In 2020, the top 10 Education software vendors accounted for nearly 39.2% of the global Education applications market (K12 and Higher Education) which grew 8% to approach nearly $9.9 billion in education license, maintenance and subscription revenues.
Last year Microsoft was the market leader with an 5.9% market share in education license, maintenance and subscription revenues, followed by Oracle, SAP, Blackboard, part of Anthology, and Ellucian in that order.
We ask the simple question: Who’s buying Education applications from whom and why? And we provide the answers – supported by decades of research – to our clients around the world. (Sample from our Apps Database)
Through our forecast period, the Education applications market size is expected to reach $11.6 billion by 2025, compared with $10.6 billion in 2020 at a compound annual growth rate of 1.7%.
| Exhibit 2: Worldwide Education Software Market 2020-2025 Forecast, $M | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | 2020 | 2025 | 2020-2025 CAGR, % |
| Total | 10673 | 11610 | 1.7% |
Source: Apps Run The World, December 2021
Top 10 Education Software vendors
Education (K-12 schools, colleges and universities, technical and vocational, distance learning) – Student Information System, Learning Management, Fund Accounting System, Higher Education Administration, Financials, HR, Procurement
Large-scale projects to implement new student information systems continue unabated as the global education market embraces the convergence of mobile learning, international testing standards as well as online instructions.
Here are the rankings of the top 10 Education software vendors in 2020 and their market shares.
| Rank | Vendor | 2019 Education Apps Revenues, $M | 2020 Education Apps Revenues, $M | YoY Growth | 2020 Education Market Share, % | Recent Developments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Microsoft | Subscribe | Subscribe | 5.9% | Subscribe | Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Teams, and other software vendors for virtual education, gained much interest as many meetings have moved to a virtual environment. As of 2021, Microsoft Teams has about 250 million monthly users. Try Microsoft Apps. |
| 2 | Oracle | Subscribe | Subscribe | -12.6% | Subscribe | Oracle completed the acquisition of Vocado, which provides a leading student-centric, cloud-based financial aid solution for higher education institutions. With nearly three decades of experience in academia and over 13,000 higher education customers in 128 countries, Oracle has a history of helping institutions around the world. |
| 3 | SAP | Subscribe | Subscribe | 2.5% | Subscribe | SAP University Alliances is a global program enabling more than 3,700 educational institutions in over 113 countries to integrate the latest SAP technologies into teaching. |
| 4 | Blackboard, part of Anthology | Subscribe | Subscribe | 2.7% | Subscribe | In 2021, Anthology, a provider of higher education software solutions that support the entire learner lifecycle, and Blackboard Inc completed their previously announced merger. By bringing Blackboard and Anthology together, the combination will create comprehensive and modern EdTech ecosystem at a global scale for education. Blackboard’s software and services are used by over 37,000 clients worldwide in the following markets: Higher Education, K-12, Career Colleges, Corporations, Associations, Government, and Military |
| 5 | Ellucian | Subscribe | Subscribe | -12.5% | Subscribe | In September 2021, Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners completed the acquisition of Ellucian. They are investing in Ellucian through their respective long-term private equity strategies, which hold investments for longer periods than traditional private equity. |
| 6 | PowerSchool Group LLC | Subscribe | Subscribe | 20.3% | Subscribe | In November 2021, PowerSchool acquired Kickboard. Kickboard is a provider of K-12 education behaviour management solutions. Adding Kickboard to PowerSchool will enable educators to securely input and analyze student behaviours, interactions, and outcomes by connecting one of K-12’s leading behaviour management solutions. |
| 7 | 2U, INC. | Subscribe | Subscribe | 41.4% | Subscribe | In November 2021, 2U acquired edX, an online learning platform and education marketplace. Together, 2U and edX will now serve more than 230 partners—including 19 of the top 20 ranked universities globally—and offer more than 3,500 online learning opportunities to over 40 million learners, including free courses, executive education, boot camps, and undergraduate and graduate degrees. |
