Head to head
Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM
Both products assessed against the same checklist, with ratings drawn from 451 verified reviews.
- Rating gap
- 0.1
- Reviews behind this
- 451
- Monthly price gap
- US$236
- Features they share
- 1
Side by side
How they compare
Ratings computed from published reviews, and the specifications that change what a product costs to run. The washed column is the higher rated of the two.
| Compared on | Higher rated overall | Zoho Corporation |
|---|---|---|
| What reviewers say | ||
| Overall rating | 4.3, higher | 4.2 |
| Ease of use | 4.1 | 4.1 |
| Value for money | 4.2, higher | 4.1 |
| Customer service | 4.1, higher | 4.0 |
| Functionality | 4.3, higher | 4.2 |
| Verified reviews | 187 | 264 |
| What it costs | ||
| Starting price | US$24per month, from | R260per month, from |
| VAT basis | Excl VAT | Excl VAT |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Published plans | 3 | 4 |
| Vendor and support | ||
| Vendor | Pipedrive OU | Zoho Corporation |
| Founded | 2010 | 1996 |
| Support channels | Live chat, Email, Knowledge base, Community | Email, Live chat, Telephone, Knowledge base, Community forum |
| Integrations listed | 9 | 10 |
| Local bank feeds | 0 | 0 |
The local yardstick
South African compliance
Amber marks a gap rather than a feature. This is usually where the decision is actually made.
Pipedrive
- GDPR tooling that maps onto POPIA
- Consent capture
- Data subject request handling
- Data hosted in the European Union
Zoho CRM
- POPIA aligned consent capture
- Data subject request handling
- Configurable retention rules
- Selectable data residency by region
- Operator agreement available
What they cost
Pricing, compared properly
Check the VAT basis on each. Vendors are not consistent, and the difference is 15%.
Pipedrive
Listed excluding VAT
- US$24/mo
Essential
Per seat
- US$39/mo
Advanced
Per seat
- US$64/mo
ProfessionalPopular
Per seat
Billed in US dollars per seat per month, discounted annually. The Professional tier is the realistic starting point for a team using automation.
Zoho CRM
Listed excluding VAT
- Free
Free
3 users
- R260/mo
Standard
Per user
- R450/mo
ProfessionalPopular
Per user
- R780/mo
Enterprise
Per user
Zoho bills in rand, which removes exchange rate exposure. Prices exclude VAT and annual billing is discounted against monthly.
Capability
The full feature matrix
Every feature either product offers, and whether the other one has it.
| Compared on | Higher rated overall | Zoho Corporation |
|---|---|---|
| 25 features across both products | ||
| Activity based selling with next action prompts | Included | Not included |
| Blueprint process automation | Not included | Included |
| Consent capture and data subject requests | Not included | Included |
| Custom modules and fields | Not included | Included |
| Customisable pipelines and stages | Included | Not included |
| Deluge scripting | Not included | Included |
| Documents and e signature | Included | Not included |
| Email integration with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace | Not included | Included |
| Email sequences | Included | Not included |
| Forecasting | Not included | Included |
| Leads, contacts, accounts and deals | Not included | Included |
| Meeting scheduler | Included | Not included |
| Mobile app for iOS and Android | Included | Not included |
| Multiple pipelines | Not included | Included |
| Offline capable mobile app | Not included | Included |
| Open API | Included | Not included |
| Open REST API | Not included | Included |
| Products and quoting | Included | Not included |
| Quotes, sales orders and invoices | Not included | Included |
| Reports and dashboards | Included | Included |
| Revenue forecasting | Included | Not included |
| Territory management | Not included | Included |
| Two way email sync | Included | Not included |
| Workflow automation | Included | Not included |
| Workflow rules and approval chains | Not included | Included |
Our verdict
Which one you should buy
We name a winner. Listing differences and leaving the decision to the reader is not a verdict.
Pipedrive has the highest sustained adoption rate of any CRM we track. Zoho has more capability per rand than anything else in the category. Choose based on which problem you actually have.
If your problem is that nobody updates the CRM, buy Pipedrive. Activity based selling keeps the pipeline current because updating it is how a rep does their job rather than a separate admin task, and a new rep is productive in a morning.
If your problem is that you need quoting, approval chains, territory management or genuine workflow automation, buy Zoho. Pipedrive has no custom objects, thin marketing automation and no service module, and bolting those on will cost more than the difference.
Zoho also bills in rand where Pipedrive bills in dollars, which removes exchange rate exposure. For a fifteen user team on an annual commitment that is a real number.
We may earn a commission when you subscribe through this link, at no extra cost to you. It never affects a rating or a ranking. How we make money