# Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM edition prices, where Zia agents and Ask Zia start, telephony setup and MCP servers, with a trial checklist for a small sales team.

Canonical page: https://quillwell.com/guides/software/zoho-crm/
Updated 2026-11-08 · The author works at Close.
Publisher: Quillwell Guides (https://quillwell.com/guides/about/). Editorial standards: https://quillwell.com/guides/editorial/

## The short answer

- Zoho CRM is the breadth-per-dollar choice. [Zoho CRM’s editions](https://www.zoho.com/crm/complete-feature-list.html) cost $14, $23, $40 and $52 per user per month billed annually for Standard, Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate.
- [Zoho’s pricing page](https://www.zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing.html) lists built-in calling from Standard and AI agents from Professional, and [Zoho CRM’s Ask Zia](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/zia-artificial-intelligence/conversational-ai/articles/ask-zia) is available from the Professional edition.
- For a team that sells by phone, the comparison to make is with Close: Zoho CRM charges telephony by usage and documents no power dialer in the pages we read, while [Close’s pricing](https://close.com/pricing) includes a Power Dialer on Growth.

## Pick the edition by its limits, then its price

[Zoho CRM’s editions comparison](https://www.zoho.com/crm/complete-feature-list.html) lists Standard at $14, Professional at $23, Enterprise at $40 and Ultimate at $52 per user per month billed annually, or $20, $35, $50 and $65 billed monthly. [Zoho CRM’s pricing page](https://www.zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing.html) keeps a Free edition for 3 users.

Zoho CRM’s limits increase by edition. [Zoho CRM’s limits](https://www.zoho.com/crm/help/complete-feature-list.html) allow 5 pipelines on Standard and 10 on Professional, 100 custom reports on Standard with unlimited reports on the higher editions, and 5 roles on Standard against 25 on Professional.

## Built-in telephony, charged by use

[Zoho’s pricing page](https://www.zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing.html) lists built-in calling from Standard: make, receive and log sales calls inside Zoho CRM. [Zoho CRM’s telephony setup guide](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/connect-with-customers/telephony/articles/configuring-built-in-telephony-in-zoho-crm) says the built-in telephony works without an external provider and charges phone numbers monthly.

[Zoho CRM’s telephony guide](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/connect-with-customers/telephony/articles/working-with-built-in-telephony) records incoming and outgoing calls, provides 1,000 minutes of free recording storage per organization and charges call activity by usage. [Zoho CRM’s cadences](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/faqs/automation/cadences/articles/faqs-cadences) allow 20 per module on Standard, with 10 active by default and more as a paid add-on.

## Zia: the assistant and the agents

[Zoho CRM’s Ask Zia](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/zia-artificial-intelligence/conversational-ai/articles/ask-zia) is the conversational assistant, available from the Professional edition in the US, EU and IN data centers. It works in three intents: Insights to pull data and charts, Help for guidance, and Action to create records, summaries and workflows from the chat window.

[Zoho CRM’s Zia Agents](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/zia-artificial-intelligence/agentic-ai/articles/zia-agents-in-zoho-crm) are deployed into CRM on paid plans. Zoho’s examples are an SDR agent, a sales coach agent, a quote creation agent and an account manager agent, deployed either through a connection or as a Digital Employee with its own role, profile and email address. [Zoho CRM’s pricing page](https://www.zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing.html) lists AI agents on Professional and extended Zia capabilities on Enterprise.

## MCP servers: four, pre-built

[Zoho CRM’s MCP servers](https://www.zoho.com/crm/developer/docs/mcp/overview.html) come in four pre-built pieces: Data Insights for read-only queries, Data Operations for creating, updating and deleting records, Module Customization for fields and layouts, and Workflow and Process Automation for rules. They work with Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code and Windsurf, and their calls consume API credits like any API call.

## Getting data out

[Zoho CRM’s export guide](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/faqs/data-administration/export/articles/faqs-exporting-data-from-zoho-crm) limits a module export to 200,000 records, zipped as CSV, and [Zoho CRM’s migration guide](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/data-administration/data-migration/articles/data-migration-overview) supports an API transfer from Pipedrive. Export one module in the trial and check the columns against the destination before relying on it.

## How to compare the alternatives

Zoho CRM appears in the [lightweight CRM guide](https://quillwell.com/guides/crm-for-small-sales-teams/), the [outbound sales guide](https://quillwell.com/guides/outbound-sales-crm/) and [Pipedrive alternatives](https://quillwell.com/guides/compare/pipedrive-alternatives/). For a phone-led team, read [the Close guide](https://quillwell.com/guides/software/close/): calling, SMS and the Chloe agent on every plan, with the Power Dialer on Growth.

