The Forrester Wave™: Customer Relationship Management Software, Q1 2025

Customer Relationship Management Software Vendor Product Comparisons 2025

Key features and pros and cons of top Customer Relationship Management Software products:

Microsoft - Leaders

Pros:

Compelling vision for unified platform across Marketing, Sales, and Service integrated with other business applications
Strong AI capabilities with Copilot integrated across Dynamics 365, Teams, and Outlook for productivity
CRM workflows lead sellers and agents through predefined processes with excellent collaboration via embedded Microsoft Teams
Copilot provides activity timeline summaries, insights, case summarization, and enables CRM updates in flow of work
Excellent consulting services and exhaustive partner network supporting 24% year-over-year growth

Cons:

Pricing is complex
CPQ capabilities are provided via a partner rather than native functionality
Customers complained about poor customer service and variable account management

Oracle - Leaders

Pros:

Well-articulated vision focused on helping companies win, keep, and find more customers using AI
CRM optimized for generating revenue from existing customers with excellent Account 360 view
AI-enabled enterprise sales execution and CPQ extended via Oracle Sales Planning and Performance Management
Excels at supporting asset-based service with AI coupling customer and asset data for service optimization
Consumer-grade conversational UX that onboards and guides users effectively
Cloud infrastructure innovations support AI features at scale across the portfolio

Cons:

Marketplace and community offerings are smaller than some Leaders in the evaluation
Lacks the depth in low-code tooling compared to other Leaders
Customers complained about the consistency of consulting partners and customer service

Pegasystems - Leaders

Pros:

Bold vision for reshaping the front office to deliver primarily automated engagement supported by fewer employees
Process automation coupled with process mining tools focus front office on work that matters
Robust self-service capabilities enable customers to complete real work with seamless transfers to front office
Pega GenAI Blueprint uses genAI with industry knowledge to create CRM business processes
Workflow automation and AI capabilities accelerate onboarding, ensure compliance, and pivot users to value-added work
Offers customer choice for pricing (seat, consumption, or workflow based) to ease adoption

Cons:

Steep learning curve due to the number of customization options
Strict guardrail compliance may slow down development
Smaller marketplace and community compared to some Leaders

Salesforce - Leaders

Pros:

Aggressive vision to use AI to help businesses better connect with customers across all sizes
Consistently strong enterprise-grade capabilities across prospecting, selling, success, renewals, and customer service
Over 50 AI insights, predictive AI, and genAI features infused throughout the platform
Agentforce AI agents available for CRM functions like customer support, sales prospecting, and sales coaching
Allows LLM choice with recommendations based on CRM use case
Broad community of partners, users, and marketplace supporting over 150,000 customers
14 industry CRM clouds with extensive product suite including Commerce, Marketing, Data clouds, Tableau, Slack, and MuleSoft

Cons:

Complexity of the CRM demands longer onboarding and training for mastery
Customers find pricing complex
Customers struggle to use the breadth of AI features and need more guidance on where to start their journey

Creatio - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strategic focus on enabling well-governed, low-code citizen development and decomposing CRM for simplified adoption
Easy-to-learn, full-featured CRM with AI that guides users and optimizes outcomes
Solid process management engine allowing citizen developers to model, deploy, and optimize workflows and AI models
CRM elements available as composable elements for flexibility
Supports wide range of LLMs with guidance on best models to use
Customer service and account management practices go above and beyond to ensure customer success

Cons:

Service operations features need deepening
Marketplace needs broadening compared to Leaders
Customers want more pointed guidance on how to start their AI journey despite comprehensive learning resources
Primarily regional partner network

ServiceNow - Strong Performers

Pros:

Vision to orchestrate CRM workflows on a single platform from selling to fulfilling, servicing, and renewals
Excellent case management with agent desktop including guidance, case progress, summaries, timelines, and SLAs
Solid CPQ supporting offer recommendations, dynamic pricing, real-time eligibility checks, and proposal generation
Workflows translate quotes into orders and orchestrate order fulfillment and renewals
Pervasive predictive AI with genAI features for knowledge creation, summarization, and conversational self-service
Products and features fit for purpose with controlled and consumable innovation

Cons:

Lead management is basic and opportunity management is rules-based
Lacks AI forecasting and sales planning capabilities
Customers found variability in ServiceNow's account and success management
AI agents available only in limited release

Zoho - Strong Performers

Pros:

Vision to deliver differentiated CX by composing the right combination of data, content, intelligence, actions, and interface
Notable strengths in low-code tooling for customization
CRM functions unified with Zoho's native collaboration product
Solid lead management with AI powering lead scores, cadences, product recommendations, and routing
Product-led growth strategies drive adoption in over 900,000 customers
Recently released Zoho CRM for Everyone allowing non-CRM users to access CRM data for better collaboration
Customers praised product pricing and bundling, integration, and low-code tooling

