# Relaticle vs Zoho CRM

> Zoho CRM scores 70.8 (BB) to Relaticle's 59.6 (C) for crm records. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/relaticle-vs-zoho-crm
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/relaticle-vs-zoho-crm.md (~4,800 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Zoho CRM scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Relaticle's 59.6 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Relaticle leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community. Both do crm records.

- Relaticle: grade C, 59.6/100, rank #697 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/relaticle.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/relaticle.json
- Zoho CRM: grade BB, 70.8/100, rank #187 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zoho-crm.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zoho-crm.json
- Best CRM and customer-platform tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/crm/index.md
- All 190 crm comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crm/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Relaticle (C)

Good for: Small teams who want an open-source CRM they can self-host and let an agent write to.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 86 against 81
- Maintenance & community, 90 against 77

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Open source

Watch for: Writes over MCP apply immediately, and OAuth's single `mcp:use` scope authorises every tool

### Zoho CRM (BB)

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:
- Reliability, 72 against 40
- Agent ergonomics, 81 against 59
- Security & auth, 67 against 57
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: The documented refresh and revoke calls put the refresh token and client secret in the URL query string


## Why the edge

### Reliability: Zoho CRM +32

- Relaticle (40): Graded with the hosted lines on Relaticle Cloud's REST API and MCP server, the surface an outside agent calls; the software also self-hosts. No status page is linked and status.relaticle.com did not connect (0). With no readable history the incident line scores 5. Limits have numbers: 600 a minute per workspace and 300 reads or 60 writes a minute per token in the source, and 120 MCP calls a minute per user in the docs (15). 429 is in the OpenAPI responses and upserts by unique field give a safe retry for creates, but the backoff guidance sits on a docs section we read only as a heading (10 of 15). No SLA (0). Version 3.8, not labelled beta (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 40.
- Zoho CRM (72): Graded on the REST API v8, read as a hosted service. status.zoho.com redirects to us.zohostatus.com, which has a Zoho CRM component and incident history back to December 2025 (20). From 3 August to 1 November the history lists 21 incidents across Zoho services, most of them a few minutes long. One touches CRM: on 24 October a multi-service outage ("Qntrl and a few other components") ran 16 minutes 16 seconds, and the status feed shows the Zoho CRM component returning to Operational at 18:12 IST within it. On 3 September a Zoho Deluge outage ran 2 hours 34 minutes, and the CRM component's state changed when it ended. Both read as partial, so minor incidents only (20 of 30). Only the US page was read. Daily credits and concurrency are published with numbers per edition (15). 429 is documented and `X-API-CREDITS-REMAINING` appears once half the allowance is used, but no Retry-After or backoff guidance was found. Upsert and `If-Unmodified-Since` make writes safer to retry (7 of 15). No SLA found (0). v8 is the current documented version (10).

### Agent ergonomics: Zoho CRM +22

- Relaticle (59): 50 MCP tools, six schema resources and a prompt, with no toolsets or read-only subset (5). Filters combine native fields, custom fields and linked records with $and, $or and $not, plus sort, include, `per_page` (MCP maximum 25) and cursors (20). Errors come back as HTTP codes and inline MCP error responses such as `Invalid ability provided.`; no error catalogue was read (12 of 20). Base tool classes set readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint and openWorldHint, and upserts by unique field make creates safe to retry (17 of 20). One URL with OAuth or a token; no official SDK (5 of 15). 5 + 20 + 12 + 17 + 5 = 59.
- Zoho CRM (81): Graded on the REST API. `fields` is mandatory on list calls with at most 50 names, and COQL selects columns, so responses can be kept small (22 of 25). `per_page` up to 200, `page` to 2,000 records and `page_token` to 100,000, plus search by criteria, email, phone or word, custom views and COQL (20). Errors carry a code, a message and details naming the field or the existing record, each documented with a resolution (18 of 20). Upsert on duplicate check fields and `If-Unmodified-Since`, with no idempotency key (10 of 20). Official SDKs in six languages, but the one-hour token, the refresh step and per-data-centre hosts add setup (11 of 15).

### Maintenance & community: Relaticle +13

- Relaticle (90): v3.8.2 tagged on 5 November 2026 and commits on 6 November (30). Thirteen tags between 9 October and 5 November alone (20). More than 2,500 commits since 1 August and merged pull requests numbered past 1,100; the GitHub API did not answer, so open issues and reply times were not counted (15 of 25). Verified com.relaticle/crm namespace in the official MCP registry with the hosted remote (15). CI, tests, security-audit and Dependabot workflows, PHP 8.5 and Laravel 13 (10). 30 + 20 + 15 + 15 + 10 = 90.
- Zoho CRM (77): The Node.js SDK for v8 reached 5.0.0 on 15 October 2026 (30). Three dated changes from 3 August to 1 November, the OpenAPI files on 2 September, Node.js SDK 4.0.0 on 21 September and 5.0.0 on 15 October. Python SDK 7.0.0 of 24 July has left the window (20). No dated API changelog. The docs link to community posts on help.zoho.com, which we did not test for replies (8 of 25). Current official SDKs for Java, Python, PHP, Node.js, C# and Ruby (15). The SDK repositories show no public CI, and the Java SDK was last released on 7 January 2026 and the Ruby SDK on 16 April 2025 (4 of 10).

