Comparison · CRM
Meishio vs Bigin by Zoho CRM
Bigin is Zoho's simple CRM for small businesses: free for one user, paid plans from ₹400 per user a month billed yearly (unverified), and a card scanner in its mobile app that reads Japanese. Meishio is not a CRM; it is the shared address book of who your team has met. Choose Bigin to track deals, Meishio to keep the network, or both.
Meishio editorial team
Bigin and Meishio are both made for small teams, and both scan business cards. Bigin organises work as pipelines: deals moving through stages. Meishio organises people: who the team knows, who knows them, and whether they have moved.
Facts about Bigin below come from Zoho's own pages, read from India on 20 Oct 2026, when the pricing page showed rupees.
Who each is for
Meishio is for
- Teams that want everyone in on one shared contact list, free during early access
- Teams that care about who knows whom, and about handovers when people leave
- People who want Google Contacts cleaned up and kept in sync
- Teams that scan cards in stacks
Bigin is for
- Small businesses and MSMEs that want a simple, affordable CRM, in Zoho's words
- One person on the free plan, or a team on Express and up, with shared team pipelines
- Teams on Google Workspace who want their Google contacts in their CRM
Side by side
| What | Meishio | Bigin |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Meishio:Everything is free during early access. After that, a Free plan stays free for one person, with 50 card scans a month.[6] | Bigin:Free for a single user: one pipeline, 500 records, mobile apps and the card scanner.[2] |
| Paid plans | Meishio:Free during early access; nothing is charged. Team is ₹999 per seat a month in India, from 2 seats. Prices in US dollars and yen are not set yet.[6] | Bigin:Express ₹400, Premier ₹720 and Bigin 360 ₹1,080 per user a month billed yearly; ₹550, ₹900 and ₹1,260 billed monthly. GST extra. unverified[2] |
| What it is | Meishio:A shared address book for business contacts: cards, Google Contacts, who knows whom and follow-ups. No deal pipeline. | Bigin:A simple, affordable CRM for small businesses and MSMEs, in Zoho's words.[1] |
| Card scanning | Meishio:Phone photos, up to 12 cards in one photo. AI reads each card and asks you to check only the fields it was unsure about. Nobody keys in your cards.[7] | Bigin:The mobile card scanner fills in a new contact from a card.[3] |
| Japanese cards | Meishio:English, Japanese and bilingual cards. Kanji and English names stay on one contact; titles such as 部長 are read as titles.[7] | Bigin:The card scanner supports 15 languages, including Japanese.[3] |
| Team | Meishio:Early-access team workspaces: each person chooses which work contacts to share, and the team sees who knows whom and who follows up. Notes and personal numbers stay private. | Bigin:Free is single-user. Paid plans add team pipelines: 3 on Express, 5 on Premier, 15 on Bigin 360.[2] |
| Google Contacts | Meishio:Two-way. Contacts come in from Google Contacts; fixes you approve go back, each can be undone, and nothing already in Google is deleted.[7] | Bigin:Bigin for Google Workspace adds your Google contacts to Bigin. The page does not say whether changes go back to Google.[4] |
| Data location | Meishio:Singapore. Storage in Japan is available on request for company plans.[8] | Bigin:Zoho lists data centres in Mumbai and Chennai, and in Singapore and Japan. The page covers Zoho as a whole, not Bigin specifically.[5] |
| In India | Meishio:Prices planned in rupees, yen, dollars and Singapore dollars. Suggests +91, +81 and +65 country codes for numbers saved without one. The iPhone app is in TestFlight; the web works on any phone. | Bigin:Rupee prices on the pricing page, with GST added; apps for iOS, iPadOS, Android and macOS.[2] |
Choose Bigin if
- You need to track deals through a pipeline. Bigin is built for that; Meishio is not.
- You want your data hosted in India. Zoho lists data centres in Mumbai and Chennai (confirm with Zoho where your Bigin account is hosted); Meishio stores data in Singapore.
- You want a free card scanner inside your CRM, including for Japanese cards. Bigin's free plan includes it.
- You want apps that are already on the App Store and Google Play. Meishio's iPhone app is in TestFlight.
Choose Meishio if
- You want the whole team in during early access, free, not one person.
- You care about who knows whom and how well, and about keeping relationships when people leave.
- You want Google Contacts cleaned up, with the fixes you approve written back and every change reversible.
- You scan stacks: up to 12 cards in one photo, English and Japanese.
- You want job-change checks that show the public source for each finding.
Using Meishio and Bigin together
Meishio has no direct connection to Bigin. Two ways to move people across:
Keep the network in Meishio
Scan cards and connect Google Contacts. Share the work contacts the team needs and give each follow-up an owner.
Export a CSV for Bigin
Download a CSV from Meishio (the Zoho CRM layout is a good starting point) and match the columns when you import it into Bigin.
Or meet in Google Contacts
Bigin for Google Workspace adds your Google contacts to Bigin, and Meishio keeps Google Contacts correct with the fixes you approve.
Questions
Is Bigin free?
Bigin's free plan is for a single user, with one pipeline, 500 records and the card scanner. Paid plans start at ₹400 per user a month billed yearly (Express), plus GST (unverified), as Zoho's pricing page showed from India on 20 Oct 2026.
Does Bigin store data in India?
Zoho lists data centres in Mumbai and Chennai, but that page covers Zoho as a whole, and Bigin's pricing page notes that some features may not be available in every data centre. Ask Zoho where your account will be hosted.
Is Meishio a CRM?
No. It has no deals, stages or forecasts. Meishio keeps the people your team meets and who knows them. Direct CRM sync is planned, not available today; export a CSV when you need contacts in a CRM.
About these guides
Meishio editorial team
The Meishio editorial team writes these guides: how to keep a business network in order when cards pile up, teams change and people move on. Every fact about another product is checked on that product's own pages, and the sources are listed on each page.
Sources
Where the facts on this page come from, and when we read them. Products change; check the source before you decide.
- [1]Bigin home page (opens in a new tab), Zoho Corporation ·
- [2]Bigin pricing (viewed from India) (opens in a new tab), Zoho Corporation ·
- [3]Introducing card scanner in the Bigin Android app (opens in a new tab), Zoho Community ·
- [4]Bigin for Google Workspace (opens in a new tab), Zoho Corporation ·
- [5]Know your Zoho data center (opens in a new tab), Zoho Corporation ·
- [6]Meishio pricing, Meishio ·
- [7]Meishio FAQ, Meishio ·
- [8]How Meishio handles your data, Meishio ·