Zoho CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud

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Our analysts compared Zoho CRM vs Salesforce Sales Cloud based on data from our 400+ point analysis of CRM Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

Zoho CRM enables an organization’s sales force to work more effectively and close more deals. It incorporates lead management, marketing automation, contact management, multichannel forecasting, territory management, and a host of other capabilities.

Built with conversational AI, it supports users by predicting lead and deal success, offering a voice assistant, and suggesting activities to automate based on behavior analysis. Users can leverage workflow automation to streamline manual tasks and stay on top of performance with real-time reporting and analytics.
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Salesforce Sales Cloud is a customer relationship management (CRM) solution designed to help businesses of all sizes manage their sales processes more effectively. It offers a range of features to simplify lead management and boost sales.

Key benefits include AI-powered lead scoring, customizable dashboards, reporting tools and mobile access for on-the-go sales teams. Sales Cloud stands out for its scalability, making it suitable for businesses ranging from small startups to large enterprises. 

Users appreciate Sales Cloud for its user-friendly interface and extensive customization options. Many find Einstein’s AI capabilities to be game-changing for their sales strategies. However, some users note that there can be a steep learning curve for advanced features, and costs can add up quickly with additional modules and user licenses.

Its pricing starts at $25 per user per month for the Starter plan, suitable for small teams. More advanced plans range from $100 to $500 per user per month, offering more refined features. While not the cheapest option on the market, Salesforce can be a worthwhile investment for its comprehensive toolset and scalability Salesforce provides.

Salesforce Sales Cloud is a good choice for businesses looking for a flexible solution, provided they're able to handle the potential complexity and cost associated with a top-tier CRM platform.

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$14/User, Monthly
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$25/User, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
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Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
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Videos
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Email
Phone
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FAQ
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
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Product Insights

