ACT does not publicly claim the same near-real-time secondary data center replication as Zoho.
We had a call this morning with a customer who needed to back up his ACT database for testing. He had outgrown ACT and was evaluating Zoho CRM. We said he had to contact support for the backup. He then asked me about Zoho backup policies.
We were on Zoom, so we decided to ask AI to research the Zoho and ACT backup policies for us.
This is what we found out.
What ACT publishes about resilience/disaster recovery
From ACT's current Privacy & Security whitepaper and support documentation:
- Hosted on AWS in region-specific data centers (US, Canada, UK, EU/Germany, Australia). Data stays within the region associated with your billing location/account.
- Explicit policy: “We do not replicate, transfer, or ‘cross-pollinate’ data between regions unless explicitly requested and authorized by the customer.”This is a data-residency choice — they keep customer databases isolated to one region rather than automatically mirroring them elsewhere.
- Backups (every 6 hours + daily snapshots) are encrypted and stored separately from the live server.
- They maintain SOC 2-compliant Emergency Response and Business Continuity Processes to handle Cloud/AWS outages or interruptions.
- Marketing materials mention “nightly backups… covered in the event of an unplanned outage or disaster” and a 99.9% uptime SLA (from some resellers), but they do not describe continuous or near-real-time replication to a secondary region/data center, as Zoho does.
In short: ACT relies on frequent point-in-time backups + AWS’s regional infrastructure resilience + their internal incident-response processes. They do not advertise (or appear to operate) automatic near-real-time cross-region database replication for every customer.
Quick comparison on this specific point
Feature | Zoho CRM | ACT Cloud |
Near real-time replication | Yes (publicly stated) | Not publicly claimed |
Cross-region data movement | Yes (for DR) | Explicitly avoided by default (data residency) |
Primary recovery mechanism | Secondary DC takeover + 3-month internal backups | Frequent backups (6-hourly) + support restore + AWS regional HA |
Customer data location control | Follows Zoho’s multi-DC setup | Strictly regional; no automatic cross-region copy |
The Bottom line
Zoho is more explicit about having a hot/warm secondary data center with near-real-time replication for disaster recovery. ACT! prioritizes keeping your data inside one geographic region and depends on high-frequency backups + AWS’s built-in availability + their SOC 2-aligned response processes instead.
If regional data residency is important to you (common for certain compliance needs), ACT’s approach is intentional. If you need the strongest published multi-site replication story, Zoho states it more clearly.
For the absolute latest details on ACT’s DR posture, the best source is still their current Privacy/Security whitepaper or a direct question to ACT! support / your account manager, since infrastructure details can evolve.
(NOTE: We suggest that customers call ACT for more information.)
Here’s a clear side-by-side comparison of the backup practices ACT (Cloud / Advantage) and Zoho CRM publish.
Act! Cloud (my.act.com / Act! Advantage / Premium Cloud)
Platform-managed backups (handled by Act!):
- Database backups every 6 hours (at 02:00, 08:00, 14:00, 20:00 UTC).
- Retained for 14 days.
- Daily server snapshots (at 08:00 UTC) are retained for 15 days (these cover files/documents/attachments).
- Restores: Act! can restore the system to a fully operational state for the past 7 days. Data recovery (excluding some files/attachments) is possible up to 14 days.
- You must contact Act! Support to request a restore (provide account number, database name, and approximate date/time of the issue).
- Backups are encrypted and stored separately from the live database.
- Independent database per customer (no multi-tenant mixing).
Customer-accessible backups:
- No self-service download of the full cloud database backups.
- If you use a remote/synced desktop database, you can create your own backups (manual or scheduled via Act! Scheduler) and keep as many as you want locally.
Zoho CRM
Platform-managed backups (handled by Zoho):
- Full backups weekly + incremental backups daily.
- Retained for 3 months.
- Data is replicated in near real time to a secondary data center for disaster recovery.
- Customers can request restoration from these internal backups (within the retention window).
Customer-accessible backups (self-service Data Backup feature):
- Admins can request full data backups (includes modules, notes, attachments, and some metadata/configuration).
- Free allowance (paid editions): typically 2 free full backups per month (Ultimate edition gets 4). Extra backups cost ~$10 each.
- Scheduling options: immediate, weekly, monthly, or twice monthly.
- Download link remains active for only 7 days after creation. You must download it yourself (or risk losing access to that backup file).
- Backups are stored in the same data center as your account.
Direct Comparison
Aspect | Act! Cloud | Zoho CRM |
Backup frequency (platform) | Every 6 hours + daily snapshots | Daily incremental + weekly full |
Platform retention | 14 days (data) / 15 days (snapshots) | 3 months |
Self-service full backup | No (must request restore via support) | Yes (scheduled or on-demand downloads) |
Free self-service backups | N/A | 2 per month (4 on Ultimate); extras paid |
Self-service download window | N/A | 7 days |
Customer control over copies | Limited (mainly via remote database if used) | Higher (you can download and store your own copies) |
Restore process | Contact support | Contact support (or use your own downloaded files) |
Longer-term archival | Relies on support + short window | You can download and keep indefinitely |
Key Takeaways
- ACT emphasizes frequent, automatic platform backups with relatively short retention and support-mediated restores. You have less direct control over downloading full copies of the cloud database.
- Zoho CRM gives you more self-service control (downloadable full backups you can schedule and keep yourself) plus longer internal platform retention (3 months). The trade-off is that the free downloadable backups are limited in number, and the download link expires quickly (7 days), so you need to watch this.