by migrating customers.
  • White-label and sub-account capabilities let agencies resell HighLevel access to their own clients, turning a software cost center into a recurring revenue stream that justifies the subscription.
  • The platform ships a 14-day free trial with no credit card required, giving teams a low-friction entry point to validate fit before committing to the $97/month Starter tier.
  • Marketing agencies managing multiple client accounts use sub-accounts to maintain data isolation per client while operating under a single agency billing relationship with HighLevel.

Object mapping

How Act! objects map to HighLevel

Each row shows how a Act! object lands in HighLevel, including any object-level transformations, lookup resolution, or schema-design dependencies.

Typical mapping — final map is confirmed during the sample migration step.

Act!

Contact

maps to

HighLevel

Contact

1:1
Fully supported

Act! Contacts map to HighLevel Contacts within the target sub-account. Email is the dedupe key. Tags from Act! Groups attach during load.

Act!

Company

maps to

HighLevel

Company (Contact-level field)

lossy
Fully supported

HighLevel doesn't have a standalone Company object — company information attaches as Contact fields (companyName) or as a Custom Object if needed for richer modeling.

Act!

Opportunity

maps to

HighLevel

Opportunity

1:1
Fully supported

Act! Opportunities map to HighLevel Opportunities within a Pipeline. Pipeline structure designed during scoping based on Act! Stage usage.

Act!

Opportunity Product

maps to

HighLevel

Opportunity custom fields

1:1
Fully supported

HighLevel doesn't have native line-item products on Opportunities. Products serialize as a structured note or as Opportunity custom fields for high-volume product lists.

Act!

Activity (Meeting)

maps to

HighLevel

Appointment

1:1
Fully supported

Act! Meetings map to HighLevel Appointments with start/end times, attendees, and location preserved.

Act!

Activity (Call/To-do)

maps to

HighLevel

Task

1:1
Fully supported

Act! Calls and To-dos map to HighLevel Tasks with due date and assignee preserved.

Act!

History

maps to

HighLevel

Note / Conversation entry

1:1
Fully supported

Completed Act! History items map to HighLevel Notes or to Conversation entries with the original timestamp preserved as the entry timestamp.

Act!

Group (Static)

maps to

HighLevel

Tag

1:1
Fully supported

Act! Static Groups become HighLevel Tags applied to member Contacts. Tag-based segmentation drives Smart Lists, Workflows, and Campaigns in HighLevel.

Act!

Group (Dynamic)

maps to

HighLevel

Smart List

lossy
Fully supported

Act! Dynamic Groups translate to HighLevel Smart Lists with filter criteria. Operators that don't map 1:1 get rewritten with customer sign-off.

Act!

Document

maps to

HighLevel

Media Library + Contact attachment

1:1
Fully supported

Act! Documents upload to the HighLevel Media Library and link to Contacts as attachments.

Act!

Custom Table

maps to

HighLevel

Custom Object

lossy
Fully supported

Act! Custom Tables map to HighLevel Custom Objects via the API. UI for Custom Objects in HighLevel is less developed than competitor CRMs; we surface this trade-off during scoping.

Gotchas + challenges

What specifically takes care here

Platform-specific issues from each side, plus the pair-specific challenges that don't show up on either platform's page on its own.

Act! logo

Act! gotchas

High

Act! Premium Desktop and Cloud use different export paths and cannot share a single migration script

High

Act! Custom Tables (v18+) have no standardized schema across customers

Medium

Activity Series (recurring activities) explode into thousands of occurrences

Medium

Act! Marketing Automation campaign history is in a separate database

Low

Act! contact layouts can hide fields without dropping them from the schema

Low

Document attachments in Act! Desktop are file-system pointers, not blobs

HighLevel logo

HighLevel gotchas

High

Sub-account architecture creates isolated data silos per client

High

Usage-based telecom and AI costs are not in the subscription price

Medium

Workflows have no native equivalent in most destination CRMs

Medium

API rate limits cap bulk migration throughput at 100 requests per 10 seconds per sub-account

Low

White-label configuration and branding assets do not export via API

Pair-specific challenges

  • Sub-account architecture decision precedes extraction

    HighLevel data lives within sub-accounts. We decide during scoping whether Act! data lands in one sub-account (typical for an Act! installation that served one business) or splits across multiple sub-accounts (typical for agencies whose Act! tenant tracked multiple client books). Wrong call here means re-doing the load.

  • Companies aren't standalone objects in HighLevel

    Act! Companies don't have a clean destination. Company name and details migrate to Contact fields (companyName, etc.); for richer Company modeling we deploy a Custom Object. Most Act! installations have lightweight Company data and the field-on-Contact approach works fine.

  • Opportunity Products have no native destination

    HighLevel Opportunities don't carry line-item products. We either serialize the product list as a structured note on the Opportunity or create custom fields for high-volume product data. Customers running heavy quote-line-item workflows often find HighLevel under-fit for that specific case.

  • Custom Object UI in HighLevel is API-first

    Custom Objects in HighLevel are configured via API rather than a polished UI like HubSpot Custom Objects or Salesforce Custom Objects. Day-to-day editing of Custom Object records requires either API tools or workarounds. We surface this during scoping for Act! tenants with significant Custom Table usage.

  • Activity Series expansion follows active window

    Recurring Act! Activities expand within a customer-defined window. Beyond that, the recurrence rule preserves as a custom field.

Migration approach

Six steps for a successful Act! to HighLevel data migration

  1. Discovery + sub-account architecture

    Confirm Act! deployment, decide single vs multi-sub-account, inventory custom fields/Groups/Custom Tables/Documents. Capture AMA workflow definitions if continued in HighLevel.

