Best Compensation Management Software - 2023

We put together a short list of the best compensation software, including pricing, ROI, benefits, features, and more.

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The Best Compensation Management Software

Hand picked by our HR Technology experts after product testing, user research, and much debate - enjoy!

ChartHop promises to take you beyond manual spreadsheets with their compensation planning solution that automatically generates a compensation review plan to share with management based on any metrics you choose.
beqom has a 99% customer retention rate for a reason. It’s a comprehensive solution to compensation management with powerful planning, budgeting, and forecasting functions that let you track headcount and compensation based on data from across your HR tech stack.
Hibob’s compensation management software is built into its people platform, but it’s strong enough to stand on its own with powerful reporting and collaboration tools.
With access to over 40,000 employee records from 500+ companies, Pave has some of the strongest benchmarking data in the compensation management space.
PayScale is the trusted compensation platform for more than 7,500 customers, ranging from small businesses to Fortune 1000 companies.
CURO has saved their customers hundreds of thousands by driving efficiency, improving effectiveness, and providing a clear line of sight between achievement and compensation outcome.
Salary.com’s CompAnalyst is the largest HR-reported source of market pricing, with 800 million market data points in 22 countries.
COMPview is a flexible solution for companies of all sizes. It’s designed to adapt to any compensation plan, whether simple or complex.
With a sleek and easy-to-navigate platform, Compete stand out for offering real-time data about benefits and compensation in the tech industry. HR leaders at hundreds of tech companies use their platform to stay competitive in their offerings and retain their people.

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Introduction to Compensation Management Software

Compensation management software is essential to the modern human resources department. Compensation adds up to 70.3% of total employer costs in the private industry. Therefore, it’s important for HR teams to take extra care when planning how to pay employees.

Many other factors contribute to needing compensation management software as well. Not sure the monetary value of a specific skill? Having trouble tracking performance-based compensation across different teams? Trying to boost retention through transparent payment decisions?

To simplify your buying process, we handpicked the best compensation management solutions out of dozens in the market. Before you decide to buy, check out this guide to understand what’s out there, how much each product costs, what to ask on demos, and more.

Our criteria: How we chose the best vendors

We take research seriously. To make sure we’re offering our readers the very best solutions in a given software category, we are methodical, rigorous, and expansive in our research. We consult with HR professionals, vendors, and industry experts. We cut through the noise to bring you a carefully curated list of vendors, along with other essential information, to help you find the right software platform for your business. 

Here’s how we chose who makes the cut: 

Product: We believe in gaining a comprehensive understanding of a product before we recommend it, so we start by getting to know the software. Whenever possible, we meet with a senior executive (CEO or Head of Product) for a demo and Q&A. We also test the product ourselves to make sure it has a solid UI, intuitive workflows, and the features to make it a best-in-class offering. 

User feedback: We go straight to the source and compile feedback on user experience. Real-world input supports our commitment to diligence in our software evaluation methods and the products we recommend. Keeping up with the everyday experience of HR pros also puts new vendors on our radar, and it keeps us close to our community so we can better connect the right products to the right people.

Financial metrics: We are certified finance nerds, so we use all the data we can get our hands on to make selections for our guides. We comb through data for concrete statistics like retention rates, growth, profitability, and scalability. We evaluate the bottom line of each product because we know making a software purchase can put your reputation on the line. 

Best for a use case: Software is never a one-size-fits-all product. Sometimes the best solution is free or cheap. Other times it’s the one that is best for global companies or the one that’s sized right for early-stage startups. Keeping this in mind, we include solutions across the spectrum so our readers can find the best fit for their unique needs.

Here's more detail if you want to read more about how we research vendors. Our dedicated staff writers rely on hard data, impartial experts, and user feedback to ensure our reviews are helpful, truthful, and hopefully a pleasure to read!

Top Compensation Management Tools

We track thousands of HR Tech solutions. Here are the best compensation management software as of 2023.

ChartHop

Review:

ChartHop’s compensation management solution is excellent at distributing salary data and creating personalized scenario planning.

Your team decides what information to share with managers, from compensation and performance data to demographic and benchmarking data. Once all that information is chosen, ChartHop automatically creates compensation scenarios and exports it to detailed “smart guides” for managers to see. 

Managers can then add their proposed changes to a dashboard that forecasts how the compensation changes affect the company. After that, they can approve changes and move them up the chain of command. It’s a powerful, intuitive tool that streamlines the review process.

ChartHop

Pricing:

ChartHop’s compensation planning solution is a part of their suite of employee management products. 

The pricing tiers that offer compensation planning are Grow, Scale, and Enterprise. They are $7 per employee per month, $10 per employee per month, and custom priced respectively.

Personalized support is provided in ChartHop’s enterprise pricing plan.

Charthop has 4 different pricing plans. When billed annually, here’s what they look like:

  • Charthop Build: At $3.50 per employee per month, this plan has all the fundamental features — a live org chart, employee profiles, DE&I reports, and integrations with HRIS, Slack, and Carta. 
  • Charthop Grow: Priced at $7 per employee per month, the Grow plan offers additional features such as employee engagement surveys, reporting, and custom data. If you don’t currently use a dedicated employee experience software, you can try check out this plan.
  • Charthop Scale: This plan is best suited for businesses that want to scale at speed. Equipped with features like a performance management system, ATS integration, and headcount planning, this plan is priced at $10 per employee per month. 
  • Charthop Enterprise: Large enterprises whose main priority is agility and efficiency can opt for this plan. This pricing is not disclosed upfront. For more information, you can contact Charthop's sales team. 

For an additional $2 per employee per month, billed annually, you also get access to their compensation planning tool. If you want to run your comp cycle on the same platform as your HRIS and performance management software, then this feature is beneficial.

Best For

Any company looking for an entire people planning suite with compensation built in.

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beqom

Review:

beqom’s compensation management software is a comprehensive suite with everything from performance, salary, and bonus management to budget planning and forecasting. Additional features allow you to measure compensation across gender, age, and race to uncover gaps, boosting transparency and equal pay in your organization.

You can also break down total compensation into smaller categories, such as executives and individuals, to get a granular understanding of how you’re paying different people.

beqom

Pricing:

beqom‘s pricing model is an all-inclusive annual fee. For specifics, you must contact a representative to get a quote based on your needs.

beqom's pricing model is an all-inclusive annual fee. For specifics, you must contact a representative to get a quote based on your needs.

Best For

Large and enterprise companies.

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Bob

Review:

Hibob’s compensation management software is linked to its existing people platform, making it a great choice for companies looking for an all-encompassing HR suite. However, just because it’s a feature in bob’s larger platform, it doesn’t mean compensation management is an afterthought. It’s a powerful, efficient tool with yearly compensation reviews, equity and bonus allocation, detailed reporting and analytics, and so much more.

Bob

Pricing:

While Hibob doesn’t disclose pricing online, you can contact its sales team for a custom quote.

Bob offers custom pricing. They have flexible plans for growing companies and will work with you to offer the best possible cost.

Best For

Small to mid-sized companies looking for an HR suite with compensation management built in.

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Pave

Review:

Pave’s compensation management software stands out because of its three-pronged approach: Plan, Communicate, and Benchmark. 

Your company can make smart, purposeful compensation decisions based on real-time salary data, analytics, and merit cycle workflows for administering bonuses and equity. Employees have access to a dashboard to view salary, equity, bonuses, and benefits as part of their total compensation. This same visualization is offered to top candidates as well to promote transparency in the hiring process. 

Pave also provides real-time, up-to-date market salary data to bolster compensation decisions.

Pave

Pricing:

Pave’s pricing is not available on their website. You must contact a sales representative by clicking the “Request Demo” button in the top right corner of its website.

Pave's pricing is not available on their website. You must contact a sales representative by clicking the "Request Demo" button in the top right corner of its website.

Best For

Companies looking to provide transparent compensation to employees and candidates.

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PayScale

Review:

PayScale recently merged with Payfactors to become one of the largest compensation software providers in North America. PayScale has a few different offerings under its umbrella, including Insight Lab, MarketPay, PayScaleTeam, Benchmark, and PayScale Data. With so much variety, customers can pick and choose which features they specifically need. 

Certain product suites are geared towards company size as well. For example, MarketPay is designed with the enterprise customer in mind. Therefore, companies of all shapes and sizes can find a solution tailored to their needs. PayScale also offers numerous compensation resources on their website based on thorough research.

