The tech sector certainly was a great place to invest in 2024.

A number of ASX tech shares smashed the market with some stellar gains.

But which tech shares performed best? Let's take a look at the best shares in the sector over the period:

Appen Ltd (ASX: APX)

The Appen share price was the best performer in the tech sector in 2024, with a gain of 320%. Investors bought this artificial intelligence data services company's shares last year after it delivered a significantly improved performance.

For example, during the third quarter, Appen reported revenue of $54.1 million. While this represents a 12.9% decline over the prior corresponding period, if you exclude the loss of Google as a customer, Appen's revenue would have increased 34.6%. Another positive was that Appen achieved a breakeven EBITDA result for the period.

Nuix Limited (ASX: NXL)

The Nuix share price was on form in 2024 and recorded a gain of 233%. Much like Appen, this was driven by an improved performance from this investigative and analytics software provider.

In FY 2024, Nuix released its full-year results and reported a 14% increase in annualised contract value (ACV) to $211.5 million and a 20.9% lift in statutory revenue to $220.6 million.

But the biggest positive was that its underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) jumped 38.7% to $64.4 million. Management expects more of the same in FY 2025 and is targeting ACV growth of 15%.

Life360 Inc (ASX: 360)

The Life360 share price wasn't far behind, with a gain of 198% in 2024. The ASX tech share got investors excited by reporting stellar growth across all key metrics.

This includes growing the location technology company's monthly active users (MAU) to a whopping 76.9 million. This underpinned a 30% increase in annualised monthly revenue (AMR) to US$336.2 million.

In addition, the launch of a secondary listing on the Nasdaq appears to have given the company a lot of exposure to investors on Wall Street.

Catapult Group International Ltd (ASX: CAT)

The Catapult share price was another strong performer, with a gain of 169% over the 12 months. An impressive performance from the sports technology solutions provider in FY 2024 and FY 2025 underpinned a major re-rating of its shares.

With respect to the latter, during the first half of FY 2025, Catapult delivered a 20% constant currency increase in ACV to a record of US$96.8 million (A$143 million). Also impressing the market was the ASX tech share's free cash flow (FCF) generation of US$4.8 million (A$7 million).

This was more than it generated in the whole of FY 2024.