Zoho CRM Review: See Whether This CRM Is Right for You 2022
Zoho CRM offers a comprehensive suite of business management tools to help you with everything from sales automation and marketing to finance and HR. It’s an excellent choice for businesses looking for an all-in-one CRM solution.
The downside is that its most useful features can only be accessed in higher-paid tiers, and there are better CRM options for overall usability. In this review, we’ll take an in-depth look at this popular CRM software to see if it’s the right fit for your business.
Zoho at a Glance
Zoho is an online customer relationship management software for businesses of all sizes. You can track your customers’ interactions, automate sales and marketing processes, and target your customers with personalized messages. Its affordability and impressive feature set make it one of the best CRM solutions for small businesses.
Price Range: Free to $52 per user, per month (15-day free trial)
Rating
- Core Features: 4/5
- Customization: 4/5
- Ease of Use: 4/5
- Expert Score: 4/5
- Outlook Integration: 4/5
- Pricing: 4/5
Pros:
- Solid email marketing and automation features.
- Most of the applications are customizable.
- Has one of the best lead management integrations via Outlook.
Cons
- There’s a steep learning curve.
- Advanced features are only accessible at the higher-priced tiers.
- Limited customer support.
- Some users report integration issues.
Zoho CRM is a feature-rich CRM platform that compares favorably against the competition. It even beats some industry leaders in certain areas, such as its keywords feature. This makes Zoho CRM an attractive option for businesses looking for a comprehensive CRM solution.
When to Use Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a great option for small businesses looking for an affordable CRM with robust features. The free plan is especially attractive for businesses just getting started with CRM. It’s also a good choice if you need sales or marketing automation features or a CRM that integrates well with other Zoho products, such as Zoho Inventory or Zoho Projects.
When Not to Use Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM is a great tool for managing customer relationships, but there are some situations when it’s not the best option. If you’re working with a small team, you might not need all the features Zoho CRM offers. Additionally, there are better platforms for businesses with demanding automation needs.
Zoho CRM Pricing
1. Free Version
Annual plan monthly rate: $0
Monthly plan monthly rate: $0
Free trial: Free forever
Custom fields: N/A
Reports: Unlimited reports and dashboards
Workflow rules: N/A
Key features:
- Hosted payment pages
- Create secure, PCI-compliant payment pages effortlessly.
- Multi-currency support
Bill customers in their local currency. - Integrated with Stripe
- Offline payments
- Record cash payments in any currency.
- Client self-service portal
- Subscription metrics
- Access over 40 essential business reports.
- 24/5 Email support
2. Basic Plan
Annual plan monthly rate: $49
Monthly plan monthly rate: $59
Free trial: 15 days
Custom fields: N/A
Reports: Unlimited reports and dashboards
Workflow rules: 3 workflow rules per module
Key features:
- Hosted payment pages
- Create secure, PCI-compliant payment pages effortlessly.
- Multi-currency support
- Bill customers in their local currency.
- Dunning for automatic payments
- Send payment reminders & retry failed transactions to reduce involuntary churn.
- Multiple payment gateways
- Enable your customers to pay with their preferred payment gateway.
- Offline payments
- Record cash payments in any currency.
- Client self-service portal
- REST API & Webhooks
- Subscription metrics
- Access over 40 essential business reports.
- 24/5 Email and Phone support
3. Standard Plan
Annual plan monthly rate: $99
Monthly plan monthly rate: $199
Free trial: 15 days
Custom fields: 10 fields per module
Reports: Unlimited reports and dashboards
Workflow rules: 5 workflow rules per module
Key features:
- Hosted payment pages
- Create secure, PCI-compliant payment pages effortlessly.
- Multi-currency support
- Bill customers in their local currency.
- Dunning for automatic payments
- Send payment reminders & retry failed transactions to reduce involuntary churn.
- Multiple payment gateways
- Enable your customers to pay with their preferred payment gateway.
- Offline payments
- Record cash payments in any currency.
- Client self-service portal
- REST API & Webhooks
- Subscription metrics
- Access over 40 essential business reports.
- Web tabs
- Embed web pages and applications to access them right from Zoho Subscriptions.
- Customer portal single sign-on
- Log in effortlessly using your preferred identity provider.
- Domain branding
- Use your domain names for customer portals and payment pages.
- Custom buttons
- Use custom buttons to trigger a predetermined set of actions.
- 24/5 Email and Phone support
4. Professional Plan
Annual plan monthly rate: $249
Monthly plan monthly rate: $299
Free trial: 15 days
Custom fields: Up to 150 fields per module
Reports: Unlimited reports and dashboards
Workflow rules: 10 workflow rules per module
Key features:
- Hosted payment pages
- Create secure, PCI-compliant payment pages effortlessly.
- Multi-currency support
- Bill customers in their local currency.
- Dunning for automatic payments
- Send payment reminders & retry failed transactions to reduce involuntary churn.