PayScale

Pricing:

Pricing is not available on PayScale’s website. However, it does offer a free job pricing if you make an account.

Pricing is not available on PayScale's website. However, it does offer a free job pricing if you make an account.

Best For

Companies of all sizes that need a tailored comp management solution.

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CURO

Review:

CURO is an impressive solution that covers all aspects of compensation management. It really shines in its complex bonus management features. You can define eligibility criteria for bonuses and salary bumps, track performance, and manage short and long-term incentives as well as promotion scenarios. 

All this has helped its customers save money by “slicing” bonuses. CURO will recognize if an employee switched roles halfway through the year. As a result, employers roll out their annual bonus based on both roles, instead of just the role at year’s end. At a big company with lots of in-house mobility, that can add up to hundreds of thousands in savings.

CURO

Pricing:

CURO customers pay for a license which is based on your number of employees. There are additional professional service fees based on your implementation and service needs.

CURO customers pay for a license which is based on your number of employees. There are additional professional service fees based on your implementation and service needs.

Best For

Large and enterprise companies looking to drive efficiency and savings.

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CompAnalyst

Review:

Salary.com’s CompAnalyst solution is a few different features under the same umbrella name.  Its standard feature set includes labor cost forecasting, total compensation statements, survey management, reporting & analytics, and merit modeling.

Specifically, its Market Data tool is renowned for its massive database of market pricing. In addition, you’ll get instant access to over 50,000 named executives from public US companies, easily benchmarking your executive headhunting.

What makes CompAnalyst stand out, is its ability to grow alongside your organization. There is a standard feature set ideal for HR teams of one or two, which can expand as your company builds out a talent acquisition team and eventually a dedicated compensation team.

CompAnalyst

Pricing:

CompAnalyst is made up of a few different solutions, which you pay for separately. You must get in contact with a sales rep for detailed pricing.

CompAnalyst is made up of a few different solutions, which you pay for separately. You must get in contact with a sales rep for detailed pricing.

Best For

Companies of all sizes will find CompAnalyst useful. As your company grows, you can expand your feature set from the base level.

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COMPview

Review:

COMPview, the compensation management software offered by HRSoft, is a no frills compensation solution that can easily adapt to any compensation model. 

Upon logging in, users are met with a detailed dashboard that provides birds eye details on the status of compensation. From there, different users can access different functionalities. Frontline managers can make recommendations for their team members, leaders have access to a workflow for reviewing and approving, and upper management will receive detailed reports and compensation statements. 

COMPview’s value proposition is being agile to meet the different requirements of its variety of customers. As such, they provide a dedicated customer support team that will be with you from implementation all the way to customer success.

COMPview

Pricing:

COMPview is priced on a per employee per year model, plus a flat implementation fee.

COMPview is priced on a per employee per year model, plus a flat implementation fee.

Best For

Companies of any size looking for a flexible comp solution.

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Compete

Review:

Compete’s co-founder and CEO, Amit Rapaport, comes from the world of HR. During her years in several roles, she realized that a major challenge for most HR people was tapping into real-time compensation data. Addressing this pain point is why Compete was founded. Each and every one of their customers provide data from their organization in an anonymous manner, which is fed into their ever-growing database.

On the user side, HR and hiring managers can search for any role, see how much it pays, and look at the benchmark for benefits and other forms of compensation. There’s hard data for salaries, dozens of benefits such as vacation days, maternity leave, healthcare, 401K, and of course benchmarking data about equity. Managers can then make their own conclusions vis a vis compensation and make an informed effort on how to retain their employees.

Compete

Pricing:

Compete is available at a single price and they’ve made sure it’s affordable for startups as well, even if you only hire one person. Regardless of your company size, they offer an unlimited amount of seats.

Compete is available at a single price and they've made sure it's affordable for startups as well, even if you only hire one person. Regardless of your company size, they offer an unlimited amount of seats.

Best For

HR leaders, CFOs, and Venture Capital Funds in tech.

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Compensation Management Software Use Cases

Compensation management tools are incredibly useful across the employee lifecycle. Picture the beginning of the candidate journey. What’s the market pay for the role you’re hiring? How much do you bump their salary after 2 years, assuming they perform well?

These questions and more are answered with comp management. Here are a few more use cases.

