8 Best Glock Compensators

The pistol earns high marks as a personal defense weapon for many reasons, with small size and concealability topping the list. With a smaller and lighter weapon comes one major drawback: increased recoil. The U.S. Army replaced the venerable 1911 .45 ACP with a Beretta (and ultimately Sig) 9mm because the .45’s recoil was too much for many smaller-framed soldiers. Many shooters choose a weapon in .380 for the same reason. The good news is that there’s no need to trade down to a smaller caliber or lighter load to reduce recoil and thereby improve accuracy and reduce the time needed to get back on target after each shot. The answer is a compensator.

The Glock has earned a reputation as a reliable weapon that’s available in a wide variety of calibers. Thanks to that popularity, plenty of aftermarket accessories are available to upgrade and personalize your weapon—and that includes compensators. With so many options available in the marketplace, some guidance would certainly be helpful, so we’ve evaluated the offerings to bring you a selection of the best Glock compensators.

Our Guide to the 8 Best Glock Compensators

These are our eight leading candidates for the best Glock compensators. We judged them based on design, installation, and impact on reliability. We’ll also explore the length (and weight) they add to the weapon, whether they are removable, and their compatibility with various handguns and barrels. Any impact on handgun accessories (primarily holsters) will also be a factor.

What is a Compensator and How Does it Work?

While we don’t want to insult anyone’s intelligence, we also don’t want to make assumptions about what you do and don’t know, especially if you’re new to the firearms world. If that’s the case, and in particular if you’re shopping for your first handgun, we recommend you take a look at our comparison of the best Glocks for beginners.

So before we talk about how compensators work, let’s talk about how the handgun works.

If you’re an old hand at firearms, you can skip the next couple of paragraphs.

All Glocks are semi-automatic pistols. Meaning once you have manually chambered the first round by cycling the slide (that is, pulling it all the way back and allowing the recoil spring to push it forward), the weapon will chamber a new round each time you fire. When the powder inside a cartridge combusts, it creates gas under high pressure. With nowhere else to go, the expanding gas pushes the projectile down the barrel and sends it on its way.

8 Best Glock Barrels For Your Next Upgrade

However, because the bullet fits snugly in the bore of the barrel and resists being shoved out of the way, some of that energy gets transferred to the slide and pushes it backward. As the slide moves back, it ejects the empty casing. It then passes over the magazine, pushing the next round into the chamber where it’s ready to start the cycle again.

Not to dredge up any bad memories of high school physics, but every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

What that means for our pistol is recoil, which is the reaction to the energy used to send that bullet downrange. Some of that recoil was already used to cycle the slide; that’s why semiautomatic pistols kick less than revolvers. Some of it gets used to move the weapon itself, which is why heavier pistols kick a little less than a lighter pistol of the same caliber. The rest of it is the kick you feel, which in addition to pushing the weapon backwards tends to cause the muzzle to rise.

That’s the basics in three paragraphs. (You old hands can rejoin us now.)

What it all means for shooting is that more recoil tends to move your weapon farther off-target each time you fire, so you take longer to get back on target to fire the next round accurately. Not a big deal on the firing range necessarily, but it can literally mean the difference between life and death in a real-world defensive situation. (If you’re getting ready to buy a pistol for self-defense, we can offer some advice on the best Glocks for protection.)

A compensator (so named because it compensates for part of the recoil) functions by redirecting some of the gas that escapes the muzzle after the projectile exits. Virtually every compensator directs some gas upward, countering the muzzle rise. Some also vent gas to the side. This can either reduce the amount of gas going forward and push back on the weapon or, if directed at a backward angle, can help counter recoil by pushing in the opposite direction.

Finally, some designs also give the gas an opportunity to cool somewhat, reducing the amount of energy it carries. Shooters generally report “significant” reduction in recoil. Those who put a number on it will say there is a 40% to 50% reduction in felt recoil. They also report much quicker reacquisition (getting your sights back on target).

How to Choose the Best Glock Compensator

Now that you understand how a compensator works and what it can do for you, the next question is how to choose the best one for you.

There are four areas to consider:

1. Installation
2. Size and weight
3. Design
4. And what we refer to as “other accessories,” meaning how the compensator affects weapon accessories like lights, lasers, and holsters.

If you would like to consider what all you might want to add to your Glock as part of choosing a compensator, check out our guide to must-have Glock accessories.

Installation

The most important consideration for compensator installation is that your weapon must have a threaded barrel, something you may have noticed from our overview of the eight competitors.

That said, the most common way to install a compensator is with set screws and a thread locking material like LOCTITE. This method is very reliable and if done correctly almost guarantees that your compensator will not loosen or come off.

