Zoho

Overview

Zoho offers a number of Software as a Service (SaaS) business, productivity, and collaboration applications for individuals, as well as, small and medium-sized businesses.

Their suite of office productivity tools consists of many free applications like email, chat, word processing, and spreadsheets, as well as, subscription-based tools for document management and the creation of wiki websites. In terms of business applications, there are tools for customer relationship management, human resources, and project management (among others), most of them available on a subscription basis, although some are free (e.g. reporting).

Zoho began operations in 1996 and "has tens of thousands of customers worldwide."

Value Proposition

Zoho's applications are built from the ground for on-demand delivery with easy accessibility from a web browser. These applications offer just about everything one would need to manage and run a business. Clever subscription-based pricing, along with many free applications, make these products very enticing. Well worth a look if you're using and/or considering Microsoft Office or Google Apps.

Products & Services

• Business Applications:
  • Zoho CRM a comprehensive on-demand customer relationship management solution available in three editions: Free Edition for the first three users; Professional Edition at $12/month from the fourth user; and Enteprise Edition at $25/month from the fourth user.
  • Zoho Meeting for online meetings and web conferencing; starting at $12/month/5 participants.
  • Zoho Creator consists of database software to create online applications; start with two users for free.
  • Zoho Invoice for online invoicing; first five invoices are free.
  • Zoho Projects for online project management and collaboration available in three editions: Free Plan for one project and 100MB space; Standard Plan at $12/month for 10 projects and 2GB space; Enterprise Edition at $80/month for unlimited projects and 25GB space.
  • Zoho Reports for online reporting and business intelligence; free.
  • Zoho People a comprehensive human resource management and staffing solution that's free for the first 10 employees.
  • Zoho Business for email hosting and document management; free for the first 10 users and starts at $5/user/month from the 11th user.
  • Zoho Marketplace is an online directory of business applications from partners and developers.
• Productivity and Collboration Applications:
  • Zoho Mail is a free online email service.
  • Zoho Writer is a free online word processor.
  • Zoho Sheet is a free online spreadsheet tool.
  • Zoho Show is a free online presentation tool.
  • Zoho Docs provides online document management; free up to 1GB of space and $3/user/month for 5GB of space - there is also a promotion to save 20% on an annual subscription.
  • Zoho Notebook is a simple online note taking tool.
  • Zoho Wiki allows users to create online wiki websites. The first 2 wikis are free with 50 MB of space and after that it starts at $12/month for 5 wikis; there's also a promotion to save 10% annually.
  • Zoho Share is a free, public repository for storing photos and other images.
  • Zoho Planner is an online organizer that's also free.
  • Zoho Chat is a free online group chat solution.