Tech companies in Chicago: a services-heavy market of 6,852 sites, and how to find the right ones

This page is for anyone who needs Chicago tech companies by name and number: a company choosing a software developer or IT partner, a job seeker, an investor, or a B2B seller whose customers are tech firms. It covers the federal count, the industry and county split, the public companies headquartered here and the local data that names the rest.

Chicago tech companies by the numbers

County Business Patterns (CBP), the Census Bureau's annual count of businesses with employees, puts 6,852 tech establishments in the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN Metro Area (CBSA 16980) for 2023. Tech means four NAICS industry groups: software publishers (5112), computer systems design and related services (5415), data processing, hosting and related services (518) and other information services (5191).

World Business Chicago's technology page cites "244,400+ employed in tech-applied fields", a measure it doesn't define. CBP counts only establishments whose main business is tech, so the two don't compare.

A services market

IT services (the first three rows, NAICS 5415) are 5,425 establishments, 79% of the total, and 54% of the jobs. That's a consulting, implementation and managed services market. The 535 software publishers average about 54 employees each, so product companies are fewer but larger. If you're hiring a partner, Chicago gives you a deep bench of implementers; if you want product companies, start with the 535.

Where they are

Employee counts marked not reported carry the Census Bureau's high-noise flag: to protect confidentiality it changed them by 5% or more, so they're left out here.

Cook County has 54% of the establishments and 73% of the jobs, about 26 employees per site. DuPage, in the western suburbs, adds 1,348 establishments averaging 15. Kane County's 283 establishments employ just 1,285 people, about 4.5 each. The rows total 6,767; the remaining 85 are in the metro's smaller counties.

Size

The Census Bureau withholds the 500-to-999 and 1,000-or-more cells for Chicago to protect confidentiality; the last row is the total less the published cells. In bands, that's 5,968 establishments with 1 to 19 employees, 614 with 20 to 99 and 270 with 100 or more.

Public tech companies headquartered in Chicagoland

Each company's headquarters and revenue are from its latest 10-K. Two smaller EDGAR registrants with Chicago-area addresses were left out: B-Scada's last annual report is from 2016 and gives a Florida office, and Boost Run has filed no 10-K yet.

The biggest buyers aren't on this list. Cook County's 2025 annual financial report, citing Crain's Chicago Business, ranks Amazon first among private employers with 32,000 employees, followed by Advocate Health Care, Northwestern Medicine and the University of Chicago, with Endeavor Health, United Airlines, Walmart, Target, Rush and JPMorganChase completing the top ten. Most local IT services firms sell to employers like these.

Finding Chicago tech companies by name

For suburban firms, confirm the legal entity with the Illinois Secretary of State's business entity search.

How to shortlist a Chicago IT partner

Prospecting Chicago tech companies

The 5,968 establishments with fewer than 20 employees are owner-run. The 614 with 20 to 99 have functional leaders: a practice lead or COO at a services firm, a VP of engineering at a software company. The 270 with 100 or more bring procurement and security reviews. Services firms buy in step with their clients, so watch for the triggers that change their workload: a new partner certification, a large client win, a practice launch, a merger.

Worked example: an accounting firm for software companies

Illustrative example. The company, people and rates are fictional, to show the method.

Lakeshore Ledger (lakeshoreledger.example) handles revenue recognition, audits and fractional finance for subscription software companies. It targets Cook and DuPage software publishers and programming firms with 10 to 49 employees, the size at which a part-time bookkeeper stops being enough.

• Establishments with 10 to 49 employees: 474 + 417 = 891.
• Software publishers and custom programmers are 3,087 of 6,852 establishments (45%), so about 400 of those 891.
• Cook and DuPage hold 73% of establishments: about 290.
• Lakeshore assumes 40% sell subscriptions rather than projects: about 115 accounts.

Telling a subscription company from a project shop means reading every website's pricing page. Bebop takes "Chicago-area SaaS companies with 10 to 49 employees and no CFO" and returns matches with the reasoning for each.

Subject: [Company]'s first audit

Hi [first name],

Congratulations on [signal: the round, the new enterprise logo]. Investors and larger customers usually ask for audited financials soon after, and subscription revenue is where first audits slow down.

We set up the revenue schedules and close process before the auditors arrive, for software companies your size. Would a one-page checklist of what auditors ask SaaS companies for be useful?

[Your name], Lakeshore Ledger

What the count covers

CBP counts establishments, single locations with at least one paid employee, for the week of March 12, 2023, so a firm with a Loop office and an Oak Brook office counts twice and freelancers don't count. Tech teams inside banks, airlines, retailers and hospitals count under their employers' industries. For a comparison market, see tech companies in Dallas.

Next step: see how to position against other IT vendors in selling IT services.