Zoho Sprints
Agile Tracking with Zoho Sprints
How to run agile sprints in Zoho Sprints: backlog and epics, sprint planning, scrum boards, meetings, burndown and velocity charts, and releases.
August 28, 2026
Zoho One | Team Collaboration & Projects
Zoho Sprints: Agile Project Management for Small Teams
Zoho Sprints
Scrum boards, backlogs and sprint reports, at a price that makes sense for a team of five.
At a glance
What it is
Agile project management: backlogs, scrum boards, sprints and reports
Best for
Software, product and agency teams shipping in iterations
Pricing
Free for 3 users; from $1 per user per month billed annually
Zoho One
Included
✓2,000+Zoho projects delivered
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1212 yearsbuilding Zoho systems
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Zoho Sprints is Zoho’s agile project management tool: backlogs, scrum boards, sprint planning, burndown charts and timesheets, built for software and product teams that work in iterations. It is free for up to 3 users, paid plans start at $1 per user per month billed annually, and it is included in Zoho One. Use Sprints for iterative work and Zoho Projects for date-driven projects.
Zoho Projects suits work with a start, an end and a Gantt chart. Plenty of teams do not work that way: software developers, product teams, agencies running continuous improvement and in-house teams shipping something every two weeks. For them Zoho built Sprints, an agile tool with backlogs, scrum boards, sprint planning and the reports agile teams expect, inside the same Zoho One ecosystem as Zoho Projects and Zoho Cliq. This hub explains what Sprints does, what it costs, when to choose it over Projects, and how to run a first sprint. It is part of our Team Collaboration & Projects cluster.
What Zoho Sprints Does
- Backlog: capture user stories, tasks and bugs, estimate them and prioritise.
- Sprint planning: pull items from the backlog into a time-boxed sprint with a planner.
- Scrum board: drag work across custom statuses with swimlanes and WIP limits.
- Epics: group stories under larger goals and track progress across sprints.
- Reports: burndown and burnup charts, velocity, cumulative flow and a status timeline.
- Timesheets and timers: log effort per work item, with approvals and reports.
- Meetings: schedule planning, review and retrospective meetings from inside the tool.
- Client and vendor portals: external stakeholders see what you choose to share.
Sprints or Projects? A Quick Decision
| Your work looks like | Use |
|---|---|
| Fixed scope, dates and dependencies, such as an implementation or a build | Zoho Projects |
| Continuous delivery in iterations, with a backlog that keeps changing | Zoho Sprints |
| Client-facing projects billed by milestone | Zoho Projects |
| A product or software team shipping every one to four weeks | Zoho Sprints |
| Both kinds of work in one company | Both; they share users and integrate with Cliq and Desk |
The two tools are not competitors. Many Zoho One customers run delivery projects in Zoho Projects and the product roadmap in Sprints.
Zoho Sprints Pricing
| Plan | Price (per user, per month, billed annually) | Highlights |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Up to 3 users, 3 projects, core scrum board |
| Starter | $1 | Up to 50 users, 50 projects, epics, timesheets, 5 templates |
| Elite | $3 | Unlimited users and projects, custom workflows, portals, custom roles |
| Premier | ~$5 to $6 | More storage and templates, advanced reporting |
| Enterprise | ~$8 to $9 | Enterprise controls and the highest limits |
Sprints is included in Zoho One, so Zoho One customers can switch it on at no extra cost. Prices vary by region and the upper tiers have moved during 2026, so confirm on the official pricing page before buying.
Setting Up Sprints for a Team That Has Never Done Agile
Most small teams that adopt Sprints are not coming from Jira; they are coming from a spreadsheet, a chat thread or nothing at all. The tool is the easy part. What makes the first month work is three habits: a backlog that only the product owner reorders, a sprint goal written in one sentence before planning starts, and a review where the team shows what shipped rather than what is in progress. Set those up on day one and the reports become useful by sprint three.
Backlog Hygiene
- Write stories as outcomes a user gets, with acceptance criteria in the description.
- Estimate relatively, in points, and resist converting points to hours.
- Groom weekly: split anything bigger than a few days, archive anything nobody has touched in two months.
- Tag by component or client so filters and reports stay meaningful as the backlog grows.
Running Your First Sprint
- Create a project and invite the team with the right roles: product owner, scrum master, members.
- Fill the backlog with user stories written as outcomes, not tasks, and estimate them in points.
- Plan sprint one: two weeks, a modest commitment, a clear sprint goal.
