Outraged. Just referred a colleague to use her domain (not posting it publicly here) to Zoho, just as I have other colleagues, clients, friends. Expected the exact same free plan features as I have and as everyone else I ever referred got.
I was helping her set it up, and after creating and starting the migration following all the DNS MX SPF DKIM changes, went to enable IMAP in the Control Panel. I know from having used Zoho for 5 years that though IMAP access is always included, for some reason it is never defaulted to on, only POP.
To my surprise, I see that POP and IMAP are both disabled. No problem, I think. I go to enable each one and to my disgust and dismay, discover that "Available exclusively with paid plans" pops up instead. No POP, No IMAP, no SMTP, it turns out that Zoho Free is now only a crummy substandard webmail-only plan. Maybe webmail and your own app, but utterly locked out of any "real email programs". Not what I had, not what most of us had, not what anybody expected they were referring as a good thing.
NO PRIOR NOTICE. (Yes, that is yelling. I'm quite upset at your sneaking in this degradation of what you offered.)
Anyone of us Zoho Free users likely expects that when we refer someone new to Zoho to use the same service with which we have been very satisfied, she or he is going to get the same service.
There was no message there that IMAP and POP are no longer included (and obviously not SMTP either anymore.) Even on the signup plan choice, there's a positive note of "webmail access" but by any sensible expectation, the classic "reasonable person" (as the lawyers love to say in court) expects that means, "Oh that's lovely, they also have webmail, how convenient", not, "Oh no, it is ONLY webmail."
Please reverse this really bad policy. It is not going to help you get new paying customers, it is just going to block off the inflow of new customers overall. Your free service has sufficient limits, especially on overall storage space, that there are plenty of incentives for upgrading if people discover they really like Zoho and start using you a lot more, including docs and file space. Also, for significantly growing small but many-employees businesses.
Shutting off "normal email access" (POP, IMAP, SMTP are what is "normal" in the email world) just is going to anger and dismay existing customers enough that you won't get nearly as many referrals anymore. Plus we won't trust that you won't suddenly change the terms of the deal for existing users. I know that I will be warning all my existing referred users, who are at present quite happy with Zoho, to consider getting out from you before you take away what they have.
At minimum, you should have done very obvious notifications, not fine print in misleading ways, for many months, including a proactive message upon referral BY a free-with-IMAP user TO a new user that their referred colleague was going to get a lousy bad plan in comparison to what the referrer had.
And anybody who got referred without that should immediately get an upgrade, not to the full features of the paid plan, but to the features of the old free plan.
I feel both cheated by you, and that my professional credibility was damaged by you, due to this inadequately announced degradation of what I referred, thinking it was the "real Zoho" plan. I fully expect you to fix my latest referral's account to have those capabilities on her free plan. (Everybody else's too, I would hope, as there is a whole class of people who probably were damaged by your inadequately disclosed action.) And then to start making a better announcement in advance, a real announcement, really in advance, so that we existing users don't get fooled into referring someone to something that is no longer as good as what we thought it was.
Please do the right thing. Make it right for recent referrals, defer this change until you have given many months of really OBVIOUS notice. Then it's all fine, then people can make smart decisions about whether to refer you and to what kind of plan to use in the referral.
Recent Topics
Automation Series: Auto-update Phase Status
Hello Folks! You can auto-update your phase's status based on status of underlying tasks using custom functions. In this series, we will showcase how to create and run custom functions, using Deluge, with ease. Follow the steps below and automate your
how to add subform over sigma in the CRM
my new module don't have any subform available any way to add this from sigma or from the crm
Zoho Projects - Project Details on the Project Menu
Hi Project's team, I've helped may businesses setup and use Zoho Project and one thing I see time and time again is confusion on where to find the Project Details information. I would be much more intuitive if Project Details was on the menu before Dashboard.
Zoho Projects - Add Feed to Project Tabs
Hi Projects Team, I'm working on a lightweight communications requirement for one of my customers in relation to communicating with their client users via Zoho Projects. I noticed that the Feed is only available in the Collaboration section, but you can
Flow - Fetch info from drop down in another module
I am running into a road block which I thought would be a simple task. My goal - The account is assigned to a "route" which can be selected from a drop down menu and adds a tag to the account accordingly (easy enough). Now when I create a task for this
Show unsubscribed contacts ?