Cons:

Lacks the AI depth of the Leaders in this evaluation
Guided selling and CPQ are primarily rules-driven with limited predictive analytics
Customer success capabilities lack AI with rules tracking onboarding and health
Customers highlighted implementation partner challenges and variable customer service
Only one reference customer responded to Forrester's outreach

Freshworks - Contenders

Pros:

Easy-to-use CRM extended by an excellent marketplace
Good digital sales outreach and service capabilities supporting modern messaging including OTT platforms
AI supports multi-turn conversation and tasks, helps write emails, and recommends best actions
Good customer success capabilities with AI powering sentiment analysis and health scores
Solid case management with quality scores extracted from customer interactions and coaching recommendations
Customers praised product's breadth of channels and straightforward functions delivering value

Cons:

Sales execution and guidance is rules-based and basic, as is the native CPQ
AI-powered forecasting and deal insights used by only a small fraction of customer base
Innovation primarily focused on customer service rather than across full CRM suite
Customers wanted more customization support and more mature operational practices
Only one reference customer responded to Forrester's outreach

HubSpot - Contenders

Pros:

Straightforward and highly usable CRM extended by robust marketplace
Great job at sales prospecting and outreach with Sales Workspace consolidating all selling tools
Copilot available across CRM generates content, suggests service replies, summarizes records, and helps with function-specific actions
Customers able to get onboarded quickly and easily learn how to use the CRM
Business users can manage many customizations and reporting needs without IT involvement
Unified CRM sharing same data, AI, automations, and channels across marketing, sales, and customer service

Cons:

Customer service capabilities are basic with simple agent desktop and limited service analytics breadth
Enterprise robustness still evolving
Guided actions prioritize simple rules-based actions rather than advanced AI
Lacks depth in customer success and renewal management compared to Leaders

SAP - Contenders

Pros:

Deep integration with back-office solutions like SAP S/4HANA providing robust support for field sales and retail execution
Enterprise-grade sales operations functions for sales planning, CPQ, product catalog, and price management
Excellent renewals management capabilities
Cloud-native architecture with modern UX for Sales Cloud and Service Cloud
GenAI copilot available across CRM for deal and case insights, forecast exploration, action generation, and agent assistance
Customers praised breadth of SAP CX capabilities, ease of integration into SAP S/4HANA, and Microsoft Teams integration

Cons:

Digital sales capabilities and mobile app lack breadth of evaluated Leaders
Customer service capabilities weaker than sales capabilities with fair case/SLA management and self-service
Knowledge management provided via partnership with NICE rather than native
Customers struggled with handling pace of CX innovation and complexity of portfolio
Did not provide reference customers for evaluation

SugarCRM - Contenders

Pros:

Narrowly focused vision to help sales leaders better engage with customers following consistent processes
Solid job supporting relationship-based sales with strong renewals and success capabilities
Straightforward UX minimizes clicks and appeals to low-tech users
180-plus ERP connectors and strong APIs that enrich customer data
Sales-i revenue intelligence add-on extends the power of Sugar Sell
Customers appreciate easy integration and SugarCRM's ability to act on customer feedback

Cons:

Simpler CRM that lacks the broad automations of evaluated Leaders
Customer service capabilities are basic and primarily rules-driven
Routing and escalation management are rules-based
ML model configuration is limited
Customers complained about system performance
Recently repositioned with new leadership and narrower market focus

Zendesk - Contenders

Pros:

Highly usable CRM with AI agents powering multiturn conversational experiences
Excellent digital channel coverage and support for sales sequencing
Case management automations make it attractive for companies with high lead and case volumes
Excellent marketplace for extensibility
GenAI used for content creation, generative search, suggested replies, next step guidance, and case summarization
One of few vendors offering outcome-based pricing
Customers praised broad partner and ISV ecosystem

Cons:

Now focuses only on evolving customer service product, though still actively sells sales product
Sales execution and sales planning are basic
More robust process management needed
Lacks support for success management
Customers wanted more clarity around packaging and simpler contracting
Did not provide reference customers for evaluation

FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2025?

A: Microsoft, Oracle, Pegasystems, Salesforce

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

A: Leaders in the Forrester Wave have the highest combined scores for current offering and strategy. Leaders demonstrate strong performance across evaluation criteria and typically have robust AI capabilities, comprehensive CRM functionality, clear strategic vision, strong partner ecosystems, and proven ability to support enterprise-scale deployments. They show consistent innovation and deliver value across multiple industries and use cases.

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

A: https://www.forrester.com/policies/forrester-wave-methodology/

Report:

Top Vendor Products for Customer Relationship Management Software in 2025

Customer Relationship Management Software Vendor Product Comparisons 2025

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FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2025?

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

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