| 8 | Workday | Subscribe | Subscribe | 20.2% | Subscribe | In the 1Q21 Workday announced continued momentum with higher education institutions, including new customers Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, University of Central Florida, University of Louisville, University of Maryland, University of Oklahoma, The Ohio State University, University of Arkansas System, and Washington State University shift to virtual deployments amid the pandemic, helping meet their go-live schedules and maintaining business continuity. |
| 9 | Blackbaud | Subscribe | Subscribe | 2.4% | Subscribe | Blackbaud K-12 is a cloud-based school management solution designed to help educational institutes record and track students’ information, grade and health records. It offers an online attendance tracking system, which enables students and faculty members to track class-specific records and quickly review attendance history. |
| 10 | Follett School Solutions | Subscribe | Subscribe | 5.2% | Subscribe | In September 2021, Follett Corporation sold Follett School Solutions (FSS), the company’s K-12 software and content division, to Francisco Partners. FSS will join Francisco Partners’ growing portfolio of K-12 education-focused businesses and technologies, including Renaissance Learning, Discovery Education, Freckle, myON and Mystery Science. FSS’ library management system has installations in more than 75,000 K-12 schools worldwide. |
| Subtotal | Subscribe | Subscribe | 145.6% | Subscribe | ||
| Other | Subscribe | Subscribe | 225.1% | Subscribe | ||
| Total | 9880 | 10673 | 8.0% | 100% |
Source: Apps Run The World, November 2020
Other Education software providers included in the report are: ACI Worldwide, Inc., Adobe, AMTDirect, Ansys Inc., Appitierre Evolve, ARCHIBUS, Articulate, Autodesk, Automatic Payroll Systems, Inc., Axway, Benefitexpress, Capita Software, Cerner Corporation, Cisco Systems, Civica, Connecting-Expertise NV, Constellation Software Inc., Corel Corporation, Cvent, Dominknow, Dropbox, Dude Solutions Inc., Edgenuity, Edmentum, ESM Solutions Corporation, Espressive, FIS Global, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Huron, IBM, Infinite Campus, Infor, InfoTronics, Inc., Intuit Inc., Ivanti, Jenzabar, Knowbly Learning Systems, Inc., Laserfiche, Lectora, a Trivantis brand, LivePerson Inc., Nuance Communications Inc., Open Text Corporation, Peopleadmin, a Powerschool Company, PowerSchool Group LLC, Roper Technologies, Inc., Sage, Salesforce, SAS Institute, Selerix Systems, Inc, ServiceNow, Shiftboard, Skyward, Smartsheet, Squiz, STANLEY Security Solutions, SumTotal Systems, a Skillsoft Company, TalentCircles, TalentMap, TeamDynamix, TMA Systems, Tyler Technologies, Ultimate Software, UNIT4, viDesktop Inc., Zoom Video Communications, and others.
Custom data cuts related to the Education Applications market are available:
- Top 800+ Education Applications Vendors and Market Forecast 2020-2025
- 2020 Education Applications Market By Functional Market (16 Markets)
- 2020 Education Applications Market By Country (USA + 45 countries)
- 2020 Education Applications Market By Region (Americas, EMEA, APAC)
- 2020 Education Applications Market By Revenue Type (License, Services, Hardware, Support and Maintenance, Cloud)
- 2020 Education Applications Market By Customer Size (revenue, employee count, asset)
- 2020 Education Applications Market By Channel (Direct vs Direct)
- 2020 Education Applications Market By Product
Exhibit 4 shows our projections for the enterprise applications market by vertical segment, based on the buying preferences and the customer propensity to invest in new software within those industries as they continue to upgrade and replace many legacy industry-specific applications that have been identified and tracked in our Buyer Insight Database.
Education Software Purchases Win/Loss Analysis As Part Of Enterprise Applications Buyer Insight Customer Database
On the buyer side, customers are investing in Education systems based on new features and capabilities that are expected to replace their existing legacy systems. In many cases, competitive upgrades and replacements that could have a profound impact on future market-share changes will become more widespread.
