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Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

Zoho Cliq vs Zoho Desk

Zoho Cliq 4.8★ · Free + IAP 65
Winner Zoho Cliq
Zoho Desk 4.7★ · Free + IAP 40

Zoho Cliq is the better choice for internal team communication, especially within the Zoho ecosystem, despite its persistent performance and crashing issues, while Zoho Desk struggles with core functionality and reliability as a customer support tool.

Full reviews: Zoho Cliq · Zoho Desk

Zoho Cliq offers strong integration within the Zoho ecosystem and effective team communication, but is plagued by frequent crashes and performance issues. Zoho Desk, a help desk app, suffers from a lack of key features compared to its web version, unreliable notifications, and a dated user interface.

Head to head

Features & Functionality edge: Zoho CliqR15R43R45R30
Zoho Cliq Zoho Cliq is praised for its communication features, smooth call handoff, granular permissions, and effective screenshots and annotation R15R43. Users appreciate its ability to replace internal email and its seamless syncing across devices R43R45. However, some find it too simple, lacking basic text formatting, thread search, or team mentions R30. There are also requests for better attachment handling and the return of notification halt options .
Zoho Desk Zoho Desk is criticized for missing many key features available in its web version, such as contracts, support plans, agent collisions, products, accounts/contacts, and system settings R60R65. Users also note the absence of drag-and-drop for images , the inability to view or edit the knowledge base , and issues with copy-paste . Some basic features are behind a paywall , and the app lacks customization for the homepage .
Ease of Use & UI/UX edge: Zoho CliqR8R19R40R14
Zoho Cliq Many users find Zoho Cliq intuitive and easy to use for communication R8R19. However, some describe the UI/UX as a 'total mess' and confusing, making it easy to get lost in menus and threads R40R14. There are complaints about intrusive tutorials appearing every time the app is opened .
Zoho Desk Zoho Desk's UI is frequently described as poor, dated, and needing a total revamp, looking like an app from 2010 . Users find it unhelpful for quick access to information and note inconsistencies in menus across Zoho One apps . The layout often cuts off ticket words, making views useless , and some controls are inaccessible for visually impaired users .
Performance & Reliability edge: Zoho CliqR1R3R18R22
Zoho Cliq Zoho Cliq is heavily criticized for severe performance issues, including being 'SLOOW,' showing blank screens on low bandwidth, slowing down phones, random crashes, and difficulty keeping up with typing R1R3. Numerous reviews report the app crashing immediately upon opening, especially after updates or on specific devices R18R22. Users frequently have to uninstall and reinstall . Conference calls are also reported as not working .
Zoho Desk Zoho Desk is described as glitchy and unreliable R62. Users experience frequent crashes, particularly when searching , viewing tasks , replying , or refreshing data . The app often has issues with cache refresh, making recent records unavailable R62, and can be out of sync with the web version R65. Some users report the app not opening at all due to 'error while fetching portals' .
Integrations & Ecosystem edge: Zoho CliqR2R25R29R94
Zoho Cliq Zoho Cliq excels when users are invested in the Zoho ecosystem, offering strong integration with other Zoho apps like CRM and Books R2R25R29. It's seen as a seamless part of the Zoho One plan R2.
Zoho Desk Zoho Desk is part of the Zoho ecosystem, and users appreciate its integrations R94. However, some note inconsistencies in menus across Zoho One apps .
Notifications tieR55R41R36R50
Zoho Cliq Zoho Cliq has significant issues with notifications. Users report notifications not showing up R55, being broken on specific iOS versions R41, or disappearing entirely R36. There are also complaints about 'abusive notifications' that don't respect settings, such as sending push notifications despite desktop activity R50. The option to halt notifications for a duration was removed, causing inconvenience .
Zoho Desk Zoho Desk has widespread and persistent problems with notifications. Users consistently report that push notifications stop working R62R75R89, are rarely delivered in real-time R62, or don't show up at all . There's no ability to schedule notifications or specify who is notified of unassigned tickets R66, and users desire options for louder notification sounds .
Platform Support (iOS, iPad, CarPlay) tieR12R53R9R47
Zoho Cliq Zoho Cliq has specific issues across platforms. Users report problems with iPad support, including crashes when viewing pictures R12R53 and a general lack of iPad optimization R9. However, some recent reviews note improved iPad support R47. CarPlay support was added and appreciated , but also caused freezing issues . The app frequently disappears from iPhones R36.
Zoho Desk Zoho Desk has platform-specific issues, with one user noting a significant difference in features and UI compared to the Android version . Crashes are reported on older iOS versions like iPhone 6 . The app also has problems logging into instances hosted in China .
Customer Support tieR44R40R66R78
Zoho Cliq One user expressed frustration with Zoho's customer service, stating that technical department assurances about bug fixes were not met, and that support showed a lack of attention R44. Another user mentioned that feedback on bugs was ignored R40.
Zoho Desk Zoho Desk's support is described as responsive but 'extremely unhelpful' R66. Users report long delays in getting assistance R78 and unhelpful responses R78. Some mention that phone support is non-existent or horrible .
Pick Zoho Cliq if

