Zoho CRM vs Bigin: free for 3 users, half price at 5
Zoho CRM is free for 3 users; Bigin's free plan stops at 1. From 4 seats Bigin costs half as much. Real costs for both at 1, 3, 5 and 10 users.
Zoho sells two CRMs, and the one marketed as the small, cheap option isn’t always the cheaper one.
Zoho CRM is the full sales CRM: free for up to 3 users, then $14 to $52 per user/month on annual billing. Bigin by Zoho CRM is the stripped-down, pipeline-first sibling: free for 1 user, then $7 to $18 per user/month.
So a three-person team pays nothing on the “big” CRM and $252 a year on the “small” one. Add a fourth person and it inverts: from then on, Bigin’s entry plan costs exactly half of Zoho CRM’s.
All pricing below comes from each product’s listed plans, checked in October 2026; verify current pricing on Zoho’s site before you commit.
The short answer
- 1 user: both are free. Bigin is quicker to set up; Zoho CRM’s free tier gives you more room to grow into.
- 2-3 users: Zoho CRM. Its Free edition covers you; Bigin’s doesn’t.
- 4+ users who mostly track deals: Bigin. Express at $7/user/mo is half of Zoho CRM Standard at $14.
- Any size that needs quoting (CPQ), inventory, lead scoring or AI: Zoho CRM. Those are listed Zoho CRM edition features; Bigin’s listed features don’t include them.
Pricing at a glance
Per user, per month. Annual billing first, month-to-month in brackets.
| Plan level | Zoho CRM | Bigin |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0, up to 3 users | $0, 1 user only |
| Entry paid | Standard: $14 ($20) | Express: $7 ($9) |
| Mid | Professional: $23 ($35) | Premier: $12 ($15) |
| Upper | Enterprise: $40 ($50) | Bigin 360: $18 ($21) |
| Top | Ultimate: $52 ($65) | None |
| Free trial | 15 days | 15 days |
| G2 rating | 4.1 | 4.6 |
Neither takes a cut of your sales; both are straight per-seat software.
What each really costs at 1, 3, 5 and 10 users
The cheapest plan that fits each team size, annual billing:
| Team | Zoho CRM | Bigin | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 user | $0 (Free) | $0 (Free) | Tie |
| 3 users | $0 (Free) | $21/mo, $252/yr (Express) | Zoho CRM, by $252/yr |
| 5 users | $70/mo, $840/yr (Standard) | $35/mo, $420/yr (Express) | Bigin, by $420/yr |
| 10 users | $140/mo, $1,680/yr (Standard) | $70/mo, $840/yr (Express) | Bigin, by $840/yr |
On month-to-month billing the gaps widen. Three users on Bigin Express is $27/mo ($324/yr). Five users is $100/mo on Zoho CRM Standard against $45/mo on Bigin, a $660/yr difference. Ten users is $200/mo against $90/mo, or $1,320 a year.
If you’re here for Zoho CRM pricing specifically, this is the full ladder at each team size (annual billing, per month for the whole team):
| Zoho CRM edition | 1 user | 3 users | 5 users | 10 users |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | n/a | n/a |
| Standard | $14 | $42 | $70 | $140 |
| Professional | $23 | $69 | $115 | $230 |
| Enterprise | $40 | $120 | $200 | $400 |
| Ultimate | $52 | $156 | $260 | $520 |
And Bigin’s:
| Bigin plan | 1 user | 3 users | 5 users | 10 users |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Express | $7 | $21 | $35 | $70 |
| Premier | $12 | $36 | $60 | $120 |
| Bigin 360 | $18 | $54 | $90 | $180 |
The two free plans are not the same thing
This is where most “Zoho CRM vs Bigin” comparisons go wrong. They treat both free tiers as equivalent. They aren’t close.
Zoho CRM Free covers up to 3 users and includes contact management, follow-up reminders, workflow automation, up to 10 custom email templates, tasks, meetings and calls, standard reports, data import and export (up to 10 times), APIs with 5,000 calls a day, and the mobile apps. For a small team that only needs to track leads and deals, that’s a working CRM, not a trial.
Bigin Free is 1 user, a single pipeline, 500 records and 3 automations. You get contact, product and activity management, the built-in phone, standard dashboards and developer APIs. It works for a solo operator testing whether a pipeline CRM suits them. It stops being enough the day you hire someone or pass 500 records.
