Are you looking for a best-in-class HRIS system to help your team streamline employee onboarding, payroll, workforce management, etc? Whatever the case, this guide will allow you to identify the best HR software vendors, questions to ask on demos, how to manage internal stakeholders, and so much more.
We originally wrote this overview of the best HR software two years ago and have continually updated it with the latest information to help you automate your employee management. We hope this shortlist of vendors helps, along with our advice on HCM software pitfalls, pricing, features, questions to ask on demos, etc. Good luck!
We spend hundreds of hours researching the best HR and recruiting software so you don’t have to. We never take money from vendors during our research phase and rely heavily on practitioners and experts to help us recommend the right software. However we may earn a fee if you click on vendor links on this page. Learn more
We take our research seriously and want to make sure we are presenting our readers with the very best solutions in a given software category. Here's how we select vendors to be in our buyer guides:
Here's more detail if you want to read further on how we research vendors.
We track thousands of HR tech solutions, these are the best HRIS systems per our research and expert council as of 2022. For more HR Software, take a look at our roundup of the best HRMS software.
Why we love it
:
Bob is a global platform that can streamline pretty much everything an HR department needs to do, in a highly customizable manner.
Bob
Review:
Bob, or HiBob, is a really interesting contender in the HRMS space. Their philosophy is to put the employee first, and you can see that in how easy the product is to use. Also, in various ways, this solution engages employees to better understand and cultivate culture. This is a great fit for forward-thinking HR departments that need tools like onboarding, time-tracking, payroll reports, time-off management, surveys, benefits, and much more.
Bob
Customers:
Tufin, Yotpo Ltd., Fiverr, Happy Socks, Taptica
Bob
Stats:
Bob
Pricing:
Bob offers custom pricing. They have flexible plans for growing companies and will work with you to offer the best possible cost.
Best For:
Bob offers custom pricing. They have flexible plans for growing companies and will work with you to offer the best possible cost.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Sapling’s modern and intuitive platform is one of the only remote-focused HRISs out there. It’s particularly great for onboarding and workflow automation.
Sapling
Review:
Although they started as an HR onboarding platform, Sapling has quickly grown into a remote-first HRIS with an impressive client list. Their full product keeps garnering zealous users and adding up features, currently offering tools like people admin, an intranet, a survey and feedback module, profile templates, and all sorts of integrations.
One of Sapling’s main strengths is their workflow automation. Their goal is to help People teams improve the employee experience while saving man hours and bringing remote teams together.
Sapling
Customers:
Coupa, Warby Parker, Webflow, Digital Ocean, PagerDuty
Sapling
Stats:
Sapling
Pricing:
Sapling's pricing varies depending on which modules you'd get. You can start with the People Operations Platform, and then add the Essential and/or Premium modules. The final price will depend on the applicable platform fee, plus a per-user-per-month fee. To give you an idea, the minimum annual fee is $4,000 USD.
Best For:
Sapling is aimed primarily at mid-sized organizations (50-2000 employees) distributed internationally.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Freshteam is an HR suite that’s already used by over 3,000 customers, well-regarded by small, mid-sized, and big companies alike.
Freshteam
Review:
This product from Freshworks, a business software developer from California, is an all-encompassing talent management solution specifically targeted for growing businesses but useful for all sorts of operations. Freshteam can handle your human resources experience from job postings and applicant tracking all the way to features like an employee directory and time off management. Their Sprout version is completely free for up to 50 employees.
Freshteam
Customers:
University of Pennsylvania, Daimler, SAP, Nissan, JCDecaux
Freshteam
Stats:
Freshteam
Pricing:
Freshteam is free for up to 50 employees, it then starts at $1.20 per user plus a $71 platform fee, billed monthly. There are no cancellation fees.
Best For:
All kinds of businesses can benefit from Freshteam, but it’s ideal for teams that want to handle everything from a job posting to leave management in the same place at a competitive price.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
As one of the HR software companies with the richest history, ADP has a massive product offering and tons of expertise that could help any kind of business.
