Our Review Of Zoho CRM after 60 Days

Our Review Of Zoho CRM after 60 Days

The purpose of this is to just share with Zoho why I love their product, but ultimately why I could not choose Zoho CRM for our next CRM.

About two months ago we begun a CRM exploration process for our financial planning firm, based in Texas. We already use Zoho Creator and Zoho Analytics for some internal projects, so naturally Zoho CRM was a top consideration. I fell in love with the easy to user interface, and how easy it was customize everything. Creating workflows and automations could be done almost within minutes. I also really enjoy being able to use deluge for some things that unique and not "out of the box".  I was so ready to just go with Zoho. However, we quickly found big drawbacks from a strategic and technical standpoint.

What I really love about Zoho and Zoho CRM:
  1. Custom data objects
  2. Automations
  3. Customizable UI/UX
  4. UI is pretty easy to navigate.
  5. Built in email support
  6. I love the company's story and what they are doing for rural communities, even here in Texas.
  7. I love the idea of Zoho Schools -- What a great idea.
  8. We liked that tasks were separate from Meetings and Calls.
Why we didn't choose Zoho CRM
  1. Zoho needs to make itself known in the US. Zoho absolutely has the capability to be a true Salesforce rival, but I can hardly find anyone in our industry who is using Zoho. It's also difficult for other SaaS companies to build integrations with Zoho if they have never heard of Zoho or don't know the brand well enough. Zoho also needs more organic engagement on Reddit, Twitter, etc... the current engagement is virtually nothing for North American users.

  2. We are a professional services organization, and we meet with clients regarding their personal finances. It's critical we take good organized notes. Zoho CRM does not have any rich text notes capabilities, and this was practically a deal breaker for us. We absolutely have to have a way to take formatted notes. 

  3. The outlook integration is good, but left a lot to be desired. We couldn't add task from emails that weren't associated with a contact. The Zoho add-in interface didn't seem to be customizable either.

  4. The Zoho CRM + Outlook Calendar sync required the creation of a second Outlook Calendar and task list, causing users to duplicate events from the default Outlook Calendar to the Zoho Calendar manually. We actually have this issue with our current crm, so this is kind of also a big pain.

  5. Zoho CRM Activities Virtual Meeting Default can't be changed to Zoom.

  6. Meeting invitee suggesting a new time from their email client, did not reflect in Zoho CRM.

  7. Zoho just needs 1 calendar and 1 task engine. We found it too cumbersome for users to try and use Zoho CRM Calendar and Zoho Calendar together. 

  8. Zoho lacks a unified product vision. It seems that all the app teams operate independently, and while they are all called Zoho, they all work and look differently. 
    1. For example: Zoho CRM and Zoho One CRM menus look different.

  9. Zoho does not have product roadmaps. This was also a deal-breaker for us. As a company who might have relied on Zoho for our software infrastructure, without knowing what updates are coming, it's impossible to plan for them. Ultimately, this was the key indication that Zoho is not enterprise ready. Enterprises need to know what fixes and improvements are being developed ahead of time, and users need a say in those things.
  10. The software is buggy and some internal errors causing some concern about quality control.
    1. Always hit an internal error with Zoho CRM Command Center -- this was ultimately resolved but it took too long to coordinate a virtual meeting to discuss it and resolve. Could have been done much quicker.
    2. Uploading images to Zoho Campaign occasionally resulted in "Virus found in file" error, which was obviously wrong as we were not uploading viruses to Zoho.
I'm sure there were other things I could mention (good and bad), but this isn't meant to be a rant. I really love Zoho as a company, their employees have always been friendly, and ultimately I hope this is just used as productive feedback for other potential users and the developers. 

    • Recent Topics

    • Is this a SCAM email or is it really Zoho?

      L.S. I received the following message. Is this from Zoho? I have had a Zoho One account for many years and my website has been online for years. If it is a scam, I think you should know about it.

    • Is it possible to use HTML formatting in SMS messages sent from Zoho?

