Zoho CRM vs Salesforce: which one to choose for your team in 2025?
Zoho CRM vs. Salesforce: the duel of the B2B CRM titans continues to rattle sales managers!
On one side, Salesforce, the Californian behemoth, king of large companies, packed with features, automations and... complexity. On the other, Zoho CRM, a more agile, more affordable challenger that appeals to SMBs and sales teams looking for simplicity and efficiency.
So, which one is right for you in 2025? Spoiler: it depends. But we're here to help you decide, with real-life use cases, insightful comparison tables, and above all, a real-world analysis.
On the menu: features, pricing, handling, integrations and usage scenarios. In short, everything we'd like to have read before choosing our CRM.
What is Zoho CRM?
Zoho CRM overview
Zoho CRM is a kind of chameleon CRM: adaptable, economical, and designed to appeal to both agile SMEs and ambitious ETIs. Its promise? To provide a complete, customizable and accessible CRM, without requiring an army of consultants to set it up.
From customer tracking to sales automation to analytics, Zoho CRM ticks all the essential boxes, while remaining more intuitive (and less intimidating) than some of its historical competitors.
Customers include Amazon India, Ducati, Bose, Hotstar... as well as thousands of small and medium-sized businesses worldwide. Zoho CRM is particularly appreciated by :
- Sales teams who want to move fast (without drowning in technology),
- Managers who want to stay in control of their data,
- And organizations that want to scale without blowing their budget.
In short, Zoho CRM is for people who want to do more, without getting bogged down.
Key features of Zoho CRM
What we love about Zoho CRM is that it's a modular toolbox, capable of adapting to the realities of each company's business. You don't have to be a multinational to take advantage of its superpowers.
Here are the key features that make it indispensable:
- Visual sales pipeline management, with an easy-to-use kanban system.
- Automated sales tasks (emails, lead assignment, reminders) to save time on a daily basis.
- Intelligent lead scoring, based on customized rules or via Zia, our in-house AI.
- Advanced analysis and reporting tools, with dynamic dashboards and customizable reports.
- Integrated customer portal for B2B collaboration.
- Robust mobile applications, with sales force geolocation and offline access.
- Native integrations with the Zoho ecosystem (Books, Campaigns, Desk...) and third-party tools (Google Workspace, Slack, Zapier...).
Each brick can be activated or ignored according to your needs. It's a seamless, made-to-measure solution, designed for those who want to avoid gas factories.
Zoho CRM
Advantages and disadvantages of Zoho CRM
Zoho CRM plays the no-frills efficiency card, and we like it. Accessible, customizable and modular, it's an ideal ally for growing businesses. But like all good tools, it has its limits.
✅ Advantages
Before talking about its shortcomings, let's give Zoho its due. Here's what users appreciate most in the field:
- Value for money that's hard to beat: for a fraction of the price of Salesforce, Zoho CRM offers a robust suite that covers most business needs, even advanced ones.
- A clear, customizable interface, even for non-specialists: views, fields and automations are easily configured without the need for a developer.
- Valuable configuration flexibility: teams can adapt business processes without being constrained by a rigid architecture. Ideal for fast-moving SMEs.
- Powerful automation at the click of a button: emails, notifications, scoring, tasks... you can automate without coding, so you can focus your energy on selling, not on data entry.
- An ultra-connected Zoho ecosystem: by opting for Zoho CRM, you can connect natively to the other apps in the suite (Books, Campaigns, Desk...), making workflows more fluid.
- Customer support judged responsive and competent: particularly on paid packages, feedback is generally positive about support.
❌ Drawbacks
But all is not rosy, either. Here are the main limitations identified by users, particularly on Capterra and G2:
- A sometimes abrupt rise to competence, especially when you activate several modules right from the start. The interface is simple, but the Zoho ecosystem can quickly become dense.
- Advanced functionalities more limited than those of market leaders. For example, AI tools, complex forecasting and deep conditional automations fall short of Salesforce.
- A mobile version that can still be perfected, with some slowness reported on certain key actions (notably in offline zones).
- Less suited to very large companies, which need ultra-personalized, multi-entity or highly advanced inter-departmental processes.
