Zoho Mail and Workplace review: plans, pricing and email features for agencies
Zoho Mail hosts email on your agency domain at some of the lowest prices in this category. Zoho Workplace bundles the same mail with file storage, documents, chat and meetings.
It fits small agencies on a budget and agencies already using Zoho CRM. Mail Premium at $4 a person a month is the plan for records, with retention, eDiscovery and legal hold.
- Best for
- Budget-minded agencies, and agencies already on Zoho CRM
- Price
- Free for up to 5 people. Paid from $1 a person a month, billed yearly
- Free trial
- 15 days of the top plan. No card needed
- Mailbox size
- 5 GB to 100 GB a person
- Shared inboxes
- Shared mailboxes and group addresses on paid plans
- Legal hold
- Mail Premium or Workplace Professional
- Contract
- Yearly. Workplace plans also month to month
Our take
Zoho Mail is the low-cost choice for an agency that wants real business email and doesn't need an insurance system to connect. It ties in tightly with Zoho CRM.
Start on Mail Premium if you must keep records, since the cheaper Lite plans have no retention or legal hold.
No agency management system connects to it directly, so test your AMS email filing in Outlook before you move.
Pros
- Free for up to 5 people on one domain
- Retention, eDiscovery and legal hold on a low-cost plan
- Password-protected email that can expire and block forwarding
- Deleted mail kept 365 days by default in the backup portal
- Built in with Zoho CRM
Cons
- No agency management system connects directly
- Mail plans are billed yearly only
- The free plan works only in Zoho's own apps, not Outlook
- Records tools are missing from Lite and Workplace Standard
Plans and pricing
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly | Mailbox | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mail FreeUp to 5 people, one domain | $0 | $0 | 5 GB | Webmail, calendar and the mobile app. No Outlook or other mail apps |
| Mail LiteLow-cost mailboxes | $1 or $1.25 | Yearly only | 5 or 10 GB | Outlook and other mail apps, plus Zoho's desktop app |
| Workplace StandardEmail plus office apps | $3 | $4 | 30 GB | Shared file storage, documents, chat and meetings |
| Mail PremiumEmail with records and legal holdHas legal hold | $4 | Yearly only | 50 GB | Retention, eDiscovery, holds and S/MIME |
| Workplace ProfessionalThe full suite with records tools | $6 | $7 | 100 GB | Everything in Mail Premium plus the office apps |
Prices are per person each month in US dollars, as of October 2026, from Zoho's pricing page. Mail Lite costs $1 with 5 GB or $1.25 with 10 GB. Workplace Enterprise is quote only.
What it would cost you
Cost per month
First-year cost
Email cost per client a month
Uses the yearly prices. Workplace plans cost $1 more a person billed monthly.
Good to know before you buy
- The free plan stops at 5 people. A sixth person moves everyone to a paid plan.
- Mail and Workplace plans can be mixed in one account on yearly billing.
- Extra mail storage is sold in 10 GB steps a year.
- Companies with more than 50 people get a Zoho agent to guide the move.
Which plan has it
| Feature | Free | Mail Lite | Mail Premium | Workplace Standard | Workplace Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mailbox | 5 GB | 5 or 10 GB | 50 GB | 30 GB | 100 GB |
| Outlook and other mail apps | |||||
| Shared mailboxes and groups | |||||
| Password-protected email | |||||
| S/MIME encrypted email | |||||
| Retention and eDiscovery | |||||
| Legal hold | |||||
| Office apps and shared files | |||||
| Single sign-on | |||||
| Month-to-month billing |
AMS and CRM connections
| Connects to | Type | How | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho CRM | CRM | Built in | Shows CRM leads and contacts in Zoho Mail. An email can create a lead, attach to a record or become a task |
| Salesforce, HubSpot and Pipedrive | CRM | Listed | On Zoho Mail's integrations page |
| Zapier | Automation | Zapier | Connects Zoho Mail to other apps. Zapier is billed separately |
| Microsoft Outlook | Mail app | Built in | Reads the mailbox over IMAP or ActiveSync on paid plans |
No insurance system connects directly. Zoho lists no agency management system. If your AMS files email from Outlook or Gmail, ask the vendor whether Outlook reading a Zoho mailbox will work.
Phishing and sign-in protection
- Two-step sign-in
- Yes, by text, voice call or an authenticator app
- Can the admin require it
- Yes, for the whole agency
- Single sign-on
- SAML on paid plans
- Spam and malware
- Admin spam controls, allow and block lists, quarantine and attachment virus scans
- Impersonation and lookalikes
- Warns on senders it can't verify and on mail that fails SPF, DKIM or DMARC. Flags lookalike domains
- Access rules
- Limit sign-in by IP address through Zoho Directory on paid plans
Admins can pull a phishing email out of every mailbox at once through eDiscovery on Mail Premium and Workplace Professional.
Encryption for client documents
Encrypted email to clients
SecurePass lets you send a password-protected email that expires. It can also stop the client from forwarding, printing or downloading it. Mail Premium and Workplace Professional add S/MIME.
