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10 Best Compensation Management Software in 2023

The Best Compensation Management Software List

Here’s a shortlist of the best compensation management systems I’ll cover in this article, with detailed summaries below:

  1. 1. Deel — Best compensation management software for global salary benchmarking and international hiring
  2. 2. Trinet — Best compensation management software for competitive salary benchmarking
  3. 3. Xoxoday Compass — Best compensation management software for gamified sales incentive programs
  4. 4. Insperity — Effective compensation management for businesses of all sizes.
  5. 5. Justworks — Best compensation management software with 24/7 expert support
  6. 6. Decusoft Compose — Best compensation management software for pay equity analysis tools
  7. 7. Aeqium — Best compensation management software for collaborative compensation planning & reviews
  8. 8. Xactly — Best compensation management software for offering incentives that drive performance
  9. 9. Assemble — Best compensation management software for transparent total compensation
  10. 10. PaveAI — Best compensation management software for managing compensation bands at scale

Your compensation data shouldn't be siloed in an Excel spreadsheet or reviewed on an ad hoc basis. Instead, it should be integrated into your HR tech stack, and standardized to ensure pay equity for all your employees. Compensation management software can help you upgrade and modernize your compensation process. It also incorporates data from global salary surveys to help you stay competitive in the war for top talent.

Sounds like an obvious necessity, right? I absolutely agree! But finding the best compensation management software for your organization isn't always easy. That's why I've done some digging for you.

This article covers the best compensation management software on the market today. I've summarized the main features of each system that made my list, and explained why I included them. Read on to fast-track your research and find the best compensation management solution for you.

If you have general questions about how compensation management software works, take a look at my People Also Ask section below. Or, feel free to jump right to my detailed summaries if you're ready to dive straight in.

How I Selected the Best Compensation Management Software

Wondering how I selected the best compensation management software for this top 10 list? I'm happy to explain my detailed approach.

First, I evaluated and compared a wide range of compensation management platforms with positive user ratings. Next, I examined each system in greater detail using the selection criteria below.

Selection Criteria

Here's a short summary of the main evaluation and selection criteria I used to determine the best compensation management software systems for this list:

Usability:

Compensation planning, in general, can be complex, especially with a wide range of employee positions and skill sets. That's why it's important that the system you choose scores high in usability and creates a positive user experience (UX) for all your internal stakeholders who will access it.

To assess a system's usability, I examine its user interface (UI) to understand how its menu and key features are organized. I want to get an understanding of how easy-to-use their system is, or whether you need to drill down endlessly to access the details you need.

Competitive Features:

With the war for top talent never going away, you need a compensation system that offers features to help you stay competitive. The crux of this is the database upon which the compensation software rests. You want to invest in a system that includes salary benchmarking data. This data, sourced globally by trusted salary survey providers, will help you ensure your existing and future staff are compensated fairly, at current market rates.

Other modern features that fall into this category are: pay equity tools, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) monitoring systems, and compensation bands that allow you to update employee salaries at scale.

Incentive Programs:

Depending on your industry, incentive programs may be a big part of your employee compensation plan. This is especially true for businesses focused on sales or customer service. If this applies to your industry, you'll definitely want a software system that can automate the incentive process for you.

Sales or incentive compensation programs include tools to automatically track employee productivity as they strive to meet their goals or key performance indicators (KPIs). Often incentive programs include engaging gamification features too, to further motivate your employees to perform.

Software Integrations:

It's important to ensure that the compensation management system you choose integrates with your existing HR software solutions. The most important integrations to confirm are whether it will link to whichever HR management and/or payroll system you're using. This will save you a lot of time, as salary adjustments made in one system will automatically populate over to the other.

If your compensation program includes sales-based incentives, you'll also want to ensure it links up with popular sales management and CRM systems too.

I've noted key software integrations for each system in this list. However, as you're doing your research, make sure you take the extra time to confirm the integrations you need are available.

Value for Price:

It's logical for the price of a compensation management tool to vary based on the depth of its features. While I always try my best to consider how appropriately a software system is priced, it was a little bit of a challenge for this software set.

Most of the software systems in this list only offer pricing upon request. However, you can still get a sense of the depth of their plans by visiting their websites for more details.

