Article
6 min read
A Guide to Salary Benchmarking Tools for Competitive Compensation: 9 Options Analyzed
Global HR

Author
Lorelei Trisca
Last Update
July 01, 2025

Key takeaways
- Salary benchmarking ensures that your organization can maintain equal pay for equal performance in your field and market, so you can attract the best talent and reduce attrition.
- The key features of salary benchmarking tools include up-to-date salary data, regional insights, customization for industry-specific roles, and ease of integration with other HR systems.
- You can achieve all this with tools like Deel, which offer real-time compensation benchmarking data, compensation management, and integration with global payroll management.
- No single tool is “the best” in isolation. The right choice depends on how often you calibrate pay, the regulatory environments you operate in, and whether your organisation values explainability (survey pedigree) over responsiveness (real‑time feeds).
In a competitive global talent market, organizations are under more pressure than ever to ensure their compensation strategies are fair and attractive—a task that’s increasingly difficult if you’re still relying on outdated salary data or gut instinct.
Without reliable, real-time insights, your company risks losing top talent to rivals and suffering costly attrition, especially as global pay expectations evolve. Salary benchmarking tools are often the only solution for real-time, data-driven insights into industry pay trends.
This guide will break down nine of the leading salary benchmarking tools, including Deel’s own solution, showing how data-driven compensation management can transform how you attract, reward, and retain exceptional employees.
By leveraging these advanced tools, organizations of any size can confidently set competitive pay, maintain internal equity, streamline their payroll processes, and stay ahead of industry trends worldwide.
9 salary benchmarking tools compared
Next is a detailed look at the best salary benchmarking tools for attracting top talent:
Deel
Top features
- Global Salary Insights tool: Get access to real-time global market rates. Gain clear visibility over what a potential employee’s salary translates to after taxes to make a competitive offer that works for where talent lives.
- Filter the data by role level, seniority level, and location
- For each specific search for role position and level, you will get percentile breakdowns (25th, 50th, 75th)
- The data is sourced from live payroll in 150+ countries, and covers industries such as software & IT, finance, construction, HR & staffing, manufacturing, food & hospitality, healthcare, and more
- The tool also offers insights into global hiring trends (where was the role level most hired and least hired), salary changes over time
- The salary insights dataset has been updated in April 2025.

Deel's Global Salary Insights Tool
In addition to the Global Salary Insights tool, Deel also offers:
- Employee cost and take-home pay calculators: Give precise estimates for what total employment will cost, what local taxes you can expect, and which benefits should be included.
- Compensation planning and pay transparency: Help standardize pay structures across different pay ranges and spaces
- Global payroll and compliance: Hire and pay employees and contractors in different countries in a few minutes, with employment contracts compliant with local laws.
- Dedicated local support: Local POCs, legal consulting, and HR specialists assist with compliance.
- HR Integrations: Connect Deel with existing payroll systems, HRIS, ATS platforms, and more.
Pros
- Since Deel is an all-in-one HR and payroll platform, you can use it to cover different aspects such as hiring, payroll, compliance, and compensation management from a single place
- Deel helps you tap into global talent by hiring and paying employees and contractors in over 150 countries and supporting you with local assistance in the process.
- Tools like the Take-Home Pay Calculator and Employee Cost Calculator provide clarity and transparency into what the right compensation strategy and budget is.
Cons
- The dataset cannot be filtered by industry yet, but this feature is currently on the roadmap
- Advanced modelling for bonus or long‑term incentives is not available
- Depending on how many Deel products are implemented at once, admins can take a bit of time to become fully proficient with the platform. However, the Deel Academy resources help enable first-time users
Best for
High‑growth, globally distributed start-ups, scale-ups, and mid‑market firms that want a single solution for salary bands, reviews, and pay compliance.
Additionally, Deel is a great fit for organizations with lean compensation teams that value out‑of‑the‑box benchmarks and guided workflows over highly customized modelling.
Pricing
Deel Compensation starts at $15/month per employee and covers global salary benchmarking, compensation reviews and planning, pay transparency enablement, multi-currency and localized compliance, and more.
For Deel Global Payroll, you’re looking at $29/month per employee, covering payroll processing, tax filing, compliance with local tax regulations, exchange rate management, employee self-service access, and more.
