It is always good to hagle, but with good spirit, and as long as you are reasonable in your request.<p>Say something in the tune: I like your company, and I would love to work with you guys, but on the compesation part your offer was in the low range. I got an offer from another company, which I like too, and that was 10k higher and I can't just ignore it. I'd like for you guys to come close to it.<p>They might come back with 5k more, or not.
The best position to be, is when you have more than one good choice, and have hard time to decide which one to take. you have a lot of bargaining power, (psychologically), as you can walk away from an offer.<p>Compesation is not everything, what you do matters to.
As for stock options, unless you are one of the first employees of the company, and you are being offered a good chunk of options, they really don't matter.
If you are joining a company that is 50+ people, than most likeley options will be insignificat (unless it was something like a future google or youtube, which is highly unlikeley).<p>If you are joining the average startup, those options will take four year to vest, and they probably wont be worth much. Actually, there is greater chance they will be worth nothing. So, don't compromise your salary for those options. Consider them just as a bonus, or perk. Usually, you have no bargaining power over how much stock options you get (assuming you are joining a mid size 50+ employees company). They often are set by the board, and divided way before (e.g software engineers get this much of options, senior engineers get more, etc...).