Since 2010, our global team of researchers has been studying the patterns of the latest Education software purchases by customers around the world, aggregating massive amounts of data points that form the basis of our forecast assumptions and perhaps the rise and fall of certain vendors and their products on a quarterly basis.
Updated continuously, our database features extensive win/loss analysis. Each year our research team identifies tens of thousands of these Education customer wins and losses from public and proprietary sources.
The research results are being incorporated into regular updates in our Enterprise Applications Buyer Insight Customer Database. You can access the Quarterly Win/Loss Analysis Scoreboard and our Enterprise Applications Buyer Insight Customer Database by becoming a subscriber.
| Customer | Industry | Empl. | Revenue | Country | Vendor | New Product | Function |
| Minnesota State Colleges and Universities | Education | 16000 | $5.50B | United States | Oracle | Oracle Autonomous Data Warehouse | Autonomous Database |
| Marquette University | Education | 1100 | $550.0M | United States | Blackbaud | Blackbaud CRM | Customer Relationship Management |
| University of Stirling | Education | 1872 | $1.00B | United Kingdom | Box | Box | Content Management |
| InterGrupo | Education | 1500 | $200.0M | Columbia | CA Technologies | CA Service Desk Manager | IT Service Management |
| London School of Economics | Education | 1655 | $453.0M | United Kingdom | Cherwell Software | Cherwell ITSM | IT Service Management |
| ExxonMobil | Education | 69600 | $238.00B | United States | Chrome River Technologies | Chrome River Expense Management | ERP |
| University of Minnesota System | Education | 30000 | $3.80B | United States | Chrome River Technologies | Chrome River Expense Management | ERP |
| University of Georgia | Education | 18725 | $1.60B | United States | Cornerstone OnDemand | Cornerstone Learning Suite | Learning Management System |
| University of Tennessee | Education | 9744 | $1.70B | United States | Cornerstone OnDemand | Cornerstone Learning Suite | Learning Management System |
| ExxonMobil | Education | 69600 | $238.00B | United States | Dassault Systemes | 3DEXPERIENCE Platform | Project Portfolio Management |
| University of Tokyo | Education | 8210 | $2.29B | Japan | Dassault Systemes | 3DEXPERIENCE Platform | Project Portfolio Management |
| Arizona State University | Education | 10000 | $2.00B | United States | Dropbox | Dropbox Business | Content Management |
| Davidson College | Education | 800 | $200.0M | United States | Dropbox | Dropbox Business | Content Management |
| University of Sydney | Education | 12000 | $2.00B | Australia | Dropbox | Dropbox Business | Content Management |
| London South Bank University | Education | 1700 | $188.0M | United Kingdom | IBM | IBM Planning Analytics | Enterprise Performance Management |
| The Lenzing Group | Education | 6400 | $2.60B | Austria | JDA Software Group | JDA Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) | SCM |
| RWJUH | Education | 10100 | $1.50B | United States | Kronos | Kronos Workforce Central | Human Capital Management, Workforce Management |
| University of Colorado Boulder | Education | 7800 | $1.60B | United States | Kronos | Kronos Workforce Dimensions | Workforce Management |
| Ithaca College | Education | 1600 | $234.0M | United States | Oracle | Oracle HCM Cloud | Human Capital Management |
| Kentucky State University | Education | 1600 | $53.0M | United States | Oracle | Oracle ERP Cloud | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Lorain County Community College | Education | 1000 | $105.0M | United States | Oracle | Oracle EPM Cloud | Enterprise Performance Management |
| San Bernardino Community College District | Education | 14253 | $12.37B | United States | Oracle | Oracle ERP Cloud | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Vanderbilt University | Education | 9162 | $4.13B | United States | Oracle | Oracle HCM Cloud | Human Capital Management |
| University of Virginia | Education | 15514 | $1.39B | United States | Qlik | QlikView | Business Intelligence |
| Tulane University | Education | 4600 | $1.31B | United States | SciQuest | Sciquest Source-to-Settle Suite | Procurement |
| Stanford University | Education | 11500 | $4.10B | United States | Tidemark | Tidemark EPM | Enterprise Performance Management |
