Show HN: Comparator - I built a free, open-source app to compare job offers
22 comments
·June 24, 2025sponnath
There's some minor content overflow in the x axis. I think it wouldn't hurt to tweak the max width of the page content as I feel like it's a bit too much right now. Also not sure if I'm a fan of the animation you have going on with the quotes. Feels tacky.
dpflug
Y'all are getting multiple job offers?
SOLAR_FIELDS
That is the best way to max your salary. Interview with as many companies as possible, get as many offers as you can, and pit them against each other.
ramon156
This implies everyone gets multiple offers. When I had 2yrs of exp. I had one company that was confident about me, the rest were kind of trying to find reasons not to hire me (except exp)
blharr
For the first interview that you get an offer, what exactly do you tell them to keep them from moving on to someone else?
Most don't extend employment offers out for months in my experience, or at least they really try to get you to agree off the bat. I imagine someone job searching is getting an interview once a week or so. Several times, I've had delays of weeks to months after just submitting an application to get the interview. So how do you just have multiple offers to juggle at any one time?
SOLAR_FIELDS
You plan about 4-6 weeks and communicate early on that you are talking to several companies, and that you plan on evaluating offers on X date. Companies will shuffle things around to meet your date if you give them time. If they aren't flex you don't want to work for them anyway.
crystal_revenge
My last job search (a few months ago) I had 9 concurrent interviews going on before I had to start cancelling them and ended up with at least 3 offers before I started flat out rejecting other teams.
If you've kept up in the AI space the demand is insane. Though, ironically, I ended up taking a classical statistical modeling position because the team seemed great (and I can't resist a good, non-trivial modeling problem).
MediumD
When I got multiple startup job offers, I realized how hard it was to project out a realistic value behind the equity. Guessing future valuations, dealing with dilution, and running through endless scenarios was a headache—so I built Comparator.
Comparator is a simple, free, open-source tool to help you cut through the complexity of startup compensation. Quickly see what your equity might actually be worth, factor in dilution, and easily compare your offers side by side. It’s completely free, no signups, your data never leaves the browser.
Check out the app here: https://comparator-one.vercel.app
Check out the code here: https://github.com/DevonPeroutky/comparator
codingdave
> figure out the real value behind the equity.
Zero. Equity is a bonus in case things work out. But for the purpose of deciding on offers - zero.
MediumD
While I think it’s good advice to live as if the equity is worth zero, treating all equity as if its worth nothing, seems a bit over-reductionist when equity packages can routinely be worth millions of dollars.
Obviously it’s a crapshoot and should never be seen as a guarantee, I think treating it as zero is bit too far on the opposite extreme.
stuckonempty
How did you get to equity packages being “routinely” worth millions when tech startups fail somewhere between 75% and >99% of the time (depending on estimates)?
Seems far more likely that startup equity will be worth zero to typical individual contributor employees, not millions
esafak
You'd be remiss if the company is growing and has an IPO schedule. The uncertainty over equity reduces over time. Some people hop from pre-IPO company to pre-IPO company.
MH15
Reminder to turn "Show scroll bars" to "Always" if you're developing on MacOS for users on the web.
Unearned5161
your logo should be more like com<pear emoji>ator, the way it is now sounds like "comppearre"
gametorch
Very cool. Even if it's hard to model future valuations with any certainty, I would still want to have a tidy comparison like this.
I am too dumb for this. I get a salary and maybe a bonus. I never worked at a company that gave stock or options. When I do I will share the offers to someone that understands this. But I will most likely choose the company that shares my values and ignore the payout (unless it's realky a bad pay)