If you’re a sales manager or small business owner, choosing the right customer relationship management (CRM) system means getting the features you need to drive business growth without the overhead.
Below, you’ll find a Zoho vs. Monday comparison focused on how each tool actually works day to day. You’ll see how they compare on core capabilities, ease of use, automation, pricing and integrations and where Pipedrive fits if you want a sales-first alternative.
Key takeaways from Zoho vs. Monday
Zoho CRM is a powerful, all-in-one platform for SMBs that need strict sales processes, deep customization and tight integration across business tools.
Monday CRM works best for smaller teams that want a visual, easy-to-adopt way to track sales alongside projects and tasks.
Zoho prioritizes depth and control, while Monday focuses on speed and flexibility, often trading advanced sales functionality for simplicity.
Pipedrive helps SMBs manage their sales pipeline in one intuitive system, so teams close deals faster, stay aligned and scale without added complexity – try a 14-day free trial.
Zoho vs. Monday at a glance
Zoho CRM and Monday CRM both help companies manage sales processes and customer relationships.
The difference is that Zoho CRM is more of a database, whereas Monday CRM acts like a project board for simple sales pipelines and task management.
Here’s a bird’s-eye view of Monday.com vs. Zoho:
Zoho CRM | Monday CRM |
Pipeline ownership and control: Strict. Forces sales reps to follow steps before advancing a deal. Good for compliance. | Pipeline ownership and control: Uses simple automation recipes. Reps have more freedom, which fits agile teams better. |
Sales visibility: Data-first. Best for managers who want to see every data point. | Sales visibility: Visual-first. Good for teams who want to see where things stand at a glance. |
Reporting depth: Deep analytics, forecasting, trend analysis and customization. | Reporting depth: Basic dashboards. Good for visual snapshots of performance, but lacks deep analysis. |
Marketing handoff: Seamless. Native integration with Zoho’s marketing tools means easy lead passing. | Marketing handoff: Integration-dependent. Needs to connect with third-party tools. |
Time to value: Slower. Setup is more complex. | Time to value: Fast. Sales teams can set up and start selling immediately. |
Cost scalability: High. $14–$52 per user. Free for 3 users. Better value for large teams needing enterprise features. | Cost scalability: Moderate. $12–$28 per user. Free for 2 users. Costs rise quickly as you add features on higher tiers. |
Reviews: G2 – 4.1/5; Capterra – 4.3/5. Users like the power but often struggle with the learning curve. | Reviews: G2 – 4.7/5; Capterra: 4.6/5. Users love the ease of use and interface design. |
Zoho offers depth and control across a wider ecosystem, while Monday prioritizes speed and visual clarity, often at the expense of advanced sales functionality. The right choice depends on your main priorities.
Next up, let’s take a look at both platforms’ features, pricing and reviews to help you make the right call.
Zoho vs. Monday: core features compared
Zoho CRM’s features center on sales automation and lifecycle management, whereas Monday CRM focuses on project management and task scheduling.
Read on to see a detailed breakdown of each platform’s features.
Zoho CRM: built for process-driven sales teams
Zoho CRM includes a range of tools for managing leads and customers, including customizable pipelines and lead scoring.
Here’s what Zoho CRM’s dashboard looks like:
You get a quick overview of your sales metrics, from the number of deals in your pipeline to your win rate.
Its main features include:
Zoho CRM feature | What it does |
Captures leads from forms and emails, scores them based on activity and assigns them to sales reps | |
Deal pipelines | Tracks sales opportunities through stages using a list of Kanban views |
Contact database | Stores customer information like past emails, calls and purchase histories |
Canvas Design Studio | Lets users redesign their CRM records with a drag-and-drop editor |
Predicts future revenue based on current deals and past performance | |
Divides sales teams by geography or customer type | |
Artificial intelligence | Uses Zoho’s Zia assistant to suggest the best times to contact leads |
Blueprints, workflow rules and cadences trigger actions when deals move to a new stage |
Zoho’s CRM features give you strict process control and detailed reporting. However, if you need flexible workflows or something you can use right away, it might be too much.
The platform works best for established businesses with dedicated sales operations teams that need to automate processes between different tools.
For small or agile sales teams, Zoho can feel like too much. The interface is fairly dense, there’s a deeper learning curve and setting up automations often requires a consultant. If you just want to start selling today, the setup time can be a barrier.
Monday CRM: a lightweight, visual approach to sales tracking
Monday CRM offers tools to organize your pipeline, including drag-and-drop boards, templates and automation recipes. Its main strength is the simple user experience, which lets teams build custom workflows without technical skills.
Take a look at Monday’s interface:
In the table view, you see every deal lined up in columns. Other columns show how much the deal is worth, who owns it, what stage it’s in and how likely it is to close.
