Zoho Creator - Starter Guide
This page covers essential insights into Zoho Creator, a low-code platform offering support for multiple languages, shared responsibility models, and the unique Deluge coding language, providing comprehensive assistance for your business needs.
What is Zoho Creator?
Zoho Creator is a low-code application development platform that allows users to build custom business applications without extensive coding knowledge. Using pre-built components and templates, it offers a visual interface and drag-and-drop functionality that let users design workflows, create forms, and define business rules.
With Zoho Creator :
- Eliminate infrastructure complexities. Zoho Creator's cloud-based platform empowers seamless application development, liberating you from server management and empowering you to prioritize logic and design.
- Scale with confidence, build without boundaries. Zoho's automated infrastructure management, encompassing server setup, updates, and resource allocation, fosters unhindered innovation and ensures your applications effortlessly adapt to growth.
- Users can create web and mobile applications with Zoho Creator that are tailored to their unique business requirements. Data management, reporting and analytics, collaboration tools, and integration capabilities with other Zoho applications and external systems are just just some of the vast range of features it offers.
Zoho Creator has proven its mettle across a range of industries and use cases by assisting our customers with customer relationship, project management, inventory management, and infinite other business processes. It gives users the ability to streamline workflows, automate processes, and boost organizational productivity. With scalability, security, and dependability, Zoho Creator is a versatile option for companies of all sizes and in all sectors looking to develop custom applications affordably.
What is a low-code platform?
Low-code is a model-driven application development approach that utilizes a visual language and a Drag and Drop interface instead of a traditional technical coding environment. This method of software creation significantly reduces the need for manual coding, promoting efficiency and ease of use.
How is low code better than traditional coding?
Traditional Programming vs. Low-Code Development:
In traditional programming, creating user interfaces (UI) typically requires writing code, while with low-code development, UI elements can be created through simple drag-and-drop actions. Additionally, traditional coding often involves dealing with compilers, configuring backend systems, and managing server infrastructure, whereas low-code development streamlines these processes, allowing developers to focus more on application logic and functionality.
How many versions of Creator are currently available? How do I find my version?
We have two versions of Creator currently: C5 and C6.
Please note that users who signed up after October 2021 will only have access to C6, our latest version.
C5 users are long-term users who have the option to transition to C6 at their own pace.
To find out more about C6 and its features, we encourage you to explore further.
Please note that users who signed up after October 2021 will only have access to C6, our latest version.
C5 users are long-term users who have the option to transition to C6 at their own pace.
To find out more about C6 and its features, we encourage you to explore further.
What is new in C6?
C6 represents the most advanced, sophisticated, innovative, and capable version of Zoho Creator.
Creator 6 provides developers with the empowering ability to customize traditional applications seamlessly across various platforms. It is a powerful platform that combines the powerful capabilities of application development (application creator by Zoho Creator), business intelligence and analytics (BI and analytics solution by Zoho Analytics), and integrations (integration flow solution by Zoho Flow).
C6 offers numerous benefits, including enhanced features, improved performance, and an enriched user experience thereby helping you stay at the forefront of application development.
To learn more about C6 and harnessing its full potential, we recommend checking this detailed document.
Price vs. features: How does Zoho Creator stack up against the competition in terms of value for money?
Zoho Creator packs a punch at a budget-friendly price.
Here is how it stands out in terms of value for money:
Here is how it stands out in terms of value for money:
Competitor with all the features: When stacked against competitors offering similar features like cloud-based app building, drag-and-drop, workflows, form and page builders, native mobile apps, logs, customer portals, and payment integrations, Zoho Creator often shines brighter in terms of affordability.
Beyond features: Zoho Creator doesn't stop at just features. It boasts additional perks like:
- Free plan: Get started with basic app building features absolutely free!
- Flexible pricing: Scale your plan as your app grows, without breaking the bank.
- Intuitive design: Save time and money on development costs with its user-friendly interface.
- Reduced maintenance: Zoho takes care of infrastructure, freeing you from server management expenses.
