No more IMAP/POP/SMTP on free plans even on referrals with NO NOTICE

No more IMAP/POP/SMTP on free plans even on referrals with NO NOTICE

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. 

    • Sticky Posts

    • Workplace - Zoholics Europe Customer Awards

      Dear Zoho Mail Community! 📣 We're excited to announce that at this year's Zoholics events across Europe, we're holding customer awards for the first time ever! Workplace - Zoholics Europe Customer Awards This is your chance to shout about the amazing

    • Important update on Group Management | Zoho Mail

      Dear Zoho Mail Community, This post is to inform you all of the following updates on the Group Management in Zoho Mail. Group Member Addition: If a group member is added to an organization group in a Zoho Application, the member will be automatically

    • Zoho Mail POP & IMAP Server Details

      Hello all! We have been receiving a number of requests regarding the errors while configuring or using Zoho Mail account in POP/ IMAP clients. The server details vary based on your account type and the Datacenter in which your account is setup. Ensure

    • Mastering email etiquette and best practices to follow in Zoho Mail

      Hello Zoho Mail Community, We’re thrilled to invite you all to our upcoming webinar: Mastering email etiquette and best practices to follow in Zoho Mail. Join our live webinar for expert etiquette tips to enhance your professionalism and elevate your

    • 📣 📣 ZUG Meetups India - Explore Hybrid Workspaces using Zoho Workplace - Meet and Learn! 🧑🏽‍💻🧑🏽‍💻

      We are excited to announce the User Community initiative to meet you all in person and help you explore the need of the hour - Hybrid Workspaces using Zoho Workplace. We aim to help you to setup your Digital Workplace effectively so that your employees

    • Recent Topics

    • Unable to attach the file via the API.

      We are trying to attach files to a Candidate in Zoho Recruit using the API. We reviewed the following API documentation: 🔗 Upload Attachment While this API does allow file attachment via a URL, that’s not what we want — we do not want to attach public-facing

    • Side bar menu

      It would be great if you could stop the auto collapse of expanded menus when selecting a different module. It would save a lot of mouse clicks for a lot of users that frequently switch between sales & purchases as we do, it's easier to collapse them manually when not required !

    • Experience effortless record management in CRM For Everyone with the all-new Grid View!

      Hello Everyone, Hope you are well! As part of our ongoing series of feature announcements for Zoho CRM For Everyone, we’re excited to bring you another type of module view : Grid View. In addition to Kanban view, List view, Canvas view, Chart view and

    • Zoho Books Quote - Client cannot accept quote

      We are using the Zoho One plan and some of our clients have reported that they cannot accept the quote when we select their email at the bottom to send the quote to. When trying to accept, the quote prompts a message saying "You are not allowed to accept

    • Empowered Custom Views: Cross-Module Criteria Now Supported in Zoho CRM

      Hello everyone, We’re excited to introduce cross-module criteria support in custom views! Custom views provide personalized perspectives on your data and that you can save for future use. You can share these views with all users or specific individuals

    • Reckon Accounts Hosted to Zoho Finance

      Hi Everyone I want to transition from Reckon Accounts Hosted to Zoho Finance, as I have numerous other tasks in Zoho One, and it seems logical to make the move. (Reckon has a QuickBooks back end & is hosted on Assure now, think) I would really like to

    • Flex Your Creativity – A New component to Canvas in Zoho CRM

      Hello Everyone We’re excited to introduce Flex, a new component for Canvas in Zoho CRM! Flex is here to give you greater control over how your data is displayed in your layouts. This component enables responsive layouts that adapt across different screen

    • Is it possible to create a meeting in Zoho Crm which automatically creates a Google Meet link?

      We are using Google's own "Zoho CRM for Google" integration and also Zoho's "Google Apps Sync" tools, but none of them provide us with the ability to create a meeting in Zoho CRM that then adds a Google Meet link into the meeting. Is this something that

    • I can't found API for Sales Receipts

      Hello May you please help me to find an API document for Sales Receipts to get data and retrive a custom fields like Invoice and credit notes Regards

    • Zoho Creator : Updating Records via Import. Can't use Autonumber or ZohoRecordID ?

