The latest update introduces a reimagined user experience designed to make collaboration easier, improve security, and deliver deeper intelligence across all 50+ applications.

With this release, Zoho One offers a more connected and context-aware environment for organisations of all sizes.

“The Zoho One update reflects how work has evolved from using individual applications to operating within a unified platform,” said Kehinde Ogundare, country head, Zoho Nigeria. “Zoho One customers are not simply licensing apps; they are choosing a solution that allows Zoho to handle the technology while they focus on productivity. The enhancements announced today deliver a cohesive experience built on unified integrations, context, and data.”

Since its launch in 2017, Zoho One has grown to support more than 75,000 organisations worldwide, with customers using an average of 22 applications within the suite.

The platform’s extensive integrations, privacy-focused architecture, and consolidated technology stack ensure reliability and consistency for businesses looking to streamline operations.

A Reimagined User Experience

Zoho One’s new interface places context at the centre of the user journey and removes traditional boundaries between applications.

Spaces now organise tools by purpose, such as Personal, Organisation, and Department-specific groups, enabling employees to access what they need without switching between apps.

A centralised search bar spans the entire ecosystem, allowing users to find information or trigger workflows instantly.

An enhanced Action Panel provides a full view of upcoming meetings, unread messages, pending tasks, and other key updates, helping employees remain informed regardless of which app they are using.

The updated Dashboard consolidates data from Zoho and third-party apps into one central hub that can be customised using pre-existing or bespoke widgets.

The platform also introduces Vani, a new visual-first collaboration space that supports brainstorming, planning, and creation through diagrams, whiteboards, mind maps, and integrated video calling.

Native Integrations for Better Security and Efficiency

Zoho One continues to strengthen its position as a unified business operating system by offering native integrations across Zoho’s suite and with third-party applications.

This reduces external entry points and supports faster anomaly detection.

With Zoho Directory included, administrators also gain a secure platform for managing workforce identity and access within the same unified system.

A central integrations panel enables administrators to monitor and configure all connections. Foundational integrations bring application-specific portals, Zoho or third-party, into a single unified portal. Practical tasks such as domain verification and authentication can now be configured more easily.

The new Smart Offboarding feature introduces outcome-based integrations, allowing organisations to transfer department ownership, manage employee device data, and determine data access rights within a single workflow, ensuring smooth transitions.

Contextual Intelligence Powered by Zia

Zia, Zoho’s AI assistant, is now accessible throughout Zoho One, providing unified intelligence that supports decision-making and improves productivity.

Zia can aggregate and contextualise information from various platforms, including third-party systems such as Google Workspace, and present it as clear, actionable insight.

Zia Hubs, the platform’s intelligent content management system, now has a dedicated space where contracts, meeting recordings, and other important assets are automatically organised. Through Zia Search, employees can quickly surface relevant information without navigating multiple locations.

Ask Zia, available from the bottom toolbar, enables prompt-based searches across Zoho One, providing quick visibility into schedules, tasks, recent interactions, and other key details.

In fact, over 60% of small businesses admit that switching between tools eats up more time than they realise; time better spent on growth. What you need are tools that do the heavy lifting for you.

Let’s get into the ring, where we’d find Zoho One and Microsoft 365. Think of them as two ringmasters, one stretching to us a full cast under one roof, the other offering a streamlined performance with heavyweight security and legacy strength.

Quick Comparison Table

Overview of Each Brand

Zoho One: Overview & Strengths

Zoho markets itself as the “all-in-one business suite.” It packs over 45 apps into one ecosystem including Zoho Writer, Zoho CRM, Books, People, Recruit and even Creator, its low-code platform. Every tool is built to work together, giving you centralised control without third-party patch-ups.

Microsoft 365: Overview & Strengths

Microsoft 365 centres on productivity. You get industry essentials—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams—plus OneDrive and SharePoint for storage and collaboration. Power Automate and Power Apps add flexibility, but to cover CRM, finance, or HR, you’ll rely on external tools like Dynamics 365.

Unleashing Nigeria’s Business Potential: The Cloud as a Catalyst for Growth

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Pricing & Value for Money

Zoho keeps it straightforward: $37 per user/month (if all employees are subscribed), $90 for flexible licensing, $105 for enterprise features. One subscription covers the full suite.

