It is a relatively common practice among SaaS companies to give a lot of their product away at the beginning and then cut back on free offerings (sometimes even cutting them entirely) as they grow and mature.
The reason is quite simple: while the company is new and flush with cash, it is easy to give the product away. But, when the VCs start asking about the revenue growth the company promised, the free offerings are the first to go – and price increases arrive. The company needs to extract more money from their current leads – and the smaller customers are hung out to dry.
By now you know that we tend to do things differently at Zo
ho – from being bootstrapped to our huge portfolio of apps. What you might not know is that when we first launched Zoho CRM 10 years ago, we made a commitment to small businesses and throughout our history we helped many of them.
That was 10 years ago. Our business has grown significantly and we increasingly get more of our revenue from bigger companies. At this point, other companies would turn their backs on their smaller customers that helped them grow. But today we are happy to double-down on our commitment to small businesses. We’re proud to announce Free10: our Free CRM program for small businesses. Free10 provides entirely free, no-strings attached, not a trial, no credit-card needed CRM for up to 10 users. Of course we continue offering our other editions, including Zoho CRMPlus, for those whose business needs have evolved.
With this expansion, you have the flexibility to give #CRMforAll customer-facing people within your organization at no cost. Our awesome Free10 plan includes:
- Leads, accounts, contacts, sales opportunities, web forms etc.
- Workflow rule to automate sales follow-ups.
- Documents module to share sales collateral with team.
- User permissions through roles and profiles
What more? You can seamlessly integrate Zoho CRM with other Zoho business apps, like Campaigns, Support, SalesIQ, Survey, Projects, Reports, Google Apps and other third-party services. Head out to our pricing page to check out all the details and sign-up.
So, why did we choose to give you 10 users? Well, it also happens that 10 years ago we introduced the first version of Zoho CRM, one of the first products in the Zoho portfolio, so it seemed fitting to have this as part of our first-decade celebration.
And while we’re on that, check out the infographic below that shows some of our progress in the last 10 years.
Thanks to all of our 50,000+ customers -old and new- who have helped us achieve this big milestone!
Rodrigo
Is this free10 program still available? I recently signed up for zohoCRM but do not see the option for Free 10.
Congratulations on 10 years. What a great way to celebrate! As a partner who's worked with other CRM publishers since 1999, I know from experience how different Zoho is from the rest of the pack. Making the free edition available to larger organizations is a great way to introduce larger organizations to what Zoho has to offer. Whatever you're doing is working, so please keep doing it!
Zoho is wonderful...!!! Their product, service, and strategy...
Congratulations. And yes, your product is very useful for start-ups and small companies (and certainly more). Moreover, you keep this indefinable "start-up spirit". José from France.
José - Merci! We try to keep start-ups and SMBs not only in mind from a who-we-can-help perspective, but also for how we behave.
THIS IS ABSOLUTELY GREAT !!! I have been working with Zoho CRM now for some years, as CRM consultant, helping clients to set it up here in France. Today I will start using Zoho CRM in my role as visiting professor at IPAG Business school to familiarize students with CRM. The announcement Free10 just came perfectly in time. Thanks and keep up your great work.
Thanks Marc! If you need more licenses for your courses, just let us know. We'd be happy to help.
JEE! This is great news and reinforces my commitment to see how I can enter in the leads cost effectively. Your mobile App is also working great for us. Thanks and let's keep up the development.
Great to hear. Since you mention the mobile app, make sure to check our Leads app - easily capture lead information while on the go.
After working with so many other CRM systems: I can say with lot of conviction that Zoho CRM is "the" tool for entrepreneurs to embrace if they are looking for an uncluttered yet super powerful CRM system that can truly complement their growth aspiration. As Zoho partner: whenever we demonstrate this awesome tool: we see the joy in the customers' face on the possibility of leveraging this application in many different ways for organizations of different sizes and industries. Great post Rodrigo and thank you to the awesome Zoho team for creating such fantastic products.
Hopefully with this edition and the help of committed partners like you, we can reach even more customers.