Salesforce Service Cloud vs. Zoho CRM

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Salesforce Service Cloud
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Service Cloud is a customer service platform that helps businesses manage and resolve customer inquiries and issues. It provides tools for case management, knowledge base, omni-channel support, automation, and analytics, enabling companies to deliver exceptional customer service experiences.
$25
per month
Zoho CRM
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Zoho CRM is a simple, very low-cost CRM option for the smaller end of the SMB segment. The product has several useful integrations with other products, including QuickBooks, and Google Apps and Google Docs. The product also has an integrated project management module.
$14
per month
Pricing
Salesforce Service CloudZoho CRM
Editions & Modules
Starter Suite
$25
per month
Professional
$80
per month
Enterprise
$165
per month per user
Unlimited
$165
per month per user
Unlimited+
$165
per month per user
Standard
$14.00
Per User/Per Month
Professional
$23.00
Per User/Per Month
Enterprise
$40.00
Per User/Per Month
Ultimate
$52.00
Per User/Per Month
Plus
$57.00
Per User/Per Month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Salesforce Service CloudZoho CRM
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup fee$14 /user/month
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Salesforce Service CloudZoho CRM
Considered Both Products
Salesforce Service Cloud
Chose Salesforce Service Cloud
Service Cloud is just a more comprehensive solution within a great ecosystem. It was natural to use Service Cloud since we're using Sales Cloud. It's a highly adaptable product that can grow with your business and it's needs whether it's adding users or entire pieces of …
Chose Salesforce Service Cloud
We previously used a home grown, proprietary system for our needs. This started to get costly and clunky as our database grew. We ended up going with Salesforce because they are purely cloud based. They also have a large footprint and very robust solution so they help us …
Chose Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce had the most flexibility, features and integrations. They were also so tightly integrated in with opportunity management and case management. I love having the ability to create custom objects to solve any kind of business problem. There is also a lot of …
Chose Salesforce Service Cloud
More mature application leading to fewer exception rates and more experience handling complex business scenarios over the years. In terms of market share, Salesforce Service Cloud is widely used as it gives you the flexibility to drag and drop the components without any …
Zoho CRM

