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Freshsales vs Zoho CRM comparison

 

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
8.1
Users reported significant cost savings and efficiency from Freshsales, citing superior automation, organization, and document management over competitors.
Sentiment score
5.2
Zoho CRM boosts sales by 10-15%, improves productivity, and reduces costs with automation and HR monitoring features.
We have saved a good amount of money compared to other CRMs such as Salesforce and HubSpot, which have much higher costs.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Fewer employees are required based on the automation that we created.
Associate Technology Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ 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
4.8
Freshsales customer service is praised for expertise and 24/7 support, though growth impacts speed at higher support levels.
Sentiment score
6.6
Zoho CRM support is praised for responsiveness but faces challenges with wait times and communication, especially outside premium plans.
The customer support experience is wonderful, providing 24/7 availability with knowledgeable agents who can effectively address issues.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 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
7.8
Freshsales is scalable for startups and mid-sized companies, but some doubt its ability to meet large enterprise demands.
Sentiment score
7.8
Zoho CRM offers scalable architecture and adaptability, effectively supporting business growth with integration options and cloud-based flexibility.
Freshsales offers excellent scalability for startups and mid-sized companies.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
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
8.7
Freshsales is stable, transparent, highly rated, and dependable, with quick error resolutions and reliable customer support during the pandemic.
Sentiment score
7.7
Zoho CRM is praised for stability and reliability, offering 99% uptime and effectively meeting mid-scale business needs.
Freshsales is stable, with no server crashes reported.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 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

Freshsales needs improvements in reporting, customization, pricing, user experience, flexibility, and support to better serve midsized companies.
Zoho CRM needs improvements in customization, stability, AI, and support, with better pricing, visualization, and feature communication.
Practical navigation for non-technical users could be enhanced, particularly regarding technical issues such as web form connections, which would benefit from immediate access to technical assistance.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 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
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
The main improvement needed for Zoho CRM is introducing SQL code for reports, similar to what's in Zoho Analytics.
Zoho Developer at Tarini Consulting
 

Setup Cost

Freshsales offers budget-friendly pricing with flexible options and discounts, though add-ons can be expensive, especially in some regions.
Zoho CRM provides cost-effective pricing for enterprises, offering value with bundled applications and competitive rates compared to competitors.
the Indian team was clear in their communication and offered good discount packages, along with a pre-onboarding call that provided valuable insights into using the software.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
The setup cost is very good and within the budget.
Associate Technology Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ 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

Freshsales automates workflows with integrations like Shopify and WhatsApp, offering scalable, user-friendly solutions with 24/7 support.
Zoho CRM offers customizable and affordable solutions with robust integrations, efficient automation, and excellent support for small businesses.
The Sales Sequence feature significantly helps my workflow by enabling an account manager to contact a large list of customers quickly and efficiently, sending out emails with minimal manual effort, while also providing critical statistics about email engagement, which aids in improving outreach strategies.
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
If the person details captured indicate they are interested in proceeding further, then when we update the particular field, it automatically goes to the next person at a higher level, and then the status gets changed.
Associate Technology Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
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

Freshsales
Ranking in CRM
20th
Ranking in Opportunity Management
10th
Ranking in Sales Force Automation
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
CRM Customer Engagement Centers (7th)
Zoho CRM
Ranking in CRM
3rd
Ranking in Opportunity Management
3rd
Ranking in Sales Force Automation
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
59
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the CRM category, the mindshare of Freshsales is 1.1%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zoho CRM is 1.9%, down from 3.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
CRM Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Zoho CRM1.9%
Freshsales1.1%
Other97.0%
CRM
 

Featured Reviews

AB
Business Development Manager at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Automated sales sequences have transformed outreach and now organize multi-million deal workflows
Freshsales is a very comfortable type of CRM with easy customization and user-friendliness, allowing even non-techie individuals to manage their internal pipelines effectively, as it is a highly customizable CRM that suits our business needs, whether for selling products or services. The best features that Freshsales offers begin with the Sales Sequence, which is top-ranked, followed by the marketing division that allows us to create automated marketing sequences. Freshsales also includes 24/7 customer support, web form integration for lead generation from our website, and other valuable functionalities. The Sales Sequence feature significantly helps my workflow by enabling an account manager to contact a large list of customers quickly and efficiently, sending out emails with minimal manual effort, while also providing critical statistics about email engagement, which aids in improving outreach strategies. Freshsales positively impacts our organization by creating a central repository for all our business objectives; it has helped us organize our pipelines and documents efficiently, providing a system where we can easily access any necessary files related to individual deals and allowing visibility into the performance metrics for the board of directors.
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.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Comms Service Provider
18%
Construction Company
15%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
8%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business8
Midsize Enterprise2
Large Enterprise1
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business46
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise10
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Freshsales?
The product is up to the mark and everything we need right now.
What is your primary use case for Freshsales?
Freshsales is our CRM tool and CRM platform. Whenever we want to sell a product to a customer or when they inquire on any promotion site, we get the customer details over Freshsales, and based on t...
What advice do you have for others considering Freshsales?
Freshsales is a must-go product if you are considering a low budget and highly scalable product. I would rate this review as a nine.
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

Caratlane, Pykih, Buying Show, INTUO, WallyPark, Exploring Vacations, Raved, Forest, Ascendore, MagePlaza, Vacasa,
JetHub, Anderson Sales Advantage, ActionCoach, Milagro Advisory Group, TECO Pneumatic, Proteomics Consult
Find out what your peers are saying about Freshsales vs. Zoho CRM and other solutions. Updated: May 2026.
895,990 professionals have used our research since 2012.