Customer relationship management (CRM) software has exploded in adoption across enterprises seeking to unify sales, marketing and customer service solutions. As businesses double-down on digital transformation and customer-centric strategies amidst an increasingly competitive landscape, CRM has rapidly emerged as mission-critical infrastructure.
Grand View Research estimates the global CRM market size already exceeded $120 billion in 2022, with projections to continue rapid expansion at a 14% CAGR through 2030.
Global CRM Market Size Projections. Source: Grand View Research
Below we will reveal the 10 largest CRM vendors worldwide powering this growth. Explored dimensions for each provider include history, core solutions, major clients, company valuations and key factors fueling their dominance. Analysis also uncovers emerging capabilities and trends to give insight into the CRM landscape‘s future.
What Does CRM Software Do?
Before exploring providers, let‘s ground the CRM software concept itself. CRM platforms create a centralized database consolidating customer data across an organization into one location. This includes contact details, communications history, purchases, campaign exposure, service cases and more.
Armed with holistic customer insights, sales, marketing and service teams can collaborate far more effectively by tapping into the same up-to-date information sources via CRM tools. Streamlining access to data minimizes friction, unifies strategies across departments and ultimately drives revenue growth.
Example CRM Dashboard Tracking Key Customer Metrics. Image Source: Venngage
While CRM software has been around since the 1980s, adoption exploded in the early 2000s when systems became cloud-based and accessible anytime, anywhere. Today CRM platforms are leveraged for use cases like:
✔️ Central customer database
✔️ Marketing campaign automation
✔️ Sales lead tracking
✔️ Forecasting projections
✔️ Service case management
✔️ Call center coordination
✔️ Real-time analytics
Let‘s explore the market leaders driving innovation.
10. Insightly – $38 Million Valuation
Based in: San Francisco, CA
Founded: 2009
Core Solutions: Contact Management, Pipeline Tracking, Project Management
Though smallest on our list, Insightly nonetheless leads among small business CRM tools. Touting over 25,000 global customers, Insightly delivers core sales and project coordination functionality through an intuitive interface.
Easy Gmail integration and strong customer support cement Insightly‘s position catering to startups and lean teams. They comply with top security certifications like SOC2 and ISO27001 critical for cloud-based data.
Recent enhancements include Salesforce data integration along with conversational intelligence features to uncover buyer signals during sales calls. While niche focused, Insightly‘s steadfast championing of small business users ensures longevity securing their top 10 status.
Sample Clients: Small/Medium Businesses Across Diverse Sectors
Funding / Valuation: $38 Million
9. SugarCRM – $100 Million Valuation
Based in: Cupertino, CA
Founded: 2004
Core Solutions: Contact Management, Campaign Automation, Flexible Delivery
SugarCRM touts over 7,500 global customers and half a million users leveraging their flexible platform. Founded in 2004 by John Roberts, Clint Oram and Jacob Taylor, SugarCRM prioritizes affordability and customization catering from SMBs to enterprises.
Unlike proprietary CRMs, SugarCRM utilizes open-source architecture allowing source code modifications. This facilitates tailored enhancements like industry-specific editions fine-tuned for marketing, healthcare, manufacturing use cases.
SugarCRM also won a 2022 CRM Insurance Technology Award for InsurTech deployment enabling personalized customer experiences. Balancing flexibility with enterprise-grade security and scalability, SugarCRM‘s continued growth lands them firmly in the top 10.
Sample Clients: Mazars, Sennheiser, Postnord Logistics, Tetley
Funding / Valuation: ~$100 Million
8. Zoho Corporation – $1 Billion Valuation
Based in: Chennai, India
Founded: 1996
Core Solutions: Sales Automation, Service Software, Marketing Tools
Hailing from India, Zoho Corporation dates back to 1996 founded by Sridhar Vembu and Tony Thomas. They now boast over 55 million users worldview accessing their business software ecosystem spanning CRM, finance, email, docs and more.
Zoho CRM specifically touts 300+ features focused on sales force automation, service capabilities and marketing campaign orchestration. Benefits often highlighted by customers include an intuitive interface, competitive pricing and stellar customer support.
Recent updates feature conversational AI assisting sales teams and new Advisory Board comprised of global business leaders guiding ethical data stewardship. Given quality solutions tailored for SMBs and large businesses alike, Zoho Corporation‘s meteoric rise seems destined to continue.
Sample Clients: Roxtec Group, Eurofins, Nikkiso Cryo
Funding / Valuation: Over $1 Billion
7. monday.com – $2.7 Billion Valuation
Based in: Tel Aviv, Israel
Founded: 2012
Core Solutions: Collaborative Work Management, Project Tracking, CRM
The newcomer disrupting work coordination, monday.com soared to a $2.7 billion valuation just 8 years after launch. Founded by Roy Mann and Eran Zinman in 2012, their SaaS platform began focused on collaborative work management capabilities.
