In 30 seconds
- You run 5+ seats and want CRM + calling + WhatsApp as one bill — not a base CRM plus Exotel plus a WhatsApp BSP.
- Your reps call from personal SIMs and you need those calls logged automatically.
- Your leads come from IndiaMART plus 99acres, MagicBricks, JustDial, Housing or Facebook — not just IndiaMART.
- You can see yourself hitting Bigin's 100k-record or 50-rule ceiling within 12 months.
- You'd rather switch once now than be upsold to Zoho CRM at 2.5–4.4× in a year.
- You're solo or a 1–3 person team validating product-market fit — Bigin Free at ₹0 for 1 user / 500 records is unmatched.
- You already run Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Campaigns or Zoho One — Bigin slots into that ecosystem natively.
- You only need a visual pipeline for <500 deals a year, and 30-minute setup matters more than depth.
- Your only lead source is IndiaMART or Shopify, and you don't run WhatsApp or personal-SIM calling at scale.
At a glance
Bigin Premier is the tier most growing SME teams land on for real sales use. That's the comparison.
5 reasons teams outgrow Bigin
Every claim cites Bigin's own pricing or features page, or a named third-party source. Fetched April 2026.
One-click into Bigin. 2.5–4.4× per seat on the way out.
Bigin's own pricing page advertises the graduation path: "you can easily upgrade to Zoho CRM with one-click data migration." Zoho CRM Professional is ₹1,400/user — a 2.5× jump from Bigin Premier (₹900) and 2.5× from Express (₹550). Zoho CRM Enterprise, where approval processes, sandbox and territories unlock, is ₹2,400/user — a 4.4× jump from Premier. This is Bigin's documented business model, not our framing.
By month 10, your team has learned Bigin, invested in training and built pipelines. Switching vendors feels scary. The path of least resistance — one-click upgrade — is also the most expensive.
How Cratio handles it: Cratio Pro at ₹599 bundles the Triad on one tier. No 2.5× price gate to unlock workflow depth or analytics.
WhatsApp in Bigin is a send button. Not a team inbox.
Bigin's features page describes WhatsApp as one line: "Communicate via WhatsApp chats, be equipped with all the necessary information while engaging." There is no shared team inbox, broadcast/campaign builder, chatbot designer or assignment routing documented. The dedicated product page at bigin.com/whatsapp-crm.html returned 404 on our fetch — Bigin does not publish WhatsApp as a first-class pillar.
Indian SMBs run 40–70% of sales conversations on WhatsApp. A per-record send is a messaging touchpoint. Ten reps, one number, shared threads, assignment rules and drip campaigns is a different product.
How Cratio handles it: Cratio ships WhatsApp Inbox, Chatbot, Campaigns, Templates, Automation and Analytics as a dedicated pillar — bundled in Pro.
"Built-in cloud telephony" routes through Exotel. Your reps' SIM calls are invisible.
Bigin's homepage reads "Make, receive, and record calls with built-in and third-party phone systems." This is Zoho's PhoneBridge model — calls route through partner providers (Exotel, Knowlarity, Ozonetel, RingCentral, JustCall). Dedicated pages at bigin.com/telephony.html and bigin.com/call-tracking-crm.html both returned 404 on our fetch. Exotel/Knowlarity/Ozonetel typically list at ~₹1,500 per user per month — often more than Bigin itself.
Field reps in real estate, insurance and loans call from their personal SIMs. Those calls never reach Bigin unless every rep has a paid telephony subscription. On day 1 the gap is cultural; at quarter-close it's a missed-lead audit.
How Cratio handles it: Cratio's Mobile Call Tracking logs and records personal-SIM calls via the Flutter app, with post-call disposition inside the app. Cloud Telephony connector included. All on Pro.
IndiaMART is in. 99acres, MagicBricks and JustDial aren't.
Bigin's homepage names "IndiaMART and Shopify integrations." 99acres, MagicBricks, Housing.com, JustDial, TradeIndia and Facebook Lead Ads are not advertised as native Bigin connectors. Bigin's integrations page (bigin.com/integrations.html) returned 404 on our fetch. The documented extension model is "Toppings" — third-party partner-built add-ons via the developer platform.
Brokers live on 99acres and MagicBricks. Coaching teams live on Facebook Lead Ads. Missing an enquiry by 5 minutes is a lost lead — and a DIY webhook that breaks when the portal updates payloads is a production risk you'll discover at 11pm on month-end.
How Cratio handles it: Cratio ships native first-party connectors for IndiaMART, JustDial, 99acres, MagicBricks, Housing.com, TradeIndia, Facebook Lead Ads and Google Forms.
