CRM vs KVYO: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Same yardstick, side by side (as of August 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Reading it: CRM is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. CRM and KVYO share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined CRM and KVYO exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

Salesforce is the leading provider of cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) software, helping companies manage sales, customer service, marketing, e-commerce, and analytics. Its core products include Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, and Commerce Cloud, plus a broad platform for building custom applications. Through major acquisitions it also owns Slack (workplace collaboration), Tableau (data visualization and analytics), and MuleSoft (data integration), and it has pushed aggressively into artificial intelligence with its Einstein features and, more recently, Agentforce, a platform for deploying AI agents that automate sales, service, and other workflows. Salesforce makes money primarily through recurring subscription and support revenue, billed per user, giving it highly predictable, sticky software revenue at large scale. It is one of the largest enterprise software companies in the world, headquartered in San Francisco, and serves businesses of all sizes across virtually every industry globally.

Full CRM guide

Klaviyo is a cloud software company that helps consumer brands collect customer data and turn it into automated marketing and service across email, SMS, WhatsApp, push notifications, reviews, and increasingly AI agents. It began as an email-marketing platform tightly integrated with online stores and has been repositioning itself as a broader B2C customer relationship management (CRM) system, unifying shopper data with the messaging that acts on it. Customers pay recurring subscriptions that scale with the size of their contact lists and message volume, so revenue grows as merchants add subscribers and adopt more products. In Q1 2026 the company reported revenue of ~$358 million (up 28% year over year), a small GAAP net profit, a non-GAAP operating margin of ~16%, dollar-based net revenue retention of ~110%, and more than 196,000 customers. Management raised full-year 2026 revenue guidance to roughly $1.51 billion to $1.52 billion (about 23% growth) and authorized a $500 million share buyback.

Full KVYO guide

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

• CRM drivers: Agentforce and AI monetization; Dominant CRM franchise and data moat.
• KVYO drivers: Expanding from email into a full B2C CRM; AI agents as the next product layer.

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: Salesforce's subscription growth has decelerated from its hyper-growth past into the low-to-mid teens or lower, and the durability of reacceleration from AI is unproven. For KVYO, the dominant risk is concentration in the Shopify ecosystem, where a large majority of recurring revenue is tied to merchants on one platform Klaviyo does not own, so any change in that partnership, its terms, or its own competing tools would matter a great deal.

Pick CRM if you believe its drivers more; KVYO if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the CRM and KVYO guides.

CRM. Salesforce trades at a software premium that reflects its CRM market leadership, sticky recurring revenue, and dramatically improved margins and free cash flow. The valuation now balances a maturing growth profile against optionality from AI (Agentforce and Data Cloud). The market is essentially weighing whether AI can reaccelerate growth enough to justify the multiple as core seat growth slows.

KVYO. Figures are approximate and tied to the asOf date; verify live numbers before acting. Klaviyo is a high-growth software company that only recently reached GAAP profitability, so a trailing P/E ratio is not a useful gauge and investors typically look at revenue growth, retention, and margins instead. The shares have been volatile, trading well below their 52-week high near $37, and the valuation reflects expectations for continued 20%-plus growth and expanding margins.

Headline figures (approximate, early 2026): CRM shows revenue (ttm) ~$38 billion, operating margin (gaap) ~20%; adjusted margins meaningfully higher, revenue growth high-single-digit to low-teens, decelerated from past, dividend yield ~0.5-0.7% (recently initiated); KVYO shows revenue (q1 2026 quarterly) ~$358 million, up 28% year over year, fy2026 revenue guidance ~$1.51 to $1.52 billion (about 23% growth), customers ~196,000+, net revenue retention ~110% (dollar-based).

CRM and KVYO are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined CRM and KVYO exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.