you are heavily invested in the Zoho ecosystem and need a communication tool that integrates seamlessly with other Zoho apps R2R25. You prioritize a feature-rich communication platform that can replace internal email and offers smooth call handoff R43R15. You are willing to tolerate frequent app crashes and performance issues for the benefits of ecosystem integration and cost-effectiveness compared to alternatives like Slack or Teams .

Pick Zoho Desk if

you need a basic help desk ticketing system and are already using Zoho products, but be prepared for a less functional and reliable mobile experience compared to the web version R65R75. You are looking for a help desk solution that is more affordable than competitors and offers features like a chat function and knowledge base, even if the mobile app doesn't fully support them .

Evidence note: Both apps have a significant number of recent negative reviews, particularly regarding app crashes and notification failures, which contrasts with their higher lifetime ratings. The evidence for Zoho Cliq's performance issues is overwhelming and consistent across many reviews. Zoho Desk's issues are also widespread, focusing on missing features and unreliable notifications. The free-vs-paid asymmetry is less pronounced as both offer free tiers and IAP, but the core issues reported are fundamental to functionality rather than free-tier friction.

Frequently asked

Does Zoho Cliq integrate with other Zoho apps?
Yes, Zoho Cliq is highly praised for its strong integration within the Zoho ecosystem, working seamlessly with apps like Zoho CRM and Zoho Books, especially for users on the Zoho One plan R2R25.
Are there common issues with Zoho Cliq's mobile app?
Yes, Zoho Cliq's mobile app frequently experiences severe performance issues, including being slow, crashing upon opening, freezing, and having difficulty keeping up with typing, particularly on low bandwidth connections or after updates R1R3R18R22.
Is Zoho Desk's mobile app as functional as its web version?
No, Zoho Desk's mobile app is significantly less functional than its web version, missing key features such as contracts, support plans, agent collisions, products, accounts/contacts, and system settings R60R65.
Do Zoho Desk and Zoho Cliq have reliable notifications?
No, both Zoho Desk and Zoho Cliq have widespread and persistent issues with notifications, with users reporting that push notifications frequently stop working, are rarely delivered in real-time, or don't show up at all (R62, R75, R89, R95 for Desk; , R41, R50, R55 for Cliq).