ADP
Review:
ADP is one of the giants in this space. They’ve been in the payroll processing business since it was done manually 70 years ago. Now, their product offering has tools for 2 person companies up through the largest organizations in the world. From PEOs and payroll management to HRIS, ADP basically has it all. Our only caution here is to make sure you are looking at relevant point solutions outside of ADP’s core HCM suite. It’s worth pointing out that some of their modules just don’t stand up to purpose-built recruiting and engagement solutions.
ADP
Customers:
The Boston Globe, The Bancorp, Douglas Ellman Real Estate, Margaritaville
ADP
Stats:
ADP
Pricing:
Custom pricing is available upon request of a demo for each specific product.
Best For:
Virtually any company could benefit from ADP’s vast product offering, the only question is if their design will be compatible with your company’s culture and management style.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Rippling is an employee management platform for everything between onboarding and offboarding, with a soothing design and great user experience.
Rippling
Review:
Rippling is a relatively new player in the HR tools market, with a focus on helping SMBs manage HR and IT in one solution.
An interesting thing about them is that they are very vocal about trying to make their software easy-to-use and intuitive not just for HR professionals and recruiters, but for the CEO, IT staff, and any team member that will interact with the product.
The tech is exactly what you'd expect from a silicon valley-based startup, with a modern UI and eye-catching design.
Rippling
Customers:
Proxy, Dwell, Superhuman, Expensify, Checkr
Rippling
Stats:
Rippling
Pricing:
Starts at $8 per month per user, will vary depending on which modules you’d like to use (or if you want the whole platform) and for how many people.
Best For:
Rippling is built to work for businesses with 1 employee as much as companies with thousands of them. Their focus is on automation and ease of use while always keeping a modern feel to everything.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Zenefits offers comprehensive plans with HR, payroll, and benefits in a one-size-fits-all platform.
Zenefits
Review:
Zenefits can take care of HR processes like onboarding, offboarding, benefits, payroll, performance reviews, and more. Their average customer size is just under 50 employees, which means that the user experience is thought out not only for human resources staff, but to be easy and quick enough for managers or executives that need to take care of some HR tasks as well.
Zenefits
Customers:
Quora, Universal Group, Reddit, Asana.
Zenefits
Stats:
Zenefits
Pricing:
Zenefits starts with the Essentials plan at $8 per month per employee. This includes all the Core HR modules, Time & Scheduling, Integrations, and the mobile app. Those features are all included, plus other modules, as the plans go up in price. They also offer independent add-ons like payroll software for free, advisory services at $8 per month per employee, and benefits admin using your own broker at $5 per user per month.
Enterprise pricing is available upon request.
Best For
Zenefits is made for small and mid-sized companies. Their mission is "to level the playing field for the other 99.7% — the underserved small businesses that fuel our economy."
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
BambooHR is one of the top names in HR software. They have won numerous awards for customer support, ease of use, good value, and much more.
BambooHR
Review:
BambooHR tries to accommodate one or another version of their technology to fit your business. Their HR platform spans across the employee lifecycle as they also have recruiting and performance management in addition to the core HRMS functionality. They also offer a separate HRIS and a small business package. If that wasn’t enough, they have numerous amenities like an app marketplace of HR/recruiting vendors that integrate with their system, an HR glossary, and host HR events on occasion.
BambooHR
Customers:
Quora, Universal Group, Reddit, Asana.
BambooHR
Stats:
BambooHR
Pricing:
Pricing is not disclosed upfront, but they do offer a free trial of their all-in-one software and then go out of their way to find a version that will suit you. Before they come up with a personalized quote that will align with your budget, however, they are also likely to extend your free trial upon request or even give you a free demo of the advanced features.
Best For
Companies looking for a very customizable product and pricing that reflects their needs. It’s also popular among teams that are partially or even fully remote.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Paycor is a robust and data-centric HR software for leaders at US-based companies that want their teams to save time with HR transactional tasks.
