Pave compensation alternative without the HRIS hookup
Pave's free benchmarks are real, but they are free because you connect your HRIS and your pay data joins Pave's pool. If your board, your lawyer or your payroll setup rules that out, or you hire outside venture tech, WageList builds defensible pay bands from public U.S. wage data with nothing to connect, from $49 a month billed yearly.
This page says plainly where Pave wins, because for a lot of startups it is the right call. Build a band for a real role on the right while you read.
Pave plan details taken from Pave's own pricing and support pages
- P25
- $0
- P50 ยท Median
- $0
- P75
- $0
Suggested posted range
Built from public U.S. BLS OES wage data (May 2025 release), adjusted for market, seniority, company stage and, when you pick one, industry, by the multipliers published in our methodology.
Get bands for your whole team
Get startedShort answer
Pave Market Data Lite is free for US companies with 1 to 200 employees that connect an HRIS, and covers the overall U.S. plus one other market. Everything beyond that is quoted by company size. The real cost of the free tier is the integration and the data you contribute. A Pave alternative makes sense when you cannot or will not connect payroll and equity systems, when your peers are not venture-backed tech companies, or when you need posted salary ranges and cash bands rather than an equity program.
What Pave actually sells, plan by plan
Pave splits its product into market data and a compensation platform on top. Most "is Pave free" confusion comes from treating those as one thing. The free plan is a benchmark lookup. The planning, total rewards and offer letter tools sit in paid packages that start with a demo.
| Plan | What you get | Condition | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market Data Lite | Base salary and new-hire equity benchmarks, 290+ job families, overall U.S. plus one additional market | 1 to 200 employees, HRIS connected | Free |
| Market Data Pro | Global locations and metros, custom peer groups, recent-hire filter, unvested and ongoing equity data, unlimited exports and reports | Credit card upgrade at 200 or fewer employees with an active HRIS connection, otherwise a demo | Quoted, based on company size |
| Agentic Market Intelligence | Everything in Pro plus Pave Agent, an AI analyst that prices jobs, drafts job architecture and reads public range and proxy data | Sales led | Quote only |
| Agentic Workflows plus add-ons | Pave as your comp data warehouse with market pricing, then compensation planning, team view, total rewards and visual offer letters as add-ons | Sales led | Quote only |
Plan contents come from Pave's pricing page and its "Upgrade to Market Data Pro" support article. Pave describes its dataset as coming from more than 9,000 integrated clients. Third-party marketplaces estimate the paid suite at roughly $8 to $20 per employee per month; Pave itself does not publish a number.
What you hand over to get the free tier
Pave is clear about its model. It calls itself infrastructure rather than a survey, connects directly to your HCM and equity management systems, and says every offer, promotion, equity grant and pay adjustment flows in automatically. That is exactly why its data is fresh. It is also a standing feed of your most sensitive people data to a vendor, and that is a decision some companies will not make lightly.
Board and legal
Investors, a general counsel or a security review often has to approve a persistent payroll and cap table connection. That approval can take longer than the benchmarking project itself.
Supported systems
The free tier assumes an HRIS Pave integrates with. A company still running payroll through an accountant or a spreadsheet has nothing to connect, so the free door does not open.
Peer mix
A pooled dataset describes whoever joined the pool. Pave's own pricing page leads with AI labs and late-stage software brands, which is a great peer set if that is who you compete with for hires.
None of this makes Pave a bad product. It makes it a specific one. If those three points do not apply to you, the free tier is excellent value and you should take it.
Pave vs WageList, side by side
| Dimension | Pave | WageList |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | Lite free at 1 to 200 employees with an HRIS connected; paid tiers quoted by company size | $49, $149 or $399 a month billed yearly; $99, $299 or $799 month to month |
| Integration needed | Yes, HRIS and equity system are the entry point | None, you type a job title and a location |
| Data source | Real-time data pooled from connected clients | Public BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics plus a published multiplier table |
| Industry coverage | Densest for venture-backed tech and AI | About 85 common roles drawn from an economy-wide federal survey, tech and non-tech |
| Equity benchmarks | Yes, new-hire equity free, deeper equity in Pro | No, cash bands only |
| Locations | Lite: U.S. overall plus one market. Pro: global | US locations, with geo tiers on Growth and above |
| Posted salary ranges | Ranges come from your own job architecture work | Posted-range generator on every plan, for state pay transparency laws |
| Comp cycles and total rewards | Yes, as paid add-ons | Comp-review workspace on Scale; no total rewards portal |
| Methodology you can show | Proprietary dataset, licensed to customers | Public source and documented adjustments you can hand a board, auditor or candidate |
Cells marked in blue are where Pave is stronger. Confirm current Pave plans with Pave directly before you decide; vendor packaging changes.