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 116 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R15] Zoho Cliq 5/5 · US Much Better than Slack: Does the job and more. Call handoff is smooth. Permissions are simple and granular.
  2. [R43] Zoho Cliq 5/5 · GB Brilliant Work Communication Tool: We’ve been using Cliq for nearly 2 years now, we replaced a lot of internal email communication using it. The screenshots and annotation are brilliant for deploying new software and systems or explaining something to someone remotely. The video calls work well on PC. The phone calls didn’t always work that well but I haven’t tested those in a while. Overall I hig
  3. [R45] Zoho Cliq 5/5 · GB Awesome instant communication tool: Everything from a call to a meeting or a quick “are your free?” message to a colleague from right within your browser. Cliq is a fabulous tool and one of those apps I just can’t live without these days. I generally have it open in my browser, separately as desktop app, and on my mobile phone. It instantly syncs across all open instances on my devices. Within
  4. [R30] Zoho Cliq 1/5 · US Unhelpfully simple: The app is too simple so you cannot do even basic tasks like: - format text - find a recent thread - mention a team
  5. [R8] Zoho Cliq 5/5 · US Great Tool: This app really helps employer and employees be able to communicate with each other efficiently and effectively, this really is a wonderful app .
  6. [R19] Zoho Cliq 5/5 · US Effective: Really good app used ti communicate with all your co workers very very effectively.
  7. [R40] Zoho Cliq 1/5 · US Worst application ever. Frustrating!!!!: I’ve used it for weeks. Previously I’ve used slack. Cliq is too much buggy and UI/UX is a total mess. You can easily get lost in menus, threds are showing really bad. Even you may be mentioned some where and it won’t notify you some times! We’ve sent feedback to the team and they ignored and didn’t fix bugs. I hate this weak and frustrating app. Actually it
  8. [R14] Zoho Cliq 2/5 · US Confusing: Loads oldest at top versus my experience with other apps. Cannot determine how to delete. I do not like Cliq.
  9. [R1] Zoho Cliq 2/5 · US Functionalities - Good, Security Implementation - Bad, Performance - SLOOW: Most functionalities are good and at par with comparable products. Security implementation, especially MFA is clunky and does not work well when on low bandwidth connection - eg airplane WiFi. Performance - Cliq on Mac shows blank screen on loading when on low bandwidth connection. Generally poor performance.
  10. [R3] Zoho Cliq 3/5 · US Please fix the bugs!: I use all zoho applications for my job and I love being able to use the apps on my phone as well, especially zoho Cliq. However recently I’m noticing it really needs to be fixed. The program slows my phone down entirely when it’s open, it also randomly crashes, and often has trouble keeping up with my pace of typing. Sometimes i press the backspace button and nothing happens.
  11. [R18] Zoho Cliq 1/5 · US App crashes immediately after update: I have been using Cliq for a while on my iPhone 6s (iOS 15.8.3), but after the latest update, the app crashes as soon as I try to open it. I tested it on another device, and the same issue occurred. Please look into this and provide a fix as soon as possible. I rely on this app for work, and it's currently unusable. Thank you!
  12. [R22] Zoho Cliq 1/5 · US App crash upon opening: Doesn’t work on iPhone 15 pro max, crashes upon opening. Can you fix it?
  13. [R2] Zoho Cliq 5/5 · US The best communication app, especially if you are invested in the Zoho ecosystem.: After being on the Zoho One plan and invested in the entire Zoho ecosystem for almost eight years, we decided at the end of last year to switch to Slack and other applications. Slack is great, but what you lose is the integration, in particular, let's say, with Zoho Click across all the apps that you work with. For
  14. [R25] Zoho Cliq 5/5 · US Works very well with the rest of Zoho suite: Very fast to send/receive compared to other big tech. Works seamlessly across platforms and feature rich.
  15. [R29] Zoho Cliq 5/5 · US Amazing app: The whole workplace suite is amazing and helps my firm to be agile and efficient. I’m a big fan. Keep improving Zoho. You guys rock it!
  16. [R94] Zoho Desk 5/5 · US Best helpdesk I have used: After my 20+ years of using different service desk software, I have finally found one that I can fully use and endorse. The interface is very nice on web and mobile apps. The integrations are amazing. Way to many good things to list.
  17. [R55] Zoho Cliq 1/5 · US Bugs: Notifications do not show up on iPhone 11 pro.
  18. [R41] Zoho Cliq 5/5 · US Notifications broken on iPhone 12 Pro iOS 14.2: Please fix! It’s been 3 weeks since your last app update. I really on notifications! Very important. I’ll update my star rating once this is fixed. Thanks!