Microsoft keeps it modular: Business Basic at $6; Business Standard at $12.50; Business Premium at $22; Copilot is an extra $30. You choose and pay only for the features you need, nothing more.

Ease of Use

Zoho’s strength is in its unified design. The dashboard keeps it simple, feeling like all apps were designed to live together.

Microsoft’s apps are widely recognised, most users know them. But switching between services can feel disjointed if you don’t have them tightly integrated.

App Integration & Compatibility

Zoho is great at internal integration with no APIs needed to make everything communicate. Custom workflows via Creator let you adapt tools to your needs.

Microsoft’s strengths lie in external compatibility. If your business already uses Exchange, SharePoint, or Azure, it slots in smoothly. But bridging to non-Microsoft tools can bring complexity.

Collaboration Tools

Zoho provides Cliq for chat, Meeting for video, real-time editing in Writer/Sheet, and a single dashboard to manage it all.

Microsoft brings Teams for chat/video, OneDrive and SharePoint for file collaboration, and in-suite co-authoring. It leads in collaboration polish, though Zoho’s improvements are closing the gap.

Storage & Data Management

Zoho keeps it all in one roof, you manage storage from a single control panel.

Microsoft lets you choose—OneDrive per user, SharePoint for team libraries. This is more flexible but may require admin effort to set up and optimise.

Security & Compliance

Zoho offers encryption, MFA, and compliance with GDPR, HIPAA, and ISO-27001. Decent for most small businesses.

Microsoft gives enterprise-grade protection including encryption, MFA, plus FedRAMP, Defender, Intune, and Purview. If regulatory control is essential, Microsoft is the safer bet.

Scalability & Growth Potential

Zoho scales horizontally—just add users, apps adapt. Its single platform simplifies growth.

Microsoft scales vertically—add to your stack as needs evolve. It can easily transition from SMB to enterprise scale, especially for teams already embedded in Microsoft’s ecosystem.

Pros & Cons Table

Zoho One

• Pros: All-in-one pricing, broad app suite, seamless internal integration, no third-party dependency.
• Cons: No offline apps, niche compared to Microsoft’s App familiarity, pricing jumps for flexible licensing.

Microsoft 365

• Pros: Familiar tools, offline/desktop access, unmatched security and compliance, strong collaboration, scalable.
• Cons: You pay per feature, peripheral business tools must be added, ecosystem complexity may overwhelm small teams.

User Experience & Reviews

Platforms like Gartner rate Zoho Workplace at 4.6/5: ease of use 4.7, value 4.6, support 4.5; collaboration 8.8/10. Customers commend its affordability, unified dashboard, and simplicity.

Microsoft 365 follows with 4.5/5: ease of use 4.5, value 4.3, support 4.3; collaboration 9.3/10. Users highlight familiarity and strong collaboration, but point to occasional patchiness in external integrations and support.

Verdict: Which Should Your Small Business Choose Between Zoho and Microsoft 365?

Choose Zoho One
If you want one platform that does everything—HR, sales, projects, finance, marketing—in one ecosystem. You’ll appreciate the simplicity, cost-efficiency, and seamless internal workflows.

Choose Microsoft 365
If your priorities are polished productivity apps, collaboration tools, offline access, and enterprise-grade security. It’s the choice for businesses already comfortable in Microsoft’s world or preparing to scale securely.

So…

Running your small business shouldn’t feel like solving a Rubik’s Cube blindfolded. Test both: Zoho gives you breadth; Microsoft gives you depth. Use their free trials (15–30 days for Zoho and one month for Microsoft 365) to assess what fits your workflow.

‘Do more with Zoho’ is not a mere coinage rather a reality. With 55+ secure and reliable business applications that help you grow your business, in fact, you can build the whole of your business operations and processes on Zoho.

Kehinde Ogundare, the County Manager of Zoho Corporation (Nigeria), made these remarks last week during a chat with ICT editors at the Company’s Lekki office in Lagos.

Zoho brand, Zoho’s products and Zoho’s priorities for the Nigerian market

He reiterated that the business world is constantly evolving, and every organization is trying to keep up hence Zoho has prepared itself for value addition to these businesses.

Earlier this month, Zoho Corporation hit a 100 million user-milestone across the globe.

