As a Salesforce consultant, one of the most common Salesforce alternatives I find myself competing against is Zoho CRM. Although I know Zoho doesn’t stand a chance, when compared to Salesforce, most clients can’t tell the difference. Therefore I basically get the “Salesforce vs Zoho” question. You can’t blame them, though. On the surface, Zoho appears to be a solid alternative, but in reality, it’s more like a cheap knock-off/generic version of Salesforce. Zoho is so similar, in fact, I’m surprised Salesforce hasn’t sued their pants off.
Don’t get me wrong; I have nothing against Zoho. If you’re a small business with a small budget, Zoho could very well work for you. But, if you’ve used Salesforce before, you’ll be spoiled, and Zoho will only disappoint you. Enough Zoho bashing for now; let’s move on to some actual comparisons.
Salesforce vs Zoho Features
Zoho, being the copy-cat that it is, will have many of the same features as Salesforce; they just won’t work as well. Zoho will feel rough around the edges, and similar features won’t be as robust or as thorough. That said in either system, you’ll be able to manage the following in, more or less, the same way.
Common Features
- Leads
- Opportunities
- Sales Activities
- Accounts
- Contacts
- Reports & Dashboards
Where Salesforce Shines
- Advanced Customizations
- Salesforce1 (mobile app)
- User Interface
- Integrations
- Apps & Add-ons
- Vibrant Community / Dreamforce
Where Zoho Shines
- Pricing
- AdWords Integration (out of the box)
- SalesIQ (included with CRM Plus)
- Suite of solutions for small businesses (projects, support, invoicing, etc...)
Salesforce vs Zoho Pricing
There’s no denying that Salesforce is more expensive than Zoho. The most popular Salesforce version (enterprise) is over 4x the price of Zoho’s enterprise edition. However when you use both products it quickly becomes apparent why one is more expensive than the other. Current pricing for both solutions is as follows.
Zoho
Salesforce
Recommendation
While I’m certainly biased due to being a Salesforce consultant my opinions are based on using and implementing both systems. At the end of the day, both systems can get the job done. You can run a solid sales and marketing operation with either. They’re both going to have what you’d expect from a CRM system. That said, Zoho is much cheaper than Salesforce for a reason; it’s not near as high quality of a product. So if you’ve got the budget go with Salesforce; you’ll be happy you did. However, if cash is tight then Zoho is the way to go; it’ll have everything you need to help grow your company. Then, once you’re ready, upgrading to Salesforce will be pretty painless once you’re able to make the investment.
As always I’d love to see your feedback below in the comments. If you’re currently evaluating Salesforce or Zoho leave us a comment letting us know which one are you leaning towards, and why. If you’re already using Salesforce or Zoho leave us a comment letting us know your experience so far.
Thanks for tuning in; I’ll catch you in the next article!
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