  19. [R36] Zoho Cliq 1/5 · US App disappeared!!!: Cliq app just randomly disappeared from my iPhone today. It shows it’s installed, and notifications are on, but it’s nowhere to be found. Please fix!!!
  20. [R50] Zoho Cliq 1/5 · US Abusive Notifications: The developers never concede to any feedback regarding their inability to abide by their own notification settings and it is frankly quiet annoying. I have had issues with Cliq's notification settings and they are never willing to do anything about it. Example, I have it set to only send me a push notification on my phone only if there has been 10 minutes of inactivity on th
  21. [R12] Zoho Cliq 1/5 · US Crashes when viewing pictures: No matter what device, especially iPads or tablets, while viewing multiple pictures on the app will crash and go to home page.
  22. [R53] Zoho Cliq 1/5 · US App crashes frequently: I can't run the app from iPad with iOS 10.3, it crashes when I try to enter to configuration, notification or any submenu...
  23. [R9] Zoho Cliq 3/5 · GB iPad Support: Please add iPad support
  24. [R47] Zoho Cliq 5/5 · GB Now on IPad: Very happy to see Zoho Cliq on iPad. I find it such a great communications platform to keep in content with customers and colleagues, with the bonus it that works with many of the other Zoho tools.
  25. [R44] Zoho Cliq 1/5 · US iOS cliq app issues: Last time I gave 4, but this time 1 is enough. It seems no care about customers. Although we go through Zoho assist with Technical department & they assured me that next update will fix all addressed bugs, but new update came & no change. Congratulations; That’s the Zoho customer service without any attention!!
  26. [R66] Zoho Desk 2/5 · US Well made but lacks key features: Overall great experience but lacks key notification adjustments. For instance, there is no ability to schedule when the app should notify of new tickets and there is no ability to specify who is notified of unassigned tickets. Support is responsive but extremely unhelpful.
  27. [R78] Zoho Desk 1/5 · US Customer Service is Bad: Honestly the ticket program is good but being in IT and changing phones or going through different computers getting back into your account is near impossible. You can’t get in without being signed in your account. When I ask for assistance to get a code or access you don’t hear back for several days if not over a week and with silly responses like “You have back up code
  28. [R60] Zoho Desk 1/5 · US Good but needs same as web: Missing a lot of key features from the web app. This includes contracts, support plans, agent collisions. These need added
  29. [R65] Zoho Desk 3/5 · US Half-baked, usually not worth your time: The Zoho Desk app is about 50% or less of the desktop/web version. That is nearly crippling for any work outside of the most basic interactions with tickets. No Products, no Accounts/Contacts, no real settings for the system itself (only the app). It is frequently out of sync with the web version in terms of what Accounts/Contacts or ticket settings/views a
  30. [R62] Zoho Desk 3/5 · US Unreliable: The iPhone app, just like the desktop version, is glitchy and unreliable. The cache refresh always has issues making recent records unavailable in searches sometimes for hours. Notifications are rarely delivered in real time, and push notifications sometimes just stop without the settings being turned off on the phone. When making changes to the properties of a ticket and saving, almos
  31. [R75] Zoho Desk 2/5 · US Good to use when on the road, but notifications stopped working: This is a great app to use when I am not working in my usual office setup, but notifications stopped going through months ago. I was able to get notifications when a customer responded or a new ticket came in, but not they just don’t show up at all. Very frustrating.
  32. [R89] Zoho Desk 1/5 · US Extremely disappointed: There's something wrong with the notifications system, one day I just stopped receiving notifications and only some would come through instead of all of them, usually when the tickets are already late. I checked and all notifications are turned on on my iphone, I went to the app settings and saw that one of the only 2 options were turned off... I only enter this app to answ
  33. [R95] Zoho Desk 2/5 · US Push notifications have stopped working: For the past week or two, the push notifications for the app are not working. I’ve tried toggling them off and back on, reinstalling the app, restarting my phone, re-syncing the app and checking the notify settings on the web client but nothing has worked. It’s extremely inconvenient to not be receiving push notifications when tickets are submitted, to the

Synthesized from 116 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store