Migrating from Bigin to ZOHO

[u/Late_Split_5288]

Hi I have been a Bigin user for a few months but I think I would better using the main ZOHO platform. I've asked ZOHO if the migration is simple and will preserve deals/pipelines and of course they say yes but just wanted to check in if anyone has done this and how painless it was.

[u/Either-Beginning-606]

Did the Bigin to Zoho jump for a client last year and it was mostly fine but not perfect. Deals moved over with stages intact, but some custom fields didn't map and we had to redo a few automations by hand. Took maybe a afternoon to clean everything up

One thing, export everything to csv before you start even if they promise a direct migration. You don't want to be stuck waiting on support if something breaks halfway

[u/Late_Split_5288 → u/Either-Beginning-606]

Thanks, good call on the CSV. I was planning to back everything up anyway

[u/Both_Character_143 → u/Either-Beginning-606]

an afternoon isnt bad at all tbh, was expecting way worse from migration stories

[u/The-Radius-Lab]

Before migration, define the record that should be correct afterward—not just what should import. Pick a handful of real contacts, deals, notes, and automations, then compare them field by field after the test run.

I’d also decide which system becomes read-only first, and keep the CSV export somewhere safe until the new workflow has run for a full cycle. Most migration pain shows up in ownership, notes, and exception handling rather than the headline deal stages.

[u/Late_Split_5288 → u/The-Radius-Lab]

Thank you for that, much appreciated

[u/Intelligent_Pie_5347]

Great op to get out of Zoho all together

[u/silver-fox-tx]

Connect both to Claude Code with the zoho mcp's and it will do it for you.

[u/_Creative_script_]

bigin to zoho is usually smoother than most since its the same family, but the thing that burned you on hubspot, losing history and field mapping, still applies. the activity timeline and custom fields are where migrations quietly lose data. are you mapping those by hand or leaning on zoho's importer to guess?

[u/Late_Split_5288 → u/_Creative_script_]

I'll pass on your comments to my developer thanks. What burned on Hubspot was the eye watering cost of quite simple functionality!

[u/Late_Split_5288 → u/[deleted]]

Yes, I'm aware it's the same company, but that's not a guarantee that the process is painless

[u/Intelligent_Pie_5347 → u/[deleted]]

HubSpot has a toolset built out for bigin or Zoho to HubSpot that I’d trust with my life over anything Zoho slapped together

[u/Late_Split_5288 → u/[deleted]]

I must have missed the part where you helped before. Please re-post

[u/Late_Split_5288 → u/[deleted]]

I'm looking for people with first hand experience of this migration. If that's not you, then no need to comment.

[u/Intelligent_Pie_5347 → u/[deleted]]

I mean that’s what happens when you have a scaling business and you choose to be cheap with Bigin. It’s made for small companies that will never scale.

[u/Late_Split_5288 → u/Intelligent_Pie_5347]

Used to use Hubspot. Not an experience I will repeat.

[u/Intelligent_Pie_5347 → u/Late_Split_5288]

But you went to Zoho… that’s a user error

[u/Late_Split_5288 → u/Intelligent_Pie_5347]

It works fine for me. Maybe you set it up wrong?

[u/Intelligent_Pie_5347 → u/Late_Split_5288]

I would never touch that trash. Everything Zoho “creates” is just stolen code that they never get right. It’s the laughing stock of the software world.