Salary.com is one of many online compensation analytics and management software tools available for hiring managers in tech trying to establish benchmarks for competitive offers for the current market. However, unlike Comp Engine by Betts Recruiting, these other solutions are not tailored for specific insights into go-to-market (GTM) and revenue-generating roles or the nuances of OTE (on-target earnings) that startup recruiters face.
This blog examines how Comp Engine vs Salary.com compare for GTM recruiting and the challenges that technology startups face when developing competitive compensation and benefits for unicorn sales and technical talent.
Salary.com
As a popular and well-known option in the compensation data space, Salary.com has extensive reach that includes surveying salaries from over 30,000 organizations and featuring roughly 8000 business account subscribers. They offer different solutions and services, from surveys across different industries like IT and engineering to their core compensation management platform, CompAnalyst, among other tools. They have recently expanded into AI with the launch of the SalaryIQ feature for scanning ranges on job postings, and also include a Skills Library that maps out vertical pay structure across different title levels.
However, actual user feedback highlights several gaps as well as challenges specific to sourcing data in fast-moving sectors where factors change frequently and do not always fit neatly into a standardized approach. Some reviews report significant discrepancies between high-level CompAnalyst information and smaller sample size surveys, such as those at the industry or geographic level, calling into question the accuracy of the data on any potential deviation. The platform’s enterprise focus can also create challenges for smaller organizations trying to navigate its extensive feature set, and there is a pattern of bad reviews correlating with companies that have less than 100 team members.
Comp Engine
Unlike traditional compensation management systems, Comp Engine takes a focused approach to its analytics built on Betts Recruiting’s decade-plus experience in helping tech startups of all stages and sizes scale their GTM teams. It provides technology company hiring managers with salary and OTE insights tailored for go-to-market and revenue-generating role recruitment, particularly for firms seeking their unicorn seller – an experienced, right-fit hire that knows your market and aligns with your existing sales motion.
Comp Engine’s feature set reflects the unique challenges of startup hiring, where factors like funding rounds, growth trajectories and market competition create compensation dynamics not captured by generic salary surveys. Additionally, the platform’s direct connection to our Betts Connect platform and placements made by our team of recruiters ensures that the data reflects real-world market conditions rather than theoretical frameworks. This specialization and fast pace of updates ensures that your hiring managers are able to make more precise benchmarking for revenue-generating GTM positions you need to fill.
Comparing Comp Engine vs Salary.com
The differences between these platforms highlight their distinct approaches to compensation management, with Salary.com bringing a lot of breadth but less depth while Comp Engine is built to deliver more tailored analytics. Here is a more detailed breakdown of how these two solutions match up:
Market Pace
Salary.com’s traditional HR-focused approach means compensation updates follow established survey and review cycles. While their new real-time features add some dynamism, the underlying data structure remains oriented toward stable, enterprise compensation patterns. The platform’s broad market coverage can dilute its ability to capture rapid shifts in specialized sectors, while the quarterly cycle can not always keep up with evolving rates and benefits changes within a fast-paced market like SaaS.
Being sourced from placements made by Betts recruiters in the field, Comp Engine is inherently more up to date than any salary survey and is better at keeping track of nuanced shifts in how earnings vary between positions and markets. When new role specializations appear or the talent pool goes through additional changes, our team stays on top of these trends and update the platform to reflect these emerging developments.
Data Validation
Salary.com’s AI-powered SalaryIQ feature attempts to provide more real-time insights by scanning job postings instead of solely relying on the snail pace of comprehensive salary surveys. However, this new approach only captures advertised ranges rather than actual compensation nuances, which will always present gaps (not to mention where the AI can hallucinate). The platform’s reliance on HR-reported data and job postings can create blind spots around variable comp and equity components that are crucial for GTM recruiting.
Comp Engine validates its data through direct placement outcomes and feedback from our recruiters on the frontlines, ensuring accuracy through real hiring decisions rather than posted ranges or survey responses. This approach captures not just base salaries but the full spectrum of startup compensation variables including equity, variable pay, and performance incentives. By focusing specifically on tech go-to-market and revenue-generating roles, the validation process can account for industry-specific factors that might be overlooked in broader market surveys.
Standard Competencies vs Revenue Impact
With Salary.com’s Skills Library, employers are supposed to be able to better map out career paths for a given job in their org chart, creating a visual representation of its hierarchical growth and the skill sets required for each position. The problem with this approach is that it is standardized to a framework of 26 “job families” and does not account for the nuances of GTM hiring in the tech startup space, where each role is tied to an expectation of contributing to improving annual recurring revenue (ARR). This focus leaves you with an incomplete picture of how your Cost-per-Hire (CPH) measures against your ROI, and the impact of each new hire on your revenue growth to ensure you reach the next round of funding.
Comp Engine was designed based on the specific needs of tech startups, and the relationship between GTM hiring and revenue generation, with key compensation planning metrics that reflect the most important variables for CPH versus ARR. Drawing on Betts Connect’s data sets, you are able to filter through performance indicators such as average deal size, quota attainment, net new business generated and more to narrow down your search for your unicorn seller according to your biggest go-to-market drivers.
Implementation Complexity
Feedback from Salary.com users reveals that many face challenges getting set up due to the complexity of the platform and a confusing implementation process. Reviews cite extensive setup requirements, training needed and additional support resources that had to be leveraged before they could even get started on extracting useful data. Its integration requirements with HRIS systems and the intricate configuration requirements can also create significant overhead for smaller organizations.
Comp Engine comes with a streamlined deployment and user-friendly – yet detailed – interface that does not require another degree just to begin diving into the data. The platform’s intuitive design reflects an understanding of what hiring managers need to see, with filters and search functions aligned with how tech startups actually structure their GTM teams. This simplicity extends to Comp Engine’s reporting features, which provide clear visualizations of compensation trends without requiring additional configuration.
Vertical Integration
While Salary.com offers a large well of data and compensation management tools, these channels are still divorced from the actual sourcing and hiring process. You would need to combine insights from multiple separate sources, potentially leading to gaps between your comp planning and how this actually impacts recruitment. When sourcing your unicorn seller, the available candidate pool and other factors will greatly affect time-to-hire, and consequently often also Cost-per-Hire as you are forced to sink in more money to chase down potential right fits.
Comp Engine was designed on the foundation of our Betts Connect platform, sharing data and allowing for integration that creates a seamless link between our compensation insights and candidate sourcing software. This connection allows hiring managers to see the available talent pool at each percentile based on performance history, our recommended OTE for each and how this will affect the average time-to-hire based on our first-hand experience.
Scale Your Team with Confidence
Making informed compensation decisions is crucial for building a GTM team that has the experience you need to scale your revenue and continue growing your company to the next round of funding. Comp Engine’s focused approach provides the targeted data and practical insights you need to compete effectively for top go-to-market and revenue-generating talent in the tech startup space.
Sign up for Comp Engine today and join the growing community of tech startups making more data-driven hiring decisions.