Zoho Show review

In every enterprise, presentations are important. They help you get your point across to your co-workers. Hence, it’s essential to have the right tool to create presentations. Zoho Show is one of the best tools to make them. 

Compared to most presentation software out there, Zoho offers a good bang for the buck. It has a good suite of features that most competitors don’t have or charge more for. It’s a valuable tool for all kinds of enterprises. This review will give you details on Zoho’s pricing, features, customer support, and so on. 

Plans and pricing

Zoho Show has a free tier offering access to various features, but you should get the premium version if you want to make the most of it. To make it better, Zoho Show isn’t sold separately but as part of the “Zoho WorkDrive” package offering access to other useful software tools. You can pay for WorkDrive either monthly or annually. You save a significant amount if you pay yearly compared to monthly. 

The three different plans are “Starter,” “Team,” and “Business.” Starter costs $2.50 monthly or $24 annually; Team costs $5 monthly or $48 annually; Business costs $10 monthly or $96 annually. You can also purchase additional features such as 10 gigabytes (GB) of cloud storage for $48/year. The advanced tiers give you access to all Zoho WorkDrive’s features, Zoho Show included. 

Features

With Zoho Show, users can select from a significant number of ready-made templates to build online presentations with or create theirs from scratch. There are over 100 pre-loaded templates available. 

When making presentations on Zoho Show, people within an enterprise can collaborate. For example, they can edit presentations in real-time, make comments for each other, and communicate using “@” mentions. After creating a presentation, you can download them in various formats, including PPTX, HTML, PDF, PPSX, and ODP. You can also import files from other presentation software and edit them on Zoho Show without formatting issues.

Zoho Show lets you control your presentation from a mobile phone or smart watch when it's time to present. It also has integrations with platforms like Slack, Twitter, and YouTube so that you can show live content from them in your presentation slides. 

After creating your slides, you can download them or publish them on the web for anyone (who you grant access) to see. 

Interface and in use

Zoho Show has an intuitive interface with features laid out for you. It’s one of those things you can start using well without much familiarity. However, it requires significant effort to become familiar with Zoho Show’s advanced features. You’ll have to practice a bit to get used to the more sophisticated functionalities.

Also, Zoho Show is only available via a web-based interface. There is no dedicated desktop application to use offline, so you must be online at all times when using it. Ensure that you have reliable internet access before opening Zoho Show because slow internet often crashes the web-based app and erases your changes.

Support

Zoho offers adequate customer support, but the highest tiers of support require a paid subscription.  Free users can contact the company directly through e-mail or telephone (urgent requests only). However, paid subscribers can contact the company over the phone at all times and chat with a customer representative. If you pay for the highest subscription options, you’ll be assigned a technical account manager.

Zoho typically responds to customer support emails within one day for free users but much less for paid users. Generally, most individual users can manage the free support option, but we recommend large companies pay for dedicated support.

The competition

Zoho Show has many competitors. They include the popular Microsoft PowerPoint, Prezi, DocSend, and Salesforce’s Quip. However, Zoho has the advantage of pricing. It’s significantly cheaper than competitors with similar features. For example, Salesforce’s Quip starts at $10/user per month to $100/user per month, while Zoho Show costs $2.50 to $10 per user per month. In other words, Quip’s lowest pricing tier costs as much as Zoho Show’s highest tier. 

Zoho stands out for its extensive feature set. Zoho WorkDrive grants access to Zoho Show and several other software tools, e.g., a spreadsheet and text editor. Meanwhile, with competitors, you’ll be paying for just one software tool.

Final verdict

Zoho Show is a beneficial tool to make the best online presentations in your organization. How you make presentations will make people receptive (or not) to your idea in the workplace. Hence, Zoho Show provides many features to help you build a professional presentation with minimal hurdles. Its extensive feature set for a low price is unbeaten by rivals.

Zoho Show also offers good customer support options when you run into difficulties. In addition to direct customer support, it also provides online guides and video tutorials on using its software. It’s a suitable tool for both individuals and organizations.

Zoho Show has some disadvantages. It’s purely web-based, and there’s no offline app to access it. If you have no internet connection, you can’t use it. It also takes up a significant amount of computing resources during use. 

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