Bigin by Zoho CRM

Bigin by Zoho CRM is a customer relationship management app for small businesses and MSMEs, including businesses with 1 to 20 employees. Visual sales pipelines help organize customer work, while email sync and workflow automation support sales processes. Its free edition is limited to one user, one pipeline, 500 records, and three automations. Paid editions raise those limits and add multiple team pipelines and user management; listed starting pricing is $7/user/mo billed annually. Annual billing is described as saving up to 35%. A 15-day free trial does not require a credit card, and Bigin offers free onboarding and a 100% money-back guarantee. Zia-powered AI features include writing assistance, summaries, reply suggestions, and churn analysis. Integrations include Zoho Books, QuickBooks, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Shopify, Mailchimp, and Zapier. WhatsApp integration supports messaging, replies, and conversation history. Apps are available for iOS, iPadOS, Android, and macOS. Support is available by phone, email, and live chat 24 hours a day, five days a week.

Bigin brings visual pipelines, email sync, automation, and AI features together for small-business CRM work. The free edition has clear capacity limits; the listed paid starting price is $7/user/mo billed annually.

Bigin suits small businesses and MSMEs, including teams with 1 to 20 employees, that need sales pipelines and customer-work tools. Its mobile apps and integrations may also suit businesses using the listed services.

Overview

Bigin by Zoho CRM is a customer relationship management app for small businesses and MSMEs, particularly teams with 1 to 20 employees. It suits businesses that want to organize sales activity around pipelines rather than adopt a larger CRM; its free plan, however, is sized for just one person.

Visual pipelines, email sync, automation and Zia-powered AI cover a useful spread of day-to-day CRM work. The main decision is whether the free plan’s tight caps are enough or whether the added pipelines, records and automation in paid editions justify a per-user subscription.

For broader options, browse CRM Software, Professional Services CRM Software or Sales Force Automation Software.

Key features

Sales pipelines and automation

Visual pipelines give teams a clear structure for tracking sales work. The free edition includes one pipeline and three automations, enough for a solo user with a simple process but restrictive once multiple people or workflows need to be managed. Paid plans add team pipelines and raise automation limits: Express allows three pipelines and 30 automations, Premier five and 50, and Bigin 360 fifteen and 100.

Email, marketing and messaging

Email sync and marketing automation support customer communication within the CRM. WhatsApp integration adds sending, replies and conversation-history tracking, making it useful for businesses that handle customer conversations through messaging as well as email. Integrations include Zoho Books, QuickBooks, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, Shopify, Mailchimp and Zapier.

AI and administration

Zia features include writing assistance, summaries, reply suggestions and churn analysis. AI credits are included in Premier and Bigin 360, at 1,000 and 3,000 per month respectively; the lower tiers do not include a stated monthly AI-credit allowance. Paid plans also provide user profiles and roles, plus multiple team pipelines, which make them a more practical fit for shared sales operations.

Zoho says its infrastructure is certified for ISO 27001, GDPR, SOC 2 and HIPAA. It says customer data is not sold or used for advertising and can be exported at any time. Support is offered by phone, email and live chat 24 hours a day, five days a week; paid plans include onboarding, webinars, admin training and data-import assistance.

Pricing

Bigin is freemium, with monthly and annual billing for paid editions. Annual pricing saves up to 35%. The 15-day free trial requires no credit card, users can cancel anytime, and Bigin offers free onboarding and a 100% money-back guarantee.

Free is a reasonable starting point for a solo operator, but its single seat and 500-record ceiling make it a poor fit for a growing contact base or a team. Express is the lowest-cost paid option for teams needing shared pipelines and substantially more records. Premier adds more capacity, custom fields and a defined monthly AI-credit allowance; Bigin 360 is for operations that need its much larger pipeline and record limits, extra storage and higher AI-credit allocation. Limits for bookings, mass email and other features also vary by edition.

Platforms

Bigin has apps for iOS, iPadOS, Android and macOS, with mobile apps for iOS and Android. That gives mobile users dedicated apps across the major phone platforms, plus desktop availability on Mac.

Who it's for

Bigin is best suited to small businesses that want a visual sales process, communication tools and workflow automation without starting with a large team CRM. The free tier works for an individual with modest record needs. Teams should consider a paid plan as soon as they need multiple users, shared pipelines or more than 500 records. Businesses needing broader per-edition limits should compare the higher tiers before committing.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Visual pipelines, email sync, marketing automation and WhatsApp conversation tracking bring several customer-work channels into one CRM.
• Pros: Paid plans scale from three to 15 team pipelines, with clear record and automation increases at each tier.
• Pros: The trial needs no credit card, and paid plans include onboarding and training support.
• Cons: The free plan is single-user and capped at 500 records, one pipeline and three automations, so it will not serve a small team.
• Cons: AI credits are specifically quantified only for Premier and Bigin 360, so users who need a defined monthly allowance must move beyond the lower tiers.

Alternatives

Choose Freshsales if a free CRM for up to three users is more important than Bigin’s one-user free tier; its Growth plan is $9 a month, billed annually. Zoho CRM is another freemium choice, with a free plan for three users and a Standard plan at $23 a month, billed annually.

Bitrix24 CRM offers a free option for 1–2 users with 5 GB storage and basic CRM. Consider Odoo CRM if open-source availability matters; its One App Free plan includes one app and unlimited users on Odoo Online. The Agency CRM has a free plan for one user, up to five clients and 10 invoices per month, while Capsule CRM has a free plan for two users and 250 contacts. KudosCRM provides a free plan for up to three users and 1,000 contacts. Unanet CRM is another paid CRM option.

Verdict

Bigin is a good fit for a small business that wants visual pipelines, integrated communications and a straightforward path from solo use to team plans. Its strongest case is the combination of pipeline capacity, automation and practical communication tools across paid tiers. Look elsewhere if you need a useful multi-user free plan: Bigin’s free edition is limited to one seat, and the paid plans are priced per user.