Best HR Software for Small Business (2024)
The best HR software for small business as picked by SSR's expert HR tech reviewers. Read about features, benefits, pitfalls, pricing, and more below.
Here's something that doesn't get said enough: some great companies are solely-focused on making the best HR software for small businesses. That's because being a small business doesn’t mean that you can’t have some of the best HR tech available. Among the top vendors in the space, there are those that have plans or solutions to fit the needs of smaller operations.
So, if reading the words “custom enterprise pricing” on a vendor’s website entices you to close the page, and you dread lengthy implementations that would require complex IT intervention, this is the guide for you. Through hours of research, we’ve rounded up the best HR software for small businesses.
Among these vendors, you’ll find the HRIS essential features that you’d like to cover with a single platform, such as applicant tracking, org charts, time and attendance, benefits administration, performance reviews, and much more.
Top Human Resource Software
We determine the best HR software for small business by testing each product's performance in three critical areas: employee self-service, automation, and integration. Our assessment involves user testing, real-world experience, and the input of HR thought leaders.
- Employee self-service:
The essential function of any HR tool is to save time, and small businesses are especially vulnerable to the negative effect of wasted efforts. Empowering employees to update their own information is a simple and effective way to manage time, so we tested each tool’s employee self-service portal for ease of use and noted the number and type of data employees could access and update.
- Automation:
Streamlined workflows save time, reduce errors, and allow your HR team to apply their efforts to tasks that require a human touch. To evaluate this factor, we asked industry experts to apply their wide-ranging HR experience to assess workflows. We coupled that with input from our user researchers, who ran simulations of typical sequences across the employee experience, like hiring, onboarding, and running payroll for a new employee.
- Integrations:
Choosing HR software that doesn’t integrate with your current tech stack will cause significant challenges in the future. When testing integration capabilities, our evaluations were black and white: our team checked for compatibility with common, standalone tools (the kind that small businesses use when starting out) and rated each platform on the number they could connect to.
We are approached by about 10x more vendors than we chose to feature. But this doesn’t mean we carved this list in stone. In fact, our methodology for determining which HR software for small business is best requires us to reevaluate our choices constantly. You can find out more about our selection criteria and research methods by reading this article on how we assess HR tech vendors.
BambooHR
Gusto
GoCo
Zoho People
JazzHR
Bob
Factorial HR
Zenefits
Connecteam
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BambooHR
BambooHR is a leading HR software, catering to both large companies and small businesses with its flexible pricing options.
PROS
- BambooHR is an HR tool tailored for small businesses, providing flexible packaging and customizable pricing, enabling you to expand features as your business scales.
- BambooHR is a simple and straightforward tool that is easy to navigate. This user-friendly interface and intuitive design is especially great for SMBs since tools like these tend to be used by managers across departments.
- Robust employee self-service features include onboarding, time off requests, and surveys.
- Flexible packaging and custom pricing is the way they roll. You can pick out one or two packages and pick other modules as add-ons based on your needs.
- Very simple and straightforward tool, easy to use.
CONS
- Payroll functionality within BambooHR is currently limited to U.S.-based employees.
- Small businesses operating in time zones outside of the U.S. should note that customer support is not available outside of U.S. business hours.
- Some features, including time tracking, employee surveys, and the entire performance management suite, are only available as add-ons that can add-up on an SMB budget.
- BambooHR's reporting capabilities, although sufficient for many small businesses, may not provide the advanced analytics and customization options required by some data-centric organizations.
As a cloud-based HR tool, BambooHR's offline functionality is limited. This may be a drawback for small businesses in areas with unreliable internet connectivity or those with a high percentage of deskless employees.
BambooHR - one of the best HR software for small businesses
- Payroll is only available for US-based employees
- Customer support is only offered during US business hours.
- Some modules like time tracking, performance management, and surveys are only available as add-ons.
Having once been a small business, BambooHR strives to provide custom plans to suit growing business needs. Their HR platform covers the entire employee lifecycle, though some features, including performance management, are available only as an ad-on.
For small businesses, they offer the HR Essentials plan. They also offer various amenities, including an app marketplace for HR/recruiting vendors, an HR glossary, and occasional HR-focused events.
Among the 20,000+ companies that use BambooHR, you’d find names like Quora, Universal Group, Reddit, Asana, Change.org, University of Maryland, Grammarly, Stance, Postmates, Wistia, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and ZipRecruiter.
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
BambooHR is a go-to resource for countless small businesses for good reason. It’s always been an approachable tool, well-known for its customizable capabilities. Its flexible pricing options cater to the requirements of growing organizations. Additionally, BambooHR's popularity among partially or fully remote teams further makes it an ideal choice for small businesses embracing flexible work arrangements.
Gusto
Gusto's new native ATS enhances its offerings, allowing job posting, syndication, interview notes, and basic scheduling. Designed for employers with moderate hiring needs, it seamlessly integrates with the Gusto platform and demonstrates promising functionality and reliability.
PROS
- Gusto automatically files state new hire paperwork for users.
