We present a comparative-syntactic investigation of Austronesian pivots, focusing on microvariation in their subjecthood status and syntactic A/A' properties. We argue that pivots form a continuum from topic-like A'-elements to subject-like A-elements, instead of a uniform syntactic phenomenon. This is reflected by i) the choice of controllee in obligatory control configurations, ii) definiteness/specificity requirements on pivots, iii) the pivot's A- vs. A'-properties, and iv) licensing restrictions on the non-pivot agent. Systematic correlations between properties i-iv) indicate that pivots obtain different syntactic functions, ranging from topic-like A'-elements in languages like Tagalog to subject-like A-elements in languages like Indonesian and Acehnese, with pivots in languages like Balinese and Malagasy standing between topics and subjects. We propose that the variation stems from an ongoing topic to subject grammaticalization process with single languages being located at different stages thereof.