What is Salesforce?
Salesforce overview
Salesforce is like the Marvel of CRM: sprawling, rich and powerful, but sometimes difficult to grasp without a guide. It's designed for large companies with complex needs, a solid infrastructure and XXL ambitions.
The world leader in CRM for over a decade, Salesforce offers much more than a simple sales tool. It's a complete customer management platform, integrating sales, marketing, customer service, analytics, AI, automation... and even business application development via Salesforce Platform.
Its customers? L'Oréal, Air France, Amazon Web Services, Allianz, Coca-Cola... In short, some very big names. But there are also small and medium-sized companies and scale-ups ready to invest in order to structure their large-scale growth.
Salesforce is particularly recommended for :
- Organizations with several sales teams, markets or regions to manage.
- Organizations requiring a high level of customization.
- Companies that want to centralize all their tools on a single platform.
Key Salesforce features
Salesforce isn't just a CRM, it's a galaxy unto itself. Ultra-modular, scalable and powered by artificial intelligence, it enables you to manage the entire customer cycle, from first contact to long-term loyalty.
Here's an overview of the key features that make Salesforce the benchmark for large organizations:
- Sales Cloud: complete management of leads, opportunities, accounts and contacts, with real-time tracking, sales forecasts and advanced scoring.
- Service Cloud: omnichannel customer support platform, with knowledge base, live chat, bots, and intelligent routing of requests.
- Marketing Cloud: creation of ultra-personalized multi-channel campaigns, marketing automation, behavioral tracking and predictive scoring.
- Einstein AI: artificial intelligence made in Salesforce, integrated into all bricks (recommendations, forecasts, automatic responses, etc.).
- Powerful dashboards and analytics, with the ability to create highly granular, customized reports.
- AppExchange: business application marketplace (free or paid), for adding functionality or connecting third-party tools.
- Salesforce Platform: low-code/no-code development environment for creating your own CRM-integrated business applications.
In other words, Salesforce is the enterprise-ready Swiss Army Knife of CRM: each brick can work on its own, but it's when you put them all together that their true power is unleashed.
Advantages and disadvantages of Salesforce
Salesforce impresses with its functional depth and its ability to adapt to almost any business context. But this level of ambition comes at a price - in time, budget and complexity.
✅ Advantages
Let's start with what makes it the favorite of key accounts and demanding sales departments:
- Unrivalled functional coverage: Salesforce manages the entire customer lifecycle - sales, service, marketing, loyalty - with a depth rarely matched.
- Extreme customization at every level: objects, workflows, rules, views, fields, automations... everything can be modified.
- Well-integrated native artificial intelligence (Einstein ), capable of proposing sales predictions, lead recommendations or intelligent automations.
- A gigantic application ecosystem with the AppExchange, enabling business modules, third-party integrations and extensions to be added without coding.
- Perfect scalability for large organizations: multi-team, multi-language, multi-process... Salesforce can handle it all.
- Technical support and a highly structured partner network, with certified integrators all over the world.
❌ Drawbacks
But all this power has a downside: Salesforce is not a plug-and-play solution, especially for structures with limited means.
- A very high overall cost, both on licenses, add-ons and integration. For SMEs, this is often a major obstacle.
- Complex parameterization, often requiring the services of certified consultants or integrators (and this comes at a price).
- A dense and sometimes unintuitive interface, especially for non-tech profiles or newcomers. Onboarding can be lengthy.
- A modular logic that can lose the user: with dozens of different products (Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, etc.), you often have to juggle between several interfaces.
- Some modules are slow to evolve, especially the older ones, which haven't all benefited from the latest UX/UI enhancements.
Zoho CRM vs Salesforce: compare features
Zoho CRM or Salesforce? Both excel in sales management, but their approaches, targets and functional depth vary widely. Here's a quick comparison before getting into the details:
| Functionality | Zoho CRM | Salesforce |
| Lead management | Simple and efficient | Ultra-customizable |
| Automations | No-code, accessible | Very powerful but complex |
| Artificial intelligence | Zia (integrated AI, limited) | Einstein (very advanced) |
| Customization | High but guided | Unlimited (with dev or integrator) |
| Reporting & analytics | Solid, visual | Highly advanced, multidimensional |
Focus 1: Lead and pipeline management
Zoho CRM offers intuitive lead management with a Kanban view, customizable fields and a fluid sales process. The tool is designed to centralize interactions, track conversions, and prioritize prospects via lead scores.