What each option costs at 50 and 150 employees
If the free Lite tier covers you, Pave is cheaper than anything, full stop. The comparison only matters once you need what Lite leaves out, or once the HRIS connection is off the table. Using the third-party per-employee estimate for Pave's paid suite, because Pave does not publish one, the yearly numbers look like this:
| Headcount | Pave Lite | Pave paid suite (estimate) | WageList Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 employees | $0 with HRIS connected | $4,800 to $12,000 a year (50 x $8 to $20 x 12) | $1,788 a year billed yearly |
| 150 employees | $0 with HRIS connected | $14,400 to $36,000 a year (150 x $8 to $20 x 12) | $1,788 a year billed yearly |
WageList pricing does not scale with headcount, so the gap widens as you grow. The honest caveat: the Pave figure buys more product, including equity data and planning workflows WageList does not offer. Compare like with like. If what you need is bands and posted ranges, the Growth plan is the relevant line. Our full price list is on the pricing page, and the wider market is broken down in what compensation software costs.
Who should pick Pave, and who should not
Pick Pave if
You are a venture-backed tech or AI company, you grant equity to most hires, your HRIS is one Pave connects to, and leadership is comfortable sharing pay data. For that profile the free tier is hard to beat, and Pro adds global data you will want once you hire abroad.
Pick WageList if
You will not connect payroll to a third party, most of your hires are outside software engineering, or the job in front of you is a compliant salary range on a posting under a state pay transparency law. You get a band in minutes and a methodology you can show anyone.
Some teams use both: Pave Lite for equity, WageList for the cash bands they post publicly. The band mechanics are explained in our salary bands guide, and the posting rules state by state are in salary ranges on job postings. Where our numbers come from is documented on BLS salary data.
Questions people ask about Pave
Is Pave free?
Partly. Pave Market Data Lite is free for companies with 1 to 200 employees that connect an HRIS, and it covers the overall U.S. plus one additional market. Market Data Pro, the Pave Agent tiers and the planning add-ons are paid and quoted by company size, so the free part is the benchmark lookup, not the platform.
How much does Pave cost?
Pave does not publish paid prices. Its support documentation says Market Data Pro pricing is based on company size and quoted after a demo. Third-party software marketplaces estimate the paid suite at roughly $8 to $20 per employee per month, or $15,000 to $40,000 a year at 100 to 500 employees. Treat those as estimates, not vendor figures.
Does Pave require an HRIS integration?
Yes. Pave describes itself as infrastructure rather than a survey: it connects directly to your HCM and equity management systems and pulls offers, promotions, grants and pay changes automatically. Market Data Lite is free only for companies that connect an HRIS, and that connection is how your data joins the shared dataset.
What is the difference between Pave Market Data Lite and Pro?
Lite gives free U.S. benchmarks for 290+ job families in the overall U.S. and one extra market. Pro adds global locations and metros, custom peer groups, a recent-hire filter, advanced equity data such as unvested and ongoing grants, and unlimited exports and reports. Companies with 200 or fewer employees can upgrade to Pro by credit card.
Is Pave good for non-tech companies?
Less so. Pave's dataset is pooled from its connected clients, and its own pricing page leads with venture and AI companies. A clinic, manufacturer, agency or nonprofit is benchmarked against whoever has connected, which may not be the market it hires in. Public federal wage data is collected from employers across the whole economy, regardless of who signed up for a product.
What is the best Pave alternative for a small business?
It depends on why Pave does not fit. If you need equity benchmarks, Carta Total Comp is the closest substitute. If you want a traditional survey, Payscale and Salary.com sell those. If you want cash pay bands and posted ranges with a published price and no HRIS connection, WageList starts at $49 a month billed yearly.
Other vendor comparisons
Payscale alternative
The enterprise comp platform, its observed contract values, and who it actually fits.
Mercer alternative
What Mercer's surveys and MarketPricer reports cost, and the give-to-get catch.
Best compensation management software
Ten vendors compared on data source, pricing transparency and who each one is for.
Benchmarks with nothing to connect
No HRIS integration, no data sharing, no sales call. Type a role and a US location, get a band with its source shown, and publish a compliant range the same afternoon.