Zoho Office Suite is a web-based online office suite containing word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, note-taking, wikis, web conferencing, customer relationship management (CRM), project management, invoicing, and other applications developed by ZOHO Corporation (formerly AdventNet Inc.), a California-based company. It was launched in 2005 with a web-based word processor. Additional products such as spreadsheets and presentations, were incorporated later into Zoho. Zoho applications are distributed as software as a service (SaaS).
Zoho uses an open application programming interface for its Writer, Sheet, Show, Creator, Meeting, and Planner products. It also has plugins into Microsoft Word and Excel, an OpenOffice.org plugin, and a plugin for Firefox.
Zoho Sites is an online, drag and drop website builder. It provides web hosting, unlimited storage, bandwidth and web pages. Features also include an array of website templates and mobile websites. Create, Edit, Share and Collaborate and e-Sign documents online with Zoho Writer.
Zoho CRM is a customer relationship management application with features like procurement, inventory, and some accounting functions from the realm of ERP. The free version is limited to 10 users.
In October 2009, Zoho integrated some of their applications with the Google Apps online suite. This enabled users to sign into both suites under one login. Zoho and Google still remain separate, competing companies.