Bigin by Zoho
Free planZoho's pipeline CRM for small businesses, with calling, email and WhatsApp on every deal and contact.
Best for solo owners and small teams that want a pipeline CRM at a low price per user
Facts checked November 4, 2026
The short answer
Bigin suits a small business leaving spreadsheets: you set up a pipeline with your own stages, and calls, email and WhatsApp messages land on the contact and deal. Express costs $7 a user a month billed yearly, which is cheap for a team CRM with mass email, 30 automations and a QuickBooks connection. The Free plan is for one person and 500 records, and since notes and activities count as records you will hit that limit quickly. The AI tools, scheduled automations and stage rules start on Premier, and anyone who needs a heavily customized sales process should look at Zoho CRM instead.
Choose it if
- You're moving a small team off spreadsheets and want everyone on a paid CRM for $7 a user a month billed yearly
- You run more than one process, such as sales and customer onboarding, and want a separate pipeline for each (3 on Express, 5 on Premier, 15 on Bigin 360)
- You spend your day on the phone and want to make, record and route calls from inside the CRM, which every plan includes
- Customers reach you by email and WhatsApp, and you want both conversations on their record (Express and up)
- You already use Zoho Books, Zoho Desk or Zoho Campaigns, or you want the option of moving to Zoho CRM later through Zoho's one-click migration
Skip it if
- Two or more people need access and you want to pay nothing. The Free plan allows one user, while HubSpot's free tools cover two
- You want email sequences, newsletters and marketing automation inside the CRM. Bigin sends mass email from Express up, but campaigns run through Zoho Campaigns or Mailchimp, which you subscribe to separately
- You want AI to draft emails and summarize records on the cheapest paid plan. Those tools start on Premier at $12 a user a month billed yearly
- Your sales process has outgrown a simple pipeline and needs heavy customization. Zoho sells Zoho CRM for that, and Bigin's own FAQ points teams that outgrow Bigin there
Main features
Pipelines with your own stages
Each pipeline tracks one process, such as sales, onboarding or support, with stages you name. Templates cover trades like real estate, insurance and recruiting, and paid plans can connect one pipeline to another.
Contact and company records
Every contact holds notes, files, activities and a timeline of what happened, and paid plans add color-coded tags. Bear in mind that each note and activity counts toward your record limit.
Built-in phone
Make and take calls inside Bigin, record them, set up automated voice responses and route calls, on every plan including Free. You can also connect one of more than 100 cloud phone providers, including RingCentral, JustCall, CloudTalk and Five9.
Email and WhatsApp on the record
From Express up, Bigin syncs two-way email with Gmail, Outlook and Zoho Mail and connects WhatsApp Business so you can reply without leaving the CRM. Mass email shows the status of each message you sent.
Automations
Instant actions fire when a record changes: 3 on Free, 30 on Express, 50 on Premier and 100 on Bigin 360. Premier adds scheduled actions and stage transition rules with checkpoints, so a deal can't skip a required step.
Web forms and ad leads
No-code forms on your website send visitors straight into a pipeline, on every plan. From Express up, leads from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and TikTok ads flow in through Zoho's LeadChain add-on.
Booking pages
Publish your availability so prospects can book a meeting with you. Free, Express and Premier include one booking page and Bigin 360 includes 100.
Payment links
From Express up, you can send a customer a link to pay through Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay or Paytm.
AI tools and MCP
Premier and Bigin 360 add an email writing assistant, email reply suggestions, record summaries, cross-sell suggestions and a churn analyzer, paid for with monthly AI credits whose cost varies by task. Every plan supports MCP, so you can connect your Bigin data to outside AI tools.
Mobile and Mac apps
Apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and Mac give you contacts, calls and notifications on the move, and the business card scanner turns a card into a new contact.
Pricing
US dollar prices per user, checked November 4, 2026 on Bigin's English pricing page; the Express and Premier prices match the price data file that page loads. Local taxes such as VAT are added on top. Express and Premier have no user limit. Add-ons sell extra pipelines, records, automations and booking pages. Bigin gives a full refund within 30 days on monthly plans or 45 days on yearly plans and moves you to the Free plan.