As adoption exploded, monday.com expanded into adjacent categories like CRM and marketing campaign orchestration. Over 152,000 global organizations now use monday.com for project planning aligned with contact management.
Their signature bright UI and customizable dashboard builder make monday.com accessible for any industry. Integrations with top apps like Salesforce, Microsoft Office, Slack, Zoom and more keep companies coordinated across the expansive tools stack modern businesses leverage.
Recent funding rounds also spotlight monday.com‘s future IPO expected to further accelerate expansion.
Sample Clients: Unilever, Adobe, Deloitte, Toyota
Funding / Valuation: $2.7 Billion
6. Zendesk – $10 Billion Valuation
Based in: San Francisco, CA
Founded: 2007
Core Solutions: Customer Service Software, Helpdesk Ticketing, Contact Centers
Zendesk powers leading enterprises managing large customer service operations including omnichannel contact centers. Founded by Mikkel Svane, Morten Primdahl and Alexander Aghassipour in 2007, Zendesk delivered one of the first pure cloud-based help desk solutions.
They now provide tools assisting 160,000 clients with scalable capabilities like knowledge management portals, self-service community forums, call center routing, resource planning, automation and more. Benefits often praised are strong 3rd party app integration, flexible workflow customization and multi-layer analytics.
Demonstrating steady innovation and sizable 24% ARR growth, Zendesk shows no signs of losing ground as customer service demands intensify across sectors.
Sample Clients: Shopify, Mailchimp, Grubhub
Funding / Valuation: $10 Billion Valuation
5. HubSpot – $23 Billion Valuation
Based in: Cambridge, MA
Founded: 2006
Core Solutions: Free CRM, Marketing Hub, Sales Hub, Service Hub, Operations Hub
Hubspot empowers SMBs to Fortune 500s in building inbound sales and marketing functions through their integrated platform. Co-founded by CEO Brian Halligan and CTO Dharmesh Shah in 2006, HubSpot now serves over 135,340 global customers.
Their diverse software ecosystem centers around a free robust CRM bundled with added capabilities via hubs tailored for:
- Marketing Campaigns
- Sales Enablement
- Customer Service
- Operations Optimization
These unified solutions combined with renowned ease-of-use fuel HubSpot‘s ascent to the #1 spot for highest customer retention rate (98%) among competing CRMs. Add solid integration across email, analytics, ecommerce and booming educational resources, it becomes clear why HubSpot earns their place among the elites.
Recent recognition includes topping G2‘s Best Software Awards across multiple CRM categories further cementing their leadership.
Sample Clients: Atlassian, Subway, Doordash, GrubHub
Funding / Valuation: $23 Billion Valuation
4. Oracle – $42 Billion Valuation
Based in: Austin, TX
Founded: 1977
Core Solutions: Oracle CX Cloud Suite: Sales, Marketing, Service, Ecommerce
Global tech giant Oracle makes our top tier through their expansive CX (Customer Experience) Cloud software ecosystem powering enterprises worldwide. Founded in 1977 by CEO Larry Ellison and Bob Miner, Oracle has grown into a sprawling corporation now with 430,000 customers across 175 countries.
The Oracle CX Suite connects sales, marketing, service, commerce and platform tools into an integrated ecosystem to streamline engagement. Winning leadership awards from analyst firms like Gartner, Oracle CX solutions tout embedded AI for enhanced decision making across touchpoints.
Recent recognition also includes Oracle named a worldwide retail CRM market leader by top research firm IDC. Beyond retail, Oracle‘s global infrastructure securely manages mission-critical systems for industry leaders like:
- FedEx
- General Electric
- Hilton
- Verizon
- Whirlpool
Sample Clients: UPS, General Electric, Chevron
Funding / Valuation: $42 Billion
3. SAP – $104.9 Billion Valuation
Based in: Walldorf, Germany
Founded: 1972
Core Solutions: SAP Sales Cloud, SAP Marketing Cloud, SAP Service Cloud, SAP Commerce Cloud
Veteran multinational software leader SAP dates back 50 years since founding in 1972, now ranking among Forbes‘ most valuable brands worldwide. From the beginning, SAP delivered next-generation database technology helping companies transition enterprise systems into the digital age.
Today over 440,000 global customers leverage SAP‘s integrated cloud solutions for automation across CX categories:
- Sales enablement
- Marketing campaign execution
- Scalable customer service
- B2B/B2C commerce
Beyond foundational CRM features, SAP touts ML-enhanced lead scoring, predictive analytics, custom report builders and more empowering data-driven decisions.