Overviews of the 10 Best Compensation Management Software 

Here’s a brief description of each compensation management software that made my shortlist. I've also included their noteworthy features, software integrations, and screenshots to show you their user interface too.

1

Deel

Best compensation management software for global salary benchmarking and international hiring

Deel is a comprehensive payroll service with a robust self-service function for HR professionals. It’s designed for global teams, letting you manage and keep track of employees and contractors around the world.

Why I picked Deel: Their service is easy to use and offers a wide range of features. The platform gives you a comprehensive overview of benefits, perks, and salary expenses. You can make use of their internal research tools to benchmark salary ranges in various countries, taking into account mandatory contributions like pension and healthcare.

Deel Standout Features & Integrations:

Features include international market salary insights, employer of record (EOR) or global payroll services, payroll & tax management, a dedicated customer service manager, access to international legal and tax experts, compliant employee contract templates, compliance monitoring tools, expense management, time tracking, analytics & reporting, and 24/7 in-app support. Deel is also SOC2-compliant and ISO 27001-certified, which means it meets international standards for data security.

Integrations are available with a handful of popular accounting and HR management systems that allow you to import and export HR data easily. Key integrations include Ashby, BambooHR, Bob, Greenhouse, NetSuite, QuickBooks, and Xero. They also have an Open API solution that allows developers to build their own interfaces on top of the Deel platform too.

Deel offers flat rate pricing per worker, as well as a free demo.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.6 698

Free demo available

Flat rate user pricing, with a free version for businesses with up to 200 people

2

Trinet

Best compensation management software for competitive salary benchmarking

TriNet's HR software system is designed to help small to medium-sized organizations manage their core HR needs, including onboarding, payroll, benefits enrollment, applicant tracking, document management, and workforce analytics.

Why I picked TriNet: Their Compensation Benchmark feature, part of its workforce analytics module, automatically pulls industry salary benchmarking data directly from Salary.com. This is helpful as you can run custom analytics using this data to ensure your salary ranges stay competitive against changing market rates.

TriNet Standout Features & Integrations:

Trinet also excels in their workforce analytics capabilities. You can use their software to track all the key metrics that matter, including your headcount, turnover rates, employee tenure, new hires, and terminations. You can also customize their dashboard to track other analytics and key performance indicators that are unique to your business too.

Integrations are available with Assembly, Bob, ChartHop, Compt, Greenhouse, Hyperproof, Lattice, Sage Intacct, QuickBooks, and many others.

Pricing details are available upon request.

Free demo available

Pricing upon request

3

Xoxoday Compass

Best compensation management software for gamified sales incentive programs

Xoxoday Compass is an automatic sales incentive compensation platform that accelerates sales through competition-based challenges and performance-based bonuses. Their software automates the entire incentive process using pre-set key performance indicators (KPIs) combined with engaging game templates, rules, and conditional logic.

Why I picked Xoxoday Compass: You can design and launch gamified sales incentive programs that will help your sales teams stay engaged and productive, including target-based challenges, milestone achievements, or through an internal team race competition. Xoxoday Compass also offers real-time visibility into performance, tracks commission information and incentive plan details, and processes incentive payments.

Xoxoday Compass Standout Features & Integrations:

Features include a library of gamified sales incentive program templates (target-based, competition-based, cascading, or special structures), live scorecards, a public score leaderboard & achievement feed, an earning tracker, one-click payments, automation, action triggers, nudges, business simulations, predictive analytics, and data insights.

Integrations are available with popular CRM systems, including Freshdesk, Freshsales, Google Sheets, HubSpot, Leadsquared, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and Zoho CRM.

Xoxoday Compass has a progressive pricing structure that decreases your average price per user as you add more users to your account. They also offer a free demo.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.7 212

Pricing upon request

4

Insperity

Effective compensation management for businesses of all sizes.

Insperity is a cloud-based software that provides comprehensive compensation management solutions for businesses of all sizes. It streamlines the process of managing employee compensation by automating tasks and providing analytics to make informed decisions.

Why I picked Insperity: It is a comprehensive and reliable compensation management software that covers all aspects of the compensation process. It provides easy-to-use tools and features that help in managing employee compensation and benefits, reducing errors, and ensuring compliance.

