The base salary gap gets the attention. Equity, scope and how fast you grow are the parts people regret not asking about.
Base salary
A senior software engineer in Canada has a posted range of $138K to $185K, median $166K in base salary in 2026, from public job postings by companies of every size. No public source splits that by startup and enterprise, so this page doesn't pretend to.
What I'd ask any company, big or small:
- What's the range, and where in it would I land?
- Is there a bonus, and what's it based on?
- What's in the benefits plan?
Equity
Startup equity can be worth a lot or nothing. Plan as if it's worth nothing, and treat any payout as a bonus.
Ask for:
- the number of shares or options
- the last price and when it was set
- the vesting schedule and the cliff
- what happens to unvested equity if you leave or the company is sold
Public company RSUs are a lot closer to cash. Private company equity isn't.
Day to day
Startups move faster and ask you to cover more ground. Bigger companies have clearer ladders, more structure and more meetings. Which one fits depends on what you want this job to teach you.
By career stage
Early in a career, learning beats pay. Later, the trade-off depends on your risk tolerance and what you want to build.
Early career
Pick the place where you'll learn the most. At a startup, make sure there's a senior engineer who'll review your work. At a bigger company, make sure your work will ship.
Mid career
The startup trade can make sense here. You have the skills to own something big. If you have a mortgage or a family to plan for, a bigger company's stability counts for a lot.
Senior and staff
At a startup you shape the culture and the architecture. At a big company your decisions reach more people. Pick the kind of impact you want.
What I'd do
The happiest people I talk to knew what they wanted from the job before they compared the numbers. The worst move is staying somewhere you've outgrown because the alternative feels risky.
Questions people ask
Do startups or big companies pay more in Canada?
There's no public dataset that splits Canadian tech pay by company size, so nobody can give you a clean number. Posted ranges on this site cover both. From what I see, big companies tend to pay more guaranteed cash, and startups offer more scope and equity that may or may not pay out.
How should I value startup equity?
Ask for the number of shares or options, the last price, the vesting schedule and what happens if you leave. If the company can't answer clearly, plan as if the equity is worth nothing and treat any payout as a bonus.
Is a startup a good move early in a career?
It can be, if there's at least one strong senior engineer to learn from. Without that, a bigger company's code review, testing and mentoring are hard to beat.
Sources
- Public job postings that state a pay range, from employers' own job boards (909 postings from 123 employers). Every posting is listed in the data download. Phil Mosher, baselinetalent.xyz, as of 2026-10-29