Gold Vision CRM
Gold Vision CRM ships monthly releases on a consistent cadence — changelog details aren't surfaced in the feed.
Comparison · CRM
Act vs Easy!Appointments
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Act and Easy!Appointments — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Act vs Easy!Appointments: at a glance
What is Act?
Act! pivots from CRM-only to payment processor while modernizing its Cloud UX.
Act! is in the middle of a methodical Cloud modernization, rebuilding list views, navigation, and notifications to match the consistency users expect from modern CRMs. Alongside that polish work, Act! has just shipped Act! Payments via Propelr — turning the CRM into a place where credit card transactions close, not just leads. The product is still recognizably a small-business CRM, but its surface area is widening.
What is Easy!Appointments?
Easy!Appointments 1.6 lands video conferencing, GDPR tools, and a serious security overhaul across its CalDAV and booking stack.
Easy!Appointments, an open-source self-hosted scheduler, is shipping its 1.6 major version through a long pre-release cycle that has introduced Jitsi and Google Meet integration, CAPTCHA and ALTCHA anti-abuse protection, GDPR features, and a rebuilt CalDAV synchronization stack. The 1.6.1 security hardening pre-release then landed a concentrated batch of serious vulnerability fixes: LDAP injection in directory search, SSRF in CalDAV URL handling, cross-account appointment takeover, provider credential exposure to secretary accounts, and CAPTCHA bypass — a set that suggests the expanded surface area of 1.6.0 brought corresponding security debt.
Act vs Easy!Appointments: editorial side-by-side
Act
6.3CRM
Act! pivots from CRM-only to payment processor while modernizing its Cloud UX.
◆ Current state
Act! is in the middle of a methodical Cloud modernization, rebuilding list views, navigation, and notifications to match the consistency users expect from modern CRMs. Alongside that polish work, Act! has just shipped Act! Payments via Propelr — turning the CRM into a place where credit card transactions close, not just leads. The product is still recognizably a small-business CRM, but its surface area is widening.
◆ Where it's heading
The release cadence shows two parallel tracks: weekly UX rationalization (notification center, list parity, faster task editing) and category expansion through embedded financial services. Act! is following the same playbook HubSpot and Pipedrive have run — keep the legacy users happy with quality-of-life work while quietly bolting on revenue-bearing features that compete with Stripe-adjacent SMB tools. Payments is the most directional move in years.
◆ Prediction
Expect deeper payments integration next — recurring billing tied to opportunities, dunning workflows from the contact record, and likely a payments-driven pricing tier that monetizes transaction volume rather than seats.
Easy!Appointments 1.6 lands video conferencing, GDPR tools, and a serious security overhaul across its CalDAV and booking stack.
◆ Current state
Easy!Appointments, an open-source self-hosted scheduler, is shipping its 1.6 major version through a long pre-release cycle that has introduced Jitsi and Google Meet integration, CAPTCHA and ALTCHA anti-abuse protection, GDPR features, and a rebuilt CalDAV synchronization stack. The 1.6.1 security hardening pre-release then landed a concentrated batch of serious vulnerability fixes: LDAP injection in directory search, SSRF in CalDAV URL handling, cross-account appointment takeover, provider credential exposure to secretary accounts, and CAPTCHA bypass — a set that suggests the expanded surface area of 1.6.0 brought corresponding security debt.
◆ Where it's heading
The 1.6 release line is expanding Easy!Appointments from a simple booking page into a more complete scheduling platform: video conferencing links, richer calendar sync, GDPR compliance tooling, and hardened multi-provider access controls all move it closer to commercial alternatives. The security work in 1.6.1-beta.1 is as important as the features — self-hosted deployments that serve real customer data need these fixes before anyone should run 1.6 in production.
◆ Prediction
A stable 1.6.1 release is the next step, clearing the pre-release label once the security fixes are confirmed across the beta testing community. After that, the CalDAV and video conferencing integrations will likely expand — CalDAV push notifications or two-way Google Calendar sync are the natural follow-ons.
Alternatives to Act and Easy!Appointments
Other CRM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Act or Easy!Appointments.
Twenty
Twenty's sprint through v2.39-v2.40 stabilizes yarn pull and relicenses UI components as MIT.
Close CRM
Close is systematically expanding Chloe from Q&A into an operational CRM layer
Lime Connect
Lime Connect adds time-based workflow triggers and interactive UI elements for its AI Agent, deepening its bet on AI-augmented customer communication.
Streak
Streak wires automations to email and call activity, turning Gmail CRM into an event-driven workflow engine.
Snov.io
Snov.io adds ChatGPT and Claude AI, then ships AI-powered web enrichment in consecutive monthly drops
See all Act alternatives → · See all Easy!Appointments alternatives →
Recent activity from Act and Easy!Appointments
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 9d agoEasy!AppointmentsEasy!Appointments 1.6.1-beta.1: Security hardening and CalDAV polish ⚡
- 27d agoEasy!Appointments1.6.1-alpha.1
- 4mo agoActAccept Payments with Act! Advantage ⚡
- 4mo agoActAccept Payments with Act! Advantage
- 5mo agoActNotification Center and List Experience Enhancements
- 5mo agoActNotification Center and List Experience Enhancements Date of Release 02/27/26 This update enhances usability across Act!
- 5mo agoActNotification Center and Added Email Campaign Support
- 5mo agoActNotification Center and Email Campaign Support
- 5mo agoEasy!AppointmentsEasy!Appointments 1.6.0-beta.2: Video conferencing, CAPTCHA, GDPR, and CalDAV ⚡
- 6mo agoEasy!Appointments1.6.0-beta.1
- 6mo agoEasy!Appointments1.6.0-alpha.1
- 1y agoEasy!Appointments1.5.2-beta.1
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Act and Easy!Appointments?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Act and Easy!Appointments are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Act better than Easy!Appointments?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Act and Easy!Appointments are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other CRM products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Act?
Top Act alternatives in CRM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Act alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/act for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Easy!Appointments?
Top Easy!Appointments alternatives in CRM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Easy!Appointments alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/easyappointments for the full list with editorial commentary on each.