- Set up the board statuses to mirror how work actually moves: To Do, In Progress, In Review, Done.
- Run a short daily standup from the board; keep it to blockers and next steps.
- Close the sprint with a review of what shipped and a retrospective on what to change.
Reports That Keep a Team Honest
| Report | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Burndown | Whether the sprint is on track day by day |
| Velocity | How much the team reliably completes per sprint, for planning |
| Cumulative flow | Where work piles up, such as review bottlenecks |
| Status timeline | How long items sit in each status |
| Timesheet reports | Effort by person, project and work item |
Integrations Worth Switching On
- Zoho Cliq: sprint updates and standup reminders in a team channel.
- Zoho Desk: turn support tickets into backlog items and close the loop with customers.
- GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket: link commits and pull requests to work items.
- Zoho Flow: connect Sprints to anything else, such as creating items from form submissions.
- Zoho Forms: intake requests straight into the backlog.
Timesheets Without the Resentment
Sprints includes timesheets and global timers, which matter for agencies billing retainers and for teams that need effort data for planning. The trick is to make logging frictionless: timers on the work item, weekly approval rather than daily, and reports that the team sees too, so time tracking reads as planning data rather than surveillance. Teams that treat it that way keep logging; teams that use it to police people stop within a month.
Scaling Beyond One Team
When a second and third team arrive, epics become the unit of planning across teams, custom roles separate who can edit the backlog from who can move cards, and project templates keep each new team starting from the same board, statuses and sprint length. The Elite plan unlocks the custom roles and workflows this needs, which is usually the point at which a growing team moves up from Starter.
Common Mistakes With Sprints
- Treating it as a task list: without a backlog and a sprint goal, it is just a board.
- Overcommitting the first sprints, which makes velocity meaningless.
- Skipping retrospectives, which is where the process improves.
- Running waterfall projects in Sprints because the board looks nice; use Projects for those.
- Giving everyone every permission; portals and custom roles exist for a reason.
Sprints vs Jira and Trello
Against Jira, Sprints wins on price and simplicity: a Starter seat costs a fraction of a Jira seat and the setup takes an afternoon rather than a consultant. Jira wins on depth for large engineering organisations with complex permission schemes and marketplace add-ons. Against Trello, Sprints adds real agile structure, epics, velocity and timesheets, that Trello’s boards leave to power-ups. For a Zoho One customer the comparison is simpler still, because Sprints is already paid for.
Who Zoho Sprints Fits
| Team | Why it fits |
|---|---|
| Software and product teams | Scrum, epics, velocity and code-host integrations |
| Agencies with retainers | Continuous backlog per client, portals for visibility |
| Internal ops and marketing teams | Kanban-style boards with WIP limits for recurring work |
| Zoho One customers | Included in the bundle; one login beside Projects, Cliq and Desk |
Sprints Guides
How-toAgile Tracking with Zoho SprintsSet up boards, backlogs and reports for a first team.Read the guide ›Related appZoho Projects GuideWhen a project needs dates, dependencies and a Gantt chart.Read the guide ›Related appZoho Cliq GuideThe team chat that Sprints notifications land in.Read the guide ›
Questions People Ask About Zoho Sprints
Short answers, drawn from the guide above.
What is Zoho Sprints?
Zoho Sprints is Zoho’s agile project management tool, with backlogs, scrum boards, sprint planning, burndown and velocity reports, timesheets and client portals, built for teams that work in iterations.
Is Zoho Sprints free?
Yes, for up to 3 users and 3 projects. Paid plans start at $1 per user per month billed annually, and Sprints is included in Zoho One.
What is the difference between Zoho Sprints and Zoho Projects?
Projects suits date-driven work with dependencies and Gantt charts. Sprints suits iterative work with a changing backlog. Many teams use both.
Does Zoho Sprints integrate with GitHub?
Yes. Sprints links to GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket so commits and pull requests connect to work items, and to Zoho Cliq, Desk, Flow and Forms.
Can clients see our sprints?
Yes, through client portals on the Elite plan and above, which show external stakeholders only what you choose to share.
How long should a sprint be?
Most teams start with two weeks. Shorter sprints suit fast-changing work; longer ones suit teams with heavy review cycles.
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A note on pricing. Prices and plan limits on this page are Zoho's published rates at the time of writing and change over time, vary by region and currency, and can differ inside Zoho One. Always confirm current figures on Zoho's official pricing page or ask us before you buy.
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