If you’re interested in entering the extremely lucrative SaaS market, it might be a good idea to learn about the biggest and most successful companies in this industry. Here’s our list of the top 10 most successful SaaS companies (not ranked by revenue) and some details about how they got there.
1. Amazon Web Services
AWS is a cloud computing platform that allows users to store, deploy and manage applications on the internet. It was founded in 2006 by Jeff Bezos and other Amazon executives.
AWS started off as a subsidiary of Amazon.com but soon became an independent company, and it’s now known as Amazon Web Services Inc., which is headquartered in Seattle, Washington (USA).
AWS has over 700,000 clients worldwide, including Adobe Systems Incorporated, Netflix Inc., Intuit Inc., Dropbox Inc., Slack Technologies Inc., VMware Inc., Spotify Ltd, Yelp Inc., Expedia Group Holdings Corporation, etc. By Q1 of 2022, Amazon Web Services generated 18,441 million US dollars!
2. Salesforce
Salesforce is a CRM platform with the ability to automate and integrate many business processes. It was founded in 1999 and since then has grown into a $158.11 billion company with more than 73,000 employees worldwide.
Salesforce’s success can be attributed to its unique focus on customer satisfaction; they pride themselves on providing their customers with personalized software that addresses their needs as well as solutions for growth. The company has developed an extensive library of pre-built apps called Sales Cloud Lightning Apps (LCA), which are structured around common sales processes like lead management or forecasting sales pipelines. These apps allow users to track important metrics associated with each step in the sales process so that you can measure your performance against industry averages and identify areas for improvement if necessary.
3. Adobe
Apart from being a software company, Adobe is also a SaaS company, as it provides cloud-based services to its customers. In addition, it’s also marketing, digital media, and business solutions rolled into one enterprise software giant.
The San Jose-based tech giant offers creative products such as Photoshop and Illustrator that have been around for decades, but the company has diversified into new areas like data analytics (Adobe Analytics), e-commerce (Magento), and, more recently, augmented reality (Project Aero).
4. Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure is a suite of cloud-based tools and services that help you build, deploy, and manage applications—whether they’re running on-premises or in the cloud. Azure is a platform of cloud services with a variety of offerings in:
- High-level languages such as C# and Python
- Databases such as SQL Server
- Analytics tools like Power BI
- Storage options like Blob Storage or Azure Files
- Networking options like Virtual Machines (VMs)
- Security options such as Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) for identity management
- DevOps tooling through Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS)
- Collaboration platforms such as SharePoint Online/OneDrive for Business
- Big data analytics tools like HDInsight Hadoop clusters or Stream Analytics real-time processing streams
These are all offered through different plans based on their usage needs (pay per minute).
5. Veeva Systems
Veeva Systems is a cloud-based platform used by pharmaceutical companies around the world. Founded in 2007, it’s based in California and was originally known as Veeva Systems Inc.
Veeva Systems has been a leader in the pharmaceutical industry for over 15 years. They have over 1,000 customers and more than 5,400 employees. Veeva offers a suite of software applications that help companies manage product information, sales and marketing collateral, regulatory compliance, and other aspects of their business.
The company’s headquarters are located in Pleasanton, California, with additional offices throughout Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
6. Workday
Workday is a global leader in human capital management, with more than 55 million users worldwide. Founded in 2005, Workday is the leader in SaaS HR technology and has been listed on the Fortune 500 since 2011. The company provides human resources (HR) software for managing employee data for companies around the world.
7. VMware
VMware was founded in 1998 and has since grown to become one of the most successful SaaS companies in the world. The company is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with subsidiaries all over the world—including France, Germany, India, and China—and has offices in Florida and Texas.
VMware prides itself on being a leader in “cloud computing” technology that allows people to access the software remotely rather than buying it on a disk or installing it directly on their computers. It’s also known as a pioneer of virtualization technology that can help companies increase efficiency while saving money by reducing costs associated with physical hardware assets.
8. Ultimate Software Group
Ultimate Software Group is the largest HR software company in the world. The company was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Weston, Florida. While Ultimate has over 5,000 employees worldwide, its corporate headquarters are based in Weston, Florida, and they have around 1,000 employees who work at this site.
The company has over 6,400 customers (including several Fortune 500 companies) that use its products to manage their employee information as well as their payroll processes. Ultimate Software Group was ranked 94th on Fortune’s list of America’s Largest Private Companies for 2016 with USD 2 billion in annual revenue – a growth rate of 44% since 2012!
9. ServiceNow
ServiceNow is a cloud-based IT service management software company founded in 2004. Since its founding, it has grown to be one of the largest SaaS companies in the world, with over 14,000 companies as its customers, including 97% of the Fortune 500. The company’s headquarters are in Santa Clara, California; they also have offices around the world.
ServiceNow has more than 19,200 employees worldwide and has been listed on Forbes’ “Best Places to Work” list since 2012—an impressive feat considering that fewer than half of these companies make it onto this prestigious ranking even once!
10. Splunk
Splunk was founded in 2003 by Michael Baum, Rob Das, and Erik Swan. The company develops software for searching, monitoring, and analyzing machine-generated data. Their flagship product is Splunk Enterprise, which collects and analyzes the machine-generated data to make informed decisions.
In 2015, they acquired Caspio Inc., an identity assurance service that provides multi-factor authentication solutions for customers such as Netflix and Capital One Bank. In 2016, they acquired Phantom Cybersecurity Inc., a cybersecurity startup focused on real-time threat protection against web application attacks on top of Splunk’s platform.
Conclusion
There you have it: a rundown of the world’s 10 most successful SaaS companies. No matter what your business or industry maybe, these giants of the SaaS space can provide us with a wealth of valuable lessons and inspiration.
In reviewing this list, you should also take note of their particular strengths and weaknesses, as well as their positioning in the market—this will allow you to follow their example (or avoid repeating their mistakes), depending on how relevant each one is for your own company.
As with any area of business, there’s always more to learn from our peers and predecessors. Hopefully, by now, we’ve given you some insight into just how much potential there is out there for success in this space!