Levels.fyi is built for Big Tech. Here's what to use if you're not.

Levels.fyi is the best salary data source in the world for engineers at Google, Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and Apple. If you work at one of those companies, you should use it. The data density, the total compensation breakdowns (base, bonus, equity), and the level-by-level granularity are unmatched.

Outside the top 50 or so tech employers, the picture changes. Coverage drops. Sample sizes shrink. A search for your company returns two self-reported data points from 2022. That's not enough to anchor a negotiation on.

If you're a senior engineer at a mid-size tech company, a product manager at a Series B startup, or a professional in a non-tech industry, you need different tools. This guide covers six of them: what they do well, where they fall short, and which situation each one fits best.

Why Levels.fyi has gaps worth knowing about

Before getting to alternatives, it helps to understand exactly where Levels.fyi's model breaks down. The platform collects self-reported compensation submissions. Members submit their total compensation package (base, equity, bonus) along with company and level. This crowdsourcing model works brilliantly at scale. Google has thousands of submissions. But scale is unevenly distributed.

The second issue is structural: Levels.fyi is designed around company levels. To get useful data, you need to know your exact level designation (L5, E6, IC3) and how it compares across companies. If your company uses non-standard titles or doesn't publish level ladders publicly, you're guessing at your own tier before you've even run the search.

Third, the platform is built entirely around total compensation, which skews toward equity-heavy roles. If you're benchmarking a role where equity is not a major component (most non-FAANG positions), the base salary data is there but it's not what the tool is optimized to show you.

Who needs a Levels.fyi alternative

Three situations come up most often:

You work in tech but not at a household-name company. Your employer might have 200 engineers, pay competitively, and have no Levels.fyi data worth using. You need a tool that pulls from job postings and surveys across the broader market, rather than self-reports concentrated at a handful of employers.

You're in a non-tech or mixed-tech role. Product managers, data analysts, and technical program managers at non-tech companies won't find meaningful data on Levels.fyi at all. The platform's frame of reference is FAANG engineering compensation.

You want resume-based analysis rather than a manual lookup. Levels.fyi requires you to know your company, your level, and your location to get a result. If you want a tool to assess your full profile (skills, years of experience, role history) and return a market rate, you need something different.

Quick comparison

1. PayScope

Best for: Professionals who want a market rate based on their actual resume rather than a manual lookup by company and level.

PayScope takes a different approach from Levels.fyi. Instead of asking you to select your company and level from a list, it reads your resume or LinkedIn profile and benchmarks your full profile against current job posting data. The result reflects what employers are actively paying for your combination of role, experience, skills, and location. Not what employees self-reported at a handful of well-known companies.

This makes PayScope particularly useful in two cases. First, if your company isn't in Levels.fyi's dataset or has thin coverage, PayScope still returns a market rate because it draws from job postings rather than employee submissions. Second, if you're exploring a job change and want to understand your market value without anchoring to your current company's level system, the resume-based approach gives you a number that travels with you.

PayScope is free to use, focused on US professionals, and does not require account creation to get results.

Limitations: Because the data comes from job postings rather than verified employee submissions, it reflects what companies advertise rather than what they actually pay. Posting salaries can understate total compensation at equity-heavy employers. For FAANG roles where equity represents a large share of total comp, Levels.fyi remains the better source.

Use it when: You want to know your market value and either your company isn't on Levels.fyi, or you want a salary picture that reflects your full profile rather than a company-level lookup.

2. Glassdoor

Best for: Broad coverage across industries and company sizes, with salary data alongside company reviews.

Glassdoor has one of the widest coverage footprints of any salary tool: millions of company pages across industries, geographies, and role types. For professionals outside tech, it's often the first credible source of salary data. For tech professionals at non-FAANG companies, Glassdoor typically has more data points than Levels.fyi for mid-size employers.

The salary data shows up alongside company reviews, interview questions, and benefits information, which gives you useful context when evaluating a specific offer. Knowing that a company's engineering salaries average $142K means something different when you can also read that the team is stretched and attrition is high.

Limitations: The self-reporting model introduces selection bias. Employees are more likely to submit data when they want to brag or complain, which skews the sample. Glassdoor's own data shows that reported salaries can vary 15-20% from verified market rates. It's a useful reference point, not a precise benchmark. See our broader comparison of salary benchmarking tools for a full analysis of how Glassdoor compares across dimensions.

Use it when: You want salary data for a non-tech role, a company outside Big Tech, or you want to combine salary research with company culture context before accepting an offer.

3. LinkedIn Salary

Best for: Professionals who want to cross-reference salary against role, company, industry, and seniority simultaneously.

LinkedIn Salary is part of LinkedIn Premium and draws from both member-reported compensation and job posting data. The combination gives you salary ranges at the intersection of job title, company, location, and industry, which is more precise than a title-only lookup and more widely available than Levels.fyi's company-specific data.

For non-tech professionals, LinkedIn Salary often outperforms Levels.fyi simply because LinkedIn's user base extends across all industries. A marketing director at a healthcare company will find far more relevant data on LinkedIn than on a platform built around software engineering levels.

Limitations: Requires LinkedIn Premium at $29.99/month. The self-reported component carries the same selection bias issues as Glassdoor. Coverage outside the US is uneven.

Use it when: You're in a non-tech or mixed-tech role, or you want to cross-reference your salary against a specific industry and company type rather than just a job title.

