Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM: Price, Features & What’s Best in 2019

Both Pipedrive and Zoho CRM provide customer relationship management (CRM) services, but the tools differ in their approaches. In our comparison of Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM, we found that Zoho CRM is great for organizations that just want a low-cost but scalable CRM, while Pipedrive is better for teams looking to manage information visually.

When to Use Pipedrive

Pipedrive is best for businesses looking to scale their sales operations with a CRM that empowers individual reps with the information they need to continue driving opportunities. The CRM platform is rightfully distinguished from the competition by its user interface and unique pipeline views that are designed to convey meaningful information quickly.

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When to Use Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM is a solid choice for businesses already working within the Zoho ecosystem and for those who want a comprehensive CRM. The platform’s simple user interface offers numerous integrations, such as Zoho Mail and Zoho Books, robust scalable features, and some customization that makes it easy to add in additional functionality as you grow.

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Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM at a Glance

How We Evaluated Pipedrive & Zoho CRM

Small businesses looking to compare Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM are typically looking for a tool that can help them support or sustain growth. Both tools are cloud-hosted and easy to maintain, and both provide a central mechanism for gaining control over and visibility into the activities driving sales. However, how well businesses can scale with either Pipedrive or Zoho CRM can vary based on their needs in terms of pricing, features, and the user experience.

Therefore, we evaluated Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM based on the following criteria:

• Price: We compared the monthly per-user prices for both CRMs.
• Ease of use: Tools with intuitive features are easier to use, so we evaluated the end-user experiences with both platforms.
• Customization: We examined the extent of customization offered with each solution.
• Contact management: Because contact management is a major facet of any CRM tool, we investigated the abilities of both software to manage contacts and related activities.
• Data protection: We considered how well each tool provides data security.
• Reporting: Data can help drive improvements within sales organizations, so we took a look at the reporting capabilities of both tools.
• Workflow automation: We analyzed the capacity of each tool to automate workflows.
• Customer support: Finally, we compared options for post-sale customer support and training.

We chose Pipedrive as the better choice for small businesses because the software has everything teams need to manage growth. In addition to tools for recording and organizing sales activities, Pipedrive boasts a sleek user interface designed to help teams quickly visualize deal status and determine next steps. Businesses looking for a simpler interface or less expensive solution for monitoring these activities may, however, consider Zoho CRM a better fit.

Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM: Pricing & Features

In our comparison of Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM, we carefully considered the features offered with each pricing tier. Pipedrive pricing ranges from $12.50 to $99 per user, per month, while Zoho CRM pricing ranges from $12 to $35 per user, per month. Despite these variations, overall, Pipedrive offers more features and customization with its introductory tiers than does Zoho CRM, making it the more inclusive choice and one of the best CRMs for small businesses.

Pipedrive Pricing

Pipedrive offers a four-plan pricing model. The entry-level plan is $12.50 per user, per month and offers automatic call logging, deal and contact management, and sales and activity reports. Subsequent plans range from $24.90 to $99 per user, per month and offer additional features like goals management, two-way email sync, email tracking, and workflow automation.

Pipedrive Features

Essential

At just $12.50 per user, per month, Pipedrive’s Essential package is impressive with both core functionality, such as contact and deal management, and the prioritization of critical data. In addition to data protection through AES 256-bit encryption, keeping your information and that of your customers safe, duplicate contact records are detected and can be merged easily, preventing data decay, inaccurate forecasting, or worse.

Essential plan users can also leverage two-way email sync to track email opens and clicks and then use the data to hone in on what target audiences really find relevant, something which Zoho CRM does not offer. Sharing relevant information can help prospects come to see you as a resource and, ultimately, increase your chances of making a future sale.

Advanced

Pipedrive’s Advanced package is $24.90 per user, per month and, building on the features included with the previous tier, introduces calling functionality, enabling salespeople to make outbound phone calls directly from within the tool itself. Built-in caller ID recognition also means that deals and contacts are updated instantly, saving time and preventing lapses in data, a feature which Zoho CRM lacks.

Also included with the Advanced package is contact data enrichment, an automated process around the comparison of existing contact records with social media profiles, helping to keep contacts current. Cold calls tend to run more smoothly when callers are informed, so we recommend this package for sales teams expecting a high volume of outbound prospecting.

Professional

The Pipedrive Professional package is ideal for small businesses that want to empower individual employees with information to manage their own productivity. In addition to its pipeline view (known for its highly visual component), for $49.90 per user, per month, users gain access to customized dashboards with dynamic graphics to illustrate activity metrics, goal attainment, and more.

With the Professional package, organizations can also enable better-informed sales leadership. Managers can use the Sales Insight mobile app to view the latest bookings and updates—even while on the go. They can also devise plans to help where needed, all for just $49.90 per user, per month.

Enterprise

Pipedrive’s Enterprise package is certainly its most comprehensive, though no one feature is exclusive to this tier. Instead, at $99 per user, per month, the package provides unlimited use of workflow rules and live dashboards without limitations, building on functionality offered with the other tiers.

The Enterprise package’s all-inclusive price also includes an uncapped number of advanced user permissions. Your sales team will also gain better control over which users can view or edit certain information, helping reduce risk. Because of its limitless features and competitive price, especially compared to other CRM software, we recommend this tier from Pipedrive for large sales teams with generally autonomous corporate and enterprise sales reps.

