Avalara vs Principal Financial Group
Side-by-side comparison of AI visibility scores, market position, and capabilities
Cloud tax compliance platform with 30K+ customers; sales tax calculation and e-filing automation for post-Wayfair economic nexus obligations competing with Vertex for e-commerce businesses.
About
Avalara is a cloud-based tax compliance automation platform providing sales tax calculation, e-filing, and compliance management for businesses that need to calculate and remit sales tax accurately across thousands of US tax jurisdictions and international VAT/GST regimes. Acquired by Vista Equity Partners in 2022 for approximately $8.4 billion after being publicly listed on NYSE (NYSE: AVLR), Avalara is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and serves over 30,000 customers — from e-commerce businesses to enterprise manufacturers — who need automated tax compliance as they sell across multiple states and countries.\n\nAvalara's core AvaTax product integrates with ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics) and e-commerce platforms (Salesforce Commerce, BigCommerce, Magento) to automatically calculate the correct sales tax rate for every transaction based on the customer location, product type, and seller's nexus obligations. The post-2018 South Dakota v. Wayfair Supreme Court ruling expanded economic nexus to require online sellers to collect sales tax in states where they exceed sales thresholds — dramatically expanding the number of businesses needing automated tax compliance. Avalara's Returns product files and remits sales tax with the appropriate taxing authorities.\n\nIn 2025, Avalara competes with Vertex (acquired by private equity), TaxJar (acquired by Stripe), and Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE Indirect Tax for sales tax and VAT compliance platform share. The tax compliance automation market has grown significantly as global e-commerce expansion and the South Dakota v. Wayfair ruling increased compliance obligations across all business sizes. Avalara's 2025 strategy focuses on expanding internationally (VAT compliance in Europe and GST in India and Australia), deepening integration with more ERP and e-commerce platforms, and adding AI-powered exemption certificate management and tax research capabilities.
Des Moines retirement and asset management (NASDAQ: PFG) at $16.13B 2024 revenue (+18%), $753B AUM; new CEO Deanna Strable (Jan 2025), Ascensus ESOP acquisition (2024), $1.7T AUA competing with Empower for mid-market 401(k).
About
Principal Financial Group, Inc. is a Des Moines, Iowa-based financial services company — publicly traded on NASDAQ (NASDAQ: PFG) as an S&P 500 Financials component — providing retirement savings, asset management, and group insurance and benefits to 61 million customers worldwide through approximately 20,000 employees with $753 billion in assets under management (AUM) as of Q2 2025, $1.7 trillion in assets under administration, and $16.13 billion in 2024 annual revenue (up 18% year-over-year) with net income of $1.57 billion. Founded in 1879 as The Bankers Life Association by Edward Temple and Simon Casady to provide affordable life insurance to Iowans, Principal demutualized and completed its IPO in 2001. Deanna Strable became President and CEO in January 2025 (succeeding Dan Houston), with Joel Pitz named CFO. Principal operates through three segments: Retirement and Income Solutions (RIS — 401(k), 403(b), defined benefit plans, nonqualified executive benefits, pension risk transfer, and individual retirement products), Principal Asset Management (equity, fixed income, real estate, and alternative investments for institutional clients), and Benefits and Protection (group dental, vision, life, and disability insurance). Key acquisitions include AFP Cuprum (Chilean pension, $1.5B, 2012), Wells Fargo's institutional retirement and trust business ($1.2B, 2019, adding 401(k)/pension/ESOP plans), and the 2024 agreement to acquire Ascensus's ESOP business (800 plans, 165,000+ participants). Principal's market capitalization stands at approximately $18.3 billion.
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