Insperity Standout Features & Integrations:

Features of Insperity include its ability to provide a real-time view of the compensation budget. This allows users to make informed decisions on how to allocate funds and make necessary adjustments. Insperity also has a robust reporting feature that enables users to create custom reports based on their specific needs. The software provides a single platform for managing all aspects of compensation, including base pay, bonuses, and equity awards.

Integrations are seamless with several HRIS systems and payroll providers, including ADP, Paychex, and Workday. The software also has APIs that allow for integration with other third-party applications.

Pricing upon request

5

Justworks

Best compensation management software with 24/7 expert support

Justworks is an HR solution that aims to simplify and streamline various HR tasks for businesses. It provides a centralized platform for managing employee-related processes, including payroll, benefits administration, compliance, and a support team that can ensure users can leverage the software effectively.

Why I picked Justworks: the user-friendly interface and robust functionality are coupled with a 24/7 expert support team to enable HR teams of all shapes and sizes. The platform helps with tax filings, workers' compensation, and other compliance-related matters, reducing the risk of penalties and legal issues.

The software also provides comprehensive reporting and analytics tools to help businesses gain insights into their compensation management processes. With intuitive dashboards and customizable reports, users can track and analyze compensation data, identify trends, and make informed decisions.

Standout features & Integrations

Features include bonus and salary management to simplify the process with flexible options for setting up compensation structures, including one-time bonuses and recurring payments. The software allows you to easily calculate and allocate payments, ensuring accuracy and transparency. Another standout feature is the ability to handle complex benefits packages, including health insurance, retirement plans, commuter benefits, and wellness programs. The platform streamlines the enrollment process and handles the necessary compliance tasks, saving businesses time and effort.

Integrations include QuickBooks, Greenhouse, Xero, Slack, Vanguard, Fidelity, Citi Bike, and E-Verify.

Free demo available

From $59/user/month

6

Decusoft Compose

Best compensation management software for pay equity analysis tools

Decusoft Compose is a comprehensive compensation, incentive, and total rewards management software. Their cloud-based software is easy-to-use and purposefully designed to mimic a spreadsheet-based experience many users are familiar with, yet with more advanced functionality.

Why I picked Decusoft Compose: Their solution not only simplifies the management of complex variable pay programs including merit-based bonuses, equity, long/short term incentives, carried interest, and deferrals but also provides enhanced analytics of your data. Diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI), pay equity, and people analytics are all simple to measure, report, compare, and visualize. Compose is easy to use, tailored to your unique needs, and SOC-2 compliant.

Decusoft Compose Standout Features & Integrations:

Features include compensation planning, budgeting & forecasting tools, a wealth of compensation planning models (bonus + equity, bonus only, bonus with deferral, equity award, exceptional impact, financial demo incentive, sales bonus, merit + bonus + equity, merit only, etc.), data dashboards, salary benchmarks, DEI & pay equity analysis tools, and employee performance & merit calibration tools.

Integrations are available with a handful of human resource information systems (HRIS) or other HR management systems including ADP, Oracle HCM, SAP, UKG, and Workday.

Decusoft Compose offers customized pricing upon request and a free demo.

Free demo available

Pricing upon request

7

Aeqium

Best compensation management software for collaborative compensation planning & reviews

Aeqium is a cloud-based employee compensation management software that automates and streamlines the compensation management process for organizations of all sizes. It provides a comprehensive solution for managing employee salaries, variable and performance-based pay, equity grants, and compliance reporting.

Why I Picked Aeqium: Aeqium uses advanced algorithms and data analytics to help employers make informed decisions about employee compensation. It integrates with different HR and payroll systems to gather data on employee performance, framework, goals, and salary ranges. With this data, Aeqium generates insights that help employers to create customized pay-for-performance plans for their employees, determine pay equity, and simulate different compensation scenarios to assess their impact on the bottom line. Aeqium allows employers to create and manage compensation plans tailored to their business's needs and requirements. Employers can set up various compensation components, such as base salary, variable pay, bonuses, stock options, and benefits, and create different compensation plans based on job titles, departments, and performance levels.

Aeqium's performance management feature enables employers to link compensation decisions to employee performance metrics. Employers can set performance goals and metrics, monitor progress, and track employee performance. The software analyzes the performance data and provides insights into which employees deserve pay raises, bonuses, or other incentives. Employers can generate custom reports, graphs, and charts to analyze employee compensation trends, comparisons, and benchmarks. They can also track employee satisfaction and engagement levels, conduct salary surveys, and monitor employee turnover rates.