      Hi, I am trying to use the function to update a report with an import. I'm running in to the error : "unable to update because the form has no column with unique values" In the release notes it says Only field with unique values can be used to compare

    • Vendor Assignment issue for staff in User Roales

      there is a limitation in software that we can't assing Vendors to our staff - we can only assign Customers on staff wise!! There is a limitation of this software that in case i want to assign limited vendors to my staff - it's not possible. Either i will

    • Zoho Desk Community Portal Not Displaying Custom Styling Correctly

      Hi Zoho Community, I’m struggling to get a custom community portal in Zoho Desk to display my branding and styling correctly, and I’d love some help troubleshooting this for a client’s support portal. Details: Setup: Zoho Desk (Professional plan, latest

    • Remove or hide default views

      I'm looking to only have the views pertinent to my organization. Is there a way to show only my custom views (or separate them to a different area or something)? If not, this should be a feature as switching from Zendesk we had this option...

    • Function #46: Auto generate list of lapsed customers using Custom Button

      Hello everyone, and welcome back to our series! Customer retention is one of the key factors that impact the long-term success and sustainability of a business. High customer retention rates indicate satisfied customers, quality products or services,

    • Schedule Timeout 5 minutes vs. stated 15 minutes

      I am running into a function run timeout error after 5 minutes for my schedules. The Functions - Limits documents states it should be 15 minutes: Functions - Limits | Online Help - Zoho CRM. What should it actually be? Due to the 5 minute timeout, I'm

    • Zoho Analytics - Bill Table

      Hi I am new to Zoho and mainly work in Books. Recently learned of Zoho Analytics and am exploring it to create reports that would be useful for me. For example, I want to create a bills cash forecast by week for cash flow planning. When I start to create

    • Before Going To The Qc stage , site ready ness file upload mandtoty how to achive this in the blue print transition

      Before Going To The Qc stage , site ready ness file upload mandtoty how to achive this in the blue print transition Is it possible on click of the predelivery Transition show the alert message if site ready ness file upload empty also not move the stage

    • Disabling Smart Writing Assistant

      Hello, I've found this article when looking to disable the Zoho Smart Writing Assistant in our Zoho Desk environment. I appreciate that the article is for another Zoho solution, however, I was still unable to disable this feature! Could we please have

    • Announcing new features in Trident for Windows (v.1.28.5.0)

      Hello Community, Trident for Windows is here with exciting new features to help you stay productive and make collaboration simpler. Let’s dive into what’s new! Slash commands are now supported in the Cliq module. You can now use slash commands from the

    • 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

    • How can you train the Zia Bot for Desk

      I added the Zia bot to my portal, but it's rarely able to answer questions, even when I have dedicated articles for the question.  How can I best train it? Should I change the title of my articles, add more information inthe body copy?

    • Zoho Leave Policy > Portugal maternity Leave 120 days or 150 days

      Hello All In this Portugal maternity Leave policy, the government allow employee to apply 120 days they will have 100% paid salary if they apply 150 days they take 80% of the paid salary minimum 1 days and maximum 120 days or 150 days Should i setup this

    • Show all items making up the composite item in transactions

      Dear Zoho, Currently, when we select a composite item in Zoho Inventory for a transaction, we do not receive a breakdown of the individual items that make up the composite. This makes it challenging for our team to accurately pick, pack, and ship the

    • Override Auto Number field?

      We are preparing to migrate from Salesforce. In Salesforce, we auto-generate a unique number on our Opportunities (Potentials). If the Opportunity results in a contract, we use that unique number as the Contract number. There are some situations where

    • Convert time to string and remove second

      Hello everyone, I have a question that I can't figure out on my own. How to convert time into string (singleline) and remove second. Like HH:mm. If I convert it as below, the result becomes null. Thank you very much. input.Time.tostring("HH:mm") result:

    • Has anyone imported items and included the storage bin?

