Zoho Sites Review 2024

Edited by Tony Moles

Updated


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Zoho Sites is an intuitive drag-and-drop website builder that allows you to create websites in minutes without experience. Due to its robust design features, ease of use, and cost-effectiveness, it has become one of the most popular low-cost website builders.

Who should choose Zoho Sites? People who want to showcase their work or service on their websites — whether it’s their company, a blog, or artwork.

Zoho Sites Pros and Cons

Although Zoho Sites offers robust features at a reasonable price, there are some shortcomings regarding its customer support, search engine optimization (SEO) tools, and more. If you’re thinking about choosing Zoho Sites as your website builder, consider the following advantages and disadvantages.

What we like about Zoho Sites

  • Affordable: Compared to its competitors, Zoho Sites is one of the cheapest website builders available. Despite its affordability, it has a lot to offer.
  • Get a website up in no time: Zoho Sites is an easy-to-use platform that doesn’t require any coding knowledge, allowing you to have a website up and running in minutes.
  • Easily customizable: With Zoho Sites’ templates, drag-and-drop blocks, and a simple visual editor, you can easily create a website that fits your brand and looks professional.
  • Great integrations: You can seamlessly integrate Zoho Sites with other Zoho products and third-party apps such as Google Analytics and Mailchimp.

What fell flat

  • Not much choice regarding available plans: Zoho Sites only offers two plans, which is low compared to some of its competitors.
  • Not much storage space: Zoho Sites Starter plan comes with 500MB of storage, and the Pro plan comes with 100GB, which can be a dealbreaker for some people.
  • No e-commerce features: If you’re looking to build an e-commerce store, Zoho Sites may not be the right platform; you may want to try Zoho Commerce or an alternative website builder.

Digital.com’s Editorial Review

Zoho Sites earned its rating based on ease of use, competitive pricing, and solid platform security. Our testing found Zoho Site’s design capabilities powerful and simple to use. However, the platform’s lack of scalability makes it difficult to recommend beyond entry-level users.

“What I was impressed with about Zoho Sites was the ease of use when evaluating its features. You have a chance to fully customize your website, and it’s easy to switch between multiple sites.” – Elmeri Palokangas, E-commerce and Online Marketing Specialist

See how we review website builders.

Plans & Pricing

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  • Free
  • Basic–$5 per month
  • Standard–$10 per month
  • Professional–$15 per month

Features

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  • Robust customization options
  • Ready-to-use templates
  • Zoho integrations
  • SEO and sitemaps
  • Advanced security

Performance

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  • 90/100 on Google PageSpeed
  • Unlimited bandwidth

Security

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  • SSL certificate
  • Password protection for downloads
  • GDPR-compliance

Support

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The support for Zoho Sites is the same as for all of its products, and it’s one of the best support systems for small business software.

  • Live chat
  • Email
  • Phone
  • Ticketing
  • Help center

Improvements

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Zoho Sites is part of Zoho, a large product group, so something new is always coming up.

Plans and Pricing

Zoho Sites offers four different plans to choose from, depending on what features you need.

Free

  • Good for: testing the platform

Basic–$5 per month

  • Good for: freelancers and hobbyists

Standard–$10 per month

  • Good for: small business websites

Professional–$15 per month

  • Good for: small business and membership sites

All of Zoho’s paid plans include a custom domain, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) hosting, at least 1GB of storage, a photo gallery, blog, and mobile site.

Features

There are many great features available in Zoho Sites plans, such as an intuitive drag-and-drop editor and free hosting.

Even though the cheaper plan offers most of the features, the higher-end plan has additional options, such as bigger data limits, social share buttons, single-page site templates, and a blog schedule. Zoho Sites is one of the most affordable compared to other website builders. But it offers more than you might expect from a website builder at an affordable price.

Website builder with robust customization features

Both Zoho Sites plans come with the same drag-and-drop editor. I used it to design and customize my website, and it’s handy for those without any coding knowledge who want to create a website.

To make things easier to manage, the Zoho Sites editor is divided into two sections: the Builder and the Visual Editor. The Builder is where you’ll add, delete, or move around website elements called blocks. In the Visual Editor, you can see a real-time preview of your website and make changes to the design, such as adding color or changing fonts.

