10+ Best HRMS Software Systems in 2025

• It made payroll processing simple and user-friendly.
• The accurate reporting features helped maintain data integrity.
• Employees could access their payroll information independently, reducing the need for me to provide printed payslips.

I was an HR Consultant contracted by various companies and used Paylocity intermittently for about a year. Although I was not involved in purchasing the tool, I saw firsthand how it streamlined compliance processes, which saved a significant amount of time.

The platform was easy to use and had great features that supported my HR role, especially as a remote user managing multiple clients. Its accessibility and functionality made it an effective tool for handling essential HR tasks.

Overall, Paylocity provided a reliable solution for managing payroll and compliance efficiently.

• Employees were occasionally locked out of their accounts, often due to forgotten login credentials, requiring me to guide them through the reset process.
• Customer service was overly automated, making it frustrating to reach a live representative when needed.
• The platform could be slow at times, especially when running reports, which delayed task completion.

I have also used ADP, which was more suited for larger companies with complex HR needs and extensive data management. Paylocity, by contrast, was a better fit for the smaller companies I worked with due to its simplicity and user-friendly design. It required less training to use effectively, making it a more practical solution for smaller-scale operations.

When considering Paylocity, it’s important to evaluate whether it suits the size of your business and aligns with your specific HR tasks. Determine if you need the tool exclusively for payroll or for additional HR functions such as benefits management and employee performance tracking.

Scalability and user access requirements should also be considered to ensure it meets your organization’s needs efficiently.

A year ago, when I used Paylocity, new features like time tracking and benefits management had been implemented, making it more user-friendly and competitive. These updates allowed it to better rival other platforms in the market by providing more comprehensive functionality.

Paylocity is well-suited for payroll specialists, managers overseeing HR processes, and administrators handling bulk updates from spreadsheets. It is a great platform for small to medium-sized businesses across various industries.

• BambooHR includes a mobile app for easy access.
• It has a centralized employee database so that all necessary managers and employees have access.
• It provides offboarding features for easy removal of employees after termination.
• Templates are available for employees to use if desired.
• Many standard reports are included for data collection and reporting.

My organization was a small business that had problems organizing employee records from hire to termination. BambooHR was the best solution for our needs. The software allows the HR manager to manage all aspects of an employee’s life cycle, including hiring, onboarding, payroll, benefits, and offboarding.

It is easy to use, comes with plenty of built-in templates, and provides well-organized, visually appealing workflows. I was the assistant to the HR manager and used BambooHR for around six months.

• Pricing is not available on the website, so you have to call.
• It does not offer a free plan for startups or small businesses with limited profit.
• The ATS is not available on the basic plan, so you must upgrade to a premium plan to access it.
• Automated candidate matching is not available.

BambooHR is easy to understand and use, but the downside is that you cannot automate candidate matching. I like the ease of use because it saves time—especially when you're busy and need to complete tasks quickly.

When deciding which tool to purchase, price is always a top priority. You must also consider functionality and the specific processes your organization requires.

BambooHR has incorporated add-ons for their platform, but all add-ons cost extra, which increases the yearly price.

BambooHR is a one-stop shop for all HR needs in small to midsize businesses.

• Labor forecasting – Workforce has incorporated AI capabilities to assist with forecasting future labor needs.
• Onboarding – The entire process is paperless and can be completed prior to the employee’s first day of work.
• All-in-one – Everything from recruiting to benefits and payroll is integrated in one place.

My organization transitioned from Kronos to Workforce several years ago. Kronos created a lot of additional work, as we had to make manual entries.

Workforce solved this problem by providing crucial workflow connections throughout the applicant-to-employee process. It allows us to do everything from assigning attendance points to viewing paychecks and resolving payroll issues.

• Benefits – This module is helpful but the weakest on the platform; it's difficult to automate, resulting in frequent manual entries.
• Reporting – There are endless reporting options, but the inability to save templates requires generating a new report each time.
• System upgrades – These often occur during business hours, causing delays in processing critical actions.

