5 best alternatives to Zoho

When it comes to managing customer relationships, the right CRM can make all the difference. But what happens when your current platform no longer fits your needs? Whether it’s due to limited features, high costs, or compatibility issues, it might be time to explore other options. In this blog post, we'll explore the best CRM alternatives for businesses seeking a better alternative to Zoho. Zoho is a popular CRM, but with its sole focus on sales, it can be limiting to use. Let’s explore why you might consider switching and what alternatives you should consider.

Why look for alternatives to Zoho

While Zoho has its strengths, it may fall short in certain areas. Here are some reasons businesses search for alternatives to Zoho.

• Sales-foussed platform: Some businesses may require an all-in-one solution that can adapt to sales and marketing workflows, instead of being limited to one business function and having to invest in a separate platform. 
• Limited customization: Some businesses require more flexibility to tailor the CRM to their workflows.
• Scalability issues: Growing businesses might outpace the platform’s capabilities and may have to invest in multiple platforms for each business function.
• Integration gaps: The need for seamless connectivity with tools like email, analytics, or project management.

Key features to look for in a Zoho alternative

Before diving into the options, it’s essential to know what makes a great CRM. Here are the key features to prioritize when searching for the best CRM alternatives:

1. Customizability: Ensure the CRM can adapt to your unique processes.
2. Pricing flexibility: Look for solutions that cater to small teams and enterprises alike.
3. Integration capabilities: You shouldn’t need to pay an additional cost to integrate with third party tools.
4. Customer support: Reliable assistance can be a game-changer when onboarding or troubleshooting.
5. Flexibility: Does the CRM system only support sales? What about marketing, recruitment, and other areas of the business?

Top alternatives to Zoho

1. Pipedrive

Best for: Sales teams focused on deal tracking and pipeline management.

Pipedrive is a web-based CRM for small businesses, offering lead management, automation, email integration, and customizable pipelines to optimize sales.

Key features of Pipedrive

• Lead and deal management: Centralized tools to manage customer data, interactions, and sales pipelines, helping teams act quickly on opportunities.
• Sales automation: Workflow automation to handle repetitive tasks, such as lead routing, follow-ups, and email sequences, allowing sales teams to focus on closing deals.
• Email integration: Full email sync, templates, and tracking features, enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• Advanced reporting and analytics: Real-time data analytics and custom reporting tools to track sales performance, forecast revenue, and gain actionable insights.
• Customization and security: Options to customize pipelines, fields, and user permissions, with robust security measures to protect data.

Pipedrive’s price and plans

Pipedrive offers a few price plans for you to choose from depending on the features and automations you’re after. 

• Essential plan: Starts from $24 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $44 per user, per month.
• Professional plan: Starts from $64 per user, per month.
• Power plan: Starts from $79 per user, per month.
• Enterprise plan: Starts from $129 per user, per month.

2. Capsule CRM

Best for: Small teams seeking a straightforward CRM for contact and task management.

Capsule CRM is a user-friendly customer relationship management platform designed for small and medium-sized businesses. It offers a clean, intuitive interface that helps users manage customer relationships, track sales pipelines, and organize tasks and communications efficiently.

Key features of Capsule CRM

• Sales pipeline management: Capsule CRM allows users to track opportunities through a customizable sales pipeline, helping businesses monitor the progress of deals.
• Key integrations: Capsule integrates with tools like Google Workspace, Mailchimp, and Xero, allowing users to streamline workflows and manage data across platforms.
• Task management: Users can create and assign tasks related to deals or contacts, ensuring follow-ups and key actions are completed on time.
• Task reminders: Capsule provides task reminders to keep users on top of deadlines and important activities linked to customer relationships or sales opportunities.
• Workflow automation: The platform includes basic automation tools to handle repetitive tasks, such as sending follow-up emails or updating contact records, reducing manual workload.

Capsule CRM’s price and plans

Capsule's annual subscription plans are as follows.

• Starter plan: Starts from $18 per user, per month.
• Growth plan: Starts from $36 per user, per month.
• Advanced plan: Starts from $54 per user, per month.
• Ultimate plan: Starts from $72 per user, per month.

