Midrange computers were generally sold to small and medium-sized organizations and as divisional and departmental machines in large organizations.

Midrange computers have been classed as servers in the client-server model since the 1990s. Today, the term midrange implies that the computer or server supports a standard interface used in local area networks (LAN), rather than a proprietary programming interface.

Midrange computer manufacturers included IBM with System 3 and later models, Sun Microsystems with Spark Enterprise, and Hewlett-Packard (HP) with the HP 3000 line.