- Multiple payment gateways
- Enable your customers to pay with their preferred payment gateway.
- Offline payments
- Record cash payments in any currency.Client self-service portal
- REST API & Webhooks
- Subscription metrics
- Access over 40 essential business reports.
Web tabs - Embed web pages and applications to access them right from Zoho Subscriptions.
Customer portal single sign-on - Log in effortlessly using your preferred identity provider.
- Domain branding
- Use your domain names for customer portals and payment pages.
- Custom buttons
- Use custom buttons to trigger a predetermined set of actions.
- Custom Schedulers
- Schedule your frequent tasks to be executed automatically.
- Twilio integration
- 24/5 Email and Phone support
- 24/5 Live Chat support
5. Enterprise Plan
Annual plan monthly rate: Custom pricing
Monthly plan monthly rate: Custom pricing
Free trial: 15 days
Custom fields: Up to 300 fields per module
Reports: Unlimited reports and dashboards
Workflow rules: 30 workflow rules per module
Key features:
- All features of the Professional plan.
- Option to add more custom features according to your business needs.
Popular Zoho CRM Add-ons
- Shopify: Easily sync customer, sales, and product data between your Shopify e-commerce store, as well as track Shopify customers as contacts in Zoho CRM, along with their transactions and expenses.
- Google Drive: Collaborate with clients and customers on documents associated with their Zoho CRM records. Your sales team can seamlessly sync, share, and manage files in their Google Drive accounts.
- Mailchimp: Sync your Mailchimp campaigns and subscribers with Zoho’s easy two-way sync and receive notifications when a subscriber is added or removed.
- Facebook Adverts Manager: Easily sync your Facebook Adverts, Advert Sets, Campaigns, and Accounts and analyze your Facebook Ad Campaign details from within Zoho CRM.
Zoho CRM Features
Zoho CRM is a feature-rich customer relationship management software that helps businesses streamline their sales, marketing, and customer support operations. Some of the key features of Zoho CRM include:
- Lead and contact management: Zoho CRM provides users with powerful tools for managing their leads and contacts. They can easily track and manage leads through the various stages of the sales cycle and keep track of important contact information such as phone numbers, email addresses, and social media profiles.
- Salesforce automation: The software comes with a number of features that help sales teams automate their workflows. These include features such as lead assignment rules, automatic email generation, and pipeline management.
- Marketing automation: Zoho CRM also includes several marketing automation features that help businesses automate their marketing tasks.
Zoho offers a range of features that can help small businesses streamline their operations and improve customer relations. However, you need to upgrade to a higher tier to access more robust functionality.
Zoho CRM Ease of Use
Zoho CRM is relatively easy to use after it has been set up. It requires little to no training to learn how to use it, largely because of the user interface. The UI/UX design is simple, which we appreciate since it lets you focus on what actually matters. Its simplicity is what makes it so user-friendly.
Zoho CRM Customer Service
Whether you pay for a subscription or use Zoho for free, you have access to 24 hours help via email, phone, and live chat Monday through Friday. However, many users have complained about the inconsistency of Zoho support. According to several reviews, there’s no guarantee that the person on the other end of the call will deliver timely or efficient service.
What People Think About Zoho CRM
According to software review sites, Zoho CRM has an overall positive rating among businesses that rely on it every day:
- Capterra: 4.3/5, 5978 total reviews
- Software Advice: 4.28/5, 5978 total reviews
- G2: 4/5, 2225 total reviews
Zoho CRM has accumulated more than 14,000 reviews with an average rating of 4.3 stars. It’s a good score, but what drives those numbers? Here are the common reasons we found that shaped its positive and negative feedback.
What People Like About Zoho CRM
Some things people like about Zoho CRM include its user-friendliness, wide range of features, and its ability to integrate with other business applications. Organizations also rave about its affordable price.
What People Wish Zoho CRM Did Better
Lack of customer support appears to be the biggest issue with Zoho CRM. Several users have reported being on hold for up to 10 minutes or going through many transfers to answer a simple question. It’s not necessarily a deal breaker, but it can be inconvenient for business owners new to CRM and require more guidance while setting up.
Alternatives to Zoho CRM
- EngageBay: The best alternative for social media management.
- Freshsales: The best alternative for sales features & ease-of-use.
- HubSpot CRM: The best alternative with a more robust free option.
- Insightly CRM: The best alternative with native project management features.
- Pipedrive: Easier-to-use alternative offering add-on upgrades to choose from.
- Salesforce Essentials: The best alternative for more complex B2B pipelines
Bottom Line: Zoho CRM Review
Zoho CRM is best for small businesses looking to manage their customer relationships in one place. The software includes features such as contact management, sales automation, and marketing automation. It also offers a wide range of integrations with third-party applications. Overall, Zoho CRM is good at what it does but falls flat on customer support.
