2023 CRM Contract Favorability Market Report

As the saying goes, you wouldn’t compare apples to oranges, and the same is true when it comes to benchmarking contracts; the gold standard is comparing contracts from service providers across the same category of services.

The reason? Contract risk is highly dependent on the nature of the goods or services being exchanged. With different products come different risk profiles, so there just isn’t as much value comparing the terms of a contract for freight services with one for web hosting services as there is comparing two web-hosting providers' contracts.

Companies compare similar vendors all the time during the procurement process, routinely deciding between vendors in part based on whose terms and conditions are more favorable to the customer. While such analysis is necessary to minimize enterprise risk, it can be very time-consuming. Vendor contracts frequently exceed 20 pages for the principal agreement, not to mention additional policies and documents that often form a binding part of the agreement. As such, dedicating the time and resources necessary to conduct thorough reviews is often a privilege only the wealthiest and most risk-averse companies can afford

📢 Enter TermScout’s Industry Contract Favorability Rankings

With an apples-to-apples comparison of vendor terms and conditions from the same category, companies are armed with detailed statistical information about what is or isn’t “market.” 

About TermScout’s Contract Favorability Awards

TermScout publishes annual awards for top contracts in specific industry categories of software services based on a rigorous analysis of the primary public contracts offered by top vendors in those categories to their customers. 

This edition of rankings covers Customer Relationship Management (CRM) vendors. 

💡 Future editions this year will cover AI, Cloud, HR, ERP, and other key software categories. 

Create your free account to explore all of the categories within the Verified™Contract Database

How The Category Awards Are Determined

Each vendor contract in a specific industry category is analyzed against the same objective criteria to determine how favorable the contract is to the vendor’s customers. All awards are based on TermScout’s highest level of review - Verified™ - which uses a combination of best-in-class AI and contract experts to quality control every data point in the contract. The analysis includes a review of the legal rights and obligations under the contract, covering everything from limits on liability and indemnities to data security and intellectual property provisions. TermScout’s proprietary scoring algorithms assess the data and produce TermScout’s favorability ratings, which determine the rankings of the reviewed contracts. 

Ratings are determined based on the versions of the contracts that were live on the vendor’s websites on a defined date, usually 2-3 weeks before the awards are announced (“Award Date”). For the CRM Awards, the Award Date is March 7, 2023. TermScout has carefully reviewed 28 of the largest CRM category vendors and awarded the top 10 in terms of overall Customer Favorability. Please note that vendors may update their contracts after seeing TermScout’s public reviews, so live rankings in categories may change following the Award Date. 

How to Access the CRM Category Data

Users can see a comprehensive review of all of the data TermScout has on each reviewed contract as of the Award Date with a free account: 

*Visit this page to view the contracts as of March 7, 2023, when the award winners were determined.

Users can view the current versions of the same data on top CRM contracts at the following links:

*Visit this page to view the most recent CRM contracts.

Note that some contracts are easier for TermScout to monitor and keep up to date than others. Refer to the “last updated” date on any public contract and use the “request update” feature to ask TermScout to update any outdated reviews.

Analyzing the Results

Most Customer Favorable 

HubSpot (#1)

Freshworks (#2)

Contracts deemed “Customer Favorable” are at least 60% favorable to the customer, according to TermScout’s proprietary scoring algorithm. 

TermScout found that HubSpot’s contract has a 70% customer favorability rating, is in the top 7% of more than 1,200 IT vendor contracts reviewed and Verified™ by TermScout, and does not have any “gotcha” or deal breaker provisions. 

TermScout found that Freshworks’ contract also has a 70% customer favorability rating, is in the top 12% of all IT vendor contracts reviewed, and does not have any “gotcha” or deal breaker provisions. 

Balanced

Workbooks (#3)

Microsoft (#4) 

Salesforce (#5)

Kustomer (#6)

Salesflare (#7)

Sugar Sell (#8)

Pipeliner (#9) 

Copper CRM (#10)

Contracts with a favorability rating of “Balanced” are no less than 40% favorable to either party, according to TermScout’s proprietary scoring algorithm. Vendors whose contracts received a favorability rating of “Balanced” include Workbooks, Microsoft, and Salesforce.

Most Vendor Favorable

NutShell

MailChimp

Zoho

Active Campaign

Insightly 

Contracts with a favorability rating of “Vendor Favorable” are at least 60% favorable to the vendor, according to TermScout’s proprietary scoring algorithm. This group was found to have among the most “Vendor Favorable” contracts reviewed by TermScout. 

What's Next: Celebrate the Winners & Reduce Contracting Friction

If you have won an award for having a customer-favorable contract, congratulations. You are among the companies that put their customers first, and that’s something to celebrate! Be proud and share your award with your team and customers, validating the hard work you’ve put into creating a fair and balanced contract to help support your customers. If you’re interested in accessing your badge in order to publish it on your website or terms, please reach out to shandiin@termscout.com. 

TermScout is on a mission to reduce the friction that all too often accompanies contracting by providing solutions that cut through the jargon to provide organizations with easy-to-understand reports that highlight key findings, allowing buyers to make informed decisions at a fraction of the cost and time. 

Dig deeper into each of the contracts and see what really sets the winners apart.

Are you one of our top ten companies? Reach out shandiin@termscout.com to gain access to your badges and other assets.