  • Real-Time Data Analysis: Track KPIs across the sales cycle with advanced analytics tools providing visibility for everyone from the C-suite to sales reps. We set up dashboard widgets and customized the metrics displayed, so we could surface the most important data. The system includes standard and custom reports, which you can filter to locate specific information and blend to create multidimensional reports.
  • AI-Powered Performance Optimization: Use Zia is the system’s conversational AI assistant and helps users get more done and work smarter. We searched through our database by sending a request via text. You can use Zia to improve data accuracy, optimize timing for emails and calls, and understand the sentiment behind the emails your leads and customers send.
  • Automated Lead Creation: Use the email parser tool to automate lead creation by sending email enquiries to the parser email that extracts the information. You can then reduplicate and approve the leads to ensure they’re good. We could add and color code tags, create custom views for leads and view leads in Zoho sheets.
  • Support Mobility: Mobile CRM apps for both Android and iOS devices provide users with immediate access to important information, no matter where they are. Sales reps can view daily activities and optimize in-person meetings with geo-location. They can also manage records even while offline — all changes automatically sync once their device reconnects. The card scanner app, supported on iOS and Android devices as well, enables users to digitally capture business cards at events and meetings.
  • Personalized Solutions: Use the developer platform for full control over your software ecosystem. Unify data across business systems, develop apps and boost the capabilities of the CRM interface with a combination of tools including widgets, a REST API and SDKs for web and mobile. We found that it incorporates both code and WYSIWYG elements so users of all technical levels can leverage it successfully.
  • Easy To Set Up: Speed up the onboarding process via Zwitch, with the help of Zoho support staff or use the built-in tools to transfer from other CRM platforms. We liked how easy it was to navigate the header-style menu. Add new products, contacts and accounts with the same form style. Set up was also a breeze with helpful pop-ups and links to knowledge base articles if we got stuck.
  • Tailor-Made Customizations: Create your own workflow rules. We tested out adding a “Big Fish” tag when leads recorded an annual revenue of above $100,000 and a follow-up automation. You can also use the Kiosk Studio to build page layouts and automations, its a bit more technical but offers helpful pop-ups and tips. We were also able to create a rule that assigned all leads that started with a 222 area code to a specific user.
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  • Get Industry-Leading Expertise: Salesforce Sales Cloud, with an analyst rating of 87, ranks third on our list of best CRMs. It’s highly adaptable to diverse business needs and displays strong user satisfaction across different industries and company sizes.
  • Detect Anomalies With AI: With a score of 100 from our analysts for its AI-based anomaly detector, Sales Cloud’s Einstein Analytics identifies unusual patterns in customer data, compares observed values to predictions and sends real-time alerts on detecting anomalies.
  • Manage Cases Through Automated Routing: You can create, assign and track customer requests easily, while support agents can use tailored features like custom list views, custom Lightning pages and quick action buttons to resolve issues faster.
  • Build Custom Apps To Fit Your Needs: Sales Cloud scored a 100 in our analysis for its highly customizable apps. You can build and share apps with your own branding, incorporating standard and custom objects, validation rules and calculated fields.
  • Integrate With Content Management Systems: You can connect Salesforce Sales Cloud with platforms like WordPress and Drupal to streamline your content and CRM processes without needing a third-party integration.
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  • Sales Force Automation: Automate tedious sales tasks such as lead generation and routing, data entry, email notifications, field updates and more. Optimize lead management, deal management, account management, contact management, and manage workflow and assignment rules.
  • Process Management: Enable your sales team to follow a standardized sales strategy. Use the blueprint feature to log offline processes such as order management or deal closure, ensuring consistent execution. Create automated approvals for common activities such as vacation time requests, capital expense reports and pricing discount requests. Additionally, you can set rules for assigning leads, escalating cases and validating CRM data.
  • Opportunity Management: Keep everyone’s antennas tuned to the same channel with Zoho’s activity tracking for all customer interactions like emails, calls, tasks and notes. Create deals and associate them with campaigns with drop-down fields and generate multiple pipelines using the standard template or your own personalized fields You can create a custom Kanban view using dropdown options and fields.
  • Multichannel Support: Connect with your email platform to send emails directly from the CRM. Connect your brand’s social media channel to respond in real-time, follow relevant conversations and automate lead generation. Use the Phonebridge integration to enable sales reps to easily log and track information from calls. You can also embed live chat and lead capture forms on your website to facilitate sales, marketing and customer service efforts.
  • Sales Enablement: Aid sales reps in their daily jobs using features like quotes and purchase orders (via integration with Zoho’s Finance Suite), a documents library, integration with Zoho’s presentation and document creation applications, and external-facing portals for partners and vendors. It also offers a calendar, a feature called SalesInbox for prioritizing the most lucrative emails, a web meeting platform through the Zoho Meeting integration, real-time notifications, collaboration feeds and more.
  • Performance Management: Gauge how a product, team or region is performing with forecasting tools. Group customers based on shared attributes (region, product, etc.) with territory management and gamify elements to encourage friendly competition that boosts performance among sales reps. Zia can also help improve performance by helping you target leads that are most likely to generate revenue. Your sales reps can engage with website visitors via chatbots for web and mobile, so every query receives attention even if they’re away from their desks.
  • Marketing Automation: Streamline marketing efforts by segmenting customers using a range of criteria, automating lead nurturing follow-ups, creating code-free web forms to gather customer information, scanning and uploading business cards, and analyzing campaign spending. Use capabilities like end-to-end event management, email campaign capabilities, surveys, and marketing details like budgets and performance metrics. A hierarchy feature lets you hook sub-campaigns to related main campaigns.
  • Team Collaboration: Use Feeds as a central location for collaborating, sharing announcements and offering advice. You can integrate chat functionality to facilitate everyday tasks and automatically send real-time sales updates. Users can leave notes on records or activities and tag other team members. Other features include groups for collaborating around specific events or for specific purposes, as well as project management tools via integration with Zoho Projects.
  • Third-Party Integrations: Connect with more than 50 third-party apps for collaboration, document management, live chat, telephony, messaging, events and meetings, quote management, document signing, lead management, marketing automation, social media, storage and more. Integrations include G Suite, Office 365, Slack, Shopify, Mailchimp, Facebook Ads, QuickBooks, GoToWebinar, DocuSign, Dropbox and Zapier.
  • Security: Store critical business data in secure vaults, choose where you want your data stored (U.S. and EU data centers) and encrypt data fields. Use audit logs to track activity, enable two-factor authentication and designate which IP addresses users can use to log in. Real-time backups on multiple servers ensure you won’t lose data due to a system-based or natural disaster.
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  • Sales Forecasting: You can build accurate sales projections and custom forecast types based on various data points, measures and dates to get a clear picture of your future sales performance.
  • Lead Management: With Sales Cloud, it’s easy to capture leads, manage campaigns and convert opportunities into sales. You can create forms on your website, use LinkedIn ads or have AI chatbots talk to potential customers.
    • AI-based Lead Conversion: The Einstein Lead Scoring tool analyzes past conversion patterns to predict which current leads are most likely to convert, helping you prioritize the most promising prospects.
  • Integration Capabilities: Connect Salesforce with your favorite tools and platforms. A wide range of plugins is available, enabling you to create a smooth workflow across all your applications.
  • Reporting and Analytics: While the reporting system is user-friendly, quick and can generate real-time reports, it also offers flexibility for more advanced users who want to customize their reports. You can also create reports for territories and collaborative forecasts.
  • Mobile App: Salesforce’s mobile app lets you create, edit and view records for accounts, campaigns, cases, contacts, forecasts and leads. Additionally, you can use Salesforce Chatter to see feeds, groups and people. What data you can access depends on your organization's settings.
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Product Ranking

#9

among all
CRM Software

#2

among all
CRM Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

87
87
100
96
92
86
93
100
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Account and Contact Management
Lead Management
Opportunity Management
Platform Security
Product Management
Dashboards and Reports
Product Management
Team Collaboration
Opportunity Management
Account and Contact Management