Health data
- Zoho offers a HIPAA business associate agreement (BAA) on request
- Each message shows whether it arrived over TLS, S/MIME or plain text
- PGP signing and encryption are also available
Retention, archive and legal hold
- Retention rules
- Default and custom policies on Mail Premium and Workplace Professional
- Retention storage
- 50 GB a person on Mail Premium and 100 GB on Workplace Professional
- eDiscovery search
- Yes, with a role for a legal user who isn't a full admin
- Legal hold
- Holds inside an investigation keep mail past the retention period
- Plan needed
- Mail Premium or Workplace Professional. Lite and Workplace Standard have none
The admin picks the retention period when turning eDiscovery on. Zoho sets no default.
Backup and recovery
- Deleted mail
- Admins restore it from the backup portal, by person, date or search
- How long
- 365 days by default. Admins can pick another period or keep it forever
- Deleted user
- Recoverable for 30 days
- Independent copy
- Zoho holds the backup. For your own copy, export mailboxes as ZIP or PST
The backup portal keeps deleted mail only. Retention for records is the separate eDiscovery tool.
Domain setup and sending limits
- SPF
- Add include:zohomail.com to your record
- DKIM
- Yes, 1024 or 2048-bit keys
- DMARC
- Step guide for monitor, quarantine and reject settings
- Who edits DNS
- Your agency, at its DNS host
- Reports
- DMARC reports go to an address you choose
SPF, DKIM and DMARC prove mail from your domain is really yours. Zoho sends automated mail through a separate service called ZeptoMail. Newsletters belong in an email marketing tool.
When a producer leaves
Block the account
Blocking stops sending and receiving. Deactivating also cuts off other Zoho apps.
Give a colleague the mailbox
The admin can delegate it to another person.
Keep the address working
Move the producer's alias to a colleague, or forward the mail.
Hold it if a claim is open
Mail Premium and Workplace Professional can place an eDiscovery hold.
Export before you delete
Download the mailbox as ZIP or PST within 30 days. Deleted mail can't come back after it is purged.
Getting started
Start the 15-day trial
It covers the top plan and needs no card. Where a free plan exists, the account drops to it afterward.
Add and verify your domain
The Admin Console walks you through the DNS records.
Create people, groups and shared mailboxes
Set up service@ and claims@ before the switch.
Move old mail
One-click moves from Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Exchange bring email, contacts and calendars. PST and EML files import too.
Point your mail to Zoho
Change the MX record (where mail goes), then add SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
Zoho estimates about 15 minutes for each 1 GB mailbox and says mail keeps flowing during the move.
Admin and support
- Admin console
- Zoho Mail Admin Console
- Admin roles
- One super admin, admins and custom eDiscovery roles
- Activity log
- Admin actions kept a year. Email logs kept 90 days
- Data location
- Set by the country you sign up from
- Uptime promise
- 99.9% on paid plans
- Support
- Email, chat and phone any time on paid plans
- Where you buy it
- Direct from Zoho online or by phone at +1 877-834-4428
Zoho Mail lists ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 22301 and ISO 9001 audits.
Contract and your data
- Billing
- Yearly for Mail plans. Workplace plans yearly or monthly
- Renewal
- Renews each period. People added mid-year are charged for the rest of it
- Canceling
- Any time. An unpaid renewal drops the account to the free plan
- Refunds
- Full refund in the first month of a monthly plan or the first 45 days of a yearly one, if Zoho can't fix the problem
- Getting your mail out
- Admins export mailboxes as ZIP, or PST on paid plans
- After you cancel
- Paid features stop. Closing the account deletes its data
From Zoho's terms of service and refund policy, checked October 2026.
Zoho Mail and Workplace alternatives
- Google WorkspaceFrom $7 a user a month billed yearlyGmail with free group inboxes and EZLynx and HawkSoft links
- Microsoft 365Email only from $4, full suite from $7, a user a month billed yearlyOutlook and Exchange, with Applied Epic's Outlook add-in
- FastmailFrom $3 a user a month billed yearlyMonth to month on every plan, with free shared addresses
- Proton Mail for BusinessFrom $6.99 a user a month billed yearlyEncrypted storage, and password-protected email on every plan
See every option in business email providers.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Zoho Mail cost?
It is free for up to 5 people. Billed yearly, Mail Lite starts at $1, Mail Premium is $4 and Workplace runs $3 to $6 a person a month.
Does Zoho Mail work with Outlook and my AMS?
Paid plans work in Outlook over IMAP or ActiveSync. No insurance agency system connects directly.
Which Zoho plan has legal hold?
Mail Premium and Workplace Professional. Mail Lite and Workplace Standard don't include retention or holds.
Can I send encrypted email to clients from Zoho?
Yes. SecurePass sends a password-protected message on any plan, and Mail Premium adds S/MIME.
Will Zoho sign a BAA for health or Medicare clients?
Zoho offers a HIPAA business associate agreement on request.
How we researched this review. We based this review on the pricing, terms and product pages published by Zoho Mail and Workplace, reviewed in October 2026, together with our team's experience working with insurance agents and agency owners since 2008.
Corrections
Vendors change their pricing all the time and they don't email us when they do. So if you see a price on here that's gone up, a plan Zoho Mail and Workplace quit selling or a contract term that reads different now, let us know and send the link to the page where Zoho Mail and Workplace has it. Somebody here pulls up that page and checks it before we change anything on ours.