Bigin: The ideal CRM for small businesses

We built Bigin around how small teams work and priced it accordingly. Everything a customer-facing team runs on comes in the box: customizable pipelines, a built-in phone with IVR, WhatsApp, and email in one place, and automation that starts on the free plan. AI features join at $12/user/month with 1,000 credits every month, a number you can actually budget against.

There is a forever-free plan to start on, developer APIs from that free plan onward, help importing your Capsule data when you are ready, and 50,000+ small businesses across 150+ countries already running on it.

Bigin as a relationship tracking spreadsheet
Watch Overview Video

Major limitations of Capsule CRM

One pipeline and one board, until you pay double

Capsule Starter runs a single sales pipeline and a single project board for $18 a seat. Five pipelines, dashboards, teams, and user roles all wait on Growth at $36, with nothing in between. Bigin Express holds three team pipelines at $7, and Bigin 360 runs fifteen.

Automation is a Growth feature

Workflow automation sits above Growth in Capsule's own plan list, so the $18 plan automates nothing. Tracks, its stand-in, are checklists that still wait for a human. Bigin includes 3 automations on the free plan and 30 on the Express plan.

10 AI-assisted emails a month

Capsule caps Free and Starter at 10 AI content assists a month, a limit from its own launch post. The 1,000 allowance, plus AI summaries, enrichment, and meeting prep, starts at $36. Bigin Premier carries the full AI toolkit with 1,000 monthly credits at $12.

The phone never arrives

No Capsule plan includes a dialer, IVR, or call recording. Calling means a paid VoIP app such as JustCall, Aircall, or CircleLoop, billed on top of your seats. Bigin ships a built-in phone with IVR from the free plan onward, plus 100+ telephony providers.

Five email templates at $18

Capsule's support docs cap templates at 5 on Starter, 0 on Free, and 50 on Growth, and run against your own Gmail or Microsoft 365 daily limits. Bigin Express includes templates, mass email, and email insights at $7.

Forms, WhatsApp, and marketing bill separately

Lead capture forms and campaigns live in Transpond, a separate product that costs $11 per month. WhatsApp runs through Wati, and quoting is done through apps like Quotient, each with its own invoice. Bigin includes forms in the free plan, WhatsApp in Express, and quotes through Zoho Books and Zoho Invoice.

Here's a list of features that
Bigin offers for your business:

Team pipeline
bigin connected pipeline in Bigin
custom dasboard
custom dasboard
omnichannel in Bigin
spreadsheets automation workflows in Bigin
Grade security
mobile sales management with Bigin
custom dasboard
Bigin banner mobile image
Team Pipelines
  • Team Pipelines
  • Connected Pipelines
  • Built-in AI assistance
  • Built-in telephony & IVR
  • WhatsApp, email & social messaging
  • Workflow automation
  • Payment links
  • Booking & appointment scheduling
  • Customizable dashboards & KPIs
  • Apps for iOS, Android & macOS
 

Bigin vs. Capsule

Features

Bigin
Express
$ 7 /user/month billed annually
Capsule Starter$18/user/month billed annually
Bigin
Premier
$ 12 /user/month billed annually
Capsule Growth$36/user/month billed annually
Expand All

SALES

  • Free edition available
  • forever free plan (single user)
  • 14-day trial only
  • Full-fledged pipeline management
  • from Free plan
  • Contact and lead management
  • from Free plan
  • Deal management
  • from Free plan
  • Payment collection (payment links)
  • Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay, Paytm
  • Via marketplace apps
  • Via marketplace apps
  • Quote management
  • Via Zoho Books / Zoho Invoice integration
  • third-party apps (paid)
  • Via Zoho Books / Zoho Invoice integration
  • third-party apps (paid)
  • Leads / deal capacity
  • 50,000 records
  • 30,000 contacts
  • 100,000 records
  • 60,000 contacts

COMMUNICATION

  • Built-in telephony
  • from Free plan
  • Alpha - outbound only, mobile app only, US numbers only
  • Alpha - outbound only, mobile app only, US numbers only
  • Telephony marketplace
  • Third-party apps (paid)
  • Third-party apps (paid)
  • Built-in IVR system
  • from Free plan
  • Meeting integrations (Zoom, Teams, Zoho Meeting)
  • Zoom, Teams
  • Zoom, Teams
  • Email integrations (two-way sync)
  • Gmail, Outlook (Standard+)
  • Gmail, Outlook
  • Email templates
  • Email insights (opens / clicks)
  • mass email insights
  • Mass emails
  • WhatsApp integration
  • WhatsApp Business
  • Third-party apps only (paid)
  • Third-party apps only (paid)
  • X integration

