After years of blistering growth by securing hundreds of thousands of customers, Zoho is showing no signs of slowing down by adding 100,000+ new customers in 2021.

Usability, aggressive pricing, and a laser focus on its versatile platform (Zoho Creator) backed by a robust infrastructure (10 data centers) that supports more than 50 Zoho applications are some of the key attributes of Zoho.

Chief Evangelist Raju Vegesna trumpets Zoho’s exponential growth
Caption: Chief Evangelist Raju Vegesna trumpets Zoho’s exponential growth

Riding on the wave of low-code development tool, Zoho Creator has grown 30% last year, briskly securing 14,000 paying customers in 2021. Much of the growth is derived from companies using Zoho Creator to automate and improve business processes such as inventory management, document or record management as well as back-office financial transactions.

At its core is the Zoho platform that delivers both infrastructure and platform services like compute, storage, search, business intelligence, messaging, IT service management as well as a raft of developer tools for customers to accommodate their own industry-specific requirements by layering their business processes and workflow on top of Zoho applications.

Recently, Zoho released the 6th version of Zoho Creator Platform, a PaaS solution that supports developers of all skill levels to build, manage, integrate, and analyze for a complete low-code experience, enabling 10X faster deployment than any other solution on the market, according to company executives.

Democratizing access to low-code development tools allows the IT and business users to work in tandem, to create and deploy apps that are highly customized while minimizing common interoperability, permissions, and governance challenges.

“With this update, Zoho’s Creator Platform combines application development, integrations, process automation, business intelligence, and analytics into one single platform while simultaneously enabling IT teams to effortlessly manage security, compliance, and governance challenges,” says Raju Vegesna, Zoho Chief Evangelist. “Now, organizations can leverage a unified solution for all of their low-code needs, extending the ability to innovate to every employee.”

Zoho Creator Platform Latest Release features include:

Features#1#2#3
Solution BuildingUnified Solution Builder
Create, integrate, analyze, and manage custom business solutions at scale from a single dashboard.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Zoho’s intelligent AI assistant (Zia) now enables developers to import data from anywhere, cleanse and transform with one click.
Process Blueprinting
This intuitive drag-and-drop builder graphically constructs an online replica of a business Process by specifying each step.
Connected EcosystemUnified Data Modeling –
Universal cloud modeling is now included to help developers establish secure data transfer by automating data integration.
Integration Status Dashboard
Users have complete visibility of how well each integration operates with the new Integration Status Dashboard.
Embedded BI and Analytics Engine
Industry-first, full-fledged business intelligence and analytics engine is now included in the Zoho Creator Platform.
End-to-End ADLMEnvironments
Developers can now launch solutions in different environments of choice development, staging, or production.
Centralized Governance
Features such as granular role-based access controls, comprehensive audit trails, and backup options, application IDE, and billing.
Communication and Collaboration Aid
Integrated communication enables messaging, sending files, sharing screens, and the ability to make audio and video calls.

With some 10,000 employees around the world, Zoho now poses a serious threat to CRM incumbents like Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk as well as other Wall Street darlings or unicorns that need to satisfy institutional investors, private equity firms or VCs by promising unsustainable growth at all costs. As heavyweights like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle are spending billions on world-class network infrastructure as the prerequisite to dominate the Cloud, Zoho can do it for a lot less since it focuses primarily on its 75 million registered users, specifically the 600,000+ paying customers. As more of these registered users are converted to paying customers, they can scale out to meet their future needs with Zoho’s low-code development platform Zoho Creator.

Zoho is also gearing up to chase a bigger market – namely ERP with Zoho One by going after Intuit QuickBooks, Sage, and Xero which has about 10 times the installed base of Zoho. Last year Intuit introduced QBO Advanced by dangling steep introductory discounts and Live Help, essentially an online assistant to help with accounting issues. However, channel conflicts could render such Live Help ahead of its time. Still, Zoho, in its quest to become a full-stack provider from CRM and ERP to IaaS and PaaS must come up with a coherent strategy to compete with Intuit, Sage and Microsoft, all of which offer a much bigger channel ecosystem than Zoho.

In 2021, Zoho succeeded in displacing Microsoft, Oracle, Salesforce, and SAP systems among midmarket organizations searching for a viable, simple to run and less costly alternative to these familiar brands, according to customer purchase records derived from our Buyer Insight Master Database. However, in order to make its upmarket strategy successful, 2022 will be a turning point for Zoho to commit not just professional services and support resources, but also sustain and extend its existing APaaS offerings for enterprise accounts.

