How many software development companies are in Saudi Arabia?
Companies writing, testing and supporting software and apps.
25.8K
active registrations list software development activities — 1.8% of classified registrations.
Ministry of Commerce data · Q3 2026 to 16 Sep
25,774 active commercial registrations in Saudi Arabia list software development activities as of 16 September 2026 — 1.8% of all classified registrations, the 39th-largest of the 64 sectors we track.
6,804 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +28% on 2024, faster than the +15% across all sectors.
Riyadh (15,418), Jeddah (3,717) and Dammam (976) lead. Relative to its size, Dhahran is the most concentrated: software development companies make up 3.0× the share they hold nationally.
70.4% of these registrations are companies rather than sole proprietorships, and the median company reports SAR 50,000 of paid-up capital.
- Active registrations
- 25,774
- 1.8% of classified CRs
- Registered in 2025
- 6,804
- +28% on 2024 · all sectors +15%
- Companies
- 70.4%
- 18,156 of 25,774
- Median company capital
- SAR 50k
- Paid-up, main registrations
Where software development companies are registered
Column height: software development companies by city · select a highlighted city for its page
Leading cities
Registrations, with concentration vs the national average
- Riyadh15,4182.0×
- Jeddah3,7171.3×
- Dammam9760.9×
- Khobar9491.7×
- Makkah9370.7×
- Madinah6960.7×
- Buraydah2840.4×
- Jubail1860.2×
- Taif1740.3×
- Dhahran1523.0×
Concentration compares the sector's share of a city's registrations with its share nationally; 1.0× is average. Highlighted cities are above 1.15×.
Software development: registrations by year of creation
Still-active registrations by the year they were created, 2015–2025. Older years read lower because cancelled registrations drop out.
Most common activities
Registrations listing each national activity code
- Systems integration4,270Activity code 620101
- App development4,087Activity code 620111
- UI and UX design3,878Activity code 620104
- Artificial intelligence technologies3,743Activity code 620113
- Custom software design and development3,343Activity code 620102
- Game development1,242Activity code 620112
- GIS web applications and services1,159Activity code 620117
- Extended reality technologies (VR and AR)1,142Activity code 620108
Business structures
Legal form of registrations in the sector
- LLC17,55168.1%
- Sole proprietorship7,41628.8%
- JSC2851.1%
- SJSC2841.1%
- Foreign branch1820.7%
- General partnership250.1%
- GCC branch200.1%
- Limited partnership11<0.1%
Common questions
How many software development companies are there in Saudi Arabia?
25,774 active commercial registrations list software development activities as of 16 September 2026, according to Ministry of Commerce data. A registration can list several activities, so it may also count in related sectors.
Which city has the most software development companies?
Riyadh, with 15,418 — 59.8% of the national total. Jeddah follows with 3,717.
Is the number of software development companies growing?
6,804 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +28% on 2024, faster than the +15% across all sectors.
Can a foreign investor set up in software development in Saudi Arabia?
Most activities are open to 100% foreign ownership with a MISA investment licence, though some carry conditions such as minimum capital, a Saudi partner or sector-regulator approval. Alpha Consultancy confirms the conditions for your exact activity code before you apply.
Figures are Alpha Consultancy's analysis of the Ministry of Commerce's open datasets on the Saudi Open Data Platform (open.data.gov.sa): the register of active commercial registrations (CRs) as of 16 September 2026.
Active CRsinclude main and branch registrations, as in the Ministry's own totals. Registered in a period counts CRs created in that period that were still active on 16 September 2026; registrations since cancelled are not in the source file, so older periods read lower than the number originally issued.
Partial quarter. The Ministry's Q3 2026 file is labelled as the quarter end but only contains registrations created up to 16 September 2026, so every figure here is as of that date and the latest quarter in the charts (marked *) is incomplete.
Sector figures cover the 1,443,322 active registrations (74.7%) that appear in the Ministry of Commerce's activity association file, which lists activities for registrations created up to 31 December 2025. Registrations created after that date are not yet classified. A registration counts once in each sector it is active in, so sectors overlap.
No individual business is identified on these pages; only aggregate counts are published.
Starting a business in software development?
We confirm the licence conditions for your exact activity code, then take you from MISA licence to commercial registration and municipal licence.