| City of Irving | Education | 2300 | $308.0M | United States | Tyler Technologies | Minus ERP | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Community ISD | Education | 300 | $30.0M | United States | Tyler Technologies | Minus ERP | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Buckinghamshire New University | Education | 932 | $65.0M | United Kingdom | UNIT4 | Unit4 Business World | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Buckinghamshire New University | Education | 932 | $65.0M | United Kingdom | UNIT4 | Unit4 Student Management | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Dublin Business School | Education | 400 | $35.0M | United Kingdom | UNIT4 | Unit4 Student Management | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| IMC Worldwide | Education | 500 | $212.0M | United Kingdom | UNIT4 | Unit4 PSA Suite | Project Services Automation |
| Manchester Metropolitan University | Education | 4500 | $620.0M | United Kingdom | UNIT4 | Unit4 Student Management | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Study Group | Education | 3325 | $380.0M | United Kingdom | UNIT4 | Unit4 Business World | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Swiss Education Group | Education | 706 | $100.0M | Switzerland | UNIT4 | Unit4 Student Management | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| University of London | Education | 11000 | $299.0M | United Kingdom | UNIT4 | Unit4 Business World On! | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| University of Waterloo | Education | 2500 | $800.0M | Canada | UNIT4 | Unit4 Business World | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute | Education | 900 | $80.0M | United Kingdom | UNIT4 | Unit4 Business World | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Point Loma Nazarene University | Education | 1250 | $300.0M | United States | Workday | Workday HCM | Human Capital Management |
| Point Loma Nazarene University | Education | 1250 | $300.0M | United States | Workday | Workday Financial Management | Financial Management |
| The Ohio State University | Education | 30000 | $4.00B | United States | Workday | Workday Financial Management | Financial Management |
| Becker College | Education | 500 | $60.0M | United States | Microsoft | Azure Machine Learning | ML & Data Science Platform |
| University of Georgia | Education | 18725 | $1.60B | United States | Adobe Systems | Adobe Experience Manager | Web Content Management |
| San Bernardino Community College District | Education | 14253 | $12.37B | United States | ADP | ADP Vantage HCM | Human Capital Management |
| The Australian National University | Education | 4638 | $1.40B | Australia | Avaya | Avaya Aura | Customer Service and Support |
| The Vista School | Education | 110 | $10.0M | United States | Blackbaud | Blackbaud Financial Edge NXT | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Campbell University | Education | 200 | $50.0M | United States | Citrix | Citrix Podio | Project Management Software |
| The University of Auckland | Education | 5000 | $800.0M | New Zealand | Cornerstone OnDemand | Cornerstone HR Suite | Human Resource Management |
| Ithaca College | Education | 1600 | $234.0M | United States | Ellucian | Ellucian CRM Advance | Customer Relationship Management |
| Stanford University | Education | 11500 | $4.10B | United States | FICO | FICO Falcon Assurance Navigator | Fraud and Compliance Solutions |
| EF Education First | Education | 40500 | $7.00B | United States | Five9 | Five9 Cloud | Customer Service and Support |
| Greenwood Hall | Education | 100 | $20.0M | United States | Five9 | Five9 Cloud | Customer Service and Support |
| Princeton University | Education | 1030 | $270.0M | United States | Genesys | Genesys Customer Experience Platform | Customer Experience Platform |
| Saxion University of Applied Sciences | Education | 2200 | $800.0M | Netherlands | IBM | IBM Digital Experience Manager | Digital Experience Management Systems |
| Saxion University of Applied Sciences | Education | 2200 | $800.0M | Netherlands | IBM | IBM Web Content Manager | Web Content Management |
| Harvard University | Education | 15241 | $4.40B | United States | Interactive Intelligence | PureCloud | Customer Engagement Platform |
