Side by side

Houston vs San Francisco

San Francisco pays more: a median of $123,000 against $83,500. There is 1.7× more demand for Houston. San Francisco is the more remote-friendly of the two, by 6.9%. Listings for Houston move faster — median age 45 days against 74.

Comparison

Side by side

MeasureHoustonSan FranciscoGap
Open postings47,77127,349+20,422
Posted this week1,696818
Median salary$83,500$123,000$-39.5k
25th percentile$66k$97k
75th percentile$104k$153k
Salary disclosed3.7%7.8%
Remote share4.2%11.1%-6.9pp
Median age of posting45d74d
Open over 60 days34.2%49.3%
Visa sponsorship12.8%5.2%
Pay

Pay distribution

Houston

$38k$144k

San Francisco

$55k$213k
Freshness

How old the listings are

Houston

just posted45d median90d+

San Francisco

just posted74d median90d+
Demand

What each side asks for

Houston — technologies

Kubernetes
72.0%
TypeScript
65.8%
Spark
59.6%
JavaScript
53.4%
dbt
47.2%
Azure
41.0%
Tableau
34.8%

San Francisco — technologies

React
72.0%
Swift
65.8%
Airflow
59.6%
Java
53.4%
Kubernetes
47.2%
dbt
41.0%
Kotlin
34.8%

Houston — employers

Northwind Systems
9.4%
Ironbark Manufacturing
8.7%
Solstice Biotech
8.0%
Umbra Security
7.2%
Aperture Labs
6.5%
Rivergate Media
5.8%
Kestrel Health
5.1%

San Francisco — employers

Rivergate Media
9.4%
Cobalt Financial
8.7%
Solstice Biotech
8.0%
Brightline Retail
7.2%
Lakeshore Hospitality
6.5%
Beacon Robotics
5.8%
Northwind Systems
5.1%

Track this slice

A weekly note when openings, pay or freshness move for Houston vs San Francisco.

More comparisons

Other United States city comparisons

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%.