Overview
When looking for a CRM, many of our clients have considered Zoho, as it is one of the main players in the market. Both SwiftFox and Zoho are cloud-based SaaS CRM platforms, that can have 10 or 10,000 users and enable you to undertake a range of actions with the data stored in them. As a newer player in the market, SwiftFox comes with a different philosophy to Zoho, which is the start of where differences emerge.
This page can help you understand both platforms and help educate your choice.
Comparing Features
Setup & training
With SwiftFox when you get started you won't need a third party ‘Implementation Partner' to get you set up – the SwiftFox team handle everything.
As part of our commitment to ensuring your success with SwiftFox, we recognise the importance of a hands-on onboarding process. We work closely with our clients during the initial stages of onboarding, collaborating with new clients to import data, configure customisations, and establish new user accounts and appropriate permissions.
Once the platform environment has been set-up and configured, our team will work closely with you to provide a comprehensive overview of the system & train your team. Any webinars or training sessions can be recorded and made available to your team for future reference.
Zoho set-up can be challenging as it requires an initial domain to be set up which involves a verification process, after which users need to be imported by the person conducting the set up. As this can be a technical process, an implementation partner may need to be hired. There are also additional frameworks to be set up such as their Sender Policy Framework which links to their email function.
Data security
SwiftFox hosts client data in Australian data centres on Microsoft Azure, so your data stays onshore. The SwiftFox team operates under Australia's only industry-legislated privacy code and is a member of the Australian Data and Insights Association.
Zoho runs Australian data centres — Sydney as primary, Melbourne as secondary — which is a genuine strength. Two caveats: the data centre is bound to your account at signup and cannot be changed later, and Zoho's higher-tier AI models run only in its US and India data centres, so an Australian-hosted tenant does not get the full range.
Usability
SwiftFox features a beautifully simple user experience. Uncomplicated design is powerful. You, your boss, your intern, the new hire - everyone in your organisation should know how to use, and love using SwiftFox. And you should be able to work out how to use a feature with a few clicks. SwiftFox was built from the ground up in the social media age and our future focussed design principles make it simple to navigate. As a universal CRM, once you understand how to navigate one feature – you can navigate them all!
Zoho has an easy-to-use customer interface, however, possesses high levels of customisability which the organisation can utilise. The level of customisability can be overwhelming to set up but also difficult for staff to learn basic features and functionalities. For example, there is a limit on the number of tags that can be placed on a person, meaning that they cannot be placed in more than 10 categories.
Universal CRM
SwiftFox has everything you need in one platform. This is what makes it so powerful. So marvellously simple to use. You can send emails, newsletters, coordinate events, create forms, manage your pipeline, send text messages, have phone calls, tick off your tasks, talk to your team - all from one place, and with one subscription.
Following initial set-up, organisations license SwiftFox on a subscription basis and our central development team take care of ensuring your platform is always updated and at the cutting edge of innovation.
Zoho’s software offers a limited range of features in their Enterprise subscription, such as, customisable dashboards, KPI charts and mass emails. However, certain restrictions apply to these features, for example, maximum caps on the number of emails that can be sent, and additional features can be subscribed to at an extra cost. Some users have found that some basic features such as social media integration to popular apps such as Instagram, are missing.
AI & data innovation
SwiftFox is built by The Red Fox Group, an Australian data analytics company, so AI and analytics are not a bolt-on here. Our AI is deliberately simple: draft an email and send it when your people actually open things, see who is likely to renew or lapse, spot who will donate or buy before you ask.
It is included. There are no credits to buy, no consumption meter running in the background, and no separate AI licence.
Zoho's AI is Zia, and it moved to token metering. The platform itself is free, with 30 million tokens a month included on the standard tier and US$0.15 per million after that.
One thing to check if data residency matters to you: Zoho's higher-tier AI models run only in its US and India data centres. An Australian-hosted Zoho tenant does not get the full model range.
New features roadmap
SwiftFox takes care of everything. As a SaaS platform, our team has a long-term development pipeline where we are continuously rolling out new features accessed by all our users. Clients can always submit suggestions for the product roadmap.
Zoho has a roadmap of releases, however as Zoho is such a large organisation, enhancements to its core features are led by its team which is headquartered in Chennia. Like many multinational software platforms, this can make it difficult for client requests to be actioned in a timely manner. Custom development is possible with Zoho, this requires organisations to hire an external development partner as additional cost.
