FY2025 obligations by the NAICS code on the award
39% of the $1.4B obligated under 7A20 in FY2025 went to awards coded NAICS 541519.
- 511210 Software Publishersretired 2022, now 513210$253.4M
FY2025 federal contract obligations, USAspending.gov
PSC 7A20 covers application development software delivered by perpetual license: the analysis, design, development, code, test, and release packages associated with application development projects. In practice that is the developer toolchain, IDEs, testing suites, build and release tooling, not the business systems agencies run on. End-user productivity software is excluded. FY2025 obligations were $1.37 billion.
The 7A20 and 7A21 gap
7A21, its business application sibling, carried more than five times as much in the same year. That ratio is a useful reality check for anyone selling developer tooling into government: the addressable perpetual-license market is real but an order of magnitude smaller than the enterprise application market beside it.
Where the money goes
541519, Other Computer Related Services, took $533 million. Software Publishers (511210) took $253 million, then Computer Systems Design Services (541512) at $198 million, Custom Computer Programming Services (541511) at $195 million, and 513210, the post-2022 software publisher code, at $64 million. Resellers take roughly 39 percent, and the two publisher codes combined still trail them.
PSC versus NAICS, briefly
The PSC records what the government bought while the NAICS code records the industry the contracting officer assigned to the work.
Sell by subscription instead of perpetual license and your federal footprint sits in DA10, not here.
PSC 7A20 FAQ
What does PSC 7A20 cover?
Application development software delivered by perpetual license, covering the analysis, design, development, code, test, and release tooling used on application development projects.
What NAICS codes win 7A20 work?
541519 at $533 million leads FY2025, with Software Publishers (511210) at $253 million and Computer Systems Design Services (541512) at $198 million following.
How is 7A20 different from 7A21?
7A20 is the tooling used to build applications. 7A21 is the business and enterprise application software agencies run. Both require a perpetual license to stay in the product series.
Where do subscription developer tools get coded?
DA10, the application development software as a service code. The manual treats any term or subscription license as a service regardless of what the software does.