Here are some of the companies that have adopted Zoho Creator as excerpted from our Buyer Insight Master Database:

CustomerIndustryEmpl.RevenueCountryNew ProductWhen
365 Workplace SafetyProfessional Services10$1.0MUnited StatesZoho Creator2020
Aboitiz Equity VentureBanking and Financial Services3600$3.64BPhilippinesZoho Creator2018
ACI DesignProfessional Services10$1.0MUnited StatesZoho Creator2020
Air RailProfessional Services50$8.0MSpainZoho Creator2015
All India Chess Federation (AICF)Professional Services30$3.0MIndiaZoho Creator2019
America ShipTransportation20$2.0MUnited StatesZoho Creator2021
Anand and AnandProfessional Services400$50.0MIndiaZoho Creator2021
Auction CaddyProfessional Services100$10.0MUnited StatesZoho Creator2015
AXTRO | JMD Pacific Pte LtdDistribution70$5.0MSingaporeZoho Creator2019
Bailey Consulting & Training (BCT)Professional Services10$1.0MAustraliaZoho Creator2017
Bourne LeisureLeisure & Hospitality17500$683.0MUnited KingdomZoho Creator2020
Briotix Health LPProfessional Services360$70.0MUnited StatesZoho Creator2020
Courier LogisticsTransportation132$23.0MUnited KingdomZoho Creator2018
deSiamConsumer Packaged Goods20$2.0MThailandZoho Creator2017
Double Take FashionsManufacturing10$1.0MUnited StatesZoho Creator2018
ED InsightsProfessional Services12$1.0MUnited StatesZoho Creator2020
Emirates Logistics IndiaProfessional Services500$30.0MIndiaZoho Creator2021
FinarLife Sciences3500$550.0MIndiaZoho Creator2019
FreightAppProfessional Services10$1.0MUnited Arab EmiratesZoho Creator2021
Global Education and Career Development Abroad (GlobalEd)Education20$5.0MUnited StatesZoho Creator2021
Government of KarnatakaGovernment5300$1.00BIndiaZoho Creator2018
Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC)Government400$400.0MIndiaZoho Creator2021
HubsafeProfessional Services1600$100.0MFranceZoho Creator2017
ICPProfessional Services200$35.0MUnited KingdomZoho Creator2021
IOA GlobalEducation100$10.0MIndiaZoho Creator2019
IOI Properties GroupBanking and Financial Services2291$540.0MMalaysiaZoho Creator2021
ITK Education Services Pvt LtdEducation50$6.0MIndiaZoho Creator2017
Jetkool Exports IndiaTransportation30$3.0MIndiaZoho Creator2017
KRC LogisticsTransportation20$2.0MIndiaZoho Creator2016
Kumi MotorsAutomotive800$100.0MMexicoZoho Creator2021
La ChácharaRetail20$2.0MMexicoZoho Creator2021
MAK Consulting Pte LtdProfessional Services40$3.0MSingaporeZoho Creator2016
MTNCommunications19200$11.63BSouth AfricaZoho Creator2021
National Maternity Hospital (NMH)Healthcare1000$100.0MIrelandZoho Creator2020
Oldershaw GroupConsumer Packaged Goods350$80.0MUnited KingdomZoho Creator2020
OzeliaManufacturing300$30.0MTurkeyZoho Creator2020
Pexion GroupManufacturing50$32.0MUnited KingdomZoho Creator2015
Ramakrishna Mission Students’ HomeEducation500$50.0MIndiaZoho Creator2020
Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland – BahrainEducation250$30.0MBahrainZoho Creator2021
Sakae SushiLeisure & Hospitality400$21.0MJapanZoho Creator2016
SmartLam North AmericaConstruction and Real Estate90$30.0MUnited StatesZoho Creator2018
SRM UniversityEducation400$50.0MIndiaZoho Creator2020
Studio 31Professional Services50$5.0MIndiaZoho Creator2017
Studio 83Professional Services15$2.0MHong KongZoho Creator2020
Tata ProjectsConstruction and Real Estate10000$1.50BIndiaZoho Creator2020
Transport Michiels (TMI)Transportation250$40.0MBelgiumZoho Creator2020
University of Michigan Health SystemEducation500$120.0MUnited StatesZoho Creator2020
Yellow AfricaProfessional Services70$10.0MMalawiZoho Creator2021
Zyenac SolutionsProfessional Services20$4.0MIndiaZoho Creator2021

Source: Apps Run The World, April 2022