Now a full-stack technology company as it evolved from a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offering, Zoho became the first bootstrapped company to hit this milestone.

This growth is also coming from the offshoot of the company, reaching 1 billion USD in annual revenue in 2022.

“It is simple; we make technology work for you as an individual or business. And that is our commitment”, Ogundare said.

For more than two decades, Zoho, founded by Sridhar Vembu, has grown steadily without external funding, and this has allowed the tech company to preserve its long-term vision and culture without outside pressure or influence.

Serving more than 150 countries, the tech company boasts over 15,000 employees globally in its connected ecosystem.

According to Ogundare, Zoho which is now a full-stack technology company enables users to run their entire operation on the company’s platform, offering services such as website building, finance, human resources, sales and marketing, project management and related services.

“We provide a platform such that your departments don’t work in silos. Zoho platform is now a connected ecosystem.”

As explained by Ogundare, the company in 2005 started with two products, Writer and CRM, hitting its first 1 million client base in 2008.

In seven years, the company added 14 million users to reach the 15 million mark in 2015. The growth became gradual till the present 100 million users.

“This is to show you that people actually get to trust us and with the credibility we have built over the years, people keep coming back, recommending Zoho to their connections”

On the recent data protection law signed into a bill in Nigeria, Ogundare reiterated that Zoho stands for privacy and security, “When you think of any top tech company today in terms of privacy, Zoho comes top. All our products are privacy and security-focused, we are NDPR and GDPR compliant, so this new law is a welcome development.”

Ogundare, however, mentioned that the government needs to do better when it comes to orientation, as a lot of people know nothing about data privacy.

“You can’t just enact a law without a follow-up. You need to let businesses know how crucial the customer data they are keeping and the implication of a data breach”

Ogundare further emphasized that it’s a good initiative, however, the government needs to do more awareness and create more orientation, partnering with private sectors and communities to give people that important information for them to secure data and abide by the data privacy law.

Zoho has also integrated tech stack and this is why the company guarantees data privacy and anti-theft activities.

“We don’t show ads, we don’t track you, these are the things customers want to know, feeling secured that their data is safe”

According to Ogundare, in 2020 the tech company removed all 3rd party trackers from all its products.

More packages for Startups and MSMEs

Ogundare listed Zoho for Startups, Zoho Empower and Enterprise Business Solutions, as three of the company’s focused activities for businesses, especially in Nigeria.

The initiatives help startups that are part of an incubator or accelerator by offering them wallet credits, workshops and more.

“A lot of founders spend too much money on technology, Zoho for startup is an initiative that we created to help emerging startups kick-start their progress.”

As explained by Ogundare, Zoho has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with StartupSouth in Nigeria to offer N500K wallet credit for startups. This credit will be used to test and deploy any of its products.

“We are not just focusing on big businesses, we are looking at the small business as well, what can we do? How can we give you orientation? How can you streamline your business, how can you digitalize, Zoho for startups wants to offer a better approach.”

“Zoho for startups empower businesses in leveraging tech to kick-start. We Orgnise workshops and training for them on how to use the credits on how to use the software to scale up, optimize and automate their operations.”

Zoho Empower aims to build digital literacy in MSMEs, helping them to overcome resistance to tech and digitally transforming their businesses through skill development, and technology counselling, while creating a marketplace for them.

According to Kehinde, Zoho has also partnered with a commercial bank (the financial institution that offers loans to women entrepreneurs in its large SME community) to bring its products to these entrepreneurs at a discounted rate or for free.

Zoho Workplace

Enterprise Business Solutions is an end-to-end software implementation and project management service dedicated to helping mid-to-large-sized companies deploy the best solutions to optimize their business processes.

Speaking about Zoho Workplace, the platform has 16 million users globally and in 2021, it experienced a 34% year-on-year growth with more than 40% of the new migrations coming from two major big tech platforms.

Ogundare further revealed that the SMB customer base increased by 40%, mid-size surged by 36% and enterprises expanded by more than 20%.

With the rise of low-code platforms, users can leverage the Zoho Creator platform to build websites seamlessly for their businesses.

Kehinde Ogundare extolled the leadership of Zoho for the employee culture and prioritizing the welfare of its staff globally with exceptional experience.