No answer on this topic

Features
Salesforce Service CloudZoho CRM
Incident and problem management
Comparison of Incident and problem management features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Service Cloud
8.8
78 Ratings
7% above category average
Zoho CRM
-
Ratings
Organize and prioritize service tickets9.276 Ratings00 Ratings
Expert directory8.454 Ratings00 Ratings
Subscription-based notifications8.964 Ratings00 Ratings
ITSM collaboration and documentation8.261 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket creation and submission9.176 Ratings00 Ratings
Ticket response9.075 Ratings00 Ratings
Self Help Community
Comparison of Self Help Community features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Service Cloud
8.7
73 Ratings
9% above category average
Zoho CRM
-
Ratings
External knowledge base8.664 Ratings00 Ratings
Internal knowledge base8.971 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-Channel Help
Comparison of Multi-Channel Help features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Service Cloud
8.8
78 Ratings
10% above category average
Zoho CRM
-
Ratings
Customer portal8.455 Ratings00 Ratings
IVR8.735 Ratings00 Ratings
Social integration8.748 Ratings00 Ratings
Email support9.277 Ratings00 Ratings
Help Desk CRM integration8.967 Ratings00 Ratings
Sales Force Automation
Comparison of Sales Force Automation features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Service Cloud
-
Ratings
Zoho CRM
8.1
288 Ratings
4% above category average
Customer data management / contact management00 Ratings8.4279 Ratings
Workflow management00 Ratings8.1266 Ratings
Territory management00 Ratings8.2196 Ratings
Opportunity management00 Ratings8.4253 Ratings
Integration with email client (e.g., Outlook or Gmail)00 Ratings8.0248 Ratings
Contract management00 Ratings8.2203 Ratings
Quote & order management00 Ratings7.9203 Ratings
Interaction tracking00 Ratings7.8249 Ratings
Channel / partner relationship management00 Ratings7.8192 Ratings
Customer Service & Support
Comparison of Customer Service & Support features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Service Cloud
-
Ratings
Zoho CRM
7.9
221 Ratings
3% above category average
Case management00 Ratings8.0213 Ratings
Call center management00 Ratings7.4172 Ratings
Help desk management00 Ratings8.2189 Ratings
Marketing Automation
Comparison of Marketing Automation features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Service Cloud
-
Ratings
Zoho CRM
8.1
266 Ratings
5% above category average
Lead management00 Ratings8.2261 Ratings
Email marketing00 Ratings8.1219 Ratings
CRM Project Management
Comparison of CRM Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Service Cloud
-
Ratings
Zoho CRM
8.2
263 Ratings
7% above category average
Task management00 Ratings8.3248 Ratings
Billing and invoicing management00 Ratings8.0180 Ratings
Reporting00 Ratings8.2242 Ratings
CRM Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of CRM Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Service Cloud
-
Ratings
Zoho CRM
8.1
258 Ratings
6% above category average
Forecasting00 Ratings8.0216 Ratings
Pipeline visualization00 Ratings8.0235 Ratings
Customizable reports00 Ratings8.3249 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Service Cloud
-
Ratings
Zoho CRM
7.9
277 Ratings
3% above category average
Custom fields00 Ratings8.3275 Ratings
Custom objects00 Ratings7.9222 Ratings
Scripting environment00 Ratings7.5178 Ratings
API for custom integration00 Ratings8.0203 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Service Cloud
-
Ratings
Zoho CRM
8.2
266 Ratings
2% below category average
Single sign-on capability00 Ratings8.2231 Ratings
Role-based user permissions00 Ratings8.1261 Ratings
Social CRM
Comparison of Social CRM features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Service Cloud
-
Ratings
Zoho CRM
7.9
165 Ratings
6% above category average
Social data00 Ratings7.9164 Ratings
Social engagement00 Ratings7.9156 Ratings
Integrations with 3rd-party Software
Comparison of Integrations with 3rd-party Software features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Service Cloud
-
Ratings
Zoho CRM
8.2
210 Ratings
10% above category average
Marketing automation00 Ratings8.4207 Ratings
Compensation management00 Ratings8.0138 Ratings
Platform
Comparison of Platform features of Product A and Product B
Salesforce Service Cloud
-
Ratings
Zoho CRM
8.2
230 Ratings
9% above category average
Mobile access00 Ratings8.2230 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Salesforce Service CloudZoho CRM
Small Businesses
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Salesmate
Salesmate
Score 9.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Agiloft Service Desk (discontinued)
Score 9.0 out of 10
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprises
SysAid
SysAid
Score 9.1 out of 10
Creatio
Creatio
Score 9.2 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Salesforce Service CloudZoho CRM
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(84 ratings)
8.3
(312 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.2
(8 ratings)
7.6
(42 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(12 ratings)
8.0
(172 ratings)
Availability
9.5
(29 ratings)
8.9
(7 ratings)
Performance
8.6
(7 ratings)
8.4
(8 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(20 ratings)
6.5
(69 ratings)
In-Person Training
10.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
9.0
(1 ratings)
5.8
(8 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(1 ratings)
5.4
(16 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
5.1
(114 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
-
(0 ratings)
9.5
(21 ratings)
Ease of integration
5.0
(1 ratings)
7.1
(5 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
6.3
(6 ratings)
Professional Services
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(7 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
8.1
(13 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.0
(1 ratings)
8.2
(13 ratings)
User Testimonials
Salesforce Service CloudZoho CRM
Likelihood to Recommend
Salesforce
