Operating picture · measured 2026-09-09
6,083 US IT providers name education — 15.5% of the market.
Education is the fifth most-claimed vertical in US IT services. Of the 6,083 providers who claim it, 4,610 show a buyer no certification of any kind.
of 39,235 US providers name education as a vertical they serve
n = 39,235 published US providers, of which 6,083 name education, schools, K-12 or higher education among the verticals they serve. Verticals are on file for 25,458 of the 39,235, so an unknown counts against the share and 15.5% is a floor. Shares labeled "of the education group" are against those 6,083. Measured 2026-09-09 in one repeatable-read snapshot.
- Shows a certification
- 24.2%
- Shows a Google rating
- 59.8%
- Median reviews, rated firms
- 8
- Median headcount
- 13
- Shows a certification
- 15.7%
- Shows a Google rating
- 44.3%
- Median reviews, rated firms
- 9
- Median headcount
- 9
The published statistic behind this
Cybersecurity is the most common published service among IT providers: 16,425 firms of the 36,575 that list any service at all.
n = 36,575 providers listing at least one service · measured 2026-09-17. The figures on this page are frozen at their own measurement date and are not recomputed from that table.
Services offered prevalence ▸One provider in six names education
6,083 of 39,235 published US providers name education among the verticals they serve — 15.5%. That makes education the fifth most-claimed vertical we track, behind healthcare at 33.0%, finance, government and manufacturing at 17.6%.
It is a wide field, not a specialty. A school district running a procurement process is not choosing between a handful of specialists; it is choosing from roughly six thousand firms, of which 543 name education as the only vertical they serve.
The group is also larger than the directory average by headcount. The median education-naming firm that publishes a headcount reports 13 staff, across the 5,441 that publish one, against a directory median of 9. Districts are buying from firms with more people than the typical provider on this site.
The certification gap is the number that matters here
1,473 of the 6,083 show a certification of any kind. That is 24.2% — better than the directory's 15.7%, and still a minority. 4,610 providers who tell schools they serve education do not show a buyer a single third-party credential.
Read that as "do not show us one", not as "do not hold one". Certifications are counted from what a provider publishes where a buyer can find it, and the credentials we record skew toward enterprise, cloud and security programs rather than education-specific ones.
2,696 of the group, or 44.3%, name compliance work as a service. For a sector governed by student-records obligations, that leaves 3,387 education-serving providers who name no compliance service at all.
Where they are, and what they will not tell you
California 599, Texas 576, Florida 375, New York 366, New Jersey 257 and Illinois 254 lead by provider headquarters. Those are population rankings more than education rankings — the six states with the most providers overall are close to the same six.
Only 63 of the 6,083 publish a per-user, per-month rate. At 1.0% of the group, there is no education pricing benchmark to give, and any figure computed from 63 firms would describe those 63 rather than the sector.
3,636 of the group show a Google rating, at a median of 8 reviews among those rated. Both figures run ahead of the directory, which is what a sector with public procurement and named references tends to produce.
What this number can't tell you
- ·This measures what providers publish about themselves, not who they actually serve. Any provider with school clients who never names the vertical is counted in the 84.5%.
- ·Verticals are on file for 25,458 of the 39,235 published firms, so 15.5% is a floor and an unknown counts against it.
- ·"Education" here pools a general education tag with K-12, higher education, academia, charter and private school tags. A provider may carry several; the 6,083 are distinct firms, not tag mentions.
- ·Certification shares reflect what a provider publishes, and the certifications we record skew toward enterprise, cloud and security programs. A provider holding education-specific credentials may show us none.
- ·Median headcount is over the 5,441 education-naming firms that publish one, not all 6,083, and self-published headcounts are not audited.
- ·Review medians are over rated firms only. Rating values themselves are not plotted: google_rating bunches at the top of its range and a percentile of it would be misleading.
- ·State counts are provider headquarters, not service areas. Education IT is frequently delivered regionally, so a headquarters count understates who can serve a given district.
- ·Only 63 firms in the group publish a per-seat rate, so no pricing figure is given for education.
What to do about it
- ▸Buying: 15.5% of the market names education, so the vertical claim alone does not narrow anything. Ask instead for districts by name, student counts and which student-information system they have migrated. 543 firms name education as their only vertical — that is the short list if specialization is what you want.
- ▸Selling: the differentiator in this group is not the claim, it is proof. 4,610 education-serving providers show no certification and 3,387 name no compliance service, so publishing either one moves a provider ahead of most of the field.
Questions this finding answers
- How many US MSPs provide IT support for schools?
- Education is the fifth most-claimed vertical in US IT services. Of the 6,083 providers who claim it, 4,610 show a buyer no certification of any kind.
- How was this measured?
- n = 39,235 published US providers, of which 6,083 name education, schools, K-12 or higher education among the verticals they serve. Verticals are on file for 25,458 of the 39,235, so an unknown counts against the share and 15.5% is a floor. Shares labeled "of the education group" are against those 6,083. Measured 2026-09-09 in one repeatable-read snapshot.
- What can't this number tell you?
- This measures what providers publish about themselves, not who they actually serve. Any provider with school clients who never names the vertical is counted in the 84.5%.
Where does your firm sit on this?
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More findings
- 32.1%4,027 US IT providers name construction — and they are the best-credentialed vertical group we measure.
- 17.6%6,897 US IT providers name manufacturing — 17.6% of the market, and the largest firms of any vertical we measure.
- 94.7%19,959 US providers sell security. 1,071 name a capability that detects an attack.
- 42.8%16,794 US providers name cybersecurity. Every specific security service is named by under 3.1% of the market.