Cloud Elements (discontinued) vs. Zoho Flow

Cloud Elements shines when you want to offer multiple options to the user on a type of system, such as supporting integration to CRM and wanting to offer Dynamics, Salesforce, and HubSpot on equal footing. If you only have a single integration with a single system, using Cloud Elements adds an unnecessary layer of abstraction.

Incentivized

For small—to medium-sized connections between different applications, Zoho Flow is quick and easy to set up and test. However, as a Flow becomes more complicated with multiple connections and decisions, it becomes more difficult to track errors and faults and manage changes. Some of this is due to the history not being detailed enough, and some is just the UI, where you can't zoom in and out and clearly see connecting lines for flows.

Incentivized

• The API itself is very robust and easy to use, being a standard REST interface, standard HTTP response codes, well-packaged error messages, etc.
• Their uptime is great! I think I've seen one (short) 5-minute' blip' the entire time we've been connected for any type of primary function.
• Their support is top notch, they respond quickly, and the team that works with you is communicative and knowledgable.

Incentivized

• Works with all other Zoho apps to connect them together and share data
• User interface and dashboard are nice. Gives you a detailed look into flow history and/or audit of your flows
• The ability to set logic responses and incorporate custom functions makes the app even more powerful

Incentivized

• The only thing I can think of that they could improve is the quality of the assets they produce in the go-to-market process. This is a huge value add service, but the quality of what was produced was lower than what we would have produced internally. We spent more time going back and forth on the assets than it would have taken us to build them from scratch.

Incentivized

• Some history is missing, and not all error reporting is comprehensive enough on more complex functions.
• The ability to run tests on custom functions exists in other apps like CRM.
• Ability to create custom connections for OAuth like in the CRM application.

Incentivized

Flow can accomplish almost anything you want to do. It's imperfect, but it could be with just a few more features and better error management/visibility. For someone who's not a developer, this is a no-brainer. Having used other products in the past, like Zapier, this is as easy to use, if not even easier.

Incentivized

I've reached out to the support team several times with assistance requests in Zoho Flow. Each time the team has answered my questions promptly and accurately. And because we are mainly integrating other Zoho apps their teams are perfectly positioned to solve our problems.

Incentivized

At the time we found Cloud Elements we found no other option that had a Unified API for cloud storage providers.

Incentivized

I've used Zapier and both programs are similar. Zapier has deeper integrations or more apps to integrate with but considering Flow's association with other Zoho apps this does it for us!

Incentivized

• Not my area of expertise, but it made my job as an implementer much easier, especially after finishing the first integration.

Incentivized

• Quick and Easy to set up without the need for a Developer.
• Visibility into the history of flows and the ability to rerun is a big time saver.

Incentivized