The State of San Francisco Tech in 2018 (+25 Best Companies)

January 24, 2018

This report is one of three published by G2 Crowd to highlight the Bay Area.

Each report dives into the overall history, trends and top companies that are guiding tech today. Because of the sheer volume of great developers and the unique environments across this region, we’ve divided our coverage to discuss Silicon Valley, San Jose and San Francisco — to give each the attention it deserves.

San Francisco is approximately 46 square miles — give or take just a little. Omaha, for comparison’s sake, is 130; Houston is 627; Tokyo is 845.  

You could walk from one side of San Francisco to the other without breaking a sweat … especially because the average high in July is only 67 degrees. You may have to scale a few steep hills, but the point remains: It’s small, geographically.

But by all accounts, the city’s square mileage is the only small thing about it. From the food to the art to the sea mammals, San Francisco has more going on than many cities ten times its size. Case in point: You can find more than 12,500 area companies on Crunchbase, compared to Houston’s 2,500. If Crunchbase is to be believed, that’s 272 companies per square mile versus four.

So IS everything bigger in Texas, really?  

In the global lens, the city is perhaps the nucleus for our Connected Age, and all the baggage that comes with it. In tandem with Palo Alto and the rest of Silicon Valley, San Francisco (or “SF” — if you say “San Fran” or “Frisco” they’ll bite your fingers) has birthed the lion’s share of household name technology companies. They’ve transformed the world’s daily routines in an unprecedented, prodigious period of just over a decade. Your iPhone may as well have a sticker of the Golden Gate bridge on the back, because you are already repping SF pretty hard with every click of Twitter, Instagram and Uber (and Lyft).

Steps away from these companies are at least 12,500 others vying for your attention. Some are inevitably going to get it; it’s just a matter of time.  

Fog City is no stranger to societal gold rushes — including the literal gold rushes around 1849, hence the namesake 49ers. In the 1960s it was the safe haven for the counterculture movement, for which the city’s Hippie Hill park area was lovingly dedicated. The “dot-com boom” in the late 1990s brought the first wave of techies and entrepreneurs to try their hand at this whole “website” thing (moment of silence for Pets.com). After that bubble burst, investors and inventors applied their newfound wisdom and hard-learned lessons to truly capitalize on the Internet and make technology that sticks.

Needless to say, it stuck. With year-round agreeable weather, an ultra-progressive community, and Apple, Facebook and Google just a stone’s throw away, SF became the chosen one for #StartupLife. Following the lead of companies like Craigslist, Airbnb and Yelp (just to name a few more), a generation of thinkers and doers from around the world poured into SF’s tiny glass until it overflowed.

And then they kept pouring in, and pouring in…

Today, SF is both famous and notorious for its place in the business world. The just-published annual report from U.S. News & World Report lists SF as the highest-paying city in the country, with the job of software developer as the best job for 2018. This is a one-two punch for the City by the Bay, which is to software development what pools are to wetness. Although Seattle and Austin are creeping up the various lists of best tech cities, any rumors of SF’s death are greatly exaggerated; it's still the most high-tech city and the No. 1 tech market in the U.S., if we’re talking singular cities.

San Francisco's Tech Sector

San Francisco creates — inexorably, like death and taxes. This contagious chutzpah dates back to the city’s beginnings in the mid-1800s, with denim jeans and the martini. Once digital technology and the cloud took off in the 2000s, SF innovation went into overdrive. Wikipedia, WordPress, Fitbit and even Words with Friends are all products of this second Bay Boom. Soon enough, companies like Magic Leap, 3D Robotics and OpenAI became torch bearers for future tech the likes of which we’d only seen in movies. Now, the chilly streets of SF are being used to test self-driving cars and robotic food delivery (although not without some kinks). It’s also, unsurprisingly, a playground for cryptocurrency zealots and coworking crusaders, with incubators, conferences and shared spaces as far as the eye can see.     

About that overflowing, though. Residents found out in short order just how much water fits in that glass, and bore witness to a fierce, boundless scuffle for room and board. Just what is a seat at the table worth? The Council for Community and Economic Research estimates the current cost of living is 62.6 percent higher than the U.S. average, and homes cost three times the average. Renting a two-bedroom apartment in 2018 will cost an average of $4,650 — $1,000 more than New York City and $2,000 more than other big cities. And that’s if you can get one; apartment listings are snatched up in milliseconds, and many professionals are bunking up in tight quarters with colleagues or Craigslisters. Any tech startup that joins the fold now is doing so at their own fiscal risk, and may sacrifice personal privacy or comfort for a chance to rub elbows with the most influential developers in the world.

Maybe these do-or-die circumstances are the special ingredient. There’s no room for rest in today’s San Francisco, and only the hungriest can survive. It’s an unfortunate new reality for natives, many of whom can’t (or no longer want to) keep up — that’s a story deserving of it’s own post. But for the sea of software fans out there, the hustling that’s going down in SF is a mitzvah. Nowhere is this more true than the workplace, where B2B software concocted in SF is making life easier, day after day.


sf-tech-companies

Note: Only companies with headquarters currently in the San Francisco area are included in graph.


San Francisco Tech Leaders on the City's Tech Scene

Accel Partners

"I believe it’s a confluence of four factors that make the Bay Area such a special place for technology:
First, it’s our renowned universities: Stanford and Cal Berkeley. Both these institutions have graduated some of the most innovative, and most entrepreneurial people in technology, as well as media, entertainment, and finance.
Second, it’s home to large tech companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and many others (and, unsurprisingly, many of the founders of these companies graduated from the above universities). Not only are these companies and their founding stories often hailed as the ultimate startup dream, but years later, they’re still the driving forces behind some of today’s most exciting technology innovations like artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous vehicles.
Third, venture capital is concentrated here and Sand Hill Road is still where most entrepreneurs turn to raise capital to scale their companies.
Lastly, it’s our large and diverse startup community. While many cities and communities worldwide are also producing exciting tech ideas and innovation, the Bay Area remains a destination for startups." Chantelle Darby, Head of Communications at Accel Partners

Anaplan

"Tech in San Francisco is synonymous with companies like Salesforce and Twitter, businesses that have grown at amazing rates and have interesting products. However, in the coming years, we anticipate that there will be some areas of tech that will be over-represented in San Francisco – for example, cloud-based software companies such as Anaplan, Okta, and Atlassian. One particular area of tech where the city has a disproportionate representation appears to be in AI, machine learning, and data – a trend that shows no sign of stopping. Additionally, B2B software companies, like Anaplan, that offer a platform to support multiple lines of business versus a point solution are the future of connected software.