### Security & auth: Zoho CRM +10

- Relaticle (57): Personal access tokens are bound to one workspace, take an expiry and per-method permissions (read, create, update, delete, plus read, draft and send email), and travel in headers. OAuth 2.1 through Passport is also offered, but the source says its single `mcp:use` scope authorises the whole toolset (25 of 30). A read-only token is possible; the docs say MCP writes apply immediately and leave confirmation to the client (10 of 20). Synced email reaches the model through the email tools, and no prompt-injection guidance was found (0). Each record has an activity log of field changes and who made them, and admins see it across the workspace (12 of 15). security.txt valid to May 2027, a disclosure address with a 48-hour acknowledgement target and security-audit workflows in CI; the security page says there is no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 (10 of 20). 25 + 10 + 0 + 12 + 10 = 57.
- Zoho CRM (67): OAuth 2.0 with scopes down to one module and one operation, one-hour access tokens and revocable refresh tokens (30). Less 10 because the documented refresh and revoke calls carry the refresh token and client secret in the URL query string (20 of 30). READ-only scopes per module and a read-only Data Insights MCP server. Calls are also bound by the user's CRM role. No approval step for deletes, and mass delete exists (14 of 20). Records hold text from outside parties and no prompt-injection guidance was found (3 of 15). Audit Logs in paid editions, and an API dashboard of credits by application (10 of 15). security.txt valid to 30 June 2028, a bug bounty, SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO/IEC 27001, 27701 and 27017 (20).

### Payments & pricing: Zoho CRM +10

- Relaticle (30): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Cloud prices are public per workspace with nothing per call (10). A 14-day Cloud Pro trial with no card, and self-hosting is free (20). A person signs up in a browser behind a Cloudflare check, or deploys a server (0). 0 + 10 + 20 + 0 = 30.
- Zoho CRM (40): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Edition prices are public, $14 to $52 a user a month billed yearly, and extra API credits have a published unit price from $0.14 per 1,000 a day (20). The Free edition covers three users with 5,000 API credits a day and needs no card at signup (20). A person signs up in a browser, registers an OAuth client in the API console and approves scopes (0).

### Schema & documentation: Relaticle +5

- Relaticle (86): OpenAPI 3.1 at /openapi.json and /openapi.yaml with 34 operations (25). llms.txt with a when-to-use and when-not section, and developer pages (10). The llms.txt and MCP docs say what the API is for and what it doesn't do (no email over REST, no meetings), while only 5 of 34 operations carry a description (14 of 20). 114 required lists and typed MCP inputs, but few enums (11 of 15). 661 examples and responses for 401, 402, 403, 404, 409, 422 and 429 (14 of 15). /v1 and frequent tagged releases, with no changelog page (relaticle.com/changelog is 404) (12 of 15). 25 + 10 + 14 + 11 + 14 + 12 = 86.
- Zoho CRM (81): zoho/crm-oas on GitHub holds OpenAPI 3.1 files for 103 resources and 644 operations (25). No llms.txt at zoho.com, but the same repository carries a compressed Markdown page and examples per operation, written for Zoho's CRM agent skills (7 of 10). Operation descriptions state the purpose and name the call that supplies each ID, with little on when not to use one (15 of 20). Parameters carry enums, patterns and length limits. Record bodies accept any property because modules have custom fields, and search criteria are a string grammar (11 of 15). Each reference page has curl samples and a Possible Errors list with a resolution per code (15). The version is in the path, and What's New in V8 lists changes without dates. No dated changelog found (8 of 15).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Relaticle | Zoho CRM | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 72 | Zoho CRM +32 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 86 | 81 | Relaticle +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 59 | 81 | Zoho CRM +22 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 67 | Zoho CRM +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 40 | Zoho CRM +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 90 | 77 | Relaticle +13 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 75 | Zoho CRM +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **59.6 · C** | **70.8 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Relaticle | Zoho CRM |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Relaticle, Inc. | Zoho |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.relaticle.com` | no (local only) |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | Proprietary service under Zoho's Terms of Service. The server-side SDKs on GitHub are Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 50 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `com.relaticle/crm` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-11-05 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-26 | 2022-03-02 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-11-04 | 2025-12-22 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 1.8k stars | 830 npm/wk, 6.1k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Relaticle.** Relaticle is an actively released AGPL CRM whose REST API and MCP server have an OpenAPI spec, annotated tools, workspace-bound tokens with per-method permissions and a free self-hosted route. MCP writes apply at once with no server-side confirmation, OAuth grants the whole toolset, and Cloud has no status page, SLA or certification.

