Boston’s tech sector is booming.
The city’s 100 biggest digital tech companies alone employ 37,537 people — a number bolstered by massive pillar tech companies as well as up-and-comers.
Boston’s biggest tech companies
Competition to make the Top 100 list, which ranks the Boston area’s biggest local digital tech employers by employee count, was tight, with ZeroTurnaround, Genuine and Jibo tied for 100th place reporting 103 employees each.
Several of the city’s fastest-growing startups, including QuickPivot, ThreatStack and OnShape, landed just shy of the list.
Growth driven by big brands (and some surprising industries)
Unsurprisingly, megalith brands like Wayfair, TripAdvisor and HubSpot made the top 10, all with employee numbers over 1,000. Notably, considering how Boston isn't traditionally known for its consumer tech, e-commerce titan Wayfair claimed this year's first spot.
Several companies reported headcounts in the hundreds, including homegrown companies like iRobot and Constant Contact as well as CarGurus and Rapid7. Cybersecurity, a fast-growing industry in Boston, also saw a large portion of the list, with at least 10 cybersecurity companies making the Top 100 with a total of 4,102 employees.
Young companies help fuel the ecosystem’s growth
Nine percent of this year’s top 100 companies were founded in 2012 or later. Top 100 startups founded within the past five years employ a total of 1,519 people in Boston. Moreover, 32 percent of the companies on the list were founded in the past decade.
The youngest company to make the list was Desktop Metal, founded in 2015, followed by eight companies all founded in 2012: Draftkings, Jibo, DataRobot, Paint Nite, Salsify, Cybereason, edX and CloudHealth Technologies.
Rank: 1 | Employees: 2,927 | Founded: 2002 | E-commerce
Rank: 2 | Employees: 2,558 | Founded: 1984 | Software
Rank: 3 | Employees: 2,351 | Founded: 1997 | Healthtech
Rank: 4 | Employees: 1,981 | Founded: 1998 | Cloud
Rank: 5 | Employees: 1,550 | Founded: 1977 | Software
Rank: 6 | Employees: 1,122 | Founded: 2000 | Travel
Rank: 7 | Employees: 1,000 | Founded: 2006 | Marketing
Rank: 8 | Employees: 969 | Founded: 1985 | Software
Rank: 9 | Employees: 842 | Founded: 1983 | Software
Rank: 10 | Employees: 800 | Founded: 1990 | Robotics
Rank: 11 | Employees: 791 | Founded: 1951 | Cybersecurity
Rank: 12 | Employees: 705 | Founded: 2003 | Customer service
Rank: 13 | Employees: 569 | Founded: 1995 | Marketing
Rank: 14 | Employees: 550 | Founded: 2006 | Cybersecurity
Rank: 15 | Employees: 511 | Founded: 1990 | Marketing
Rank: 16 | Employees: 509 | Founded: 1978 | Software
Rank: 17 | Employees: 508 | Founded: 1972 | Software
Rank: 17 | Employees: 508 | Founded: 1981 | Software
Rank: 19 | Employees: 494 | Founded: 2002 | Cybersecurity
Rank: 20 | Employees: 486 | Founded: 2000 | Cybersecurity
Rank: 21 | Employees: 470 | Founded: 2006| Automotive
Rank: 22 | Employees: 450 | Founded: 2006 | IoT
Rank: 23 | Employees: 400 | Founded: 1999 | Cybersecurity
Rank: 23* | Employees: 400 | Founded: 2012 | Point of sale
Rank: 24 | Employees: 357 | Founded: 2007 | E-commerce
Rank: 25 | Employees: 343 | Founded: 2005 | Robotics
Rank: 26 | Employees: 325 | Founded: 2007 | Cloud
Rank: 27 | Employees: 324 | Founded: 1978 | Software
Rank: 28 | Employees: 314 | Founded: 2012 | Gaming
Rank: 29 | Employees: 305 | Founded: 2001 | Data analytics
Rank: 30 | Employees: 304 | Founded: 2002 | Cybersecurity
Rank: 31 | Employees: 290 | Founded: 2002 | Healthtech
Rank: 32 | Employees: 287 | Founded: 2004 | Video
Rank: 33 | Employees: 277 | Founded: 2006 | Healthtech
Rank: 34 | Employees: 275 | Founded: 2012 | B2B
Rank: 35 | Employees: 265 | Founded: 2006 | Productivity
Rank: 36 | Employees: 309* | Founded: 2001 | Fintech
Rank: 37 | Employees: 255 | Founded: 1998 | Healthtech
Rank: 38 | Employees: 250 | Founded: 2011 | 3D printing
Rank: 39 | Employees: 231 | Founded: 2004 | Travel
Rank: 40 | Employees: 228 | Founded: 2009 | Supply chain
Rank: 41 | Employees: 227 | Founded: 2006 | Marketplace
Rank: 42 | Employees: 224 | Founded: 1996 | Edtech
Rank: 43 | Employees: 220 | Founded: 1996 | E-commerce
Rank: 44 | Employees: 218 | Founded: 2002 | Communication
Rank: 45 | Employees: 216 | Founded: 1999 | CRM
Rank: 46 | Employees: 215 | Founded: 2007 | Food
Rank: 47 | Employees: 210 | Founded: 1999 | Software
Rank: 48 | Employees: 208 | Founded: 1990 | Software
Rank: 49 | Employees: 200 | Founded: 2004 | Healthtech
Rank: 49 | Employees: 200 | Founded: 2012 | Cloud
Rank: 51 | Employees: 198 | Founded: 2011 | Insurance
Rank: 52 | Employees: 197 | Founded: 2007 | Marketing
Rank: 53 | Employees: 196 | Founded: 2008 | Payments
Rank: 54 | Employees: 191 | Founded: 1998 | Fintech
Rank: 55 | Employees: 190 | Founded: 2003 | Cybersecurity
Rank: 55 | Employees: 190 | Founded: 2011 | Adtech
Rank: 57 | Employees: 182 | Founded: 2009 | Cloud
Rank: 58 | Employees: 181 | Founded: 1991 | Sales enablement
Rank: 58 | Employees: 181 | Founded: 1999 | Transportation
Rank: 60 | Employees: 180 | Founded: 2012 | Edtech
Rank: 61 | Employees: 178 | Founded: 2009 | B2B
Rank: 62 | Employees: 175 | Founded: 2004 | Artificial intelligence
Rank: 62 | Employees: 175 | Founded: 1999 | Software
Rank: 64 | Employees: 169 | Founded: 2015 | 3D printing
Rank: 65 | Employees: 165 | Founded: 2009 | Adtech
Rank: 65 | Employees: 165 | Founded: 2000 | Recruiting
Rank: 65 | Employees: 165 | Founded: 2004 | Healthtech
Rank: 68 | Employees: 160 | Founded: 2012 | Software
Rank: 68 | Employees: 160 | Founded: 2012 | Cybersecurity
Rank: 70 | Employees: 158 | Founded: 2008 | Healthtech
Rank: 71 | Employees: 157 | Founded: 2008 | Real estate
Rank: 72 | Employees: 156 | Founded: 2010 | Marketing
Rank: 73 | Employees: 153 | Founded: 1993 | B2B
Rank: 74 | Employees: 150 | Founded: 2009 | Data analytics
Rank: 74 | Employees: 150 | Founded: 2010 | Mobile
Rank: 76 | Employees: 148 | Founded: 1994 | Gaming
Rank: 77 | Employees: 147 | Founded: 2004 | Network management
Rank: 78 | Employees: 140 | Founded: 2005 | Software
Rank: 79 | Employees: 134 | Founded: 1990 | Edtech
Rank: 80 | Employees: 131 | Founded: 1990 | HR
Rank: 81 | Employees: 130 | Founded: 1991 | Software
Rank: 81 | Employees: 130 | Founded: 2011 | Cybersecurity
Rank: 81 | Employees: 130 | Founded: 2002 | Healthtech
Rank: 84 | Employees: 125 | Founded: 2012 | Consumer
Rank: 85 | Employees: 122 | Founded: 2010 | Data analytics
Rank: 85 | Employees: 122 | Founded: 1996 | Data analytics
Rank: 87 | Employees: 121 | Founded: 2007 | Data analytics
Rank: 88 | Employees: 120 | Founded: 2007 | Software
Rank: 88 | Employees: 120 | Founded: 1998 | Adtech
Rank: 88 | Employees: 120 | Founded: 2004 | Software
Rank: 91 | Employees: 117 | Founded: 1995 | B2B
Rank: 92 | Employees: 115 | Founded: 2000 | Software
Rank: 93 | Employees: |110 Founded: 2001 | Software
Rank: 93 | Employees: 110 | Founded: 1983 | Data analytics
Rank: 95 | Employees: 109 | Founded: 2004 | Social media
Rank: 96 | Employees: 108 | Founded: 2012 | Machine learning
Rank: 97 | Employees: 107 | Founded: 2005 | Rewards
Rank: 98 | Employees: 106 | Founded: 2010 | Big data
Rank: 99 | Employees: 105 | Founded: 2008 | Data
Rank: 100 | Employees: 103 | Founded: 2007 | Software
Rank: 100 | Employees: 103 | Founded: 2005 | Web development
Rank: 100 | Employees: 103 | Founded: 2012 | Robotics
* Vestmark's employee count has been updated to 309, up from 263, based on additional information provided by the company. Toast, tied with CyberArk for number 23, was wrongfully omitted from the initial version of the list. We regret the error.
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Built In Boston’s Top 100 is a ranking of the largest digital tech employers in the Boston metropolitan area based on local, full-time employee count as of September 1, 2017. This ranking is compiled by submissions to the Built In Boston website and market survey as well as press releases, news coverage and other publicly available data.
To be eligible for inclusion, a company must be based in the Boston area and its primary business and industry must be digital technology/innovation, including web and mobile applications, software, IoT, e-commerce, VR/AR and digital agency work. Employee numbers only include workers in Boston counties and do not count part-time employees, interns, contractors or non-W2 workers. Both private and public companies have been surveyed.
Some companies that may have been eligible have been excluded because they have self-opted to not disclose headcount or have not supplied the required information requested in the survey.
