Compa Review: Live Market Data and AI Agents for Enterprise Comp Teams
Compa is a compensation market data company based in Newport Beach, California. Instead of running an annual salary survey, it collects pay observations directly from the HCM, ATS and stock administration systems of its customers, and sells that pooled data back to enterprise comp teams along with AI agents that do the analysis.
The site cites more than 9 million observations across 50+ countries and 3,098 job families, split into Offers, Employees, Stock, Skills and Frontline data sets. Named customers include HubSpot, Stripe, Synopsys and Micron Technology, and the company raised a $35 million Series B led by Jump Capital in January 2026.
The verdict
Compa belongs in the market data and benchmarking group of compensation tools, next to Ravio and Bettercomp, and not in the comp-cycle group with Pequity or Lattice Compensation. It will not run your merit review. What it replaces is the survey spreadsheet and the week of analyst time spent pricing a job family.
The Offers data is the part I find most useful. Most benchmark sources describe what incumbents are paid; Compa also tracks what companies are offering new hires, with more than 1.2 million offer observations on its site. For a recruiting-heavy tech or life sciences company, offer data moves faster than incumbent data and settles more arguments with hiring managers.
I would evaluate Compa if you are a large employer with a real comp function that already buys Radford or Mercer surveys and wants a faster, contributory source beside them. A 300-person company without a comp analyst should look at Ravio or Pave first; the agent model assumes someone on staff who reviews the output.
Where Compa fits
Who it suits
Compa fits enterprise compensation teams at companies with thousands of employees and heavy hiring volume, especially in tech, healthcare, financial services, retail and manufacturing, which are the sectors its data covers. It suits teams that want recruiters and HR business partners to answer routine pay questions without a ticket to the comp team.
What it does differently
Compa stands out because its benchmark data comes from live system connections across its customer network rather than from a once-a-year survey submission, and because it pairs that data with agents built for two audiences: the Analyst Agent for comp professionals and the Partner Agent for recruiters and HR. Bettercomp organizes the surveys you already buy; Compa is a source of data in its own right.
How it gets bought
This is an enterprise sale with security review, data-sharing terms and a pilot. Compa lists SOC 2 Type II certification and CCPA and GDPR compliance, which procurement teams will ask about first because the product ingests employee and offer records.
Compa pricing and how enterprise contracts are quoted
No prices are published. Compa positions itself for enterprise comp teams, and every contract is quoted after discovery. The data is contributory: customers connect systems such as Workday, Oracle, Greenhouse, Carta or E*TRADE, and those feeds are part of what makes the data set current.
That model changes the negotiation. Ask which data sets (Offers, Employees, Stock, Skills, Frontline) are included, whether the Analyst Agent and Partner Agent are separate line items, and what data you are expected to contribute in return.
| Plan | Published price | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Compa market data | Custom quote | Not stated |
| Compa AI agents | Custom quote | Not stated |
Pricing last checked September 25, 2026. View source
What goes into a Compa quote
Expect the quote to reflect which of the five data sets you license, how many countries you need, and how many users outside the comp team will use the Partner Agent. Frontline hourly data by geography and Stock data for equity grants are distinct products, so a company that only needs salaried tech benchmarks should not pay for both.
Budgeting against your survey spend
The fair comparison is your current survey budget plus the analyst hours spent loading, matching and aging survey data. If Compa lets you drop one survey subscription or free up a comp analyst for program design, the business case is easier. If you plan to keep every survey and add Compa on top, get the multi-year price in writing before the pilot ends.
Compa features: data sets, AI agents and integrations
Compa market data sets
Compa's data is split into five products, each aimed at a different pay question. Across them the company cites 9 million+ observations in 50+ countries and 3,098 job families.
Offers and Employees. Offers covers new-hire offers (1.2M+ observations); Employees covers incumbent pay (4.8M+ benchmarks).
Stock and Skills. Stock analyzes equity compensation, and Skills targets specialized hires where job titles alone do not price the role.
Frontline. Hourly pay by geography for retail, healthcare and manufacturing roles that salary surveys cover poorly.
Analyst Agent and Partner Agent
The two agents sit on top of the data. Compa says they run market analysis across roles, levels and geographies, work that previously took comp teams weeks.
Analyst Agent. Produces market insights and executive-ready answers for the internal comp team.
Partner Agent. Lets recruiters and HR make pay decisions within guardrails without waiting for a comp review.
Compa Connect, Research and Evals
Compa Connect delivers answers inside Slack and Claude. Research publishes compensation and labor market reports, and Evals is Compa's tooling for measuring AI answer quality, which is worth asking to see in a pilot.
Integrations. Workday, Oracle, Greenhouse, Carta and E*TRADE are named on the site.
