Introduction
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Zoho is a provider of all sorts of business solutions that are affordable yet on par with the market’s most popular offerings. Zoho People is a great example of this, being a 360° HR solution that’s robust, user-friendly, and affordable.
Ratings
Ease of Use
Best For
Key Differentiator
Price
Free Trial
PROS
- All core HR features in a single dashboard
- Wide array of integrations
- User-friendly UI, constantly updated
- Available in multiple languages
CONS
- Since they offer so many modules, some may be not as robust as other products that have been more specific about covering certain needs. For instance, some teams have found their payroll offering to be quite basic.
- Not all that’s available in the web platform is available in the app
- Some users reported that the platform can be slow to load every now and then.
Zoho is an Indian software company that makes all kinds of business software, from IT management to bookkeeping tools. Naturally, they also offer a cloud-based Human Resources Management System that we’ve found checks most boxes in most HR manager’s list of requirements.
This entails features like employee onboarding, performance management, time and attendance tracking, employee self service, database management, and much more. Their list of features is quite lengthy, and although it gets longer and longer with every plan, the essentials one is already quite complete. For example, wider plans like Premium ($3/user/month if billed annually) include OKR and goal tracking, a skill set matrix and advanced HR analytics.
Now, if some plans seem a bit basic, one cool thing about Zoho People is that certain modules are available as add-ons. For instance, this is the case of their learning management system, which features targeted learning, feedback, course customization, and a forum-like system for discussions.
Some of the companies that use Zoho people are ZPE Systems, Cloudfronts Technologies, Zomato, SpiceJet, and Foresight CFO.
- Time Off Management: This is where the one HR admin can set up time off policies, manage requests, offer compensatory time off, keep track of each employee’s holidays, and automate certain tasks.
- Employee Files: Coupled with the Employee Database, this basic document management tool allows the HR admin to store and organize all the relevant files for each employee.
- HR Process Automation: You can intuitively set up workflows for tasks like sending out paperwork, creating reports, and updating data fields.
- Employee Database Management: Tracking employee data and records is all made easier with a centralized HRIS. Zoho People syncs employee information across multiple systems.
Also included in most plans are:
- Employee onboarding
- Performance management
- Biometric integrations
- Time and attendance tracking
- Shift scheduling
- Billing and invoicing integration
- E-signature app integrations
- Reports
- Webhooks
- Mobile Apps for iOS & Android
Zoho's integrations vary according to the pricing plan. Their free plan, for instance, allows only for a Zapier connection so you may integrate with the rest of your tech stack. Their API functionality is available from the HR Essentials plan forward. This includes 250 calls per user license with a max of 5000 calls each day.
As we mentioned before, we find Zoho to be very straightforward and flexible about their pricing. You can upgrade at any time if your team size grows, or even downgrade to the free version if you’ve got the user count and find that you prefer it.
Zoho People is free for up to 5 users. After that, it has 4 plans that are priced as follows:
- Essential HR: $1.25/user/month billed annually
- Professional: $2/user/month billed annually
- Premium: $3/user/month billed annually
- Enterprise: $4.5/user/month billed annually
Zoho People has plans for many sorts of organizations, even offering custom pricing for those with more than 500 employees. The product is affordable enough to be used by small businesses and robust enough to handle the complex and scalable needs of large companies. Even the more expensive Zoho People plans can check all the HRMS boxes without breaking the bank.
Zoho People is cloud-based which makes it fairly easy to implement. To get started, head to Zoho People’s page and click the GET STARTED button at the top right-hand corner. This will take you to a page where you can create a trial account to test the platform’s features and offerings.
Whether it’s to ensure proper adoption, handle requests, or provide customer support, the team at Zoho has created many resources for customer success. These include a setup guide, welcome guide, blogs, webinars, a help center with articles and tutorials, and partner training. While this is all on the self-service side, customers can also submit a support request if further help is needed.
The Zoho story goes back to 1996, with the founding of AdventNet Inc. Back then, the company made a network management tool that was popular internationally, but mainly in the Japanese market. Then, in 2001, they launched Zoho CRM, which quickly became one of their best-selling apps.
Then, in 2005, the company caught up with the times and started offering cloud-based applications. They began with the Writer app, then Show (a presentation tool), creator (custom application builder), and Zoho Sheets. It wasn’t long until they realized that there could be a Zoho tool for just about every kind of business app. If you’re curious, the Zoho ‘about page’ actually has an interactive timeline where you can see the evolution of the company year to year. Nowadays, Zoho has over 75 million users worldwide, several offices across the globe, and more than 50 products for marketing, finance, customer and tech support, team collaboration, and of course, HR and recruitment.
Company HQ
Austin, Texas and Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Number of Employees
13,000+
Year Founded
1996