3. folk

Best for: Teams that need an all-in-one CRM that requires a short implementation time.

folk is a multi-award-winning CRM platform celebrated for its simple, plug-and-play setup. Highly versatile and customizable, folk supports teams across sales, marketing, recruitment, and more. Designed to grow with your business, it’s ideal for solopreneurs, small to mid-size teams, and even large enterprises

Key features

1. Contact management: Seamlessly centralize all your contacts from social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, and X, as well as multiple inboxes including Gmail and Outlook.
2. Notes and reminders: Attach notes directly to a contact's profile in Folk for easy access, and set reminders to ensure timely follow-ups.
3. Sales pipeline dashboard: Manage your entire sales cycle and leads using a customizable sales pipeline dashboard, available in both Kanban board and list views.
4. Ease of use and customization: Customize pipelines, dashboards, automations, and email sequences to suit your sales cycle, pipeline management, or other business functions like recruitment and marketing.
5. Social media integration: Import contacts and companies from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, and X with a single click using Folk’s Google Chrome extension.
6. Contact sync from Gmail and Outlook: Sync emails in full, allowing you to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
7. Contact enrichment: Automatically fill in missing contact details such as email addresses and social profiles using integrations with Apollo and Dropcontact.
8. Email sequences: Send personalized email sequences with follow-up reminders for leads who don’t respond. Includes AI integration to scale personalization efforts.

folk’s price and plans

folk offers a 14-day free trial, after which you can choose from affordable monthly or annual subscription plans. The annual pricing options are as follows:

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month.
• Custom: Starting at $80 per user, per month.

4. HubSpot

Best for: Businesses seeking an all-in-one platform for sales, marketing, and customer service.

HubSpot CRM is a user-friendly, scalable platform offering integrated tools for managing sales, marketing, customer service, and operations efficiently.

Key features of HubSpot

• Marketing hub: Includes email marketing, ad tracking, landing pages, and lead generation tools.
• Sales hub: Provides deal tracking, pipeline management, sales automation, and reporting.
• Service hub: Offers customer service tools like ticketing, live chat, and knowledge bases.
• Operations hub: Syncs and automates business processes across different systems.
• Lead scoring: Prioritize leads with predictive scoring to improve sales efficiency.

HubSpot’s price and plans

Once you're ready to upgrade from the free forever plan, HubSpot Sales hub pricing is as follows.

• Starter: $20 per user, per month.
• Professional: $100 per user, per month.
• Enterprise: $150 per user, per month.

5. Monday CRM

Best for: Managing sales pipelines, tasks, and workflows.

Monday CRM is a sales focussed customer relationship management platform built by the team behind Monday.com, designed to help sales teams manage contacts, sales pipelines, and workflows.

Key features

• Contact management: Provides a central place to store and organize contact details, track communications, and maintain records of interactions with clients and leads.
• Deal management: Allows users to track the progress of deals across stages, helping teams monitor the sales pipeline and update deal statuses as they progress.
• Task management: Users can create tasks related to deals or contacts, assign them to team members, and track their completion to ensure follow-up actions are taken.
• Lead tracking: Features tools for capturing and managing leads, assigning them to team members, and tracking their progress through different stages of the sales funnel.
• Pipeline customization: Enables users to customize their sales pipelines to align with specific business processes, allowing different stages and workflows based on deal progression.

Monday CRM’s price and plans

Monday CRM offers both a monthly and annual subscription plan. All their plans depend on the size of your team and starts with a 3 seat option.

• Basic: Starts from $12 per seat, per month.
• Standard: Starts from $17 per seat, per month.
• Pro: Starts from $28 per seat, per month.
• Enterprise: Undisclosed.

Conclusion

When exploring alternatives to Zoho, platforms like Pipedrive, Capsule CRM, HubSpot, Monday CRM, and folk offer unique solutions tailored to different needs. Pipedrive excels in pipeline management, Capsule CRM provides simplicity for small teams, HubSpot delivers a comprehensive all-in-one platform, and Monday CRM focuses on workflow flexibility. However, folk stands out as the ideal choice for teams seeking a user-friendly, customizable CRM that scales with your business. Its versatility and affordability make it a compelling alternative for businesses of all sizes. Try folk today, free. 

Frequently Asked Questions about Zoho alternatives

Why consider switching from Zoho to another CRM?

‍Zoho’s wide range of features can feel overwhelming for some teams, and its pricing may not suit all budgets. Folk offers a simpler, more affordable alternative with customizable workflows tailored to your needs.

What should I look for in a Zoho alternative?

‍Consider ease of use, scalability, and the ability to manage contacts, pipelines, and tasks effectively. Folk excels in these areas, offering a streamlined, intuitive solution for teams of all sizes.

Can a Zoho alternative handle multiple functions like recruitment and marketing?

‍Yes, folk is versatile enough to support multiple functions, including sales, recruitment, and marketing, with its highly customizable workflows and pipelines.

How does folk compare to Zoho in terms of pricing?

‍folk offers straightforward and affordable pricing plans starting at $20 per user, per month, making it a cost-effective alternative to Zoho.