Relocating from Zoho Connect External to Zoho Connect Internal or Zoho CommunitySpaces... or move off of Connect completely.

Relocating from Zoho Connect External to Zoho Connect Internal or Zoho CommunitySpaces... or move off of Connect completely.

This conversation is aimed at Zoho clients that currently use Zoho Connect's External network platform. As I discovered in the comment section of another post, Zoho Connect is halting development of Zoho Connect EXTERNAL networks in favor of the new Zoho CommunitySpaces. Let's discuss if relocation is the best option, and if so to which version; Zoho Connect Internal (included w/Zoho One) or Zoho CommunitySpaces. 

I'm hopeful that many of you, as well as @Anonymous User and @Anonymous User (from the Zoho Connect team) will contribute to this conversation. (I will likely participate from two accounts. This account is my day job and I am also active under my own business account... both show my name.)

Background on the use case at my day job... which prompted this conversation:

We (INCBA) are a two-person non-profit trade association paying for an External Zoho Connect Network ($1,150 annually for unlimited members) plus an all employee Zoho One membership. While exploring the feasibility of relocating the population of our existing External Zoho Network (2 employee Members + ~400 External Users) to the Internal Connect Network which comes with our Zoho One subscription, I discovered the news that External networks will not be developed any further.

We like the additional features included with Internal Connect Networks such as the ability to share task boards publicly and also the Social Advocacy Post type. However, we also very much like the idea of being able to bring members into our community without the need for them to have a Zoho account. Please help this conversation by adding whatever you feel is important or whatever you need answers to. 

Initial Questions Regarding Moving from External to Internal:
  1. Is it possible to relocate/migrate from External to Internal with the help of the Zoho Connect team?
  2. What would the timeline look like for relocating?
  3. How much would it cost us to pay for that many External Users via the "add on" packs? (If I recall, External Users are available in packs of 20 at an affordable rate.)
  4. How much would it cost per External User once we expand past the 400 External Users discussed herein? (The answer to question 3 may answer this as well.)
Initial Questions Regarding Moving from External to CommunitySpaces:
  1. Will we be able to relocate/migrate easily? (please elaborate)
  2. Will CommunitySpaces be included with Zoho One?
  3. What will the Z1 limitations be? 
  4. How much will the stand-alone version of CommunitySpaces cost and what will the limitations be?
Personally, I need to move this conversation along quickly as the External Connect Network we use at INCBA comes up for annual renewal later this month (August 2024). Hopefully my initial questions can be answered quickly by staff and or community members. Beyond that, I'd like to see this conversation expanded upon by community members with the same or similar situations. 

Lastly, I've considered moving off Connect completely, but am a fan of the features and their team. I've considered moving to Zoho Desk Community, but it is underdeveloped/antiquated (IMO) and I really would prefer to remain within the Zoho One ecosystem to control costs. We're a small non-profit at my day job and I'm a boot-strapped solopreneur on the side. 

I look forward to seeing feedback and questions from others. 



        • Recent Topics

        • Upload API

          I'm trying to use the Upload API to upload some images and attach them to comments (https://desk.zoho.com/DeskAPIDocument#Uploads#Uploads_Uploadfile) - however I can only ever get a 401 or bad request back. I'm using an OAuth token with the Desk.tickets.ALL

        • ZOHO Creator subform link

          Dear Community Support, I am looking for some guidance on how to add a clickable link within a Zoho Creator subform. The goal is for this link to redirect users to another Creator form where they can edit the data related to the specific row they clicked

        • Adding Overlays to Live Stream

          Hello folks, The company I work for will host an online event through Zoho Webinar. I want to add an overlay (an image) at the bottom of the screen with all the sponsors' logos. Is it possible to add an image as an overlay during the live stream? If so,

        • Email Sending Failed - SMTP Error: data not accepted. - WHMCS Not sending emails due to this error

          I have been trying to figure out a fix for about a week now and I haven't found one on my own so I am going to ask for help on here.  After checking all the settings and even resetting my password for the email used for WHMCS it still says: Email Sending Failed - SMTP Error: data not accepted.  I have no clue how to fix it at this point. Any insight would be lovely. 

        • FSM setup

          So we have been tinkering with FSM to see if it is going to be for us. Now is the time to bite the bullet and link it to our zoho books and zoho crm. The help guides are good but it would really help if they were a bit more in depth on the intergrations.

        • Does Zoho Learn integrate with Zoho Connect,People,Workdrive,Project,Desk?