Recent milestones include being named a worldwide digital commerce leader while experiencing 26% Cloud revenue growth as businesses migrate into their ecosystem.
Sample Clients: Applied Materials, BNP Paribas, Clorox
Funding / Valuation: $104.9 Billion
2. Salesforce – $227.8 Billion Valuation
Based in: San Francisco, CA
Founded: 1999
Core Solutions: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Commerce Cloud
The most dominant dedicated CRM provider remains SFDC juggernaut Salesforce. Led by charismatic CEO Marc Benioff since founding in 1999, Salesforce pioneered delivering CRM via cloud architecture vs on-premise systems.
This innovation democratized access translating to meteoric growth now boasting over 150,000 companies leveraging their Sales, Service, Marketing and Commerce Clouds. Standout capabilities like AI-enhanced analytics, customizable workflows and AppExchange partner ecosystem with over 7,000 ISV add-ons drive stickiness.
Recent milestones making headlines include surpassing $30 billion in revenue with 25% year-over-year sales growth. Furthermore, through strategic acquisitions like Slack, Tableau and Mulesoft, Salesforce fortified its position delivering a connected platform fostering team collaboration.
Sample Clients: Amazon Web Services, T-Mobile, Toyota, American Express
Funding / Valuation: $227.8 Billion
1. Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM – $1.856 Trillion Valuation
Based in: Redmond, WA
Founded: 1975
Core Solutions: Dynamics 365 For Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, Ecommerce
The largest CRM provider reigns supreme through Microsoft behemoth Dynamics 365, now exceeding $1.8 trillion in market capitalization. Originally launched in 2003, Microsoft Dynamics 365 goes beyond sales force automation to connect digital customer experiences across engagement channels.
Natively embedding into trusted Microsoft solutions like Outlook, Excel and Teams, Dynamics 365 drives widespread integration and familiarity key for user adoption. Further differentiation comes from Microsoft cloud infrastructure scalability and cutting-edge machine learning capabilities unlocking predictive insights.
Microsoft‘s dominance in workplace software also fuels top CRM market share – over 95% of Fortune 500 companies now leverage Dynamics 365 for mission-critical systems. Continuous innovation advances like Playvox acquisition show MSFT primed to defend its top-dog CRM status.
Sample Clients: General Electric, FedEx, HP, GM, Johnson & Johnson
Funding / Valuation: $1.856 Trillion Valuation
CRM Industry Outlook and Emerging Trends
The CRM software market shows no signs of slowing expansion anytime soon. Grand View Research projects robust 14% CAGR industry growth through 2030 as digital transformation intensifies across sectors.
Drivers fueling spending growth include:
⛏️ Migration from manual/legacy systems
⛏️ Rising remote, mobile workforce demanding omnichannel access
⛏️ Pressures optimizing sales productivity and ROI
⛏️ Fragmented data silos motivating unified platforms
⛏️ Need for enhanced customer experiences amidst competition
⛏️ Embedding emerging technology like AI, ML and predictive analytics
To best leverage these trends, businesses should ensure CRMs assessed include key pillars like:
CRM Buying Considerations. Image Source: Venngage
On the horizon, expect to see CRM functionalities increasingly:
💬 Integrate Messaging + Voice Assistance
Text and voice-based assistants like Alexa allow contacting databases via natural language. Salesforce Einstein and Microsoft Dynamics already unveiled voice integration assisting teams.
🤝 Expand Ecosystem Integrations
APIs and embedded apps erode platform silos so systems can freely exchange data. Zoho launched a unified platform where tools natively integrate while Oracle has 9,000+ cloud apps to mix-and-match.
🧠 Offer Predictive Recommendations
Machine learning algorithms will continue maturing to serve up contextually relevant recommendations. From next best actions in sales to suggested service article links for agents to personalized promotions for high-value customers.
📈 Provide Advanced Attribution
Connecting marketing and sales data to calculate ROI across acquisition channels grows more turnkey through unified CRM analytics. Dashboards will also increasingly spotlight trends via business intelligence.
💳 Layer Payment Facilitation
Leading CRMs embed seamless payment processing so customers can transact from any touchpoint like email surveys or support chat. Platforms like Salesforce Billing automate complex subscription, invoicing and revenue workflows.
While competitors will continue making inroads, Microsoft, SAP, Oracle and Salesforce will likely defend their elite status through scale, aggressive R&D and execution expanding into adjacent categories. For any company selling products or services, integrating a modern CRM platform now rates as mandatory to remain competitive managing customer experiences in our digitally-driven era.