Because it’s a project management platform first, it treats sales deals like tasks that move across a board.
Monday CRM’s main features include:
Monday CRM feature | What it does |
Pipeline boards | Visualizes deals as cards that you can drag and drop through different stages |
Recipes | Uses simple steps to automate repetitive tasks, like: “When a status changes to Won, send an email” |
WorkForms | Creates shareable forms that generate leads from your website |
Emails and activities | Syncs Gmail or Outlook and logs emails on the client’s contact card |
Dashboards | Pulls data from your boards and shows simple visualizations of team performance and revenue goals |
Item card | Shows deal or contact info in a pop-up window so you don’t have to leave the board view |
Monday AI | Helps you write sales emails, summarize meetings and decide on next steps for your deals |
Monday’s features are useful if you want visibility, collaboration and lightweight sales tracking without a dedicated CRM admin.
If your team struggles with spreadsheets, they’ll likely prefer Monday’s color-coded columns. However, it lacks the deep interaction history that other CRMs automate.
Monday is ultimately a project management tool wearing a CRM hat. It can start to struggle with true sales features like forecasting or lead scoring. As your sales team grows, you may find yourself creating workarounds to achieve this functionality.
Pipedrive: an all-in-one alternative for sales and speed
While Monday is useful for projects, it lacks the sales tools you need to nurture leads. Zoho offers these tools, but implementing them can be difficult without technical support.
Pipedrive sits between Zoho’s control and Monday’s flexibility. It gives sales teams a visual pipeline that’s intuitive for reps, while still allowing managers to enforce structure where it matters.
Teams often choose Pipedrive when they want dedicated sales functionality without the setup complexity of a full business suite.
The platform lets you build custom pipelines, automate email sequences and set up third-party integrations yourself:
Pipedrive includes many other helpful core features, such as:
Sales functionality without complexity, including revenue forecasting and automated lead tracking, all in an interface that’s easy to set up and manage without code or consultants
A visual pipeline that balances flexibility and control, giving salespeople an intuitive way to move deals forward while allowing managers to enforce key data entry at the right stages
Clear pipeline visibility without extra admin, so teams get the insights they need without forcing reps to fill out forms just to progress a deal
You get the visibility you need without forcing your team to fill out forms just to move a deal forward.
Zoho vs. Monday: which is better for AI and automation?
Zoho CRM offers stronger capabilities for predictive AI and workflows, while Monday CRM includes simple task automation and generative content creation.
Here’s how they compare in more detail.
Zoho CRM: epredictive AI for process-driven sales teams
Zoho CRM handles automation in four ways: Zia, Workflow Rules, Blueprints and Cadences.
Zia is an AI-powered assistant that analyzes your data to find patterns. It scores leads based on their likelihood to buy and suggests the exact time to call them to get an answer. It also monitors your sales trends and alerts you if a deal has been stuck in one stage for too long.
Workflow Rules handle step-by-step automation capabilities by triggering actions based on data changes. For example, if a deal is worth more than $10,000, the system can automatically set it to high priority.
Blueprints automate your sales process. They guide salespeople through the pipeline by validating data at every step. For instance, you can stop a rep from advancing a deal to the next stage until they attach a sales contract.
Finally, cadences automate your follow-up routines. You set up a sequence of emails, calls and tasks that run automatically when a new lead arrives.
Monday CRM: assistive AI for everyday productivity
Monday CRM uses its AI Sidekick to speed up content creation and save time on administrative tasks like summarizing meetings or analyzing your sales results.
Monday AI drafts sales emails for you or edits your existing text to sound more professional. It also summarizes notes into key action items, so you don’t have to read every word.
You can also use Monday’s AI to calculate metrics and find insights. For instance, you might ask “which deals are at risk right now?” and it’ll analyze your deals and answer that question.
For automation, Monday gives you “recipes” or pre-built pathways that connect two actions using simple phrases.
You use these to handle routine admin tasks, such as notifying you of due dates or moving deals between boards. Because the system is visual, you can set up cross-board syncing that updates a client’s status everywhere without writing any code.
Note: Most of Monday’s AI features are available only on the Standard plan or higher. AI usage is credit-based, with monthly limits tied to your plan and the number of seats. More complex tasks use more credits and you’ll need to wait until the next billing cycle once you reach the limit.
Pipedrive: sales-first automation that guides deal progress
Pipedrive’s workflow automation uses a visual flowchart builder. You drag a trigger onto the canvas, then drag if/then conditions to split the path.
You can create a sequence that sends an email, waits two days, checks if they clicked the link and then triggers a call task only if they did. You can see the entire logic tree in a single view without writing code.