- Active community: Access a wealth of resources and support from a strong user community.
Remember: Price isn't everything, but Zoho Creator delivers exceptional value by balancing powerful features with competitive pricing and user-friendly experience. It's an accessible platform for both individual developers and businesses on a budget.
See how Zoho Creator's features score against it's competitors.
See how Zoho Creator's features score against it's competitors.
What are the benefits of Zoho Creator?
Zoho Creator's exhaustive list of capabilities make it a potent platform for application development and customization. By utilizing Zoho Creator, you can expect the following benefits:
Low-code
Users can create applications using Zoho Creator without requiring extensive programming knowledge, thanks to its low-code methodology. This empowers citizen developers and reduces reliance on expert developers, accelerating application development. Additionally, Zoho Creator handles backend infrastructure, servers, and performance optimization, further simplifying the development process and allowing users to focus on building functional and efficient applications.
Deluge
Deluge offers a way to enhance your Zoho Creator applications' advanced logic and capabilities without using conventional programming languages.
Workflows
The workflow builder in Zoho Creator allows you to automate common activities and tasks in your solutions based on various circumstances. Sending emails and SMS messages, as well as activating app-related features like concealing or disabling fields depending on predetermined criteria, are just a few examples of the typical chores that may be performed.
Rapid application development
This is made possible by Zoho Creator's user-friendly drag-and-drop interface and pre-built templates. Applications can be quickly and effectively created, saving time and effort during development.
Flexibility and customization
Zoho Creator offers a wide range of customization options that let you adapt applications to your unique business requirements. To meet your specific needs, you can quickly add custom fields, design workflows, and automate procedures.
Integration
Unlock access to a vast array of over 600 third-party apps and services, all ready to connect seamlessly and consolidate your business applications. With Zoho Creator, you can effortlessly create contextual workflows that enable automatic movement of emails, reports, records, and more across your various applications. Experience the power of streamlined integration and enjoy the convenience of synchronized processes across your entire suite of apps.
C6 seamlessly integrates with BI & Analytics and Flow, allowing us to create workflows effortlessly, automations, pages, and much more within the solution.
The latest version of Zoho Creator combines the robust power of application development, business intelligence and analytics, smart integrations, and process automation into a unified platform. This integration enables businesses to deliver end efficiently-to-end business solutions. C6 further enhances the development experience by extending low-code capabilities to all stages of software development, providing a simplified and streamlined approach.
Cross-platform and mobile-friendly
Zoho Creator applications are mobile-friendly and can be used on a variety of platforms, including mobile devices and web browsers. Both developers and end users benefit from the flexibility and accessibility this provides.bj
Data management and reporting
Zoho Creator has powerful data management tools that let you efficiently store, arrange, and analyze data. It offers integrated reporting tools and Zoho Analytics integration for thorough data analysis and visualization.
Scalability and security
Zoho Creator has the capacity to grow as data volumes and user demands do. In order to safeguard your application and data, it also places a high priority on data security, offering features like user access controls, data encryption, and regular backups.
These Game-changing features like portals, environments, governance, blueprints make Zoho Creator a flexible and strong platform for companies to build bespoke applications, restructure workflows, and boost productivity across various industries and use cases.
What are the languages in which Zoho Creator Zoho Creator can be accessed?
Zoho Creator supports 64 (and counting) languages in access mode, but it doesn't stop there. It also allows the user to choose their language or for admins to set a default language.
Zoho Creator supports seven languages, namely English, Japanese, Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified), French, and German in edit mode of your application. These languages are specifically mentioned in the Zoho Creator help portal as the officially supported languages for editing and modifying your applications.
Learn more about our language options.
Zoho Creator supports seven languages, namely English, Japanese, Spanish (Latin America), Portuguese (Brazil), Chinese (Simplified), French, and German in edit mode of your application. These languages are specifically mentioned in the Zoho Creator help portal as the officially supported languages for editing and modifying your applications.
