Zoho CRM and Bigin pricing and plan limits

Zoho sells two separate CRMs, and the first decision is which one. Bigin is the lighter one, built around a pipeline: its free edition is for 1 user, and Bigin Express (by Zoho) is $9 a month per user. Zoho CRM is the larger system: its free edition fits 3 users, and Standard, where connecting your mailbox and mass email start, is $20 a month per user. For most small teams that sell from a pipeline and want their email in the CRM, Bigin Express is the better fit. Zoho CRM is for three people who want to stay free, or a team that will use its larger feature set.

Bigin or Zoho CRM?

Start with how you sell, because the two products are built for different jobs.

Bigin is for a team that runs everything from a pipeline: enquiries come in, move through stages, and close. Zoho pitches it at first-timers moving from spreadsheets, and the plans stay simple. Express gives a team shared pipelines, room for 50,000 records, your email and WhatsApp inside the CRM, mass emails (up to 150 a day per account), and 30 automations. The catch is its free edition, which is for 1 user only, so a team pays from the second person.

Zoho CRM is the larger system, and you see it as you go up. Standard adds email integration, calling, multiple pipelines, web forms, sales forecasting, and custom modules (your own record types, such as courses or properties). Professional and Enterprise add AI agents, inventory, quoting, approval processes, and the tools a bigger sales team uses. Its free edition is more generous with people (3 users). It sends one-to-one email from a contact’s record, but it can’t track the replies until you connect your mailbox on a paid plan.

So the rule of thumb is short. Our view: if you want a pipeline, reminders, and email in one place for two to five people, pick Bigin. If three of you want to stay free, or you know you’ll want forecasting or custom modules within a year, pick Zoho CRM.

Which plan should a one to five person business pick?

On your own. Both free editions fit. Bigin’s holds one pipeline and 500 records, where every contact, company, deal, activity, and note counts as one, so a few hundred customers with a note each will fill it. Zoho CRM’s stores 5,000 records (10 MB) and lets you save 10 email templates. If your list runs to hundreds, start on Zoho CRM’s.

Two or three of you. Zoho CRM’s free edition still fits, and Bigin’s has ended. If you’re paying, Bigin Express (by Zoho) is $18 a month for two and $27 a month for three.

Four or five. No free edition fits. Zoho’s help center says the Free edition can’t add user licenses, so a fourth person means paying for everyone. Five seats are $45 a month on Bigin Express or $100 a month on Zoho CRM Standard.

Say you run the office of a language school with five staff: you, two enrolment advisers, a scheduler, and a bookkeeper. Enquiries arrive through a web form, the advisers book placement tests and follow up, and each term you email past students about the new courses. There are about two thousand of them in a spreadsheet.

Only three of you work enquiries, so count three seats, not five; the scheduler and bookkeeper can get a weekly summary. Zoho CRM’s free edition fits three at no cost, but its email integration and mass emails start on Standard, so the term email couldn’t go out from the CRM. Two thousand past students, each with a note or two, also uses a good share of its 5,000 records (10 MB) before a single new enquiry.

So pay for one of the two. Bigin Express (by Zoho) for three is $27 a month, with the web form, the shared pipeline, mass emails, and room for 50,000 records. Zoho CRM Standard for three is $60 a month, and the extra buys forecasting and custom modules you haven’t asked for.

One limit to plan around: Bigin Express sends mass emails up to 150 a day per account, so two thousand students go out in daily batches over about two weeks, not in one send. For a term announcement that’s workable if you start sending two weeks before the date. If you’d rather it all went out within a week, Premier allows 300 a day per account, at $45 a month for three. Bigin Express is still the pick. If you’d rather start free on Zoho CRM and see, that’s fine too, but a later move to Bigin is a fresh setup, so decide before you import two thousand students twice.

What moves you up a plan?

On Bigin, it’s room and rules. Express gives you 3 pipelines and 30 automations. Premier, at $15 a month per user, raises those to 5 pipelines and 50, and adds stage transition rules, multiple currencies, duplicate cleanup, and AI writing tools. Most small teams find Express enough. Move when you run out of pipelines or automations, when your mass emails outgrow Express’s daily allowance, or when you start selling in a second currency.

On Zoho CRM, the free edition ends at a fourth person, an eleventh email template, or when you need to keep more than its storage holds. Standard is the usual step, and it’s also where your email comes into the CRM. Professional, at $35 a month per user, is for process management, inventory, and quoting. If those words don’t describe your week, you don’t need it.

Skip Zoho if

• You don’t want to choose between products, or between plans. Zoho asks you to pick a product and then a plan, and switching products later means moving. A CRM with one plan and one price skips both choices.
• You’re two people who want to stay free with your mailbox connected to the CRM. Zoho CRM’s free edition sends one-to-one email from a record but can’t track the replies until you pay, and Bigin’s free edition is for one. When a free CRM plan is enough compares every free plan’s caps.
• You’re four or more and want to pay nothing. Neither of Zoho’s free editions fits four, and the Free edition can’t add user licenses. What a CRM costs for 1, 3, 5, and 10 people shows the paid bill at your size.

Plans and prices

Bigin and Zoho CRM each get their own table. Every paid plan is per user, and the yearly column is the yearly rate shown per month.

Costs that are easy to miss

• The yearly price comes first. Both pricing pages open on yearly billing, so the first figure you see is the yearly rate. Zoho CRM Standard is $14 a month per user that way and $20 a month billed monthly.
• Tax is extra. Both pages say local taxes are added to the prices shown.
• Switching products is a move. Starting on Zoho CRM’s free edition and later choosing Bigin, or the reverse, means a new setup and an import; what switching CRMs costs helps you count what’s involved.
• Free storage counts notes. Zoho CRM’s free edition counts notes and the recycle bin toward its 5,000 records (10 MB). Once you need to keep more than that, the free edition no longer fits.
• Zoho’s bundles aren’t priced here. Zoho CRM Plus (sales, marketing, and service together) and the Ultimate edition are sold separately and aren’t in this guide’s figures.

Our view

For a small team that sells from a pipeline, Bigin Express is an easy recommendation. It’s per user, it has the email, mass email, and automation a team of three to five actually uses, and the plans above it are simple. Zoho CRM earns its place in two cases: three people who want to stay free and can keep email in their inbox, and a team that will use forecasting, custom modules, or inventory. What you give up with Zoho is a single path. You choose a product before you choose a plan, and the wrong first choice costs you a move. Decide on what you’ll use in the next year, not on the free plan alone.

Your next step

Count the people who’ll log in over the next six months, and decide one thing: do you need your email and mass emails inside the CRM this year? If you’re three or fewer and the answer is no, start Zoho CRM’s free edition this week and import your list the same evening: start Zoho CRM’s free edition. If the answer is yes, start Bigin’s 15-day free trial. It doesn’t ask for a card, and it runs on Premier rather than Express, so judge it on the Express features you’d actually pay for. Import your list and send one real mass email before the trial ends, since that’s the feature you’d be paying for. Keep that test small: the trial allows far fewer mass emails a day than any paid plan, so try it on a short list, not the full term email.