2.1 Applications
In Zoho Creator, an application is the primary container unit within a solution. It holds forms, reports, pages, and workflows. A single Creator account can host multiple applications. The platform supports unlimited applications on Professional and Enterprise plans, while the Standard plan allows one, and the Free plan also one (Pricing Comparison).
Applications can be created:
- From scratch: Manually building forms and logic.
- From templates: Pre-built templates available in the app marketplace.
- Using Zia (AI): Generating the application from a natural language prompt or uploaded document (see Section 23).
- By importing a
.ds(Deluge Script) file: Migrating from another Creator account or on-premises instance.
2.2 Forms
Forms are the primary data-collection and data-storage mechanism in Creator. Each form corresponds to a relational table in the backend database. When a user submits a form, a record is created in that table. Forms auto-generate associated reports (e.g., a list view of all submitted records). Key form capabilities include:
- Form drafts: Allow users to save incomplete entries and return to complete them later.
- Offline mobile access: Forms can capture data even without an internet connection; data syncs when connectivity is restored.
- NFC tag reading: Forms can read NFC (Near Field Communication) tags for asset tracking and similar use cases.
- Integration forms: Special forms that pull schema from an external service (e.g., Zoho CRM, Salesforce) and allow workflow automation against that schema.
- Subforms: A field type that embeds one form within another, supporting one-to-many data relationships (e.g., an order form containing multiple line-item subform entries).
All form components—fields, sections, workflows—are edited in the drag-and-drop form builder within the Application IDE (Forms Knowledge Base).
2.3 Fields
Fields are the atomic data-capture units of a form. Zoho Creator provides an extensive catalog of field types, each mapped to a specific database data type. As of April 2026, the full field type inventory is as follows (Understand Fields):
Basic Fields
| Field Type | Data Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Name | STRING | Composite field for full name (first, last, etc.) |
| STRING | Valid email address ([email protected] format) | |
| Address | STRING | Composite address field with map picker |
| Phone | STRING | Valid international phone number |
| Single line | STRING | Plain text, single line |
| Multi line | STRING | Plain text, multi-line area |
| Rich text | STRING | Rich Text Format (RTF) input |
| Number | BIGINT | Integer value |
| Auto number | BIGINT | Sequential numeric ID auto-assigned per record |
| Decimal | DECIMAL | Decimal value |
| Percent | DECIMAL | Decimal with percentage symbol |
| Currency | DECIMAL | Monetary value with currency symbol |
| Date | TIMESTAMP | Date picker or typed |
| Time | TIME | Time picker or typed |
| Date-time | TIMESTAMP | Combined date-time picker |
| Drop down | STRING | Single-select from predefined choices |
| Radio | STRING | Single-select displayed as radio buttons |
| Multi select | LIST | Multi-select from predefined choices, dropdown |
| Checkbox | LIST | Multi-select displayed as checkboxes |
| Decision box | BOOLEAN | True/false or yes/no |
| URL | STRING | Website or web page URL |
| Image | STRING | Image capture or upload |
| Audio | STRING | Audio recording or upload (up to 30 minutes) |
| Video | STRING | Video recording or upload (up to 5 minutes) |
| Signature | STRING | Draw signature |
| File upload | STRING | Submit arbitrary file |
| Subform | — | One form embedded within another (one-to-many) |
| Lookup | BIGINT | Relates data between forms; single or multi-value |
| Formula | Varies | Computed value based on predefined expression |
| Barcode / QR Code | STRING | Generates scannable QR or barcode from input |
| Section | — | Visual grouping of fields (no data capture) |
| Add notes | STRING | Displays static note text on the form |
| Users | STRING | Single-select dropdown of app users |
Advanced / AI Fields
| Field Type | Data Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Integration | STRING | Single-select from external service data (Zoho CRM, Salesforce, QuickBooks, etc.) |
| Prediction | Varies | AI-based value prediction for a target field |
| Keyword extraction | STRING | Extracts keywords from text in linked field |
| Sentiment analysis | STRING | Determines positive/neutral/negative sentiment |
| OCR | STRING | Optical character recognition on an image field |
| Object detection | STRING | Classifies objects in an image field |
The Integration field deserves particular attention: it enables a live lookup into an external service (Zoho CRM, Zoho Recruit, Salesforce, QuickBooks, Zoho Projects, Zoho BugTracker, Zoho People, ManageEngine SDP OnDemand) and presents matching records in a dropdown. It supports customizable display fields (up to three fields from the external module), real-time data fetch on each field access, and field-level search. As of November 2025, admins can now trigger a manual data sync on integration fields from the Connections slider in live mode, updating existing Creator records with the latest data from the connected service (November 2025 Upcoming Updates).