Zoho Office Suite Review 2022: Features, Pricing, and More

Zoho Office Suite is an excellent alternative to programs from Microsoft or Google. The tools are easy to use and integrate well with other Zoho tools.

If you’re looking for an alternative but don’t want to sacrifice functionality, check out the Zoho Office Suite review to see how these tools can work for you and your team.

Who is Zoho Office Suite for?

Zoho Office Suite is perfect for small teams and freelancers looking for a free office suite. It provides the basic tools, features an attractive interface, and is free for groups of up to five users.

Small business owners who need spreadsheet, word processor, or slideshow software also use Zoho Office Suite. You can create professional documents, import or export files in various formats, and collaborate in real time.

However, before selecting from various office suites, consider Zoho Workplace. This software includes Zoho Office Suite but also comes with email, instant messaging and video conferencing.

Although both suites offer a free forever plan, Zoho Workplace’s paid plans currently cost less per user per month than Zoho Office Suite’s paid plans.

Features of Zoho Office Suite

Zoho Office suite contains four applications. You can use the web-based programs separately or as part of the all-in-one office suite, Zoho Workplace.

All Zoho plans come with:

• Writer: Distraction-free word processor with an AI-powered writing assistant
• Sheet: Robust spreadsheet app with AI capabilities
• Show: A presentation and slideshow app with interactive design elements
• Laptop: A simple app for taking notes.

Zoho Writer

Zoho Writer is an online word processing and editing program. You can import Microsoft Word documents with little formatting hassle or save programs as Word documents. Zoho Writer has an offline mode, giving you access to your 20 most recent documents.

The interface is clean, limits distractions, and offers a dark mode or focus version. The standout feature of Zoho Writer is Zia, the AI ​​writing assistant.

Zia adds colored lines to highlight spelling or grammatical errors. It also provides a readability analysis.

Like Google Docs or Microsoft Word, you can comment in the app in real time to collaborate on projects or track changes during the review process.

Zoho Writer integrates with WordPress, making it easy to quickly publish new blog posts. Also, it works great for creating contracts. Use a template or design your own, combine it with a form and use the integrated electronic signature tool.

Writer’s toolbar is attached to the left side with easy-to-read buttons. Image Source: Author

Zoho Sheet

Zoho Sheet is a spreadsheet application compatible with Microsoft Excel and offers more than 350 predefined functions. Use the Insights by Zia AI tool to make it easy to design charts or explore data sets.

Just ask a question, like “What’s your first quarter sales?”, and Zia pulls data from your spreadsheet cells to provide an answer or recommend a chart. Other cool features include:

• A data cleaning tool to find errors and duplicate content
• Many chart types including histogram, Pareto, bubble, and word cloud
• Drag and drop columns
• Integrates with Zoho Forms, Zoho Flow and Zapier
• You can embed partial or full spreadsheets on a web page

However, Zoho Sheet does not offer pre-built templates in the app and only has 13 font options.

Get feedback or ask a question by tagging and commenting on a cell. Image Source: Author

Show Zoho

Zoho Show offers 30 templates, 36 themes, and over 100 fonts. You can create slideshows and cast them on Apple or Android TVs or use Chromecast with Google while using your smartphone as a remote.

Like other Zoho tools, you can collaborate in real time and use “@” mentions to instantly notify team members of your comments.

Zoho Show is compatible with PowerPoint, so you can easily import or export files. It works like other presentation software, with various elements and edit points to modify shapes.

Choose templates from categories such as human resources, marketing, industrial, education, sales, and project management. Image Source: Author

Zoho Notebook

Zoho Notebook is similar to Google Keep or Evernote. You can choose from over 30 hand drawn notebook covers or select your own design. The app features seven different types of notes, including:

• Text: This card combines features of all cards into one, so you can write notes, add a checklist, or take a photo.
• Check list: Add your tasks to a checklist card, drag and drop to prioritize, or mark a completed job to put it at the bottom.
• Audio: Record meetings or conversations from your phone or Apple Watch. When using iOS 10 or higher, Notebook automatically transcribes your audio into searchable notes.
• Sketch: Use an Apple Pencil or Samsung S Stylus to create custom sketches with a pencil, marker, or ballpoint pen.
• Archive: Drag your files from your desktop, scan a document, then drop your file into a group to keep your project-related research in one place.
• Elegant: A smart card adjusts to its content. Add a video link and you’ll see a video preview on your card. Or add an article and the title and main image will appear.
• Photo: Scan a document, take a new photo or save a web image to Zoho Notebook.

