• Home

  • Productivity

  • App tips

App tips

7 min read

What is Zoho? And why does it have a zillion apps? 

Zoho offers dozens of apps on its unified platform, at a relatively low cost.

By Juliet John · December 21, 2023
A hero image with the Zoho logo

Investing in a unified platform—where all your software applications are connected via a shared system—can simplify data management, prevent silos, streamline communication, and reduce operating costs.

Google and Microsoft are the big names when it comes to unified platforms, but there's another player in the game: Zoho. Zoho has approximately one zillion apps that cover you across your organization, and here, I'll walk you through everything on offer.  

What is Zoho?

The Zoho homepage

Zoho is a cloud-based software suite like Microsoft Office or Google Workspace. It offers business and productivity tools that run the gamut from sales and marketing to finance and legal to IT and analytics. With more than 70 apps on offer, Zoho has been likened to a Swiss army knife due to its wide range of uses. 

While some people dock it for its less-than-modern look, it has something for everyone—and that alone is enough of a reason to consider it.

Is Zoho free?

There is a free forever edition of Zoho CRM for up to three users, and many other Zoho apps offer fully free versions too. But even on its paid plans, Zoho is an affordable alternative among its competitors, making it a great option for small and medium-sized businesses. Its most popular product, Zoho CRM Plus, costs $20/user/month.

Zoho CRM Plus, Zoho's flagship product
Zoho CRM Plus, Zoho's flagship product

Each app in Zoho's suite is priced separately, but you can get many of its apps in pre-packaged and discounted bundles that include tools relevant to a specific role or department. 

  • CRM Plus: $69/user/month

  • Finance Plus: $249/organization/month

  • People Plus: $10/user/month 

  • Workplace: $4/user/month

  • Marketing Plus: $30/month for 1 user (additional users cost $12/user/month)

  • IT management: Prices differ based on infrastructure and users

Zoho Mail, part of the Zoho Workplace bundle
Zoho Mail, part of the Zoho Workspace bundle

There's also an option to get all of Zoho's most popular bundles together in one package, called Zoho One, for $45/user (more on that in a bit). 

What are Zoho's apps? 

Zoho Invoice, our pick for the best free invoicing software with a mini-CRM

I had a chance to chat with the Zoho team, and they told me the company funnels 50-60% of its revenue into research and development. That's how Zoho can introduce up to three new products every year to complement existing apps.

The list of Zoho apps is so extensive, it might be quicker for me to tell you which tools Zoho doesn't offer. (Personal emoji generator?) To be totally honest, it's possible I missed one because there are so many, but here's a rundown of Zoho's current offerings, as of this writing.

Category

Description

CRM

Sales

Manage your sales process and client communications, including leads, contacts, accounts, and deals.

Bigin

Sales

A simplified CRM for small businesses, covering basic CRM functionalities, like task automation and email notifications.

Bookings

Sales

An online scheduler app to create calendars for client appointments, with sync features for other calendars like Google and Microsoft Outlook.

SalesIQ

Sales

An app to add chat functionality to websites, track visitor information, and create chatbots for visitor engagement.

RoutelQ

Sales 

A mapping solution to help you enhance your CRM by visualizing leads, deals, contacts, and accounts, so you can plan your sales route.

Thrive

Sales

A platform to build and run affiliate/loyalty programs.

Voice

Sales

A business phone system to help customer-facing teams communicate and engage with customers.

Marketing Automation

Marketing

A platform to manage marketing activities across multiple channels like websites, social media, and email marketing campaigns.

Campaigns

Marketing

An app for creating and managing email marketing campaigns and segmenting contacts for targeted emails.

Social

Marketing

Manage all social media activities in one place, including scheduling, monitoring, and analyzing the performance of posts.

Forms

Marketing

A form builder app to create and share forms for data collection, with advanced features like workflow automation.

Survey

Marketing

Create and send surveys to collect and analyze feedback from contacts.

Sites

Marketing

An easy-to-use website builder with integration features for Google Analytics, social media platforms, and other Zoho apps.

PageSense

Marketing

An optimization platform to track user behavior on websites, conduct A/B testing, and optimize websites for better conversion.

Backstage

Marketing

An event management app to plan, run, and analyze in-person, virtual, and hybrid events.