Workforce ranks above several similar tools, as the all-in-one option is extremely beneficial for any HR department. I prefer having everything on one system instead of using multiple systems that do not communicate with each other.

Organizations should consider which key modules are required to function on a daily basis before making a purchase. Knowing this up front is important, as adding modules later can create instability in reporting and system performance. Ensuring compatibility with current workflows is also crucial for a smooth implementation.

Workforce has done a great job keeping up with technology advancements. The new AI feature for labor forecasting has been a significant improvement.

Workforce is ideal for any employer with at least 50 full-time employees.

There were very few things I liked about Paycor. The Visier-powered analytics platform helped uncover trends and useful insights. Employees appreciated the self-service options available. Having a sandbox environment available for testing was very helpful.

Including implementation, I used Paycor for almost a year. Our organization was moving away from our PEO to fully control and manage our HRIS and benefits. Our benefits broker had an existing relationship with Paycor, and we were on a tight timeline, so we contracted with Paycor. We implemented the system in less than three months.

The platform, especially the UI, is extremely dated, and the UX is not intuitive. There was a lack of customization within the workflows—functionality that would be expected in an HRIS. The focus of the platform seemed to be on payroll, so other modules felt underdeveloped.

This is the worst HRIS platform I've used. If in doubt, go with the other option. There is nothing about this platform that would lead me to select it in the future.

Make sure the tool you’re buying is suitable for your organization and its needs. There are many popular tools that may not be a good fit for your company.

Paycor had been working on updating workflows to make them more customizable. Reporting has also been migrated into a more user-friendly template. They have also acquired other platforms and integrated them into their system.

If an organization is looking to implement quickly and at a basic level be able to pay their employees, administer benefits, and use reporting, Paycor could be an option. Still, there are much better tools available.

We selected Ceridian primarily due to the level of customization that could be done. The secondary factor was value - what we received for the cost. The third advantage was that it was easy to use and train users in a decentralized workforce.

Our organization was paper-based with numerous tools and systems that didn't communicate with one another. The goal was to gain efficiency and make it easier for managers at the 200+ locations to manage workflow for the onboarding, maintenance and offboarding of over 4000 employees. Ceridian eliminated employee paperwork, consolidated payroll, HRIS, benefits, and time and attendance, not to mention the ease of approving employee changes such as promotions, transfers and terminations.

Some of the items I wish were improved with Ceridian have to do with support. During implementation, you have a high level of support but afterwards, you need to get into the ticketing system to get support and it takes a long time to resolve issues through it. The reporting feature is difficult and requires significant training, there is nothing intuitive. If you need help with a report or changing a config in your system, everything has an additional cost.

Ceridian had a skilled implementation team that was higher performing than some others I've worked with in the past. They took time to understand detailed requirements and worked with us side by side to get the customizations in. It was overall a positive experience.

I'd suggest that you consider how your current processes can be streamlined and not just design workflow with how it's done today. Look at existing tools that might be able to be eliminated for cost savings. Lastly, make sure that you have $ in your budget for an HRIS administrator to oversee and manage the system post-implementation.

I've seen many changes and expect that they will continue to evolve. The introduction of mobile access was a game changer, especially for a workforce like ours where the employees did not use the desktop application often. There is also a forum where users can make suggestions and the dev team will look there for features to build out in future releases. I expect that with the increased use of AI, that the tool will leverage that to improve the already efficient processes.

I would suggest this tool for a large organization. Cerdian is not the least expensive option out there, but if you need customization and can eliminate other tools, or benefit from the integration, you'll see some savings. It is a great solution for a high turnover workforce such as hospitality as it's easy to use and handles the volume with ease.

Unlike other HRIS's Bob allows the user to personalise, analyse and manipulate data to suit the business, rather than using a packaged up system that doesn't fully align to the business. The user experience on both the employee and employer's side is intuitive and engaging, meaning that even reminder emails are never ignored. Bob's built-in templates enable the business to measure Employee Net Promoter Score, along with other survey questions, which can then be accessed in a simple, easy to use dashboard with visual heatmaps to analyse findings instantly.