**Zoho CRM.** A public OpenAPI 3.1 description of 644 operations and OAuth scopes down to one module and one operation suit agent use, and the Free edition includes 5,000 API credits a day. The documented token refresh puts the client secret in the URL, and no SLA, deprecation policy or dated API changelog was found.

## Before you call either

### Relaticle

1. Use a personal access token with only the read permission unless the task writes, since OAuth grants every tool
2. Ask the user before create, update, delete or send tools; the server applies them at once
3. Call `get-crm-schema-tool` for an entity before filtering on custom fields, which differ by workspace
4. Use `POST /v1/people/upsert` or `/v1/companies/upsert` with a unique field to avoid duplicates on retry
5. Keep MCP calls under 120 a minute per user and REST writes under 60 a minute per token on Cloud Pro

### Zoho CRM

1. Use the `api_domain` returned with the token, since each data centre has its own host (zohoapis.com, zohoapis.eu, zohoapis.in and others)
2. Send `Authorization: Zoho-oauthtoken <token>` and refresh hourly. Put refresh parameters in the POST body, not the URL
3. Pass `fields` on every list call. Page with `page` up to 2,000 records, then `page_token` up to 100,000
4. Create through `/{module}/upsert` so a retry updates instead of duplicating
5. Budget credits. Convert Lead costs 5, Send Mail 20, a bulk read 50, and calls through the MCP servers draw on the same allowance

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Relaticle or Zoho CRM?

Zoho CRM scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Relaticle's 59.6 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Relaticle leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community.

### Do Relaticle and Zoho CRM need an API key?

Relaticle takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Zoho CRM uses an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Relaticle and Zoho CRM without installing anything?

Relaticle has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.relaticle.com. No hosted endpoint is listed for Zoho CRM.

### Are Relaticle and Zoho CRM open source?

Relaticle is open source (AGPL-3.0). No open-source release is listed for Zoho CRM.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/relaticle-vs-zoho-crm.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/relaticle-vs-zoho-crm.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "relaticle", "b": "zoho-crm"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare relaticle zoho-crm`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/relaticle.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zoho-crm.json

## Other comparisons with Relaticle or Zoho CRM

- [Affinity vs Relaticle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/affinity-vs-relaticle.md)
- [Affinity vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/affinity-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Attio API + MCP vs Relaticle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/attio-vs-relaticle.md)
- [Attio API + MCP vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/attio-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Breakcold vs Relaticle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/breakcold-vs-relaticle.md)
- [Breakcold vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/breakcold-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Capsule CRM vs Relaticle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/capsule-crm-vs-relaticle.md)
- [Capsule CRM vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/capsule-crm-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Close API + MCP vs Relaticle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/close-vs-relaticle.md)
- [Close API + MCP vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/close-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Copper API vs Relaticle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/copper-vs-relaticle.md)
- [Copper API vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/copper-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales vs Relaticle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dynamics-365-sales-vs-relaticle.md)
- [Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dynamics-365-sales-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [folk API + MCP vs Relaticle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-vs-relaticle.md)
- [folk API + MCP vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/folk-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Freshsales API vs Relaticle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freshsales-vs-relaticle.md)
- [Freshsales API vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freshsales-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [HubSpot API + MCP vs Relaticle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hubspot-mcp-vs-relaticle.md)
- [HubSpot API + MCP vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hubspot-mcp-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Nutshell vs Relaticle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nutshell-vs-relaticle.md)
- [Nutshell vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nutshell-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Payani AI vs Relaticle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payani-ai-vs-relaticle.md)
- [Payani AI vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/payani-ai-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Pipedrive API + MCP vs Relaticle](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pipedrive-vs-relaticle.md)
- [Pipedrive API + MCP vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pipedrive-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Relaticle vs Salesflare](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/relaticle-vs-salesflare.md)
- [Relaticle vs Salesforce API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/relaticle-vs-salesforce.md)
- [Relaticle vs Streak API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/relaticle-vs-streak.md)
- [Relaticle vs SugarAI (SugarCRM)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/relaticle-vs-sugarcrm.md)
- [Relaticle vs Twenty API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/relaticle-vs-twenty.md)
- [Salesflare vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/salesflare-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Salesforce API + MCP vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/salesforce-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Streak API + MCP vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/streak-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [SugarAI (SugarCRM) vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sugarcrm-vs-zoho-crm.md)
- [Twenty API + MCP vs Zoho CRM](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/twenty-vs-zoho-crm.md)

---

Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp