HR AI Index
Index Compensation and total rewards Compensation benchmarkin › Comprehensive.io vs Salary.com
Compensation benchmarking data · September 2026 Edition

Comprehensive.io vs Salary.com

Zero of twelve models named Comprehensive.io first on the direct prompt; zero named Salary.com. Comprehensive.io was named by eleven of the twelve models and Salary.com by nine and Comprehensive.io carries 12 labels and Salary.com 16, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Comprehensive.io

accepted challenger

Named in three categories this edition.

Salary.com

accepted challenger

Named in three categories this edition.

First-choice share12%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate0%6%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#3#6A position in a field of 8; printed, not drawn.
Labels1216A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Comprehensive.io reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Payscale was named alongside these two in ten of the twelve direct answers. Payscale vs Comprehensive.io · Payscale vs Salary.com · Pave vs Comprehensive.io

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the compensation benchmarking data page.

By framing

How many of the twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Comprehensive.ioFirst choices, of twelve modelsSalary.com
Direct00
Paraphrase011 against Salary.com
Comparative00
Budget-constrained60
Scale-constrained00
Negative00
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.

Every model, every framing

The seventy-two answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Comprehensive.io and Salary.com stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.1 Fast
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
Comprehensive.io Salary.com first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Comprehensive.io on the left and Salary.com on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Comprehensive.io and Salary.com stood in it.

Neither was the first choice, one was named

8 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
GPT-5.4 miniPayscale alternatives: Radford, Salary.com
Gemini 3.5 FlashPave alternatives: Carta Total Comp, Figures, Payscale, Radford, Ravio, Salary.com
Grok 4.1 FastPayscale alternatives: Pave, Salary.com
Mistral SmallSalaryCube alternatives: Pave, Payfactors, Salary.com
DeepSeek V4 FlashPayscale alternatives: ERI, Pave, Ravio, Salary.com
Qwen 3.7 FlashPayscale alternatives: Pave, Payfactors, Salary.com, SalaryCube
Kimi K2Payscale, SalaryCube alternatives: Mercer, Radford, Salary.com
MiniMax M2.5Payscale alternatives: Comprehensive.io

Neither was named

4 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5Payscale alternatives: Lattice, SalaryCube, beqom
Perplexity SonarPayscale alternatives: Ravio, SalaryCube
Llama 4 MaverickPayscale
GLM 4.7 FlashXPave alternatives: Aon Radford, CaptivateIQ, Ficstar, Mercer, OpenComp, Payscale Ascent, Ravio, Salary.com CompAnalyst

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Salary.com leads by four points.
Salary.com6%#3 of 10
Comprehensive.io2%#6 of 10
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
The order flips: Comprehensive.io leads at mid-market.
Comprehensive.io12%#3 of 8
Salary.com2%#6 of 8
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
The order flips: Salary.com leads at enterprise.
Salary.com3%#6 of 10
Comprehensive.io0%#– of 10
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Comprehensive.io

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.

“three free salary benchmarking tools cover most needs at zero cost: Pave (tech roles, under 200 employees), Comprehensive.io (US tech daily data), and BLS OEWS” Claude Haiku 4.5 · budget prompt · first choice
“Free daily-refreshed tech salary data from 6,000+ U.S. companies (no participation needed) ... Great for startups/lean teams.” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · first choice
“Pave and Comprehensive.io are currently leading the market for affordable or free options” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · first choice

What the models said about Salary.com

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. One of one in this category shown.

“Best all-around for mid-sized companies: Compdata Max / Salary.com” Perplexity Sonar · paraphrase prompt · first choice
Also compared

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.