Pipedrive excels at integrating AI across the entire sales cycle to help you focus on closing:
Notifications analyzes your deal data to calculate a win probability score for every open deal. It sends proactive notifications suggesting which deals to focus on based on their likelihood to close.
AI Email Writer uses generative AI to write personalized outreach. Beyond just drafting, it includes sentiment analysis, which labels incoming emails as interested, frustrated or ready to buy, helping reps prioritize their inbox.
It also includes smart app recommendations, powered by an AI search engine to suggest integrations based on your team’s usage patterns and bottlenecks.
Zoho vs. Monday: pricing breakdown
Zoho CRM and Monday CRM use different pricing strategies: Zoho offers per-user pricing in four tiers, while Monday still charges per person, but only sells seats in bundles.
Here’s a closer look at the costs for each platform.
Zoho CRM: tiered pricing for feature-heavy deployments
Zoho offers a low entry price, but you’ll need to upgrade to the Enterprise plan to access the AI and automation features:
Plan (annual pricing) | Main features unlocked |
Standard: $14 per user, per month | Scoring rules, workflows, mass email and custom fields. |
Professional: $23 per user, per month | SalesSignals (real-time notifications), forecasting and reporting. |
Enterprise: $40 per user, per month | Zia AI, Blueprints, CommandCenter (customer journey planning), multi-user portals. |
Ultimate: $52 per user, per month | Advanced business intelligence, higher API limits and a 30-day free trial. |
Zoho has a forever-free plan for up to three users, but it’s fairly limited (no mass email, no forecasting). It also offers a 15-day free trial for all paid plans.
Monday CRM: flexible entry pricing that scales by seat bundles
Monday uses a seat bucket pricing model, meaning you may have to pay for more seats than you’ll actually use.
You can choose a team size starting at three or five and then increasing by increments of five. If you only need seven seats, for instance, you’ll need to pay for 10, which often makes the real monthly cost higher than the listed price.
Here’s what Monday includes in each tier:
Plan (annual pricing) | Main features unlocked |
Basic: $12 per seat per month | Unlimited customizable CRM pipelines, contacts and mobile app access. |
Standard: $17 per set per month | Gmail and Outlook sync, merge tags for email and basic automation (250 actions per month). |
Pro: $28 per seat per month | Sales forecasting, email tracking and high-volume automations (25k actions per month). |
Enterprise: Custom pricing, call Monday.com to discuss | Reporting and analytics, multi-level permissions and HIPAA compliance. |
Monday offers a 14-day free trial. It also offers a free version that lets you create a single dashboard for just two users.
Pipedrive: transparent pricing built for growing sales teams
Pipedrive has a transparent per-user pricing model where you only pay for the exact number of seats you need.
Essential sales features like AI, email integration, workflow automation and reporting are available on lower tiers, so you can access the core tools you need without upgrading.
Here’s what you get at each level:
Lite ($14 per month). The entry-level option. Includes visual pipelines, calendar management and deal tracking.
Growth ($39 per month). The standard for most sales teams. Adds full two-way email sync, workflow automation, reporting and powerful forecasting features.
Premium ($59 per month). For scaling teams. Unlocks AI email tools and notifications, built-in Smart Docs e-signatures for contracts and custom lead scoring.
Ultimate ($79 per month). For enterprise needs. Adds project management tools, enhanced security alerts and optimized data enrichment tools.
Users can experience a 14-day free trial and see how Pipedrive compares with Zoho and Monday CRM in real-time.
Monday CRM vs. Zoho: which has the most integrations?
Zoho CRM connects to more apps overall, focusing on its own ecosystem, while Monday connects primarily with collaboration tools.
Here’s how SMBs can customize workflows to their unique specifications.
Zoho CRM: ecosystem-led integrations across business functions
Zoho integrates with over 1,000 third-party apps, but its primary advantage lies in its ecosystem.
If you use other Zoho tools, like Zoho Books for finance or Zoho Desk for support teams, they integrate natively with little configuration.
For external apps, you use Zoho Flow – a dedicated integration platform (similar to Zapier) included in the Zoho One suite. It builds bridges between the CRM and third-party tools that don’t have a direct plugin.
Note: While Zoho has many tools, keep in mind that many of its advanced features are separate add-ons. If you need marketing automation, you might need to add Zoho Marketing Plus. The same goes for Zoho Projects for time tracking and Zoho Products for inventory management.
Monday CRM: collaboration-focused integrations for connected teams
Monday integrates with approximately 200 business apps, prioritizing collaboration tools over sales-specific software.
The most popular third-party integrations are Slack, Microsoft Teams, Outlook and Jira. You set up these connections through the integration center, linking the tools straight to your board’s columns.
For example, you can link a status column to Slack so that an update on the board instantly posts a message to your team channel.