      We have a large amount of Inventory Items. We would like to import these into Zoho Inventory but while we can import the majority of data, the storage bin refuses to map. Has anyone successfully imported the data and mapped the bin?

    • Introducing Zoho Commerce 2.0 — It's more than just selling!

      Hello! We are proud to launch Zoho Commerce 2.0, a reimagination of how online businesses look, feel, and function. This launch is both timely and symbolic, as we reaffirm our commitment to empowering small and medium enterprises with powerful, yet simple-to-use

    • Backorder For Composite Items

      Hello If i released SO for composite item and use backorder feature of zoho inventory then it should backorder child item items of composite and not composite item.This is basic of backordering.I conveyed this to zoho call center but no solution yet.

    • Terms & Conditions add a rule.

      Hi I'd like to format my T&C's to auto format a Deposit amount based on the Total. "Quotation is valid for 7 days from the date of issue. A 75% deposit ( R .00 )is required to confirm the booking. The remaining balance ( R .00)is due upon project completion.

    • How can I create a button in a widget that pops up a form created in ZOHO Creator when clicked?

      I know that using HTML snippets, clicking the button can pop up the form. However, the same code does not work in the widget. <button><a href="#Form:form2?zc_LoadIn=dialog">Add</a></button>

    • "SPF record exceed the allowed limit of 10"

      Hi, I was wondering if there were a "universal Zoho SPF record" that would allow all my configured Zoho services that email things to meet this limitation ? or do I have to have an entry for mail, com, billing, etc?

    • Zoho Inventory Feature Roadmap Visible To All

      Hello, please consider making your feature roadmap visible to us users so that we know what to expect in future. This may appease current users who are seeking clarification on feature implementation dates, so that they can make an informed decision whether

    • send file to ftp or another external service

      i'v created a zoho creator application for take a picture and rename it by phone. Now i need to send Each renamed pictures to my ftp or to specific folder on google drive...then, delete it from creator. (every picture recived it will processed by another program and stored on my Erp) HOW CAN I DO ??

    • Customer address in Zoho Bookings

      Hello,  Is it possible to add customer address information to the Zoho bookings appointment screen? Or have it pull that information automatically from the CRM? We are wanting to use this as a field management software but it is difficult to pull the address from multiple sources when it would be ideal to have a clickable address on the appointment screen that opens up the user's maps.  It would also be advantageous for the "list view" to show appointment times instead of just duration and booking

    • Allow Changing Appointment Status from "Completed" to "No Show" or Other Valid States

      Hi Zoho Bookings Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to submit a feature request regarding appointment status management in Zoho Bookings. 🎯 Use Case Sometimes, an appointment is mistakenly marked as Completed, but later we realize that the

    • Feature Request - Improved booking layouts, specifically for individual booking links

      I would like to see more layout options and specifically to have the meeting description beside the calendar booking function, when sharing booking links to specific consultations/meetings. Below is a screenshot from Calendly. I love this layout and it

    • Set Conditional and Dependent Rules for Issues in Zoho Projects

      An Issue Layout is a customizable form to add and update information about a specific issue. The fields in the issue layout can be changed dynamically based on user requirement using the issue layout rules. Consider a scenario where an electrical fluctuation

    • Accounting on the Go Series-56: e-Way Bill Module in the Mobile App – A Handy Solution for Indian Businesses

      Hello everyone, Managing e-Way bills just got more convenient with the Zoho Books mobile app! For businesses operating under the GST regime, e-Way bills are essential for tracking the movement of goods. Previously, you had to log in to the web app to

    • Currency transition

      We are using Zoho CRM in Curacao, Dutch Caribbean. Our currency is currently the ANG. Curacao will be transition ing from using the ANG (Antillean Guilder) to using the XCG currency (Caribbean Guilder) on March 31st 2025, see: https://www.mcb-bank.com/caribbean-guilder.

    • Copying records from a Custom Module into Deals

      Hello, I recently created a custom module to handle a particular type of order/transaction in our business. Having got this up and running I've realised that it would be much better to use the Deals module with a different layout instead. We've entered

    • Next Page