Commerce

Marketing

An eCommerce platform to create online stores, sell products, and manage your business, with integrations for other Zoho apps like CRM and Campaigns.

Webinar

Marketing

Powerful webinar software for hosting interactive, large-scale conferences with tools for analytics and lead generation.

LandingPage

Marketing 

Software to help you create, monitor, and analyze high-converting landing pages for marketing campaigns.

Sign 

Marketing

A secure digital signature solution for signing and tracking documents.

Desk

Service

Empower your agents to deliver delightful customer experiences, stay organized, and become productive with advanced tools and AI assistance.

Assist

Service

A remote support solution for enterprise businesses that need remote access to deliver customer support experiences.

Lens

Service

Provide interactive remote assistance with augmented reality, focused on supporting equipment issues.

Field Service Management (FSM)

Service

Software to manage and streamline operations for field service businesses.

Books

Finance

A robust accounting software to manage your entire financial operations, stay compliant, and grow your project.

Invoice

Finance

A free invoicing tool to help small businesses collect payments.

Expense

Finance

An expense tool within Zoho Books to automate, streamline, and control business expenditures.

Inventory

Finance

Inventory management software to streamline data capturing, order fulfillment, tracking, and reporting.

Billing

Finance

Software to help subscription businesses manage subscriptions, collect revenue, and recover failed payments.

Checkout

Finance

Create branded payment pages and securely collect credit card payments.

Contracts

Legal

Comprehensive contract lifecycle management software to improve your legal operations and stay agile. 

Workerly

HR

An end-to-end solution for temporary staffing agencies.

BackToWork

HR

Workplace readiness software that enables organizations to care for employees and ensure their wellness.

Shifts

HR

An app for employee scheduling and time tracking to enable you to oversee employee activity.

People

HR

Simplified HR solution to manage your workforce, access employee data, and make your people happy.

Recruit

HR

Find, evaluate, and hire the right people for every position with powerful applicant tracking software and a CRM combination.

Mail

Email & collaboration

Set up and manage company email, calendar, and contacts, with integrations for several Zoho apps.

Meeting

Email & collaboration

Easy-to-use web conferencing platform for online meetings. 

Writer

Email & collaboration

Powerful word processor to create documents, write, and collaborate with others.

Sheet

Email & collaboration

Create spreadsheets, and organize, visualize, and share data in real time.

Show 

Email & collaboration

A free presentation app for designing, sharing, and delivering outstanding presentations.

Notebook

Email & collaboration

A note-taking app that syncs to the cloud and across all your devices.

Cliq

Email & collaboration

A chat app for teams to share messages, files, and audio/video calls, with integrations for other Zoho apps like CRM or Projects.

Connect

Email & collaboration

A private social network for companies to share information, create groups and forums, and organize company events.

TeamInbox

Email & collaboration

A shared inbox to centralize all business communications and collaborate.

WorkDrive

Email & collaboration

An online file management app for teams to collaborate, manage, and track files.

Office Suite

Email & collaboration

A robust suite of business and productivity tools that enhance collaborative work and play well with Microsoft, Google, WordPress, and more.

Office Integrator

Email & collaboration

Cloud-based solution to enable you integrate document editors into your own app.

ZeptoMail

Email & collaboration

A quick and secure transactional email delivery service.

Calendar

Email & collaboration

Online calendar app to schedule appointments, manage events, and collaborate with teammates.

Learn

Email & collaboration 

Software to help you build training programs and knowledge bases for employees and customers.

ToDo

Email & collaboration 

A simple task management tool to organize, delegate, and track tasks among employees

Campfire

Email & collaboration

A platform for creators to connect, engage, and build online communities. 

Analytics

BI & analytics

Data analytics software to analyze, uncover hidden insights, create data visualizations and reports.

Embedded BI

BI & analytics

Business intelligence software to enable businesses to integrate advanced analytics and reporting into their own apps.

DataPrep

BI & analytics

Software to help users prepare data for further analysis or visualization in BI tools.

ResearchStudio

BI & analytics

A platform to enable researchers to run collaborative, qualitative research.

Creator

Security and IT management

A low-code app development platform for building custom web and mobile apps. 

Directory

Security and IT management

Access management software for organizations to authenticate and manage user access across applications and services.

Vault

Security and IT management

Password management solution to securely store, manage, and share sensitive credentials.

