# Close API + MCP vs Zoho CRM (slim)

> Zoho CRM scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Close API + MCP's 66.7 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Close API + MCP leads on reliability. Both do crm records. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/close-vs-zoho-crm.md (~2,400 tokens) · this version ~730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/close-vs-zoho-crm.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/close-vs-zoho-crm
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

Zoho CRM scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Close API + MCP's 66.7 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Close API + MCP leads on reliability. Both do crm records.

- Close API + MCP: B 66.7, rank #229 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/close.min.md
- Zoho CRM: BB 70.8, rank #128 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zoho-crm.min.md
- Close API + MCP, good for Inside-sales teams that call, email and text from the CRM and want an agent to log, triage and draft without being able to send or delete by default. Ahead on Reliability, 81 against 72. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.
- Zoho CRM, good for Teams already on Zoho who want an agent to read and write leads, contacts, deals and activities with narrow scopes, and small teams that want a free edition with API access. Ahead on Agent ergonomics, 81 against 56; Payments & pricing, 40 against 30; Transparency & trust, 75 against 67. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better.

| Category | Close API + MCP | Zoho CRM |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 81 | 72 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 82 | 81 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 56 | 81 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 66 | 67 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 79 | 77 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 67 | 75 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Close API + MCP | Zoho CRM |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Close | Zoho |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.close.com/api/v1` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service under Zoho's Terms of Service. The server-side SDKs on GitHub are Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 121 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `com.close/close-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-10 | 2026-09-21 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-10-31 | 2022-03-02 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-30 | 2025-12-22 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 70 stars, 14k PyPI/wk | 830 npm/wk, 6.1k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |