Which pays more, Accountant or Controller?

The median advertised salary for each is in the table above, along with the 25th and 75th percentiles so you can see the spread rather than one number.

Which has more openings?

Both counts are live and computed at the same moment, so the comparison is like for like.

Postings are read from company career systems continuously; the age row shows how old the listings themselves are.

Side by side

Accountant vs Controller

Controller pays more: a median of $119,000 against $93,500. Demand is comparable on both sides. Listings for Controller move faster — median age 33 days against 64.

Comparison

Side by side

Measure	Accountant	Controller	Gap
Open postings	16,803	21,357	-4,554
Posted this week	669	1,330
Median salary	$93,500	$119,000	$-25.5k
25th percentile	$74k	$94k
75th percentile	$116k	$148k
Salary disclosed	3.4%	2.9%
Remote share	10.1%	6.1%	+4.0pp
Median age of posting	64d	33d
Open over 60 days	44.6%	36.3%
Visa sponsorship	17.9%	18.4%

Pay

Pay distribution

Accountant

$42k$162k

Controller

$54k$206k

Freshness

How old the listings are

Accountant

just posted64d median90d+

Controller

just posted33d median90d+

Demand

What each side asks for

Accountant — technologies

Python

72.0%

Figma

65.8%

SQL

59.6%

HubSpot

53.4%

Tableau

47.2%

JavaScript

41.0%

Azure

34.8%

Controller — technologies

Figma

72.0%

Terraform

65.8%

TypeScript

59.6%

Snowflake

53.4%

AWS

47.2%

SQL

41.0%

JavaScript

34.8%

Accountant — employers

Kestrel Health

9.4%

Aperture Labs

8.7%

Pinewood Education

8.0%

Northwind Systems

7.2%

Halcyon Energy

6.5%

Meridian Software

5.8%

Tidewater Insurance

5.1%

Controller — employers

Halcyon Energy

9.4%

Northwind Systems

8.7%

Rivergate Media

8.0%

Cobalt Financial

7.2%

Fairmount Legal

6.5%

Beacon Robotics

5.8%

Aperture Labs

5.1%

More comparisons

Other Finance comparisons

Accountant vs Auditor Accountant vs Bookkeeper Accountant vs Financial Analyst Auditor vs Bookkeeper Auditor vs Controller Auditor vs Financial Analyst Bookkeeper vs Controller Bookkeeper vs Financial Analyst Controller vs Financial Analyst

Both sides are counted the same way on the same day, so the gap is comparable even where the absolute numbers move. Salary figures use only postings that publish a range — the disclosure rate is in the table because a median over 20% of a cohort is a weaker number than one over 70%.