San Francisco enjoys all the advantage of being in Silicon Valley and the well-known reasons why young, high-growth startups and innovation thrive here. The top of the line public and private universities, funding ecosystem, and cultural bias towards risk-taking are what makes our Bay Area special in addition to the different locales that offer a unique big-city vibe, an active culture, interesting neighborhoods, a sense of history, and a demographic mix that makes it very attractive for young tech talent. As the city accommodates growing crowds with better, faster public transit and affordable housing, companies that pay premium dollars for a space find it’s worth it in order to attract the right tech talent in a booming city." Sampath Gromatam, Vice President of Product Management at Anaplan

New Relic

"I love the tech scene here, but I’m even more excited about San Francisco as a world-class city. The culture of The City is represented across music, arts, and the unique architecture of the historic neighborhoods. The outdoor life is incredible, with miles of trails and roads to ride, run and hike on, beaches and oceans a few minutes away, and snow and mountains a few hours drive away. Perhaps the most important thing about San Francisco is the people, who come from diverse backgrounds, represent lots of different perspectives, and bring an incredible energy to the city." Robson Grieve, Chief Marketing Officer at New Relic

Docsend

"As the heart of Silicon Valley continues to migrate up 101 to San Francisco, the diversity of the tech ecosystem has expanded significantly, from bitcoin to drone tech to sales tech. What continues to amaze me is how deep each of these communities are — you can find several meetups on just about anything in this town. The sales and marketing tech landscape is no exception. For DocSend in particular the local San Francisco sales and marketing tech community has been nothing but helpful and encouraging from day one. We’re more excited than ever to together help companies across the globe win more business." Dave Koslow, COO at DocSend


This entire month we’ve been exploring the B2B software scenes around the U.S., highlighting the top products from each region based on satisfaction data from G2 Crowd user reviews. The 25 platforms that represent San Francisco have the highest average Satisfaction scores of any region, by a comfortable margin. Granted, they have a slight advantage due to the aforementioned flood of talent and resources. It’s not unlike discussing the stats of the Bay Area’s own Golden State Warriors in relation to other NBA teams. But it doesn’t make the numbers any less impressive in a historical context. If there were an All-Star team this year, a lot of these vendors would be on the starting lineup — and a good handful are First Ballot Hall-of-Famers.

So before the next round of rookies changes the game yet again, let’s recognize the best that SF has to offer as of January 2018. The list below is ordered by user satisfaction, and to qualify, a product was required to have at least 10 verified user reviews. For each product, we created a profile to give a snapshot of what it is and what it does, and to give some insight into the company behind it. All the data comes from G2 Crowd.com (and our 300,000-plus B2B software and services reviews), or from publicly available sources such as LinkedIn and Crunchbase. These 25 San Francisco B2B companies are represented by 28923 verified reviews from real users across a variety of categories, from Performance Management to E-Commerce Tools to A/B Testing. Read more below about some of the companies playing a major role in SF’s one-of-a-kind tech scene.


Best San Francisco Tech Companies in 2019

slack

1. Slack

Product: Slack
Category: Team Collaboration
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2009
Employees: 953
 

It’s difficult to escape news about Slack these days. Everyone’s favorite team collaboration platform and midday GIF-exchanger exemplifies the Bay Area’s pattern of dominance and influence; it was the best-reviewed of any software at the G2 Crowd Dreamforce booth last year, and sits high atop the Leader quadrant in the Grid® for its category. It crossed the $5 billion valuation mark in 2017, and vendors such as Microsoft and Atlassian are working overtime to copy its success.

They’ve got their work cut out for them. With over 8,000 verified reviews and more piling up every day, the software maintains its 4.5 out of 5 star rating on G2 Crowd.


asana

2. Asana

Product: Asana
Category: Project Management
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2009
Employees: 369

With a glowing user rapport not far behind Slack’s, Asana’s success is no less impressive considering SF’s endless exports. The team behind Asana bill the software as “the easiest way to manage team projects and tasks,” and among its many benefits is the ability to integrate with commonplace tools like Google Drive, Salesforce and — wouldn’t you know it — Slack. Entry-level teams can download a free version of Asana on the product’s website, and the premium version starts at $9.99 per member, per month. It’s used by neighboring companies such as Lyft, Airbnb and Dropbox, which should tell prospective users everything they need to know.

In a five-star Asana review, Dorca N. L. wrote: “I was looking for an app that I could organize everything from deadlines of projects, scheduled payroll, dates for training and everything I needed to do to get prepared for it and much more! I like that I can have it in my phone and that I can access it through the computer also, plus I can add other people and assign tasks and see the status of the projects I’m working on and supervising. Everything in one app only! I’m still learning and trying to help others to use it better as I learn, and I hope to have everything in it, as much as personal as for business, because it works even better than an agenda for me.”


15five

3. 15Five

Product: 15Five
Category: Performance Management
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2011
Employees: 29
 

For the best organizations, it’s never enough to “coast” — each day is a new opportunity for stepping up across the board. Performance management tools from 15Five provide honest, consistent insights into individual output and morale, addressing challenges and opening pathways for improvement. Victories both small and large are celebrated with High Fives, a simple but effective form of positive reinforcement that inspires continued success.

More than 1,200 companies use the 15Five platform, including HubSpot, Indeed and the American Red Cross. Since the Fall 2017 Grid® Report for Performance Management, 15Five has jumped from a High Performer to a Leader in the category, and has the highest Satisfaction ratings in its field. It’s also a Leader in the Employee Engagement category.

