Workday, Inc. vs ZoomInfo: Strategic Comparison

This in-depth comparison examines Workday, Inc. and ZoomInfo across revenue, market value, business model, competitive positioning, and long-term growth strategy. Whether you are researching Workday, Inc. on its own, evaluating ZoomInfo, or weighing the two companies side by side, the breakdown below highlights where each company leads and where the gap between Workday, Inc. and ZoomInfo is widest.

On the headline numbers, annual revenue is $9.6B (FY2026) for Workday, Inc. and $1.2B (FY2025) for ZoomInfo, while their respective market capitalizations stand at $51.0B and $1.1B. Both Workday, Inc. and ZoomInfo are headquartered in United States. Their local markets and applicable rules may still differ.

Workday, Inc.: Workday is a Pleasanton, California, enterprise software company listed on Nasdaq as WDAY. It reported $9.552B in fiscal 2026 revenue and is led by co-founder, CEO, and chair Aneel Bhusri.

ZoomInfo: ZoomInfo started in 2007 as DiscoverOrg. Founders Henry Schuck and Kirk Brown put $25,000 on their credit cards while Schuck was still in law school, and they set out to compile accurate org charts and contact details for sales teams. With backing from TA Associates, The Carlyle Group and Great Hill Partners, DiscoverOrg acquired Zoom Information, Inc. in February 2019 and adopted its name. ZoomInfo went public on Nasdaq on June 4, 2020, the first major tech IPO of the COVID-19 period. A series of acquisitions followed, including Chorus.ai and RingLead in 2021. Revenue passed $1 billion in 2022 but has hovered around $1.2-1.25 billion since. In May 2025 the company changed its ticker from ZI to GTM, and it now pitches itself as an AI go-to-market platform. The company is headquartered in Vancouver, Washington.

Workday, Inc. and ZoomInfo pursue distinct approaches to generating revenue, and understanding how each company operates is the foundation of any fair comparison between Workday, Inc. and ZoomInfo.

Workday, Inc. business model: Most of Workday's revenue comes from multi-year cloud subscriptions. In fiscal 2026, subscription revenue was $8.833B of $9.552B total, about 92%. The rest is professional services: deployment, training, and advisory work, much of which is handled alongside implementation partners. Customers usually start with HCM or Financial Management and later add planning, payroll, recruiting, learning, and AI agent products. Because Workday holds employee, payroll, and accounting records, replacing it is slow and risky for a large customer, which keeps renewal rates high.

ZoomInfo business model: ZoomInfo sells subscriptions, mostly annual or multi-year contracts priced by seats, data credits and product modules. Customers use the platform to find companies and contacts, enrich CRM records, track buyer intent and record sales calls (Chorus). Management splits the base into upmarket customers and down-market small businesses. As of June 30, 2026, 76% of annual contract value (ACV) came from upmarket customers and 1,891 customers paid $100,000 or more in ACV. Net revenue retention was 89% in Q2 2026. The data-as-a-service business, which delivers ZoomInfo data straight into customers' warehouses and systems, grew more than 20% in 2025 and made up nearly a fifth of ACV.

The durability of a company's moat often decides long-term winners. Here is how the competitive advantages of Workday, Inc. stack up against those of ZoomInfo.

Workday, Inc. competitive advantage: Workday's main advantage is a single data model shared across HR, payroll, finance, and planning, which it has run as a multi-tenant cloud service from the start. That gives AI agents clean access to employee and financial records, and Workday argues its agents are safer because they act through the same business-process rules and permissions as human users. Large-enterprise references, a broad partner ecosystem, and high switching costs reinforce that position.

ZoomInfo competitive advantage: ZoomInfo's main assets are its large, continuously updated B2B data set, its integrations with CRM and marketing systems, and a base of large enterprise customers that make up most of its contract value.

Future prospects matter as much as current results. The growth strategies below explain how Workday, Inc. and ZoomInfo each plan to expand from here.

Workday, Inc. growth strategy: Workday is pushing AI agents built on its HR and finance data, adding integration and learning capabilities through acquisitions (Paradox, Sana, Pipedream), selling Financial Management into its HCM base, and expanding industry-specific offerings. It is pairing that with cost cuts and large share buybacks.

ZoomInfo growth strategy: Management is focused on enterprise accounts, data-as-a-service delivery, Copilot and GTM.AI. It is also returning cash to shareholders through buybacks and has been repurchasing senior notes at a discount.

A closer look at the financial trajectory of Workday, Inc. and ZoomInfo rounds out the comparison.

Workday, Inc.: Workday reported fiscal 2026 revenue of $9.552B, up 13.1%, with subscription revenue of $8.833B, up 14.5%. GAAP operating income was $721M after $303M of restructuring costs, and GAAP net income was $693M, or $2.59 per diluted share. In Q2 fiscal 2027 (quarter ended July 31, 2026), revenue rose 12.8% to $2.649B and subscription revenue rose 13.9% to $2.471B. GAAP operating margin was 11.8% and non-GAAP operating margin was 31.1%. Diluted EPS of $2.57 included a one-time $1.52 per share tax benefit from an internal IP transfer. The company bought back about $1.3B of stock in the quarter and the board added a $4.0B repurchase authorization. Workday, Inc. is an absolute colossal American cloud-based software vendor that entirely dominates enterprise human capital and financial management, commanding a massive market valuation generally exceeding $65 billion.

ZoomInfo: Revenue climbed from $144.3 million in 2018 to $1,098.0 million in 2022, then levelled off: $1,239.5 million in 2023, $1,214.3 million in 2024 and $1,249.5 million in 2025. FY2025 net income was $124.2 million, with GAAP operating income of $225.7 million, adjusted operating income of $445.9 million (36% margin) and unlevered free cash flow of $454.9 million. ZoomInfo bought back more than $400 million of stock in 2025 and authorized another $1 billion. In Q2 2026, revenue was $310.4 million (up 1.2%), and a $650.5 million goodwill impairment produced a GAAP operating loss of $622.0 million. Adjusted operating income was $110.0 million.