Which pays more, Bookkeeper 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

Bookkeeper vs Controller

Controller pays more: a median of $119,000 against $90,500. There is 1.8× more demand for Bookkeeper. Listings for Controller move faster — median age 33 days against 74.

Comparison

Side by side

Measure	Bookkeeper	Controller	Gap
Open postings	38,180	21,357	+16,823
Posted this week	1,117	1,330
Median salary	$90,500	$119,000	$-28.5k
25th percentile	$71.5k	$94k
75th percentile	$112k	$148k
Salary disclosed	5.0%	2.9%
Remote share	6.1%	6.1%	0.0pp
Median age of posting	74d	33d
Open over 60 days	44.4%	36.3%
Visa sponsorship	11.2%	18.4%

Pay

Pay distribution

Bookkeeper

$41k$157k

Controller

$54k$206k

Freshness

How old the listings are

Bookkeeper

just posted74d median90d+

Controller

just posted33d median90d+

Demand

What each side asks for

Bookkeeper — technologies

Tableau

72.0%

dbt

65.8%

Swift

59.6%

React

53.4%

Airflow

47.2%

Terraform

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%

Bookkeeper — employers

Vantage Logistics

9.4%

Aperture Labs

8.7%

Ironbark Manufacturing

8.0%

Meridian Software

7.2%

Cobalt Financial

6.5%

Rivergate Media

5.8%

Halcyon Energy

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 Controller Accountant vs Financial Analyst Auditor vs Bookkeeper Auditor vs Controller Auditor vs Financial Analyst 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%.