Salesforce, on the other hand, takes this logic much further: very fine segmentation, complex qualification rules, conditional automation by profile, right through to the creation of customized business processes.
👉 To remember
Zoho is perfect for sales teams who want to get to the point quickly. Salesforce is designed to structure highly complex pipelines, with multiple levels of validation, teams or markets.
Focus 2: Sales automation
Zoho CRM lets you automate without coding: with just a few clicks, you can trigger an email, create a task or assign a lead according to simple rules.
Salesforce offers a much more powerful automation system (via Flow Builder), capable of handling complex, multi-step scenarios, but which requires a real learning curve.
👉 To remember
Zoho empowers operational teams. Salesforce gives the keys to system architects.
Focus 3: Artificial intelligence
Zoho Zia, Zoho CRM's on-board AI, offers email sending time recommendations, predictive scoring and alerts on hot opportunities. It's practical, but not revolutionary.
Salesforce Einstein, on the other hand, is integrated into all modules. It can forecast sales, recommend actions, analyze customer behavior and even feed support bots.
👉 To remember
Zia is the intelligent sales assistant. Einstein is the data-driven strategist for large teams.
Focus 4: Customization and flexibility
Zoho CRM offers good customization, with customizable fields, modules, layouts and rules. But there are limits to what you can do without getting into APIs or advanced integrations.
Salesforce goes much further: everything is customizable, even business objects. With the Salesforce platform, you can literally build a tailor-made business app.
👉 To remember
Zoho lets you fine-tune without getting lost. Salesforce is customization without a net.
Focus 5: Reporting and dashboards
Zoho CRM offers easy-to-configure dynamic reporting, with a library of ready-to-use dashboards and the option of creating customized reports.
Salesforce excels here: its analytics engine is formidable, capable of crossing multiple sources, creating conditional reports, and even powering predictions thanks to Einstein.
👉 To remember
Zoho provides effortless visibility. Salesforce is the tool for demanding analysts and decision-makers.
Zoho CRM vs Salesforce: compare prices
Choosing between Zoho CRM and Salesforce also means choosing between two pricing models.
Zoho remains clear, progressive and adapted to small structures. Salesforce, on the other hand, offers a more complex pricing architecture, designed for the enterprise with a capital E.
| Plan | Zoho CRM (per user/month) | Key features Zoho CRM | Salesforce (Sales Cloud) (per user/month) | Key features Salesforce |
| Free trial | ✅ 15 days | Access to all features, including Zia AI | 30 days | Sales Cloud access, dummy data, limited AI |
| Standard | 20 € | Simple pipeline, basic automation, scoring, standard reporting | 25 € (Essentials) | Contact and opportunity management, mobile, integrated email, but no advanced modules |
| Professional | 35 € | Customized automations, workflows, third-party integrations | 80 € (Professional) | Validation rules, forecasts, dashboards, integration of external tools |
| Enterprise | 50 € | Custom modules, multi-step automation, hierarchical roles | 165 € (Enterprise) | Complex workflows, basic Einstein AI, full API access |
| Ultimate / Unlimited | 65 € | Extended Zia AI, advanced support, sandbox, enhanced storage | 330 € (Unlimited) | 24/7 support, advanced Einstein AI, unlimited dev environment, integration coaching |
| Einstein 1 (CRM + AI) | ❌ | - | From €500 | Complete CRM + AI + Data Cloud + Slack + Tableau Suite |
👉 To remember
- Zoho CRM also offers the Zoho One package, from €45/month, which includes over 40 business apps, including CRM, billing, marketing, support, etc.
- Salesforce often charges for modules separately (Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud...), which can quickly add up to a hefty final bill.
Zoho CRM vs Salesforce: which interface is more intuitive?
A CRM's interface can make or break teams. Too complex, and it slows adoption. Too basic, and it limits efficiency. Here, Zoho CRM focuses on immediate simplicity, while Salesforce favors power, sometimes to the detriment of clarity.