      Hi everyone, I have a question regarding sending SMS from Zoho When we send emails from Zoho, we can include HTML code to format the message (like adding links, styling, etc.). Is it possible to do something similar when sending SMS messages through Zoho

    • an issue in Zoho CRM where the workflow rule is not triggering

      H I’m currently facing an issue in Zoho CRM where the workflow rule is not triggering when a new lead is created through a webform. I’ve double-checked the criteria and field updates, everything seems fine but it still doesn’t fire. Has anyone faced this

    • Option in pipeline deal to select which hotel or branch or store if client has more than one local store

      Hi, I would like to know if there is an option in the deal pipeline to select which hotel, branch, or store a deal is related to—if the company has more than one location. For example, I have a client that owns several hotels under the same company, and

    • Email Insights included in Bigin emals are marked as SPAM everywhere

      Today I noticed that email recipients who use Office 365 never receive emails sent from Bigin. Further examination showed that all Email Insights links in email headers are marked as spam/phishing by Office 365. Example screen included. The problem is

    • Email Parser Not Extracting Fields Correctly with Certain Label Formats

      I’ve been testing the Email Parser functionality in Zoho CRM to automatically extract data from incoming emails and map it to CRM fields. During testing, I noticed that parsing sometimes fails when the email contains field labels formatted like this:

    • How do I import Connected Records for a Deal?

      Can you point me to an example of the CSV file that would add related records to an existing CRM Deal? I imported a Deal, then tried importing a connected record using a unique ID that references the Deal ID, but it doesn't attach it to the Deal rec

    • File Upload Field in Zoho Forms Not Updating Existing File in Zoho CRM

      Hi everyone, I’m trying to understand the behavior of a file upload field mapped from Zoho Forms to Zoho CRM. Scenario There is a File Upload field in a Zoho CRM module. A Zoho Form also has a File Upload field, which is mapped to that CRM field. When

    • Zoho Training

      Greetings! I am trainer. My focus area is Project Management and MS Project. I have used Zoho CRM to a good extent. Though, I was interested in using ZOHO projects, as there were no live projects, I could not take it up for studies. Recently a client

    • Detailed list of scoring rules in Zoho CRM

      Good morning Zoho community, warm greetings The reason for my message today is that I have a problem with my CRM, which I will explain below: Our organization has scoring rules designed to rate our potential customers or leads in the application based

    • How to create a summary document from Projects details

      Hi, Our team is creating many projects inside Zoho Project. When closing a project, they write a summary document containing data from the projects it-self (understand project budget, customers, etc...), and editable (ie the document is either a Writer

    • Request to Recover Deleted Task List – Project ID: RIV-MOD-10722

      Hi Zoho Team, I hope this message finds you well. My Zoho task list associated with Project ID: RIV-MOD-10722 appears to have been deleted. When I clicked on the task link from the email notification, I received the following message: "Task has been deleted

    • Host in US Data Centre

      I humble apply to be registered on US Data centre

    • convert the project to templet

      i have some deployment ME product for different customer , i need to create a fixed template for use it rather then keeping creating this template every time

    • Best practices for managing Project Charters, Business Case and RAID logs within Zoho?

      Hello everyone, I’m currently refining our PMO setup within Zoho Projects and I’m curious how others are handling high-level governance documentation. We’ve been using the standardized Project Charter, Business Case and RAID frameworks from projectmanagertemplate.com

    • Resource Management System built using Zoho CRM, Creator, Projects, and People:

      In a Resource Management System built using Zoho CRM, Creator, Projects, and People: CRM Deal Closed → Creator Allocation Engine → Zoho Projects Task Assignment What is the recommended architecture to handle dynamic reassignment when: an employee goes

    • Dynamic Remaining Quantity in Lookup During Allocation

      Hi everyone, From what I understand in Zoho Creator, lookup fields only display the stored value from the source record and do not dynamically update while a form is being filled. Because of this, showing a real-time updated remaining quantity inside

    • connect zoho creator with google drive

      Hello everyone, I need to connect to a folder drive. The idea, is that google drive loads a text document with some data, I must read that text document to be able to autofill a form that I have in zoho creator with that data. I also attach PDFs and place

    • Ability to Attach Record-Specific Files Automatically in Workflow Email Templates

      Currently in Zoho CRM, email templates allow attachments to be added, but these attachments are static and remain the same for every recipient. There is no straightforward option to automatically attach a file that is stored within the specific CRM record

    • Uploaded files are not included when using "Include user submitted data" in Email Notification

      In Send Email notification workflow in Zoho Creator, there is an option called "Include user submitted data" which allows the email to contain all the form submission details. However, when this option is enabled, files or images uploaded through File

    • kanban view for client portal

      Are kanban views an option for client portals? Access to Kanban views in the client portals would solve some mobile-compliant issues I have with the UI. Kanban functions very nicely on mobile and would be a super asset for my clients and vendors as they

    • Credit Card Pre-Authorization with later Capture/Settlement

      We really enjoy the convenience of being able to pay off a customer's invoice using our Auth.Net integration with Zoho Books. Unfortunately, we can only take advantage of this feature with a small percentage of our customers as it leaves a gaping hole

    • Zoho Cliq not working on airplanes

      Hi, My team and I have been having this constant issue of cliq not working when connected to an airplane's wifi. Is there a reason for this? We have tried on different Airlines and it doesn't work on any of them. We need assistance here since we are constantly

    • Zoho Sign 2025–2026: What's new and what's next

      Hello! Every year at Zoho Sign, we work hard to make document signing and agreement execution easy for all users. This year we sat down with our head of product, Mr. Subramanian Thayumanasamy, to discuss what we delivered in 2025 and our goals for 2026.