There are over 190 sections to choose from, which I found more extensive than most other low-cost website builders. Sections include text blocks, images, forms, maps, videos, social media buttons, and much more. I liked this flexibility for customizing the look and feel of my website — you can add, delete, or move around sections to create the layout you want.

You can also change the order of the sections by dragging and dropping them around, which is handy if you want to change the layout of your website. And, if you want to add a new section, simply click the Plus icon and drop it into place.

Accessing the Zoho Sites control panel was effortless. I accessed the control panel within five minutes of starting the sign-up process without even adding my credit card details. In most website builders, settings are located on the left side of the page, but in Zoho Sites editor, it is located on the header.

Editing a website using Zoho Site's editor

Ready-to-use templates

Zoho Sites offers over 40 ready-to-use templates that can help get your website up fast. These templates are fully customizable, so I could change them to match my brand. It was easy for me to change the theme while editing and not lose any old content, a somewhat rare – but very useful – feature in a website builder.

Zoho Sites templates are pre-designed and divided into different sections. Some are Single Page templates only available with the Pro Plan.

Zoho apps to help manage other parts of your business

Zoho Sites integrates with its other products, like Zoho CRM and Zoho Mail. In my experience, the benefit is that rather than using expensive third-party apps like many of its competitors, you can use Zoho apps to manage different parts of your website from one platform. The Zoho suite of apps is comprehensive enough to provide real value for those who need more from their website than just the basics.

Zoho Apps are the most cost-effective option on the market: for only $4 per month, you get your own hosted email workspace with 30GB of space. Adding an extra $3 per month gives you 50GB of space and 1TB of shared storage space. The email workspace comes with additional features like Zoho Meeting.

Most of the Zoho App plans come with a free trial. If you want to test all the apps simultaneously, you can sign up for a 30-day trial for Zoho One plan. This gives you access to all Zoho products, including Zoho Sites.

Additional tools to make your site stand out

Zoho Sites offers a wide range of additional website features that can help you take your website to the next level.

Some of these tools include:

  • Communication tools to help boost customer engagement: Get your visitors involved with your website using tools including comment boxes, a blog, and different kinds of forms such as a contact form.
  • SEO tools to help boost your site visibility in web searches: You can optimize your site by adding meta titles, tags, and robots.txt. But Zoho Sites don’t offer you the SEO depth that other alternatives like WordPress and Wix.com offer. When looking for robust SEO features, it is recommended to go with a proper content management system (CMS) platform.
  • Site map to help search engines read your website: This gives search engines a better understanding of your website structure, and Zoho Sites makes it easy to import a site map.
  • Traffic analytics to help optimize your website content: Zoho Sites analytics allows you to track, measure, and analyze customer behavior. Also, you can integrate Google Analytics with Zoho Sites to get even more data.

In my experience, these are especially great for small and local businesses. You can use the basic SEO tools to increase your site visibility, connect your website with Google Analytics to see where your traffic is coming from, and use communication tools to engage with your audience.

Built-in tools for building a small business with Zoho

Free hosting with advanced security options

Zoho Sites offers a free hosting option with every website plan. This comes with a Zoho subdomain, and you can integrate your domain with Zoho.

On top of hosting the site, Zoho is also responsible for website security.

You get an SSL certificate that encrypts the connection between your website and the visitor’s web browser, which will help to protect your visitors’ information.

In addition to the SSL certificate, you can create data backups, so if something goes wrong, your website will be automatically restored.

Different pages on your website can be password-protected, so only those with the password can access them.

Performance

Based on the test we ran with Google PageSpeed Insights, our demo Zoho Sites page got a score of 90/100 for the site performance.

Google pageSpeed insights for our demo site on Zoho Sites. Scored a 90/100

All domains registered to Zoho Sites come with free hosting and unlimited bandwidth.

In my experience and Zoho Sites’ claims, it can handle any traffic your website receives. From a performance standpoint, Zoho Sites can handle the size of any website.

Security

Zoho keeps your sites safe by offering hosting, SSL certificates, and password-protected site downloads, allowing you to create General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)-compliant sites.

SSL certificates

For all of the available plans, Zoho Sites provides SSL certifications.

Password-protected site download

At any point, you can download your site and move it to another website builder. To protect it, Zoho Sites makes all the files password protected, so only you can access them.

GDPR-Compliant

To make sure your site is GDPR-compliant, Zoho Sites provides you with all the necessary features.