- Self-onboarding allows employees to add or update personal info, including bank details and withholdings.
- I-9s and W-4s are e-signed and stored within the system.
- Customizable offer letters and onboarding checklists for new hires.
- Native features to post jobs on popular job boards (LinkedIn, Indeed, ZipRecruiter, etc.) and track applications in one place.
- Accessible phone and email support.
- Payroll support for U.S.-based W-2 employees and domestic/international contractors.
- Transparent pricing without long-term contracts or setup fees.
- The dashboard feature keeps tabs on compliance tasks
- The hiring and onboarding sequence is nicely streamlined between HR and the new hire
- Post-offer, pre-start tasks are made easy with integrations like CorpNet (state tax set up) Checkr (background checks)
- Easy payroll for U.S.-based W-2 folks, domestic, and international contractors
- Person-to-person phone support, email, and other customer service resources
- The business model is responsive to customer needs
CONS
- No capacity for hiring or paying non-U.S. employees
- Time tracking and e-signatures missing from Simple plan
- Only Premium plan users can access 24/7 support
- Free trial not offered
- Gusto can support payments for international contractors, but not employees
- No native accounting feature to keep earning and spending under the same roof
- Analytics dashboard is simplistic
Gusto's HR solution with its native ATS is a reliable and efficient tool that simplifies hiring, onboarding, and payroll processes.
The ATS feature integrates with popular job boards like LinkedIn, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter and is particularly useful in reaching a wider pool of candidates. It also automatically files state new hire paperwork, helping users save time and ensure compliance.
Another quality feature is Gusto’s self-onboarding: employees can update their personal information, including bank details and withholdings, here on their convenient devices. The e-signature capability for I-9s and W-4s also eliminates manual paperwork.
Gusto provides customizable offer letters and onboarding checklists, allowing users to tailor the onboarding experience for new hires.
As Gusto’s core product is payroll, its capability to provide this service is excellent. Users can use Gusto to pay their W-2 employees and contractors across the U.S. and worldwide. Paying global employees is the only thing Gusto payroll hasn’t covered yet. Thus, the tool is not a good fit if you’re doing international employee hiring.
American Canning, Matchless Builds, Citizen Pilates, Pain Clinic, Distant Moon.
Gusto offers flexible pricing plans to accommodate different business needs:
- Simple Plan: Starting at $40/month, plus $6/month per person.
- Plus Plan (limited-time sale): Starting at $60/month, plus $9/month per person.
- Premium Plan: Customized plan options available by contacting sales.
- Contractor Only Plan: Designed for businesses with no W-2 employees, priced at $6/month per person.
Best For
Gusto offers a budget-friendly basic plan, making it accessible to startups with limited budgets. For SMBs with smaller HR departments and greater financial capacity, the Premium plan is a recommended choice to invest in human resources effectively.
I'm an HR Generalist, so I mainly use Gusto to add new hires, update salaries, and ensure that payroll is correct. I also use Gusto to disperse employee documents for signature/acknowledgment (Employee Handbook) and to store employment documentation (offer paperwork, background checks, etc.). Others on my team use it to run payroll and enroll in state tax registration.
I love their customer service, they always have an answer for you and make my job so much easier. The interface is fantastic, and the design is very appealing, which is a huge factor for someone that uses it quite often. I also really like the admin dashboard, Gusto will list outstanding tasks with their deadlines and will prompt you with helpful information to finish the task.
My company is a portfolio company for High Alpha Innovation. Gusto is the go-to HRIS for all portfolio companies. We have been using it since we started in 2020 and have even used it for one of our own portfolio companies. Gusto is a very easy-to-use tool that has fantastic customer support. When you're working for a start-up, you don't want to spend a long time on payroll and Gusto really helps with that. It's also very easy to set up a new instance of Gusto for a company - it took like two hours and was a painless experience due to Gusto's interface.
Sometimes the outstanding tasks aren't accurate, we recently had tasks pop up for an employee that has been gone for two years. This is very specific, but I wish that you could make some employee documents private to employees, all the documents you upload are automatically public and don't give you an option. I dislike their benefits -- we ran a quote before and it took a few weeks to get back the quote and it was incredibly expensive.
The only similar tool I've used is a PEO called Justworks. I'm not sure if it's a fair comparison, since PEOs pretty much do everything for you. I will say, it was nice that you could set up Gusto in a day and run payroll the next day if needed. For Justworks, you have to wait until the system start date, which can be weeks later.
I think that customer service is a huge buying criteria, especially if you have an inexperienced team. It's invaluable to have experts that you can call or chat with at any time. Cost is definitely a big factor that differs from organization to organization. It's sometimes worth it to pay a little bit more to make your life easier and that's what we've found with Gusto. Lastly, I think that it's important to have an easy-to-use system for both HR and employees. Payroll is VERY important which makes it vital to have a system that is easy to comprehend.
Gusto has become more well-rounded over the years. Last year, they added performance reviews into the mix. It's definitely not perfect and not very customizable, but it's a free add-on, which can be a huge value to organizations that don't have performance management built out.