Hello, I would like to display the unsubscribed contacts. Unfortunately, I do not have this subscription type as described in the documentation (https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/marketing-automation-2-0/user-guide/contacts/contact-management/articles/subscription-type-24-1-2024#Subscription_Type_field.)
Zoho Developer Community Hackathon 2025 is LIVE!
Hey developers! It’s that time of the year again — the Zoho Developer Community Hackathon 2025 is officially open for registrations! If you’ve been waiting for a chance to stretch your skills, try something new, or finally bring that idea to life, this
Converted Leads Not Showing in Lead Reports
Converted leads are not showing in the Lead reports. How can I make converted leads visible in the report,
Text widgets in dashboards
Having a text widget in a dashboard would help immensely. It would allow adding links to related documents, relevant CRM views, etc. It would allow adding explanations of the data displayed in the other widgets, about how to interpret them or about filtering.
[Webinar] Zoho Writer for content creators and publishing houses
Managing multiple drafts, edits, and client reviews doesn't have to slow you down. Join our upcoming webinar to see how Zoho Writer helps content creators and publishing houses create, edit, and publish seamlessly—all in one place. You'll learn how to:
Adding Reports to Portals
Is there a way to add Reports to portals so only the user can see report templates relevant to them?
How to assign one Manual to multiple Spaces?
Hello, I have two spaces, one called tech knowledge and the other one called HR knowledge. I have a manual that is called HR tech. I want to assign this manual to HR knowledge and tech knowledge. How should I do that?
How can I assign courses to Spaces?
How can I make courses show up here in this space?:
When will Zoho Learn be able to support SCORM files on the mobile app?
When I click the SCORM content, I just get a message saying it's not possible yet. Yet implies that it will be coming soon. All I'm asking for is a realistic timeline so I know whether or not to invest my time in using it. If it will be soon, then I will
Announcing new features in Trident for Windows (v.1.35.6.0)
Hello Community! Trident for Windows just got better with an update that makes working with your emails even more efficient. Let’s dive into what’s new! Work with PST files more efficiently. You can now do more than just view mounted PST files. You can
Marketing Tip #9: Track your traffic sources
Not all marketing channels work equally well. Knowing whether your visitors come from Google, Instagram, or email helps you focus on what actually drives sales. Try this today: Check your Zoho Commerce reports or connect Zoho PageSense to see your top
Google Analytics import data inaccurate (as of October 11, 2025)
We have Zoho Analytics connected to GA4 to import daily event data. This has been running without issue for a couple of years. However, a month ago we started noticing discrepancies. All data until October 10 lines up perfectly - October 11 onward is
E-Invoicing in Belgium with Zoho Billing
Starting January 1, 2026, Belgium is introducing mandatory electronic invoices (e-invoicing) for all B2B transactions between VAT-registered businesses. Invoices and credits notes must be exchanged in a prescribed digital format. How E-Invoicing works
Zoho Recruit Slow and Freezing on all screens
We have had an issue with Zoho Recruit for weeks being extremely slow and at times freezing. We have 100 mega internet, and I went into each computer and updated the virtual memory so there is more available. Also restarted all computers daily. Still having the issues. Almost unable to work.
Prevent accidental duplicate entry of Customer Ordersome
Zoho Support has confirmed that Zoho currently does not have any method (using Deluge, flow or any other method) to alert a user when a sales order has been entered twice using the same customer reference number (i.e. a duplicate). Most ERP platforms
Zoho Books | Product updates | November 2025
Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From translating email notification templates to the new transaction locking restrictions, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. Making Tax Digital
Insert Image into Notebook page
Prior to today, I could add images to my notebook pages. Today when I tried to do this I got an error message that said something like, "There's been a problem on our end. Try again later." So, I've tried all the ways I know how, but I can't insert an
【開催報告】名古屋 ユーザー交流会 Vol.2 2025/11/21 Zoho Analytics / Inventory で実現する在庫の"未来予測"
ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの中野です。 11/21(金)に名古屋 ユーザー交流会 を開催しました。 本投稿では、当日実施したセッションの様子及び投影資料をお届けします。 会場にて参加できなかった皆さまも、ぜひご参照ください。 （Zoho 社員セッションの登壇資料については、11/28(金)開催の東京回の開催報告で共有いたします） 今年2回目の開催となる名古屋 ユーザー交流会では、株式会社エンツナクリエイト 野末さんによる Zoho Analytics / Inventory
Is there a way to automatically add Secondary Contacts (CCs) when creating a new ticket for specific customers?