Aeqium Standout Features & Integrations

Features include compensation planning, reporting & analytics, third-party integrations, collaboration, customization, managing compensation cycles, proofing & approvals, user-based access, budgeting, pay transparency, interactive offer letters, market data integration, performance tracking, 

Integrations include other HRIS, payroll systems, and ATS.

Aeqium offers customized pricing upon request. They also have a freemium plan available.

Free plan available

Pricing upon request

8

Xactly

Best compensation management software for offering incentives that drive performance

Sales teams come in different forms and sizes, and so do their compensation plans and benefits. Xactly Incent is an incentive compensation management software designed to continuously monitor sales teams so that HR professionals can develop compensation strategies that motivate them to achieve top performance.

Why I picked Xactly Incent: Their compensation planning platform comes with 17 years of proprietary data that links pay with sales performance. This data, which was collected across many different industries, has been aggregated and anonymized. I included Xactly Incent in this list because you can leverage this data to help you build competitive incentive-focused compensation plans to boost your sales quotas and retain your top sellers.

Xactly Incent Standout Features & Integrations:

Features include compensation data, compensation & payout planning tools, commission tracking, sales forecasting tools, advanced benchmarking data, reusable plan components, pay curves, visualizations, workflow automations, analytics, real-time reporting, and a mobile app.

Integrations are available with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and NetSuite, and other CRM, ERP, and HCM software solutions.

Xactly offers customized pricing upon request along with a free demo.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.2 397

Free demo available

Pricing upon request

9

Assemble

Best compensation management software for transparent total compensation

Assemble is a compensation planning platform with a focus on transparency and equality. Their software can help you prepare compensate packages for your employees in a way that drives performance and builds trust within your organization. 

Why I picked Assemble: Their compensation planning software is focused on helping organizations develop transparent compensation plans that are fair, equitable, competitive, consistent, and explainable.

This modern, proactive approach to developing a compensation plan within these parameters helps to ensure that traditionally underrepresented and underpaid demographics are paid equally when compared to their peers. To simplify this process, Assemble also automatically analyzes pay equity across your workforce data for you, and includes a special module focused on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion). 

Assemble also includes a unique illustrative offers feature that helps organizations communicate the full value of an employee offer, which may include additional forms of compensation above their base salary, such as merit-based bonuses, equity plans, or tenure-based increases.

To ensure a positive user experience, their illustrative offers are sent directly from Assemble, drawing candidates into a digital portal that’s been customized with your own company branding. This positive portrayal of their total compensation package can make a big impact on candidates’ employee experience, before they even accept their offer.

Assemble Standout Features & Integrations

Features include salary benchmark data, salary ladders and compensation bands, easy-to-digest visualizations, illustrative employee offers, pay transparency and compliance tools, historical record keeping & audit logs, workflow automation, tools to manage job architecture and job descriptions, multiple currencies, DEI tracking, and a white-labeled employee portal. 

Integrations are available with 60+ HR software solutions, including Alexis HR, Applicant Stack, Ashby, Breathe, Breezy, CATS, Cornerstone, Factorial, HR Cloud, JazzHR, Jobvite, Lano, Lever, Recruitee, Teamtailor, UKG Pro, Workable and others. 

Assemble offers customized pricing upon request, as well as a free demo.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.3 85

Free demo available

Pricing upon request

10

PaveAI

Best compensation management software for managing compensation bands at scale

Pave is an end-to-end compensation management platform with individual modules for benchmarking, compensation bands, compensation planning, total rewards, and visual offer letters. 

Why I picked Pave: Their comprehensive platform addresses all aspects of the compensation process, helping organizations attract talent, make competitive offers, leverage best practices, and stay proactive by ensuring pay-related decisions are fair, equitable and unbiased. Their salary benchmark database updates in real-time, ensuring you are always viewing up-to-date information so you can compete effectively for top talent. 

Large workforces will also get a lot of value from their compensation bands feature, which ensures every employee is accounted for within a role-specific band. By making an edit to a compensation band, you can streamline your salary adjustment process since one edit carries over to every other record that uses the same band, saving a lot of time normally spent manually adjusting rates. 