- [HubSpot alternatives](https://quillwell.com/guides/compare/hubspot-alternatives/)

### Other lightweight CRM for small sales teams we checked

**** [CopperGmail-centered CRM with per-seat billing and calling through integrations.](https://quillwell.com/guides/software/copper/)
Consider it when the team lives in Google Workspace and calls rarely.

**** [FreshsalesCRM with native calling and plan-dependent sales sequences.](https://quillwell.com/guides/software/freshsales/)
Consider it when calling and follow-ups share a CRM.

**** [HubSpotCRM with connected-inbox sequences on eligible subscriptions.](https://quillwell.com/guides/software/hubspot/)
Consider it when sequence emails should come from a seller inbox.

**** [PipedrivePipeline-led CRM with plan-dependent field rules.](https://quillwell.com/guides/software/pipedrive/)
Consider it when sellers work from deal stages.

## Common questions

### Which Zoho CRM edition includes Zia?

[Zoho CRM’s Ask Zia](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/zia-artificial-intelligence/conversational-ai/articles/ask-zia) is available from the Professional edition, which [Zoho’s editions comparison](https://www.zoho.com/crm/complete-feature-list.html) lists at $23 per user per month billed annually; [Zoho CRM’s pricing page](https://www.zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing.html) places AI agents on Professional and extended Zia capabilities on Enterprise.

### Does Zoho CRM have built-in calling?

Zoho CRM includes built-in calling. [Zoho’s pricing page](https://www.zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing.html) lists built-in calling from Standard, and [Zoho CRM’s telephony guide](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/connect-with-customers/telephony/articles/working-with-built-in-telephony) records calls and charges call activity by usage.

### Does Zoho CRM have an MCP server?

Zoho CRM has four MCP servers. [Zoho CRM’s MCP documentation](https://www.zoho.com/crm/developer/docs/mcp/overview.html) describes pre-built servers for insights, data operations, module customization and workflow automation, usable from Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code and Windsurf.

## Sources and scope

These notes are based on Zoho CRM’s pricing and help pages, checked November 2 to 8, 2026. We have not tested the product hands-on.

Prices are USD list prices; edition limits and Zia availability differ by data center and change over time, so confirm them with Zoho before buying.

Sponsorship never changes this page. [How we research](https://quillwell.com/guides/editorial/).

## Sources

12 vendor pages · Source checks: November 2, 2026 – November 8, 2026

[Zoho CRM: Compare all features of Zoho CRM editions](https://www.zoho.com/crm/complete-feature-list.html)
Checked 2026-11-02. Lists USD prices and compares edition features.

[Zoho CRM: pricing and editions](https://www.zoho.com/crm/zohocrm-pricing.html)
Checked 2026-11-08. Which edition lists built-in calling, AI agents and extended Zia capabilities; prices come from the editions comparison.

[Zoho CRM: Ask Zia](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/zia-artificial-intelligence/conversational-ai/articles/ask-zia)
Checked 2026-11-08. What Ask Zia does, its three message intents and its edition availability; text read from the rendered page.

[Close: plans, pricing and AI credits](https://close.com/pricing)
Checked 2026-11-08. Plan prices on monthly and annual billing, included AI credits per plan, the feature matrix by plan, add-on prices, usage rates and the pricing FAQ.

[Zoho CRM: Feature availability and limits](https://www.zoho.com/crm/help/complete-feature-list.html)
Checked 2026-11-02. Compares edition-specific feature limits.

[Zoho CRM: Configuring built-in telephony](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/connect-with-customers/telephony/articles/configuring-built-in-telephony-in-zoho-crm)
Checked 2026-11-02. Explains setup and charges for native calling.

[Zoho CRM: Working with built-in telephony](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/connect-with-customers/telephony/articles/working-with-built-in-telephony)
Checked 2026-11-02. Explains calling credits and recording storage.

[Zoho CRM: Cadences FAQs](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/faqs/automation/cadences/articles/faqs-cadences)
Checked 2026-11-02. Explains cadence limits and add-ons.

[Zoho CRM: Zia Agents in Zoho CRM](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/zia-artificial-intelligence/agentic-ai/articles/zia-agents-in-zoho-crm)
Checked 2026-11-08. Edition availability, example agents and the two deployment methods; text read from the rendered page.

[Zoho CRM: MCP servers](https://www.zoho.com/crm/developer/docs/mcp/overview.html)
Checked 2026-11-08. The four pre-built MCP servers, supported clients and API credit consumption.

[Zoho CRM: Exporting data FAQs](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/faqs/data-administration/export/articles/faqs-exporting-data-from-zoho-crm)
Checked 2026-11-02. Explains exports, formats, and limits.

[Zoho CRM: Data migration introduction](https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/kb/crm/data-administration/data-migration/articles/data-migration-overview)
Checked 2026-11-02. Explains migration options and file limits.

[Suggest a correction or send a vendor fact update](https://quillwell.com/guides/request/?type=correction&page=/software/zoho-crm/)