“We design and build software for human beings. For us, ‘user’ is a four-letter word, and we prefer ‘person’ or ‘customer.’ In everything we do, we consider the people who will use our products and their pain points that we are solving for. It’s an honor to be recognized and rated so highly, but that rating is simply a beautiful metric that means we make a difference in the lives of thousands of employees, managers and executives. We help people to have richer personal and professional lives by giving and receiving supportive workplace feedback, by growing and developing at work, and by fulfilling the lofty missions established by their companies. Since creating places where people can become their greatest selves is our mission, this pretty much means everything to us.” David Hassell, CEO & Founder at 15Five

wordpress

4. WordPress Foundation

Product: WordPress.org
Category: Web Content Management
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2003
Employees: 2720

Nifty statistic: As of January 2018, WordPress is used by nearly 30 percent of the top 10 million active websites, with a market share of 60 percent. Since its early days in 2003, the web CMS had evolved to be as deep and flexible as its ballooning list of users requires. Now, many of the websites you may visit in a day, and likely some you’ve been personally involved with, have leveraged WordPress.org or WordPress.com to get their message out to the world. And WordPress.org is open source, with a never-ending selection of themes and plugins thanks to both its restless developers and massive community of creative users.

User Nicholas K. sums up their thoughts in a five-star WordPress.org review: “WordPress is always changing, making better updates, more compatibility, etc. My absolute favorite thing about WordPress.org is how easy it is to use modular plugins and themes. Where I work, WordPress is literally the only platform that we build cutting-edge websites on.”


salesforce

5. Salesforce

Product: Salesforce CRM
Category: CRM
City: San Francisco
Founded: 1999
Employees: 29007
 

Thousands of tech-forward companies have sprouted in the Bay’s fertile soil in recent years. But only one had the gaul — and, perhaps, valuation — to attach their name to the city’s tallest skyscraper. Salesforce Tower is projected to wrap up construction in 2018, and Marc Benioff’s team will be the largest tenant, filling in many of the building’s 61 floors.

How’d they get there, though? The company has 40 products listed on G2 Crowd and are also the organizers of Dreamforce, the yearly “Comic-Con of startups” right in the heart of San Francisco. But if you had to single out its biggest meal ticket, that would be Salesforce CRM, the product that put customer relationship management category on the map. Part of the larger Sales Cloud system constructed by Salesforce, the CRM product provides an up-to-date and easy-to-search log of customers and customer interactions with detailed reports and opportunity insights. There are currently 222 products in the CRM category and this one towers above them like the vendor’s skyscraper is poised to do on the SF skyline.


okta

6. Okta

Product: Okta
Category: Cloud Identity and Access Management
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2009
Employees: 1308
 

The makers of Okta have a major conference of their own, called Oktane, which targets the IT community specifically with announcements and forums related to system security. Considering the degree of cybersecurity attacks in 2017, all eyes are on this industry at the moment, and President Barack Obama himself is set to appear at the May event.

Okta offers state-of-the-art solutions for multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, API access management and other corners of the expanding IT security space. It’s the far-and-away Leader in the Cloud Identity and Access Management category, which helps IT departments establish access rules within their organization and authorize the appropriate team members for access to different apps or databases. Customers include Time Warner, Adobe and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). A free trial of Okta software is available on the company’s website.


clearbit

7. Clearbit

Product: Clearbit Enrichment
Category: Sales Intelligence
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2014
Employees: 24
 

Clearbit is a modest-sized company founded just a few years ago, but with 100,000-plus users and counting, is a model of San Francisco startup success. With the Clearbit Enrichment tool, users can translate a simple domain or email address into a profile with 85 actionable data points. This “rich, real-time person & company intelligence,” as worded on the product’s website, is used by fellow SF powerhouses Asana, Optimizely and Intercom, along with 1,000 other businesses from coast to coast. It’s a Leader and one of the best-reviewed products in the highly competitive Sales Intelligence category.


docsend

8. DocSend

Product: DocSend
Category: Sales Enablement
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2013
Employees: 33

DocSend empowers sales teams with intuitive tools for designing, sending and analyzing performance of presentations for current and prospective clients. It’s at least a High Performer in three distinct categories on G2 Crowd — a testament to its range and multi-purpose success with its users. In addition to its utility with sales teams, DocSend helps align messaging with the marketing department and ensure each piece of outward facing content is a group effort with the company’s best interests in mind. Pricing starts at $10 per user, per month for the Personal edition, and the product’s feature set expands along with the level of membership.

In a five-star DocSend review, Joel K. wrote: “DocSend is absurdly easy to use and understand. The learning curve is short, and once you’ve got it down, you can be sending out docs and gauging responses with almost zero effort. We love being able to check in on whether or not a piece has been viewed, and even tag up docs for different campaigns to gauge how well our other outreach or strategy is working.”

“We’re so grateful to be part of such an engaged community of sales and marketing leaders. Our customers — from industry titans to fast-growing startups — are doing amazing things. For them to get so much value out of DocSend — and have them share that back with the community — makes building our product that much more meaningful.” Dave Koslow, COO at DocSend

circleci

9. CircleCI

Product: CircleCI
Category: Continuous Integration
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2011
Employees: 109
 

With the ever-changing nature of internal code, it’s essential to remain vigilant in testing and fixing — the smallest hiccup can cause an application to go haywire and send a chain reaction through the organization or client base. CircleCI is designed to prevent such a problem with continuous integration, which automates testing and keeps tabs on the critical functions of business applications as updates occur. Considering the omnipresence of coding in the modern work landscape, tools like CircleCI are increasingly essential; and according to G2 Crowd reviewers, this platform is the best at what it does. Facebook, Spotify and GoPro are just a few of the 20,000-plus organizations who trust CircleCI to foolproof their countless lines of code.


chartio

10. Chartio

Product: Chartio
Category: Business Intelligence Platforms
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2010
Employees: 38
 

Business intelligence can be a daunting concept, but the makers of Chartio advertise their platform to be as user friendly as it powerful. With this software, companies can uncover invaluable data about performance and traction, and use it to build out both short-term and long-term goals for teams and the organization as a whole. The intuitive interface and interactive dashboards and visualizations are just a few reasons that Chartio is a current Leader in the Self-Service Business Intelligence category. If you’re interested in what it has to offer, you can nab a 14-day free trial of the software through the Chartio website.


newrelic

11. New Relic

Product: New Relic APM
Category: Application Performance Monitoring (APM)
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2008
Employees: 1347
 

Once an application goes live, there’s a laundry list of maintenance issues and minor emergencies the Product team could face. New Relic products help businesses in more than 100 countries monitor their applications and address performance issues quickly and completely. In a New Relic APM review, user Adam B. wrote: “New Relic’s application and server monitoring has allowed our team to build better, faster, and more stable products since using it. We have also been able to make huge fixes to legacy code bases. The APM product has been instrumental in our ability to improve application and server performance.”