You can also configure access to specific bands at a granular level, ensuring that leaders and managers can only access the bands that are relevant to their department, instead of accessing salary information for the company as a whole. 

Pave Standout Features & Integrations

Features include compensation bands and benchmarks, compensation cycles, merit-based management tools, guidelines for salary and equity increases, cashflow and equity budgeting tools, approval workflows & auditable change logs, visual offer letters, and unlimited user seats. 

Integrations are available with 25+ popular HR management systems, including ADP, Carta, Gusto, Hibob, Humaans, Humi, Justworks, Namely, Paylocity, Personio, Rippling, Sapling, Sequoia, TriNet, Workday, Zenefits, and others. 

Pave offers pricing details upon request, as well as a free demo.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.7 3

Freemium plan + free demo available

Pricing upon request

Need Expert Help Selecting The Right Compensation Management Software?

We’ve joined up with Crozdesk.com to give all our readers (yes, you!) access to Crozdesk’s software advisors. Just use the form below to share your needs, and they will contact you at no cost or commitment. You will then be matched and connected to a shortlist of vendors that best fit your company, and you can access exclusive software discounts!

The 10 Best Compensation Management Software Comparison Chart

This comparison chart summarizes basic details about each of my top compensation management software selections. You can view pricing details and the availability of free trials or demos side-by-side to help you find the best software for your budget.

Tool Free Option Price
1
Deel

Best compensation management software for global salary benchmarking and international hiring

Free demo available

Flat rate user pricing, with a free version for businesses with up to 200 people Visit Website
2
Trinet

Best compensation management software for competitive salary benchmarking

Free demo available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
3
Xoxoday Compass

Best compensation management software for gamified sales incentive programs

Not available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
4
Insperity

Effective compensation management for businesses of all sizes.

Not available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
5
Justworks

Best compensation management software with 24/7 expert support

Free demo available

From $59/user/month Visit Website
6
Decusoft Compose

Best compensation management software for pay equity analysis tools

Free demo available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
7
Aeqium

Best compensation management software for collaborative compensation planning & reviews

Free plan available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
8
Xactly

Best compensation management software for offering incentives that drive performance

Free demo available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
9
Assemble

Best compensation management software for transparent total compensation

Free demo available

Pricing upon request Visit Website
10
PaveAI

Best compensation management software for managing compensation bands at scale

Freemium plan + free demo available

Pricing upon request Visit Website

Other Options

Here are a few other options that didn’t make the best compensation management software list:

  1. Spiff

    Best compensation management software for commission-based sales teams

  2. MarketPay by Payscale

    Best compensation management software for tracking global compensation volatility

  3. ChartHop

    Best compensation management software for automating eligibility rules

  4. Varicent ICM

    Best compensation management software for automating incentive programs for enterprise organizations

  5. CaptivateIQ

    Best compensation management software for customer-facing teams

  6. Xoxoday Plum

    Best compensation management software for sending bonus payouts internationally

  7. Workday

    Best compensation management software for data integrations

  8. CompLogix

    Best for compensation management software for simplicity and flexibility in tracking, monitoring, and reporting

  9. PayScale Insight Lab

    Best compensation management software for designing pay structures and managing merit increases

  10. Ceridian Dayforce

    Best compensation management software for integrating talent and workforce management, payroll, and benefits

People Also Ask

Still trying to wrap your head around compensation management software and how it works? Here are some answers to frequently asked questions that should clear things up for you further:

Additional Resources

Looking for some other ways to attract and retain high-quality talent? Here's a collection of our best resources to help you develop top-notch compensation and engagement practices within your organization:

Before you go, I also recommend signing up for our weekly People Managing People newsletter. That way, you'll receive the latest insights from top thinkers in the HR space straight into your inbox.

By Kim Behnke

Kim Behnke is an HR Tool Expert & Writer for People Managing People. She draws on her 9 years of human resources experience and her keen eye for systematic processes to support her analyses of the top HR tools on the market. She is passionate about maximizing efficiencies and streamlining workflows to ensure internal systems run smoothly. Kim's HR experience includes recruitment, onboarding, performance management, training and development, policy development and enforcement, and HR analytics. She also has degrees in psychology, writing, publishing, and technical communication. When away from her desk, she can usually be found outside tending to her ever-expanding garden.