Zoho Cliq

Overview

Zoho Cliq is business communication software that combines team messaging with meetings, administration, integrations, and workflow tools. It suits organizations that want to manage collaboration at scale, particularly those using Zoho apps; the free plan is more constrained for teams that need large groups or extensive searchable history.

Key features

Channels, guest access, and external channels support collaboration across teams and organizations. Administrators create external channels and can manage channel settings, roles, permissions, module configurations, and user provisioning and de-provisioning. This level of control fits managed business deployments, but may be more than a small team needs from a chat service.

Plan choice affects how teams can use discussions. Free groups allow up to 100 participants and search covers 10,000 messages; paid tiers raise group capacity to 500 and make searchable messages unlimited. Free can work for smaller or lower-volume teams, while the higher caps matter when large groups and older conversations are part of daily work. Free and Standard include 100 GB of storage per organization; Professional and Enterprise provide 100 GB per user.

Meetings support up to 100 participants on lower tiers. Higher tiers allow 1,000 active participants and 10,000 viewers, making them a better fit for larger gatherings. Whiteboards, screen sharing, calendars, reminders, workflow automation, and AI chat summaries extend Cliq beyond messaging. Integrations include Zoho People, Projects, Calendar, and Notebook, as well as Office 365 and third-party extensions.

For organizations building their own communication workflows, the developer platform includes APIs, slash commands, message actions, bots, functions, schedulers, databases, widgets, and internal apps. Security features include encryption in transit and at rest, SSL, single sign-on, and two-factor authentication. The service supports web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and API access.

Pricing

Cliq is freemium, with a free plan and a 14-day trial. The Free plan costs nothing and includes 100 participants per group, 10,000 searchable messages, and 100 GB of storage per organization. It is a practical starting point for smaller teams that can live within those caps, but not the strongest fit for groups that need broader search or larger conversations.

Standard has custom pricing and raises group capacity to 500 participants while providing unlimited searchable messages; storage remains 100 GB per organization. It suits teams whose main reason to upgrade is removing the free messaging limits, rather than increasing the stated storage allocation.

Professional has custom pricing and requires a minimum of 10 users. It includes 500 participants per group, unlimited searchable messages, and 100 GB of storage per user. Enterprise also has custom pricing, requires at least 10 users, and includes the same stated group, search, and storage limits. Professional and Enterprise are the relevant options for organizations that need per-user storage; the supplied plan details do not distinguish their other inclusions.

A trial account converts to a subscription with its data, integrations, and advanced features intact. Payments are accepted by major cards, PayPal, bank transfer, or check transfer for yearly subscriptions. Networks is an add-on for Standard and above, while Professional and Enterprise include three Networks at no charge.

Platforms

Cliq supports web, Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, and Android, with API support also available. That range suits teams working across desktop and mobile environments, as well as organizations integrating through the developer platform.

Who it's for

Cliq is strongest for organizations that need business messaging alongside administrative controls, workflow features, and a path to larger meetings. Zoho users can connect it with Zoho People, Projects, Calendar, and Notebook, while teams building internal tools can use its developer features. A small team looking only for basic chat may find the administration unnecessary; a team dependent on searchable history should weigh the Free plan's 10,000-message ceiling before adopting it.

Pros and cons

• Pros: Paid tiers remove the searchable-message cap and raise group capacity from 100 to 500 participants, supporting larger, longer-running conversations.
• Pros: Professional and Enterprise allocate 100 GB of storage per user, rather than per organization.
• Pros: Admin controls, external channels, integrations, and developer tools serve organizations with more structured collaboration needs.
• Cons: Standard's 100 GB organization-wide storage allocation remains the same as Free, even though its group and search limits improve.
• Cons: Professional and Enterprise require at least 10 users, which makes them a poor fit for smaller teams seeking per-user storage.
• Cons: The Free plan caps groups at 100 participants and searchable history at 10,000 messages.

Alternatives

Microsoft Teams is worth considering if its free plan's 60-minute group meetings and 5 GB of cloud storage suit your needs; it allows 100 participants and costs nothing with no subscription needed.

Slack offers a free plan at no cost, billed free forever, with 90 days of message history and up to ten apps. Choose it if those limits fit better than Cliq's 10,000 searchable-message cap.

Rocket.Chat is another freemium team-chat option, with a Starter plan at no cost, billed monthly, for 50 users.

Lark is a freemium alternative whose Starter plan has 20 users, 100 GB of storage, 18 months of message history, and 1,000 automations per month.

Zulip may suit teams looking for a different free-history and storage balance: Cloud Free includes 10,000 messages of search history and 5 GB of total file storage, while Cloud Standard costs $6.67 a month, billed yearly.

Discord offers free voice, video, and text chat with community servers and browser, desktop, and mobile access.

Wire is an alternative whose maker says its source code is fully open source and available on GitHub for verification.

Pumble offers a free plan with unlimited users, message history, and channels, plus 10 GB of storage per workspace and up to three apps.

For broader comparisons, browse Team chat apps or Team Collaboration Software.

Verdict

Choose Zoho Cliq if your organization wants chat integrated with administration, workflow, developer capabilities, and Zoho services, and can select a plan that matches its group, search, and storage needs. Look elsewhere if your priority is lightweight team chat or a free tier without Cliq's group and searchable-message caps.