Mercer
Top features
- Total Remuneration Survey (TRS): A broad selection of cross-industry jobs, covering the full remuneration package. Industry-specific data is also available through TRS Industry Supplements.
- Compensation Reports: Offer data on GDP, inflation, unemployment rates, overall salary increase for promotion, percentage of employees receiving promotion, actual, budgeted, or forecasted salary increase budgets
- Employee Benefits Reports: Includes key benefits and statutory information such as annual leave, work life balance, medical, insurance, vehicle policies, flexible benefit plans and more.
- Optional custom consulting to blend Mercer data with your internal pay files.
Pros
- Detailed global and local salary data and market rates
- Extensive compensation and benefits insights
- Custom consulting for in-depth analysis
- Real-time legislative updates and market trends
Cons
- High costs to set up and use
- HR expertise or consultancy is needed to create complex reports
- To export data in PDF or Excel formats, users need to upgrade their subscription from Lite to Premium, thus increasing the cost of the subscription
Best for
Best suited for HR teams that need deep market insights to make salary decisions and support new strategies to attract and retain talent, and enterprises that need regulator‑grade global data or to defend reward decisions to boards/unions.
Pricing
Mercer has high pricing options that differ based on the report type and region. Here are some examples:
- Global Compensation Planning Report: $1,000 - $4,200
- Global Pay Summary: $2,000 - $6,000
- Executive Remuneration Guides, Europe: $5,600 - $10,900
Radford McLagan Compensation Database
Top features
- Proprietary job architecture and leveling frameworks, widely endorsed by boards, C-suite executives, HR leaders, and regulatory bodies worldwide
- Coverage of industries such as: Asset Management, Banking, Community and Government Entities, Consulting and Professional Services, Energy and Natural Resources, Financial Technology, Healthcare, and Hospitality
- Dedicated data consultants are included in the licence, which is useful for first‑time levelling or slotting hybrid roles.
Pros
- The platform’s job library covers a broad range of sectors and roles
- You get personalized customer support and training
- There are robust data filtering options that can lead to precise comparisons for the market
Cons
- Pricing scales steeply with user seats and geographies
- Using this salary benchmarking tool could feel complex due to the extensiveness of the platform and potentially clunky interface
Best for
Tech and life‑science firms that are competing for specialist talent and need defensible, granular market cuts.
Pricing
The price will depend on the access to the data, the size of the company, and the reporting necessities. The only way to know how much it will cost you though is to contact them and ask for a quote.
CompUp
Top features
- 200 k+ real‑time datapoints from 250 + funded Indian startups
- ~30 companies onboarded to the network every month
- Largest compensation benchmarks for Indian funded start-ups
- Granular data filtering, with filters for industry, company size, company stage, and location
Pros
- Their compensation benchmarking database for Indian start-ups is constantly being updated
- You can use customized filtering options to view benchmark data
- You get free access to data from 250+ funded start-ups—one of the few (partially) free salary benchmarking tools
Cons
- It’s limited to Indian start-ups
- Has limited integrations
Best for
India‑based start-ups that need hyper‑local granularity and can’t justify Mercer/Radford pricing.
Pricing
CompUp offers free access to funded start-ups, while the pricing for other companies may differ. Get in touch with their team for custom pricing details.
ADP Workforce Now ® Compensation Management
Top features
- Real, up-to-date, aggregated, and anonymized compensation data derived from ADP’s U.S. client base (42 million+ employees)
- Automated compensation management
- Interactive budgeting and modeling
- Performance-based pay allocation
- Merit recommendation tool
Pros
- Budget‑driven merit/bonus cycles directly inside ADP Workforce Now
- Pay‑equity analytics and benchmarking content pieces for compliance support
Cons
- It can be costly for smaller businesses that might not even need these extensive features
- It can be too complex to use for beginner users
- Works best when payroll already runs on ADP
- International market data thinner than U.S.;
Best for
U.S.‑centric organisations that already rely on ADP for HR/Payroll and want to keep comp planning inside the same stack.