Where Pipedrive stands out: Pipedrive prioritizes integrations that matter most to sales teams, including email, calendars, lead generation tools and customer support platforms like Zoho and Monday. For more specific needs, teams can use Pipedrive’s open API or Developer’s Corner, with Zapier available to connect to thousands of additional apps – all without adding integration complexity or ongoing maintenance overhead.
Supercharge Your Sales with This Zapier and Pipedrive Guide
Monday.com vs. Zoho: what customers say about ease of use
Monday CRM is faster to learn and easier to navigate, while Zoho CRM requires more effort to learn but offers deeper interface customization.
Here’s how the experience differs between these two CRM systems.
Zoho CRM: powerful customization with a steeper learning curve
Zoho CRM offers a good user experience, though daily navigation can be time-consuming due to the sheer number of features.
You navigate through a hierarchy of modules (like leads, contacts and details), which contain submenus and data fields. Clicking a module opens a list view and clicking a record opens a detailed page with related lists for emails, open activities and products.
For a sales rep updating a deal, this means clicking through menus to log a call or find a relevant email thread.
Customization is decent and you can use tools like the Canvas Design Studio to adjust fields, modules and layouts to fit your needs.
While this allows for precise control over the interface, it requires a fair bit of learning to design and build these views from scratch.
G2 reviewers frequently mention that onboarding a new rep takes weeks rather than days, as the steep learning curve requires formal training sessions just to understand where data lives.
Monday CRM: fast onboarding with limits at scale
Monday CRM is easy to navigate but can become complicated when setting up multi-step sales playbooks.
Its structure is based on boards, groups and columns. You start with a board where you add items (your leads or deals). You then add specific columns to track data like phone numbers, owners or dates.
You can get started quickly. The interface uses a colorful drag-and-drop system that makes it easy to move deals through different stages. A new rep can join the team and understand how to manage the pipeline right away.
Most users find the initial setup intuitive and manage customer relations without technical training. On G2 and Capterra, reviewers give Monday CRM high marks of 4.6/5 and 4.7/5 for its user-friendly design.
However, while users appreciate the simplicity, reviews mention that connecting multiple boards or setting up multi-step automations is difficult for non-technical teams.
Pipedrive: intuitive sales workflows teams adopt quickly
Teams switch to Pipedrive when they want the reporting power of Zoho and the intuitiveness of Monday without setup headaches.
In 2023, the platform received an award from SoftwareReviews based on user satisfaction scores and software capabilities.
Here’s why Pipedrive consistently wins on ease of use:
New reps can start selling immediately. Because the interface is sales-focused, there are no irrelevant buttons or sub-menus to confuse them.
Pipedrive handles the busy work. Emails, calls and meetings link automatically to the right deal, so reps don’t spend too much time on data entry.
Managers don’t need IT admins to pull a forecast. You can filter by territory, product or rep in seconds to get the numbers you need for your board meeting.
Every Pipedrive plan includes access to the Pipedrive Academy for step-by-step guides, webinar tutorials and data migration tools to streamline the transition.
Higher-tier plans also include assisted onboarding and personalized training sessions to help teams optimize their workflows and accelerate implementation.
G2 and Capterra users consistently rate Pipedrive as the most intuitive sales platform on the market. Reviews consistently highlight how quickly new reps learn the system, meaning you can avoid the costs of consultants or lengthy ramp-up periods.
How to choose the right CRM for your business
The best choice between Zoho CRM and Monday CRM depends on how your team works today, your company size and how you expect your sales process to evolve.
Zoho CRM is better suited to teams that need structured processes, deep customization and tight integration across multiple business tools.
Monday CRM is a good fit for smaller teams that want a visual, easy-to-adopt way to track sales alongside projects and tasks.
If you’re comparing CRMs, both are solid options depending on your priorities. To make sure you choose the right tool, it helps to:
Read user reviews and community discussions to understand real-world pros and limitations
Explore documentation and support resources to gauge setup and onboarding effort
Sign up for free trials to see how each platform fits your team’s workflow
Assess which sales features you’ll need as you grow and whether each tool supports them without workarounds
However, if your core need is a sales-focused and easy-to-use CRM, Pipedrive is the best fit.
It’s the most useful option for teams that want a specialized tool to move deals through a pipeline. It offers the most intuitive interface for reps and fits in-depth sales use cases like lead routing and forecasting.
Final thoughts
Choosing the right CRM for your business is all about how your team prefers to work.
With the right tool, you get clear pipeline visibility, less admin and a shared understanding of who owns every deal. Pipedrive helps teams avoid choosing between complexity and flexibility by offering a sales-first CRM that’s easy to use and built to scale.
Start a 14-day free trial of Pipedrive today and give your team a tool they can use to sell more effectively.