Learn more about our language options.
What is shared responsibility? Why is it important?
The Shared Responsibility Model serves as a robust security and compliance framework, delineating the allocation of security obligations and responsibilities between Zoho Creator and our valued customers. This model is designed to guarantee a holistic approach to security, thereby ensuring comprehensive protection and compliance measures are in place.
Zoho Creator helps handle not only running the application, UI design, and business flow, but also takes complete care of infrastructure and security. Users do not need to worry about managing servers, infrastructure setup, or implementing security measures.
This model emphasizes that while Zoho Creator provides a secure foundation, customers also hold a critical role in safeguarding their data and applications within our cloud environment. By comprehending and fulfilling their security responsibilities, both Zoho Creator and our customers can collaborate to mitigate potential risks and uphold the overall security of our cloud-based systems, as well as the confidentiality and integrity of their valuable data.
Learn more about shared responsibility model.
Learn more about shared responsibility model.
Do I need to possess basic skills or knowledge before using Zoho Creator?
There is no mandatory requirement to utilize Zoho Creator. Understanding your application's goals is the only critical ingredient for using Zoho Creator. While coding isn't a prerequisite, familiarity with it opens doors to further customization, particularly in areas like:
- Integration: Connect your app with other Zoho services or external tools through code-based integrations.
- Functions: Build robust logic for your app using custom functions written in Javascript or Deluge.
- Automation: Extend your app's capabilities with custom workflows and scripts, powered by coding knowledge.
- Advanced Page Design: Fine-tune your app's look and feel with HTML and ZML snippets within pages.
Remember, this is all an added bonus! Zoho Creator's intuitive design means you can build powerful applications without ever touching a line of code. So, don't let limited coding experience hold you back.
What should I know before creating an application?
Understanding the purpose of your database or the specific problem you aim to solve through your application is crucial. This knowledge forms the foundation for developing an effective solution and ensuring that your application effectively addresses the desired objectives.
Learn more about planning before creating an application.
How much coding experience do I need to use Zoho Creator?
Although coding knowledge is not necessary, having it confers a distinct advantage when customizing your application during the creation process. Proficiency in coding empowers you to tailor the application to your specific needs, enabling finer adjustments and enhancements that may not be readily achievable through standard customization options. Learn more on what more doors coding can open in creator.
What is Deluge?
Deluge, also known as Data Enriched Language for the Universal Grid Environment, is an online scripting language seamlessly integrated with Zoho services. Its purpose is to empower users by enabling them to introduce logic into their applications progressively. By leveraging Deluge, applications become more dynamic, fortified with additional functionality, and capable of handling complex tasks such as automated notifications, task scheduling, and data manipulation. For instance, users can implement Deluge scripts to automate the generation of notifications based on specific triggers or conditions, schedule recurring tasks for regular data updates or backups, and manipulate data dynamically to generate reports or perform calculations in real-time. With its incremental approach, Deluge empowers users to enhance their applications and make them more potent and resilient, catering to diverse business needs and workflows.
Is Deluge necessary to create an application using Zoho Creator?
Drag-and-drop functionality is indeed sufficient for creating a basic application with its core functions in Zoho Creator.
However, when it comes to implementing more intricate and customized workflows or fully utilizing the capabilities of Zoho Creator, Deluge scripting comes into play. Deluge enables users to create complex workflows, automate processes, perform advanced calculations, integrate with external systems, and extend the functionality of their applications beyond what can be achieved with just drag and drop. It empowers users to tailor their applications precisely to their specific requirements and unlock the full potential of Zoho Creator.
What are the coding languages that can be used in Zoho Creator?
In addition to Deluge, Zoho Creator also supports the usage of other coding languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. These languages can be used to customize the user interface, design webpages, and add interactive elements to the application.
Furthermore, Zoho Creator provides REST APIs that allow developers to interact with Zoho Creator and build integrations using other programming languages, such as Python, PHP, Java, and more.