Small to mid-sized organizations. I think it could work for a small start-up, but would be better for slightly more mature organizations.
Gusto would not be good for a small startup that doesn't have someone with HR experience on its team. Definitely would recommend a PEO over Gusto.
GoCo
GoCo provides payroll and benefits administration, performance management, hiring, onboarding, documentation, time tracking, and HR support from a centralized dashboard. It’s also a versatile solution that seamlessly integrates with some of the most popular apps and services.
PROS
- GoCo is a highly affordable solution for small teams and organizations that only have a few employees, especially if those employees work remotely and maintain flexible schedules.
- GoCo gives users the ability to automate recurring tasks and activities, i.e. providing new hires with the necessary documents, collecting their e-Signatures, and setting termination protocol in motion.
- GoCo is also available as a mobile app. This provides even more support to today’s mobile workforce by giving them the luxury of requesting time-off, managing their benefits, or viewing their performance reports from nearly any location in the world.
- GoCo includes a fully embedded payroll solution that is highly secure. Alternatively, GoCo’s Payroll Sync feature is capable of connecting with several cloud-based payroll solutions.
- GoCo is a highly affordable solution for small teams and organizations that only have a few employees, especially if those employees work remotely and maintain flexible schedules.
- GoCo gives users the ability to automate recurring tasks and activities, i.e. providing new hires with the necessary documents, collecting their e-Signatures, and setting termination protocol in motion.
- GoCo is also available as a mobile app. This provides even more support to today’s mobile workforce by giving them the luxury of requesting time-off, managing their benefits, or viewing their performance reports from nearly any location in the world.
- GoCo includes a fully embedded payroll solution that is highly secure. Alternatively, GoCo’s Payroll Sync feature is capable of connecting with several cloud-based payroll solutions.
CONS
- Transitioning your payroll to the GoCo platform can be challenging and some users report a steep learning curve with the GoCo platform in general.
- Some users report difficulty when scheduling time-off for employees that aren’t full-time, especially if their pay is prorated.
- In certain cases, benefits plans cannot be edited by your administrative staff, ultimately requiring customer support to add information for new carriers or edit the information of existing providers.
- There are a few persistent technical glitches that are yet to be resolved by technical support.
- Transitioning your payroll to the GoCo platform can be challenging and some users report a steep learning curve with the GoCo platform in general.
- Some users report difficulty when scheduling time-off for employees that aren’t full-time, especially if their pay is prorated.
- In certain cases, benefits plans cannot be edited by your administrative staff, ultimately requiring customer support to add information for new carriers or edit the information of existing providers.
- There are a few persistent technical glitches that are yet to be resolved by technical support.
GoCo functions as an all-in-one solution to your HR, payroll, and compliance needs. Not only will your team save time by accessing all of these activities in one convenient location, but their direct line to HR ensures that their voices are being heard.
One of GoCo’s key features is the ability to automate certain tasks, like onboarding and even pre-boarding. This ensures that your new hires have everything needed to get started while freeing up your managers and supervisors to look after their daily responsibilities.
GoCo is used by organizations such as Comit Developers, Caliper Foods, Synstelien Community Services, Stoughton Area School District, and Dom & Tom.
GoCo pricing starts at $5 monthly for each employee. Custom pricing plans are available.
Best For
GoCo would make a great addition to the tech stacks of small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) looking for a budget-friendly yet comprehensive HR software.
Zoho People
Zoho People provides a comprehensive solution. Features include employee self-service, time and attendance management, performance tracking, payroll management, announcements, and user access control. What sets it apart is its budget-friendly pricing options and forever-free plan. This makes it an ideal, scalable solution for fast-growing businesses, startups, and small teams.
PROS
- All core HR features in a single dashboard.
- Gives certain users access based on job roles, hierarchies, or locations.
- Announcements feature helps users stay updated with work-related activities.
- Wide array of integrations.
- Has an Android and iOS app.
- Transparent and affordable pricing. Has a free plan and a 15-day free trial.
- 24/5 support.
- Available in multiple languages.
- All core HR features in a single dashboard
- Wide array of integrations
- User-friendly UI, constantly updated
- Available in multiple languages
CONS
- Since they offer so many modules, some maybe not be as robust as other products that have been more specific about covering particular needs. For instance, some teams have found their payroll offering quite basic.
- The mobile app isn’t very user-friendly.
- Some users reported that the platform can be slow to load every now and then.
- Since they offer so many modules, some may be not as robust as other products that have been more specific about covering certain needs. For instance, some teams have found their payroll offering to be quite basic.
- Not all that’s available in the web platform is available in the app
- Some users reported that the platform can be slow to load every now and then.
Zoho People offers an impressive list of features on each pricing plan, so most teams can find a good feature fit at a price they can afford. The platform even provides a free plan for up to five users.
Cases is a unique feature. It allows employees to submit HR questions into specific topic categories and receive immediate responses from agents assigned to them. It's a simple yet remarkable feature that saves employees and HR colleagues time.
