Progress Software, founded in 1981 and based in Burlington, Massachusetts, specializes in application development and digital experience solutions. Their key platform, Progress Sitefinity, enables organizations to create personalized, engaging websites and digital experiences across various industries.
Publicly traded (PRGS)
Founded: 1981
Headquarters: Burlington, Massachusetts, United States
Revenue: 100m_1b
Employees: 1k_5k
Website: https://www.progress.com
Progress Software Corporation (Nasdaq: PRGS) is an American publicly traded enterprise software company headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts. Founded in 1981, it develops, sells, and supports a diversified portfolio of infrastructure and application-development products spanning managed file transfer, developer tooling, digital experience platforms, data connectivity, infrastructure automation, and network monitoring. The company operates across more than a dozen product lines—including OpenEdge, MOVEit, Telerik, Sitefinity, Chef, MarkLogic, and ShareFile—serving enterprise customers globally through direct sales and an indirect channel of independent software vendors, OEMs, and value-added resellers.
Progress Software Corporation produces software for creating, deploying, and managing business applications, positioning itself primarily in the enterprise infrastructure software market [1]. Its product portfolio spans several categories: application development platforms (OpenEdge, Telerik, Kendo UI, Corticon), digital experience software (Sitefinity, ShareFile), managed file transfer and secure collaboration (MOVEit, WS_FTP, Automate MFT), IT infrastructure monitoring and automation (WhatsUp Gold, Flowmon, Kemp LoadMaster, Chef), and data connectivity and semantic data management (DataDirect Connectors, MarkLogic, Semaphore) [7][32]. The company's services include application modernization, infrastructure automation, DevOps, data management, managed database services, performance tuning, analytics, and content management [35]. Progress distributes its products directly to organizations as well as through a network of independent software vendors, OEMs, and value-added resellers [7]. As of fiscal year 2025, OpenEdge and ShareFile together accounted for slightly more than half of the company's consolidated revenue, and approximately 36% of revenue was generated outside North America [39].
Progress Software was founded in 1981 as Data Language Corporation (DLC) in Bedford, Massachusetts, by Joseph Alsop, Clyde Kessel, Mary Székely, and Chip Ziering [3]. The company released its first commercial version of the PROGRESS Application Development Environment (ADE) for Unix in 1984, achieving its first profitable year in 1985 [4]. By 1987, the company had expanded to computer networks and additional operating systems and renamed itself Progress Software Corporation to reflect its primary product [1]. Progress listed on Nasdaq in 1991 [1]. Through the 2000s, the company made numerous acquisitions—including IONA Technologies for $146 million in 2008—before executing a strategic pivot in 2012 to become a narrower, more focused vendor and divesting non-core product lines including Sonic, Savvion, and Actional [1]. A second growth phase followed: in 2014 Progress acquired Telerik for $262 million, gaining a large developer-tools and UI-components footprint [33]; in 2019 it acquired Ipswitch, Inc., which brought the MOVEit managed file transfer platform [1]; in 2020 it acquired Chef Software for $220 million [31]; in 2021 it acquired Kemp Technologies [1]; in 2023 it acquired database vendor MarkLogic [1]; and in late 2024 it completed the $875 million acquisition of ShareFile from Cloud Software Group [20]. In 2025, Progress acquired Nuclia, a provider of agentic retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) technology [1]. In July 2026, Progress announced an agreement to acquire Domo's software business and AI and data platform [1]. In May 2016 the company rebranded publicly as simply "Progress" [1].
Progress operates across several enterprise software categories, including digital experience platforms, managed file transfer, developer tooling, configuration management, and data connectivity [32]. The company reported revenue of $753 million for fiscal year 2024 and $977.83 million for fiscal year 2025, representing 29.79% growth [16][17]. As of fiscal Q1 2026, annualized recurring revenue (ARR) stood at $863 million [18]. The company states that over 4 million developers and technologists at hundreds of thousands of enterprises depend on its products [13]. Progress has offices in 16 countries [1]. Progress has been recognized in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms for four consecutive years, most recently in January 2025, and was one of 17 vendors evaluated in that report [41]. Its ShareFile platform was recognized as a Visionary in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Document Management [50]. Progress's digital experience product line (Sitefinity) was also named a Leader in G2's Winter 2024 Grid Report for Digital Experience Platforms, and was recognized as a 2023 Gartner Peer Insights Customers' Choice for DXP [42]. Nearly half of worldwide license revenue is realized through indirect channel partners, including ISVs, OEMs, distributors, and VARs [56].
Progress competes across multiple distinct product segments, each with different competitor sets [22]. In the low-code and application-development space, the company's OpenEdge and developer tooling products face competition from OutSystems and Mendix, as well as from broader platforms offered by Oracle and Microsoft [22]. In data connectivity and iPaaS, Progress's DataDirect Connectors compete against MuleSoft (Salesforce), Dell Boomi, and Informatica [22]. In digital experience platforms, Sitefinity competes with Adobe Experience Cloud, Sitecore, and Acquia [22]. In managed file transfer, MOVEit competes with IBM Sterling and Fortra [23]. In configuration management and DevSecOps automation, Chef competes alongside Ansible and Puppet [23]. In multi-model and semantic databases, MarkLogic competes in segments serving public sector and publishing customers [23]. PitchBook also identifies Oracle, SAP, Google Cloud Platform, and Micro Focus International among its listed competitors [24]. IBM's 2024 acquisition of HashiCorp has been noted as intensifying competitive pressure on Progress's Chef automation business specifically [21]. Progress's core competitive positioning emphasizes high switching costs from mission-critical deployments, a recurring-revenue model exceeding 80% of total revenue, and a disciplined acquisition strategy targeting mature, high-retention software assets [23][33].