Microsoft Lists vs Zoho Tables

Microsoft Lists

• Organizations already paying for Microsoft 365 that need shared trackers
• Teams that want a tracker beside the conversation in a Teams channel
• Tracking issues, assets, events and onboarding from ready-made templates

Zoho Tables

• Small teams that want an inexpensive Airtable-style database
• Organizations on Zoho One, which includes the Professional plan
• People who manage their records mostly from a phone or tablet

Microsoft Lists

• Lists is not sold on its own: it comes with Microsoft 365 business and enterprise plans, which are priced per user.
• The iOS and Android apps were retired in mid-November 2025. On a phone, Lists runs in a mobile browser or inside Teams.
• A list can hold up to 30 million items, but a view that shows more than 5,000 can run into the list view threshold.
• Help pages direct users to a work or school account. Lists for personal Microsoft accounts is offered only as a preview.

Zoho Tables

• The Professional plan starts from 3 licenses, and the Free plan is limited to 2 users.
• Records are capped per base: 5,000 on Free and 50,000 on Professional, with more sold as an add-on.
• AI field types and removing Zoho Tables branding from forms need the Professional plan.
• The pricing page lists apps for Android and iOS only. The App Store listing also shows Mac compatibility; other desktop use is through the browser.

Microsoft Lists

Templates and imports

Ready-made templates such as Issue tracker, Asset manager, Event itinerary and Onboarding checklist. A list can also start from an Excel workbook, a CSV file, an existing list or a blank page.

Grid, calendar and gallery views

The same items can be shown as a list, a calendar or a gallery, and saved views can sort, group and filter them. A single view can display at most 5,000 items.

Conditional formatting

View formatting highlights rows that meet a condition, such as a status set to Blocked, and alternating row styles are built in. An advanced mode accepts JSON.

Rules

A rule pairs a trigger, such as an item being modified or a column value changing, with an action such as emailing someone. Date-approaching rules are limited to two per list.

Lists in Microsoft Teams

A list can be added as a tab in a Teams channel, next to the conversation. Lists are created in the desktop or web version of Teams; on mobile, members can view and edit but not create them.

Power Apps and Power Automate

Forms can be extended with Power Apps and workflows built with Power Automate, using a list as the data source for a custom app.

Zoho Tables

Grid, kanban, gallery, calendar and form

The same records can be shown in a spreadsheet-style grid with formulas, on a drag-and-drop kanban board, as gallery cards or on a calendar. Form views collect entries from other people.

Linked records, lookups and rollups

Records link across tables in both directions. Lookup fields bring in values from a linked table, and rollup fields total or calculate over linked records.

Trigger-and-action automations

Automations start when a record is created, updated or enters a view, or on a schedule, and can send an email or a Zoho Cliq message or create and update records.

Real-time collaboration

Live cursors show who is active, record-level comments support mentions and attachments, and a collaborator field assigns records and notifies the person assigned.

AI base creation and AI fields

The Zia assistant builds a complete base from a description. AI field types such as sentiment analysis, keyword extraction and language detection are part of the Professional plan.

Mobile apps

Apps for iPhone, iPad and Android offer grid, gallery, kanban, calendar and form views, voice notes, OCR text scanning and a guest mode that needs no sign-up.

Microsoft Lists

• Microsoft 365 Business Basic$7.00

  per user / month, paid yearly ($8.40 on a monthly subscription)

  Lists with SharePoint, Teams, web and mobile Office apps, business email and 1 TB of storage per user. The version without Teams is $5.40.

• Microsoft 365 Business Standard$14.00

  per user / month, paid yearly ($16.80 on a monthly subscription)

  Everything in Basic plus desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Loop and Clipchamp. The version without Teams is $10.79.

• Microsoft 365 Business Premium$22.00

  per user / month, paid yearly ($26.40 on a monthly subscription)

  Everything in Standard plus device management, protection against phishing and malware, and sensitive-data controls. $18.79 without Teams.

• Business Standard with Copilot$23.50

  per user / month, paid yearly

  Business Standard with Microsoft 365 Copilot Business built into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. $20.30 without Teams.

• Business Premium with Copilot$32.00

  per user / month, paid yearly

  Business Premium with Microsoft 365 Copilot Business included. The version without Teams is $28.80.

Zoho Tables

• Free$0

  Up to 2 users and 3 viewers: 1 workspace with 5 bases, 5,000 records per base, 5 GB of attachments and 3 active automations per base.

• Professional$4

  per user / month, billed annually ($5 billed monthly); min. 3 licenses

  Unlimited workspaces, bases and viewers, 50,000 records per base, 200 GB of attachments, 25 active automations per base and AI field types.

• Personal Edition$6.00 to $57.00

  in-app purchase; the App Store does not show the billing period

  A plan for single users, bought inside the mobile app through the App Store. It is not listed on the web pricing page.

Microsoft Lists

• Annual discount

  Lower per-user price when paid yearly

  Business Basic is $7.00 per user a month paid yearly against $8.40 on a monthly subscription, Standard $14.00 against $16.80 and Premium $22.00 against $26.40.

• Nonprofit

  Nonprofit grant and staff pricing

  Eligible nonprofits get Microsoft 365 Business Basic as a grant, free for up to 300 users, with Business Standard at $3.50 and Business Premium at $5.50 per user a month, paid yearly.

Zoho Tables

• Annual discount

  Save 20% with yearly billing

  Professional is $4 per user a month billed annually against $5 billed monthly. The pricing toggle labels this as saving 20%.

• Other savings

  Included with Zoho One

  Zoho's pricing FAQ says Zoho One customers get the Professional plan of Zoho Tables at no extra cost by adding it from their app list.