4. Payscale

Best for: Professionals who want a benchmark that accounts for education, certifications, and specific skills alongside title and location.

Payscale's profile-matching model is its main advantage over simpler lookup tools. You enter your job title, location, years of experience, education level, and specific skills or certifications, and the tool returns a salary range calibrated to that full profile. For roles where compensation varies based on credentials (project managers with PMP certifications, engineers with specific cloud platforms, data professionals with particular tool sets), Payscale often returns a more accurate range than tools that use title and location alone.

Limitations: The free report provides a range but pushes toward a paid Personal Salary Report for deeper detail. Data coverage is stronger for common roles and large markets, weaker for senior and executive levels above $150K. Payscale acknowledges their data can lag market moves by several months.

Use it when: Your compensation is meaningfully affected by specific certifications or skills, and you want those reflected in your benchmark. For a full breakdown of how Payscale compares to other tools, see our top Payscale alternatives guide.

5. Salary.com

Best for: Professionals who want employer-survey data rather than self-reported figures.

Salary.com compiles data primarily from employer compensation surveys, which means the data reflects what companies are actually paying rather than what employees say they earn. This distinction matters: employer-survey data tends to be more accurate for mid-level professional roles because it's collected systematically rather than voluntarily.

The platform covers a wide range of roles and includes detailed percentile breakdowns (10th, 25th, 50th, 75th, and 90th percentile), which gives you a more complete picture of where you sit in the range rather than just a median figure.

Limitations: The free tier shows limited detail. Full percentile reports and the complete compensation breakdown require a paid account. Data is updated periodically rather than in real time.

Use it when: You want a more formal, survey-based data source to support a compensation conversation with HR, or you want to understand the full percentile range rather than just the median.

6. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics

Best for: Non-tech professionals and anyone who needs an authoritative, government-verified baseline.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes annual wage data for over 800 occupations across every US metro area. The data is collected through employer surveys covering 1.1 million establishments and is the most methodologically rigorous salary source publicly available. It's also free, with no account required.

For regulated industries (healthcare, law, government contracting, education), BLS data is often explicitly referenced in compensation decisions. Knowing the BLS median for your occupation in your metro area gives you a defensible floor for any salary conversation.

Limitations: BLS data is updated annually and runs 12-18 months behind the current market. It reflects base wages only and does not include equity, bonuses, or benefits. Coverage is by occupation category, not specific job title, so a "software developer" and a "senior software engineer" fall into the same bucket.

Use it when: You want a verified baseline for a non-tech role, you work in a regulated industry, or you need an authoritative source to cite in a formal compensation review.

How to choose

If Levels.fyi's data is thin for your company or role, start with PayScope for a resume-based market rate, then cross-reference against Glassdoor for broader industry context. Two data points that agree give you a defensible number.

If you're in a non-tech role, skip Levels.fyi and use LinkedIn Salary alongside BLS data. LinkedIn gives you the current market picture; BLS gives you the authoritative floor.

If you're building a case for a raise and need to present data to HR, Salary.com's employer-survey data and BLS figures carry more weight in a formal review than self-reported crowdsourced numbers. Once you have the data, our guide on how to ask for a market adjustment raise covers exactly how to use it in that conversation.

For a detailed walkthrough of how to use multiple tools together to build a complete salary picture, see our guide on using data to negotiate a better salary.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Levels.fyi accurate for non-FAANG companies? For most companies outside the top 50-100 tech employers, Levels.fyi has too few data points to be reliable. Sample sizes of 2-5 self-reported submissions don't produce a stable median. Use Glassdoor, LinkedIn Salary, or PayScope for broader coverage.

What's the best free alternative to Levels.fyi? For tech professionals outside Big Tech, PayScope is free and uses job posting data rather than self-reports. For non-tech roles, BLS OES is free and government-verified. Glassdoor is free for basic salary ranges across all industries.

Does any tool cover total compensation (base + equity + bonus) like Levels.fyi? Levels.fyi is still the best source for total compensation data at equity-heavy tech employers. For roles where equity is a smaller component, base salary tools like PayScope, Glassdoor, and Payscale are accurate enough. LinkedIn Salary includes some bonus data at the premium tier.

Which tool is most accurate for senior-level tech roles outside FAANG? PayScope draws from current job postings rather than historical self-reports, which gives it an advantage for senior roles at companies without Levels.fyi coverage. Payscale is also useful at the senior level because its profile-matching accounts for seniority more precisely than tools that use title alone.

Can I use multiple tools to cross-check my salary? Yes, and you should. Run PayScope for a resume-based figure, then check Glassdoor for your company and role specifically. When two independent sources agree within 10-15%, you have a reliable range. When they diverge significantly, dig into why: it's usually a methodology difference, a market timing difference, or a genuine spread within the role depending on experience. See our full salary benchmarking tools comparison for a detailed breakdown of how each tool handles this.

Is Levels.fyi useful outside the US? Levels.fyi has expanded internationally, but US data remains by far the most complete. For UK, European, and other markets, the data is thin enough that local tools or LinkedIn Salary are better starting points.

Before you use any tool, start by knowing what question you're actually answering. If it's "what should I earn at Google as an L5 engineer," Levels.fyi is the right answer. If it's "what does the market pay for someone with my background," upload your resume to PayScope and find out in two minutes. If you're below market, our guide on what to do when you're underpaid covers the next steps.