We compared the two on 4 major UX axes.
| UX criteria | Zoho CRM | Salesforce |
| Getting started | Fast, guided onboarding | Long, requires training |
| General ergonomics | Clean, modular interface | Dense interface with numerous menus |
| UI customization | Good: layout, fields, views | Very advanced: components, objects, apps |
| Mobile experience | Solid but sometimes slow | Powerful, well thought-out |
Fast analysis
Zoho CRM impresses with a clear, modern interface that can be used directly by non-technical profiles. The side menu is straightforward, the drag-and-drop pipelines easy to read and the views easy to modify.
Salesforce, on the other hand, offers a more technical, dense interface, with numerous options and functional layers. It's designed for large teams with complex needs, but often requires support to get the most out of it.
👉 To remember
Zoho CRM is easier to get to grips with, and better suited to fast-moving teams. Salesforce takes time to reveal its full value, but offers unrivalled depth once mastered.
Zoho CRM vs Salesforce: compare integrations
A good CRM is also one that integrates seamlessly with your business stack: marketing tools, customer support, billing, e-commerce, and so on.
On this front, Salesforce dominates thanks to its massive ecosystem, while Zoho CRM makes up for it with its native connectivity with the Zoho suite and the most popular tools.
Here's our assessment:
| Criteria | Zoho CRM | Salesforce |
| Number of native integrations | ★★★★☆ (300+ apps) | ★★★★★ (5000+ via AppExchange) |
| Ease of connection | ★★★★☆ | ★★★☆☆ |
| Automation with Zapier/Make | ★★★★☆ | ★★★★☆ |
| Depth of integration | ★★★☆☆ | ★★★★★ |
Zoho CRM: useful, simple, productivity-oriented integrations
Zoho CRM offers over 300 ready-to-use integrations, covering the great classics:
- Email & collaboration: Gmail, Outlook, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace
- Marketing & automation: Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, WhatsApp, Zoho Campaigns
- Sales & prospecting: LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Zoom, Slack
- Customer support: Zoho Desk, Zendesk, TeamSupport
- Payment & billing: Stripe, Zoho Books, QuickBooks
- Automation: Zapier, Make, webhooks
The Zoho ecosystem (over 40 in-house apps) is a huge advantage: all applications share a common base, with native synchronization and no fiddling.
Integrations are easy to activate, directly from the Zoho CRM interface. And for specific needs, you can use connectors like Zapier or Make to automate without coding.
Limitations: some third-party integrations are not as deep as with Salesforce (e.g. advanced marketing automation or complex ERP connectors), and niche B2B tools are not always available.
Salesforce: the most extensive ecosystem... but sometimes complex
Salesforce, via the AppExchange, offers over 5,000 compatible applications, going far beyond the classics.
These include :
- ERP: SAP, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics
- Marketing automation: HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, ActiveCampaign
- Customer service: Zendesk, Genesys, Intercom
- E-commerce: Shopify, Magento, BigCommerce
- Data & analytics: Tableau, Power BI, Segment
- Dev & back-office: Jira, GitHub, Slack, DocuSign, Snowflake
The advantage? These integrations can be deeply configured: advanced field mapping, bi-directional synchronization, conditional logic, nested automations, etc.
But beware: this richness comes at a technical and financial cost. Integrating Salesforce with a business tool often requires the intervention of an administrator or certified partner. And each addition may involve licensing or implementation costs.
👉 To remember
- Zoho CRM offers simple, practical and effective integrations for 90% of common cases. The Zoho ecosystem is a real bonus for companies that want to centralize without complicating matters.
- Salesforce offers almost unlimited integration possibilities, with unrivalled depth. But this requires time, expertise and, often, a good budget.
When should you choose Zoho CRM or Salesforce?
Still not sure? Let's forget the technical specs for a minute and ask the real question: which CRM is best suited to your day-to-day business?
If you're an SME or a scale-up looking for agility... Zoho CRM is probably your best ally.