New Relic APM is a Leader in the Application Performance Monitoring category, and the vendor has several other well-reviewed products featured on G2 Crowd. You can learn more and sign up for a free trial on the product’s website.

“We have long admired the early SaaS companies like Salesforce and Workday who opened the door and proved the model for companies like New Relic. We are proud to be part of a community of the new wave of fast-growing enterprise software companies — including Atlassian, Docker, Github, Zendesk — who are the defining the future of enterprise computing.” Robson Grieve, Chief Marketing Officer at New Relic

expensify

12. Expensify

Product: Expensify
Category: Expense Management
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2008
Employees: 144

For many professionals, it’s hard to remember what expense reports and reimbursements were like before products like Expensify made them a breeze. Fortunately, they’ll never have to. With just a few clicks on the platform’s smooth interface, employees can submit receipts for work-related expenses and have them approved on the other end by the accounting department. The product’s client portfolio includes San Francisco’s own Uber, Lyft, Square and Stripe — companies that know a thing or two about time-saving technology. Expensify is a Leader in the Expense Management category with one of the highest Satisfaction ratings in the field.

TIP: TIP: Expensify users are syncing their account with G2  Track to easily monitor employee reimbursements with real-time alerts.

Track my employee expenses →


talentlms

13. EPIGNOSIS eLearning Solutions

Product: TalentLMS
Category: Learning Management System (LMS)
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2012
Employees: 40
 

Based in the heart of SF’s FiDi (Financial District), with offices in London and Athens as well, EPIGNOSIS provides a variety of e-learning solutions on both the large and small scale. TalentLMS is one of the vendor’s primary solutions: a course creator designed to teach both students and employees with easy, convenient features for both administering and learning. According to the TalentLMS website, you can use the free version of the software for an indefinite amount of time, and upgrade at your discretion for more premium features.

In a TalentLMS review, Joy P. wrote of the software: “TalentLMS has a lot of amazing features. I think that my favorite is that it presents everything in a game-like mode, which makes it really fun to browse learning-based content considering that it is so easily customizable! I also love that it is so easy to set up and use. I find it a great tool to connect with more people and market my learning-based content regarding tutoring sessions.”


optimizely

14. Optimizely

Product: Optimizely
Category: A/B Testing
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2009
Employees: 464
 

According to the company’s LinkedIn, Optimizely is “the world’s leading experimentation platform, enabling businesses to deliver continuous experimentation and personalization across websites, mobile apps and connected devices.” As a Leader in the A/B Testing category and the only Leader in the Mobile App Optimization category, it’s hard to disagree. Customers include Microsoft, Sony and fellow Bay Area residents OpenTable and IGN. The latest version of the software, Optimizely X, is available as a free trial for 30 days. Plans are then offered based on the solutions your company requires (e.g., Web Personalization, Web Experimentation, Full Stack). On top of serving some of the biggest companies in the world, Optimizely has been named one of the “Best Places to Work in the Bay Area” by San Francisco Business Times on several occasions.


splunk

15. Splunk

Product: Splunk Enterprise
Category: Application Performance Monitoring (APM)
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2004
Employees: 3279
 

The publicly traded Splunk is a slam dunk among users, with five products with at least four stars featured on G2 Crowd. At the head of the pack is Splunk Enterprise, a wide-scale APM tool in the vein of New Relic, another software on this list. It also derives analytics from your company’s machine data, using it for “Operational Intelligence,” as they call it. Per the Splunk website, “Operational Intelligence gives you a real-time understanding of what’s happening across your IT systems and technology infrastructure so you can make informed decisions. It is enabled by the Splunk platform, the foundation for all of Splunk’s products, premium solutions, apps and add-ons.” If you’d like to see what all this Operational Intelligence business is about, you can sign up for a free trial on the Splunk website.


instapage

16. Instapage

Product: Instapage
Category: Landing Page Builders
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2012
Employees: 123
 

Instapage is a landing page builder with a variety of features to make your landing page as effective as possible. With 154 reviews, G2 Crowd reviewers have made Instapage a Leader in the A/B Testing and Landing Page Builder categories. Your custom landing page will be able to integrate with things like Facebook Ads, Google Analytics, MailChimp, Zendesk and other tools to help you grow traffic and capture meaningful leads.

In a five-star Instapage review, Lynda B. wrote: “Their new collaboration tool is awesome! I can go from concept to a complete landing page in minutes, thanks to the input of my entire team. Also their templates, WordPress integration, and built-in analytics really help me make create, deploy and track all my landing pages in no time. And did I mention their customer support team? :)”


swiftype  

17. Swiftype

Product: Swiftype Site Search
Category: Enterprise Search
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2012
Employees: 40

Swiftype Site Search is an enterprise search and e-commerce tool that helps customers find what they’re looking for on your website. Companies like CBS, Shopify, Marketo and Samsung use Swiftype Site Search for their websites. It has 75 reviews on G2 Crowd with 4.4 out of 5 stars as of January 17, 2018, and is one of only two Leaders in the Enterprise Search category. A free trial of the software is available on the Swiftype website.


dropbox

18. Dropbox

Product: Dropbox
Category: File Storage and Sharing
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2007
Employees: 2518
 

Before Google Drive came crashing in from Silicon Valley, there was Dropbox. Dropbox is a file sharing service that allows users to store and share files in the cloud, with various specs and features based on the plan your team requires. Despite the newfound competition, it’s still winning new customers all the time, and is a Leader in G2 Crowd’s File Storage and Sharing category. Dropbox Business is used by an amazing 200,000 companies, including Yahoo!, National Geographic, Kayak, Under Armour and Hyatt.