With its access control management feature, users can assign permissions based on specific roles, defining precise access levels for each individual. This ensures that admins can effectively control what others can or cannot access within the system.
Another noteworthy feature is Announcements, which allow administrators to share information using diverse content types. The feature's customization options, including formatting and location-specific visibility, further enhance its usefulness.
Zoho People’s self-service feature enables employees to access their records and perform HR operations like leave management, timesheets, and policy documents.
The mobile apps further enhance accessibility, although some users have expressed dissatisfaction with their occasional instability and subpar performance.
Some room for improvement can be found in tools like payroll, which is relatively basic compared to similar tools.
ZPE Systems, Cloudfronts Technologies, Zomato, SpiceJet, Foresight CFO.
Zoho People is free for up to 5 users. After that, it has four plans that priced as follows:
- Essential HR: $1.25/user/month billed annually.
- Professional: $2/user/month billed annually.
- Premium: $3/user/month billed annually.
- Enterprise: $4.5/user/month billed annually.
Best For
Zoho People is an affordable yet powerful solution for small and medium businesses to manage and access employee data from a centralized location.
I use Zoho People for tracking time and leaves. Besides, it is great to chat with other team members. The platform includes an organizational chart, compensation, and training modules. It has great reporting features as well. I can easily check all my records, such as my pay stub for every month of the year, company employee list, and vacation schedule. etc.
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.
It would be a bit challenging for big corporations as Zoho People doesn’t offer unlimited employee profile support.
JazzHR
JazzHR is dedicated to addressing the distinctive recruitment requirements of small and medium-sized businesses. They excel in this area, offering a competitive price, an exceptional product, and outstanding customer support.
PROS
- An affordable ATS that doesn’t place any limits on the number of users added.
- A 21-day free trial is available.
- Send out jobs to 18 top-trafficked job portals with a few clicks.
- Can integrate with LinkedIn Recruiter.
- JazzHR is quite affordable and doesn’t place any limits on the number of users added. It also offers free, 21-day trials that anyone can sign up for.
- JazzHR has built-in features for offer management. You can choose from existing offer letter templates or create your own and share them with successful candidates
- You can automate triggers for candidates to be automatically notified via email when their application has moved a stage further in the hiring process. Several other email responses can be automated.
CONS
- The lowest-priced plan’s features are basic, tackling only job postings and applicant gathering.
- No free plan or mobile app.
- The reporting feature lacks advanced customizations and can be hard to navigate.
- Some users reported a learning curve with JazzHR's UI and that it took them some time to get used to it
- For a product geared towards SMBs, it lacks a free plan. We mention this as a con since other SMB-geared recruiting products do offer free-forever versions, which puts JazzHR slightly behind the competition.
- Several users have mentioned that the reporting feature is difficult to use with very little room for report customizations.
- JazzHR currently lacks a mobile app, and the browser version isn’t well-optimized for mobile use.
JazzHR’s SMB-friendly ATS prioritizes seamless communication and collaboration by offering unlimited user access across all plans. This enables businesses to effectively coordinate their hiring process. In addition to its affordability, we appreciate how easy JazzHR makes it to share job openings across multiple job boards, ensuring maximum visibility.
To cater to different business needs, JazzHR offers various plans. Hero, i.e. their lowest-priced plan, provides essential features such as the ability to post up to three job openings. As your company grows, you can easily upgrade to higher plans like Plus and Pro, which offer more advanced capabilities for automating, customizing, and analyzing the hiring process. This flexibility ensures that you only pay for the features you require, aligning with your evolving business requirements.
Massaro, TED, Heath Ceramics, Fox Dealer, and Clearly are some of the names on JazzHR’s 10,000+ customer list.
JazzHR has three pricing tiers as follows:
- Hero: $49 per month.
- Plus: $239 per month.
- Pro: $359 per month.
Best For
JazzHR serves startups and SMBs with under 500 employees.
- We use JazzHR in Job postings to create and publish job postings on multiple job boards and our own careers pages where necessary and consequently source for candidates
- Resume screening: JazzHR provides tools like customizable screening questionnaires, keyword searches, and evaluation forms to help you screen resumes and identify qualified candidates based on your job requirements.
- Interview scheduling: JazzHR allows you to schedule interviews with candidates and send automated reminders to keep everyone on track.
- These tools have helped us streamline our overseas resume screening process and identify qualified candidates more efficiently.
- JazzHR has a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, making it simple for our team to manage the hiring process from start to finish.
- It also allows users to customize job postings, screening questionnaires, and evaluation forms, which allows us to get more suitable candidates.
- JazzHR also automates many tasks such as resume screening, interview scheduling, and candidate communication. This is an important time saver which helps us move faster.
JazzHR is a cloud-based applicant tracking system that streamlines and automates the hiring process.
Our organization was looking to engage highly specialized consultants from the US as well as Europe in IT Security, Cloud Computing, and Enterprise Solutions.
We found that JazzHR provided centralized hiring where the team could manage the entire hiring process, from job postings to candidate screening and interview scheduling which saved us a lot of time. It also provided impressive data-driven insights and analytics on hiring metrics which enabled us to identify our areas of improvement.