Free
$0
1 user, 1 pipeline, 500 records, 3 automations, built-in phone, web forms, 1 booking page, standard dashboard, API and Zapier
Express
$9 a user ($7 billed yearly) / month
3 team pipelines, 50,000 records, 30 automations, Gmail, Outlook and Zoho Mail, WhatsApp Business, mass email, custom dashboards, payment links, QuickBooks
Premier
$15 a user ($12 billed yearly) / month
5 team pipelines, 100,000 records, 50 automations including scheduled ones, stage transition rules, multiple currencies, duplicate cleanup, data enrichment, AI tools with 1,000 AI credits a month
Bigin 360
$21 a user ($18 billed yearly) / month
15 team pipelines, 1 million records, 100 automations, Email-In with 5 aliases, 5 GB File Cabinet, 1,000 mass emails a day, 100 booking pages, 3,000 AI credits a month
Reviews
Write a reviewNo reviews yet. If you use Bigin by Zoho, yours would be the first.
Alternatives to Bigin by Zoho
| Product | Choose it instead if | Starts at |
|---|---|---|
| Zoho CRM | You need more room to customize the CRM as your sales team grows and want to stay with Zoho | Free for up to 3 users |
| Pipedrive | You run a dedicated sales team that lives in the deal pipeline and wants a CRM built only for selling | |
| HubSpot | You want marketing email, forms and the CRM from one vendor, or free access for two users | Free |
| Freshsales | You want calling, email and website chat in the CRM and may add Freshworks' help desk later | $9 a user a month, bille... |
| Platformly | You want the deals pipeline on the same contact records as your email campaigns, automations and sales tracking, so you can see which email or link brought in each customer |
Questions people ask
Is Bigin free?
Yes. The Free plan has no time limit and covers one user, one pipeline, 500 records and three automations, with the built-in phone and web forms included. It suits one person testing a CRM; a team needs Express, which starts at $7 a user a month billed yearly.
What counts as a record in Bigin?
Every new row in Contacts, Companies, Pipelines, Activities, Products or Notes counts as a record. A customer with a deal, three calls and two notes uses seven records, so the Free plan's 500 records fill faster than the number suggests. Express allows 50,000, Premier 100,000 and Bigin 360 one million.
What happens when the free trial ends?
The trial lasts 15 days and needs no credit card. When it ends, Bigin moves you to the Free plan and doesn't charge you.
How is Bigin different from Zoho CRM?
Both come from Zoho. Bigin is the simpler, cheaper product built around pipelines for small businesses, and Zoho CRM is the larger CRM with more room for customization. Zoho offers one-click data migration from Bigin to Zoho CRM if you outgrow it.
Can I move my data from Pipedrive or HubSpot?
Yes. Bigin offers one-click migration from Pipedrive, HubSpot, Insightly and Zoho CRM. From other CRMs you import CSV files, and Zoho's support team says it can help with the import.
Does Bigin have AI features?
Premier and Bigin 360 include an AI writing assistant, email reply suggestions, record summaries, a cross-sell finder and a churn analyzer. Premier comes with 1,000 AI credits a month and Bigin 360 with 3,000, and Zoho says the credits each task uses vary. Every plan also supports MCP for connecting outside AI tools.
Is Bigin included in Zoho One?
Yes. Zoho says Zoho One users get full access to Bigin and can start it from the Zoho One admin panel.
Can I get a refund?
Bigin offers a full refund within the first 30 days of a monthly subscription or 45 days of a yearly one, and moves your account to the Free plan. You can also cancel or downgrade at any time with no contract.
Sources we checked 6
- bigin.com/pricing.html for US dollar prices for all four plans, plan limits and features, trial, refund terms, record definition, migration, Zoho One, support, languages checked November 4, 2026
- zohowebstatic.com/sites/zweb/json/pricing/zohobigin-pricing-val.json for Express and Premier US dollar prices in the price data the pricing page loads checked November 4, 2026
- bigin.com for Pipeline templates, contact record features, mobile platforms, business card scanner checked November 4, 2026
- bigin.com/integrations for Integrations with Zoho apps, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Shopify, QuickBooks Online and Mailchimp; 100+ phone providers checked November 4, 2026
- bigin.com/contact-us.html for Support channels and contact options checked November 4, 2026
- zoho.com/aboutus.html for Zoho's founding year (1996, as AdventNet) and Bigin's launch in 2020 checked November 4, 2026