Zoho vs ClickUp

In the market for a new CRM? Zoho and ClickUp are two popular platforms. Both are crafted to optimize operations, boost customer interaction, and foster sales growth, yet they serve different business priorities. This article delves into their offerings, comparing essential features, pricing, and advantages, to guide you in selecting the CRM that best aligns with your business needs. Additionally, we'll introduce folk as a compelling alternative.

What is Zoho?

Zoho is a CRM system with a strong sales focus. It has journey orchestration, sales process management, and workflow automation features. There's also something for marketing teams, including event management and customer segmentation.

Key features of Zoho

• Sales automation: Automates sales tasks like lead management, deal tracking, and follow-up actions.
• Customizable dashboards and reports: Allows users to create and customize dashboards and reports for in-depth analytics.
• Multi-channel communication: Integrates with email, phone, social media, and live chat to manage customer interactions.
• Lead and contact management: Manages customer information, tracks interactions, and segments contacts for targeted campaigns.
• Workflow automation: Automates routine tasks and processes to improve efficiency and reduce manual effort.
• AI-powered sales assistant (Zia): Provides predictive analytics, task automation, and intelligent suggestions to enhance sales performance.

What is ClickUp?

ClickUp is a project management and productivity platform designed to help teams and individuals organize tasks, track progress, and collaborate in one workspace. Although it is primarily a project management tool, ClickUp includes some CRM elements.

Key features of ClickUp

• Task management: ClickUp allows users to create, assign, and track tasks with custom statuses, providing flexibility in managing work processes across different projects.
• Custom views: The platform offers multiple views like lists, boards, calendars, and Gantt charts, enabling users to visualize tasks and workflows in a format that suits their preferences.
• Goal tracking: Users can set, track, and manage goals within ClickUp, aligning tasks and projects with broader objectives.
• Time tracking: ClickUp includes a built-in time tracking feature to log time spent on tasks, allowing users to monitor productivity or billable hours.
• Workflow automation: Automation in ClickUp enables users to reduce manual tasks by setting up rules that trigger actions, such as status updates or notifications, based on predefined conditions.
• Custom fields: The platform allows users to add custom fields to tasks, enabling them to track specific data points or categorize tasks according to their needs.

Zoho vs. ClickUp: Feature Comparison

When evaluating CRM options, Zoho and ClickUp stand out with distinct features catering to different business needs. Let's delve into their capabilities in sales automation, email marketing tools, and contact management.

1. Sales pipeline management

Zoho CRM's pipeline management feature provides a visual overview of the sales process, allowing users to track deals at various stages and manage the flow of opportunities effectively. This structured approach helps sales teams prioritize tasks and close deals more efficiently. On the other hand, ClickUp does not have a dedicated pipeline management feature designed specifically for sales or CRM purposes. However, users can create customizable pipelines using task lists, boards, and custom statuses, offering a flexible yet less specialized approach to managing sales processes. While Zoho offers a more traditional CRM structure, ClickUp's adaptability might appeal to teams seeking a versatile project management tool with CRM capabilities.

2. Ease of use

Zoho CRM offers a user-friendly interface with customizable dashboards and drag-and-drop features, simplifying navigation and task management. ClickUp, while versatile, may require a steeper learning curve due to its extensive customization options and lack of traditional CRM features, which can be overwhelming for new users seeking straightforward CRM functionalities.

3. Contact enrichment

Zoho CRM's contact enrichment feature, powered by its AI assistant Zia, automatically updates and enriches records using data from various online sources. The feature can fill in missing details, such as email addresses, phone numbers, company information, and social media profiles. ClickUp does not have contact enrichment.

4. Outreach

Zoho CRM supports multichannel outreach, enabling businesses to connect with leads through email, social media, and other platforms. The platform automates workflows such as lead assignment and follow-up reminders, while AI-driven sentiment analysis helps prioritize customer responses for timely engagement. ClickUp lacks dedicated outreach features.

5. Automation

Zoho CRM provides comprehensive automation features that streamline tasks like sending emails, updating fields, and triggering alerts through workflow automation. It includes Blueprint for standardizing sales processes, Macros for automating repetitive tasks in bulk, and Zia AI for predictive automation. ClickUp's automation is more general-purpose.

6. Integration

Zoho integrates with a wide range of third-party applications to expand its functionality, including popular tools like Google Workspace and Microsoft Office. It also connects with accounting software such as QuickBooks, enhancing its utility for diverse business needs. ClickUp offers a wide range of integrations with popular third-party tools, allowing users to connect their workflows with applications such as Google Workspace, Slack, Zoom, Dropbox, and GitHub.

7. Artificial Intelligence

Zoho CRM integrates AI through its assistant, Zia, which enhances productivity by automating tasks like data entry, lead prediction, and workflow recommendations. Zia provides predictive analytics for sales forecasting and suggests the best times for customer engagement. ClickUp's AI is relatively new and focuses on task management and knowledge integration.

Price and plans comparison

Let's take a closer look at the price and plans of both Zoho and ClickUp.

Zoho prices

Zoho offers a free plan limited to three users suitable for small businesses. After that, an annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $14 per user, per month
• Professional: $23 per user, per month
• Enterprise: $40 per user, per month
• Ultimate: $52 per user, per month.

ClickUp prices

ClickUp offers a free forever plan for personal use. Premium options are available as either a monthly and annual subscription plan. The following is a high level overview of the annual subscription plans available.

• Unlimited: $7/user/month.
• Business: $12/user/month.
• Enterprise: Undisclosed.

Introducing folk CRM: the best alternative to Zoho and ClickUp

Looking for an affordable alternative? We recommend folk. A multiple award-winning CRM platform loved for its easy-to-use, plug-and-play CRM system.

Key features

• Ease of use and customization: Easily customize the pipelines, dashboards, automation, email sequences, so that you can use it across your sales cycle and pipeline management – and other business functions such as recruitment, marketing, and more.
• Social media integration: Import people and companies from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, and X within a click thanks to folk’s Google Chrome extension.
• Contact sync from Gmail and Outlook: Full email sync enabling users to manage all communications directly from the CRM.
• Find email addresses in a click: Contact enrichment powered by Apollo, and Dropcontact so you can fill in missing data points with 1-click.
• Email sequences: Send email sequences with reminders if your leads don’t reply to your first emails. It includes an AI integration allowing you to personalize email at scale.
• Notes and reminders: Attach notes directly to a contact's profile in folk, and access them on the go. And assign reminders so you know exactly when to follow-up.

Price and plans

folk has a 14-day free trial. After that, there are affordable monthly or annual subscription plans. The annual subscription plan is as follows.

• Standard: $20 per user, per month.
• Premium: $40 per user, per month.
• Custom: Starts from $80 per user, per month.

Zoho vs. ClickUp: What's the verdict?

It's clear that both Zoho and ClickUp offer robust CRM solutions tailored to different business needs. Zoho excels in sales automation and workflow customization, making it ideal for sales-focused teams. ClickUp, on the other hand, integrates task management with CRM functionalities, providing a versatile platform for project-driven teams. However, for companies that need a more personalized approach to relationship management, folk provides a flexible alternative to these traditional CRM options, blending ease of use with customization. Try folk today, free.