It's the logical choice if :
- You have a small sales team (fewer than 50 users),
- You're looking for a solution that's quick to implement, with no need for consultants or lengthy training sessions,
- You want to centralize customer management with a simple, visual, yet scalable tool,
- You already use Zoho tools (Books, Desk, Campaigns...) or you want an all-in-one suite,
- You're on a tight budget but don't want to sacrifice performance.
If you're a large company or a multi-team group... Salesforce becomes hard to avoid.
It's the right choice if:
- You have several teams or divisions to manage (sales, support, marketing),
- Your business processes are complex and require deep customization,
- You're looking for a single platform to connect all your business tools (ERP, marketing automation, analytics, etc.),
- You have stringent requirements in terms of governance, security and compliance,
- You're ready to invest in a scalable solution with professional support.
In short: Salesforce is the platform for structuring and industrializing your customer management on a large scale. But it takes time, resources... and a real deployment strategy.
What to learn from the Zoho CRM vs Salesforce battle
Zoho CRM and Salesforce don't exactly play in the same league.
But that's precisely what makes the match interesting: one focuses on simplicity and agility, the other on power and scalability.
We're not talking about good or bad tools here, but strategic choices based on your context, your organization and your priorities.
Here's a table to help you decide, based on your real needs:
| Your need | We recommend... | What's in it for you? |
| Get started quickly with a full-featured CRM | Zoho CRM | Quick installation, intuitive interface, affordable price |
| Support growth in small and medium-sized businesses | Zoho CRM | Flexibility, automation, customization without complexity |
| Structure a complex sales process | Salesforce | Advanced workflows, hierarchical roles, advanced personalization |
| Manage multiple teams or regions | Salesforce | Scalability, multi-organization, fine segmentation |
| Connect CRM to ERP or data tools | Salesforce | Extensive ecosystem, deep integrations, AppExchange |
| Budget < €60 / user / month | Zoho CRM | Transparent pricing, no hidden costs |
| Internalize administration without technical experts | Zoho CRM | Ease of use, no-code automation |
| Build a customized customer platform | Salesforce | Salesforce Platform, low-code/no-code development |
👉 Verdict
- Are you a growing SME, startup or scale-up? Zoho CRM offers you an efficient, scalable and cost-effective CRM solution.
- Are you a large enterprise, with several teams, demanding processes and a need for governance? Salesforce remains the reference platform.
Zoho CRM vs Salesforce FAQs
Which CRM is easier to learn?
Zoho CRM. It's designed to be up and running quickly, even without an IT team. Its interface is intuitive, and onboarding is guided. Salesforce, on the other hand, often requires training or support to be fully mastered.
Which CRM is best suited to small businesses?
Zoho CRM again. Its pricing model is affordable, its functionalities are modular, and it's perfectly suited to small businesses that want to structure their sales without complicating their day-to-day operations.
Is Salesforce oversized for SMEs?
Not necessarily... but often, yes. Salesforce deploys its full power in complex environments. For SMEs with simple to medium-sized needs, Zoho CRM is generally better suited (and less costly to maintain).
Which offers the best value for money?
Zoho CRM, unequivocally. It offers a complete CRM from €20/month, with automation, scoring, reporting and even basic AI. Salesforce becomes cost-effective if you fully exploit its capabilities... but the entry ticket is much higher.
Which CRM offers the most personalization?
Salesforce, by far. You can modify almost any object, process, view, rule... or even create your own business applications with Salesforce Platform. Zoho offers good customization, but in a more guided framework.
Which CRM integrates best with other tools?
Salesforce, thanks to its AppExchange and powerful APIs. It is designed to dialogue with ERP, BI tools, e-commerce platforms... Zoho CRM remains a powerful tool, especially in the Zoho ecosystem, but is more limited in depth.
Do the two CRMs offer integrated AI?
Yes. Zoho offers Zia, which helps with scoring, forecasting and business analysis. Salesforce offers the much more advanced Einstein, capable of delivering predictive insights, recommendations and intelligent automation on a massive scale.
Can I test Zoho CRM or Salesforce for free?
Yes, Zoho CRM offers a 15-day free trial of all its features. Salesforce offers a 30-day trial on Sales Cloud with fictitious data to simulate real-life use.
Article translated from French