Ongoing support
SwiftFox has the help you would expect — guides, in-platform training, videos, live webinars, the SwiftFox Academy. But we are also local, and we have a phone. Get stuck and you can talk to someone who can jump on a video call and sort it out. Support is included, not a percentage of your licence.
Zoho's included Classic support runs business hours, five days a week. Premium support is 20% of your subscription fee and Enterprise support is 25% — and Enterprise support requires a minimum of 50 licences, so a team of 50 is the first size that can buy it.
On an A$36,300 licence spend, that is A$7,260 to A$9,075 a year for responsive support.
SwiftFox: What does it do?
SwiftFox is campaign and membership software for organisations that talk to their people at scale. Store contacts, send emails and texts, make calls, run events, build forms, manage memberships, accreditations and awards, track cases and visits, run projects and pipelines, take payments and reconcile them to Xero, publish a member portal — and see every interaction against the one profile.
SwiftFox AI reads that history and tells you what to do with it: who is likely to renew, who is drifting, who will donate, who will show up. Automations then handle the follow-up so your team doesn't have to.
One subscription. Everyone in your organisation gets an account. No per-user fees.
Zoho
: What does it do?
Zoho is international software which aims to streamline different sections of a business such as sales, marketing and customer support.
Zoho enables its users to:
- Capture leads and follow up on potential and current leads
- Provide analytics with customisable dashboards
- Use AI to automate specific tasks and analyse incoming data
Zoho offers a range of features and significant customisation abilities within features, which may be difficult to navigate for those who do not have a tech background.
An Overview of SwiftFox Users
SwiftFox is campaign and membership software for organisations that talk to their people at scale. Store contacts, send emails and texts, make calls, run events, build forms, manage memberships, accreditations and awards, track cases and visits, run projects and pipelines, take payments and reconcile them to Xero, publish a member portal — and see every interaction against the one profile.
SwiftFox AI reads that history and tells you what to do with it: who is likely to renew, who is drifting, who will donate, who will show up. Automations then handle the follow-up so your team doesn't have to.
One subscription. Everyone in your organisation gets an account. No per-user fees.
An Overview of
Zoho
Users
Zoho is international software which aims to streamline different sections of a business such as sales, marketing and customer support.
Zoho enables its users to:
- Capture leads and follow up on potential and current leads
- Provide analytics with customisable dashboards
- Use AI to automate specific tasks and analyse incoming data
Zoho offers a range of features and significant customisation abilities within features, which may be difficult to navigate for those who do not have a tech background.
Pricing
SwiftFox charges one subscription for your whole organisation. Everyone gets an account — the ops manager, the intern, the board member who logs in twice a year.
That is a deliberate choice. When licences are rationed, people work around the CRM instead of in it: spreadsheets appear, lists get emailed around, and the 360-degree view you bought the system for quietly stops being true. Per-user pricing also punishes you for growing.
Zoho is keenly priced — A$60.50 per user per month on Enterprise — and its onboarding is genuinely free. For 50 people that is A$36,300 a year in licences. Two things then move the real number.
First, support: the included Classic plan is business hours only. Premium is 20% of your subscription and Enterprise support is 25%, which adds A$7,260 to A$9,075 a year. Second, email: Zoho CRM caps mass email at 1,000 a day for the whole organisation, so anyone communicating at volume buys Zoho Campaigns as well — and Campaigns is priced across 45 contact tiers, from A$4.65 a month at 500 contacts to A$281.51 at 100,000. GST sits on top of all of it.
That is the pattern with Zoho generally. The licence looks cheap; the platform is assembled from a lot of separately-priced products, and you only find the full number once you have listed them all.
Time to join SwiftFox? Making the jump is easy!
Get in touch and learn how easy it is to switch to SwiftFox, our team is available to help you every step of the way.
We don’t just tell you to export your data from your old system and figure it out yourself, we sit down and plan with you the most efficient migration process with minimal disruption.
And then a dedicated SwiftFox team member will take care of the transition, including help with set up and data importing if required. No third-party implementation provider required, just us!
SwiftFox and Zoho Integration
We also know there are times when one part of your organisation may need Zoho, while SwiftFox meets different requirements. That’s why we also offer a fast integration with Zoho, powered by Zapier. Integration takes minutes to set up with our SwiftFox and Zoho templates, and your data will start syncing immediately. This makes it possible for different teams in your organisation to use both platforms.