It is a helpful tool, but it can be a bit cumbersome to manage. It is also a bit expensive, but we already use CRM for Salesforce and it is convenient to be able to immediately tag contacts and accounts when the tickets come into the system and tie them directly to the account. I do know an integration with Jira is possible (we use Jira internally for our engineering team to escalate issues) but it is not configured right now so managing the connection between support tickets and Jira tickets is manual and hard to keep up with
Read full review
Zoho
Interfacing with our target clients at the correct minute is crucial in today's society. Another valuable include is its capacity to coordinated with other programs. It helps me in keeping track of the every day work emails I send to my colleagues or get. Zoho CRM makes it straightforward to consequence or send out information agreeing to our needs. Zoho makes a difference keep in mind individuals by means of e-mail and pop-ups, which dispenses with the issue of overlooking follow-ups and reminders. This not as it were helps within the organization of this incredible instrument but moreover within the execution of data.
Read full review
Pros
Salesforce
  • Allows us to make changes quickly and with relative ease
  • Can be flexible enough to use among several teams who do very different work
  • Salesforce in general provides SO much training that anyone on the team can skill up and help maintain the system
Read full review
Zoho
  • Hooks into our website and can import data from forms.
  • Has great automation tools built in.
  • Reporting features are great.
  • Easy to learn, makes it easy for us to onboard new users onto it.
  • Fairly customizable. We have fine tuned it to work the way we need it to.
Read full review
Cons
Salesforce
  • There is a slight scope for error, but sometimes it has a heavy impact. So this can be improved.
  • Costing is high.
  • Maintenance is more.
  • Expertise is required for implementation.
  • The number of communication messages have some limit per organisation account.
Read full review
Zoho
  • Need some way to switch a field type without losing the pre-existing data.
  • The settings controls should be broken out differently - I don't like that I can't keep some users from exporting all contact records (i.e., the entire Contacts module) because if the export function is turned off, the export function of Reports for those same modules is also blocked.
  • Frustrating that only 3 custom lookup fields are allowed per module in our license.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Salesforce
Professional edition works best for a small company with lower call volumes and is very useful but as you grow exponetially I think it has limited ability to do all the things we want to - SLA management, defect, release management to name a few. Reports and dashboards being available in real time.
Read full review
Zoho
i have already renewed my subscription twice. I am in the 3rd Year now. I have been using it for a while and have been recommending to my friends as well.. have attended ZOHOLICs the annual program of zoho and it gave me new insights of managing the crm solutoin.
Read full review
Usability
Salesforce
I had Salesforce experience prior to using Service Cloud which made it a little easier to learn and navigate, but overall my team (some who had no Salesforce experience) caught on very quickly and found Service Cloud to be easy to use.
Read full review
Zoho
The methodology of the 'out of the box' user interface is fairly easy to learn. In some cases however, the interface is not consistent throughout the software. Upgrades to the interface has certainly improved some of this--- but now we are seeing the same kinds of inconsistencies across Zoho apps, particularly those more recently added to their platform. This issue is not major in that everybody on staff seems able to learn how to work the programs--- it's just annoying and less than efficient when inconsistent user interfaces or inconsistent terms are used in the programs and/or the requisite documentation.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Salesforce
Salesforce's Trust Center clearly communicates occasional issues to anyone who subscribes, down to an organization's cloud instance. Bundled sandboxes ease updates, and seasonal upgrades are seamless, scheduled well in advance with plenty of information about what's coming. Support agents have noticed intermittent Omni-Channel disconnects due to internet connections, and these are clearly notified.
Read full review
Zoho
In my many years using Zoho, I think there were only 1 or 2 days when there was something happening and I was not able to log in. Sure, it wasn't fun and we all panicked a bit, but right after that, all was well and work-life continued. Being cloud based, I'm never worried about losing my iPhone, iPad or Laptop as I know I can log in anywhere on any device and workflow won't stop.
Read full review
Performance
Salesforce
The Salesforce Service Cloud generally has very good performance, however the overall new Lightning user experience can bring that down. For example, if you have too many tabs open, then it can take a while for the Lightning UI to load. This UI is probably not well equipped to handle loading of all of that information at once, but Users tend to leave their tabs open all day long. It can also be fickle depending on which browser you use, what extensions you have installed, and whether you've cleared your cache. This can be the downfall with any software as a service though, not just Salesforce
Read full review
Zoho
I don't recall every having any issues with a page not loading due to it being a Zoho issue. Anytime I've had any issues with something being wonky, I clear cache and that has always solved the problem. Or a simply computer reboot and we're back, hard at work. Look, I don't expect any product to delivery 100%, 100% of the time but if I had any consistent ongoing issues, I would have left many years ago. I still keep my eyes open to what is new but after a quick evaluation, I know Zoho will long be my home.
Read full review
Support Rating
Salesforce
