Pros & Cons
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- Exceptional depth
- Extremely customizable
- Advanced automations
- Highly detailed analytics and reporting
- Supports more than 1,100 integrations
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- Can be overwhelming, especially for new CRM users
- Premium support costs extra
Zoho CRM Specs
| 24-Hour Support | |
| Analytics | |
| Chatbot/Conversational AI | |
| Custom Dashboards | |
| Document Library | |
| Email Routing | |
| Integrated Email Marketing | |
| Live Chat | |
| Multi-Currency Support | |
| Phone Support | |
| Pipeline Management | |
| REST API | |
| User Forums |
Zoho CRM provides effective tools for many aspects of customer relationship management (CRM), from collecting contacts to creating quotes to sending invoices. Integrations with other Zoho tools and third-party services let you handle most of your essential business tasks in one place, while low-cost plans make it attractive for larger teams. That said, its systems can be complex to grasp, especially if you aren't already familiar with this type of software. Apptivo offers close to the same level of customization with better support, while Insightly CRM provides a better balance of accessibility and features. As such, we've lowered Zoho's rating by half a star since our last review, as other solutions have become increasingly more approachable.
Pricing: Flexible Plans With a Strong Free Tier
Zoho CRM has a free option, something you don’t get with most other CRMs. Bigin by Zoho, which targets much smaller companies, is an exception. Both free plans support up to three users, but they offer distinct features. Zoho CRM's free version supports custom email templates, for example, whereas Bigin's free version gives you tools for booking and scheduling appointments.
Zoho CRM's Standard plan ($14 per user per month, billed annually) provides access to core contact and lead management dashboards, pipeline creation tools, automated workflows, smart (automation) rules, and sales forecasting. You can also create Zia AI agents to automate certain sales activities and access the Cadences feature, which facilitates multichannel follow-up campaigns for individual leads.
The Professional tier ($23 per user per month, billed annually) unlocks AI insights for emails, customer support tools, additional process automation tools, inventory management, Google Ads integration, and unlimited custom reports. You can institute price rules to streamline the process of providing quotes, as well as create widgets based on data from third-party applications.
The Enterprise plan ($40 per user per month, billed annually) includes a full AI sales assistant, comprehensive tools for building personalized customer journeys, and features for managing leads across varying geographic locations and verticals. Custom functions let you build low-code workflows to automate tasks across third-party apps, while the Wizards feature streamlines CRM form completion.
The Ultimate level ($52 per user per month, billed annually) lets you connect with a consultant to build a fully customized version of Zoho CRM tailored to your business’s needs, including migrating any existing CRM data. Advanced data preparation tools are also available with this plan.
Zoho CRM's rates are similar to Apptivo's (between $15 and $40 per user per month, billed annually). However, Zoho CRM’s customer support is available only from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT on Monday through Friday. You need a separate support plan to unlock 24/5 support, which adds 20% to 25% to your subscription cost. Apptivo, meanwhile, provides 24/5 phone support and 24/7 live chat support for all plans. Most other CRMs I’ve tested offer at least 12/5 support on every plan, though Pipedrive (starting at $14 per user per month, billed annually) limits human customer support to higher-tier plans.
Freshsales (starting at $9 per user per month, billed annually) offers a lower price than Zoho CRM and includes many features suitable for mid-sized or even large businesses, though it doesn’t offer the same level of automation or customization. Less Annoying CRM charges a flat $15 per user per month and is far simpler to use, but it's not nearly as advanced as Zoho CRM.
Getting Started and Ease of Use: Familiar Setup, Steeper Learning Curve
Setting up a Zoho CRM account is straightforward. In fact, if you already have a Zoho account, you can just use that. You need to set up multi-factor authentication during account creation, which Zoho strongly recommends doing through its proprietary app, OneAuth. I encountered some issues with OneAuth, but I resolved them with Zoho's support team.
When you log into the CRM for the first time, it asks for your company’s name, contact number, and employee count. You can also customize your time zone, language, and location, and optionally load sample data. I chose to load in that data to get a sense of how things work, but you should likely skip this since you will need to delete it later.
After you enter this basic information, another pop-up appears with links to key CRM setup tasks, such as configuring your first pipeline, inviting team members, and migrating data. These clear tasks somewhat help assuage the initially overwhelming feeling in Zoho CRM.
The startup page is colorful and features a left-hand toolbar that provides access to Zoho CRM's core areas. Top-level menu items, such as Sales, have drop-down menus that reveal sub-pages, such as Leads, Contacts, and Accounts. These collapsible menus help give Zoho CRM a modern, streamlined feel.