“Putting employee and customer experience together makes a company grow faster”

“Zoho is unified and integrated, allowing you to scale. If you start small with us you can expand with it, our platform has the capacity to allow you scale as you grow”

“The more people understand the value it is bringing to their business, the more we are expanding to meet their needs” Ogundare added.

He further assured that Zoho Nigeria (office) located at 2B Bayo Olagoke Close, Admiralty Road, Lekki Phase 1, demonstrates the company’s believe and commitment to growing Nigeria’s economy.

Nigeria, one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, boasts a thriving business ecosystem characterised by its dynamism and resilience. Nigerian enterprises are widely recognised for their tenacity and relentless pursuit of global competitiveness.

A report by McKinsey reveals that responses to Covid-19 have sped up the adoption of digital technologies by several years. Companies have accelerated the digitisation of their customer and supply-chain interactions, and of their internal operations by three to four years.

In the current era of digital advancements, Nigerian businesses are acutely aware of the significance of embracing cutting-edge software solutions to optimise their operations and augment productivity.

The pursuit of efficient and all-encompassing technological tools remains a paramount objective for these enterprises. Forward-thinking businesses recognise that investing in technological solutions is a strategic decision, pivotal to achieving sustained growth.

Zoho serves as a prominent exemplar, offering a diverse array of platforms that facilitate not only the digital transformation of business processes, but also the automation of operational workflows.

Here is a compilation of the five preeminent Zoho platforms that Nigerian businesses are harnessing to propel their growth.

1. Driving enterprise collaboration

In the pursuit of business success, effective communication and collaboration are essential. Recognising the value of collaborative efforts and the importance of internal communication, enterprises are increasingly prioritising cost-effective technological solutions.

According to a survey, 75% of employees consider teamwork and collaboration highly significant.

Zoho Workplace, a unified enterprise collaboration platform, offers Nigerian businesses the means to foster strong collaboration amongst internal teams and external stakeholders through its email (that can be shared), online office suite (word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and document management), video conferencing and webinar tool, and social intranet.

The recently-revamped word processor, Zoho Writer, presents a departure from the conventional Word-style interface, opting for a formatting sidebar that not only enhances visual appeal but also facilitates the creation of sophisticated and professional documents by offering AI-driven insights such as wordy phrases to improve writing quality.

With Zoho Workplace, users get a unified view of all their work. For improving productivity, it also offers drag-and-drop functionality across apps such as the ability to drag an email attachment and dropping it into a colleague’s chat to send it directly.

The platform can be extended to third-party application widgets in case a company is using multiple productivity and collaboration apps.

2. Unify with platforms

Managing multiple software applications can pose significant challenges and high costs for Nigerian businesses.

However, adopting a unified platform offers numerous advantages, including seamless contextual data flow, improved data analytics, an enhanced Management Information System (MIS), and better decision-making capabilities, all of which contribute to business growth and profitability.

Zoho One uniquely offers the most comprehensive, unified, and centralised platform for users to run their entire business in the cloud, eliminating the need for multiple, asynchronous business management applications that do not seamlessly integrate with one another. This eliminates the problem of data silos, multi-vendor contracts, and integration hassles.

Zoho serves as a cohesive solution, empowering businesses to streamline their operations and maximize productivity.

With approximately 45 integrated applications spanning critical domains such as CRM, project management, finance, and HR, Zoho One provides a cost-effective and customised solution tailored to meet the unique requirements of each customer.

The increasing adoption of Zoho One in Nigeria can be attributed to the growing need for enterprises to consolidate their technological infrastructure onto a unified platform.

By leveraging Zoho One, businesses can transform their fragmented activities into a connected and agile organisation, establishing Zoho One as the operating system of choice for Nigerian businesses

3. Build the customer experience

APSIS reports that 68% of B2B companies encounter difficulties in generating leads. Effective customer relationship management (CRM) is vital for the growth of businesses, particularly in Nigeria’s highly competitive market. Zoho CRM empowers Nigerian enterprises by efficiently managing their sales, marketing, and customer support processes.

Zoho CRM offers a comprehensive range of features like lead management, sales automation, and analytics, enabling businesses to nurture leads, close deals, and enhance customer relationships.

A well-considered CRM investment streamlines sales activities, improves lead conversion rates, and increases revenue. Integrating emerging technologies, like artificial intelligence, helps salespeople gain insights such as the best time to contact a lead.

