# What salary benchmarking app are other software companies actually using to set engineering compensation rather than just guessing from Glassdoor?

<p class="elv-tracking-normal elv-text-default elv-font-figtree elv-text-base elv-leading-base elv-font-normal" elv="true">Hey G2 community, I keep hearing the same thing from people in comp and people ops at software companies: everyone knows Glassdoor numbers are noisy and self-reported, but what are software companies actually paying for instead when they set engineering comp? I've been comparing notes for a write-up on <a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/categories/salary-benchmarking">salary benchmarking</a> and wanted to surface what practitioners keep pointing to.</p><ul>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/pave/reviews"><strong>Pave</strong></a>: Comes up most often for tech, because reviewers say benchmarks are sourced in real time from other companies' systems rather than surveys, and it models equity as part of total comp. Do any of you find its sample deep enough for specific ladders like DevOps or platform engineering?</li>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/opencomp/reviews"><strong>OpenComp</strong></a>: Reviewers at software and startup companies like how fast they got running, the city-by-city ranges across the US, and the job-family leveling that helps with promotion conversations. A couple mention thinner data for very specialized roles.</li>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/compensation-tool-compensation-tool/reviews"><strong>Compensation Tool</strong></a>: If the appeal of Glassdoor is that it feels real, current, and public, reviewers say this scratches that itch with daily job-posting data you can search by company and keyword, but as a validated tool rather than crowd noise.</li>
</ul><p class="elv-tracking-normal elv-text-default elv-font-figtree elv-text-base elv-leading-base elv-font-normal" elv="true">If you moved your engineering comp off Glassdoor and spreadsheets, what did you land on and why? I'm curious whether the real-time, posting-based tools felt accurate enough alone, or whether you pair them with something more traditional.</p>

##### Post Metadata
- Posted at: 30 days ago
- Author title: Marketer
- Net upvotes: 1


## Comments
### Comment 1

&lt;p&gt;We landed on Pave plus an annual survey cross-check, and the reason was defensibility more than accuracy. Real-time peer data felt right for engineering, but the first time a candidate challenged an offer, leadership wanted a named source behind the number. On your DevOps question: the sample does get thin for platform and DevOps ladders below mid-size, so we map those to adjacent families and note the assumption. Nobody here misses Glassdoor.&lt;/p&gt;

##### Comment Metadata
- Posted at: 22 days ago





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