Adding users is simple. You enter their name and email address before selecting their role (defaults include CEO and Manager, though you can also create custom roles). Profiles, which provide more granular control over permissions for small groups of people, are unique. For example, you might combine a Sales Rep role with an Email Rep profile to prevent some users from accessing call functionality.
You can also import users in bulk via a spreadsheet. Zoho CRM automatically maps the fields from your spreadsheet into its system, including assigned rules, meaning you can import people in multiple roles at once. Most CRMs I’ve tested let you bulk-import only people assigned to the same role, which can be a significant time-saver. The automapping accuracy was impressive in testing, with the caveat that I had to add a Profiles field, which Zoho CRM considers mandatory.
Returning to the home page brings you back to the startup list, which you can dismiss. You get a dashboard here with quick stats at the top and more detailed sections for things like deals closing this month, meetings, and tasks. More information is available here than in other CRMs, such as Freshsales or Insightly, but the overall layout is fairly standard. You can use a visual editor to customize the page by going to Settings > Customize.
I didn’t receive any emails or other proactive communication from Zoho CRM support during account setup. Instead, I had to seek answers through Zoho CRM’s documentation. Thankfully, this documentation is extensive and includes articles and videos on many topics.
Leads and Contacts: Deep Data Management With Flexible Views
Although other CRMs define contacts as anyone you’ve made contact with and leads as people who you’ve onboarded into one of your pipelines, Zoho CRM does the opposite. Leads are anyone whose contact information you have who might be interested in your business, while contacts are people whose interest you’ve confirmed. It took me a while to figure out this distinction, but things flowed smoothly after I did.
Zoho CRM’s Leads page uses a table view by default, though chart, Kanban, and timeline views are also available. You can even move things into a spreadsheet. A wide range of filters lets you control the types of contacts you see, and you can create custom filters, too. Regardless of the view, you can see key contact information, including the team member assigned to each contact and the due dates of any related tasks. Apptivo's and Insightly CRM's equivalent pages look similar.
The form for adding a single lead includes fields for both personal and business contact information, as well as specialized details such as the lead’s department and job title. You can also bulk import leads from a spreadsheet or via Zoho CRM’s one-click import tool, which is compatible with popular CRMs, such as Salesforce, Pipedrive, and Insightly.
When I tried importing a spreadsheet, Zoho CRM automatically mapped the information to the correct fields. It then offered options to assign team members to leads based on automated assignment rules and to trigger automations. These tools are helpful for teams who want to migrate to Zoho CRM without losing their existing workflows. After customizing the import settings, Zoho CRM completed the process in about a minute.
You can click on contacts to see their profiles, which open on a separate page. I would prefer a way to open an overlay like in Insightly CRM, but this isn't a major annoyance.
The profiles are streamlined. A contact card at the top displays key information, while a task list and a Details section (department, job title, and the like) are below it. Other sections include Activity Records, Deals, Notes, Purchases, and much more. You can use the sidebar to quickly find the info you want.
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The Contacts function works much the same way as the Leads function. The main page has the same display options (such as table and Kanban) and shows much of the same information. You can create individual profiles or bulk import them through a spreadsheet or Zoho CRM’s one-click import tool. You can also convert leads into contacts by opening their profile and clicking Convert. Although the interface can seem overwhelming at first, it’s fairly simple to navigate once you acclimate.
If you don't use all of the fields in the lead or contact profiles (or need to add more), you can easily customize them in Settings > Customize > Modules and Fields.
Pipelines: Simple to Build, More Involved to Implement
ZohoCRM lets you create an unlimited number of pipelines with an unlimited number of steps to carry your contacts through various customer journeys. The Pipeline Creator is accessible through the Settings area. Several pipeline templates are available to try here, along with the option to create a custom one. Once you select a pipeline template, you can populate it with premade pipeline steps from drop-down menus or create custom ones.
Once you create some pipelines, they show up in the Settings > Pipelines area as a series of columns. You can drag-and-drop pipeline stages to rearrange them and add others as needed. This process is one of the most straightforward aspects of Zoho CRM. However, adding leads to a pipeline is complicated. You have to add custom values (based on your pipeline stages) to the Lead Status field in lead profiles. For example, if you want to add a recently qualified lead to a pipeline for a coaching package, you need to add a value for “Coaching - Qualified”. The process with contacts is similar.
Automation: Advanced Tools for Streamlined Workflows
Zoho CRM offers numerous automation tools. Most businesses should focus on Workflow Rules, Actions, Schedules, Assignment Automations, and Cadences.
