Zoho Vs Salesforce: Which CRM should you choose in 2023?

In this comparison article we are going to look at the main differences between Zoho and Salesforce's CRM software, compare the features, the prices for each, and which is a better option for a startup, a small business, and an enterprise.

Zoho Salesforce
Zoho is a software company building a whole suite of products targeting small medium businessses. Helps manage your sales, customer service, and marketing efforts in a unified environment.

Pricing & Plans comparison:

Zoho pricing Salesforce pricing
Free plan
Free trial period 30 days. No credit card required 30 days. No credit card required
Annual discout 20% 0%
Monthly payment plans
Plans
STANDARD
$20/mo

Users: 1
$20/mo per additional user
STARTER
$300/year

Users: 1
$300/year per additional user
PROFESSIONAL
$23/mo

Users: 1
$23/mo per additional user
PROFESSIONAL
$960/year

Users: 1
$960/year per additional user
ENTERPRISE
$40/mo

Users: 1
$40/mo per additional user
ENTERPRISE
$1980/year

Users: 1
$1980/year per additional user
ULTIMATE
$52/mo

Users: 1
$52/mo per additional user
UNLIMITED
$3960/year

Users: 1
$3960/year per additional user

Essential features comparison between Zoho and Salesforce:

In the below table, we look at the absolute necessary features that any CRM software should have, and we compare Salesforce and Zoho for these must-have necessary features.

Zoho Salesforce
Lead management
Contact management
Account management
Pipeline / Deal management
Add sales team / reps
Add follow ups - with tasks, notes
Activity feed
Send emails from CRM
Reports
Sales forecasting

Nice-to-have features comparison Zoho vs Salesforce:

In the below table we look at the additional features which are not critical to a CRM, but are useful and provide additional context for your sales teams.

Zoho Salesforce
Advanced reporting features
Files management
Mobile app
Automate processes
Google calendar integration
Extra collaboration tools
Integration with third-party apps
Enterprise Territory Management
Create custom objects

Compare with competitors and other CRM alternatives

Compare Salesforce and Zoho with other popular CRM alternatives and competitors.

Zoho - compare alternatives Salesforce - compare alternatives
Zoho vs HubSpot Salesforce vs HubSpot
Salesforce vs ClickUp
Salesforce vs Monday Sales CRM
Salesforce vs ActiveCampaign for Sales

Conclusion:

Zoho's offers the cheapest plan at $20/month/user but if you are familiar with CRMs, or have someone to setup and implement a CRM properly, Salesforce maybe the better option. For enterprises, Salesforce does offer more customisations than Zoho.

More resources:

Salesforce CRM training tutorial for beginners (2023)
This salesforce CRM training tutorial is aimed at beginner and intermediate users, and assumes that you have access to either a free or a paid Salesforce account so that you can follow along and experiment the changes on your own Salesforce CRM and dashboards. By the end of this tutorial