Catalyst

Security and IT management

Serverless computing platform for developers to build, test, deploy, and scale applications in the cloud.

ToolKit

Security and IT management

Free tool for admin-related lookups like domain checks, registry, email, and more.

Site24x7

Security and IT management

Comprehensive monitoring tool for websites, servers, networks, applications, and end-users.

ServiceDesk Plus

Security and IT management

An IT service management tool to help businesses manage their IT support operations.

MDM

Security and IT management

A mobile device management app to enable businesses to manage and secure the organization's devices.

Patch Manager Plus

Security and IT management

A patch management tool to enable businesses to automate the management and deployment of software patches across their network.

Identity Management

Security and IT management

Manage user identities, access controls, and authentication across various applications and services within an organization.

Log360 Cloud

Security and IT management

Collect, store, and manage logs in the cloud, stay compliant, and detect threats.

Projects

Project management 

A project management app to plan projects, track work, and collaborate.

Sprints

Project management 

A project management tool focusing on the Agile methodology and primarily used for software development.

Bug Tracker

Project management 

An effective system for tracking and resolving bugs, so you can deliver excellent software on schedule.

Flow 

Developer platforms 

A workflow automation tool to enable you to connect your apps and automate data transfer.

Qntrl

Developer platforms 

All-in-one workflow orchestration software to visualize, control, and automate business processes.

Apptics

Developer platforms 

A mobile app analytics solution for real-time insights into user behavior, engagement, and app usage.

The best part is that many of these apps natively connect to the others. This seamless unification helps automate processes, eliminate redundancy, and improve collaboration.

What is Zoho One?

Zoho Desk, part of the Zoho One package
Zoho Desk, part of the Zoho One package

At the heart of Zoho's ecosystem is Zoho One, the all-in-one package that gives you access to the enterprise level of Zoho's most popular apps. With a single subscription, you can access more than 45 apps to run marketing, sales, finance, HR, and operations. 

Of course, you don't get everything with Zoho One—for example, Zoho One doesn't include the Ultimate Edition of the CRM or ServiceDesk Plus, Site24x7, or MDM. So if picking and choosing your apps is important, you can get them on an à la carte basis or with one of the bundles I mentioned earlier. 

Connect Zoho to other apps with Zapier

While Zoho is a unified business platform, it's likely you'll find yourself using other niche apps as well. If that's the case, you can connect most Zoho tools to other apps in your business using Zapier. With Zoho's Zapier integrations, you can automate your workflows, so you can focus more on the mission of your business.

Here are a few workflows you can set up to connect Zoho to other apps you use, or you can build your own automation with no code.

Create contacts on Zoho CRM from new leads from Facebook Lead Ads

Create contacts on Zoho CRM from new leads from Facebook Lead Ads
  • Facebook Lead Ads logo
  • Zoho CRM logo
Facebook Lead Ads + Zoho CRM

Add new Zoho Forms submissions to Google Sheets as rows

Add new Zoho Forms submissions to Google Sheets as rows
  • Zoho Forms logo
  • Google Sheets logo
Zoho Forms + Google Sheets

Create Zoho Invoice estimates from new or updated Airtable records

Create Zoho Invoice estimates from new or updated Airtable records
  • Airtable logo
  • Zoho Invoice logo
Airtable + Zoho Invoice

Add/update contacts in Zoho Campaigns for new form submissions in Squarespace

Add/update contacts in Zoho Campaigns for new form submissions in Squarespace
  • Squarespace logo
  • Zoho Campaigns logo
Squarespace + Zoho Campaigns

Send a direct message on Slack about new Zoho Desk tickets

Send a direct message on Slack about new Zoho Desk tickets
  • Zoho Desk logo
  • Slack logo
Zoho Desk + Slack

Zapier is a no-code automation tool that lets you connect your apps into automated workflows, so that every person and every business can move forward at growth speed. Learn more about how it works.

Related reading:

  • Your guide to Zoho automation

  • How to automate Zoho CRM

  • How to automate Zoho Forms

  • The best free CRMs

Get productivity tips delivered straight to your inbox

We’ll email you 1-3 times per week—and never share your information.

tags

Related articles

Improve your productivity automatically. Use Zapier to get your apps working together.

Sign up
See how Zapier works
A Zap with the trigger 'When I get a new lead from Facebook,' and the action 'Notify my team in Slack'