Who are the best managed IT providers in my city?
Managed IT Providers by City: What The Shortlist Report Finds
Integris appeared in 50.0% of 234 AI responses to this question, ahead of everyone else.
Integris leads
Integris comes up more than any other firm on this question, by a clear margin.
Integris117 of 234
Managed IT, cybersecurity, cloud modernization, and compliance support for established SMBs.
CMIT Solutions64 of 234
Managed IT, cybersecurity, backup, and consulting through a network of local offices for small/midsize businesses.
IT GOAT53 of 234
Regional managed IT provider offering help desk, monitoring, cybersecurity, and IT planning to smaller and midmarket businesses.
Bit by Bit48 of 234
Offers network monitoring, disaster recovery, cloud migration, and 24/7 help desk support.
LeadingIT46 of 234
Provides managed IT, cybersecurity and network support for Chicago-area SMBs with 24/7 coverage.
+7 more namedin the table
Based on 234 ChatGPT responses to this question, collected August 11, 2026–October 1, 2026. Firms are counted once per response. How we measure.
The ranking
| Firm | Responses | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 stands alone | |||
| Integrisintegrisgroup.comManaged IT, cybersecurity, cloud modernization, and compliance support for established SMBs. | 117 of 234 | 50.0% | |
| Tier 2 3 firms, 20.5–27.4% | |||
| CMIT Solutionscmitsolutions.comManaged IT, cybersecurity, backup, and consulting through a network of local offices for small/midsize businesses. | 64 of 234 | 27.4% | |
| IT GOATitgoat.comRegional managed IT provider offering help desk, monitoring, cybersecurity, and IT planning to smaller and midmarket businesses. | 53 of 234 | 22.6% | |
| Bit by BitOffers network monitoring, disaster recovery, cloud migration, and 24/7 help desk support. | 48 of 234 | 20.5% | |
| Tier 3 8 firms, 18.8–19.7% | |||
| LeadingITgoleadingit.comProvides managed IT, cybersecurity and network support for Chicago-area SMBs with 24/7 coverage. | 46 of 234 | 19.7% | |
| Network 1 Consultingnetwork1consulting.comAtlanta-based MSP serving small-to-midsize businesses with help desk support, cloud migrations, disaster recovery, and cybersecurity services. | 46 of 234 | 19.7% | |
| PSM PartnersChicago-based MSP offering managed IT, cybersecurity, cloud, telecom, consulting, and MDR/SOC services. | 46 of 234 | 19.7% | |
| Framework ITframeworkit.comProvides fractional CIO/CISO advisory and technology leadership for companies that don't justify full-time executives. | 45 of 234 | 19.2% | |
| RippleProvides managed IT, network and server monitoring, security, cloud services, and IT staffing to small and mid-market companies. | 45 of 234 | 19.2% | |
| Prototype ITprototypeit.netOffers managed IT, 24/7 helpdesk, cybersecurity, and network support to small and midsize businesses in Dallas-Fort Worth. | 44 of 234 | 18.8% | |
| Southeastern Computer AssociatesEstablished Atlanta-area managed IT and cybersecurity provider offering full managed IT, onsite and remote support. | 44 of 234 | 18.8% | |
| XL.netDelivers managed IT, cybersecurity, cloud and help desk services to SMBs and mid-market businesses. | 44 of 234 | 18.8% | |
Key findings
- Integris leads this sample alone, named in 117 of 234 ChatGPT responses (50.0%) to the question “Who are the best managed IT providers in my city?”, collected August 11, 2026–October 1, 2026.
- 12 firms cleared the reporting threshold on “Who are the best managed IT providers in my city?” in ChatGPT as of October 1, 2026; the full table with response counts is below.
- Integris appears in 4 of the 16 managed IT service providers reports published by The Shortlist Report, the widest coverage of any firm named on this page.
- No firm paid to appear in this ranking; placement cannot be bought, and the counts come from ChatGPT responses rather than from submissions.
Why the tiers fall where they do
Tier 1 holds Integris, named in 117 of 234 ChatGPT responses (50.0%). No other firm in this sample comes close enough to be grouped with it.
Tier 2 holds CMIT Solutions, IT GOAT and Bit by Bit, named in 48 to 64 of 234 responses (20.5–27.4%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
Tier 3 holds LeadingIT, Network 1 Consulting, PSM Partners, Framework IT, Ripple, Prototype IT, Southeastern Computer Associates and XL.net, named in 44 to 46 of 234 responses (18.8–19.7%). The sample does separate these firms from the tier above: the difference from the leading group is larger than the margin of error, which is what puts them in a tier of their own.
The test is McNemar’s at 95%, applied against the same 234 responses for every firm. The full reasoning, and what happened when we ranked one-to-N instead.
What the sample shows
Integris leads on its own, named in 117 of the 234 responses to this question (50.0%).
307 firms were named at least once across the sample. 12 of them cleared the threshold of 2 responses and appear above; the rest were named once and are inside the noise.
How to read this
Firms are grouped into tiers, not ranked one to fifteen. A tier holds every firm whose 95% confidence interval overlaps the leader's, which is a long way of saying the sample cannot tell them apart. Order within a tier is arbitrary — read the counts, not the position.
Share is the percentage of responses that named the firm — not a quality score. A firm scoring low here may be excellent and simply under-written about online, which is a finding about its visibility rather than its work.
The same question was asked repeatedly because AI assistants do not answer identically twice. A single response would tell you almost nothing.
What this measurement does not tell you
- It is not a quality ranking. Share reflects how much has been written about a firm online, which is what an AI assistant reads. A capable firm nobody writes about scores low here.
- It is a reading from a date range, not a permanent standing. This sample was collected August 11, 2026–October 1, 2026; models change and so do their answers.
- It covers ChatGPT only. Other assistants answer differently, and we do not extrapolate across engines we have not measured.
- Order within a tier is arbitrary. Read the counts, not the position. Why we use tiers.
Cite this report
The Shortlist Report. (2026). Managed IT Providers by City: What The Shortlist Report Finds. The Shortlist Report. https://www.shortlistreport.com/article/msp-by-city
Underlying counts: CSV · JSON. Every answer they were counted from: plain text · JSON. All reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.