As our business grew, from 70 people to over 200, we wanted something that was able to organise personal data, generate detailed reports for analysis and run automated processes such as annual performance reviews. I would say that one of Bob's key benefits is its user experience for both the employer and the employee. Bob's self-service function is really easy to use, employees are able to input annual leave and sickness within a few clicks. From an employer perspective, it is simple to pull together reports based on personal data - for example, number of sick days taken in a year, or the average turnover of a segment of employees. Bob attempts to make the system somewhat "fun" at the onboarding stage by asking new starters what their hobbies are, and displaying that on their profile for other employees to view.

Whilst Bob's ability to use data to generate specific reports is great, workflows can be complex to set up, with many drop-down lists and options to select, so if it's quick data driven results that you're looking for, this could take a while to set-up. Another con is that Bob does not have a customer support team that is accessible by phone call, it is always an email or live chat system and sometimes it's just easier to chat to a real human and solve the problem. Like any robust system, it can take a while to initially set-up and get it working to what the business needs and not every business has that time to dedicate to rolling it out and there is little upfront training to support with this.

Bob is way ahead of the curve in terms of HRIS's on the market. Throughout my career I've always said that there's not a one-system-to-rule-them-all in the HR world, but Bob certainly comes close. For example, CharlieHR is great from an employee data-entry perspective and basic data storage, but there is very little it can do in the way of generating reports for analysis. Very few HRIS's on the market are able to link workflows and processes in the way that Bob can, for example, I can conduct a full recruitment process, hiring process and onboarding all within the same flow, seamlessness, whereas with other systems this can be really clunky.

Firstly, it's important that it covers core needs such as storing employee records, tracking annual and sick leave entitlements, communicating with payroll systems and software as well as benefits admin. Simple and visual data analysis is also essential for this type of tool - important metrics should be only a few clicks away. HRIS tools should be able to assist with recruitment processes and ideally offer an ATS which integrates with a solid employee onboarding process. The ability to run performance reviews and engagement surveys is also key to consider.

Bob is continually being updated, for example, Your Voice has been a new addition that we have added to our package which has proven to be an excellent way of gaining anonymous feedback, especially for a business of our size.

Bob is very good for organisations with 50+ employees, and ideally, someone within the HR department would have specific responsibility for this tool to get its full benefit.

Rippling is a one stop shop for our employees. We enjoy the ease and flexibility of the tool. It is also highly customizable to our needs. Payroll processing is straightforward. It takes care of all the compliance, reporting and tax matters we have. The customer support is exceptional and I always get to speak with a real agent when I have a question.

To bring a single source of truth and information hub to the company, we implemented Rippling. We've had Rippling in place since January of 2022. We wanted a tool that supports single sign on, benefits admin, time and attendance tracking, PTO requests and more. We also use Rippling for payroll, onboarding/offboarding, compliance and tax, IT device management and more.

Paying for workflows was a surprise. In order to create custom workflows or approvals you have to upgrade your package.

Rippling truly offers everything you might need. You can pick and choose the features and services you'd like to have, which I appreciate. As a smaller business, we don't need every feature, but we use quite a few and we are very satisfied with what they offer. They also integrate with several other tools which makes it easy to keep all of your platforms connected and speaking to one another.

What are you trying to solve for your company? Make a list of ways an HRIS could simplify your life, for employees, managers and HR. Look at what tools you currently use and see if Rippling could replace those. Or if those tools could integrate with Rippling.

They add new capabilities all the time. They now have a global payroll feature so you could pay all of your contractors and employees from one place. They have headcount planning features now. They also offer compensation banding.

Rippling is good for companies of all sizes and stages. It could be used to manage a team of 15 or a team of 50,000. It is flexible and customizable. I can't think of a company Rippling wouldn't be good for.

1. Ability to have all of our offerings under one system.

2. The user experience is easy to navigate and has a modern feel and approach.

3. The system allows for a ton of customization by the customer meaning a lot of configuration can be done without the support of Workday directly to meet your needs.