50 rules. 100k records. 5 pipelines. That's Premier's ceiling.
Bigin Premier caps at 50 advanced automations per tenant, 100,000 records, 5 pipelines and 25 custom fields per module. Bigin 360 (₹1,260) lifts these to 100 / 1M / 15 / 50. A 15-rep team with 4 product lines and 2,000 leads/month hits the automation ceiling first, then the record cap around month 18–24.
Caps aren't a problem at signup. They're a problem at renewal — when you're already committed and the "solution" is a tier upgrade or the one-click jump to Zoho CRM.
How Cratio handles it: Cratio's Pro tier doesn't publish tenant-level rule caps or record caps in the 5–100 seat ICP. The visual workflow builder and prebuilt library are part of Pro, not a tier gate.
Every tier. Every cap. One table.
Bigin's caps are public — they define the product. Here's where each tier tops out vs. what Cratio Pro bundles at ₹599.
Pipelines
Records
Automations (tenant-level)
Custom fields per module
Mobile SIM call tracking
Indian lead portals
Reports & analytics
Lead scoring
Onboarding
Upgrade path
Source: Bigin pricing page (bigin.com/pricing.html) and features page (bigin.com/features.html), fetched April 2026. Bigin prices shown are list rates billed monthly — annual billing may be lower. Cratio column reflects the current Pro plan per cratio.com/pricing.
Where Cratio was built different
We didn't bolt on WhatsApp and calling. We built the product around them.
Savings Calculator
Default comparison is Bigin Premier — the tier most SME teams land on for real sales use. Drag the slider to your team size.
Bigin prices shown are "billed monthly" from bigin.com/pricing.html (April 2026). Annual billing typically reduces the license line by ~17–20%. Exotel telephony is required to match Cratio's native SIM call tracking. 18% GST extra.
10 users. Today's bill. Tomorrow's bill.
The Bigin line item is small today. The footnote is why teams switch once now instead.
Today: save ~₹2.16 lakh a year. One invoice. One vendor.
18% GST extra on both. Bigin prices shown are billed monthly.
The harder number is the 18–24 month one. When you cross Bigin Premier's 100,000-record or 50-automation ceiling, the documented upgrade is Bigin 360 (₹1,260/user) or Zoho CRM Professional (₹1,400/user — a 2.5× step from Premier). Zoho CRM Enterprise, which most teams land on for approvals and sandbox, is ₹2,400/user — a 4.4× step. Cratio Pro has no equivalent price gate.
Where Bigin still wins
Bigin is a well-loved product — 4.7/5 across 727 Capterra reviews. We'd rather tell you where it's the right call than lose your trust later.
The cheapest real CRM for solo founders
Bigin Free at ₹0 for 1 user and 500 records is genuinely unmatched. Cratio Growth needs 5 users minimum. If you're validating product-market fit alone, Bigin Free is the rational choice — come to Cratio when your team grows past three.
Tight Zoho ecosystem fit
If you already live in Zoho Books, Zoho Invoice, Zoho Campaigns or Zoho One, Bigin slots in with single sign-on, shared contacts and Zoho Analytics integration. Cratio is a focused lead engagement CRM, not a 40-app suite.
30-minute setup is credible
Bigin's "setup in 30 minutes" claim holds up precisely because the surface is small — pipelines, contacts, deals, tasks. If you only need a visual pipeline for <500 deals a year, you'll be live in an hour.
Switch from Bigin — simpler than upgrading to Zoho CRM
Bigin's data model is narrower than Zoho CRM's — no Deluge, no Blueprints, no approval processes. Migration is a one-time mapping, not a rebuild.
Export from Bigin
Contacts, deals, pipeline stages, custom fields, tasks — Bigin exports everything as CSV from its admin panel. One file per module is enough to start.
We map to Cratio
Our team maps pipelines, stages, custom fields and tags into Cratio. WhatsApp number activation and lead-source integrations (IndiaMART, 99acres, JustDial, Facebook) reconnect in the same pass.
Go live in days
Data loads, SIM-tracking rolls out on the Cratio mobile app, team trained. Most Bigin teams are fully on Cratio inside a week — faster than the Zoho CRM upgrade path because you're moving to a focused product, not a 40-module suite.
- Free migration — we do the mapping and the data load
- 2 months free on Cratio Pro
- Dedicated onboarding specialist for the switch week
Switcher questions we hear most
The honest answers, up front.
Based on publicly available information as of April 2026. Bigin prices shown are billed-monthly list rates from bigin.com/pricing.html; annual billing may be lower. Trademarks are property of their respective owners.