- There are limitations on candidate search, especially for local searches in Africa. The candidate search functionality could also be more robust, allowing for more targeted and advanced searches.
- Customer support response time can be slower at times which can be frustrating when trying to resolve issues quickly.
- The reporting features could also be improved on to provide more insight and more informative data analytics.
- Affordability: JazzHR is priced competitively, making it more accessible to small and medium-sized businesses that may not have the budget for enterprise-level solutions.
- It also allows reliable customization, from job postings and screening questionnaires to evaluation forms and workflows. It also integrates with a wide range of other HR tools, including HRIS and payroll systems like BambooHR, providing us with greater flexibility and automation.
- Indeed and LinkedIn have significantly larger candidate pools than JazzHR, making them a better option for organizations looking to cast a wider net in their candidate search. However, JazzHR integrates with a range of other HR tools, including payroll and HRIS systems, while Indeed and LinkedIn do not offer the same level of integration.
- This makes JazzHR more all-rounded than Indeed & LinkedIn which fills a niche and builds on the value it offers making it slightly preferable for overseas hires.
- Consider the HR tools that you currently use or plan to use and evaluate whether JazzHR can integrate them. JazzHR integrates with a variety of HR software for different purposes such as assessments, background checks, payroll, and onboarding. Some examples of HRIS systems that JazzHR can integrate with are BambooHR, Namely, TribeHR, and Workday. Do your research before engaging JazzHR.
- Pricing: Evaluate the pricing structure to ensure that it is affordable and that it aligns with your organization's budget. JazzHR has different payment plans like Hero, Plus, and Pro.
- You can evaluate the level of customer support that is available and ensure that it aligns with your organization's needs, particularly if you are a smaller organization without a dedicated HR team.
Over time it has Increased customization by introducing more customization features over time, including the ability to create custom screening questionnaires and evaluation forms.
It has also improved integrations by expanding its integration capabilities, allowing users to connect with a wide range of HR tools, including HRIS and payroll systems.
In my opinion, JazzHR would work best for teams looking for a recruitment and applicant tracking system that can be integrated with an existing HRIS system to streamline their recruitment, onboarding, and payroll operations among other HR functions.
JazzHR may not be the best fit for large organizations with complex hiring processes that require highly specialized workflows.
Bob
Bob is a modern-looking HR solution notable for its ease of use. Small businesses in various countries use it to streamline their HR operations with remarkable customization and efficiency. It’s excellent for managing international teams.
PROS
- Good customization for international operations. It’s easy to manage workflows like time off requests, parental or other types of leave, and employment types, across several countries, depending on how you’re set up.
- Contains some intranet-like features, which is odd for an HRIS, but a nice-to-have, people frequently point out. For example, people can post ‘shout-outs’ to the home page.
- They have tons of modules, which makes them a real one-stop shop. Beyond Core HR, they have modules for most things People Ops-related.
- Bob is a fast-growing company and their product looks the part, as it has one of the sleekest-looking platforms in the HRMS space right now.
- Their payroll hub allows you to connect all your payroll systems, which works great if you want to pay people in multiple locations without switching providers.
CONS
- Reporting can be somewhat basic for an HRIS
- As it’s made to be an HRIS, some modules are limited in function compared to more specialized tools. For instance, its performance module can also do surveys, but some of the users we consulted think these would benefit from more options and customizable parameters.
- Customer support is only offered via a chatbot and email.
- As to implementation, several users commented that they felt there could be more attention via personal walkthroughs provided at the beginning. Many had to resort to reading documentation and watching videos or just figuring things out by themselves.
- Pricing is only custom and available upon request, so you can’t just sign up, pay, and start using the tool.
Bob, or HiBob, has made it its philosophy to always put the employee first. You can see that ethos embodied in how easy the product is to use and the various ways this solution engages employees to better understand and cultivate culture. Bob 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.
Tufin, Yotpo Ltd., Fiverr, Happy Socks, Taptica
Bob offers custom pricing. They have flexible plans for growing companies and will work with you to offer the best possible cost.
Best For
Companies with fast-growing teams that want to manage all or most HR processes in a single platform, in a modern way.
We use HiBob HRIS everyday as all of the employee info is stored in there. We used it for creating key reports, onboarding, offboarding, internal communications, and kudos. Once you're in the system, you have the capability to set up workflows to automate which is helpful. For onboarding, we had it integrated into our ATS which was Jobvite. Overall it was pretty seamless and easy to use.
- Bob was a fun and engaging HRIS that employees really enjoyed.
- It allowed a lot of interaction within the platform, and for people to get to know each other better.
- There was a surprising amount of customizability you could get from the system.
I used HiBob HRIS between 2019-2020. We unfortunately had to move off of BambooHR, and HiBob was the next best platform for our company of 250+ employees. During my time, we'd used it for about 1 year. It's a very people and engagement oriented HRIS that encourages a lot of opportunities to celebrate each other, interact around any announcements, and is very culture focused. The key benefit it provided was a culturally engaging HRIS that employees enjoyed using once they were trained on it.