Zoho CRM Pricing

Zoho CRM offers three paid plans that range in price from $12 to $35 per user, per month. Each plan builds on the features made available with its free plan, such as built-in email templates, standard reporting, and the management of accounts, contacts, and deals with the addition of more customization, workflow rules, and integrations.

Zoho CRM Features

Standard

The Standard package from Zoho CRM is offered at $12 per user, per month and covers the basics, like account, contact, and lead management. It also includes some limited workflow rules, allowing administrators to automate certain tasks, like lead assignment and email alerts when deals are won, to save time.

Zoho CRM does not offer email association with deals with its introductory tier, as does Pipedrive. However, it does offer up to 5,000 email notifications per day. For this reason, we recommend the Standard package for organizations that want a CRM plan for managing relatively few transactions per sales employee.

Professional

Zoho’s Professional package is priced at $20 per user, per month and builds on the features included with the previous tier, with the addition of the ability to automatically associate emails with deals. Aside from eliminating the need to do this manually, another benefit of knowing who has visited your website is the ability to store that information and use it to guide prospecting efforts.

It lacks the color-differentiated pipeline view provided with Pipedrive, but the Professional Package from Zoho CRM does allow for the management of a product catalog, plus price books and quoting, making it a good option for businesses with primarily direct transactions.

Enterprise

The Enterprise package from Zoho CRM is offered at $35 per user, per month. With the addition of funnels and comparative graphics including a target meter, information can be filtered by teams, territories, and even individual reps, enabling more extensive analysis of performance. This functionality is critical for determining the success of past initiatives and for developing new ones.

Zoho CRM’s Enterprise package also increases the number of permitted mass emails from 500 to 1,000 per day. Because this can be a huge boost for marketing teams, we recommend this package for larger businesses seeking to ramp up email marketing campaigns.

Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM: Ease of Use

CRMs tools that are easy to use are more likely to be used efficiently, leading to higher quality data and likelihood of an investment return. While comparing Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM, we considered how easy it is to use each platform, and because of its visual ease of setup, uniquely visual pipeline view, and user-friendly interface, we found that Pipedrive is, in general, easier to use.

Pipedrive Ease of Use

Due to its user design with a focus on making information quickly intelligible, Pipedrive is one of the easier-to-use CRMs. Live dashboards make it easy to view activities, as well as individual and team performance, all in real-time. Pipedrive is also cloud-hosted, so setup is a breeze, and the system is accessible any time, from any connected device.

Zoho CRM Ease of Use

Zoho CRM is also cloud-hosted, and while it does include the CRM functionality that most companies need, the system is not as easy to use out-of-the-box as is Pipedrive or other Zoho alternatives. However, because Zoho CRM is neither complicated nor feature-heavy, adoption time is short, helping businesses implement changes that boost productivity almost immediately.

Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM: Customer Service

Customer service is an important aspect of the customer experience, especially when it comes to implementation, updates, and readily available assistance should problems arise. In our evaluation of Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM, we determined that both platforms offer robust customer support options and that neither holds the advantage.

Pipedrive Customer Service

Pipedrive customer service is available in English 24/7, while customer service in German, French, Portuguese, and Spanish is available during business hours, Monday through Friday. For end-users wanting even more, there is the Pipedrive Academy complete with self-paced learning modules on using each piece of the solution.

Zoho CRM Customer Service

Zoho CRM multilingual customer service is also available 24 hours per day via email or via telephone. Like Pipedrive, Zoho CRM offers self-paced learning options, including recorded webinars, as well as access to a community forum and knowledge base, where customers can view resources related to the topic of their choice.

Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM: Customer Reviews

When we examined Pipedrive vs Zoho, we took a careful look at reviews from real customers. Both platforms are strong in customer service. However, Pipedrive has the edge when it comes to average customer ratings. Pipedrive boasts a nearly perfect score while Zoho CRM has room for improvement.

Pipedrive Customer Reviews

Pipedrive users consistently rate the system highly, with an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5. In fact, most Pipedrive customers feel the tool has helped them to significantly impact the way they do business and that they see no need to pay for more features. For more on the Pipedrive user experience, visit our Pipedrive user review page.

Zoho CRM Customer Reviews

Some CRMs are ready out-of-the-box, like Pipedrive, which supports direct integration with many common software as a service (SaaS) platforms. However, many current Zoho users agree that Zoho CRM is good for businesses that are OK with a modular solution that may require third-party integration assistance. Read more about what Zoho CRM users have to say on our Zoho user reviews page.

Bottom Line: Zoho CRM vs Pipedrive

Both Zoho CRM and Pipedrive are solid CRM software. Like Pipedrive, Zoho CRM can be effective by helping businesses formally manage the activities driving sales. However, even with its most feature-laden package, it can be difficult for growing organizations to work within inherent limitations.

Zoho CRM is a good option for those who are new to CRM and looking to improve their go-to market strategy, but based on these findings, Pipedrive is the better option for businesses that value the ability to make data-driven decisions quickly. To get started with a Pipedrive free trial, visit their website and sign up today.

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