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Salesforce Essentials vs Zoho CRM comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.0
Salesforce Essentials offers good ROI with easy implementation, accelerating sales and benefits realized in about three years.
Sentiment score
5.0
Zoho CRM boosts ROI by improving sales productivity and reducing costs through automation without increasing staff headcount.
The ROI was always in a positive direction.
Growth Adviser at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Using Zoho CRM, my clients close more leads and deals with the campaigns and user investments in leads.
Lead Software Engineer at Nexo Solutions Ltd
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.3
Salesforce Essentials offers responsive service with minimal issues; users praise its reliability and effective customer support.
Sentiment score
6.5
Zoho CRM's support is knowledgeable but has varying response times, occasional availability issues, and relies on self-help resources.
Their service and uptime is phenomenal.
Head of Commercial Excellence at Sartorius AG
Salesforce Essentials has excellent customer service.
Senior Learning Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
I would evaluate their support and customer service with Salesforce Essentials as pretty decent, diligent, and to the point.
Growth Adviser at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Sometimes, they don't understand what my actual needs are.
Director of Information Technology at MASFinancials
The 1.5 deduction from 10 is due to cultural communication differences based on where we're getting the support, as sometimes it takes a couple of times to communicate clearly enough for them to understand the issue.
Director at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
There are multiple blogs and articles available online for self-help.
Sr Zoho Developer and Consultant at Xpert Prime
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
6.9
Salesforce Essentials is highly scalable, supporting diverse teams from small to large, and is praised for easy user addition.
Sentiment score
7.7
Zoho CRM provides scalable solutions for businesses, smoothly supporting user growth and integrations across various operational needs and geographies.
It is one of the most scalable systems available.
Head of Commercial Excellence at Sartorius AG
The system is easy to understand, implement coding, and conduct training.
Sr Zoho Developer and Consultant at Xpert Prime
Zoho CRM is quite scalable; I have worked with clients who started with ten companies and have scaled up to managing 500 employees effectively within Zoho CRM.
Zoho Developer at Tarini Consulting
The platform's global data centers across regions such as the US, EU, and India ensure data security and privacy through ISO certification and strong role-based security, which is essential for handling sensitive customer data.
Software Engineer at Maximus
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Salesforce Essentials is highly stable and available, with few bugs or downtimes, though occasional automation delays occur.
Sentiment score
7.7
Zoho CRM is praised for its stability and reliability, with minor interruptions that quickly resolve, ensuring business continuity.
Salesforce Essentials has proven stable, with no downtime that affects my work.
Senior Learning Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Zoho CRM guarantees 99% uptime, with downtime incidents being very rare.
Software Engineer at Maximus
The level of stability and reliability in Zoho CRM is crucial for me because sometimes bugs appear unexpectedly, disrupting the business flow.
Lead Software Engineer at Nexo Solutions Ltd
I find Zoho CRM to be 100% stable and reliable as far as I know.
Zoho Developer at Tarini Consulting
 

Room For Improvement

Salesforce Essentials struggles with integration, UI, and pricing, needing improvements in analytics, mobile interface, and automation features.
Zoho CRM users want improved UI, integration, AI, customization, mobile ease, transparency, and quicker support for better user experience.
Instead of requiring users to think about system navigation and clicking procedures, they can simply follow a workflow that guides them through the process.
Head of Commercial Excellence at Sartorius AG
There are other competitors, like Zoho CRM, that offer similar features at a lower cost.
Senior Learning Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Salesforce Essentials operates in a table format where the entire user interface is based on tables, more specifically pivot tables.
Growth Adviser at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
The platform does not save code versions similar to GitHub, where you can compare new versions with previous ones.
Sr Zoho Developer and Consultant at Xpert Prime
Another issue is that a Zoho CRM function can run for only three minutes. After three minutes, the function will fail, and we have to rerun the function.
Software Engineer at Evoluz Global Solutions
Some organizations may prefer not to have their data on the internet since Zoho CRM runs as a cloud service.
Director of Information Technology at MASFinancials
 

Setup Cost

Salesforce Essentials licensing is costly but valued for flexibility and add-ons, with some finding additional professional expenses burdensome.
Zoho CRM offers affordable pricing and customization, with the Enterprise plan at $50/user and Zoho One favored for value.
The cost of running Salesforce Essentials is significant.
Head of Commercial Excellence at Sartorius AG
The costs associated with Salesforce Essentials are substantial, which is a drawback compared to competitors who offer similar services for less.
Senior Learning Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Zoho CRM and all of Zoho's software are quite affordable because they are specifically designed for small and medium businesses.
Zoho Developer at Tarini Consulting
In terms of my experience with the price and licensing cost, as with setup cost for Zoho CRM, it might not be quite affordable because there are cheaper solutions available.
Social media strategist at Creative Skills
 

