Tech companies in Pittsburgh: how many there are, where they sit and how to find them by name

This page is for anyone who needs Pittsburgh's tech companies as names and numbers: a hospital or bank choosing a software partner, a job seeker, an investor, or a B2B seller whose customers are software and IT firms.

Pittsburgh tech companies by the numbers

County Business Patterns (CBP), the Census Bureau's annual count of businesses with employees, puts 1,315 tech establishments in the Pittsburgh, PA Metro Area (CBSA 38300) for 2023. "Tech" here 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).

The payroll total includes the payroll of other information services (5191), which the Census Bureau flagged as high-noise: the noise it adds to protect confidentiality changed that figure by 5% or more. The employee totals carry lower noise flags, so treat the payroll and average pay as approximate.

Why the Tech Council counts 9,179

The Pittsburgh Technology Council's 2026 State of the Industry Report counts 9,179 technology establishments in 2025 across a 13-county region, employing 241,120 people. Its life sciences cluster includes health services, which the report says has the largest payroll of any subcluster, at nearly $9.8 billion. Hospitals and labs count.

The Census figure is narrower: firms whose main business is software, IT services, hosting or information services, in the metro's eight counties. Use the Council's figure to describe the region and the Census figure to size a list you could call. The Council's latest report also shows information technology employment down more than 5 percent while average IT wages rose more than 23 percent.

Allegheny County first, then a ring of small markets

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.

Allegheny County, which contains the city, has 73% of the metro's tech establishments and 80% of its tech jobs. The other counties are small enough to review every name by hand. The county rows total 1,313; two establishments aren't assigned to a county in the published file.

What kind of tech companies

Custom programming is the core of the market, and its firms average about 25 employees each. Read the information services row carefully: under the NAICS 2017 codes CBP uses, 110 of those 160 establishments are libraries and archives (NAICS 519120). Only 49 are internet publishing and web search portals. Anyone quoting "160 internet companies" has fallen into the trap.

What's missing matters as much. Robotics and autonomy companies often file under scientific research and development (NAICS 5417) or manufacturing, so many of the region's best-known tech names sit outside this count. The state's Center for Workforce Information & Analysis ranks research and development services 12th on Allegheny County's top 50 industries for the fourth quarter of 2023, up from 16th in 2020, with computer systems design 13th.

Size: mostly small, with 115 larger sites

The Census Bureau withholds the 50-to-99 and larger size cells for Pittsburgh to protect confidentiality, so the last row is the published total less the published cells. That's 1,109 establishments with 1 to 19 employees and 206 with 20 or more.

Public tech companies headquartered in Pittsburgh

Three SEC-registered companies in software and computer services list Pittsburgh as their principal executive office, each confirmed in its latest annual report:

Aurora's 10-K attributes its first revenue to the commercial launch of Aurora Driver for Freight in April 2025. The region's largest employers are mostly not tech companies: the state's Top 50 list for Allegheny County is led by UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside, the University of Pittsburgh and the federal government, with Carnegie Mellon University 7th, PNC Bank 8th and Bank of New York Mellon 10th. Those hospitals, universities and banks are the biggest buyers for local IT firms.

Finding Pittsburgh tech companies by name

How to shortlist a Pittsburgh tech firm

If you're hiring a developer or IT partner rather than selling to one, five checks cover most of the risk:

1. Match the code to the job. Custom builds come from 541511 firms; integration and managed services from 541512 and 541513 firms.
2. Confirm the entity in the Department of State's records, under the name on the contract.
3. Ask who is on your account and which office they work from.
4. Get two references from clients in your sector.
5. Put security terms in the contract: who holds your data, breach notice times and what happens to code and data at exit.

Prospecting Pittsburgh tech companies

The 786 establishments with fewer than five employees are founders and consultants who buy on their own. The 206 with 20 or more have a head of engineering or operations who owns most tooling, and the 115 with 50 or more bring procurement and security review into the deal. See how to find decision makers for the titles to look for.

Good timing signals: a Tech 50 finalist announcement, a Carnegie Mellon spinout, a contract with one of the large health or banking employers, or a jump in engineering job posts. Lead with the signal.

Worked example: a security testing firm

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

Ridgeline Assurance (ridgeline.example) runs penetration tests and vendor security reviews. Software vendors that sell to hospitals and banks face long security questionnaires, so Ridgeline targets Allegheny County software and IT services firms with 20 or more employees.

• Metro establishments with 20 or more employees: 91 + 115 = 206.
• Allegheny County holds 73% of establishments, so Ridgeline estimates about 150 there.
• It assumes 40% sell into health care or financial services: about 60 accounts.
• Ridgeline works all 60 over a quarter. At an assumed 8% meeting rate that's about 5 meetings, and it expects to win one or two.

The slow part is finding which of the 150 sell to hospitals or banks. Bebop takes a description like "Pittsburgh software companies with 20 to 200 employees that sell to health systems" and returns matching companies with the reasoning for each.

Subject: The security review behind [Company]'s next health system deal

Hi [first name],

Congratulations on [signal: the new contract, the Tech 50 nod, the funding round]. When a software company starts selling to large health systems, the vendor security review usually lands on the CTO's desk with a deadline.

We run the penetration test and evidence pack those reviews ask for, scheduled around your release calendar. Would a sample report from a similar-sized vendor be useful?

[Your name], Ridgeline Assurance

Next step: turn the shortlist into a working list with how to build a prospect list.