Pricing
Pricing is custom and varies by company size and requirements.
figures.hr
Top features
- Real‑time data crowdsourced via 30 + HRIS integrations across Europe
- SOC 2 & ISO 27001 compliant
- Gender pay gap tracking
- Salary Package Optimization
Pros
- Survey data accuracy is maintained through regular updates in real-time
- EU Pay Directive-ready with pay-equity dashboards
- The salary‑band builder that syncs back to connected HRIS automatically
- The interface is easy to use compared to some of the other salary benchmarking tools on our list
Cons
- Since the tool relies on real-time data, you’ll need to make sure it’s fully integrated with your HRIS of choice
- Pricing isn’t transparent, so expect costs to add up
- Only adapted to the European market
Best for
Works for European start-ups and scale-ups that need to set competitive compensation strategies and race to meet the EU Pay Transparency Directive rules.
Pricing
While they offer three different pricing plans, you’ll need to formally request a quote based on the number of employees and preferred modules. But pricing starts at ~€2.5k/yr.
Ravio
Top features
- Real-time data powered by HRIS and ATS integrations
- The compensation dataset covers 46 + countries and 100 + roles, with heavy focus on tech sector
- Live market trends enabling organizations to compare their average salary increases to relevant industry peers
- Filtering by funding stage, industry, and more
- Compensation management functionalities
Pros
- The platform supports multiple countries and currencies
- No technical skills are required for HR teams to use the tool
- The tool supports collaboration with secure sharing of compensation insights with leadership and hiring teams
Cons
- Only works accurately when connected to an HRIS
- There’s no public, transparent pricing
Best for
HR and compensation teams that want to focus more on pay equity, compliance, and budget optimization rather than just salary benchmarks.
Pricing
While four pricing plans are available, their costs aren’t displayed, so you have to get a demo first. However, they do offer a free 60‑day trial.
Salary.com CompAnalyst
Top features
- HR‑reported surveys covering 16,000 unique job titles across 24 countries and 225 industry breakouts
- Many scopes to select from, ranging from industries, industry size, job titles, states, etc.
- Pay‑equity module
- Consultation services available for completing tasks such as defining job architecture and job classifications, and salary structure design
Pros
- The interface is intuitive, and the data is presented in a clear, digestible way
- You can use complementary tools to go beyond salary benchmarking and tap into merit increases and incentive planning
- The native compliance and risk management module ensures your company sticks to pay equity laws and regulations
- High-level regression analysis. Users can compare cohorts with complex, customizable logic for deeper analysis
Cons
- While scalable, setting up custom needs within the platform will require extra time and expertise
- New users may need time and training to navigate the full features of CompAnalyst effectively.
- In niche industries or less common roles, market data may be less comprehensive or slower to update.
Best for
Best for enterprises and mid-sized organizations managing complex compensation structures.
Pricing
Costs aren’t displayed publicly, so you need to contact Salary.com for a quote. However, a 14-day free trial is available.
Glassdoor
Top features
- Crowdsourced salary data
- Company-specific competitive salaries
- Pay trends analysis
- Interview and negotiation insights
Pros
- It covers an extensive range of industries and job titles
- The reviews are genuine as they come from real employees
- There are many extra benchmarks on aspects such as negotiation and pay raises
- Great for quick directional checks, interview prep, and competitive intelligence when professional surveys are out of budget.
Cons
- While the reviews are real, the data is not professionally audited
- Inconsistent titles and levelling
- Sparsity in niche roles or smaller geographies—some industries may have less data on salaries due to lower participation
- No cycle‑management tools.
Best for
Early‑stage teams that need fast, free snapshots, not for merit cycle or board‑grade reporting.
Pricing
Free to access with a premium, paid plan for extra features that include competitive benchmarking at a custom cost.
Best salary benchmarking tools: Summary table
Platform | Data freshness | Geo coverage | Built‑in cycle management? | Equity/bonus modelling depth | Indicative price tier |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Deel | Quarterly | 150 + countries | Yes | Low (roadmap) | $$ |
Mercer TRS | Annual | 140 + countries | No | High (with consulting) | $$$$ |
Radford Aon | Quarterly | 80 + (tech/life‑sci) | Limited | High | $$$ |
ADP | Continuous (US) | Strong US, moderate global | Yes | Medium | $$‑$$$ |
CompUp | Real‑time | India only | No | Low | $ |
Salary.com | Monthly | 24 major markets | Yes | Medium | $$$ |
figures.hr | Monthly (EU) | 35 + European | Yes | Medium | $$ |
Ravio | Real‑time | 46 + (tech focus) | Yes | Medium | $$ |
Glassdoor | User‑posted | Global | No | Low | Free / $ |
Key features of effective salary benchmarking tools
Now that we’ve looked at some of the most striking pros and cons of different salary benchmarking tools, what features should you keep an eye on?
