‘Favorable alternative’

Dallas-Fort Worth outranks Silicon Valley in new report of best tech cities

DFW jumped from No. 7 last year to No. 2 this year.

Photo by Joe Daniel Price/Getty Images

As a tech hub, Dallas-Fort Worth outshines the San Francisco Bay Area this year. DFW ranks second on a list of the best tech towns in the U.S., with both Silicon Valley and San Francisco slipping in the third annual ranking.

Neighboring Austin ranked No. 1.

Based on job-posting data from August 2019 to July 2020, the CompTIA trade group looked at 20 metro areas with populations over 250,000 and where demand for tech workers is greatest. CompTIA then ranked the metros on cost of living, number of postings for IT jobs, and projected IT job growth over the next year as well as the next five years.

DFW jumped from No. 7 last year to No. 2 this year. CompTIA attributes DFW’s leap to the sheer number of IT jobs available (178,579 job postings last year), with projections of more to come (3 percent growth from 2020 to 2021 and 11 percent in the next five years).

The median salary for IT professionals in DFW is $94,044. CompTIA says the cost of living in DFW sits 2 percent below the national average.

The trade group identifies these companies that are aggressively hiring IT professionals in DFW:

Lockheed Martin
JPMorgan Chase
USAA
Citi
Deloitte
Verizon
Wells Fargo
IBM
NTT Data
InfoVision

“In short, the conventional technology enterprises have set the tone for the Dallas tech scene,” the report says, “while emerging technology companies are taking it to the next level.”

Texas' capital city ranked first in CompTIA’s 2019 and 2020 reports and third in the inaugural 2018 report, besting Silicon Valley every year. By comparison, San Jose, California, holds the No. 4 spot this year, down one spot from 2019 while San Francisco appears at No. 7 this year, down from No. 5 the year before.

“Home to 5,500 startups and tech companies, Austin has become a favorable alternative to the Bay Area and New York City for companies of all sizes that are looking to grow,” CompTIA says in its Tech Town Index report, released November 10.

CompTIA says more than 100 tech companies have relocated to the Austin area in the past two years, adding more than 4,600 jobs. IT job postings continue to grow in the region, with a year-over-year increase of 19,000 jobs. The group notes that the Austin area remains one of best places to live in terms of cost of living — about 4 percent below the national average and the fourth most affordable market among the 20 metros on this year’s index.

Over the next five years, CompTIA predicts IT job growth of 16 percent job in the Austin area. The region’s median salary for tech professionals is $87,880.

Here are the top 10 metros in this year’s Tech Town Index:

Austin
Dallas-Fort Worth
Raleigh, North Carolina
San Jose, California
Charlotte, North Carolina
Seattle
San Francisco
Atlanta
Huntsville, Alabama
Denver

entrepreneurship starts here

Dallas leads on 2026 list of the best big cities to start a business

Photo by Gabriel Tovar on Unsplash

Dallas ranked 11th in the U.S. in 2026, and previously ranked 16th in 2025.

The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is showing its strong entrepreneurial spirit after Dallas and five of its neighbors appeared on WalletHub's new list of the best large U.S. cities for starting a business in 2026. Dallas leads the charge in North Texas as the No. 11 best city nationwide.

The annual report compared 100 U.S. cities based on 19 relevant metrics across three key dimensions: business environment, access to resources, and costs. Factors that were analyzed include five-year business survival rates, job growth comparisons from 2020 and 2024, population growth of working-age individuals aged 16-64, office space affordability, and more.

Florida cities locked out the top five best places in America for starting a new business: Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Hialeah, and St. Petersburg.

Dallas' business environment ranked as the fifth-best in the country, and the city ranked 45th for its "access to resources," and 64th in the "business costs" category. Dallas also topped a separate ranking of cities with the longest average workweeks nationwide.

Here's how Dallas compared in some of the other rankings in the study:

No. 24 – Numerical small business growth
No. 29 – Financing accessibility
No. 40 – Labor costs
No. 55 – Cost of living

Elsewhere in North Texas, Irving ranked No. 16 nationally, followed by Arlington (No. 23), Fort Worth (No. 30), Plano, (No. 35), and Garland (No. 65).

Earlier this year, WalletHub declared Texas the third-best state for starting a business in 2026, and several DFW cities have seen robust growth after being recognized among the top 20 best career hotspots in the U.S. WalletHub also ranked Plano the 7th best U.S. city for finding a job.

Only seven other Texas cities earned spots in the report: Austin (No. 24), Houston (No. 26), Lubbock (No. 36), Corpus Christi (No. 39), San Antonio (No. 64), El Paso (No. 67), and Laredo (No. 76).

Austin tied with Boise, Idaho and Fresno, California for the highest average growth in the number of small businesses nationally, while Corpus Christi and Laredo topped a separate list of the U.S. cities with the most accessible financing.

innovation wallethub dallas rankings reports entrepreneurs new businesses