Support

What I realized from Zoho’s support is it offers you self-service help first, and only after that is there individual support. I don’t see this as a problem, as Zoho has one of the most extensive knowledge bases out there. It’s divided into different categories.

If you can’t find help from the knowledge base, contact Zoho support by emailing, calling, chatting, or submitting a request. I tested the phone support and found that it’s great. Its service is divided into different sections, depending on where you need help. I only waited around 30 seconds to get a reply to my call.

Recent Improvements

The following are some of the new updates that Zoho Sites has got:

  • Zoho Survey integration with Zoho Sites: You can integrate Zoho Survey with Zoho Sites to create business-related surveys and add them to your website.
  • Rename blog URL: With the new product update, you can change your Zoho Sites blog URL later.
  • Mobile header style in the visual editor: When you access your website editor from a mobile device, you can set and change different header styles for your website.
  • Import comments: While importing a blog from WordPress was previously possible, you can now import comments too.

Compare Zoho Sites Alternatives

After extensive research, we believe Zoho Sites is a great low-cost website builder, but some notable alternatives are WixSquarespaceWeebly, and WordPress.com.

We researched and looked closely at all the top website builders, spent time testing them, and talked to dozens of customers. Check out our full list of website builders or compare some of Zoho Sites’ closest alternatives below.

Website Builder

Pricing + Basic Plan Features

Zoho logo

Zoho Sites
You are here.

Free

  • 5 pages
  • 500 MB of storage
  • Blog and mobile site

Starts at $2.99 per month

  • Free domain and SSL
  • AI-assisted tools
  • Unlimited storage and bandwidth
  • Blog

Consider Hostinger if: You want to use innovative free tools to help build your brand and website.

Starts at $16 per month

  • Award-winning design templates
  • Mailchimp integration
  • Access to raw code
  • Marketing tools
  • 0% to 3% transaction fees

Consider Squarespace if: You prefer modern templates; easy template switching.

Starts at $16 per month

  • Free domain for one year
  • 2GB storage
  • Stream up to 30 minutes of video
  • 800+ templates

Consider Wix if: You need more design template options. Wix offers far more (and better) predesigned templates to get you started.

What You Need to Know

What kind of support does Zoho Sites offer?

Zoho Sites support is available 24 hours a day on weekdays. Apart from weekends, I found the support team quick to respond. It provides support in multiple languages through live chat, phone, email, and a ticketing system.

What are the Zoho integrations?

Zoho Sites is not the only solution offered by Zoho. It offers a whole suite of business applications designed to work together seamlessly. You can easily integrate your Zoho Sites account with all the company products. The benefit is that you can manage everything from one place, and you don’t need to worry about data loss or compatibility issues.

What are the best alternatives to Zoho Sites?

It offers a wide selection of features combined with affordability, but some quality alternatives are: Wix, Squarespace, Weebly, and WordPress.com.

Is Zoho Sites a cheap website builder?

Yes, Zoho Sites is one of the most low-cost website builders, and you can get started at under $10 a month.

How We Reviewed Zoho Sites

At Digital.com, we know how important it is to test products thoroughly and compare how they measure against the industry leaders. I spent hours familiarizing myself with Zoho Sites’ dashboard, setup process, website builder, and its features. While my definition of “easy to use” may differ, I approached this as though I was new to website builders and compared it to my experience with some of the top site builders we’ve also reviewed.

This comprehensive overview of Zoho Sites can quickly answer whether it’s the right website builder for you. We also drilled down to specific features, so you can have a more detailed look at features or services. I gave more weight to some parameters, including features, security, support, pricing, ease of use, and how Zoho Sites has improved since our last review.

I test website builders based on the following factors:

  • Customization options: Can you change the look and feel of a template or add your own code?
  • Ease of use: Is the navigation intuitive with built-in tools, such as an in-app photo editor?
  • Value: Can you get a free plan or trial to give the builder a test drive? Are there extensive features on paid plans that justify the cost?
  • Security: What does the website builder do to keep your site and your customers’ data safe?
  • Templates: Are the templates attractive, updated, and generally high quality? Can you find many to choose from?
  • Support: Can you get help when needed, whether it’s from a human or support center articles?
  • Recent improvements: Has the builder done anything lately to step up its offerings?

Learn more about our review methodology.

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