AUTOMATION

  • Workflow automation
  • 30 workflows (from Free plan: 3)
  • Stage automation
  • Built-in
  • Status-based
  • Built-in
  • Status-based
  • Formula fields
  • Automation across apps (Zapier + Zoho Flow)
  • from Free plan
  • Zapier / Make only
  • Zapier / Make only

STREAMLINING CUSTOMER-FACING OPERATIONS

  • Pre-built pipeline templates for different operations
  • from Free plan
  • board templates
  • board templates
  • Case / ticket management through Email-in
  • Topping (add-on)
  • Topping (add-on)
  • Connected records / Connected Pipelines
  • Manual setup
  • Manual setup
  • Built-in dashboards & reports
  • from Free plan

DATA AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

  • Versatile no-code form builder
  • from Free plan
  • Social media lead ads capture (FB, IG, LinkedIn, TikTok)
  • LeadChain
  • Via marketplace apps
  • Via marketplace apps
  • Duplicate cleanup
  • find & merge
  • bulk cleanup
  • File collection & management (File Cabinet)
  • Topping (add-on)
  • Topping (add-on)
  • Customizable user profiles and roles
  • from Free plan
  • Customization (Fields, tags, views, filters)
  • 10 custom fields/module + tags, filters
  • 25 custom fields/module
  • Stage transition rules
  • Sheet view
  • from Free plan
  • List views only
  • List views only
  • Data enrichment
  • included
  • AI enrichment
  • Free data backup
  • CSV export
  • CSV export

AI

  • AI writing assistant (email drafting)
  • Reply Assistant agent
  • Record / thread summaries
  • CrossSell Genie
  • Churn Analyzer
  • AI credits included
  • -
  • Not published
  • 1,000 / month
  • Not published
  • MCP support (connect AI tools to CRM data)
  • 1,000 API calls/day

INTEGRATIONS

  • App marketplace
  • API access
  • Developer console
  • developer platform
  • Zoho ecosystem (Books, Invoice, Desk, Campaigns, Sign, Meeting)
  • QuickBooks integration
  • native
  • Via marketplace
  • Via marketplace

SUPPORT TERMS

  • Live chat support
  • all paid plans
  • AI chatbot, human escalation
  • AI chatbot, human escalation
  • Phone support
  • all paid plans*
  • Free onboarding session
  • Money-back guarantee
  • Features

  • Bigin Express$7/user/month billed annually
    Bigin Premier$12/user/month billed annually
  • Capsule Starter$18/user/month billed annually
    Capsule Growth$36/user/month billed annually

Features

  • SALES
  • Full-fledged pipeline management
  • Contact & Lead Management
  • Deal management
  • Payment collection
  • Quote management
  • COMMUNICATION
  • Built-in telephony
  • Telephony marketplace
  • Built-in IVR system
  • Meeting integrations
  • Email integrations
  • Email templates
  • Email insights
  • WhatsApp integration
  • X integration
  • AUTOMATION
  • Workflow automation
  • Stage automation
  • Formula fields
  • Automation across apps via Zapier and Zoho Flow
  • STREAMLINING CUSTOMER-FACING OPERATIONS
  • Built-in pipelines dedicated to different operations
  • Case and ticket management through Email-in
  • Connected records (When a record reaches the desired stage in one team pipeline, you can create a record automatically in another team pipeline that captures the next set of business activities.)
  • Built-in dashboards for detailed insights into your business
  • DATA AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
  • Versatile no-code form builder
  • Social media lead capture
  • Duplicate cleanup
  • Full-fledged file collection and management
  • Customizable user profiles and roles
  • Customization (Fields, tags, views, filters)
  • Stage transition rules
  • Multi-currency support
  • Sheet view
  • INTEGRATIONS
  • App marketplace
  • API credits
  • Developer Console
Bigin express12/user/month billed annuallyAccess Bigin
Bigin premier18/user/month billed annuallyAccess Bigin
Capsule Starter$18/user/month billed annually
Capsule Growth$36/user/month billed annually

All you need to take your business to the next level

Bigin runs customer work for 50,000+ small businesses across 150+ countries. It is also a CRM you will not outgrow the usual way: the day your team needs more, your data moves to Zoho CRM or Zoho CRM Plus with one click, and every contact, deal, and note comes with it.