Some of our customers want multiple contacts to receive all notifications from our support team. Is there a way to automatically add secondary contacts to a ticket when our support team opens a new ticket and associates it with an account? This would
Improved RingCentral Integration
We’d like to request an enhancement to the current RingCentral integration with Zoho. RingCentral now automatically generates call transcripts and AI-based call summaries (AI Notes) for each call, which are extremely helpful for support and sales teams.
Edit Pinned Comments in Zoho Desk
It's great that private comments can now be pinned to the top of the ticket but what would be extremely helpful would be to allow for the pinned comment to be edited vs. having to find the comment in the ticket to edit it.
Updating Secondary Contact (CCs)
We use Zoho Forms to capture the user request and integrated with Zoho Desk to raise tickets. Active Microsoft login is captured in our Zoho forms and registered as Primary contact in Zoho desk ticket. We also an have an option to raise ticket on behalf
blank page after login
blank page after logging into my email account Thanks you
WriterTh
After every space Writer goes to capital letters mode in my Android tablet. The cap mode stays till the second letter is typed in the word then it comes to normal mode.
Zoho writer unable to merge documents to PDF with basic fonts in Hebrew or fonts from my computer
I created several forms that will be merged into PDF files through Zoho Writer and I am unable to receive the PDF in the basic fonts of the Hebrew language or in the fonts I have on my computer. The writer exports to PDF an exchange font that looks very
I have already created some Bots, Commands, and Widgets in Cliq, but I am still not seeing the “Create Extension” option in my account. Could you please help me enable or access this option?
Cliq iOS can't see shared screen
Hello, I had this morning a video call with a colleague. She is using Cliq Desktop MacOS and wanted to share her screen with me. I'm on iPad. I noticed, while she shared her screen, I could only see her video, but not the shared screen... Does Cliq iOS is able to display shared screen, or is it somewhere else to be found ? Regards
Infinite loop of account verification
Hi I can't do anything on my zoho account. I always get this message Hi Sheriffo Ceesay As a security measure, you need to link your phone number with this account and verify it to proceed further. When ever I supply the details, it displays that the number is associated with another account. I don't have any other account on zoho so this is really annoying.
How we cut CRM updates from ~20 minutes down to 2, our real workflow
Updating the Zoho CRM after every call used to be one of the biggest time sucks for our team. By the time you write your notes, clean them up, fill in the fields, and log everything properly… you’ve easily lost 15–20 minutes per call. We started experimenting
Problem in Zoho POS frontend ERP.
We are facing some difficulties in our billing and inventory processes and require your support to resolve them at the earliest. Customer Advance Payments We receive advance payments from customers for upcoming sales. Please guide us on how to record
Arattai App Features Update
1. Offline Messaging & Sync Enable users to compose messages without internet and deliver them automatically via peer-to-peer methods (Bluetooth/WiFi Direct) when nearby users are available. This would be a game-changer for rural India with unreliable
Zoho Books Sandbox environment
Hello. Is there a free sandbox environment for the developers using Zoho Books API? I am working on the Zoho Books add-on and currently not ready to buy a premium service - maybe later when my add-on will start to bring money. Right now I just need a
How to add Product Add-Ons, Mandatory Forms, and Auto-Save Address in Zoho Commerce
Hi all, I need help setting up several behaviors in Zoho Commerce. I can’t find the correct configuration options, so I want to confirm whether these are supported or if there is a workaround. 1. Product-Specific Add-Ons (Example: GWB Subscription) When
Request for Auto PO - Min–Max based Automated Purchase Feature
Dear Zoho POS Team, I’m writing to request a feature enhancement that would significantly streamline inventory management for businesses using Zoho POS — particularly supermarkets, FMCG retail, and multi-store operations like ours. Feature Requested:
Zohomail
Im trying to setup email address zoho
Next Page