Cloud vs On-Premise
What is On-Premise?
On-premise refers to a software and hardware infrastructural setup, deployed and running on the premises of your organization, rather than at a remote facility (such as cloud). You have complete control over your data as well as the infrastructural set up. Data stays in your private network (intranet), nobody other than your organization's users has access to the information. Once the software is purchased and downloaded, it is then installed on your servers. With no third-party involvement, you assume complete ownership and need not rely on internet connection or external factors to access your software.
Key differences between Cloud and On-Premise
- Essentially, the fundamental difference between cloud and on-premise software is where the software resides or where it is hosted. On-premise software is installed locally on your organization’s servers, whereas cloud software is hosted on the vendor’s server and accessed via a web browser.
- When compared to cloud software, on premise is more flexible, reliable, and secure. On the other hand, cloud software eases the pressure of maintaining and updating systems, allowing you to focus your time, effort and money into fulfilling your core business strategies.
- Cloud software requires a reliable internet connection, whereas in on-premise, you need not rely on internet connection or external factors to access your software.
Therefore, choosing between cloud and on-premise depends on your organization's requirements, which eventually influences the selection of a suitable deployment strategy.
Feature availability - Cloud and On-premise
| Module | Feature | Cloud | On-Premise |
| Home | Link to subscription | Yes | Link to License |
| Home | Link to other Zoho Apps | Yes | Not supported |
| App creation | By importing data | Yes | Yes, except Import from cloud |
| App creation | Using gallery app (template) | Yes | Not supported |
| Forms | Integrations form | Yes | Not supported |
| Form create and manage | By importing data | Yes | Yes, except Import from cloud |
| Field types | Address — Address options (geo coordinates and capture location on map) | Yes | Not supported |
| Field types | Lookup | Yes | Yes (Max 3 display fields; Bidirectional lookup for system fields such as Added Time, Added User as well as date, time and date-time fields are not supported) |
| Field types | Integration fields | Yes | Not supported |
| Field types | AI fields | Yes | Not supported |
| Form Properties (submission) | Capture location, Added location and modified location system variables | Yes | Not supported |
| Form Properties (availability) | Enable Geo-fence | Yes | Not supported |
| Form Properties | Email data | Yes | Not supported for both cases — Allow from everyone and Allow only from application users |
| Reports (builder) | Geo-coordinates (Configure Fields -> Address field -> Display options) | Yes | Not supported |
| Reports | Map report | Yes | Not supported |
| Reports | Pivot chart | Yes | Not supported |
| Reports | Pivot table | Yes | Not supported |
| Workflows | Email notifications | Yes | Yes, via your email client; for PDF attachments, max file size is 15 MB |
| Workflows | SMS notifications | Yes | Yes, subject to your network permission |
| Workflows | Mobile push notifications | Yes | Not supported |
| Workflows | Payment | Yes | Not supported |
| API | REST API - v1 | Yes | Not supported |
| API | XML RPC API | Yes | Not supported |
| Workflows, API | External calls (webhooks and integration tasks) | Yes | Yes, subject to your network permission |
| In-built Integrations | PayPal, iCal Feed, Box, Dropbox, GDrive, OneDrive, Zoho Docs, WordPress | Yes | Not supported |
| Mobile app | Rebranded mobile app | Yes | Yes (offline) |
| Application Settings | Customer portal | Yes | Internal and custom(external) domain is supported. For the external domain to work, the software must be installed in a publicly accessible machine. |
| Application Settings | Publish URL format | zohopublic.com | https://<hostname>:<port> |
| Pages | Website Embed/Permalink | Yes | Yes, subject to your network permission |
| Application Settings | Localization | Yes | Google Translate is not supported; can manually translate to Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, and Portuguese |
| Application Settings | Federated Sign-in | Yes | Not supported |
| Account Setup | Email Management - Domain Authentication | Yes | Not supported |
| Account Setup | Usage details | Yes | Yes, except Authenticated domains, AI fields, and Cloud functions |
| Account Setup | Connections | Yes | Only Clickatell is supported |
| Account Setup | Marketplace | Yes | Not supported |
| Deluge tasks | AI tasks | Yes | Not supported |
Note: The following features are cloud-specific and hence, not applicable to On-premise:
- My Developers
- Developer Zone
- Workspace
- Widgets internal hosting
- App filtering based on workspace
Native and other in-app mobile features
| Common features | Cloud | On-Premise | ||
| iOS | Android | iOS | Android | |
| Navigation from map reports | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Push notifications | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Install gallery apps | No | Yes | No | No |
| State restoration | Yes | No | No | No |
| Launching Zia Search from List Reports | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Multi-window support for iPad (iOS 13) | Yes | — | No | — |
| Siri shortcuts (iOS 13) | Yes | — | No | — |
| Spotlight search (iOS 13) | Yes | — | No | — |