Reviewer Yusra K. said they’ve “never seen a better storage software,” and continues in their Dropbox review: “Dropbox has made my work life extremely easy. Being someone of a managerial position, I have to keep records of a lot of confidential client data and secure transaction history. I used to keep USBs and hard drives for such data but it was a bit expensive and a threat of stealing was always there. Now I just upload all these files to my Dropbox account. Only I can access it with a secure password. Even while traveling, I can easily access these records on my mobile and send/upload accordingly…I would recommend this to everyone who wants to save their data and keep backup of files.”


prosperworks

19. ProsperWorks

Product: ProsperWorks CRM
Category: CRM
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2011
Employees: 142

 

ProsperWorks CRM is a High Performer in G2 Crowd’s crowded CRM category, with 287 reviews and 4.7 out of 5 stars as of January 18, 2018. Unlike most CRM platforms, ProsperWorks CRM scrapes contact information and pre-populates it within the interface. ProsperWorks integrates with G-suite and includes calling and emailing capabilities within the program. More than 10,000 companies use ProsperWorks, and a free trial is available on the company’s website.


notepad

20. Notepad++

Product: Notepad++
Category: Text Editor
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2004
Employees: 1

Notepad++ is a free source code editor that supports multiple languages and includes features such as syntax highlighting and folding, PCRE search/replace, and auto-completion. After nearly 400 reviews, Notepad++ boasts an impressive 4.6 out of 5 stars as of January 18, 2018, and is a Leader in G2 Crowd’s Text Editor category.

In a five-star Notepad++ review, Tegan J. wrote: “This program is my go-to whenever I have to do some quick text notes or editing. I love the multiple tabs it offers. This is a serious advantage over regular Notepad. When you are looking to scribble some quick notes down, this is the way to go. The parenthesis highlighting is also really nice (it highlights the corresponding beginning/closing parenthesis in your text). It’s also very convenient that it saves your work automatically and pops up the next time you open the program. That way, when I am taking quick notes I don’t have to worry about losing my work if there is a random restart or shut down on my computer. I also like that it highlights the row you are on. The spell check features is also a huge benefit of this product — something that regular Notepad doesn’t offer.”


crashlytics

 21. Crashlytics

Product: Crashlytics
Category: Mobile Crash Reporting
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2006
Employees: 3752

 

Crashlytics is a mobile crash reporting platform that monitors mobile apps in real time and analyzes their performance. It’s used by companies such as Square, PayPal, Waze and Groupon, and is a Leader in G2 Crowd’s Mobile Crash Reporting category. In an enthusiastic Crashlytics review, Emil N. wrote: “The level of details you are given about your crash reports is awesome! I love how there is always something new I find out about my crash reports. I can easily get lost in all that data Crashlytics provides. I didn’t even know there is so much things an app can say about a crash.” The basic version of Crashlytics is entirely free, and can be downloaded through the product’s website.


signeasy

22. SignEasy

Product: SignEasy
Category: E-Signature
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2010
Employees: 43
 

SignEasy is an e-signature tool that allows businesses to use mobile devices to sign legal documents electronically and remotely. Able to integrate with G Suite, Dropbox, Zoho CRM and more, SignEasy makes signing documents convenient and, well…easy. With a stellar 4.7 out of 5 stars after 317 reviews, SignEasy is one of the best-reviewed e-signature products and Leader in G2 Crowd’s E-Signature category. A 14-day free trial is available from the product’s website.

“We are delighted to be recognized among the leading B2B tech companies in San Francisco — the city that continues to inspire us with its spirit of innovation, growth and making lives simpler with technology. With a keen customer focus, we’ve been helping individuals and businesses of all sizes across 180 countries drive business impact and productivity by going paperless.” Sunil Patro, Founder and CEO of SignEasy

mulesoft

23. MuleSoft

Product: Anypoint Platform
Category: API Management
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2006
Employees: 1,312
 

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform is a tool to design, build and manage APIs and integrations. The Anypoint website calls it “the unified platform for API-led connectivity,” Used by major companies such as Netflix, Spotify, Target and Verizon, Anypoint Platform is a Leader in G2 Crowd’s iPaaS, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and API Management categories. With 262 reviews, G2 Crowd users have given Anypoint Platform 4.5 out of 5 stars as of January 18, 2018.

In a five-star Anypoint Platform review, Brad C. wrote: “The Anypoint platform is a complete integration solution which allows you to expose both existing and new systems and functions by publishing APIs in front of them. The variety of tools offered with the platform cover all bases of design, implementation, support and discoverability. Best of all though, the developed applications can be run on-premise, in the cloud, or as a hybrid solution — and you can easily move from one of these models to another without needing to change the application.”


github

24. GitHub

Product: GitHub
Category: Version Control Hosting
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2008
Employees: 903

GitHub is a development platform that focuses on code review and version control, helping teams to build better together. GitHub integrates with Slack, Codacy, ZenHub and Codeship, among other tools. With nearly 700 overwhelmingly positive reviews as of January 17, GitHub holds the No. 1 place on the Grids® for both Version Control Hosting and Peer Code Review. Some of the biggest brands in the world use GitHub, including SAP, IBM and Facebook, and signup is free on the product’s website.


buffer

25. Buffer

Product: Buffer
Category: Social Media Management
City: San Francisco
Founded: 2010
Employees: 116
 

Buffer is a social media management platform that helps companies manage and analyze their social media presences, with a range of features to help optimize content and attract new followers. Companies such as Intercom, Shopify, and Business Insider use Buffer. Buffer is a Leader in G2 Crowd’s hotly contested Social Media Management category, with a user base of over 4,000,000 marketers according to the Buffer website.

Devon H. wrote that Buffer is “crucial” to their company’s social media marketing. In a five-star Buffer review, they added: “Buffer makes it so incredibly easy to post to multiple social media accounts at once. I am a huge fan of our ability to change the title, description text, and image of links we’re sharing, as well as its ability to detect the best time of day you should post for your specific accounts. Also, their blog is a treasure trove of information.”


Other B2B San Francisco Tech Companies

While we recognized only the 25 best-reviewed software exports from San Francisco, there are still an abundance of other B2B tech companies impacting the region’s tech scene. Here’s a rundown of other San Francisco B2B software companies with their founded dates and total funding.  

