Zoho CRM
CRM · www.zoho.com
Zoho CRM is a customer relationship management platform for managing leads, contacts, deals and sales pipelines with automation, reporting and AI features, offered in multiple editions including a free tier for up to 3 users.
Switching to Keap, which covers 100% of the compared capabilities.
Find my alternative
Way less money.
Top Zoho CRM alternatives
We compared 15 products and found 5 cheaper alternatives · vs Zoho CRM Standard at $70/mo for 5 seats ($14/seat) · scenario: 5 seats, monthly billing, USD.
Zoho CRM costs $70/mo on the Standard plan at 5 seats, monthly billing. We found 5 assessed alternatives that are cheaper in this scenario; 2 of them cover at least 75% of the 11 compared capabilities. The cheapest option that covers everything we compared is Keap at $0/mo (Free trial plan), 100% less.
| Product | Match | Price | Annual savings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Brevo Starter plan · missing: Email sync & tracking, Meeting scheduling, Mobile CRM app, AI sales assistant, Custom fields, Permissions & security controls marketing automation — adjacent | 45% | $9/mo how? ⓘ | $732 / year 87% cheaper | |
Less Annoying CRM Everything included plan · missing: Lead management, Sales automation & sequences, Reports & forecasting, Email sync & tracking, Meeting scheduling, Mobile CRM app, AI sales assistant sales crm — adjacent | 36% | $15/mo how? ⓘ | $660 / year 79% cheaper | |
Freshsales Growth plan · missing: Lead management, Reports & forecasting, Email sync & tracking, Meeting scheduling, Mobile CRM app, AI sales assistant sales crm — adjacent | 45% | $45/mo how? ⓘ | $300 / year 36% cheaper | |
Nutshell Foundation plan · missing: Custom fields, Permissions & security controls sales crm — adjacent | 82% | $65/mo how? ⓘ | $60 / year 7% cheaper |
Which Zoho CRM alternative for which situation
Picked by the numbers in this scenario — same subtype unless stated, assessed products only.
- Best full coverage
- Keap — $0/mo (Free trial plan) · covers 100%
- Best free plan
- Keap — $0/mo (Free trial plan) · covers 100%
- Need contact management, lead management, sales pipeline management, sales automation & sequences, reports & forecasting, email sync & tracking, meeting scheduling, mobile CRM app, AI sales assistant, custom fields or permissions & security controls?
- Keap — from $0/mo (Free trial plan)
What you give up
Capabilities Zoho CRM has that the top alternatives lack.
- Lead management — Capture, score, and organize incoming leads.Missing from Less Annoying CRM, Freshsales.
- Sales automation & sequences — Automate outreach sequences and follow-up tasks.Missing from Less Annoying CRM.
- Reports & forecasting — View reports and forecasts on pipeline and sales performance.Missing from Less Annoying CRM, Freshsales.
- Email sync & tracking — Sync email conversations and track opens with contacts.Missing from Brevo, Less Annoying CRM, Freshsales.
- Meeting scheduling — Let prospects book meetings directly from the CRM.Missing from Brevo, Less Annoying CRM, Freshsales.
- Mobile CRM app — Access the CRM from a mobile app.Missing from Brevo, Less Annoying CRM, Freshsales.
- AI sales assistant — Get AI-generated suggestions and summaries for sales activity.Missing from Brevo, Less Annoying CRM, Freshsales.
- Custom fields — Add custom fields to records to track your own data.Missing from Brevo.
- Permissions & security controls — Control what each team member can see and edit.Missing from Brevo.
Price at your volume
The same comparison recomputed at three sizes. Plan caps change who is cheapest.
Feature comparison
Zoho CRM vs the top alternatives, on the 11 compared capabilities.
| Capability | Zoho CRM | Keap | Brevo | Less Annoying CRM | Freshsales |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contact management from Free | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Lead management from Free | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Sales pipeline management from Standard | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sales automation & sequences from Free | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Reports & forecasting from Free | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Email sync & tracking from Standard | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Meeting scheduling from Standard | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Mobile CRM app from Free | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| AI sales assistant from Enterprise | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Custom fields from Standard | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Permissions & security controls from Standard | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scenario price cheapest qualifying plan | $70/mo Standard | $0/mo Free trial | $0/mo Free | $15/mo Everything included | $45/mo Growth |
✓ means the product offers the capability — possibly only on a higher tier than the plan priced below it. The price row shows the cheapest plan that qualifies for our comparison scenario, with its plan name; a $0 free plan may not include every checked capability.
What Zoho CRM covers
The capability set used for comparison. Grey entries are not available on self-serve plans.
- ✓ Contact management — from Free
- ✓ Lead management — from Free
- ✓ Sales pipeline management — from Standard
- ✓ Sales automation & sequences — from Free
- ✓ Reports & forecasting — from Free
- ✓ Email sync & tracking — from Standard
- ✓ Meeting scheduling — from Standard
- ✓ Mobile CRM app — from Free
- ✓ AI sales assistant — from Enterprise
- ✓ Custom fields — from Standard
- ✓ Permissions & security controls — from Standard
Price ladder
Observed prices from the official pricing page.
Sources
Every claim traces to an official source and a check date.
- https://www.zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing.html (official_pricing, checked 2026-08-25)
Frequently asked
How much does Zoho CRM cost?
Zoho CRM's Standard plan costs $70/mo in our scenario (5 seats, monthly billing). A free plan exists.
Is there a free Zoho CRM alternative?
Yes. Keap has a free plan that covers 100% of the 11 capabilities we compared against Zoho CRM.
What is the cheapest Zoho CRM alternative?
In our scenario (5 seats, monthly billing), Keap is the cheapest assessed alternative at $0/mo (Free trial plan).
What is the cheapest Zoho CRM alternative with Email sync & tracking?
Keap covers Email sync & tracking and costs $0/mo (Free trial plan) in our scenario.
Does Zoho CRM have a free plan?
Yes. Zoho CRM's free plan is limited to 3 seats.
When were these prices checked?
Between 2026-08-25 and 2026-09-07, on the vendors' official pricing pages.