  • Enhance recruitment: Comp software helps provide clarity to what the market pays for a role. It will give you and your recruiting team a range for the job. This beats the old way of asking the hiring manager or using free sources.
  • Boost retention: You’ll be able to tell how your employees are paid relative to the market. Therefore, you can make adjustments to prevent someone from leaving because of a better-paying opportunity elsewhere. 
  • Budget and model for future needs: Since compensation can make up 70% of the company budget, it’s essential to know how strategic decisions will impact compensation. If you are opening in a new location or will be hiring brand new roles, these tools can help you understand costs.
  • Deliver bonuses and equity: Instead of relying on a complicated spreadsheet to calculate bonus and equity amounts, your compensation software will do this for you.
  • Manage compensation survey data: For those already using salary survey data, the software can help manage it all in one place. Additionally, many offer tools or services to help with the tedious task of survey participation.
  • Manage job descriptions: Job descriptions are just as impactful on compensation. A role with additional responsibilities should pay more. Descriptions should emphasize that. Some vendors have a tool, while others outsource this function to partners.
  • Build transparency and equality: Compensation management platforms have tools that show where you can improve equality in the workplace. By recognizing gender and racial pay gaps, your company can take steps to overcome implicit biases. Many software solutions promote transparency as well. Employee dashboards break down their compensation on the individual level.

Pro Tips on Best Compensation Management Software

Pitfalls to Avoid When Using Compensation Management Tools

When considering compensation management software, it’s important to avoid common pitfalls that may occur. 

  • Avoid shiny object syndrome: During a sales pitch, you may have seen powerful analytics tools and smooth UX that attract you to a certain vendor. But it’s essential to understand what your must-have features are, so you can separate them from the nice-to-have and extraneous features. Think about what’s essential. Otherwise, you might waste your budget on tools you’ll never touch. 
  • Understand the professional services vendors offer: Sometimes organizations will position their solution with a “dedicated” compensation professional with “unlimited” access. These terms are often used as a selling point. Be sure you understand how the services work, how quickly you can expect replies, and the skills of the services team.
  • Implementation takes time: Adopting a compensation management software takes time and prioritization from your team. There are no instant solutions where you just send over an HRIS, API key, or CSV and everything is up and running. Discuss timelines and expectations with vendors upfront.
  • Be mindful of contract length: Three-year or five-year contracts with big discounts can be tempting, especially when you’re trying to be budget-conscious. However, this could leave you with software you don’t like or don’t use. Be sure you know the cancelation policy, and choose a contract length that allows you to reevaluate after a reasonable amount of time. If you do your research beforehand, this shouldn’t be an issue. But sometimes unforeseen things happen, and you don’t want to be trapped.
  • Know the data sources: It’s critical to understand where vendors source their data from and how it is validated in your compensation software. There are many different approaches that exist. For example, a data set may be validated by compensation professionals, but be very limited in job titles. Another may be from a large data source, but weak in certain regions. Think critically about what data is important to you and choose a vendor accordingly.

Benefits and ROI of Compensation Management Software

It’s much easier to gain buy-in with decision makers if you have a firm grasp of ROI. Compensation management software has many benefits that will provide measurable returns for your business. Here are a few that you can bring up to your superiors:

  • Save time and costly errors: Having a streamlined process for pricing a job will save you countless hours. Being able to model and use pre-built reporting provides insights you may have never discovered in Excel without the risk of errors.
  • Strengthened employee loyalty: When making informed compensation decisions, employees can rest assured they are being paid competitive salaries and bonuses. As a result, they will feel valued by your company, which builds loyalty.
  • Ensured compliance: Compensation compliance can be tricky, especially if you’re hiring remote workers from different geographic locations. Instead of doing all the granular research yourself, comp management software automatically assists with staying compliant
  • Decrease days to fill job req and false starts: Knowing the approved salary range for the role and what the market pays will ensure you avoid the dreaded “oh I was looking for $10k more in base pay.” 
  • Increased transparency: Employees who know what, how, and why they are paid are more engaged and less likely to leave. By being able to communicate a paid strategy from a high level as well as an individual will impact retention.
  • Equal pay: Many comp solutions pull data from your HRIS or HCM to map salary and bonuses in accordance with gender and race. By recognizing pay gaps, you can take initiative to create an equitable workplace.
  • Save money: In addition to saved time, comp management software saves money too. Benchmarking data shows you if you’re overpaying for a new executive. You can tweak company-wide bonus structures based on integrated performance or talent management data. These are just a couple of many examples.