Zoho CRM’s mobile app stands out with essential features, remote analytics access, AI-powered insights, and seamless collaboration for businesses on the move. It provides user-friendly contact and deal management, along with unique features like running macros and converting leads with associated accounts and deals.

4. Customer support

Successful businesses comprehend the strategic significance of delivering exemplary customer service, as it plays a pivotal role in fostering repeat purchases, retaining customers, and ultimately augmenting revenue.

Nigerian enterprises, cognizant of this fact, place paramount importance on providing exceptional customer support as a fundamental tenet of their approach to cultivating enduring customer loyalty.

Zoho Desk, a comprehensive customer support software, serves as a central hub for managing customer inquiries and enables businesses to deliver prompt and efficient support.

With features such as customer support tickets, a dedicated support portal, contract management, and robust report creation capabilities, Zoho Desk empowers Nigerian businesses to provide unparalleled support experiences. By leveraging these powerful tools, businesses can elevate customer satisfaction levels, foster long-term customer retention, and ultimately drive business growth.

5. Managing people

The post-COVID-19 landscape has witnessed significant shifts in job search and hiring practices. For Nigerian businesses striving to cultivate a productive workforce, effective human resource management has become paramount.

Now, more than ever, businesses recognise the criticality of establishing an enabling work environment to mitigate employee turnover and foster long-term employee retention.

Zoho People, a cloud-based HR management platform, simplifies HR processes and improves employee management. With features, such as recruitment management, time tracking, leave management, and performance evaluations, Zoho People assists businesses, addresses HR challenges, and optimises HR operations.

In Nigeria’s dynamic business landscape, harnessing efficient software solutions is crucial for maintaining competitiveness and flourishing. Businesses require a comprehensive suite of integrated applications that offer customization and scalability, while also providing seamless access via cloud-based and mobile platforms.

Affordability is a key consideration, alongside the ability to seamlessly integrate with third-party systems. Additionally, exceptional customer support plays a pivotal role in ensuring optimal utilization of these software solutions.

By embracing these attributes, businesses can effectively navigate the digital era and establish a solid foundation for sustainable growth.

Over the past two years alone, the platform has grown 150%, with 37.5% of new Zoho One customers coming from mid-market and enterprise businesses.

License upgrades by customers who adopted Zoho One five years ago have increased 92%, contributing to this milestone growth. In Nigeria the growth has been substantial at 115.2% from 2020 to 2021. 

These figures spotlight the market’s move away from static legacy applications and toward end-to-end solutions that empower organisations to be agile, scale, and adapt to changes in their industries. 

Launched in 2017 as a first-of-its-kind suite with 35 integrated applications, Zoho One now offers a comprehensive, scalable platform comprising 45 unified applications with end-to-end services including AI, business intelligence, contextual communication, and unified search, allowing businesses to run every aspect of their organisation from sales and marketing to finance, HR, and analytics.

“Siloed systems cause business silos,” says Hyther Nizam, President – MEA, Zoho Corp. “An integrated organisation, therefore, is typically a reflection of integrated systems underneath. This is what we see with our own customers. Nearly half of Zoho One customers use 20 or more apps across functions, integrating their organisation and reporting higher returns. SMEs and startups especially benefit from an all-in-one solution that allows them to scale without data silos, integration hassles or multi-vendor contracts, and also bring down total cost of ownership.”

Expansion and unification

Over the last five years, Zoho One has added 10 new apps and countless services in dialogue with businesses to meet their evolving needs, while acutely reducing customers’ total cost of ownership in adopting and maintaining the platform.

It has the scope and power to run any business out of the box, while carrying the tools necessary for organisations to customise the solution to fit their requirements.

Zoho One is built entirely in-house, on a single technology stack, resulting in a truly unified, end-to-end platform with hundreds of integration points across its applications. 

Consistent, ground-up unification provides businesses with a deeper connection between sales, marketing, customer support, accounting, human resources, and other functions.

Its upmarket growth is made possible by the platform’s capacity to tightly integrate with third-party solutions without causing data and operational silos or impacting the efficiency of a business’s existing system.  

Pricing and Availability

Zoho One is available immediately with a flexible user price of ₦19,500/month or an employee pricing of ₦7,800/month.