Security. SOC 2 Type II certified, with CCPA and GDPR compliance stated.
Compa pros and cons for enterprise comp teams
Strengths
Offer-level data, not only incumbent pay
The Offers data set tracks what employers put in offer letters, with more than 1.2 million observations listed. That helps recruiters price hard-to-fill roles against current offers instead of last year's survey medians.
Data refreshed from systems of record
Participation is automated from HCM, ATS and stock systems, so the Employees data set reflects pay changes as they happen. Compa describes this as replacing static surveys with software-delivered market data.
Agents for comp and for recruiters
The Analyst Agent handles market pricing and benchmarking work for the comp team. The Partner Agent is aimed at recruiters and HR business partners, which spreads comp expertise without adding headcount.
Enterprise integrations and certifications
Connectors for Workday, Oracle, Greenhouse, Carta and E*TRADE are listed, along with SOC 2 Type II. Compa Connect brings answers into Slack and Claude, where managers already ask questions.
Limitations
No comp cycle or merit planning module
Compa is a data and analysis product. Merit budgets, approval chains and pay statements need a separate planning tool such as Pequity or Lattice Compensation.
Quote-only enterprise pricing
There is no published price, free plan or trial. Smaller companies cannot test the data without going through a sales cycle.
Contributory model needs data-sharing approval
Because the data set is built from customer systems, your legal and privacy teams will need to approve what your company contributes. Some employers are not comfortable sharing offer and equity records, even in aggregated form.
Compa is worth evaluating if your compensation team is too small for the volume of pay decisions the business needs to make. The AI agent model is designed to multiply comp team output, not replace the team.
How to run a Compa demo against your own jobs
A Compa evaluation is mostly a data-quality exercise. Run the demo against roles you have priced recently so you can compare its answers with your survey results.
- Bring ten recently priced jobs to the demo and ask for Compa's market view on each, because comparing its Offers and Employees numbers with your survey matches is the fastest way to judge the data.
- Ask for observation counts by country and job family for your footprint, because 50+ countries is an aggregate and coverage outside the US and major tech hubs may be thinner.
- Get the data contribution terms in writing, since the product depends on connecting your HCM, ATS and stock systems and your privacy team will need to approve what is shared.
- Test the Partner Agent with a recruiter, not only the comp team, because the value of that agent depends on whether non-specialists get answers they can act on without escalation.
Frequently asked questions about Compa
What is Compa?
Compa is an enterprise compensation data company in Newport Beach, California. It pools pay observations from customers' HCM, ATS and stock systems and sells benchmark data plus AI agents for comp analysis.
How much does Compa cost?
Compa does not publish pricing. Contracts are quoted for enterprise comp teams based on the data sets and agents licensed.
Does Compa run merit or bonus cycles?
No. It provides market data and analysis. Cycles, budgets and approvals run in Pequity, Lattice Compensation or your HCM.
How does Compa collect its market data?
From systems of record across its customer network, including HCM, ATS and stock administration platforms. The site cites 9 million+ observations in 50+ countries.
Has Compa been acquired?
No acquisition has been announced. Compa raised a $35 million Series B led by Jump Capital in January 2026.
Does Compa integrate with Bettercomp?
Yes. Bettercomp lists Compa as a data partner, so Compa data can sit beside traditional surveys in Bettercomp's market pricing software.
Alternatives worth comparing
Compa competes with other market data sources and with tools that organize survey data. These are the closest comparisons.
| Product | Pricing model | Free trial | Why buyers shortlist it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carta | Flat fee / tiered annual | Not stated | Equity and total compensation management platform for private companies managing cap tables, pay bands, and total rewards. |
| CompTool | Freemium | Yes | Compensation benchmarking and planning tool built by comp practitioners, with a free tier for salary survey owners. |
| Pave | Per employee per month | Yes | Pave pairs HRIS-sourced benchmarks with comp planning cycles and is sold to a wider range of company sizes than Compa's enterprise focus. |
| CaptivateIQ | Per seat per year | Not stated | Sales incentive compensation management platform that automates commission calculations and gives reps real-time earnings visibility. |
| Ravio | Quote-based | Not stated | Ravio also builds benchmarks from HRIS connections, but its core market is European tech scale-ups, and it bundles band building, merit reviews and gap analysis into the product. |
Free templates for this
- Free tracker
Compensation Review Tracker
A compensation review tracker to run your annual pay cycle — track proposed increases, budget spend, compa-ratios, and approvals in one consistent place.
- Free template
Total Rewards Statement Template
A total rewards statement template that shows employees the full value of their package — salary, bonus, equity, benefits, and perks — in one clear summary.
- Free template
Benefits Comparison Template
A benefits comparison template to evaluate health plans, carriers, and vendors side by side on cost, coverage, and value before you renew or switch.