How Zoho Catalyst’s Serverless Functions Helped Me Simplify My Backend Work
- January 2, 2025
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- 11:00 AM
I’ll be honest when I first heard about Zoho Catalyst, I didn’t pay much attention.
I’ve worked with cloud services like AWS Lambda, Firebase Functions, and even self-hosted Node.js APIs, and I assumed this was just another “platform” trying to do too much.
But then I had a project that involved integrating with a bunch of Zoho apps Books, Desk, Creator and I figured I should at least look into what Catalyst had to offer.
What I found was a serverless function system that, while not flashy, actually fit my workflow better than I expected.
This post isn’t a tutorial. It’s more of a practical note from one developer to another about what Zoho Catalyst Serverless is really like to use.
Why I Tried Catalyst in the First Place
The project was a visitor management system. I needed to:
- Handle slot bookings,
- Store visitor data,
- Generate QR codes,
- Send emails,
- And make sure it all connected to other internal tools.
I didn’t want to spin up a full backend on my VPS or get bogged down in AWS IAM roles. Since this was already inside a Zoho environment, using Catalyst felt like a logical experiment. The goal was simple: avoid unnecessary setup and focus on writing logic.
First Impressions: Simple, Quietly Useful
Setting up serverless functions in Catalyst is straightforward. You pick your language (Node.js, Java, or Python), write your function, and deploy it using the Catalyst CLI. That’s it. You immediately get a live endpoint that you can hit like any normal API.
What surprised me was how smoothly Catalyst services fit together. Need to write to a database? Use Catalyst DataStore. Want to send an email? Use Catalyst Mail. There’s no third-party SDK juggling or extra configuration.
In my case, I wrote a Node.js function that:
- Accepted booking info,
- Generated a QR code,
- Uploaded it to the file store,
- Created a corresponding entry in DataStore,
- And emailed the visitor with the confirmation and QR attached.
All of that lived in one self-contained function. That kind of clarity in a backend flow is rare.
The Developer Experience — Both Good and Frustrating
What Works Well:
- Deployment is fast. The CLI does its job without too much ceremony.
- FileStore, Mail, and DataStore integrations are clean. You’re not bouncing between APIs or keys.
- The project structure is logical. Once you understand their folder layout and environment setup, you won’t need to keep checking the docs.
What Could Be Better:
- Documentation is a bit shallow. Some important concepts are briefly mentioned without examples, so I had to test things out manually to understand how they behave.
- Logging could use more depth. You do get logs, but they’re limited compared to platforms like Firebase or CloudWatch. When debugging tricky errors, I often had to fall back on console logs and guesswork.
- Cold starts exist. It’s not frequent, but you will notice a delay if a function hasn’t been used for a while.
Still, for internal tools or Zoho-connected apps, the tradeoffs were acceptable. It’s not trying to be everything and that’s okay.
Catalyst Is Not for Everyone But It Was Right for My Project
Let’s be clear: if you’re not working with Zoho tools, there’s probably no reason to use Catalyst. It doesn’t have a massive community, and it’s not designed for generic web apps or public APIs. But if your project touches Zoho CRM, Books, Desk, or other Zoho apps, Catalyst is extremely helpful. You get access to user authentication, file storage, and database services all tied into one dashboard, with shared permissions and identity control. And because it’s serverless, you don’t have to think about provisioning servers, managing ports, or setting up environments. I just wrote what I needed and shipped it.One Example: Generating QR Codes Without Extra Services
Let me share a concrete use case. I needed to generate QR codes for visitor entries. Normally, this would mean:- Installing a Node.js QR library,
- Generating the image,
- Uploading it to an object store like S3 or Firebase Storage,
- Saving the link in a database,
- And sending it via email using something like SendGrid.
- QR code generated with a simple Node.js package,
- Stored in Catalyst FileStore,
- Linked to an entry in Catalyst DataStore,
- Emailed using Catalyst Mail.