  2. HighLevel pre-flight

    Provision sub-account(s), deploy custom fields, Pipelines + Stages, Tags for Group equivalents, Smart Lists for dynamic Groups, Custom Objects for Custom Tables.

  3. Sample + customer review

    Migrate 200 Contacts, 30 Opportunities, 100 Tasks/Appointments, 500 Notes/History per sub-account. Customer reviews fidelity and sub-account distribution.

  4. Full extraction + Document download

    Bulk Act! extraction. Documents to Media Library.

  5. Full load via HighLevel API

    Per sub-account: Contacts → Opportunities → Tasks/Appointments → Notes → Tags. Field-level diff after load.

  6. Workflow rebuild + cutover

    AMA workflows re-build in HighLevel Workflow builder during cutover week. Delta sync on cutover day.

Platform deep dives

Context on both ends of the pair

Act! logo

Act!

Source

Strengths

  • Deep, mature contact-management feature set: layouts, custom fields, secondary contacts, and relationship-tracking refined over 35+ years of releases.
  • Available as on-premise (Act! Premium Desktop) for teams that require local data residency — most modern CRMs are cloud-only.
  • Per-user pricing is predictable and competitive with mid-market CRMs for SMB use cases without integration complexity.
  • Strong fit for relationship-driven verticals: financial advisors, accountants, insurance brokers, real-estate, legal — workflows where the contact record is the center of the universe.
  • Built-in Act! Marketing Automation add-on covers basic email marketing without needing a separate Mailchimp/Constant Contact subscription.

Weaknesses

  • Dated UI and on-premise legacy architecture — the look and feel hasn't kept pace with modern cloud CRMs.
  • Small integration ecosystem (low double digits of pre-built integrations) versus thousands on HubSpot/Salesforce/Pipedrive.
  • Act! Premium Desktop requires customer-managed Windows Server, SQL Server, and IIS — ongoing IT overhead.
  • Team-collaboration and real-time-feed features lag behind modern collaborative CRMs.
  • Reporting is rigid — most teams export to Excel rather than build dashboards inside Act!
HighLevel logo

HighLevel

Destination

Strengths

  • Consolidates CRM, marketing automation, email, SMS, scheduling, and funnels into one platform at a predictable flat monthly rate.
  • Supports unlimited contacts and unlimited users on all paid tiers, removing per-record billing anxiety as databases grow.
  • Offers white-label and sub-account capabilities that let agencies resell access and manage multiple client environments under one billing relationship.
  • Includes built-in review management, reputation monitoring, and AI agents as native features rather than third-party add-ons.
  • Exports Contacts and Companies via a scalable async bulk CSV system that handles multi-million-row datasets without blocking the UI.

Weaknesses

  • The breadth of features creates a steep learning curve; advanced automations and Workflow configuration require significant time investment that smaller teams may not recover.
  • The platform charges usage-based fees for telecommunications and AI features that are not included in the base subscription, leading to bill surprises.
  • Recurring user reports on Reddit and G2 describe bugs, errors, and slow support response times that disrupt live marketing and sales operations.
  • Sub-account architecture, while powerful for agencies, adds migration complexity when identifying which client data lives in which isolated environment.
  • The platform is designed for agencies and SMBs; larger enterprises requiring deep reporting, custom objects at scale, or complex role-based access may outgrow its capabilities.

Complexity grading

How hard is this migration?

Standard CRM migration. 1 of 8 objects need a mapping; the rest are 1:1.

B

Overall complexity

Standard migration

Derived from compatibility, mapping clarity, API constraints, and data volume across Act! and HighLevel.

  • Object compatibility

    B

    1 of 8 objects need a mapping; the rest are 1:1.

  • Field mapping clarity

    C

    Field mapping is derived from defaults — final spec confirmed during the sample migration.

  • Timeline complexity

    B

    8-object category — typical timelines run 2–7 days end-to-end.

  • API constraints

    B

    Act!: Not publicly documented for Cloud; Desktop is limited only by the customer's SQL Server and IIS capacity.

  • Data volume sensitivity

    B

    Act! doesn't expose a bulk API — REST + parallelization used for high-volume runs.

Estimator

Estimate your Act! to HighLevel migration cost

Rule-based pricing — no per-record fees, no manual quotes. Migrations over 2M records are scoped individually.

Step 1

What are you migrating?

Pick a category, then your source and destination platforms.

Category

FAQ

Frequently asked questions about Act! to HighLevel data migrations

Answers to the questions buyers ask most during Act! to HighLevel migration scoping. Not seeing yours? Book a call.

Can't find your answer?

Walk through your Act! to HighLevel migration with a real engineer — 30 minutes, free, written quote within 24 hours.

Book a free 30 minute consultation

Usually yes if your Act! installation served one business. For agencies running Act! across multiple client books, we typically split into one sub-account per client during migration — sub-account boundaries are HighLevel's primary multi-tenant mechanism and align well with agency client billing.

Adjacent paths

Related migrations to explore

Other ways to leave Act!

Act! logo
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Act! to Freshsales Migration
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Act! to HubSpot Migration
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Act! to Mailchimp Migration

Other ways to arrive at HighLevel

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aACE to HighLevel Migration
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Accelo to HighLevel Migration
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Access CRM to HighLevel Migration

Same-CRM migrations

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Ready when you are

Move from Act!.
Land in HighLevel, intact.

Tell us record counts and timeline. We'll come back with a written quote inside 1 business day — no commitment, no sales pitch.

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Accuracy guarantee Rollback included Quote in 1 business day