Zoho used to be one of the most popular SMB toolset behind Google Apps (a distant but very respectable second). However, as time went on, Zoho fell (hopelessly?) behind, forcing people to look for Zoho alternatives. That’s the bad news.  The good news is that there are a lot of Zoho alternatives that appeared within the last year or two, so if you are unhappy with Zoho, you have quite a choice free and paid Zoho alternatives to use.

1.    Bitrix24 is the best known and most popular Zoho alternative for obvious reasons – it’s actually better than Zoho in most respects (not all, though). First, Bitrix24 is 100% free for 12 users (with Zoho it’s only 3). Second, mobile and desktop apps for Bitrix24 are 100% free and work with free accounts (Zoho charges for mobile apps and makes them available to paying clients only). Third, while Zoho and Bitrix24 offer essentially the same tools – CRM, invoices, Project Management, Document Management, File Sharing, Work Reports, Calendars, Business Processes, etc – Bitrix24 offers them as a single unified system via enterprise social network, whereas in Zoho these tools are more or less separate. Finally, Zoho charges for each tool used based on the number of users who access them, while Bitrix24 offers a simple unlimited $99/mo plan that works for most small businesses. And you can use Bitrix24 as a cloud based service or host it on your own servers and modify as you see fit.

2.    TeamLab, as the name suggest, is a collection of tools, much like Zoho, offering collaboration, project management, CRM, file sharing and so on. But the strongest point of TeamLab is HTML 5 based document editor that is simply amazing. While 99% of small businesses looking for Zoho replacement should do with either Bitrix24 or Google Apps (or both), if you run a publishing business or offer writing services or work with text documents a lot in any other capacity – do play around TeamLab’s editor. Unfortunately, there’s no free plan, but only free 45-day trial.

3.    Mango Apps, once again, has most of the tools Zoho features – sales, projects, documents, internal communications. It’s not as good as Bitrix24 and the document editing features don’t even come close to TeamLab. So why mention it? Mobile app. If you don’t use computer and your iPhone or iPad is your primary gadget for working with clients and communicating, if you don’t care about the wealth of features Bitrix24 offers, but want a very basic and simple mobile app even your dog can use – Mango Apps is probably your choice.

Tried Bitrix24, TeamLab, Mango Apps and still did not find a Zoho alternative you are happy with? Check out CentralDesk, WorkEtc, Do.Com, HyperOffice, Yammer, Office 365.