The main downside is that it’s more or less permanent. It is possible to remove LOCTITE and other materials like it, but you’ll need to thoroughly clean the threads and set screws after doing so. In other words, the set screw/thread locking method is really meant for a permanent installation on your weapon.

Some manufacturers offer attachment methods that don’t use set screws or thread locking material. These offer a significant advantage in that you can install and remove your compensator at will. The drawback is that the compensator might be more likely to come loose. That isn’t an issue with the compensators we reviewed here, but you should be aware of it if you look at others.

Size and Weight

Pistols are small for a reason: they’re meant to be easily portable and concealable. They also need to fit in a holster. Consequently, you should be particular about how much size you add to your handgun.

All compensators will add length just by virtue of how they function, but that can range from a little over an inch to well over two inches. That can easily make the difference between a weapon fitting in a holster or not, especially for concealed carry holsters that tend to be smaller.

Weight is not as much of a problem; the main concern is that you’re adding it to the muzzle, which is going to change how the weapon handles. If you’re about to learn with a new pistol and install the compensator as soon as you get it, you shouldn’t have any problems. However, if you’re adding a compensator to a pistol you’ve used for a while, you may find that you need to tweak your draw-and-fire technique slightly to account for the added weight.

Most compensators are made from either aluminum or steel. Weight typically ranges from 2 oz. to 2.5 oz. For reference, a Glock 19 9mm weighs 23.63 oz. unloaded and 30.16 oz. loaded, so you’re talking about a roughly 10% increase in unloaded weight and 8% in loaded weight assuming a 2.4 oz. compensator.

Design

There are two main distinctions in compensator design. The first is single chamber vs. dual chamber. The second is the number of ports and their orientation. Single chamber designs typically have a single port, oriented upward. Dual chamber designs will have more ports, usually one top and two sides, although some like the LWD take a slightly different approach. Generally speaking, multiple ports will provide better compensation. The main advantage single chamber/single port compensators have is smaller size and lighter weight, but it’s debatable whether that small difference is worth the tradeoff in performance. The dual chamber/multiple port design is far more common if that tells you anything.

Other Accessories

Here we can only give general advice because there are so many possible combinations of compensators and accessories that we couldn’t begin to assess each one. If you want to add an accessory that occupies the same general area of the weapon, such as a light, you’ll need to do your homework to verify that it will cohabitate and play nicely with your compensator.

In some cases, you may have alternatives. For example, many lasers mount under the barrel, but it’s also possible to get grip-mounted lasers as well. That allows you to install both a compensator and a laser with no worries about whether they’ll work together.

The accessory that’s affected most commonly by a compensator is the holster.

In several cases we pointed out in our compensator reviews models that will fit a Glock 43 holster when attached to a Glock 19. Most open-end holsters will also accept a compensator-equipped pistol with no problem. A simple rule of thumb is the more specific the holster is to a particular model, the less likely it is that it will still work after you install a compensator.

How to Install a Glock Compensator

The installation process varies from model to model. Each one will include instructions and in most cases a handy video on the manufacturer’s website. Generally speaking, you’ll remove the slide from the weapon and the recoil spring from the slide assembly. For models that use set screws, you’ll need to back out the set screws far enough to apply the thread locking material.

(One important caveat: Don’t use too much thread locking material. Apply it with something small like a toothpick. If you put too much and ever need to remove the compensator, you’re just about guaranteed to strip the set screws.)

Next, you’ll ensure the barrel threads are clean and then apply thread locking material. This is the opposite case from the set screws; you’ll want to apply pretty generously. Typically in cases where the compensator loosens, the culprit is not enough locking material on the barrel threads.

Once that’s done, slide the compensator over the muzzle and screw it onto the barrel threads until it makes contact with the slide. Once it does, back it off until it is aligned with the slide and then tighten the set screws. Allow two to three hours for the thread locking material to set.

Again, this is the process for models that use set screws, which is the most common design. The installation will differ significantly for other designs.

Here’s Our Recommendation For The Best Glock Compensator

Before we reveal our selection, it’s important to note that we chose eight high-quality products for this evaluation. Any of them would be a worthy choice for your weapon. Also, in a couple of cases, the deck was stacked against them from the beginning. The Agency Arms 417C, for example, only fits Glock 43s, so it was never going to be a general recommendation to cover a majority of Glock models. (Apologies, 417C.)

We recommend the CGS Group Official Qube. Although the competition was tough, The Qube is a well-designed, high-quality compensator that complements the Glock extremely well. It will reduce felt recoil and significantly improve your target reacquisition time, making you a better shooter and leaving you well-prepared in the event of a self-defense situation.