The core features to look for in salary benchmarking software are:
Up-to-date market data and frequent updates
Real-time, accurate salary data is an integral part of a compensation decision. Frequent updates ensure that your pay structure will remain competitive and align with current market trends.
Integration with HR systems
Payroll and HRIS software integration helps compensate for the time spent planning by syncing data across systems.
Customizable reporting and analytics
Detailed and flexible reports allow HR teams to make compensation strategies depending on specific roles, locations, and market conditions, giving a holistic insight into how salary has been and should be structured.
User-friendly interface and ease of use
Simple and intuitive interface needs to be a must, and with that time is of the essence for HR teams. The tools are navigable swiftly and steadily, allowing for faster decision-making and better use of the system.
Deel Compensation
How to choose the right salary benchmarking tool for your organization
Before using salary benchmarking tools for compensation analysis, consider this:
Assess your current compensation strategy
Start by reviewing your existing compensation framework. Identify any gaps or areas that need improvement, such as pay equity discrepancies or inability to compete with industry standards.
Evaluate tool features against your needs
Create a checklist of essential features required for your organization’s compensation strategy.
For example, a start-up with a limited budget might just need a simple, cost-effective tool that covers only basics such as salary data and custom reports. A large corporation scaling into new regions will benefit from such a salary benchmarking tool with global pay data, multi-currency tracking, and thorough analytics allowing them to manage compensation across different regions.
If you need audited, regulator‑defensible numbers, Mercer or Radford win. If speed matters more than absolute precision, real‑time tools (Deel, Ravio, figures) provide fresher signals.
If you also want to run merit or promotion cycles in one place, shortlist platforms with built‑in planners (Deel, Salary.com, ADP, Ravio, figures).
Consider cost and ROI
With a strict budget in mind, pick a tool that leaves room for flexibility. Consider what change you’ll need (e.g. new features, extended workflows, integrations) as well as the benefits of that tool (e.g. reducing turnover, attracting top talent, ensuring pay equity amongst teams).
Manage global compensation with Deel
Deel’s all-in-one compensation tool helps you build, manage, and improve a competitive and transparent global compensation strategy. Whether you’re scaling globally or refining your internal pay structures, Deel equips you with the insights and tools to guarantee fair and data-driven compensation decisions.
Use Deel Compensation to:
- Confidently create, share, and execute your global compensation strategy with our all-in-one solution.
- Build and manage compensation bands
- Streamline your entire compensation review process
- Enable the right level of pay transparency
- Connect to Deel Global Payroll for fast execution
Take real control of your global compensation strategy with Deel. Request a demo to see how Deel Compensation can change your payroll and salary management process.

Compensation management with Deel: Salary bands
FAQs
What is a salary benchmarking tool?
A salary benchmarking tool is a software program or platform that gives pay information to businesses to compare the way they structure their salaries with those used across the industry. Such tools provide analyses of market trends, geographic variations, categories of jobs, and sizes of companies with a view of helping organizations to offer competitive and fair wages.
Why are salary benchmarking tools critical for remote and global teams?
Salary benchmarking tools support distributed and remote teams by guiding the company through different processes needed for international pay structures. They provide compensation benchmarking data on aspects such as the regional cost of living, tax regulations, and various industry salary trends across countries.
What do companies use to benchmark salaries?
In determining pay ranges for jobs, they consider different platforms such as salary benchmarking tools, dynamic salary survey reports, government and labor statistics, internal data reflecting past compensation, and recruiting insights such as job inquiries and competition pay trends.
What is internal salary benchmarking?
Internal salary benchmarking is used for comparing the salary bands of existing employees to ensure fairness and equity. This prevents pay inequality, increases employee morale, and integrates the salary system within career paths.
Disclaimer: The data outlined in this content is accurate at the time of publishing and is subject to change or updating. Deel does not make any representations as to the completeness or accuracy of the information on this page.

About the author
Lorelei Trisca is a content marketing manager passionate about everything AI and the future of work. She is always on the hunt for the latest HR trends, fresh statistics, and academic and real-life best practices. She aims to spread the word about creating better employee experiences and helping others grow in their careers.