Zoho CRM Pricing - why 2/10?

ITQlick Score:	98/100
ITQlick Rating:	(4.2/5)
Pricing:	2/10 - low cost
Category:	CRM -> Zoho CRM -> Zoho CRM pricing
Ranking:	Ranked 3 out of 600 CRM systems
Company:	Zoho
Pricing:	starts at $12 per user/month
Typical customers:	Small, medium and large size businesses
Platforms:	Desktop, Cloud
Links:	Zoho CRM review, Zoho CRM alternatives

Shlomi Lavi / Jul 08, 2020

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What is Zoho CRM's cost rating? (2/10)

When comparing Zoho CRM to their competitors, on a scale between 1 to 10 Zoho CRM is rated 2, which is less expensive than the average CRM software cost. Zoho CRM offers few flexible plans to their customers, the basic cost of license starting from $12 per user/month, read the article below in order to calculate the total cost of ownership (TCO) which includes: customization, data migration, training, hardware, maintenance, updgrades, and more.

You can also leave your info with us to get a free custom quote with the break downs for your business needs.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software Price Ranges

Most CRM software in the market are priced on a per-user, per-month basis; hence, businesses can expect to pay between the range of $10 to $200 per user monthly. There are also some CRM products with yearly pricings and others with perpetual licenses.

The above price range depends on the sophistication of the CRM products feature-wise, as well as the number of user accesses or accounts paid for. Some CRM software within the above price ranges are Zendesk Sell, which starts from $19 monthly per user, FreeAgent CRM pricing starts from $25 monthly per user, and GreenRope costs between $149 for up to 1,000 contacts to $699 for up to 50,000 contacts.

In addition, CRM products target different sizes of organizations, and their price ranges are as follows:

Small Businesses can expect to pay between the range of $10 to $25 for CRM software. The prices are set on a per user per month basis. For example, Zoho CRM costs $12 per user per month, Fresh Sales costs $13 per user, per month, and Copper pricing starts $19 per user per month. In addition to this, some products offer small businesses very basic packages which can be gotten for free.
Medium Businesses can expect to pay between $25 to $50 for CRM software. While most products for medium-sized businesses are priced on a per user, per month basis, the number of employees or registered users will determine the prize of the software per user. For example, Hubspot costs up to $30 per user monthly but $50 monthly for two users. Others are Benchmark ONE, which costs $40 monthly per user, and Skynamo, which is priced at $46 per user monthly.
Large Businesses can expect prices that fall within $50 to $200 for CRM products. CRM offerings for large business organizations typically come with more features; hence, there may be separate fees for installation, setup, or training. Some CRM software within this tier are FreeAgent CRM, which costs $130 price monthly per user; GreenRope costs between $149 for up to 1,000 contacts to $699 for up to 50,000 contacts , and Quick Base pricing falls around $500 monthly for a number of users.

CRM best of breeds and their price ranges are as follows:

Marketing Automation Software Marketing automation products can be divided into three tiers, each carrying prices that range from $0 to $19, $19 to $50, and $50 upwards, respectively. For instance, Active Campaign pricing starts from $15 monthly per user, Hubspot Marketing Automation costs up to $50 per user monthly, and Integrated Marketing Portal pricing is around $50 per user monthly.
Lead Management Software The pricing for Lead management products in the market usually varies between $11 and $60 upwards. These price ranges depend on the level of the products offerings and the number of registered users per month. For example, SalesExec pricing starts from $65 per user monthly, Salesforce Essentials costs around $25 per user monthly, and Lead Capsule pricing starts from around $500 per month for a number of years.
SalesForce Automation Software SalesForce automation products pricing ranges from $13 to $50 upwards, depending on the level of their offerings and the number of registered accounts per month. The prices are set per user, per month; hence, SAA software pricing like Really Simple System starts from $14 per user monthly, Pepperi pricing is around $48 per user monthly, and Cliently costs up to $39 per user per month.
Contact Management Software Most contact management products in the market are priced on a per month basis, and there are typically set limits to the number of contacts each user can manage on the software. Depending on the level of offers, prices may fall between $0 to $14, $14 to $25, and $25 to $400. For example, Infloflo pricing starts from around $100 per month, DejaOffice PC CRM costs up to $50 monthly, and AirTable pricing starts from $14 per month.
Email Marketing Software Email marketing products are priced per month, and there are usually limits on the number of subscribers or emails for each user monthly. The prices range from $0 and $30 upwards, depending on the package level. For example, Constant Contact pricing starts from $20 per month, SendinBlue pricing starts from $25 per month, and Campaigner costs around $19 per month.

What is the cost breakdown of CRM implementation?

When it comes to selecting CRM tools, buyers are primarily concerned about its cost. In fact, it is the cost that determines whether a potential buyer would go with the product. True, there is no one-size-fits-all formula to determine the “worth” of a business application, but as a software buyer, you want to make sure you get the best value for your money, without having to dig a big hole in your pocket.

Understanding the exact price of CRM system isn't easy as The overall cost of software includes the cost of license, subscription fees, training, customization, hardware, maintenance, support and other related services. It's essential to take into account all of these costs to gain an understanding of the system's "total cost of ownership."

What are the typical CRM pricing models?

There are primarily three common pricing models – Perpetual License, Subscription, and Commercial open source.