| Formula Hybrid | Education | 50 | $10.0M | United States | Intralinks Holdings | Intralinks VIA Pro Edition | Collaboration |
| Ector County ISD | Education | 1200 | $200.0M | United States | Kronos | Kronos Workforce Central | Human Capital Management, Workforce Management |
| College of DuPage | Education | 2000 | $500.0M | United States | Lexmark | Lexmark Perceptive Content | Content Management |
| Royal College of Music | Education | 380 | $50.0M | United Kingdom | MHR (formerly MidlandHR) | Strategic HR | Human Capital Management |
| Royal College of Music | Education | 380 | $50.0M | United Kingdom | MHR (formerly MidlandHR) | iTrent | Payroll |
| Asbury University | Education | 450 | $35.0M | United States | Microsoft | Microsoft Dynamics GP | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Hood College | Education | 400 | $40.0M | United States | Microsoft | Microsoft Dynamics GP | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| IMC Worldwide | Education | 500 | $212.0M | United Kingdom | Microsoft | Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM | Customer Relationship Management |
| Paul Smith’s College | Education | 200 | $20.0M | United States | Microsoft | Microsoft Dynamics GP | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Sigma Alpha Epsilon | Education | 500 | $50.0M | United States | Microsoft | Microsoft Dynamics GP | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Stratford University | Education | 700 | $100.0M | United States | Microsoft | Microsoft Dynamics GP | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| The Entourage | Education | 100 | $10.0M | Australia | Microsoft | LinkedIn Talent Solutions | Talent Management |
| University of Nebraska-Lincoln | Education | 7500 | $700.0M | United States | Microsoft | Microsoft Dynamics GP | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| University of the Cumberlands | Education | 600 | $30.0M | United States | Microsoft | Microsoft Dynamics GP | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Virginia Tech | Education | 1395 | $1.00B | United States | MicroStrategy | MicroStrategy Analytics | Analytics Platform |
| BSI Group | Education | 3500 | $331.0M | United Kingdom | OpenText | OpenText Content Suite Platform | Content Management |
| Becker Professional Education | Education | 1250 | $350.0M | United States | Oracle | Oracle Service Cloud (ex RightNow) | Customer Experience Platform |
| Faculdade Sumaré | Education | 650 | $135.0M | Brazil | Oracle | Oracle EPM Cloud | Enterprise Performance Management |
| Ithaca College | Education | 1600 | $234.0M | United States | Oracle | Oracle Taleo Cloud Service | Talent Management |
| Ithaca College | Education | 1600 | $234.0M | United States | Oracle | Oracle E-Business Suite | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Kentucky State University | Education | 1600 | $53.0M | United States | Oracle | Oracle HCM Cloud | Human Capital Management |
| Rutgers University | Education | 9694 | $3.60B | United States | Oracle | Oracle ERP Cloud | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Rutgers University | Education | 9694 | $3.60B | United States | Oracle | Oracle HCM Cloud | Human Capital Management |
| University of Virginia | Education | 15514 | $1.39B | United States | Qlik | Qlik Sense | Data Visualization Software |
| Academy of Art University | Education | 3000 | $1.00B | United States | Salesforce | Service Cloud | Customer Service and Support |
| Ashworth College | Education | 300 | $35.0M | United States | Salesforce | Service Cloud | Customer Service and Support |
| California College of the Arts Pre-College Program | Education | 1500 | $300.0M | United States | Salesforce | Salesforce CRM | Customer Relationship Management |
| DeVry Education Group | Education | 10136 | $1.85B | United States | Salesforce | Service Cloud | Customer Service and Support |
| Rasmussen College | Education | 4000 | $1.00B | United States | Salesforce | Service Cloud | Customer Service and Support |
| Study Group | Education | 3325 | $380.0M | United Kingdom | Salesforce | Salesforce CRM | Customer Relationship Management |
| Manchester Metropolitan University | Education | 4500 | $620.0M | United Kingdom | SAP | SAP ERP ECC 6.0 | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Manchester Metropolitan University | Education | 4500 | $620.0M | United Kingdom | SAP | SAP HCM (HR) | Human Capital Management |