- It had a lot of bugs and the server can be slow at times. Hopefully this issue has resolved over time.
- It's not an all-in-one platform, they encourage you to partner with other best in class payroll, time keeping, etc. systems.
- The UI looked great, but the UX was a bit clunky. For almost all processes, there was a lot of click through that had to be made and the experience was not very user friendly.
Bob excels at creating a people first and culture centric HRIS which most do not do. At most it's where you check for your payroll. However, we got a lot of great positive feedback around the platform itself. Around HR Processes though, they seemed to still be growing in functionality at the time (2019). They are integrated with a lot of the major brands / companies around payroll, timekeeping, etc. so it makes it easy to use across platforms.
- All-In-One Platform: If you're looking for an all in one platform, this won't be the best fit. However, if you're looking for a good culturally engaging HRIS this would be a good option!
- Onboarding -> Payroll -> Offboarding Workflow: It's important to think about where you're starting your employment/ onboarding workflow since it's not an all in one system. To avoid double work / entry, it's very important to map out where you want to include what data and how you can transfer that across platforms.
Bob was very hands-on and interactive throughout the implementation, training process. They've got an aggressive and extensive roadmap which is exciting. They receive feedback very well, and it was exciting to grow alongside the company and system because we did see things change rapidly within the system for the better.
I think Bob is best for <500 employee companies. It would also probably be better for companies who have a majority of salaried employees vs. hourly non-exempt. And also for a company that wants to use the best in class platforms for various parts of the people experience.
Bob would not be great if you're looking for an all-in-one HR platform. If you use your HRIS for timekeeping and time off tracking, it also may not be the best fit. Larger organizations may have a hard time using Bob.
Factorial HR
Factorial is an all-in-one HR platform used by thousands of teams across the globe. They have always placed a considerable emphasis on being SMB-friendly, evidenced in their pricing and flexibility, and comprehensive feature list.
PROS
- Flexible pricing scheme
- Complete HR Suite + ATS
- Strong SMB focus
- Good UX/UI and frequently updated design
- Flexible pricing scheme
- Complete HR Suite + ATS
- Strong SMB focus
- Good UX/UI and frequently updated design
CONS
- Some users have pointed out that the tools are not very customizable.
- Because it covers such a wide range of functions, we’ve found that modules like payroll and reporting could be further developed.
- Some users have pointed out that the tools are not very customizable.
- Because it covers such a wide range of functions, we’ve found that modules like payroll and reporting could be further developed.
Factorial is an excellent HR software solution tailored for SMBs. Their comprehensive offering handles employee onboarding, time tracking, leave management, organizational charts, payroll, TA, and more. enabling HR teams to save time and increase operational efficiency.
We've been familiar with the tool since early 2020, and have always applauded their commitment to data security". With Factorial, all database information is encrypted and GDPR-compliant. They also use a Single Sign-On system, and maintain good security hygiene with regular diagnostic assessments of vulnerability.
The Power MBA, The Hotels Network, Nextail, Ulabox, Vicio
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.
Zenefits
Zenefits is a great option for small businesses in the U.S. looking for a robust, all-in-one HR, payroll, and benefits management system that won’t break the bank.
PROS
- Zenefits’ plans provide flexibility to users. They can choose to start with stand-alone modules or have a full suite.
- Houses employee records, automated payroll, and benefits in one place.
- Highly rated for being easy to navigate.
- Budget-friendly to SMBs.
- Provides payroll services for full-time/part-time employees and 1099s.
- Offers a free trial and free setup.
- Has a mobile app.
- It’s one of the top names in HR tech and payroll software for American small businesses.
- Their platform is one of the best-looking and easiest to figure out among the sector.
- Zenefits can grow with you. Its pricing plans allow you to pay and tweak as you go, add certain modules when you need them, or get rid of them if you don’t.
CONS
- Payroll with unlimited pay runs is provided as a paid add-on.
- Tax filings sometimes don’t work well for multi-state businesses.
- No phone support or dedicated account managers.
- Customer support can take time to resolve issues.
- Not for large teams or those looking for non-US payroll and benefits.
- As oriented to small businesses as the tool is, it doesn’t give you the chance to create a custom bundle of the services and/or modules you’d like to have. For instance, Zenefits does not offer a standalone ACA module. Therefore, you will need to purchase an entire HRIS plan if you want to access that offering.
- In addition, Zenefits focuses on small to mid sized companies. If you're an enterprise organization, you may want to consider another option.
- Zenefits is also rather focused on the US market at this point. So, if your team is mostly in another country and you need more of a local know-how, it might not be the best bet for certain modules like payroll and benefits.
Zenefits incorporates a broad set of solutions for core HR services and tasks; such as onboarding, offboarding, benefits, payroll, and performance reviews. It’s also the type of tool that can grow with you. You can pay and tweak as you go, add certain modules when you need them or get rid of them if you don’t. The pricing is transparent. You know how much the bill will be, no surprises. Compared to similar options in the market, Zenefits' pricing is pretty reasonable. Not to mention it has a free trial and doesn’t charge for the setup.