    • Work Orders / Bundle Requests

      Zoho Inventory needs a work order / bundle request system. This record would be analogous to a purchase order in the purchasing workflow or a sales order in the sales cycle. It would be non-journaling, but it would reserve the appropriate inventory of

    • Izettle or Sumup Integration for Zoho Books.

      The Stripe & Square clearing works great in Zoho Books. Any further integrations planned in the future for Izettle or Sumup? These card processors are very common for taking payments with a card reader.

    • Train Zoho Answer Bot Based on Customer

      Hi all, Is it currently possible to mark Help Centre articles to a specific customer, and restrict the answer bot to only use relevant information if it is either marked as "General", or tagged for the specific customer in question? We currently have

    • Trying to access records in a custom module in Zoho Desk and not having luck

      I've built a custom module in Zoho Desk and am using a custom function to query the records in the module and I'm not having any luck. The only way I have found to retreive a record is by getting it by its recordID (the long zoho assigned one). The function

    • Composite items inside of composite items; bill of materials needed

      Hi Zoho and Everyone, I am evaluating whether Zoho Inventory will work for my small business. I grow and harvest herbs and spices but also get from wholesalers. I use all these items to make herbal teas, but also sell them as individual items on my Shopify store and Etsy. I discovered the composite item bundling and am wondering if I could get some assistance since there is no bill of materials: Our herbal company's best selling tea is a sleepytime tea. Sleepytime Tea can be purchased in three weights

    • ZOHO Books Smart Accounting Software for Travel Agency

      Dear Travel partner, Contact for Travel Agency Accounting Setup & Training Vansh Travel (ZOHO Books Authorised partner) Email: info@vanshtravel.com Mo: +91 98984 95155 Please find PDF   

    • 452 Mailbox delivery restricted by policy error

      We have been testing Zoho desk for about a week now and have been forwarding emails in via an Exchange Online Mail flow rule without issue until yesterday. Suddenly yesterday morning we started getting the vast majority of the emails stuck in Pending

    • Send Email reply on behalf of Agent

      Hi, When using the send email reply via the API I can set the reply on behalf of the customer by using impersonatedUserId in the header of the API call. Is there a way to do this for Agents too? I need to be able to send an email reply on behalf of an

    • Sharing Tickets to a team within a department

      Hi there, We have a need for one department to be able to share tickets to a specific team within a department, I'm wondering if this is possible? All the shared tickets are going into the 'Shared Tickets' view for the whole department but is there a

    • Removing To or CC Addresses from Desk Ticket

      I was hoping i could find a way to remove unnecessary email addresses from tickets submitted via email. For example, a customer may email the support address AND others who are in the helpdesk notification group, in either the TO or CC address. This results

    • Do not use isnull()

      Does not always return booleans. Can also return null. Never use this function. Just use var==null instead.

    • Organization wide Account and Contacts Visibility/Sharing Capabilities?

      Has anyone figured out a way to make visibility or sharing of Accounts and Contacts to be available across the entire organization without having to have every individual user edit their Sharing permissions? For our sales folks they need to be able to

    • Is there a way to configure dark mode for Campaigns emails that go out to customers?

      I've found a lot of information on how to configure dark mode for my (The user) personal Zoho workspace and email, but is there any way to edit dark mode settings on emails that we send out to customers via campaigns?  We sent out a test email the other

    • When Does WorkDrive integrate with Books?

      When Does WorkDrive integrate with Books?

    • FSM integration with Books

      Hi, I have spent a few months working with FSM and have come across a critical gap in the functionality, which I find almost shocking....either that, or I am an idiot. The lack of bi-directional sync between Books and FSM on Sales Orders/ Work Orders

    • How to close an estimate ?

      Hello, I have created estimates, and converted them to invoices to get 50% payment. Now I have 2 cases where the estimate stills shows status partially invoiced, however: 1. for one of them, project stopped half way, so the remaining part will never be

    • Next Page