So the answer to “is Zoho CRM free for 3 users?” is yes. That makes it the cheapest serious option in the whole Zoho line for a team of two or three.
The fourth-user cliff
The catch with Zoho CRM’s free edition is what happens when you outgrow it. Seats 1-3 are free; there’s no option to pay only for the fourth. The account moves to a paid edition and every user is billed.
On Standard that takes you from $0 to $56/mo ($672/yr) on annual billing, or $80/mo ($960/yr) month-to-month, in one hire.
Bigin’s growth is smoother: going from one free user to two on Express costs $14/mo, then $7/mo for each seat after that.
Plan for this. If you’re a three-person team expecting to hire within the year, the comparison you should run is Zoho CRM Standard against Bigin Express, not Free against Free.
What the extra money buys in Zoho CRM
Bigin is cheaper because it does less, deliberately. It’s built around pipelines and stages, contacts and deals, email integration, workflow automations, built-in telephony and mobile apps, and its own listing concedes it is lighter on marketing and quoting, has record limits per tier, and has no built-in invoicing or payments.
Zoho CRM adds capability by edition:
- Standard: scoring rules and custom dashboards.
- Professional: CPQ (configure-price-quote), process automation and inventory.
- Enterprise: Zia AI and journey orchestration.
- Ultimate: enhanced limits and BI analytics.
Across the line it also lists custom modules, fields and dashboards. That’s the depth Bigin doesn’t try to match. The trade-off is in Zoho CRM’s own listed cons: the product line sprawls, the best features sit on higher tiers, and per-user pricing adds up for bigger teams.
The reviews follow the same split. Bigin rates 4.6 on G2 to Zoho CRM’s 4.1. Its listed strength is setup that’s easy compared with full Zoho CRM. Simpler tools tend to satisfy the people they’re built for.
Where the price ladders overlap
One detail is easy to miss: Bigin’s top plan costs more than Zoho CRM’s entry plan. Bigin 360 is $18/user/mo on annual billing; Zoho CRM Standard is $14.
For ten users that’s $180/mo against $140/mo, or $480 a year more for the “small” CRM. If you’re shopping Bigin 360 for its reporting and collaboration, price Zoho CRM Standard first. It costs $48 less per seat per year and brings scoring rules and custom dashboards.
The reverse holds lower down. Bigin Premier at $12 sits just under Zoho CRM Standard at $14. That’s $240 a year apart at ten users, and Bigin Express at $7 is $84 per seat per year cheaper than Standard.
Annual or monthly?
Zoho advertises annual billing as “save up to 34%”. That headline figure is Zoho CRM Professional ($35 down to $23). Standard saves 30% ($20 to $14), and Enterprise and Ultimate save 20%.
Bigin’s discounts are smaller in both percentage and dollars: 22% on Express ($9 to $7), 20% on Premier, 14% on Bigin 360. Per seat, annual billing saves $72 a year on Zoho CRM Standard but only $24 a year on Bigin Express. If you’re unsure the tool will stick, month-to-month Bigin is a cheap way to find out.
For agencies specifically
Neither is a multi-client agency platform. If you run CRMs for clients, with sub-accounts and white-label, our best CRM for a small agency guide covers the flat-priced tools built for that. Zoho CRM and Bigin are for tracking your own pipeline: leads, proposals out, deals won.
For that job they’re good value. Zoho CRM Standard at $14/user/mo matches Pipedrive’s Lite tier at the same price, and Bigin Express undercuts both by half. If you’re weighing per-seat against flat pricing more broadly, how to choose a CRM for your agency walks through where that line falls.
The verdict
Up to 3 people: Zoho CRM Free. It costs $0, covers three users with workflows and reports, and beats paying $252 a year for Bigin Express.
4 or more people who mainly manage a pipeline: Bigin Express. At $7 a seat it’s half of Zoho CRM Standard: $420 a year cheaper at five users, $840 cheaper at ten.
Any team that needs quotes, inventory, lead scoring or AI: Zoho CRM, from Standard upward depending on which. None of those appear in Bigin’s listed features, so check bigin.com before assuming otherwise.
Solo and just starting: either free plan works. Pick Bigin if you want something running this afternoon. Pick Zoho CRM if you expect to add two colleagues without paying anything.
If neither fits, the Zoho CRM alternatives and Bigin alternatives pages rank the rest of the category on price and rating, and the best agency CRM hub covers the full field. Or let the advisor narrow it down by team size, budget and whether you manage clients or just your own pipeline.