Over 36% of organisations HR.com surveyed describe their compensation and total rewards programmes as underdeveloped, while a further 41% rate them as only somewhat developed.
One of the biggest challenges here?
Understanding what market competitiveness looks like across every reward element – especially when many data providers offer insights for base pay.
Plus, some providers specialise in benchmarking data, while others focus on rewards management or employee communications.
Few bring together comprehensive market data covering base salary, variable pay, bonuses, equity, and benefits.
Choosing the wrong platform can leave you benchmarking only part of your rewards package while managing the rest without reliable market data.
As a result, it becomes much harder to understand whether your overall rewards package, not just salary, is competitive enough to attract and retain talent.
To this end, this guide helps you:
Total rewards software helps companies benchmark, manage, and communicate the full value of employee compensation – including their base salary, equity, variable pay, and benefits.
For HR and People teams, a total rewards platform combines market data and reward management tools in one place, making it easier to:
In turn, this helps organisations attract and retain talent, make more informed reward decisions, and remain competitive.
While capabilities vary between providers, the strongest total rewards software combines two core capabilities:
Provides reliable market data across the full rewards package, letting you benchmark not just base salary, but also variable pay, equity, benefits, and bonuses. This helps teams make more informed reward decisions based on the full compensation package, rather than salary data alone.
Gives you the tools to plan, manage, and communicate reward decisions. This can include salary review cycles, bonus planning, pay band management, and total rewards statements that help employees understand their full compensation package.
Already familiar with total rewards software providers? Dive straight into how to evaluate a reward benchmarking data provider.
Salary will always be one of the most important factors in making fair, competitive offers. But for many organisations, salary alone isn’t enough to compete.
An early-stage startup, for instance, may not be able to match the salaries offered by larger employers – competing through equity, flexibility, or additional benefits instead.
Similarly, market leaders often need a competitive rewards package across salary, bonuses, equity, and benefits – not just market-leading pay.
The challenge is understanding which reward levers to use, when to use them, and how they compare against the market.
This is where the benefits of total rewards software show.
By bringing together market data and reward management tools, it helps you make more informed reward decisions and communicate them more effectively across the organisation.
So, put simply:
Benefits for employers
Benefits for employees
Not every organisation needs a dedicated total rewards software.
But if you’re making reward decisions across salary, bonuses, equity, and benefits, spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or salary-only benchmarking platforms can quickly become limiting.
In particular, you benefit from a total rewards platform when you’re facing one or more of the following challenges:
While there are plenty of salary benchmarking tools to choose from, many providers focus primarily on pay data, offering limited data on variable, equity, and benefits.
If your talent attraction and retention strategy relies on more than salary alone, you need data across the full rewards package – not just base pay.
Otherwise, it’s difficult to understand whether your overall offer is competitive or which reward levers to adjust when attracting and retaining employees.
As your organisation grows, reward decisions become harder to manage.
Teams often rely on spreadsheets or disconnected systems to run compensation reviews, track pay bands, and plan bonuses, which creates more manual work and makes it difficult to apply reward policies consistently.
Using a total rewards software helps you centralise these processes, apply reward policies more consistently, and communicate reward decisions more effectively across the organisation.
Many employees understand their salary, but have limited visibility into the value of their bonuses, equity, benefits, and other rewards.
Total rewards software provides employee-facing statements and reward communications to show employees the value of their full rewards package.
As employee expectations around pay transparency continue to grow, managers are increasingly expected to explain compensation and reward decisions clearly and consistently.
But they don’t always have access to the pay data, reward benchmarks, or decision rationale needed to answer employee questions confidently.
By giving managers access to the data and rationale behind reward decisions, total rewards software helps them communicate those decisions more confidently.
Different total compensation platforms solve different problems.
Some platforms focus on reward data. Others focus on giving you reward management tools. While still others specialise in a single reward component, such as equity or benefits.
There is also often overlap between categories.
For example, some reward benchmarking software also give you reward management tools, while specialist equity or benefits platforms may offer benchmarking data of their own.
Total rewards benchmarking software provides up-to-date, comparable market data across the total rewards package, including salary, bonuses, equity, and benefits.
This helps organisations compare their total compensation package against the market and make competitive reward decisions.
These tools are ideal for teams building a competitive rewards strategy and understanding how their overall offer compares with similar employers.
Examples: Ravio and Pave.
Total rewards management software helps organisations plan, manage, and communicate reward decisions.
