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Blackbaud CRM vs Zoho CRM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Blackbaud CRM
Ranking in CRM
32nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Zoho CRM
Ranking in CRM
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
Opportunity Management (3rd), Sales Force Automation (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2026, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Blackbaud CRM is 0.8%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho CRM is 1.8%, down from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Zoho CRM1.8%
Blackbaud CRM0.8%
Other97.4%
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2596560 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Specialist at a educational organization with 1-10 employees
Integrated profiles increase centralization and streamline donor management
We were using it for managing our donor database The solution provided an integrated profile, which was helpful for having everything together available in one place. One area of improvement is the UI and UX, which could be more upgraded. It looks a little dated compared to modern UI and UX, and…
NaveenKumar S - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at Maximus
Zoho CRM improves lead conversion with AI assistance but could have better technical support
Zoho Zia has helped our lead conversion process by serving as a private AI of Zoho CRM that assists in boosting lead conversation by analyzing customer data, predicting outcomes, and automating workflow follow-ups. Regarding how Zia helps with lead conversion, there's lead scoring and conversion predictions, sentiment analysis, and workflow suggestions. For lead scoring, Zia analyzes past lead conversation patterns and assigns scores to new leads, and high score leads get prioritized for faster follow-up. In terms of conversation predictions, Zia predicts the probability of lead conversion based on demographics and engagements, helping the sales team focus on the most promising leads. Another point is sentiment analysis, where Zia scans customer emails, chats, and notes to detect tones such as positive, negative, or neutral, guiding us on how to approach the leads better. For workflow suggestions, it recommends automated workflows such as sending emails and assigning tasks to agents, improving our engagements. Additionally, the conversational AI feature through Zia chatbot can interact with leads via website chat or capture details and push them into Zoho CRM automatically. The analytics and reporting features in Zoho CRM helped me understand sales patterns and customer behavior through standard reports that include pre-built reports for leads, deals, sales activities, and campaigns. We can customize reports as well, creating reports based on any module fields, and we can integrate with Zoho Analytics for direct capture of reports from our modules. We can merge leads reports to contact reports using SQL, allowing for effective sales funnel tracking to identify drop-offs and optimize conversation strategies. Auto-generated reports are also available for daily scheduling, ensuring that admin receives daily basis reports through automation. With advanced BI features such as drag-and-drop dashboards and predictive analysis using pivot tables, we can create insightful dashboards while pulling CRM and external data from sources such as Google Ads and Facebook Ads for unified analytics. The automation capabilities in Zoho CRM have helped streamline our organization's sales and marketing tasks by handling repetitive tasks such as sending follow-up emails, assigning leads, and updating fields. For example, if a lead score is greater than 80, it automatically assigns that record to the senior sales representative. There are also blueprint options to define the step-by-step sales process, ensuring every sales representative follows the same process. Automation includes assignment rules, lead scoring, priority load options, sales signals, macros, and territory management, which automatically routes leads based on geography, revenue, and industries. Additionally, deal stage automations trigger actions when a deal moves stages, such as sending a contract when it moves to negotiation. For marketing, there are tools for email campaign automation, behavior-based triggers, campaign to lead sync, and social media automations. The overall benefits I have seen from using Zoho CRM include centralized customer data, where all customer interactions are visible in one place, providing a 360-degree view. Improved lead conversations through AI-powered scoring and automation helps us focus on the right leads, with end-to-end sales automation managing tasks from lead capture to deal closure, thereby saving time on repetitive tasks. This leads to better marketing ROI, as we can track campaigns, ad spend, and lead sources, connecting marketing efforts to revenue. Enhanced collaboration through shared notes, tasks, and role-based access enables teamwork within our internal users and sales teams, contributing to customer satisfaction. Moreover, Zoho CRM is scalable and customizable, adapting to startups, SMBs, and enterprises with its flexible modules and fields. Lastly, it is cost-efficient compared to Salesforce and HubSpot while including a wide range of features.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It was stable."
"The initial setup is pretty fast."
"The most valuable aspect of CRMs, including Zoho CRM, Salesforce, and Microsoft Dynamics, is automation capabilities—without requiring a large team or manual intervention, the system can execute entire business flows in seconds through proper configuration and automation setup."
"I like that it is easy to get data in and out of it. We can export and import CSV files. I also like that the database is hierarchical, which allows me to be able to look at a parent and multiple children."
"I think Zoho CRM's automation capabilities are really good and better than almost any other application."
"The camera feature is valuable because it provides a look and feel."
"For the most part, the solution is stable."
"I like that it is easy to get data in and out of it; we can export and import CSV files, and the hierarchical database allows me to look at a parent and multiple children."
"Complete customer relation management with the ability to add further apps if needed."
 

Cons

"One area of improvement is the UI and UX, which could be more upgraded."
"The support is not quite good."
"It would be useful to have some way of mapping organizations that could add more value. If I have X company's database and am trying to create multiple contexts for different entities of the same company, I should be able to map it in such a way that I can see the organization chart."
"In Creator, you can do calculations and change another field immediately after you enter any value. If you add the quantity or price in any field, you can immediately change the total in Creator. The same functionality is not directly available in CRM because it is prebuilt."
"There are two things I would like to see from Zoho CRM. The first would be to include a calling feature that is connected to our call center. Second, I would like financial targeting and how to measure targeting for the sales agent to be connected better with bookings."
"Adding a new contract to the solution is quite complicated."
"If the client's requirements involve managing large datasets, I would go directly to Salesforce due to its capability to store and structure big data, but it tends to be more expensive."
"The product's scalability and stability need improvement."
"I'd like the solution to offer more integrations with other products."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The solution has standard pricing plans."
"Zoho CRM is an expensive tool."
"This solution is less expensive than Salesforce."
"Compared to other CRMs, it is very cheap."
"The tool started out quite cheap. It's had some changes with small and medium business subscriptions, but it's still worth the price. I'd say it's priced a bit below the medium range."
"I rate the product a four out of ten. The cost for Zoho CRM is not fixed; different editions are available, and the features depend on the edition chosen. Some capabilities, such as integrating with workflows, might incur additional costs, but these are well-documented and not hidden."
"Compared to other solutions, I would say Zoho CRM is very, very affordable because we can use different applications with one license."
"Professional plans cost $35 per user in the USA and EUR 35 in Europe."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business45
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Blackbaud CRM?
One area of improvement is the UI and UX, which could be more upgraded. It looks a little dated compared to modern UI and UX, and there's potential for it to be more intuitive. Also, the ability to...
What is your primary use case for Blackbaud CRM?
We were using it for managing our donor database.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Zoho CRM?
Zoho CRM and all of Zoho's software are quite affordable because they are specifically designed for small and medium businesses.
What needs improvement with Zoho CRM?
I think areas of Zoho CRM that need to be improved or enhanced include the permission structure, which can be easy to set up custom permissions within Zoho Creator using different filters and runni...
What is your primary use case for Zoho CRM?
I describe the usual use cases for Zoho CRM that I mostly work with as related to sales flow. Most of my clients are involved in that; the lead system allows leads to flow into our system, which ar...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Charleston Battery, Virgin London Marathon, EdVenture Children's Museum
JetHub, Anderson Sales Advantage, ActionCoach, Milagro Advisory Group, TECO Pneumatic, Proteomics Consult
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Salesforce, Zoho and others in CRM. Updated: March 2026.
885,789 professionals have used our research since 2012.