Compensation Management Pricing

Compensation management software is priced either through a subscription or a license. 

Companies such as ChartHop or Hibob, that offer comp management through their greater product suites, charge on a per user per month basis. Companies such as CURO charge for an annual license, which is based on how many employees you have. You will have to pay upfront for a license, whereas subscription you pay per month.

This will often come with implementation and service fees. If you sign a longer term contract, you may receive a discounted rate.

Don’t be afraid to negotiate a better price. For guidance, read our ebook on how to get the best pricing in HR tech.

Key Features of Compensation Management Software

Compensation management software is designed to streamline all of your comp operations. The features reflect that goal. 

  • Salary management: Easily keep track of how much employees make and use that information to make future compensation decisions.
  • Performance management: Compensation management software often has performance management tools to determine eligibility for bonuses and equity.
  • Bonus and equity administration: Comp management software automatically determines who is eligible for bonuses and equity based on performance, time since hire, and other factors. Once HR managers gather this information, they can submit it to managers for approval all in the system.
  • Planning, budgeting, and forecasting: Using past and current data, your company will be able to plan compensation budgets and headcount. In addition, you can use this data to forecast where your company’s needs will be in the future. Detailed dashboards make this easy to visualize.
  • Market analysis and benchmarking: Many comp solutions have access to detailed salary information from across the job market. You’ll be able to tell what competitors and peers are paying their employees in similar positions. As a result, you can offer new hires competitive compensation based on market data.
  • Integration with HR systems: Compensation management systems centralize all your people data to make informed compensation decisions.

Questions for Demos

Before you get on the call, you need to think critically about your needs. Ask about key features, implementation timelines, customer success, and all the other variables that will help you make the right decision. It’s important to not be distracted by the bells and whistles.

Here are some suggestions for questions to ask:

  • How can your product help me achieve my compensation goals?
  • Can you benchmark this job for me? 
  • How do I build a report? How would I present this to others?
  • We are opening a new office. How would I model the compensation costs with your software?
  • Does this integrate with my human capital management system? If not, how much work will it take on our end to connect them?
  • What features do current clients use the most?
  • Are there automation features?
  • Is the training required in the implementation process self-service, or hands-on with a customer success team?
  • Has your product lengthened the employee lifecycle for your customers?

Implementing Compensation Management Software

Implementation of compensation management software differs from company to company. Generally, you should expect to spend a few weeks to a few months on the process. 

The typical steps include set up, data integration, training, testing, going live, and post-going live review. If price is a concern, double check about implementation fees with your vendor of choice. Your first choice of vendor might have a lower annual cost, but charge big service and implementation fees that actually make it more expensive than your second choice.

Compensation Management Software FAQs

What is compensation management?

Compensation management is the process of determining the wages, salary, bonuses, equity, and benefits employees and potential hires receive.

What is compensation management software?

Compensation management software are solutions designed to streamline comp processes. They achieve this by automating processes that would typically be done manually or in spreadsheets. 

What are some benefits of compensation management software?

Benefits of compensation management software include saved time and money, transparency and equal pay, ensured compliance, and heightened employee retention and satisfaction.

What are the features of compensation management software?

Compensation management software features include salary and performance management, benchmarking, reporting and analytics, planning, budgeting, and forecasting tools, and bonus and equity administration.

Final Advice and Important Takeaways

When choosing a compensation management software, think critically about your goals. Each of our featured vendors will provide you with streamlined comp management. Therefore, you must consider the extraneous factors that might make a certain vendor stand out.

Are you mainly looking for salary benchmarking? Choose a vendor with a huge database of salary information. Are you looking for an entire HR suite with compensation included? Choose a vendor that offers that feature set. Are you looking to spend as little money as possible? Take a look at each vendor and compare costs. 

Regardless, you will end up with a useful solution. Just make sure you focus on the must-haves rather than the nice-to-haves. 

Finally, compensation is necessarily linked to performance. If your team is having a hard time building out a detailed bonus plan, performance management software will make it much easier to track OKRs and annual reviews. Take a look at our performance management software landscape for more detail, including pricing, ROI, benefits, features, and more.

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