Unlike reward benchmarking platforms, their primary focus is on helping you manage reward processes rather than providing comparable market data.
In doing so, they give you tools for:
These platforms are best for teams looking to scale structured, consistent reward processes that can invest in a separate rewards benchmarking data provider.
Examples: HRSoft.
Total rewards statement software focuses on employee-facing reward communication tools, such as total rewards statements, that help employees understand their rewards package.
These platforms are best suited to organisations that want to improve reward transparency and increase employee awareness of their benefits, bonuses, equity, and other rewards.
Examples: TotalRewards Software.
Specialist reward management software focuses on a specific component of the rewards package rather than total rewards as a whole. This can include:
If a particular reward lever plays an important role in your talent strategy, a specialist platform may be worth considering. These tools are often best suited to larger organisations or those with specialised reward requirements.
For example, a company with a large employee equity programme may need a dedicated equity management software, while an organisation with extensive benefits offerings may benefit from a specialist benefits platform.
Examples: Carta for equity management and Benifex for benefits administration.
Not all total rewards platforms offer the specific tools you need, nor do they offer all the rewards benchmarks you need. Those that do vary significantly in data coverage, methodology, and freshness.
Use the comparison below to shortlist the platforms that fit your rewards strategy:
Ravio is a total rewards benchmarking platform that combines comprehensive total rewards data with built-in rewards management tools.
By sourcing data through HRIS integrations, it provides continuously refreshed benchmarks across salary, variable pay, equity, and benefits.
Who is Ravio ideal for: Tech and tech-enabled companies in Europe and across the globe looking for comprehensive total rewards benchmarking and reward management in one platform.
How Ravio approaches total rewards:
Rather than benchmarking salary alone, Ravio helps you understand how your entire rewards package compares against the market by combining salary, variable pay, equity, and benefits in one platform.
A team of data experts reviews all HRIS data each month for inconsistencies and outliers before turning it into benchmarks mapped to your job roles and levels.
Alongside benchmarking, Ravio also includes tools for salary band management, compensation reviews, and pay equity analysis, helping you turn market data into informed reward decisions.
Pros:
Cons:
Pequity is a compensation management platform that combines market benchmarking with reward management tools for salary bands, compensation reviews, offer management, and pay transparency.
Who is Pequity ideal for: Growing organisations looking to combine compensation planning, total rewards statements, and market benchmarking in one platform.
How does Pequity approach total rewards:
Pequity combines compensation workflows with market data from its proprietary Market Pulse database and partnership with Radford Aon.
By integrating with ATS and HRIS platforms, Pequity supports compensation decisions throughout the employee lifecycle – from hiring and salary reviews to pay transparency – while helping employees understand their rewards through total rewards statements and employee portals.
Pros:
Cons:
BambooHR is an HR system that offers rewards management features and third-party compensation data via Mercer.
Who is BambooHR ideal for: Small and medium-sized businesses in the US looking for an HR-first software with rewards management features and third-party benchmarks in one place.
How BambooHR approaches total rewards:
Unlike dedicated total rewards platforms, BambooHR approaches rewards through its HR system.
It combines compensation planning and review workflows with third-party Mercer rewards data, allowing HR teams to manage compensation alongside core people processes in one platform.
It's worth noting here that traditional survey-based rewards data reflects a point-in-time snapshot of the market since it’s collected and published at set intervals rather than updated continuously.
And because BambooHR is a broad HR platform with multiple add-ons rather than a specialist rewards provider, its compensation capabilities and customer support aren’t backed by the same depth of dedicated rewards expertise.
Pros:
Cons:
TotalRewards Software is an employee total rewards communication platform that helps organisations make personalised total rewards statements.
Who is TotalRewards Software ideal for: Organisations looking to communicate the full value of their employee compensation and benefits rather than benchmarking or compensation management.
How TotalRewards Software approaches total rewards:
TotalRewards Software helps you create personalised, branded total rewards statements and interactive online portals that bring together salary, incentives, benefits, work-life programmes, and recognition in one place.
The platform also includes email campaign management, employee engagement analytics, and HR reporting tools to make it easy for teams to measure how employees interact with their total rewards communications.
Pros:
Cons:
Pave is primarily a compensation benchmarking platform that provides real-time base salary, equity, and variable pay (not benefits) benchmarks alongside compensation management tools.
Who is Pave ideal for: Organisations in the US and Canada looking for real-time compensation benchmarks alongside compensation management tools.