Workflow Rules trigger actions when a specific event occurs, such as the creation of a deal. Zoho CRM uses a visual editor to map these out and lets you add as many actions as you need. You can create Actions to, for example, email users when specific steps of a workflow are complete. These tools are similar to those in Apptivo and Insightly CRM.
Schedules are custom actions that trigger automatically when you build functions with code. Zoho CRM bills this as a “low-code solution”, but you still need someone who has at least some familiarity with programming to design these. Therefore, they might be inaccessible to small business teams without a developer. But if you do have the developer resources to use this feature, you can fully customize the experience to your needs.
Meanwhile, the Assignment feature automatically assigns contacts, leads, or tasks to specific team members based on various criteria. For example, you might assign recently added leads to a team member whose focus is on qualifying them through meetings or other interactions.
Finally, you can use the Cadences tool to automatically send follow-ups to specific groups of people (such as leads from a specific source) across multiple channels (such as email or phone). The Cadences builder uses a Kanban-like format, with columns for each follow-up.
Email: Smart Organization With Built-In Insights
Zoho CRM can connect to Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, Zoho Mail, and most custom email solutions. Once you sync your inbox, your messages show up in Zoho CRM’s SalesInbox, a unique system that prioritizes email in a four-column layout and lets you filter items using tags similar to those in the Leads and Contacts areas. You also get to see contextual information about contacts when you open their emails.
If you’re on the higher-tier plans, you get various insights when viewing emails, including AI-generated suggestions for what to write in your responses. The suggestions I received were generic and needed significant editing, but you might get more helpful suggestions if Zoho CRM has access to more of your data.
You can send emails to individuals and small groups directly within SalesInbox. There is also a Mass Emails function that lets you email numerous contacts at once. However, you don't get any email design tools for building newsletters or other dynamic campaigns. For that, you need to use Zoho Campaign or connect a different email marketing solution, such as Mailchimp. Most CRMs have similar limitations, though Freshsales offers email design tools.
AI: Zia Delivers Analysis and Content Assistance
Accessible through the Settings section, Zia is an AI assistant that can analyze various datasets in your CRM to help you develop a deeper understanding of your business patterns. The Competitors section tracks when your customers mention your competitors in emails to you, so you can respond immediately. Zoho CRM also tracks trends related to these competitor mentions, helping you understand when and why customers are buying from (or switching to) competitors.
These analysis tools can certainly help you get a better handle on your business and customers, but the number of specialized terms and tools presents a challenge. For example, I found it frustrating that, even after setting them up, I could access most of these analysis tools only by returning to the Settings area. I couldn't fully test these tools due to the limited sample data in my demo account.
Smart Prompts can help you create campaign messaging, emails, lead follow-ups, and other business materials. This system can use ChatGPT, Claude, Cohere, Gemini, or Zia, with the option to switch at any time based on which produces the most useful messaging for your business. Again, the messages these tools created were rather lackluster and needed heavy editing.
Enterprise businesses can create custom machine learning models. This is a highly involved process that requires significant technical expertise, so it’s not something small businesses should attempt.
Analytics and Reporting: Highly Detailed and Customizable
You can view real-time data on the Analytics page, which features vital statistics (Accounts, Deals in Pipeline, Leads, and Revenue) at the top. The lead generation and revenue target visualizers below show how close you are to your annual goals. Quarterly performance-monitoring reports round out the page. You can customize the design of each section with options like bar, donut, and line charts. Of the CRMs I’ve tested, only Apptivo matches this level of detail and customization.
Reports are snapshots of specific data sets, such as leads your team collected within a specific time frame or outstanding invoices. You can create new reports with a couple of clicks that appear as tables. You can export any of them as a PDF or a spreadsheet, and easily turn others into bar, line, or pie charts.
To add another layer of data, you can create and track progress toward sales targets in the Forecasts area. Then, you or Zia can perform an in-depth analysis to understand what’s working, what isn’t, and how to boost your sales to meet your goals. Most of the CRMs I’ve tested lack anything similar.
Integrations: Extensive Connections Across Business Tools
Zoho CRM integrates with all of Zoho’s business tools, including Zoho Books, Zoho Mail, and Zoho Projects, meaning you can complete most business tasks without leaving the ecosystem.
But it also integrates with over 1,100 third-party services across the accounting, customer service, and marketing categories. This is an impressive number, and the largest I've seen. Notable options include DocuSign, Microsoft 365, QuickBooks, and Workspace. However, it’s worth noting that some integrations come from unofficial sources, so they might not all function the way you expect them to.