Zenefits has a beautifully-designed UI. We also liked the mobile app. It’s straightforward and enables employees to access their HR day-to-day things like clocking in and out. Zenefits’ payroll can work for full-time employees, contractors, and freelancers. The self-service aspect has a host of features— self-onboarding, time tracking, org charts, and payroll— all accessible via browsers and mobile apps.
Zenefits’ automated workflow is also quite handy. It lets users automate workflows for key employee events like promotions, team transfers, and terminations.
However, the software does have things you need to watch out for. First, the payroll tool isn’t included in any of Zenefits’ base plans. The platform, instead, offers it as a paid add-on. The turn-around of Zenefits customer service is another concerning part. Several users said they had to wait longer than expected to get the help they needed. There is no phone support or dedicated account manager, which can be an issue when users need timely assistance. Lastly, Zenefits is designed with SMBs in mind, and its offerings are specifically for US-based businesses. So, purchasing the tool wouldn’t be a good call for multinational teams.
Quora, Universal Group, Reddit, Asana.
Zenefits pricing starts at $8 per employee per month. The software has three plans and also offers some add-ons with prices starting at $5 per employee per month.
Best For
Smaller teams that want to save time by streamlining their HR services with an intuitive platform that lets them pay and tweak as they go.
Connecteam
Connecteam stands out as the premier all-in-one HR software tool tailored specifically for small businesses with a significant number of deskless employees. It comprehensively addresses most core HR concerns in a way that caters to the unique needs of unanchored workers.
PROS
- Among the rare fully-mobile HR tech tools designed for deskless workers
- Great value for its features, SMB-friendly pricing
- Highly receptive to user feedback, incorporating suggestions as new features
- One of the only fully-mobile HR tech tools for deskless workers
- Very adequately-priced for all it entails, SMB-friendly
- Quite open to feedback, having implemented user suggestions as features in the past.
CONS
- In the communication hub, the app lacks confirmation for sent and/or seen messages.
- Certain essential features like GPS-tracking are restricted to higher-tier pricing plans.
- In the communication hub, the app offers no confirmation that messages were sent and/or seen.
- Certain features that some teams consider essential, such as GPS-tracking, are only available in the higher-tier pricing plans.
Connecteam is the HR app for companies with a high percentage of deskless workers to manage. If you need a simple, robust, yet intuitive tool that lets you take care of HR processes for low-tech employees who don’t have a computer, this one is certainly worth checking out.
From the Connecteam app, managers can handle administrative work, like staff scheduling, task management, attendance management, time keeping, training, onboarding, and much more. Non-desk workers then interact with all of this via a mobile app, where they need nothing but a phone number to create an account.
Nike, Herbalife, Billabong, Footlocker, Mason Construction, American Eagle, McDonald’s, and many more.
Connecteam’s pricing can range from free-for-life to up to $159 per month. Final numbers will vary depending on the number of users and modules you choose. To give you an idea, here’s an overview of each plan within the operations module:
Connecteam’s payment structure is fixed for the first 50 employees you add. Once you add more, there would be an extra payment of $1.5 per additional employee per month.
These pricing options are yearly, where you save 18%, but you can also opt for month-to-month payments. They also offer enterprise pricing with more features and a personal account manager. Each paid plan also has the option of a 14-day free trial.
Best For
Connecteam connects and empowers teams and businesses of all sizes. Its user-friendly workforce management tool caters to low-tech, deskless workforces without extensive IT intervention. Industries served include healthcare, manufacturing, security, and more.
Oyster
Oyster is loved for its automated onboarding and robust benefits & payroll. If you’re a distributed team, you’ll love Oyster’s native HR tools, strong compliance support, and how well it handles your global employment as a legal employer on your behalf.
PROS
- Oyster takes care of necessary documentation through self-onboarding tools: employees access, sign, and upload documents themselves through the platform.
- Targeted for a remote workforce: Whether your employees are in one country or 100, Oyster can accommodate them accordingly with its current partners.
- Helpful HR tools that are free to access. For example, you can use Oyster’s Benefits Advisor tool to research benefits that local companies offer and local experts recommend in a specific country.
- Support salary payouts in over 120 currencies.
- Pearl — Oyster’s virtual hiring assistant is handy to suggest on the system's hiring, onboarding, and employment terms (the standard probation period and vacation leave credits) for new recruits based on where they’re based.
- Generous discounts for nonprofit organizations and refugee recruitment.
- Intuitive: The platform is easy to navigate and makes logical sense.
- competitively priced: The flat rate for employees and contractors makes cost comparisons simple, and is competitive in the market.
- Targeted for a remote workforce: Whether your employees are in one country or 100, Oyster can accommodate them accordingly, and this is a feature few platforms can boast.
CONS
- Expanding the integrations is on Oyster’s plan, so you may want to check whether your current software is or will soon be compatible with Oyster before making a purchase.