How Pave approaches total rewards:
Pave benchmarks base salary, variable pay, and equity using real-time market data sourced from HRIS integrations across 8,000+ companies. Organisations can also import third-party benchmarking data alongside Pave’s dataset.
While Pave benchmarks salary, variable pay, and equity, it doesn’t offer employee benefits benchmarks, making it better suited to organisations focused primarily on compensation rather than total rewards.
Its strongest coverage is in the United States and Canada, with real-time coverage limited to differential-based base salary benchmarks outside North America.
Pros:
Cons:
HiBob is a Human Capital Management (HCM) platform with a compensation module for managing salary reviews and rewards planning. The module includes third-party Mercer Comptryx rewards data.
Who is HiBob ideal for: Mid-sized organisations already using HiBob as their HR platform that have the budget to pair it with a dedicated real-time total rewards benchmarking platform for comprehensive, up-to-date rewards data.
How HiBob approaches total rewards:
Alongside compensation planning, salary review workflows, and an employee benefits dashboard, HiBob sources market data from Mercer.
Mercer is a traditional survey data provider, which means it provides a point-in-time snapshot of the market rather than continuously refreshed benchmarks. The data also requires manual job levelling before you can use it for benchmarking.
And because Mercer surveys feature large enterprise participants, its rewards data tends to be better suited to organisations benchmarking against broader corporate markets than fast-moving tech companies.
For fast-moving tech companies, HiBob also integrates with providers like Ravio to provide real-time rewards benchmarks across salary, variable pay, equity, and benefits using data sourced directly from comparable global tech companies.
Pros:
Cons:
HRSoft is a compensation management platform that helps organisations plan, manage, and communicate compensation across salary, bonuses, equity, and long-term incentives.
How HRSoft approaches total rewards: Mid-market teams and enterprises with complex compensation programmes that have the resources to pair HRSoft with separate real-time or survey-based rewards datasets.
How HRSoft approaches total rewards:
HRSoft focuses on managing the compensation lifecycle rather than providing total rewards benchmarks.
It combines compensation planning, pay-for-performance, long-term incentive management, and total rewards communication in a single platform – integrating with existing HRIS systems to centralise compensation workflows.
Employees can also access personalised total rewards statements and a branded portal that brings together salary, bonuses, equity, and benefits in one place.
For rewards data, HRSoft integrates with benchmarking providers including Mercer and BetterComp, allowing you to combine compensation management with external rewards datasets.
Pros:
Cons:
Like HiBob, Paycor is an HCM platform with compensation management tools for salary planning, pay benchmarking, and total rewards communication.
Who is Paycor ideal for: Small and mid-sized organisations in the US already using Paycor as their HR platform that want to manage compensation planning and reward benchmarking within their HR tool.
How Paycor approaches total rewards:
Paycor combines compensation planning, salary benchmarking, and total rewards communication tools in an HCM platform.
It sources salary data through Visier, covering over 10 million jobs across the US. Organisations can also integrate third-party compensation data providers such as Payscale with Paycor HCM.
Pros:
Cons:
Perkbox is an employee rewards and benefits platform that combines perks, recognition, wellbeing, and discounts in one place.
Who is Perkbox ideal for: Small and mid-sized, distributed teams looking to manage employee benefits, wellbeing, and reward and recognition programmes in one platform – with a separate tool for rewards benchmarking.
How Perkbox approaches total rewards:
Perkbox focuses on rewards management and visibility rather than total rewards benchmarking.
It gives employees access to salary sacrifice benefits, wellbeing resources, employee discounts, and reward and recognition programmes through a single app.
The platform also includes engagement features such as company communications, polls, surveys, and HRIS integrations to help organisations support and engage employees.
Pros:
Cons:
Benifex (formerly Benify) is a rewards management platform that consolidates employee benefits, total rewards, peer recognition, and reimbursements in one place.
How Benifex approaches total rewards: Mid to large global organisations that want to improve their employee engagement by managing benefits and total rewards communications in one platform.
How Benifex approaches total rewards:
Benifex focuses on employee benefits management rather than total rewards benchmarking.
While Benifex doesn’t natively integrate with total rewards benchmarking platforms, it integrates with HRIS platforms, which you then connect to a real-time rewards data provider to benchmark employee rewards against the market.