Vendor Product Reviews Founded
DocuSign DocuSign 819 2003
Zendesk ZendeskSupport 612 2007
Meltwater Meltwater 395 2001
Marin Software MarinSoftware 351 2006
ClearSlide, Inc. ClearSlide 346 2009
Dialpad UberConference 326 2014
FinancialForce.com FinancialForcePSA 287 2009
Twitter TweetDeck 282 2006
Clearbit ClearbitEnrichment 272 2014
Intercom Intercom 267 2011
Weebly, Inc. Weebly 254 2006
Insightly Insightly 252 2011
Eventbrite Eventbrite 251 2006
Campaign Monitor CampaignMonitor 235 2004
Atom Atom 229 2014
HelloSign HelloSign 220 2012
Humanity Humanity 217 2013
Grammarly grammarly 214 2008
Square Square 200 2009
Tradeshift Tradeshift 192 2009
PandaDoc PandaDoc 171 2011
Jenkins Jenkins 164 2011
Git Git 157 2005
Autopilot Autopilot 152 2012
SmartRecruiters SmartRecruiters 149 2010
Epignosis eLearning solutions TalentLMS 148 2012
Instapage, Inc. Instapage 148 2012
Instapage, Inc. Instapage 148 2012
Kissmetrics Kissmetrics 139 2008
Audacity Audacity 132 1999
CloudFlare, Inc. CloudFlare 127 2009
Mailgun Technologies Mailgun 125 2010
AdRoll AdRoll 119 2007
Zenefits Zenefits 119 2013
CloudApp CloudApp 119 2016
Olark Olark 118 2008
ON24 ON24 110 1998
Quizlet Quizlet 110 2005
Docker, Inc Docker 109 2013
GetFeedback GetFeedback 103 2013
Salestools.io Salestools.io 103 2014
GitLab GitLab 103 2014
Gusto! Gusto 102 2011
Pinterest Pinterest 101 2010
Stripe Stripe 98 2010
Heap Heap 92 2013
Jitterbit Jitterbit 91 2004
Mixpanel Mixpanel 91 2009
Pantheon Pantheon 89 2010
Business Wire BusinessWire 87 1961
Udemy, Inc. Udemy 84 2010
sendwithus sendwithus 84 2013
Unity Technologies Unity 82 2003
ClassDojo ClassDojo 78 2011
Perforce HelixVCS 77 1995
COMPAS Technology COMPASATSCRM 72 2008
Nitro, Inc NitroPro 71 2005
Lever Lever 68 2012
Accelo Accelo 66 2011
Logikcull Logikcull 64 2004
GoodData GoodData 64 2007
ClearCare ClearCare 64 2010
Nexmo Nexmo 62 2010
ClickTime ClickTime 61 1997
Twilio Twilio 60 2008
EaseCentral EaseCentral 60 2012
MindTickle MindTickle 60 2012
Woopra Woopra 60 2012
Remind Remind 59 2011
Boomr Boomr 58 2013
Webgility UnifyEnterprise 57 2007
Leadspace Leadspace 56 2010
Segment Segment 56 2012
Mixmax Mixmax 56 2014
Authorize.Net Authorize.Net 55 1996
PersistIQ PersistIQ 55 2014
Webflow Webflow 54 2012
Sauce Labs SauceLabs 53 2008
Cazoomi SyncApps 53 2009
Codenvy Codenvy 52 2013
IFTTT IFTTT 51 2010
Streak Streak 51 2011
AppFrontier Chargent 50 2012
Bootstrap Bootstrap 46 2011
Newton Software NewtonATS 45 2009
Fond Fond 45 2012
Pivotal PivotalTracker 45 2013
Deem Deem 44 1999
WORK[etc] WORK[etc] 43 2006
Concord Worldwide, Inc. Concord 43 2015
PagerDuty PagerDuty 42 2009
DataFox DataFox 42 2013
Wootric Wootric 42 2013
Postman Postman 42 2014
kintone kintone 41 1997
Lithium Technologies LithiumCommunities 41 2001
Gliffy Gliffy 40 2005
Iterable Iterable 40 2013
Groove Labs Inc Groove 40 2013
PlanGrid PlanGrid 39 2011
Chorus.ai Chorus.ai 38 2015
OneLogin OneLogin 37 2009
Talkdesk Talkdesk 37 2011
Xamarin, Inc. Xamarin 36 2011
Dataquest Labs, Inc. Dataquest 36 2015
Growbots Growbots 35 2012
The Quiz Collective Interact 35 2014
Klout Klout 34 2008
Rollbar Rollbar 34 2012
Maventus Group MavSocial 33 2012
BuzzBoard, Inc. BuzzBoard 33 2014
Proto.io Proto.io 32 2011
BrightFunnel, Inc. BrightFunnel 32 2012
Socialbakers Socialbakers 31 2008
Nginx Nginx 31 2011
Functional Software, Inc. Sentry 30 2011
Xplenty Xplenty 30 2012
Mode ModeAnalytics 30 2013
ZenProspect ZenProspect 30 2015
CiviCRM CiviCRM 29 2005
Truly Truly 29 2013
UserVoice UserVoice 28 2007
Union Metrics UnionMetrics 28 2008
WalkMe WalkMe 28 2011
Recruiterbox Recruiterbox 28 n/a
Demandbase Demandbase 27 2006
Couchbase Couchbase 27 2009
Recurly Recurly 27 2009
Front App Front 27 2013
Message System SparkPost 26 2002
AppDynamics AppDynamics 26 2008
Plivo Inc Plivo 26 2011
Rainforest RainforestQA 26 2012
Quantcast QuantcastMeasure 25 2006
Hashicorp Vagrant 25 2012
Gradle Inc. Gradle 24 2009
6sense 6sense 23 2013
Airtable Airtable 23 2015
Cordata, Inc. Sendbloom 22 2013
Hyphen Hyphen 22 2015
Phacility, Inc. Phabricator 21 2011
Zignal Labs ZignalLabs 21 2011
Any.do, Inc. Any.do 21 2011
Flinto Flinto 21 2012
SenderGen SenderGen 21 2013
Paubox PauboxEncryptedEmail 21 2015
OpenTable, Inc. OpenTableConnect 21 12181