Our organization purchased Workday to bring all of our previous systems under one offering. We had four different vendors supporting our HR needs at the time and we were able to bring everything under Workday.

Our previous HRIS was lacking updates that supported our team's needs and we wanted to offer an experience to employees internally that was easy to navigate and understand. Workday is easy to use, understand, and looks and feels very modern.

Also, they allow us to have payroll, recruiting, onboarding, performance, training/compliance, etc. all under one offering. Personally, I have used Workday since the fall of 2019.

1. Everything is tied to one system meaning you are glued to the ecosystem making it hard to make a switch in the future, if needed.

2. The amount of customization available is a ton making it at times hard to understand for more complex business processes.

3. The cost. It's an amazing system, but the cost is steep if that is a concern.

Overall, it's different in that everything is able to be under one offering. It's amazing to have the ability to customize your Workday for what the organization needs and it's great that they only release two updates a year for system updates.

The updates are also pushed out to all Workday customers at the same time so everything is working off the same version, unlike other offerings we've used. The ease of use and modern feel is also much different from many of its competitors. It's a great offering!

Overall, when looking at an HRIS like Workday, it's important to consider whether you are looking for a system that can house all your offerings under one system - truly, that's the benefit of getting Workday.

If your organization does not want/need that, you could find alternative options that likely could offer a great experience at a more reasonable cost.

However, for our organization, this was something we needed, and have found great value in offering to create a better experience with more efficient processes.

Workday releases two system updates a year and they are pushed out to every customer at the same time. We have seen so many good updates since we implemented Workday and many of their updates come directly from Workday Community where Workday customers give feedback and ideas for recommended system changes.

For example, there have been significant improvements to the recruiting offerings in managing requisitions, which has really helped our team more efficiently manage requisitions. Another example is when Workday added COVID vaccine tracking very quickly to meet the needs of customers when the government was requiring employers to track vaccinations.

This was outside of the normal twice-a-year releases, which was really appreciated so we were in compliance. They care, listen, and make updates when needed to support their customers.

From my experience, Workday is great for larger organizations because it's such a robust offering. If you are a smaller organization, it may be a bit overwhelming and the expense may be hard to justify.

However, if you are looking for an offering that can be a one-stop shop for everything, offer an easy to navigate experience for staff, and the ability to customize the system for your needs, Workday is great!

It makes training compliance much easier for us. It is good for large enterprise environments. It is highly customizable.

My organization bought SAP-Success Factors to use as an LMS tool. We've been using it for about 4 years. Prior to using SAP-Success Factors, getting our large pool of employees to complete mandatory training was difficult. Now we can create our own training content and manage its delivery much more easily. It also allows us to track compliance on training more easily.

It can be difficult to get the support we need from our SAP representative quickly. It is so customizable that it can be difficult to predict the effect of small changes to the software. The integration with reporting can be slow.

Success Factors is very robust and highly customizable, and that differentiates them from competitors.

You should consider the cost, and it can be prohibitive for smaller organizations. It is also so customizable that you will need someone on staff to become an expert to really use it to its fullest. It's also good to consider if you actually need a product this customizable or whether something more plug-and-play would work better for you.

We are constantly meeting with our SAP rep to tweak our setup. They are willing to work with us on this, but it is sometimes a lengthy process.

Success Factors is great for a large enterprise-level organization that needs highly customizable software.

I appreciate how easy it is to complete the I-9 verification process through UKG. Employee communications are streamlined and can be sent to targeted audiences using employee attributes. The survey tool comes with survey templates that are easy to modify for our needs.

It was important to have a tool that could easily allow us to conduct and track performance reviews, manage employee grievances or corrective actions, collect and submit government-required information (EEOC), automate onboarding, and conduct I-9 verification. We lacked a way to track HR-related requests, identify who was responsible for addressing them, and monitor how long it took HR to respond. We did not have an easy way to track or schedule people-related communications. Our employees had to go to multiple areas to access people-related information. UKG addressed all of these needs and more. I have used UKG for more than a year now.

