Last week, software provider Zoho hosted its annual ZohoDay analyst event, with several Forrester analysts in attendance. Zoho celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026 and announced some milestones in its opening session: 1 million customer organizations, 150 million users globally, 19,000 employees globally, and over 60 apps across multiple technology markets.

Zoho continues to see revenue growth across the globe, leveraging a freemium model that gets its apps into the hands of users at no cost, converting them to customers and then upselling/cross-selling additional modules. Growth in developing regions, such as India, Middle East/Africa, Brazil, and Latin America, now outpaces the rate of growth in established markets, with partners playing an increasingly important role. In markets such as North America and Europe, vertical strategies are emerging, going deeper into sectors like real estate and insurance as well as in franchise businesses such as retail, hospitality, or business services.

Key Product Announcements

  • AppOS is a major next step in the consolidation of the underlying platform. The 60-plus apps across the Zoho portfolio already share a common platform and are designed to be well integrated. AppOS provides a shared data foundation upon which customers and partners can extend the Zoho ecosystem, designing and delivering custom applications. AI-assisted code generation for apps, workflow, and agents is supported. The application generation vision is to enable a customer to go from product requirements to a SaaS app within days. Partner-built vertical apps are already in market using AppOS. A key pillar of this strategy is to continue to optimize the infrastructure for the use of AI and the performance of the agents and applications utilizing it. Forrester’s view on this is that, by supplying a full infrastructure stack, Zoho will continue to be able to undercut other vendors’ costs while leveraging AI at scale.
  • Zoho has entered the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market. Zoho first entered the market in India, with the US market to follow in late 2026 via upgrades to the Zoho Books and Payroll products. Key modules for billing, spend management, accounting, tax/compliance, payroll, and inventory/order management will be provided, and vertical editions for manufacturing, retail, distribution, and nonprofit are also anticipated. Forrester believes that this is the right direction for Zoho, but it still has work to do to distinguish itself from other ERP providers in the market. When asked about what they hope will distinguish themselves from others already in the market, Zoho team members leaned into discussions of verticalized AI. But what remains is an opportunity for Zoho to look at pain points that existing ERP clients are expressing in the market and then optimize ERP customer experiences, connecting the (undiscovered knowledge) dots to employee experience to maximize the overall total experience for this offering.
  • Zoho Workplace adoption. Zoho Workplace is currently its fastest-growing business unit, with high growth across regions. Workplace includes a broad set of office authoring tools, content management, an employee engagement suite (intranet, town halls, employee analytics), unified communications, and directory services. Migrations to Zoho from other productivity suites are on the rise — increasing a reported 120% year over year from Google Workspace and 20% from Microsoft 365. Key drivers for these migrations include data sovereignty requirements (particularly in government) and cost savings.

Key Takeaways

  • Zoho plays the long game. This privately held company is driven by values, both in terms of how and where it invests, its commitment to its own employees, and the desire to consistently add value to its customers’ investments. Zoho is willing to invest locally (including building data centers) to grow new markets and ensure that products are high-quality before launching broadly.
  • Zoho enjoys sovereignty as a strategic differentiator. As geopolitical tensions, trade restrictions, and regulatory fragmentation increase, enterprises are reassessing technology dependency and jurisdictional risk. Zoho’s long-standing approach — owning its full stack, operating its own global data centers, and offering clear data residency choices — positions it well for organizations that want operational resilience and regulatory certainty without being locked into hyperscaler geopolitics. This matters not only for government and regulated industries but increasingly for commercial enterprises with cross-border operations and risk-sensitive boards.
  • Zoho has taken a pragmatic approach to AI. Zoho has been investing in its own AI models for over a decade and can take various approaches to deliver AI results using both small and large language models, applying best-fit and cost-effective approaches for different use cases.
  • Zoho can capitalize on the experience gaps left by incumbent ERP vendors. While most ERP platforms excel at transaction processing, they fall short in providing insights at the point of work while still delivering excellent experiences. Zoho has an opportunity to address this last‑mile challenge by integrating ERP data with collaboration tools such as Cliq and using Zia as an intermediary to surface relevant insights in context. Without clear paths to discovery and understanding, users are unlikely to act on ERP data, thus limiting both adoption and the value that ERP programs are meant to deliver.
  • Put a risk lens on platform vendors. AppOS puts a shared data foundation under Zoho’s app suite, with AI-assisted code generation and partner-built vertical apps extending it. Done well, that consolidation can simplify sprawl by standardizing how apps connect and share data. The flip side is concentration: The platform layer becomes the primary risk surface (identity, data access, extension governance), especially as Zoho moves into ERP and grows Workplace where data sovereignty is a stated driver.
  • Enterprises should put Zoho on their radar. Zoho has often floated under the radar with large enterprise IT decision-makers, but it is time to change the perception that it is just small/midmarket-focused. Organizations exploring cost-effective modern apps in dozens of tech categories should consider Zoho for their shortlist.

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(With contributions from Cheryl McKinnon, Kim Herrington, Ken Parmelee, Tope Olufon, and Joe Cicman)