Paycor
Review:
Aside from having payroll, employee experience, recruiting, benefits, and performance management, Paycor stands out from most HR software vendors for having some of the most potent HR analytics out there. They provide a custom company dashboard that leaders can build out as they please, choosing from literally hundreds of reports such as headcount trends by employment time, projected headcount, and voluntary turnover by tenure, just to mention a few.
Further, some of their reports use secondary pools of data in order to provide benchmark analysis in real time. This effectively helps executives and HR leaders alike better understand their workforce and how their efforts stack up in comparison to similar companies.
Paycor
Customers:
Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Detroit Zoo, The Cincinnati Reds, The YMCA
Paycor
Stats:
Paycor
Pricing:
The pricing of Paycor’s plans isn’t disclosed upfront. Contact a sales representative to get a custom quote.
Best For
Companies in the US with up to 1,000 employees, mainly in manufacturing, healthcare, food and beverage, non profits, and professional sport organizations.
Worth Checking Out:
During the pandemic, Paycor expanded their offering to feature an immunization tracking tool. This is a part of a larger pool of mobile-friendly COVID-19 safety, analytics & compliance tools.
Why we love it
:
OnPay is very quick to set up and is quite affordable for a solution that combines payroll, HR, and benefits.
OnPay
Review:
OnPay is a cloud-based payroll software that also offers features for HR management and benefits administration. It is quick to set up and user-friendly. Their pricing is also simple, transparent, and affordable; you only pay one monthly fee for everything, which makes OnPay is a great option for smaller companies (500 employees or less) who are budget conscious.
OnPay
Customers:
OnPay
Stats:
OnPay
Pricing:
OnPay charges a base fee of $36, plus $4 per employee per month. You can use the price calculator on their website to see exactly how much it’ll run you for your team size. You can also sign up for a one-month free trial there.
Best For
OnPay is great for small businesses looking for a payroll solution with basic HR features.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Factorial is a solid SaaS that’s devoted to solving the daily challenges of HR teams while placing a strong emphasis on data security.
Factorial HR
Review:
Factorial is a great HR software solution for small and medium-sized businesses. Their offering gives human resources teams their time back through managing employee onboarding, time tracking, PTO, org charts, payroll, talent acquisition, and much more. We also like that they place a good deal of importance on data security. With Factorial, all database information is encrypted and GDPR-compliant. They also use a Single Sign-On system and regularly perform vulnerability diagnostics.
Factorial HR
Customers:
The Power MBA, The Hotels Network, Nextail, Ulabox
Factorial HR
Stats:
Factorial HR
Pricing:
The Factorial Core hr platform starts at $60 per year, then it's $4 per additional user. There is a 14-day free trial and custom enterprise pricing is available for bigger teams. Their ATS is available as an add-on, starting at $39 per month for 10 job offers. Then you can upgrade to Pro, with unlimited job offers, for $119 per month (all if billed yearly).
Best For
Small and medium-sized businesses with many HR processes to streamline. It's specially suitable for organizations with a remote workforce and operations in Europe, the US, or Latin America.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Namely is an all-in-one HR platform designed to be used by everyone and made for mid-sized companies specifically in mind.
Namely
Review:
Namely has quickly become one of the best HR software solutions for the mid-market (from 50 employees to up to a thousand). Their modern, employee-friendly software sees nearly 80% of employees log in each month. Plus, their software saves their clients an average of 11 hours each week through automation and integrations which provides a strong ROI for overworked HR teams.
Namely
Customers:
Greenhouse, MacStadium, Life is Good, OneLogin.
Namely
Stats:
Namely
Pricing:
Custom pricing is available upon request of a demo. It will vary depending on which package you choose. They start with a basic HR package and then sell extensions or enhanced services for things like payroll solutions and employee benefits.
Best For
Mid-sized companies in any industry, but mostly in the United States.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
The folks at ClearCompany are quick to create and launch new products depending on what their clients need, like COVID-19 resources during the pandemic or a voting incentive feature during the 2020 US election.
