Century 21 vs RE/MAX: units, growth & AI adoption
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AI Adoption Score: FranchisePulse’s own editorial metric of how deeply a system has deployed AI (methodology). The Index publishes no link between that score and franchisee profitability.
RE/MAX leads on AI adoption (68/100 vs 60/100, Q3 2026), while RE/MAX is the larger system by unit count (148,660 agents vs 10,986 offices). RE/MAX is growing faster year-over-year (+1.4%).
What this matchup actually shows
The 8-point headline gap is not evenly spread. The widest divergence is data infrastructure, where RE/MAX leads by 10; the two are closest on marketing AI, separated by just 6. RE/MAX leads on every pillar, not just on the total.
On scale, RE/MAX runs about 13.5× the units of Century 21 and also leads on AI. 14 tracked systems score between them, from Burger King (67) down to Kumon (61).
| Pillar | Century 21 | RE/MAX | Gap | × weight | Leads |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operations AI | 52 | 60 | 8 | 2.8 | RE/MAX |
| Data infrastructure | 58 | 68 | 10 | 3 | RE/MAX |
| Marketing AI | 70 | 76 | 6 | 1.2 | RE/MAX |
| Training & Support AI | 58 | 66 | 8 | 1.2 | RE/MAX |
| Metric | Century 21 | RE/MAX |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Real Estate | Real Estate |
| Headquarters | USA | USA |
| Units (approx.) | 10,986 offices | 148,660 agents ◂ |
| Unit growth YoY | -8.2% (2024) | +1.4% ◂ |
| AI Adoption Score | 60/100 | 68/100 ◂ |
| Operations AI | 52 | 60 ◂ |
| Marketing AI | 70 | 76 ◂ |
| Training AI | 58 | 66 ◂ |
| Data infrastructure | 58 | 68 ◂ |
| Region | North America | North America |
| Index rank | #35 | #19 ◂ |
Century 21
#3 of 3 in its sector · -5 vs sector average · best marketing AI 70, lowest operations AI 52
CENTURY 21 is now a Compass brand: Compass completed its $1.6 billion acquisition of parent Anywhere Real Estate on 9 January 2026. The brand's franchised office count has fallen three years running — 13,611, then 11,972, then 10,986 at the end of 2024, the last count Anywhere filed before the takeover. Compass began rolling its AI Home Platform out to its own brokerage brands in mid-2026; franchise brands including CENTURY 21 are down for 2027, so nothing is live here yet.
RE/MAX
#1 of 3 in its sector · +3 vs sector average · best marketing AI 76, lowest operations AI 60
Global real-estate franchisor operating, directly and through franchisees, in more than 120 countries and territories. Its AI tools are agent-facing and sit mostly on the MAXTech platform powered by BoldTrail — an AI-powered CRM, automatically generated listing presentations, and the Folio email-and-transaction organizer — plus MaaS, an AI-fueled marketing service launched in 2025 for affiliates in the U.S. and Canada.
What actually separates them
The 10-point edge RE/MAX holds on data infrastructure (30% of the score) is worth about 3 points, against 2.8 for RE/MAX on operations AI.
Century 21 runs marketing AI at 70 against data infrastructure at 58, 12 points apart: the shape this Index flags as a plateau risk.
RE/MAX runs marketing AI at 76 against data infrastructure at 68, 8 points apart: the shape this Index flags as a plateau risk.
Sector context
In Real Estate (3 tracked, average 65/100 against 63 for the Index), Century 21 ranks #3 and RE/MAX #1 on AI, RE/MAX above the sector average and Century 21 not. With 3 systems, that average moves with any one brand.
Franchise Intelligence Index
Century 21, RE/MAX and 59 more systems, benchmarked in full.
Cite as: Century 21 vs RE/MAX, FranchisePulse Franchise Intelligence Index, Q3 2026