Introducing the Zoho connector

Zoho CRM is essential for managing customer relationships, but syncing Zoho data to your database - whether it’s PostgreSQL, Snowflake, or BigQuery - has always been a challenge. That's why today, we’re excited to introduce our new Zoho CRM connector!

If you’ve ever tried to sync Zoho CRM with a database or data warehouse like Snowflake, PostgreSQL, or BigQuery, you know it’s not a straightforward task. While Zoho CRM is great for managing customer data, integrating it into your data pipelines presents several major challenges. Developers and RevOps teams often run into issues like:

• Managing bi-directional sync conflicts: Ensuring that data flows smoothly between Zoho CRM and your database both ways can be a complex process. If records are updated in both Zoho and your warehouse simultaneously, you'll have to resolve conflicts.
• Syncing in real-time: Zoho CRM doesn’t support true real-time updates. You’ll need to poll the API constantly to check for changes, causing delays. On the other hand, polling too frequently can also trigger rate limits (more on that later), making it difficult to achieve reliable real-time syncs.
• Managing security tokens: Zoho’s OAuth tokens expire every hour, requiring token rotation to avoid sync failures.
• Retry logic for failed requests: APIs occasionally fail or time out, so retry mechanisms need to be in place to ensure data sync doesn’t break when something goes wrong.
• Monitoring sync status: Detecting sync errors or performance issues in real time requires building out monitoring systems. If a sync issue goes unnoticed, it can leave your data out of date.

Challenges with the Zoho API

Beyond general pipeline complexity, Zoho’s API itself presents several technical limitations.

Limited search and filtering

The Search Records API doesn’t allow sorting, and Get Records doesn’t provide filtering options. To find cross-module records linked through lookup fields, you have to use Zoho’s SQL-like Query API called COQL, which has its own quirks with WHERE clauses.

Field count restrictions

Zoho’s Get Records API is limited to fetching a maximum of 50 fields per request. For larger objects like Contacts, with a default of 49 fields, adding even just a couple of custom fields forces additional requests.

Rate limits

Each Zoho product has its own rate limits, restricted through credit limits and concurrency caps. These differ based on your Zoho plan: free users are limited to 5000 credits per day and 5 concurrent calls, while users on the Professional plan get at least 50,000 credits and 15 concurrent calls.

On top of that, some API operations cost more than the others. Get Users costs 1 credit, while Convert Lead uses 5 credits.

Given these challenges, manually building and maintaining a two-way data sync between Zoho CRM and a database is a significant investment. It requires ongoing monitoring, handling API limitations, and constantly managing changes to keep your data pipelines running smoothly.

How Stacksync helps

Our new no-code Zoho CRM connector simplifies this entire process, so you don't have to deal with API limits, token management, or building custom pipelines. Here’s how:

• Bi-directional, real-time sync: Stacksync ensures that any changes in Zoho CRM are immediately reflected in your database, and vice versa. This eliminates delays and ensures that your data is always up-to-date without manual intervention.
• OAuth-based authentication: Simply log into your Zoho account, connect your database, and Stacksync handles token rotation for you. You don’t have to build any custom logic for keeping your API credentials fresh.
• Retry and error handling: Stacksync includes automatic retry mechanisms and monitors for API failures or rate limits. When issues arise, Stacksync will automatically retry the sync and resolve many common errors.
• Credit and concurrency management: Setting rate limits in Stacksync ensures your sync doesn’t exceed API thresholds, helping you avoid disruptions.
• Monitoring and dashboard: You can track sync status in real time via the Stacksync Monitoring dashboard. If any sync issues occur, you’ll be notified.

With Stacksync, all of this complexity is abstracted away. You don’t need to worry about managing pipelines, coding custom solutions for token rotation, or hitting API limits. Just authenticate Zoho CRM, connect your database, and let Stacksync handle the rest.

Here's some things you can do by integrating Zoho with your database:

1. Sales Reporting: Sync Zoho CRM Contacts and Deals data to your warehouse for real-time sales performance tracking. You can enrich this data with product usage metrics from your internal systems, providing a comprehensive view of your sales pipeline.
2. Marketing Attribution: Link Zoho CRM’s Leads and Campaigns with marketing data from other tools. Use your warehouse to create an advanced attribution model that tracks how each marketing effort contributes to lead generation and conversions.
3. Sales Forecasting: Use Zoho CRM’s Opportunities data, synced with historical revenue data from your warehouse, to build more accurate sales forecasts. This allows you to adjust quotas, plan resources, or tweak your sales strategy in real time.

Supported objects

The Zoho connector currently supports the following objects:

• Lead
• Contact
• Account
• Deal
• Task
• Meeting
• Call
• Product
• Quote
• Sales Order
• Purchase Order
• Invoice
• Campaign
• Vendor
• Price Book
• Case
• Solution
• Note
• Attachment

Managing a real-time, bi-directional sync between Zoho CRM and a database doesn’t have to be a manual or code-heavy project. Our Zoho connector takes care of the complexities so you can focus on using your data, not syncing it.

Sign up for a free trial, or book a demo to see how Stacksync can simplify your data workflows.