ClearCompany
Review:
ClearCompany is another HRMS company that goes across the entire employee lifecycle from recruiting and applicant tracking through performance. They’re a great solution for SMBs looking for a talent management solution with very good customer service. One noteworthy thing about ClearCompany is a feature in their ATS that identifies and sources the best available talent for your company based on its top performers.
ClearCompany
Customers:
The Salvation Army, Fujifilm, and the Supreme Court for the State of Arizona.
ClearCompany
Stats:
ClearCompany
Pricing:
Custom subscription-based pricing is available upon request of a demo or free trial. No credit card is required for the free trial.
Best For
Clients in every industry and all sorts of company sizes.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
As a merger from two leading companies in HR solutions, UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) builds on 70 years of experience in People tech with their UKG Pro HR solution.
UKG
Review:
Focused on core HR management, UKG Pro is still simply one of the most well-known and used HCM suites out there. Their solution has been tested throughout the years and built out to the point where they have modules for just about everything you could imagine: payroll, benefits management, onboarding, time-tracking, and countless other HR functions.
UKG
Customers:
Tesla, Marriott, Yamaha, Aramark, Puma
UKG
Stats:
UKG
Pricing:
UKG does not reveal the price of UKG Pro on its website, although research has shown that licenses tend to start at $600.00 per year for every 5 users.
Best For
UKG Pro is mainly marketed towards companies with more than 100 employees. That being said, their software is used in all kinds of industries.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Sage People has built an end-to-end cloud solution to manage HR and People for global workforces.
Sage People
Review:
Sage's HRIS is a customizable core HR suite built on top of Salesforce. Their product covers applicant through alumni and is a great option for companies in the small to medium enterprise range (150 - 5k employees) that have a global presence. They boast a 95% retention rate across their 500 customers, the result of a broad product that also integrates with the rest of Sage's ERP suite.
Sage People
Customers:
CRU, Lovehoney, Showbrook Bank, Enigma Industrial Services
Sage People
Stats:
Sage People
Pricing:
While the pricing for Sage People isn't disclosed, you can take an interactive tour and see the tool for yourself. Afterwards, you can get in touch with their team to get a customized quote.
Best For
SMBs with a distributed team, especially those that use Salesforce.
Worth Checking Out:
Why we love it
:
Eddy is an all-in-one HR and payroll platform with a simple and intuitive UI focusing on local businesses with deskless workers.
Eddy
Review:
Eddy helps HR teams in streamlining administrative tasks such as onboarding, document storage and electronic signatures, employee directory and employee profiles, training tracking, PTO tracking, and time tracking. Notably, Eddy is especially targeted at deskless companies.
Eddy
Customers:
Eddy
Stats:
Eddy
Pricing:
With a base fee of $49 per month, Eddy starts at $8 per employee per month. Additional modules such as payroll and a full-on applicant tracking system can be added. For example, their ATS is 99/month if combined with their core HRIS or payroll or $199/month if standalone.
Best For
Smaller companies with a high percentage of deskless workers who need help in improving employee experience and streamlining and automating administrative HR tasks.
Worth Checking Out:
Eddy has a free community called HR Mavericks that aims to democratize HR knowledge, especially for smaller businesses that may not have access to SHRM certification. Sourced from HR experts, the community provides almost 12-15 articles a week and even hosts a weekly podcast (called HR Mavericks as well) where they interview different HR professionals.
It’s easy to get tripped up by the various pitfalls when adding an HRMS to your HR software stack. Here are some best practices to help you make sure the process of implementing this new technology is successful:
Hopefully the information laid out here is useful as you start to think about which HR software vendors to contact for demos, what questions you want to have answered, and which internal stakeholders need to be engaged to ensure a successful implementation of a new HRIS. Our advice is to select 2-4 vendors and get on the phone to start seeing what these solutions can do, and how your timeline should be structured for this initiative. Good luck!
If you're looking for more specialized types of HR Software, check out our roundup of the best employee onboarding software or the top intranet platforms.
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