Zoho Creator vs Caspio - What's the difference?

Zoho Creator and Caspio are platforms used to build applications to automate business processes. Both platforms have visual development tools to help build apps quickly even for users with no experience coding. The range of applications that can be built with these tools range from simple call logs to advanced ERPs. Zoho Creator and Caspio appear to do exactly the same thing which begs the question, "What are the differences between Zoho Creator and Caspio?"

While they share a similar main function, the differences are found in the details. In this article we will provide easy to read charts and insight into what makes these two platforms similar and different. Our goal is to provide accurate information to help you make a well-informed decision on which platform is best for you.

We work with Zoho Creator on a weekly-basis, and find it to be a powerful tool at an excellent price. As you go through this article, you too will see exactly why 10,000 organizations spanning 170 countries are using 3.5 million applications built by Zoho Creator. We are not the only ones who find Zoho Creator to be useful!

With this said, here is a comparison of Zoho Creator vs Caspio.

 Notable Differences 

• Zoho Creator is hosted on its own secure Cloud infrastructure while Caspio is hosted on a third party.
• Zoho Creator has a "sandbox" feature which allows developers to test out their app before deploying it. Caspio does not have this feature.
• Zoho Creator has over 60 prebuilt apps that are ready to be used right away. It is as simple as a single-click to access and use these applications. Caspio also offers approximately 29 prebuilt applications to be used. The only difference is that you will need to contact Caspio support to gain access to the premade application you would like to use.

Why Zoho Creator as a Caspio Alternative?

Zoho Creator is user-friendly from the beginning to end of app creation. From building, to testing, deploying, and maintaining you will find it to be accessible, intuitive, and powerful. Zoho Creator was designed for business users and developers in mind. 

Developers will be excited to know that Zoho Creator includes features such as HTML, CSS editor, Sandbox, Application IDE, Deluge Scripting, SDKs, APIs, and more. But at the same time with its simple drag-and-drop builder users with limited or no coding experience will be able to build useful, powerful applications as well. 

Both Caspio and Zoho Creator allow you to customize and configure the look and theme of your applications, but Caspio's customization is a bit more challenging (see here) compared to Zoho Creator (view here).

Pricing

There are many technical features to consider between Zoho Creator vs Caspio, but you will also want to consider the pricing plans between these two app builders. You will notice while looking over the pricing plans between the companies that there is a substantial difference in pricing and the features offered between plans.  

Zoho Creator Prices

Basic - $10 (per user per month billed annually)

Premium - $20 (per user per month billed annually)

Ultimate - $35 (per user per month billed annually)

Zoho Creator pricing plans vary depending on your storage needs, number of users, and how many apps you will be creating. The Ultimate Plan offers unlimited storage and no cap on the number of apps you can create. See here for more details on Zoho Creator's pricing plan.

Caspio's "Build" plan costs $250 a month with 7 GB of data storage, unlimited users, and 50 DataPages. You may be wondering, "What are DataPages?" Caspio defines a DataPage to be any user interface on an application. DataPage examples would include a search interface, a web form, reports, calendars, charts, etc.. A basic application will consist of a number DataPages to make it functional for the end user.

This is important to consider, because Caspio's plans are not limited to the number of applications you'll be building, but limited to DataPages. A very simple application may only need 5 DataPages, but an advanced application can require many more DataPages.

The next tier Caspio plan is the "Grow" plan which doubles the amount of DataPages to 100 with a 12 GB capacity on data storage. You can view additional business pricing plans, and more details here.

Zoho Creator Pros & Cons

Pros

• Get Started Right Away - Zoho Creator was built to be intuitive for those who are not knowledgeable in coding. You can start building apps right away with Zoho Creator, and with little to no training you can start building. Compared to Caspio, you won't need to be trained to understand DataPages, Tables, and Views.

• Integrates with other Platforms - Zoho Creator can be easily integrated into the numerous other Zoho applications, and other external third party applications. This includes Salesforce, QuickBooks, Google Apps, Zapier, and more.

• Serverless Applications - The Zoho Creator applications are serverless. This allows you to build, test, and deploy apps without having to worry about servers going down. 

Cons

• Limited Users - If your business would like to use Zoho Creator for multiple users than be prepared to choose a higher priced plan. Their pricing model is based off of the number of users, and is contingent on how many people you would like to be using Zoho Creator.

Caspio Pros & Cons

Pros

• User friendly interface - Compared to other platforms that allow organizations to build apps, Caspio has a relatively user friendly interface. Even users with minimal technical knowledge will be able to understand and use this platform. Similar to Zoho Creator, it eliminates the need to know how to code as it has a drag-and-drop feature for users to quickly build the apps they need.

Cons

• DataPages - The concept of DataPages and it being tied into the pricing plan isn't very useful. Unless you have experience with Caspio, it will be difficult to determine how many DataPages you'll need for the application that you're planning to build. While Caspio does offer support to help you approximate how many DataPages a single app will need, a pricing plan based off of how many apps would be more useful.
• Price - For the single user who only wants to create 2-3 basic applications it is a steep monthly cost to use Caspio. A business owner will need to carefully consider if they'll be using Caspio to its fullest potential before deciding to even choose the basic $250 a month plan.

Zoho Creator is the Caspio Alternative You've Been Looking For

If you're thinking about transitioning from Caspio, it's a simple and painless transition thanks to Zoho Creator's migration tool. You can easily migrate your data from Caspio at no cost as the tool is able to import data from .xls, .xlsx, .csv, and .tsv files.

Zoho Creator is a great platform for businesses of all sizes whether you are just getting started or you are a large organization. With affordable pricing plans that will scale with your business you are guaranteed to find a plan that fits your specific needs. Caspio shares many similarities with Zoho Creator, but you'll see that there clearly isn't an affordable plan for all businesses. 

If you are considering Zoho Creator you should try out their free trial that allows you to build a single full application so that you can truly see how effective and intuitive this platform is.  

Have more questions about Zoho Creator? Contact us! We are highly trained Zoho Partners who are here to help. Click here for a free Zoho Consultation