In summary, the main scripting language in Zoho Creator is Deluge, while HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other programming languages can be used for customization, UI design, and integrations.
What are the minimum requirements to be able to use Zoho Creator?
Zoho Creator is cloud-based software and its functioning depends on your browser's capabilities.
Zoho Creator supports the following web browsers:
Zoho Creator supports the following web browsers:
- Internet Explorer version 11 or above (For IE 9 & IE 10 settings should be changed on the customer end to enable TLS1.2)
- Google Chrome version 30 or above
- Mozilla Firefox 27 or above
- Safari seven or above
- Microsoft Edge
Learn more about accessing Zoho Creator.
What infra I need to set up before using Creator?
Here is the best part about Zoho Creator: you can dive into application development without any infrastructure setup! Zoho handles all the technical details behind the scenes, so you can focus on building your app, not managing servers.
Here is how Zoho Creator streamlines infrastructure for you:
- Cloud-Based Platform : No need to install or configure software—Zoho Creator operates entirely online, accessible through your web browser.
- Zero Server Management : Zoho takes care of server setup, maintenance, and scaling, ensuring your app always runs smoothly.
- Automatic Updates: Benefit from the latest features and security enhancements without manual updates. Zoho Creator handles those seamlessly.
- Scalable Resources : As your app grows, Zoho automatically allocates more resources to accommodate increasing users and data, ensuring optimal performance.
This means you can:
- Start building immediately : Jump right into app creation without delays or setup hassles.
- Focus on your app's logic and design: Channel your energy into crafting the perfect user experience, not technical infrastructure.
- Rest assured with expert support : Zoho's team of professionals monitors and maintains the infrastructure for optimal performance and security.
- With Zoho Creator, you can shift your focus from infrastructure to innovation. Build your app with confidence, knowing the foundation is solidly taken care of.
Can I store the data on my premises?
Absolutely! For maximum data control, choose Zoho Creator On-premise, a downloadable platform where you host and manage your data completely on your own servers. It offers the same powerful app creation capabilities as the cloud version, with the added confidence of local data storage.
We also offer secure cloud storage with automatic backups and top-notch security measures. Ultimately, the choice is yours!
Does Zoho Creator have any specific operating system requirements or limitations?
Zoho Creator is browser-based software and does not have specific operating system requirements or limitations. It can be accessed and used on various operating systems such as Windows, macOS, Linux, and others, as long as you have a compatible web browser. This flexibility allows users to access Zoho Creator from different devices and operating systems without any issues.
Which major organizations utilize Zoho Creator? Who comprises your customer base?
Zoho Creator is trusted by over 14,000+ businesses worldwide across a variety of different industries and over 6 million users.
Trusted by top brands including Amazon, Swiggy, Volkswagen, Saint-Gobain, Marriot, Lyft.
BigBasket, one of India's largest delivery apps, is one such esteemed customer.
Listen to one of their senior executives speak about us.
Trusted by top brands including Amazon, Swiggy, Volkswagen, Saint-Gobain, Marriot, Lyft.
BigBasket, one of India's largest delivery apps, is one such esteemed customer.
Listen to one of their senior executives speak about us.
Check out our other customer testimonials.
How customizable are the applications I build with Zoho Creator?
Zoho Creator offers exceptional flexibility and customization options to suit your specific needs. While it provides a wide range of pre-built fields, forms, reports, pages and even whole applications, BI analytics and Flow connections, and customization features, you also can leverage coding to enhance further and tailor your applications.
What types of files can I upload in a File Upload field of a Zoho Creator form?
The File Upload field in Zoho Creator allows users to conveniently upload files when submitting data through your form. Users have the option to select files from their device's local storage or from various supported cloud storage services. This feature enables seamless file submission and allows users to provide necessary attachments easily or documents along with their form data.
File upload limits:
- Web browsers and iOS devices: 50 MB
- Android devices: 5 MB
To know more about uploading files, refer to this.
What level of support does Zoho Creator offer for integrating with other systems?
A wide range of features and tools are available in Zoho Creator to support system integration. The integration support offered by Zoho Creator includes the following key features:
- Integration with Zoho Suite: Zoho Creator seamlessly integrates with other Zoho Suite applications, such as Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, Zoho Forms, and more. This enables you to connect with and share data between different Zoho products.
- Connections: Connections in microservices are designed to link to external facilities. You can use them to integrate the Zoho Creator app with a variety of other cloud services. You are prompted to authorize access to the third-party service and link an account when you create a connection and it must be authorized in order to function.
- Database connectors: In Creator microservices, a data source is used to manage a module from a third-party service with the aid of a connection established between the two services. This gives you the ability to use data stored in an outside service in your Zoho Creator applications.
- Custom Functions and Scripts: Zoho Creator allows you to write custom functions and scripts using Deluge, its proprietary scripting language. The invokeUrl task in Zoho enables seamless interaction: Access and modify web resources via HTTP calls, Exchange data between Zoho services using API URLs, Integrate with third-party services for enhanced functionality.You can use custom functions and scripts to integrate with external APIs, perform data transformations, and automate complex workflows.
- Pre-built Integrations: Zoho Creator provides a marketplace called Zoho Marketplace, where you can find a variety of pre-built integrations developed by Zoho and third-party developers. These integrations cover a wide range of applications and services, allowing you to connect Zoho Creator with other systems without extensive coding quickly.
The integration framework offered by Zoho Creator is versatile and strong overall, offering a number of ways to connect to other systems, use APIs, and increase the functionality of your applications.
How does Zoho Creator handle scalability as my application grows?
Zoho Creator ensures scalability by leveraging a robust infrastructure, elastic scaling, efficient database management, load balancing, continuous monitoring, and regular updates. It accommodates growing data volume, user traffic, and complexity. With Zoho's extensive data centers and server infrastructure, elastic scaling adjusts resources based on demand. Efficient database management handles increasing data volumes, and load balancing distributes user requests. Continuous monitoring and optimization identify bottlenecks, while regular updates enhance scalability.
Zoho Creator guarantees a performant and reliable experience and takes complete care of your scalability as your application grows. We make sure this doesn't concern you from the growth of your application.
Zoho Creator guarantees a performant and reliable experience and takes complete care of your scalability as your application grows. We make sure this doesn't concern you from the growth of your application.
Is it possible to convert my Zoho Creator application into a mobile app?
Yes, it is possible to convert your Zoho Creator application into a mobile app.
You can achieve a shift by converting your application into both iOS and Android apps. You have the flexibility to decide whether you want to target individual users or cater specifically to your customers through a dedicated portal. Furthermore, you can choose between publishing your apps publicly on the App Store and Google Play Store or opt for private distribution amongst a select group of users.
Can I select a DC other than their current location?
You will not be able to select the DC while creating your account.
If you want to migrate the account from one DC to another DC,
please drop an email to migrations@zohoaccounts.com, our team is happy to help.
If you want to migrate the account from one DC to another DC,
please drop an email to migrations@zohoaccounts.com, our team is happy to help.
Can I delete the Creator account? If yes. then how?
To delete an account, follow these steps:
- Click on your profile icon located in the top-right corner of the page.
- From the dropdown menu, select My Account.
- In the account settings menu, select the Settings option.
- In the Settings section, click Close Account.
- You may be prompted to confirm your decision or provide additional information. Follow the on-screen instructions to proceed.
- In the Close Account section, select the option to close the organization or account associated with your profile.
- Carefully review any warnings about the consequences of closing the account, then proceed with the account closure process as guided by the platform.
If I delete my Creator account, can I still access other Zoho services?
Yes, it is possible to continue using other Zoho products even after deleting your Zoho Creator account. However, it is important to note that if you have not exported your data from Zoho Creator before deletion, you could lose your data permanently. Therefore, it is highly recommended to export and back up your important data before proceeding with the deletion process to prevent any irreversible data loss.
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