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Freshsales vs. Zoho

If you’re considering Freshsales and Zoho but struggling to choose between them, you’ve come to the right place. On this page, we’ll discuss the pros and cons of each tool. Then we’ll explore how they compare on several key aspects of a good CRM. Keep reading to learn more about how Freshsales and Zoho stack up!

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Freshsales vs. Zoho comparison

Having the right customer relationship management (CRM) tool is the first step to successfully tracking and analyzing your customer data. With a lot of options out there, you need to consider which one will work the best for your business.

Two of the most popular CRM options out there are Zoho and Freshsales. These tools both offer their own advantages and disadvantages, but which one is better? If you’re considering both of those CRMs for your business, which one should you choose?

That’s the question we’ll help you answer on this page. We’ll go over some of the pros and cons of each tool, and then we’ll compare them on several key CRM attributes to see whether Zoho or Freshsales is the superior option.

Keep reading to learn more about Freshsales vs. Zoho!

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Freshsales pros


Let’s start off by examining some of the best qualities of Freshsales. Those qualities include:

  • Workflow automation: Freshsales includes a feature called sales sequencing, which enables you to set up automated workflows to help with outreach campaigns (for example, sending emails out in response to specific customer touchpoints).
  • Ease of use: One of the simplest benefits of Freshsales is the fact that it’s extremely easy to use. That’s no surprise since it was specifically designed to be beginner-friendly.
  • Customization: For businesses that value customization, Freshsales could be a good choice. It lets you set up everything from custom fields to specific activities to fit your unique needs.

Freshsales cons

Not everything about working with Freshsales is so positive. There are also some downsides, including:

  • Integrations: One of the most common criticisms of Freshsales is that it doesn’t offer enough integration options. Even the options it does offer seem to be low in quality.
  • Reporting: Reporting isn’t Freshsales’ strong suit. While its reporting isn’t terrible, it isn’t as robust as many users say they would like it to be.
  • Customer support: When you run into issues in Freshsales, don’t expect much help from the customer support team. Users say they’re typically very unhelpful.

Zoho pros

There are several benefits to using Zoho. Those benefits include:

  • Customization: Zoho makes it easy to customize numerous elements with drag-and-drop functionality. There are plenty of customization options available both on the administrator and user levels.
  • Reporting: Zoho offers top-notch reporting features that are up there with all the best CRMs, with users noting that Zoho is great at offering deep data insights into patterns and trends.
  • Deal creation: Zoho is big on helping you manage fresh leads and deals. You can easily set up, track, and follow up with your new leads.
customer's text response sharing what they like about LACRM Zoho One

Zoho cons

Unfortunately, not everything about using Zoho is good. Here are some of the disadvantages:

  • Integrations: Like Freshsales, Zoho doesn’t do so well when it comes to integrations. It doesn’t offer many options for the paid plans, and the free plan includes none at all.
  • Learning curve: Zoho is not an easy tool to learn. It has a steep learning curve, so it takes a long while to start driving results through the tool.
  • Customer service: Yet another similarity to Freshsales is Zoho’s poor customer support, which users often say is unhelpful and slow to respond.
customer's text response sharing what they dislike about Zoho CRM

 

Freshsales vs. Zoho comparison

Now that we’ve seen the benefits and drawbacks of each tool, let’s compare Zoho and Freshsales on several key attributes of a good CRM to see how they stack up. This comparison is summarized in the table below.

Pricing
Ease of use
Reporting
Integrations
Sales automation
$16-$79 per month
Very intuitive and user-friendly
Excellent reporting features
Extensive integrations, including native, third-party, and custom options
Excellent sales automation
Free plan available, $15–$83 per user per month
Very intuitive and user-friendly
Subpar reporting features
750+ integrations (via Zapier), some low in quality
Excellent sales automation
Free plan available, $14-$65 per user per month
Steep learning curve
Excellent reporting features
Integrations can be difficult to set up; none offered with free plan
Excellent sales automation

Let’s now look at how Freshsales and Zoho compare to one another in a bit more depth.

Pricing

Both Freshsales and Zoho offer a free plan, which means that if you want the bare minimum version of each tool, they’re both on equal footing when it comes to pricing.

Freshsales and Zoho have similar pricing for their paid versions as well. However, Freshsales is slightly more expensive and offers one fewer plan option than Zoho, which means Freshsales narrowly comes out on top in this category.

Ease of use

Freshsales definitely scores well when it comes to ease of use, as its users say that it’s very intuitive and user-friendly. Zoho isn’t too bad, either, once you get the hang of it. However, getting the hang of it is the problem. Zoho has a steep learning curve, which means it takes quite a while to drive results.

For that reason, this is yet another category where Freshsales comes out on top.

Reporting

Reporting is definitely not a strong point for Freshsales. In fact, as we’ve already seen, it’s one of the tool’s biggest downsides. Users simply don’t feel that Freshsales’ reporting capabilities are as robust as they should be.

On the other hand, Zoho scores extremely well here, providing plenty of useful insights about users’ customer data. That means Zoho is the definitive winner in this category.

Integrations

Both Zoho and Freshsales do poorly when it comes to integrations. Freshsales does offer over 750 options through Zapier, but some users report that they’re low in quality. As for Zoho, its integrations are hard to set up, and there aren’t any offered with the free plan at all.

Though both tools are lacking in this category, Freshsales’ integrations are the better of the two, so it wins this category.

Sales automation

Finally, we have sales automation. Thankfully, Zoho and Freshsales both do great in this category, with plenty of features to help you automate your sales processes — Freshsales has sales sequencing to help you automate your workflows, for instance.

Since both tools score so well here, it’s tough to declare a winner, so we’ll call it a tie.

Freshsales vs. Zoho: Which is better?

So, which is better — Freshsales or Zoho? The answer depends on your business’s goals. If ease of use is important to you, choose Freshsales. On the other hand, if you prioritize reporting features or managing leads, Zoho may be the better option.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that you don’t want to use Freshsales or Zoho. After all, neither of them does very well when it comes to integrations or customer service. If those things are important to you, it’s probably better to find another CRM.

Nutshell is the ideal CRM for your business

If you’re looking for a CRM other than Zoho or Freshsales, Nutshell is the perfect option. Not only does it offer all the same benefits as Zoho and Freshsales, but it also features plenty of integrations.

And with free live support offered to all users and automatic data imports (even during your free trial!), Nutshell empowers you to close more deals without sacrificing the features—or friendly support—you deserve.

To see what Nutshell can do for your business, start a 14-day free trial today!

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