A Zoho CRM alternative: a CRM you run from your AI

What is Zoho CRM good at?

Suite breadth. As of 2026-10-18, Zoho CRM is a full-suite CRM sold to small and mid-sized businesses. Its AI comes as the Zia assistant and agents, with Agent Studio to build them.

If you want one vendor for the whole suite, that is the reason to stay.

Does Zoho CRM work with Claude and ChatGPT?

It has built-in MCP. As of 2026-10-18, Zoho CRM's MCP lives at mcp.zoho.com, with 4 to 5 servers in a phased rollout, according to a Zoho community post. A ChatGPT path was not checked.

The difference is the starting point. Zoho CRM is a suite you work in. Sashimi is a CRM you run from your AI, and its 140 tools were written for a model to call:

• Up to 100 rows at once. create_leads, create_companies and create_deals take up to 100 rows per call.
• Safe retries. Write tools accept an idempotencyKey, so a repeated call with the same key does not write twice.
• A call log. list_mcp_activity records each AI call. Members see their own; admins see everyone's.
• The same permissions. One connector per workspace, held to what its member can do on the web.

When does Sashimi fit instead of Zoho CRM?

When you want a light CRM you run from your AI instead of working in an app, and one account for several businesses. If you need a broad suite, Zoho CRM fits better.

Each business gets its own isolated workspace, with its own leads, deals, stages, custom fields, sequences and members. One login reaches all of them, and each workspace gets its own connector in your AI. The page for solopreneurs shows how one person runs it. You ask, for example: "Show my open deals grouped by stage", or "Create a task to call Northwind on Friday."

What do I give up with Sashimi?

The suite, and some maturity. Sashimi is a small prospecting CRM:

• An app to work in. There is none by default; on-demand screens are coming soon, in beta. A web app remains for sign-in, settings, integration keys and Gmail.
• Built-in agents. They are switched off during the beta.
• Gmail sending is beta. Sequence emails go out through your own Gmail, in beta while Google reviews Sashimi's access.
• Calling, meeting capture and an integrations marketplace. Sashimi offers none of them.
• Open sign-up. Sashimi is a private beta, invitation only, and free during the beta, with nothing to buy today. At launch, Solo is $15 a month per account for 3 workspaces and 1 seat, after a 14-day trial with no card.

How do I move from Zoho CRM to Sashimi?

Ask your AI to create the records from a CSV or spreadsheet you already have. You need a Claude plan with custom connectors (the free plan allows one; on Team and Enterprise an owner adds it) or ChatGPT with developer mode on the web. How Sashimi connects has the steps.

1. Connect your AI with the connection guide.
2. Attach the file. Your AI calls create_leads, create_companies and create_deals, up to 100 rows per call. Leads are deduped by email and companies by domain or name; deals never are.
3. Run find_duplicates; an admin merges pairs with merge_leads or merge_companies.

Only deletions can be undone, from the trash within 30 days, and deleting from your AI needs an admin. Try ten rows before the whole file.

Other comparisons are on the CRM alternatives page.