Expert reviews and ratings

  • Rating Platform
  • Capsule
  • Bigin
  • 4.7/5
  • 4.6/5

  • 4.5/5
  • 4.7/5

  • 8.8/10
  • 8.8/10

*The names and logos for Zoho are trademarks of Zoho Corp. All other trademarks, brand names, or product names belong to their respective holders. Comparison information as of 16/09/2026. Prices mentioned are in USD.

Trusted by 50,000+ small businesses globally

The Bigin team at Zoho has brilliantly solved the software adoption dilemma faced by sales organizations today. Now, with the ability to customize pipeline views, stages, module names, and fields, the moment one of our salespeople starts using the app, it simply works, and they love using it. It requires virtually zero training. In today's environment, the importance of simplicity, focus, and ease of use cannot be overstated, and the team at Bigin has just delivered a world-class tool.

Seth Campbell, President, Five Doors Inc

Zoho Bigin was easy for us to use from the very start. Within a couple of weeks all users were able to use most features and benefit from them. Quick training and implementation from the Zoho Bigin support team was helpful. Users was immediately able to see the benefit to themselves, to their teams, and to the company as a whole. All this is the value we derive from this very comprehensive, easy, and intuitive application that we use on a daily basis.

Chirag Selarka, Head of Business Development, Simplifie

Bigin is easy to use for a growing organization like Ammacus. The platform is very intuitive, saves time when it comes to entering duplicate information, and has saved us many hours in lost productivity. As an early adopter of Bigin, we look forward to continued new applications and developments to make the platform even better than it is today. In addition, we have received fantastic client support when it was required.

Craig Aspey, Managing Director, Ammacus

Love the new features. It helps make the entire CRM system more personal and germane to our workflow. The searches seem to be more pointed and concise. Bigin has the capabilities and customization for my growing business and no bloat to clutter my process. Overall, Bigin was the perfect option for what I needed.

Derek Osborne, CEO, Osborne Real Estate and Business Brokerage

Still have more doubts?
Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions!

Expand AllCollapse All
Is Capsule CRM free?

Yes, and Capsule's free plan is more generous than ours in one way: it supports two users, compared to Bigin's one. The rest is tight. 250 contacts, five custom fields, a single pipeline, no email templates, and 10 AI assists a month, with paid plans from $18. Bigin's free plan is single-user but ships working tools: a customizable pipeline, a built-in phone with IVR, three automations, a web form, a booking page, and developer APIs. Paid Bigin starts at $7.

How much cheaper is Bigin than Capsule?

Bigin's paid plans run $7 to $18 per user per month, billed annually. Capsule runs $18 to $54, with a custom-priced Ultimate plan above that. Feature for feature, the gap is wider than the stickers suggest: automation costs $7 on Bigin Express and $36 on Capsule Growth, and AI in useful amounts costs $12 on Bigin Premier, compared to the same $36. Five people for a year comes to $420 on Express, $1,080 on Starter, or $720 on Premier, against $2,160 on Growth. Then come Capsule's extras: Transpond for forms and campaigns from $11/month, a VoIP subscription if you call customers, and a proposal app if you send quotes.

Does Capsule include AI on its cheapest plans?

A taste of it. Free and Starter get 10 AI content assists a month, a limit on Capsule published itself, plus an AI pipeline generator. The working allowance of 1,000 assists, along with AI summaries, contact and business enrichment, and meeting prep, starts on Growth at $36. Bigin's full AI toolkit starts on Premier at $12: a writing assistant, reply suggestions, record summaries, cross-sell prompts, and churn signals, with 1,000 credits every month and 3,000 on Bigin 360.

Can I make calls from Capsule?

Not out of the box. Capsule has no built-in dialer on any plan, so calling means connecting to a paid VoIP product such as JustCall, Aircall, CircleLoop, or Kixie, and there is no IVR or call routing at any tier. Bigin includes a built-in phone with IVR from the free plan onward, and its marketplace lists 100+ telephony providers if you would rather bring your own.

How do I migrate from Capsule to Bigin?

Export your data from Capsule as CSV files, and Bigin's import tools map contacts, companies, deals, and notes across. Every paid Bigin plan includes a free onboarding session and data-import help from our team, so field mapping isn't your problem alone. Bigin's single-click migration currently covers Pipedrive, HubSpot, Insightly, and Zoho CRM; Capsule is a file import. If Bigin does not fit, there is a money-back guarantee: 30 days on monthly billing and 45 days on annual.

Will I outgrow Bigin?

Bigin scales from a free single-user plan to Bigin 360 at $18 per user per month, with 15 team pipelines, 1,000,000 records, 100 automations, and 3,000 AI credits per month. If you eventually need more, your data moves to Zoho CRM with one click, so you never migrate platforms twice.

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