Envoy Envoy 20 2013
Blueshift Labs Blueshift 20 2014
Scoop.it Scoop.it 19 2011
IPfolio IPfolio 19 2012
SalesHood Inc SalesHood 19 2013
Certain CertainEventAutomation 18 1994
Yelp YelpReservations 18 2004
Jotform JotForm 18 2006
Meldium Meldium 18 2012
Drone.io Drone.io 18 2012
WorkRamp, Inc. WorkRamp 18 2015
Growlabs.com Growlabs 18 2016
Poll Everywhere PollEverywhere 17 2007
Airbrake.io Airbrake 17 2010
Broadly, Inc BroadlyReviews 17 2013
ProductBoard ProductBoard 17 2014
Guidebook Guidebook 16 2011
Stitch Labs StitchLabs 16 2011
Tray.io Tray.io 16 2012
Amplitude AmplitudeAnalytics 16 2012
SocialChorus, Inc. SocialChorus 15 2008
Sniply Sniply 15 2014
Coralogix Coralogix 15 2014
NinjaRMM, LLC NinjaRMM 15 n/a
Thumbtack Thumbtack 14 2009
Apteligent Apteligent 14 2011
Periscope PeriscopeData 14 2012
Teamable Teamable 14 2013
Practice Fusion PracticeFusion 13 2005
Spigit Spigit 13 2007
Imgur Imgur 13 2009
Doubledutch DoubleDutch 13 2011
Radius Intelligence Radius 13 2012
Stackla Stackla 13 2012
bugsnag BugSnag 13 2013
Assistant.to assistant.to 13 2013
Node.io Node 13 2014
QSOFT LLC amoCRM 12 2004
Justinmind Justinmind 12 2005
Mansa Systems MassMailer 12 2006
CYPHER LEARNING NEOLMS 12 2007
Helpshift Helpshift 12 2011
Fileboard Inc. Fileboard 12 2011
Sparkcentral Sparkcentral 12 2011
AirPR AirPR 12 2011
Scout RFP ScoutRFPStrategicSourcingPlatform 12 2014
Intricately Intricately 12 2014
Sendoso Sendoso 12 2016
SpringAhead SpringAhead 11 1995
Magoosh Magoosh 11 2009
Entelo EnteloSearch 11 2011
Xola Xola 11 2011
NoRedInk NoRedInk 11 2012
Queue Technologies Queue 11 2012
AdStage AdStage 11 2012
IBM StrongLoop Express.js 11 2013
Attach Attach 11 2014
Homebase HomebaseSchedule,TimeClockandTimesheets 11 2014
BSD Flask 11 n/a
McKesson McKessonPracticePlus 10 1833
Blurb Blurb 10 2004
Appirio Appirio 10 2006
Anaplan Anaplan 10 2006
Traackr Traackr 10 2009
Storify.com Storify 10 2010
Bitnami Bitnami 10 2011
Badger Maps, Inc BadgerMaps 10 2012
Boomtrain Boomtrain 10 2012
Onfleet Onfleet 10 2012
Terminus Terminus 10 2013
Pattern Technologies Pattern 10 2015
Kong Inc Kong 10 2017
Aviso, Inc. Aviso 10 n/a
Snacktools Bannersnack 10 n/a
CollabNet TeamForge 9 1999
TalentLMS eFrontPro 9 2003
Pierce Washington PierceWashington 9 2005
AccountingSuite AccountingSuite 9 2012
Hired Hired 9 2012
Smartcat Smartcat 9 2013
Solano Labs SolanoCI 8 2011
The Harris Consulting Group, LLC. TheHarrisConsultingGroup,LLC. 8 2013
Metadata Metadata.io 8 n/a
Brightidea Brightidea 6 1999
Scripted, Inc. Scripted.com 6 2011
Melian Labs, Inc. MyTime 6 n/a
Toofr Toofr 6 n/a
Hiptest Hiptest 6 n/a
Loggly Loggly 6 n/a
Dasheroo Dasheroo 5 2014
Appodeal Appodeal 5 n/a
Talent Rover TalentRover 5 n/a
Koding, Inc. Koding 5 n/a
Embarcadero Technologies DelphiXE8 4 1993
Recommind Axcelerate5 4 2001
Flite Flite 4 2006
Engine Yard EngineYard 4 2006
Distil Networks DistilNetworks 4 2011
SnapDocs, Inc. SnapDocs 4 2012
Projector.is, Inc ScreenMeet 4 n/a
Gogohire Gogohire 4 n/a
Fieldwire Fieldwire 4 n/a
Contentools Contentools 4 n/a
Scoro Scoro 4 n/a
Zedo ZEDO 3 1999
LegalMatch LegalMatchMarketingSolutions 3 1999
Surveypal Surveypal 3 2011
MixRank MixRank 3 2011
Mural. MURAL 3 2011
Zenput Zenput 3 2012
OneMob OneMob 3 2014
KingStreetLabs, LLC FormSwift 3 n/a
Foxpass Foxpass 3 n/a
Granular Granular 3 n/a
Crowdcast Crowdcast 3 n/a
Keynote Systems KeynoteSystems 2 1995
ReTargeter ReTargeter 2 2009
ExpensePath, Inc. ExpensePath 2 2010
Leanplum Leanplum 2 2012
Inspire Beats InspireBeats 2 2014
JobScore JobScore 2 n/a
Degreed Degreed 2 n/a
Paradiso Solutions ParadisoLMS 2 n/a
GTxcel GTxcel 1 1991
Aria Systems AriaSystems 1 2003
Clustrix Clustrix 1 2006
Crunchbase CrunchbaseEnterprise 1 2007
SQLstream SQLstream 1 2009
Ampush Ampush 1 2009
Apsalar, Inc Apsalar 1 2010
Metric Insights MetricInsights 1 2010
Propertybase Propertybase 1 2010
Verbling Verbling 1 2011
Picovico PICOVICO 1 2011
MemSQL MemSQL 1 2011
PressFriendly PressFriendly 1 2013
Do Do 1 2014
Claritix Claritix 1 2015
ABUKAI ABUKAIExpenses 1 n/a
DataQuest, Inc. DataQuest,Inc. 1 n/a
Sqwiggle, Inc Speak 1 n/a
2600Hz 2600Hz 1 n/a
Wiplo Wiplo 1 n/a
Hire Ready HireReady 1 n/a
SocialPulsar SocialPulsar 1 n/a
Obindo Obindo 1 n/a
ChikPea ChikPeaO2B 1 n/a