Subscription/Software-As-A-Service: - Relevant for Zoho CRM
Under this pricing model, the system is accessed over the Internet, as opposed to installed on-premises. The payment is made either on a per user basis or subscription basis. Ideally, customers are required to pay a recurring monthly fee until a specific period for using the tool. Subscription pricing model is more common with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apps.
Upfront cost for customization and integration is less compared to perpetual license cost because there is not much flexibility with SaaS systems in this area.
Recurring cost is greater as customers are required to make monthly payments as subscription fee. Additionally customers using premium support services must pay an extra fee.
All in all, the total cost of ownership in the both cases is almost the same and may span over a period of 7-10 years, though you may have to pay a higher perpetual license fee upfront. The total cost may vary from starter to mid range to enterprise level apps in both cases.
Perpetual license: - Relevant for Zoho CRM
A common pricing model for on-premise applications, perpetual license requires a customer to pay an upfront sum to own the tool or other intellectual property on-premises for a fixed term.
Upfront cost involves the fee for installation, customization, integration with existing systems, besides perpetual license fee.
Recurring cost is low in this pricing model and may include cost for updates, maintenance, upgrades, and patches. Some vendors do offer premium support services, which come for an extra price.
Commercial open source: Not relevant for Zoho CRM
The customer can acquire the system free of cost without having to incur any upfront license fee. As a customer, you’re solely responsible for the ongoing maintenance, upgrading, customization, and troubleshooting of the application to meet your specific needs. You are on your own for providing end-user support, since you are not locked in with a vendor-supplied system solution.

How much it would cost to customize Zoho CRM? (and is it relevant)

If you need specific features in your system catering to your specific business requirements, the vendor will charge customization cost, depending on your needs and feature requirement. Ideally customization cost is more complex to calculate compared to licensing cost.

Some apps allow you to easily combine data from multiple sources, without any complicated query requirements, while some others can be embedded into different applications to provide enhanced reporting. If you seek products that support customizable dashboards and predictive analysis to identity possible trends and facilitate decision making, you may have to pay higher for all the customization features.

Additionally, the following factors may affect the cost of customization:

User interface changes
Configurable dashboards
Data elements required for tracking
Forms to collect additional data
Dashboard, management and operational reports that are needed.
Workflows and how complex they are.
Forms to collect additional data.

Here are some questions to answer: How much customization is needed? How many system you want to integrate to? Does your company work like industry standars or has it's own customize processes? What kind of special reports are needed?

In order to calculate the cost of customization you can use the following estimates:

Minimal customization - integrate with 1-2 systems: $2,500
Standard customization - integrate with 3-5 systems: $10,000
Fully customized system - integrate with more than 5 systems: $25,000

Cost of data migration when migrating to Zoho CRM? Relevant for Zoho CRM

Most companies opt for data migration services from a vendor, which raises the cost of product ownership. If you choose to transfer data on your own, you can avoid paying the cost of data migration.
Data migration cost depends on the amount of data to be transferred, your current software, availability of migration tools, complexity of data, and gaps between the existing system and the new system.

If your data is stored in excel spreadsheets, then it may incur you a lot of time and money to migrate data from excel.
By involving a business services provider in data migration, you are asking them to offer additional services, for which you may have to pay extra.

As a rule of thumb the cost of data migration depents on how many records you want to migrate. Records can include number of Customers, invoices, financial transactions, products, versions, etc. Here is a list you can use as a rule of thumb:

1,000 records: $500
10,000 records: $2,500
100,000 records: $10,000
1,000,000+ records: $25,000

What is the cost of training for Zoho CRM? Relevant for Zoho CRM

As a buyer, you are required to pay extra for in-person training, though some vendors offer web-based solutions as part of the package. the cost may involve end-user training, video/self, group, department, and train the super users.

The cost is mainly derived from the approach that you select for your organization:

End-user training
Group/Department
Video /self
Train the trainer/super user

Here are some questions to answer: How many groups (different departments, usages, type of users) are needed?

In order to calculate the cost you can use the following estimates:

1-2 Sessions: $500
3-4 Sessions: $1,500
5-7 Sessions: $2,500
8-10 Sessions: $5,000

How Zoho CRM pricing compared to alternarive CRM solutions?

When comparing Zoho CRM to alternative systems, on a scale between 1 to 10 Zoho CRM is rated 2, which is less expensive than the average CRM cost.

The two main competitors of Zoho CRM include Hubspot CRM and Salesforce. Hubspot just like Zoho CRM is cloud-based customer relationship management. Hubspot CRM caters to small and medium-sized enterprises with 10-200 customers whereas Zoho CRM caters to everyone and businesses of any size.

Hubspot vendor is Hubspot whereas Zoho CRM is a product of Zoho CRM which was founded in 1996 and based in the United States. Both Zoho CRM and Hubspot CRM offers a free trial and version. Zoho CRM offers training via documentation, webinars and in-person while Hubspot CRM offers training via documentation, webinars, live online and in-person.

Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management solution just like Zoho CRM. Zoho CRM is a product of Zoho CRM which was founded in 1996 and based in the United States whereas Salesforce vendor is Salesforce.

Salesforce caters to businesses of all sizes ranging from 2 to 1000 plus, and on the other hand, Zoho CRM provides to businesses of all sizes ranging from 1 to 1000 plus. Salesforce has a free trial but no free version unlike Zoho CRM that has both a free trial and version.

How can the team at ITQlick help?

The science of TCO (total cost of ownership) may not be easy to calculate. If you seek to get a detailed info about the TCO, get in touch with ITQlick experts. Contact us today and get up to date, detailed quotes.

Author

Shlomi Lavi

Shlomi holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Information System Engineering from Ben Gurion University in Israel. Shlomi brings 15 years of global IT and IS management experience as a consultant, and implementation expert for small, medium and large size (global) companies.