Valuable Features

Salesforce Essentials offers robust features and user-friendly design but may be costly for some businesses.
Zoho CRM offers customizable, integrated, user-friendly features with automation, making it ideal for businesses of all sizes.
Their reporting and analytics features have a very significant impact on my company's operational efficiency.
Growth Adviser at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Salesforce Essentials is excellent because it is one of the most flexible CRMs available.
Senior Learning Solutions Architect at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
It is very customizable to specific needs.
Head of Commercial Excellence at Sartorius AG
The most valuable aspect of CRMs, including Zoho CRM, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics, is automation capabilities.
Sr Zoho Developer and Consultant at Xpert Prime
The most valuable feature I have found in Zoho CRM is custom functions. You can achieve anything with it. From integrations with other applications, it is instant.
Zoho and Web Developer at Ika Three Sixty
Zoho CRM's automation capabilities are really good and better than almost any other application.
Lead Software Engineer at Nexo Solutions Ltd
 

Categories and Ranking

Salesforce Essentials
Ranking in CRM
24th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
14
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Zoho CRM
Ranking in CRM
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
61
Ranking in other categories
Opportunity Management (3rd), Sales Force Automation (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Salesforce Essentials is 0.6%, down from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho CRM is 2.1%, up from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Zoho CRM2.1%
Salesforce Essentials0.6%
Other97.3%
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

SB
Growth Adviser at a consultancy with 11-50 employees
Creates efficient integrations and boosts operational efficiency through comprehensive dashboards
I have experience with products such as Acronis and Huntress, though Salesforce Essentials serves a different purpose. I have had experience with Huntress for the last few months as we are an MSSP and offer Huntress to our clients. I have used Odoo and HubSpot recently, though not extensively. The main differences between Salesforce Essentials and HubSpot or Odoo is the market presence. It is comparable to the Windows versus Linux situation because both have a huge presence. They have deeper pockets so they can spend money on collecting insights and developing features. Integration and good partnerships with major companies make Salesforce Essentials better than the others.
HarshVardhan1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at Evoluz Global Solutions
Automates client workflows and data validation reliably but has faced limits in complex integrations
While applying some integrations or automations, if we need to take an action between two modules' fields, we have to write SOQL, and it can miss the data. I had a scenario where I had to use two fields from two different modules, and based on that condition, we had to send a follow-up to our team member to complete the task. We could not find any direct integration, direct SOQL query, or direct workflow that could do that work. However, I think the wizard is performing better now for such tasks. I had a two-part scenario where I had to get data from two modules or two fields in Zoho CRM and send a follow-up to our team member based on that data. We were unable to find any direct integration for this. Another issue is that a Zoho CRM function can run for only three minutes. After three minutes, the function will fail, and we have to rerun the function.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
23%
Comms Service Provider
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
13%
Construction Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
11%
Manufacturing Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business5
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise7
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business49
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Salesforce Essentials?
Salesforce Essentials is very expensive, but it delivers exceptional value. It is a good platform to have if you can afford it because it has numerous add-ons and modules. Anything that Salesforce ...
What needs improvement with Salesforce Essentials?
The mobile access can be improved in several ways. Salesforce Essentials operates in a table format where the entire user interface is based on tables, more specifically pivot tables. This is not v...
What is your primary use case for Salesforce Essentials?
I have experience with Salesforce Essentials' Tableau and Salesforce Marketing Cloud, but not extensively. I was more focused on their CRM platform, specifically the core CRM and sales basics. My e...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zoho CRM?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that those details were taken care of by our operations team, and I am not sure about the specifics.
What needs improvement with Zoho CRM?
I think Zoho CRM can be improved because everything is good, but the UI can be improved. That is the main area where improvements are needed.
What is your primary use case for Zoho CRM?
My main use case for Zoho CRM is to maintain our prospects database, track our email interactions, and manage our entire sales operations. A quick specific example of how I use Zoho CRM in my daily...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Information Not Available
JetHub, Anderson Sales Advantage, ActionCoach, Milagro Advisory Group, TECO Pneumatic, Proteomics Consult
Find out what your peers are saying about Salesforce Essentials vs. Zoho CRM and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
913,683 professionals have used our research since 2012.