Tenjin Tenjin 1 n/a
LaunchDarkly LaunchDarkly 1 n/a
Rentbery Inc. Rentberry 1 n/a
Answerbook LogDNA 1 n/a
Rocket Lawyer RocketLawyer 1 n/a
Ladderr Ladderr 1 n/a
WhatRunsWhere.com WhatRunsWhere 1 n/a
Clockspot Inc Clockspot 1 n/a
Infocom Group BulldogPro 0 1980
Franz Inc AllegroCL 0 1984
Arx ArX 0 1987
Blast Analytics & Marketing BlastAnalytics&Marketing 0 1999
LiveVox LiveVox 0 2001
BrightTALK BrightTALKChannels 0 2002
Terracotta Ehcache 0 2003
SignalDemand SignalDemand 0 2004
Decisely Decisely 0 2006
Wikia Wikia 0 2006
Evolphin Software ZoombyEvolphin 0 2007
Plan Elements PlanElements 0 2007
Topsy Topsy 0 2008
WaterSmart Software WaterSmart 0 2009
awe.sm awe.sm 0 2009
VigLink VigLink 0 2009
Extole, Inc. Extole 0 2009
Billbooks Billbooks 0 2010
Panorama9 Panorama9 0 2010
ZipZap ZipZap 0 2010
AppHarbor AppHarbor 0 2010
Chute Chute 0 2011
Swrve Swrve 0 2011
Iconiq Inc. DeZyre 0 2011
Biba Systems Inc Biba 0 2012
Namerific Namerific 0 2012
WhalePath ' WhalePath 0 2012
Penguin Strategies PenguinStrategy 0 2012
Brandcast.com Brandcast 0 2012
NodeSocket, LLC Commando.io 0 2012
Vivocha Inc Vivocha 0 2012
Qordoba Qordoba 0 2012
ContentDJ ContentDJ 0 2012
Cloud Artillery SalesCoachPremium 0 2012
Bitmatica Dashtab 0 2012
Coinbase Coinbase 0 2012
Shyp Shyp 0 2013
Vessel Vessel 0 2013
Inside Warehouse InsideWarehouse 0 2013
AdaptRM TimeMyLife 0 2013
Mobijobi Mobijobi 0 2013
adlogica.com AdSavvy 0 2013
Polymorph Enterprise PolymorphEnterprise 0 2013
SwoopMe, Inc. Swoop 0 2014
Paid Paid 0 2014
LinkTexting LinkTexting 0 2014
RC (CLOSED) RocketClub 0 2014
TalkIQ TalkIQ 0 2014
Nama Software, Inc Nama 0 2014
Ladd Partners LaddPartners 0 2014
Twibble Twibble 0 2014
Jumpshot Inc JumpshotCampaignEffectiveness 0 2015
NuCypher NuCypher 0 2015
CPQ Solutions CPQSolutions 0 n/a
Who@ Topferral 0 n/a
TweetReach TweetReachPro 0 n/a
Omniata Omniata 0 n/a
Thalamus Thalamus 0 n/a
KeyReply ChatbyKeyReply 0 n/a
Worklife Worklife 0 n/a
StacksWare StacksWare 0 n/a
SIM Partners VelocitybySIMPartners 0 n/a
H5 H5 0 n/a
Proven Proven 0 n/a
ODECloud ODECloudERPConsulting 0 n/a
MyTips myTips 0 n/a
Sunshine Sunshine 0 n/a
leadware leadware.io 0 n/a
TidyMktr TidyMktr 0 n/a
TrapX Security DeceptionGrid 0 n/a
Mentor Resources, Inc. WisdomShare 0 n/a
Stratodesk NoTouchDesktop 0 n/a
Compgun Inc. Compgun 0 n/a
eeStrategy eeCompensation 0 n/a
MicroHero Surveys MicroHeroSurveys 0 n/a
PresentiGo PresentiGo 0 n/a
Fanatical, Inc. Fanatical 0 n/a
Colibri.io Colibri.io 0 n/a
Digify Inc Digify 0 n/a
HelloShift HelloShift 0 n/a
Visible.vc, Inc. Visible 0 n/a
Tagplay INC Tagplay 0 n/a
Pixlee Pixlee 0 n/a
speakeasy.co Speakeasy 0 n/a
Hellotracks Hellotracks 0 n/a
YesPath YesPathABM 0 n/a
raklet Raklet 0 n/a
Resulticks Resulticks 0 n/a
SearchYourCloud inc. SearchYourCloud 0 n/a
Survox Survox 0 n/a
1-Page Source.hr 0 n/a
Xendo, Inc. Xendo 0 n/a
Fivestars Fivestars 0 n/a
Sqwiggle Sqwiggle 0 n/a
Kinetic Growth Venue 0 n/a
THiNKaha AHAthat 0 n/a
Shopio ECommerce Software Solution, Inc. Shopio 0 n/a
Eventbee Eventbee 0 n/a
DGLogik, Inc. DGLux5 0 n/a
SuiteCX SuiteCX 0 n/a
Telnexus CloudPBX 0 n/a
 

For any questions about the methodology or data included in this piece, or to request that your San Francisco B2B tech company be added, please reach out to Editorial Team Lead Jakub Rudnik at jrudnik@g2crowd.com.

The State of San Francisco Tech in 2018 (+25 Best Companies) G2 Crowd looks at the B2B tech scene in San Francisco and evaluates overall trends, funding and ranks the top B2B tech companies. https://learn.g2crowd.com/hubfs/Stock%20images/Sunset%20view%20of%20the%20Golden%20Gate%20Bridge%20and%20fog%20from%20Battery%20Spencer,%20%20Golden%20Gate%20National%20Recreation%20Area,%20in%20San%20Francisco,%20California..jpeg
Andrew Zangre Zangre is a former Senior Research Specialist who helped with spearheading G2's expansion into B2B Services. He studied journalism at the University of North Florida — which is still undefeated in football — and joined G2 in 2016 when there was only one other “Andrew.” He has enjoyed contributing to newspapers and online publications while pursuing music and comedy projects in his free time. https://learn.g2.com/hubfs/Zangreupdated.jpeg

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