Zoho Cliq

Zoho Cliq is business team communication software with channels, guest access, meetings, and tools for coordinating work. Teams can use chat, AI chat summaries, workflow automation, whiteboards, screen sharing, calendars, and reminders. Message history is unlimited. Group participation varies by plan from 100 to 500 people, while searchable-message allowances run from 10,000 to unlimited. Meetings support up to 100 participants on lower tiers; higher tiers allow 1,000 active participants and 10,000 viewers. Zoho Cliq connects with Zoho People, Zoho Projects, Zoho Calendar, Zoho Notebook, Office 365, Twitter, and third-party extensions. Its administration features include user provisioning and removal, roles, permissions, module configuration, and channel management. The developer platform includes APIs, slash commands, message actions, bots, functions, schedulers, databases, widgets, and internal apps. Plans include encryption in transit and at rest, SSL, SSO, and two-factor authentication. It is available on web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android. A free plan is listed as free.

Zoho Cliq combines business chat with meeting, workflow, administration, and developer capabilities. The free plan has specified group and searchable-message limits; higher tiers expand those allowances and meeting capacity.

It suits businesses that need team chat across desktop and mobile platforms, with administration and workflow tools. Teams seeking larger groups or meeting capacity can consider the higher-tier limits.

Overview

Zoho Cliq is business communication software built around team chat, with tools for meetings, workflows, administration, and development. It is a strong fit for organizations that want configurable collaboration across departments and external partners. The trade-off is that the Free plan limits group size, searchable history, and organizational storage.

Key features

Channels and guest access support day-to-day coordination, while admins can create external channels to collaborate with people at other organizations. Provisioning, de-provisioning, roles, permissions, module configuration, and channel management give administrators meaningful control over a rollout. That breadth suits managed business environments better than teams looking only for a simple chat room.

The messaging caps are consequential: groups accommodate 100 participants on Free and 500 on paid plans, while searchable messages increase from 10,000 to unlimited. A lower-volume team may find Free sufficient, but busy teams that use old conversations as a working reference will benefit from a paid tier. Storage is 100 GB per organization on Free and Standard, compared with 100 GB per user on Professional and Enterprise.

Meetings support up to 100 participants on lower tiers; higher tiers allow 1,000 active participants and 10,000 viewers. Screen sharing, whiteboards, calendars, reminders, workflow automation, and AI chat summaries extend Cliq beyond messaging. Integrations include Zoho People, Projects, Calendar, and Notebook, as well as Office 365 and third-party extensions. Teams already using Zoho tools have a clear reason to consider the service; the developer platform, with APIs, bots, functions, schedulers, databases, widgets, slash commands, and internal apps, is most relevant to organizations prepared to build custom workflows.

Encryption in transit and at rest, SSL, SSO, and two-factor authentication are included across plans. Cliq supports organizations of different sizes, with a maximum of 100,000 members and almost 500,000 users globally.

Pricing

Free is the straightforward option for teams comfortable with the 100-person group ceiling and 10,000-message search limit. Standard removes those constraints and suits teams that do not need per-user storage. Professional and Enterprise require at least 10 users and raise storage to 100 GB per user; their higher meeting capacity is aimed at larger events, though that capacity is not the same as the lower-tier allowance.

A 14-day trial is available. When it ends, a subscription converts the trial account with its data, integrations, and advanced features intact. Payments are accepted by major cards, PayPal, bank transfer, or check transfer for yearly subscriptions. Networks is an add-on for Standard and above; Professional and Enterprise include three Networks at no extra charge.

Platforms

Cliq is available on web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, with API support for development. That range accommodates mixed-device teams and organizations connecting custom software.

Who it's for

Cliq makes the most sense for businesses that want administration and workflow capabilities alongside chat, especially those using Zoho services or needing external collaboration and custom integrations. Small teams can start free, but organizations that need larger groups, more searchable history, or per-user storage will need to weigh a paid plan. It is less compelling for teams that want only lightweight messaging and do not need the operational controls or developer tools.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Admin controls cover provisioning, permissions, roles, and channel management, helping organizations govern collaboration.
• Pro: Paid tiers remove the searchable-message limit and support groups of up to 500, while higher tiers increase storage to 100 GB per user.
• Pro: Zoho and third-party integrations plus a broad developer toolkit support workflow customization.
• Con: Free caps groups at 100 and searchable messages at 10,000, which can constrain active teams.
• Con: Professional and Enterprise have a 10-user minimum, and all paid plans use custom pricing.
• Con: Storage remains organization-wide on Free and Standard, rather than scaling with each user.

Alternatives

Compare Zoho Cliq with the Team chat apps and Team Collaboration Software directories if you want to survey the category. Microsoft Teams is worth considering if its Free plan's 100 participants, 60-minute group meetings, and 5 GB cloud storage fit your needs. Choose Slack if its free plan's 90 days of message history and up to ten apps are sufficient for your team. Lark offers a Starter plan for 20 users with 100 GB storage, 18 months of message history, and 1,000 monthly automations. Rocket.Chat is another freemium option, with a free Starter plan for 50 users. Zulip may suit teams that want a free cloud plan with 10,000 messages of search history and 5 GB total file storage. Discord offers free voice, video, and text chat with community servers and browser, desktop, and mobile access. Wire is an alternative whose maker says its source code is fully open source and available on GitHub for verification. Pumble has a free plan with unlimited users, message history, and channels, plus 10 GB storage per workspace and up to three apps.

Verdict

Choose Zoho Cliq if your business needs more than chat: its combination of administrative controls, integrations, external channels, and developer tools makes it adaptable to managed workflows. The main reason to look elsewhere is the cost and commitment uncertainty of paid plans, alongside the Free plan's clear group and search ceilings; simpler teams may not need Cliq's broader machinery.