Salesforce offers support, although it generally gets routed to overseas support teams first, and once they are unable to help, it gets escalated up the chain to higher tiers. Frequently, the answer back from support is that there is no native solution, and we either have to turn to the AppExchange for some solution provided by another developer, or custom build our own solution.
Read full review
Zoho
We did the training and that was a huge waste of money. The information provided was basic and the instructor was sloppy (he even forgot to turn off his mic when he used the restroom - no one should ever hear what we heard). I offered up a 9 because we were able to find what we needed on your website.
Read full review
In-Person Training
Salesforce
Our in-person training was provided by our implementation partner and it was quite good. This was in part because we were already working with them and so it naturally leant itself to a good training relationship. And because they were building our customizations and configuring things, they could then provide training on those things naturally.
Read full review
Zoho
I attended a Zoho-Holics event in Austin, TX, several years ago, and it blew my mind. So many industries were represented using Zoho in so many different ways. It was unbelievable all that I learned from that experience, as there were features that I wasn't aware of that I immediately started using. Best of all, the trainers were patient and knowledgeable
Read full review
Online Training
Salesforce
Trailheads are great but it was often unclear what actually applied to our organization. This made it difficult to get a whole lot out of it. Part of it is that because the basic Salesforce features didn't quite work for us, we had to add customizations, which then nullified a lot of the training.
Read full review
Zoho
There is an endless supply of YouTube videos from Zoho and the many Zoho partners/consultants. Plus, Zoho has it's own library of training videos and webinars to learn from plus an entire community at the ready to answer any questions. While Zoho has been available for many years, there are constantly new training videos and webinars available for the novice and the experienced users.
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Implementation Rating
Salesforce
I would go through an implementation very differently knowing what I know now. It was difficult coming from systems we liked in post-sales service and having to adapt to the clunky and underwhelming feature set in Salesforce. I would trim back our expectations
Read full review
Zoho
When you switch CRMs, you can automatically assume everything isn’t going to match up correctly. We had used Salesforce for 10+ years and had a ton of data and customizations. It was not a clean transfer, but we were able to sort it all out. The only issue that really bothered me was Zoho support. Even simple questions couldn’t be answered over chat, and we would have some team members try for hours to find the right answer
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
Salesforce
Salesforce service cloud is more configurable than Zendesk and Freshdesk. It has its own inbuilt AI chatbot also which further improves service agent efficiency. Salesforce is more integration agnostic and has pre-built connectors with multiple 3rd party systems. However, in terms of pricing it is priced at a premium compared to the other solutions
Read full review
Zoho
Free user access was one reason to use it more than any other software. Also, for a mid-size organization, the Salesforce cost was a little higher, and Pipedrive was almost similar to Zoho. As we were already using Zoho, we found no urgency to switch.
Read full review
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Salesforce
No answers on this topic
Zoho
I think Zoho CRM is priced at a reasonable amount. Simply put, you get what you pay for and Zoho does not disappoint. My organization is comfortable with what we pay and pleased with continually renewing the software. The billing frequency is just right. There are no complaints on our end
Read full review
Scalability
Salesforce
The product has scaled up with our company growth just fine. No issues here other than slowness in clicking around and running reports
Read full review
Zoho
We're still in the early stages of scaling this across departments. We have high aspirations of doing this, but it takes time to migrate to the new system and to help people get acquainted of doing their work in a different way thru Zoho.
Read full review
Professional Services
Salesforce
No answers on this topic
Zoho
In addition to being a user of Zoho CRM, we are a reseller as well. Often, at times our Partners request for on-boarding the platform configuration for them. During such requirements, we have utilized the Professional services team directly from the Zoho CRM team. Our partner feedback was quite positive, throughout.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Salesforce
  • Because this is a cloud service, the security, implementation framework and feature list is very mature and you don't have to develop these during implementation.
  • The larger the implementation programme the better the licensing arrangements
  • Free developer toolkit for proof of concepts or showcasing features
  • Limited to annual subscription model
Read full review
Zoho
  • because we are new to the CRM world, we wanted a product that was reasonably priced, yet had the features we were looking for
  • we have found a much higher customer engagement rate and ROI
  • we used to "lose" customers in our makeshift process. Now, all customers are being attended to.
Read full review
ScreenShots

Salesforce Service Cloud Screenshots

Screenshot of Workflows and OrchestrationScreenshot of Service CatalogScreenshot of Contact Center

Zoho CRM Screenshots

Screenshot of Deals - Cash in on all opportunities. Close more deals. Great sales management is all about prioritizing, tracking, and monitoring the deals in your pipeline. Zoho CRM gives you everything you need to manage deals across territories and sales structures.Screenshot of Activities - Keep track of all the tasks, meetings, calls, events, or activity records. Neatly organize the numerous records along with the activities associated to them such as follow-up, pre sales and post sales activities, phone conversations etc.