Using Benifix, employees can access personalised, real-time total rewards statements through a branded web portal and mobile app, while employers manage benefits, reimbursements, recognition, and communications from a single platform.
Pros:
Cons:
Compport is a Singapore-based compensation management software with tools for Asia-Pacific total rewards benchmarking, compensation planning, salary reviews, pay equity, and total rewards visibility.
Who is Compport ideal for: Enterprises operating in APAC, looking to manage total rewards benchmarking, compensation planning, and pay equity in one platform.
How Compport approaches total rewards:
Compport focuses on helping organisations standardise compensation decisions across the entire rewards lifecycle.
Its survey-based total rewards benchmark data has the strongest coverage across the Asia-Pacific region, with expanding coverage in the US and Europe.
Compport brings together salary reviews, bonuses, long-term incentives, and sales incentives into a single workflow with configurable approval processes and analytics.
It also includes personalised total rewards statements to improve rewards visibility.
Pros:
Cons:
The right total rewards software depends on your reward strategy and the challenges you’re trying to solve – whether that’s benchmarking the market, managing reward processes, improving employee communications, or a mix.
Once you’re clear on your priorities, use the following criteria to compare providers:
If your reward strategy relies on more than salary alone, look for software that covers the full rewards package, including:
Otherwise, you may end up making reward decisions based on only part of the picture.
The quality of your reward decisions depends on the quality of the data behind them.
When evaluating providers, ask:
These questions let you assess whether the data is reliable enough to support compensation and reward decisions.
Benchmark data is only useful if it reflects the markets where you hire.
So before selecting a platform, understand:
This is particularly important for organisations hiring across multiple regions.
Some platforms focus primarily on benchmarking, while others also provide tools for managing reward decisions and compensation processes.
Consider whether you need capabilities such as:
The more complex your reward processes become, the more valuable these workflow capabilities can be.
With the EU Pay Transparency Directive in force now, many organisations need rewards software that supports pay transparency and pay equity initiatives alongside compensation planning.
To this end, questions worth asking include:
Lastly, consider how the software fits into your existing HR tech stack and how easily your teams can use the benchmark data in day-to-day reward decisions.
Look at:
Even the best benchmark data has limited value if the right people can’t access it when they need it or use it to support reward decisions.
The best total rewards software for compensation teams depends on what you’re trying to achieve.
If benchmarking is your priority, look for a provider that offers reliable market data across the full rewards package, not just base salary.
If you also need to manage compensation reviews, employee communications, or reward processes, look for a tool that combines comprehensive total rewards data with the workflow capabilities your team needs.
Ultimately, the goal is to both benchmark individual reward components and build, manage, and communicate a rewards package that helps you attract and retain talent.
Already exploring software that combines comprehensive total rewards data with reward management capabilities? Then book a demo with our team to see how Ravio can support.
You benchmark compensation and benefits using reliable market data to compare your salary, bonuses, equity, and benefits against similar employers in your industry and hiring locations. While salary data is widely available, benchmarking the full rewards package requires comprehensive market data covering all reward components, not just base pay.
Employers benchmark total compensation by comparing the overall value of their rewards package – including salary, bonuses, equity, and benefits – against comparable organisations. This helps them understand whether their overall offer is competitive and identify which reward components need adjusting to attract and retain talent.
Total rewards benchmarking is the process of comparing your organisation’s full rewards package against the market. Rather than looking at pay data alone, it involves benchmarking bonuses, equity, benefits, and other variable rewards to similar employers so you can make more informed reward decisions and build a competitive overall package.
Companies compare salary, equity, bonuses, and benefits using total rewards benchmarking software. The strongest platforms provide market data across salary, variable pay, equity, and benefits, helping employers understand how their overall offer compares against similar organisations rather than evaluating each reward component in isolation.
A total rewards statement is an employee-facing summary showing the full value of an individual’s rewards package. It typically includes salary, bonuses, equity, benefits, pension contributions, and other rewards, helping employees understand the complete value of their compensation beyond base pay.
Employees typically view their total rewards package through a total rewards statement or employee portal. These tools combine salary, bonuses, equity, benefits, and other rewards into a single view, improving transparency and helping employees understand the full value of what they receive.
The biggest mistakes when selecting total rewards software are:
Compensation management software focuses on planning and managing pay decisions, such as salary reviews, bonuses, and pay bands. Total rewards software takes a broader approach by combining compensation with benefits, equity, reward benchmarking, and employee communications to support the full rewards strategy.
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