# Remote vs Zoho People

> Remote scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Zoho People's 55 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Zoho People leads on transparency & trust. Both do hr employees. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/remote-vs-zoho-people
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/remote-vs-zoho-people.md (~2,100 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/remote-vs-zoho-people.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/remote-vs-zoho-people.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Remote scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Zoho People's 55 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Zoho People leads on transparency & trust. Both do hr employees.

- Remote: grade BB, 70.7/100, rank #142 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/remote.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/remote.json
- Zoho People: grade C, 55/100, rank #605 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zoho-people.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zoho-people.json

## Which one, for what

### Remote (BB)

Good for: A company that employs people through Remote (EOR, payroll, contractors or its HRIS) and wants an agent to read employments, file and review time off, track onboarding, and read payslips and documents.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 96 against 77
- Schema & documentation, 78 against 43
- Agent ergonomics, 57 against 48
- Security & auth, 74 against 60
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 48

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

Watch for: The REST API changelog link in the docs redirects to a ReadMe dashboard login, so no public dated record of API changes was read

### Zoho People (C)

Good for: An agent working inside a company that already runs Zoho People on a paid plan, for directory reads, leave requests, attendance and timesheet entries at modest volume.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 73 against 68

Watch for: No OpenAPI spec, official SDK or dated API changelog found. The product What's New page has no API entries for 2026


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Remote | Zoho People | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 96 | 77 | Remote +19 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 43 | Remote +35 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 57 | 48 | Remote +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 60 | Remote +14 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 30 | Remote +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 48 | Remote +24 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 73 | Zoho People +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.7 · BB** | **55 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Remote | Zoho People |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Remote Technology, Inc. | Zoho |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://gateway.remote.com` | `https://people.zoho.com/api` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Remote's terms of use. The remote-for-ai plugin and the Remote CLI repository on GitHub are MIT | Proprietary service under the Zoho Terms of Service |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-08-01 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-03 | 2022-03-02 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-03 | 2025-12-22 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 1.8k npm/wk | none |

## Verdicts

**Remote.** The REST API has 303 operations in a public OpenAPI document, 78 OAuth scopes split into read and write, a sandbox issued by email with no card, and a hosted MCP server using OAuth with PKCE. The REST changelog link redirects to a login page, and writes have no idempotency key.

**Zoho People.** The REST API covers employee forms, leave, attendance, timesheets, files and learning, with per-endpoint rate limits and Markdown docs listed in an llms.txt. No OpenAPI spec, official SDK or dated API changelog was found, the Free plan has no API access, and several scopes come only as ALL.

## Before you call either

### Remote

1. Match the token prefix to the host. `ra_test_` works only on https://gateway.remote-sandbox.com and `ra_live_` only on https://gateway.remote.com
2. Stay under 300 requests a minute per company for customer tokens, shared by every token, and read `x-ratelimit-remaining` and `x-ratelimit-reset` (milliseconds)
3. Check for an existing record before retrying a create, or set `external_id` on employments and treat a 422 for a duplicate as success
4. Fetch the country form schema (`GET /v1/countries/{country_code}/{form}`) before writing employment data. Country codes are three-letter ISO
5. Use the REST API for unattended work. The MCP server needs a browser sign-in and its write tools cover employee self-service only

### Zoho People

1. Use the accounts host and API host of the organisation's data centre. Tokens issued in one region fail in another
2. Stay under each page's threshold, often 30 calls a minute. Exceeding it locks that endpoint for five minutes
3. Page form records with `sIndex` and `limit`, at most 200 a call, and use `modifiedtime` to fetch only changes
4. Look up form and field label names with `/api/forms` before writing. `inputData` takes label names, and lookup fields take record IDs
5. Send the refresh token and client secret in the POST body, not the query string, and store the refresh token, which never expires

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Remote or Zoho People?

Remote scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Zoho People's 55 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Zoho People leads on transparency & trust.

### Do Remote and Zoho People need an API key?

Remote takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Zoho People uses an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Remote and Zoho People without installing anything?

Yes. Remote has a hosted endpoint at https://gateway.remote.com and Zoho People at https://people.zoho.com/api.


## For agents

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

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