          Can we propose Zoho LEarn as a centralised Knowledge Portal tool that can get synched with the other Zoho products and serve as a central Knowledge repository?

        • Zoho Flow - Update record in Trackvia

          Hello, I have a Flow that executes correctly but I only want it to execute once when a particular field on a record is updated in TrackVia. I have the trigger filters setup correctly and I want to add an "update record" action at the end of the flow to

        • Add Comprehensive Accessibility Features to Zoho Desk Help Center for End Users

          Hello Zoho Desk Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to submit a feature request to enhance the client-facing Help Center in Zoho Desk with comprehensive accessibility features, similar to those already available on the agent interface. 🎯 Current

        • Filtering repport for portal users

          Salut, I have a weird problem that I just cannot figure out : When I enter information as administrator on behalf of a "supplier" portal user (in his "inventory" in a shared inventory system), I can see it, "customer" portal users can see it, but the

        • How to add application logo

          I'm creating an application which i do not want it to show my organization logo so i have changed the setting but i cannot find where to upload/select the logo i wish to use for my application. I have seen something online about using Deluge and writing

        • Zoho Projects - Q2 Updates | 2025

          Hello Users, With this year's second quarter behind us, Zoho Projects is marching towards expanding its usability with a user-centered, more collaborative, customizable, and automated attribute. But before we chart out plans for what’s next, it’s worth

        • Rename Record Summary PDF in SendMail task

          So I've been tasked with renaming a record summary PDF to be sent as part of a sendmail task. Normally I would offer the manual solution, a user exports the PDF and uploads it to a file upload field, however this is not acceptable to the client in this

        • Option to Empty Entire Mailbox or Folder in Zoho Mail

          Hello Zoho Mail Team, How are you? We would like to request an enhancement to Zoho Mail that would allow administrators and users to quickly clear out entire folders or mailboxes, including shared mailboxes. Current Limitation: At present, Zoho Mail only

        • Create new Account with contact

          Hi I can create a new Account and, as part of that process, add a primary contact (First name, last name) and Email. But THIS contact does NOT appear in Contacts. How can I make sure the Contact added when creating an Account is also listed as a Contact?

        • BUTTONS SHOWN AS AN ICON ON A REPORT

          Hi Is there any way to create an action button but show it as an icon on a report please? As per the attached example? So if the user clicks the icon, it triggers an action?

        • in zoho creator Sales Returns form has sub form Line Items return quantity when i upate the or enter any values in the sub form that want to reflect in the Sales Order form item deail sub form field Q

          in zoho creator Sales Returns form has sub form Line Items return quantity when i upate the or enter any values in the sub form that want to reflect in the Sales Order form item deail sub form field Quantity Returned\ pls check the recording fetch_salesorder

        • Estimates with options and sub-totals

          Hi It seems it would be great to be able to show multiple options in an estimate. For instance I have a core product to which I can add options, and maybe sub-options... It would be great to have subtotals and isolate the core from the not compulsory items. Thanks

        • Rate Limiting in Zoho Flow (OpenAI API)

          Hi Everyone, We are facing some issues when using Zoho Flow as we have a deluge script running which is making external calls to OpenAI endpoint. Sometimes the response takes more than 30 seconds meaning the script will timeout. We want to implement a

        • Optional Items Estimate

          How do you handle optional items within an estimate? In our case we have only options to choose with. (Like your software pricing, ...standard, professional, enterprise) How can we disable the total price? Working with Qty = 0 is unprofessional....

        • Important Update : Zendesk Sell announced End of Life

          Hello Zendesk users, Zendesk has officially announced that Zendesk Sell will reach its End of Life (EOL) on August 31, 2027 (Learn more). In line with this deprecation, Zoho Analytics will retire its native Zendesk Sell connector effective October 1,

        • Zoho Sheets

          Hi, I am trying to transition into Zoho sheets, I have attached the issues encountered. Server issues, file trying to upload for more than 30 mins, even once uploaded my data aren't loaded. Simple calculations are not working I have attached the sample.

        • Create static subforms in Zoho CRM: streamline data entry with pre-defined values

          Last modified on (9 July, 2025): This feature was available in early access and is currently being rolled out to customers in phases. Currently available for users in the the AU, CA, and SA DCs. It will be enabled for the remaining DCs in the next couple

        • Zoho CRM + Zoho FSM : alignez vos équipes commerciales et techniques

          La vente est finalisée, mais le parcours client ne fait que commencer ! Dans les entreprises orientées service, conclure une vente représente seulement la première étape. Ce qui suit — installation, réparation ou maintenance régulière — influence grandement

        • Top Bar Shifting issue still not fixed yet

          I mentioned in a previous ticket that on Android, the top bar shifts up when you view collections or when you're in the settings. That issue still hasn't been fixed yet. I don't wanna have to reinstall the app as I've noticed for some reason, reinstalling

        • Power of Automation:: Automate the process of updating project status based on a specific task status.

          Hello Everyone, Today, I am pleased to showcase the capabilities of a custom function that is available in our Gallery. To explore the custom functions within the Gallery, please follow the steps below. Click Setup in the top right corner > Developer

        • Celebrating Connections with Zoho Desk

          September 27 is a special day marking two great occasions: World Tourism Day and Google’s birthday. What do these two events have in common (besides the date)? It's something that Zoho Desk celebrates, too: making connections. The connect through tourism

        • Attention API Users: Upcoming Support for Renaming System Fields

          Hello all! We are excited to announce an upcoming enhancement in Zoho CRM: support for renaming system-defined fields! Current Behavior Currently, system-defined fields returned by the GET - Fields Metadata API have display_label and field_label properties

        • Billing Management: #3 Billing Unbilled Charges Periodically

          We had a smooth sail into Prorated Billing, a practice that ensures fairness when customers join, upgrade, or downgrade a service at any point during the billing cycle. But what happens when a customer requests additional limits or features during the

        • No bank feeds from First National Bank South Africa since 12 September

          I do not know how Zoho Books expects its customers to run a business like this. I have contacted Zoho books numerous times about this and the say it is solved - on email NO ONE ANSWERS THE SOUTH AFRICAN HELP LINE Come on Zoho Books, you cannot expect

        • Zoho CRM Calendar | Custom Buttons

          I'm working with my sales team to make our scheduling process easier for our team. We primary rely on Zoho CRM calendar to organize our events for our sales team. I was wondering if there is a way to add custom button in the Calendar view on events/meeting

        • Sync desktop folders instantly with WorkDrive TrueSync (Beta)

          Keeping your important files backed up and accessible has never been easier! With WorkDrive desktop app (TrueSync), you can now automatically sync specific desktop folders to WorkDrive Web, ensuring seamless, real-time updates across devices. Important:

        • Citation Problem

          I had an previous ticket (#116148702) on this subject. The basic problem is this; the "Fetch Details" feature works fine on the first attempt but fails on every subsequent attempt, Back in July after having submitted information electronically and was

        • Open Sans Font in Zoho Books is not Open Sans.

          Font choice in customising PDF Templates is very limited, we cannot upload custom fonts, and to make things worse, the font names are not accurate. I selected Open Sans, and thought the system was bugging, but no, Open Sans is not Open Sans. The real

        • Does Zoho Sheet Supports https://n8n.io ?

          Does Zoho Sheet Supports https://n8n.io ? If not, can we take this as an idea and deploy in future please? Thanks

        • Failing to generate Access and Refresh Token

          Hello.  I have two problems: First one when generating Access and Refresh Token I get this response:  As per the guide here : https://www.zoho.com/books/api/v3/#oauth (using server based application) I'm following all the steps. I have managed to get

        • Zeptomail 136.143.188.150 blocked by SpamCop

          Hi - it looks like this IP is being blocked, resulting in hard bounces unfortunately :( "Reason: uncategorized-bounceMessage: 5.7.1 Service unavailable; Client host [136.143.188.150] blocked using bl.spamcop.net; Blocked - see https://www.spamcop.net/bl.shtml?136.143.188.150

        • Apply transaction rules to multiple banks

          Is there any way to make transaction rules for one bank apply to other banks? It seems cumbersome to have to re-enter the same date for every account.

        • How to bulk update records with Data Enrichment by Zia

          Hi, I want to bulk update my records with Data Enrichment by Zia. How can I do this?

        • Need Guidance on SPF Flattening for Zoho Mail Configuration

          Hi everyone, I'm hoping to get some advice on optimizing my SPF record for a Zoho Mail setup. I use Zoho Mail along with several other Zoho services, and as a result, my current SPF record has grown to include multiple include mechanisms. My Cloudflare

        • Is there an equivalent to the radius search in RECRUIT available in the CRM

          We have a need to find all Leads and/or Contacts within a given radius of a given location (most likely postcode) but also possibly an address. I was wondering whether anyone has found a way to achieve this in the CRM much as the radius search in RECRUIT

        • Next Page