Personalize your notebook covers and keep them in one place. Image Source: Author

Ease of use of Zoho Office Suite

Zoho Office Suite is designed to work without distraction. Each app allows drag and drop functionality, making it easy to customize your documents or slideshows. Zoho’s AI tool is a great helper and in word processing documents it rivals software tools like Grammarly.

Overall, Zoho Office Suite gets higher usability ratings than the average word processor, spreadsheet, slideshow, and note-taking applications.

Zoho Office Suite Pricing

Many of Zoho’s applications are free. Sign up with your email address or connect to your web domain to get started. Before selecting a paid plan, consider the different types of Zoho packages and how you want to use the service.

Zoho Office Suite

Monthly plan costs are based on month-to-month payments, but you can save additional money by making an annual payment.

The three Zoho Office Suite packages include:

• Free: Zoho Office Suite is free to use for up to 5 GB of cloud storage, up to 25 file versions, and the ability to upload 1 GB files at a time.
• Standard: $5/month per user for up to 100GB of storage, unlimited file versions, group sharing capabilities, and 15GB upload limit.
• Premium: $8/month per user for up to 1TB of cloud storage and an upload limit of 256GB per file.

However, you can get Zoho Office Suite as part of Zoho Workplace for a lower cost.

Zoho Workplace

As with other Zoho plans, you can save around a dollar a month by paying annually. Zoho Workplace gives you access to the Zoho Office Suite as well as additional productivity and collaboration apps.

Zoho Workplace plans are:

• Free Forever Plan: There is no cost for up to five users, 5 GB of storage per user, single domain email hosting, Zoho Cliq, and free office suite via web access.
• Standard: $4/month per user for 5 GB of storage and 30 GB of email storage. It comes with Zoho Cliq, Notes, Tasks, Calendar, Writer, Sheet, Show, Mail, and WorkDrive.
• Professional: $7/month per user for 100 GB of cloud storage and 100 GB of email storage. This release adds Zoho Connect and Showtime. Plus, get Zoho Meeting for video conferences with up to 100 participants.
• Mail Only Plan: $1/month per user for multi-domain email hosting, iOS and Android apps, shared calendar, and offline access.

Zoho Office Suite Support

Zoho provides a sizable knowledge base with how-to articles, tutorials, and on-demand webinars. You can access customer support via email, a toll-free number, or in-app chat.

There is also a self-service portal for customers to submit and track support tickets. With all paid plans, Zoho offers 24/7 technical support.

Click on your user icon to view support options on individual programs. Image Source: Author

Benefits of Zoho Office Suite

Today’s workforce is not limited to a desktop computer. Instead, people sign contracts on their smartphones or complete research on a tablet. Cloud computing allows you and your teams to work when and where you want.

Using Zoho Office Suite can save your business money and improve remote collaboration while giving you a secure space to store your files.

low cost tools

Subscription costs per user get more expensive when the whole team is added. With Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, you’ll pay between $60 and $240 per employee per year. However, you can get Zoho Workplace for $48-$84 per employee per year, leading to significant savings.

cloud-based storage

Keeping track of contracts, spreadsheets, and documents across multiple devices and workplaces is a challenge. The free versions of the office suite give you 5 GB of storage per user to share among your team.

Paid plans offer additional email storage and higher cloud storage limits.

virtual collaboration

Stay connected with teams and increase productivity with Zoho Office Suite. With Zoho, you can interact in real time. Mention team members, add comments, or invite an external stakeholder by sharing a link.

Click the Share button to see your options in Zoho Sheet, Writer, Show or Notebook. Image Source: Author

Organize your workplace online

Online office suite software is something every business owner or freelancer needs. Zoho’s tools are easy to use, but don’t compromise on functionality compared to downloadable software. Additionally, Zoho offers many other integrated programs such as Zoho CRM and Zoho Inventory, making it a scalable solution.

Zoho offers software programs for all aspects of your business. Image Source: Author