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

Zoho CRM
Salesforce Sales Cloud
+ Add Product + Add Product
Account And Contact Management Communication Channels Dashboards And Reports Document Management Lead Management Mobile Capabilities Opportunity Management Partner Relationship Management Platform Capabilities Product Management Quotes, Orders, And Contracts Management Sales Performance Management Team Collaboration 100 92 93 97 100 84 100 60 95 100 84 91 93 96 86 100 92 96 91 97 48 92 100 95 96 100 0 25 50 75 100
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86%
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83%
17%
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86%
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86%
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86%
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88%
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80%
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81%
14%
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67%
33%
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89%
11%
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88%
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12%
88%
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83%
17%
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100%
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

88%
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12%
88%
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12%
100%
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86%
14%
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User Sentiment Summary

Great User Sentiment 11200 reviews
Great User Sentiment 43983 reviews
85%
of users recommend this product

Zoho CRM has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 85% when considering 11200 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

88%
of users recommend this product

Salesforce Sales Cloud has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 88% when considering 43983 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

5.0 (20)
4.9 (14)
4.1 (2656)
4.4 (20425)
n/a
4.4 (18506)
4.3 (6776)
n/a
4.5 (797)
4.5 (1787)
4.2 (951)
4.2 (3251)

Awards

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Zoho CRM and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Account and Contact Management, Lead Management, Opportunity Management, Platform Capabilities and Platform Security.

Account and Contact Management Award
Lead Management Award
Opportunity Management Award
Platform Capabilities Award
Platform Security Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated Salesforce Sales Cloud and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Team Collaboration.

Team Collaboration Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Work Offline: Users who mention this feature say the platform functions well even when used in offline mode.
Business Management: The system monitors business performance, populates the website with suitable visitors and keeps a tab on productivity and output, eliminating unmatched customers and removing hassle according to users who mention this aspect.
Affordable: Users said the software is budget-friendly as compared to other CRM systems and has considerably more adaptive features for the price.
Integrations: Reviewers appreciated Zoho’s integration with in-house tools that support unified workflows, flexibility and email functionality.
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Easy To Use: Many users report that Salesforce has a user-friendly and intuitive interface, making it accessible to both beginners and experienced users.
Good Vendor Support: Salesforce offers quality support. Users often mention that the company treats them more like partners than just customers.
Highly Customizable: Developers find that the level of customization provided by Sales Cloud helps them extend Salesforce's features effectively.
Scalability: Salesforce is suitable for companies of all sizes. It's a long-term solution that can adapt to evolving organizational needs.
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Learning Curve: Users mentioned some features and customization requires additional time and learning to implement.
Customer Support: Zoho’s customer support and inquiry resolution isn’t very responsive, according to users who refer to support. However, the chat support is comparatively better.
Lags and Delays: Reviewers noted there is sometimes a lag in notifications for email tracking and updates.
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Learning Curve: While the interface is user-friendly, users need proper training to use Salesforce efficiently, especially for more advanced features.
Cost: Several users, particularly from smaller organizations, point out that the overall price can be a concern for businesses with limited budgets.
Resource Intensive: While Salesforce can do almost anything, it often requires a dedicated team and skilled resources to manage it effectively.
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Zoho CRM is a cloud-based CRM solution that serves businesses of all sizes and across various industries. It provides users with real-time data analysis, AI-powered sales performance optimization and extensive automation and customization. You can streamline workflows and improve sales efficiency with lead nurturing, deal management, and third-party integrations.During our test run of their free trial, we loved working with standout features like the customizable dashboard, automated lead creation via the email parser and drop-down linking for account, product, lead and quote creation.However, users report a learning curve associated with full feature utilization and customization. Additionally, some advanced features and functionalities require upgrades to higher tiers making it expensive for smaller teams. Overall, Zoho CRM offers an interoperable solution for businesses looking for a customizable, affordable CRM platform.

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Based on our research and user feedback, Salesforce Sales Cloud turned out to be a powerful and flexible CRM solution, capable of accommodating businesses of any size.Its AI-powered features, especially Einstein, truly set it apart. This tool provides predictive analytics, lead scoring, opportunity scoring and sentiment analysis to improve sales efficiency.We found the mobile app to be feature-rich, offering full functionality for sales teams on the move, including forecasting and account management.Yet, some users reported a learning curve for advanced features. While the basic functionalities are user-friendly, leveraging the full potential of Sales Cloud may require proper training. Additionally, smaller organizations might find the pricing structure challenging, as costs can accumulate quickly with add-ons and advanced features.Integration capabilities are generally strong, but we observed that some key functionalities, such as event tracking and eCommerce integrations, rely on third-party providers. This could add complexity and cost for businesses requiring these features.Overall, Salesforce Sales Cloud is well-suited for organizations seeking a reliable, AI-enhanced CRM with extensive customization options and analytical capabilities. It's particularly valuable for businesses expecting growth, as the platform can scale effectively. However, potential users should carefully consider their budget, required features and available resources for implementation and management when assessing this CRM.

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