The 20 best tech companies to work for in 2018, according to employees

Company rating: 4.4

Ellie Mae is a cloud-based platform for the mortgage finance industry.

"Teams are very collaborative and everybody's input is valued. 'You build it, you own it' philosophy ensures that every team feels a strong sense of ownership towards everything they build." — Ellie Mae software engineer (Pleasanton, California)

Company rating: 4.4

Microsoft develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software like Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office, consumer electronics, and personal computers and services.

"Food is great and cheap, work-life balance allows for me to actually be a normal person outside of the weekends. Benefits are next level, people are incredible, truly if you have ever worked at a place and loved it, I guarantee it is better over at Microsoft." — Microsoft Group business administrative employee (Redmond, Washington)

Company rating: 4.4

Concur offers business travel and expense-management cloud software.

"Amazing work-life balance, a place that truly cares about its people. They take massive steps towards LGBTQ equality, workplace diversity, increasing women in leadership and community stewardship. It feels like your coworkers are your family." — Concur knowledge manager (Bellevue, Washington)

Company rating: 4.4

VMware, a subsidiary of Dell Technologies, provides cloud-computing and platform virtualization software and services.

"The culture is amazing, work life balance is great, technology and products are great. We have extremely talented folks who are ready to go the extra mile for the customer. The compensation & benefits are one of the best in Bay Area." — VMware customer success manager (Palo Alto, California)

Company rating: 4.4

Adobe is a software maker best known for its design and photo-editing software.

"People are genuine and collaborative. People are focused on technology and innovation. Conducts a 4 day Tech Summit just for engineers. Great benefits and work/life balance." — Adobe employee (San Jose, California)

Company rating: 4.4

Intuit is a business and financial software company.

"Great culture, benefits package continues to innovate and improve, 30+ year old start up that is a bit more mature than the younger tech companies in SF and the valley. People have families here and respect personal commitments outside of work." — Intuit Principal Product Manager (Mountain View, California)

Company rating: 4.4

Paylocity is a payroll and human capital management software developer.

"Amazing growing company that puts their employee's and clients first - positive work environment, development opportunities, community service and employee engagement!! Work hard, play hard is a real thing!!" — Paylocity client services employee (Arlington Heights, Illinois)

Company rating: 4.4

Blizzard Entertainment is an American video-game developer and publisher.

"The culture is organic and evolves, and the pride of craftsmanship is evident everywhere on campus. Great perks, fantastic benefits, and they work hard to keep their talent!" — Blizzard Entertainment business operations (Irvine, California)

Company rating: 4.4

Fast Enterprises is a software development and installation company for government agencies.

"This company really does a lot to promote a great work atmosphere. From team building events to holiday parties, FAST makes it easy to build chemistry with your fellow co-workers." — Fast Enterprises software developer (Denver, Colorado)

Company rating: 4.4

NVIDIA is a technology company that designs graphics processing units for the gaming market.

"Working at Nvidia is fun! The working environment is great, colleagues are very helpful and extremely smart. Everything happens here at Speed of Light. Lot of amazing benefits that are best in the industry." — NVIDIA senior network engineer (Santa Clara, California)

Company rating: 4.4

DocuSign makes electronic signature technology.

"It sounds trite, but the people make DocuSign an amazing place to work. Everyone I have met during my time at DocuSign has been kind, considerate, and generally happy people, which makes it a pleasure to come into work each day." — DocuSign software engineer (San Francisco, California)

Company rating: 4.5

LinkedIn is a job-hunting site and social network for business professionals.

"Great perks (free food, free coffee bar rivals Starbucks, free juice bar, free ice cream bar, just free bars... I can go on), great energy in the company to get things done (motivated by a sense of how much of a difference the products make in the lives of people in earning their livelihood or taking it to the next level). Feel proud to work here." — LinkedIn senior technical program manager (Sunnyvale, California)

Company rating: 4.5

Salesforce offers a business software as a cloud service that helps companies manage their sales, marketing, and application programming projects.

"This is one amazing place to work. Execs, across the board, are open and interested in your ideas from any level. The level of transparency is mind-blowing: from Marc sharing his yearly objectives on company-wide TV (where all employees can view and participate), to every single employee's annual goals posted for all to see — it's phenomenal to walk into a meeting with someone where you know what's important to them, and be able to share how your common goals can be accelerated by working together." — Salesforce senior director (San Francisco, California)

Company rating: 4.5

SAP is a multinational enterprise application software company.

"The SAP culture is one of teamwork and empathy. I have always felt that my colleagues and mentors are there to help me, answer any and all questions, and support me throughout my career journey. Also our senior leadership walks the walk and talks the talk, in that you can see SAP's core values demonstrated in their actions." — SAP solutions engineer (Washington, DC)

Company rating: 4.5

Ultimate Software is a technology company that develops and sells HR software.

"The culture and the values are truly the foundation of this place. The culture of caring for People First comes from our CEO and it is felt and shared by almost everyone. Everyone is welcome, women are empowered, minorities are empowered. Hard work is recognized and pays off." — Ultimate Software specialty support specialist (Weston, Florida)

Company rating: 4.5

World Wide Technology is a technology-consulting company.

"I can't imagine many other companies are encouraging their employees to cross train with other departments, holding future leader classes, or investing in their employees as much as WWT does. The executive team is readily available to anyone who reaches out. They are very level-headed and down-to-earth people who put the company before themselves." — World Wide Technology business development analyst (Maryland Heights, Missouri)

Company rating: 4.6

HubSpot makes sales and marketing software.

"There's a culture here where, no matter your role, if you have something to say, your voice will be heard. The people working here are consistently whip-smart, super hard working and generally fun to be around. Come for the free candy wall, stay for a great career." — HubSpot customer success manager (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

Company rating: 4.6

Google is the world's largest internet search site.

"Extremely intelligent and competent coworkers, exciting products, great management, amazing perks (insurance options, food, discounts on almost everything), opportunity to travel." — Google software engineer (Mountain View, California)

Company rating: 4.6

Facebook is the world's largest social network.

"It's great working here — there's nowhere else I'd rather be. You are working with very smart people who are energized and believe in the work they are doing. You will be rewarded for doing well, and for the company doing well. You are empowered and encouraged to wield influence and ship products that can literally affect billions of people, no matter what level you are at." — Facebook Data Scientist (Menlo Park, California)