In the current day and age, we have abundant data. Companies can now use customer relationship management (CRM) software to track various metrics, including but not limited to contact and lead management, sales forecasting, marketing campaigns, and customer care and support.
Rolodexes, file cabinets stuffed with papers related to client accounts, and hurriedly scribbled notes on future sales chances are all things of the past. CRM software may easily save firms hundreds of hours' worth of labor in data management.
On our ranking of the best CRM software for small firms, we have Salesforce and Zoho CRM in high positions, with the former taking the title of "Most Comprehensive" and the latter of "Best for Startups."
Both these brands provide CRM software that is well regarded and trusted, ready to be scaled to meet the requirements of any business or use case. Read our comparison guide to find out how Salesforce and Zoho stack up against one another in every aspect, from the ease of use to cost.
Salesforce Vs Zoho: Features Comparison
Both Salesforce and Zoho have features to manage customer relationships and business operations. We'll compare some below.
Zoho offers one general-purpose CRM, whereas Salesforce offers CRM cloud solutions for marketing, sales, and service. We couldn't cover all of Salesforce's CRM solutions in this article. Instead, we'll focus on Salesforce Sales Cloud, which features most like Zoho CRMs.
Zoho and Salesforce help manage leads, contacts, pipelines, accounts, deals, and business opportunities. Zoho's database can store phone numbers, email addresses, meeting notes, to-do lists, and documents.
Zoho's import wizard, online forms, or API may import leads and notes from other databases. Zoho's omnichannel communication tools concentrate on customer interactions so you can examine the whole conversation history. This includes chats, emails, and more.
Salesforce saves all your crucial customer data, including communication history, activities, and more, for every contact. Chatter lets you share account and contact information and documents with your team.
Salesforce's pipeline management tools display a complete chronology of client activity and what steps to take to advance prospects. You may set up automated, and rules-based lead scoring on higher-priced Salesforce plans to follow up with prospects. With Salesforce's mobile app, you can access your contact data anywhere.
Zoho CRM's social listening tools help you monitor Facebook and Twitter for brand mentions. You may reply to these posts and store social users as CRM leads.
Similar functionality is in Salesforce Sales Cloud. You can monitor user activity on all major social platforms to learn what people think of your brand.
Zoho and Salesforce offer decision-makers powerful dashboard analytics and reporting.
Salesforce tracks lead volume, conversion rates, sales forecasts, and more. Pre-made reports are plentiful. Use the drag-and-drop report builder to create custom reports.
Like Salesforce, Zoho's analytics tab shows monthly leads, accounts, revenue, deals, and sales rep performance. You can generate custom reports or view over 40 legal notices from the reports tab.
Both tools support hundreds of third-party integrations, so you can easily connect your CRM to business apps. Salesforce supports far more integrations than Zoho.
We won't detail what each platform's automation can do. Salesforce offers the most versatile automation tools, especially if you buy their B2B marketing automation add-on, Pardot.
To read the comparison of Pipedrive vs Salesforce, Click here!
Salesforce Vs Zoho: Performance Comparison
Let's examine both CRMs' performance and usability. Zoho is more accessible to set up and use than Salesforce.
Salesforce is a sophisticated CRM. It's a framework, not a ready-made solution. Implementing and customizing it takes time. It's designed for large companies that can afford to hire a dedicated administrator.
Zoho is better for smaller businesses without the budget, resources, or time to manage a complex CRM. It's ready to use so that you can tweak it afterward.
Both Salesforce and Zoho allow users to customize their CRM interfaces. Professional plan customers can build unlimited custom apps and configure user profiles to control CRM field visibility.
Zoho's Canvas functionality is the first no-code CRM design studio. Zoho Canvas has a drag-and-drop interface for designing your CRM. The interface is similar to website or landing page builders.
Drag and drop the CRM fields you want onto the screen, then click them to customize them. No coding is required, so no developer is needed—anyone can do it. If you don't want to start from scratch, dozens of templates are available.
Having a CRM, you can rely on is key. If your service unexpectedly goes out, it could majorly disrupt your business's productivity and profitability. Salesforce and Zoho have this feature to prevent any significant issues.
Zoho's SLA promises 99.9% monthly uptime (opens in new tab). This excludes scheduled maintenance. However, users are alerted 48 hours in advance. Zoho's status page shows the current status of services in your location and past occurrences (opens in a new tab).
Salesforce also promises 99.9% uptime. Like Zoho, Salesforce delivers total transparency on its service availability and performance (opens in a new tab).
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Salesforce Vs Zoho: Support Comparison
Both Salesforce and Zoho provide customer support solutions.
Salesforce offers documentation, videos, walkthroughs in its support center, and a free interactive training course called Trailhead. You may ask questions on a community forum. Unlimited plans include 24/7 customer support and setup services.
Zoho provides documentation. Its assistance section has tutorials, FAQs, a development environment, seminars, and a community forum. The self-service site lets you submit tickets for questions you can't answer. Zoho's training offerings aren't free like Salesforce's Trailhead.
This category is tied between both.
To read the comparison of SugarCRM vs Salesforce, Click here!
Salesforce Vs Zoho: Pricing Comparison
Salesforce and Zoho provide Standard, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate price options.
Most smaller firms will choose Standard plans (the most affordable option). Both firms' Standard subscriptions are similarly priced and offer contact management and mobile applications.
Zoho's Standard plan includes rule-based scoring and processes, which Salesforce lacks. Salesforce's Professional subscription is five times more costly to unlock these capabilities.
Zoho is cheaper than Salesforce and has the most excellent value for SMBs. It's also the only platform to offer a free plan, making it a good Salesforce alternative for businesses not ready to invest in a paid CRM.
All rates are per user per month and based on annual invoicing. Zoho offers monthly billing, but you'll lose the yearly discount.
Both firms offer different paid add-ons. The prices below are for Salesforce Sales Cloud CRM, but you may also want to consider Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud, and other CRM categories.
To read the comparison of Salesforce Vs Amazon Web Services (AWS), Click here!
Conclusion
Conclusion paragraph: In the end, it is up to you to decide which CRM system is best for your business. Salesforce and Zoho offer a wide range of features backed by excellent customer service teams.
However, regarding performance, Salesforce seems to have the edge. Although both systems are priced similarly, it's worth noting that Salesforce offers more value for your money with its additional features.
We hope this comparison has helped you make an informed decision about which CRM system is right for you. Have we missed anything? Let us know in the comments below!
Moreover, we have also written a comparison article between Oracle vs Salesforce. It will help you a lot if you read it as well.