It is not easy to modify certain areas of UKG to fit our needs. UKG is designed to be very standardized and somewhat basic, which can be a problem for companies that need a more agile system. The survey tool is a bit clunky, and the data reporting is harder than I would like it to be. Reports from the system in general are difficult to run. Responses to issues or needs are sometimes lacking.

UKG is a great mid-range tool. It provides enough flexibility and automation to be helpful but isn’t overwhelming in its offerings either.

Evaluate what systems you wish to link to UKG. Some of these are easy and some are not. Make sure you understand your HR workflows and the gaps you’re trying to fill. This will make the startup process with UKG much smoother.

We are relatively new in our use of the tool, so its evolution over time is not yet obvious.

UKG is perfect for small, medium, or large organizations that would benefit from automation, templates, and a ticketing system.

It is affordable and user-friendly. The customer support that is available in the software is good and always active in responding to customers. The application is easy to use for most users. Zoho People is a great option for storing employee information and tracking time.

5 years ago our company started to use Zoho People to deliver exceptional digital HR experiences to our employees while managing the entire employee life cycle on a single platform. I like its simplicity and integration with other Zoho tools like Zoho Payroll, Zoho Books, Zoho Expenses, etc. I love that the request permission, approval, and tracking features are so helpful. I like that the interactive form builder allows us to create different forms that meet our needs and help our HR team.

Sometimes I run into difficulties in terms of data integration between other integrated programs. Zoho People software does not integrate with other similar applications. They only provide a limited number of administrators for Standard and Premium pricing plans. The system is cloud-based only and not flexible to use.

Zoho People comes with an employee portal, organization chart, self-service, performance appraisal, employee leaves management, and salary tool features. All the HR processes can be managed from a central location which can help users to save time and reduce costs. The software offers a fully-mobile self-service that can help employees to get easy access to their HR data from anywhere, anytime. It can help employees have better control over their work.

The price of the solution is low and most people can afford it. Customer support includes online and email user support. Easy to learn and use.

They offer cloud-based hosting, which means IT resources are retrieved through web-based tools and applications and you don't need to buy servers and additional hardware equipment.

It is very good for small and medium size companies.

I like the aesthetic of the site; it is fun to use and user-friendly. The mobile version is functional during onboarding, unlike many other systems that claim to be mobile-friendly; Namely actually is! I like how things flow and the ease of uploading and storing documents. I like that our people enjoy using Namely.

We selected Namely because we wanted a personalized solution fit for our unique needs. We were tired of the same old runaround with big companies like ADP and being passed from one department to another to solve a simple issue. My company needed a better user experience for us as administrators and for our employees. Our primary pain point was transitioning off of a full-service PEO and needing a personalized touch and a good bit of handholding during setup. I used Namely for one year, and the company I was with is still using the product.

During the merger with Prism, there were some system bugs, but those seemed to get sorted out after a month or so. At times, the chat or help function can be slow to use, and I had to restart a few chats, which did not make me happy at that time. That said, the Namely reps were always courteous and went above and beyond to help us. Since we had no appointed contact team, I was always talking to a new person, which can be challenging when working through a long-term project like multi-state payroll tax setup or complex benefits.

I like that Namely allows the HR team to drive the bus. If someone is not tech-savvy, Namely will not be the best tool for them. Namely stacks up against its competitors well, and I loved using the system! I’d use it again.

Before investing in this platform, determine if your HR team is at least moderately tech-savvy; if not, look elsewhere. Do you have under 500 employees? If yes, Namely can easily accommodate your group. Do you have at least one HR person on staff per 75-100 employees? If not, you should consider adding an admin. Namely is a great tool, but it doesn’t think for you. People still need to do the work, especially benefits and payroll-related tasks.

Yes, it has, and they are doing a good job adjusting to market needs. Namely is cutting-edge and definitely improving over time.

Namely is a great tool for small to mid-sized businesses.