| NSW Department of Education | Education | 51582 | $13.36B | Australia | SAP | SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central | Human Capital Management |
| University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES) | Education | 3000 | $500.0M | India | SAP | SAP ERP ECC 6.0 | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| Loyola University Maryland | Education | 650 | $230.0M | United States | SciQuest | Sciquest Source-to-Settle Suite | Procurement |
| Wor-Wic Community College | Education | 300 | $75.0M | United States | SciQuest | Sciquest Source-to-Settle Suite | Procurement |
| University of California | Education | 5000 | $2.00B | United States | Skillsoft | SumTotal Talent Expansion Suite | Talent Management |
| Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute | Education | 900 | $80.0M | United Kingdom | Tableau | Tableau Software | Business Intelligence and Analytics |
| DeVry Education Group | Education | 10136 | $1.85B | United States | Ultimate Software | UltiPro | Human Capital Management |
| University of Rhode Island | Education | 1300 | $270.0M | United States | Verint Systems | Verint Engagement Management | Engagement Management |
| California College of the Arts Pre-College Program | Education | 1500 | $300.0M | United States | Workday | Workday Student | Enterprise Resource Planning |
| California College of the Arts Pre-College Program | Education | 1500 | $300.0M | United States | Workday | Workday HCM | Human Capital Management |
| California College of the Arts Pre-College Program | Education | 1500 | $300.0M | United States | Workday | Workday Financial Management | Financial Management |
Source: Apps Run The World, December 2021
Further Readings
An expanded version of this report covers the top 800+ Education Software Vendors, (K12 and Higher Education) offering in-depth analysis of the market dynamics, vendors’ Strengths, Customers, Opportunities, Risks and Ecosystems as well as their ability to gain Shares (SCORES) within their respective space. We also offer win-loss analysis of the quarterly wins of these top vendors and whether incumbents and upstarts pose any real threat to their standing amid shifting market requirements and user preferences.
More Enterprise Applications Research Findings
Based on the latest annual survey of 3,000+ enterprise software vendors, Apps Run The World is releasing a number of dedicated reports, which profile the world’s 500 largest Enterprise Applications Vendors (Apps Top 500) and the world’s 500 largest Cloud Applications Vendors (Cloud Top 500) ranked by their 2015-2020 product revenues.
Their 2020 results are being broken down, sorted and ranked across 16 functional areas (from Analytics to Treasury and Risk Management) and by 21 vertical industries (from Aerospace to Utility), as shown in our Taxonomy. Further breakdowns by subvertical, country, company size, etc. are available as custom data cuts per special request.
Research Methodology
Each year our global team of researchers conduct an annual survey of thousands of enterprise software vendors by contacting them directly on their latest quarterly and annual revenues by country, functional area, and vertical market. We supplement their written responses with our own primary research to determine quarterly and yearly growth rates, In addition to customer wins to ascertain whether these are net new purchases or expansions of existing implementations.
Another dimension of our proactive research process is through continuous improvement of our customer database, which stores more than one million records on the enterprise software landscape of over 100,000 organizations around the world.
The database provides customer insight and contextual information on what types of enterprise software systems and other relevant technologies are they running and their propensity to invest further with their current or new suppliers as part of their overall IT transformation projects to stay competitive, fend off threats from disruptive forces, or comply with internal mandates to improve overall enterprise efficiency.
The result is a combination of supply-side data and demand-generation customer insight that allows our clients to better position themselves in anticipation of the next wave that will reshape the enterprise software marketplace for years to come.