- Oyster doesn’t provide tools for employee performance at the moment. There are no in-app communication features either.
- Oyster’s benefits packages, while being robust, are available as add-ons.
- Slight delays in processing times for payments in the local currency are somewhat common.
- Immediate communication via phone support is not an option, but they do offer live support via Zoom when necessary.
- An initial security deposit is necessary to begin the engagement and is refundable.
- The platform lacks native time-tracking functionality and provides only an in-app tool for managing time off.
- If you’re looking to co-employ your employees and partially outsource HR responsibilities, Oyster isn’t for you. They are more akin to employer of record services (EOR) than a Professional Employer Organizations (PEO).
Oyster is built with remote-first businesses in mind. The platform has gained trust over the years by taking on the role of a capable legal employer to handle global employment on the customers’ behalf.
What we love most about Oyster is that its robust health and benefits options are country-tailored and reflect employees' local laws and cultures in over 180 countries. This feature, thus, is rejoiced by organizations that are scaling fast and globally.
More recently, there is also a feature calledOyster Total Rewards. It provides insights tools and compensation consulting to help businesses design salary, equity, and benefits plans for their employees according to their locations. The offboarding also has a more simplified flow for team members to follow throughout the offboarding process.
Quora, Wagestream, Impala, and Grover are some companies on Oyster’s long list of customers.
- Contractor: From $29 per contractor per month. It includes hiring contractors in 180+ countries, drafting, editing, signing compliant contracts, processing invoices, and paying contractors in 120+ currencies.
- Employee: Between $499-$699 per employee per month, billed annually. The plan enables you to hire full-timers in 130+ countries with compliance and liability coverage, get automation, and IP protection, set up global payroll, and manage expenses, allowances, and bonuses in 130+ countries.
- Scale: Custom pricing and comes with a discounted rate, dedicated guidance, and support to navigate global employment and bulk hiring.
- Optional Benefits (as opposed to those locally-required) are available as add-ons to the Employee and Scale plans.
- Special discounts for nonprofits and refugee employment.
Best For
Remote, hybrid, and distributed teams looking for an HR tool possessing global payroll, country-custom benefits, and robust compliance support.
FAQs on buying HR software for a small business
What is the best Human Resources software for small business?
The best HR software for a small business will be that which solves some of the organization’s pain points through features like employee self-service and onboarding automation, while fitting into the desired budget. Some of the best vendors of HR solutions for small teams are Freshteam, JazzHR, FactorialHR, and Zoho People.
Why does a small business need HR software?
Small businesses can use HR technology to save time, improve the employee experience, employee performance, and hiring process.
What does HRIS stand for?
HRIS stands for Human Resource Information System.
What does HCM stand for?
HCM stands for Human Capital Management.
Pitfalls of buying HR software for a small business
Most small businesses take a while to recognize that they need HR software. They’ll use spreadsheets for a people directory and handle tasks like running payroll and setting up benefits themselves. This might make sense until it all gets impossible to manage. This may be true for a majority of small organizations, especially when you consider that 56% of small businesses have an HR department of only one person, according to research from BerniePortal (an HRIS provider).
So if you’re now sold on the idea of getting some form of HR software, congratulations! The next step, however, is to avoid the common pitfalls that come when choosing vendors. Making the wrong decision could mean that the headaches you’re trying to avoid with this purchase don’t all go away, so it’s important to lookout for the following mistakes:
- Choosing a vendor with no employee self-service: Since the whole idea is to save time, your HR tool should let people alter their own employee records. This can be especially helpful for freeing up HR’s time if it’s done as an automated workflow during onboarding.
- Choosing a vendor that lacks automation: Speaking of automated workflows, it’s also recommended that your vendor has this capability in at least some of their features. Whether it’s running payroll, onboarding, or signing documents, there are a lot of menial tasks that can be done automatically.
- Foregoing the necessary integrations: Further, if the decision process is rushed, sometimes you could end up buying a tool only to find out later that it doesn’t integrate with a key component of your tech stack. If this is the case, it will surely lead to difficulty down the road, since a good deal of the data transfer between tools has to be done manually.
- Rushing the implementation: With cloud-based HR software for small businesses, the most common situation is for implementation to be a self-service process. However, this is where rushing things can send you down the wrong path. If the data is transferred or inputted incorrectly, it will lead to mistakes like giving admin access to the wrong team member or having the wrong amount for someone’s payroll. To avoid this, it’s recommended that you choose a vendor with good customer success resources in place and that you actively make use of them.
Benefits and ROI of HR software for a small business
While reading this, there might still be a small part of you that says “I’m a small business, do I really need a fancy HR system?”. Truth be told, getting HR right is one of the milestones that you need to achieve if you want to grow your business. It’s also paramount to keep your workforce happy, since it’s what you’ll later use to improve on metrics like employee satisfaction rate, engagement, and overall, the much turnover (which can be quite costly).
So, speaking of the benefits of buying HR software, we’ve already covered how it saves time for HR managers by streamlining and automating certain processes. However, what should also be mentioned is what these managers will be able to do with that spare time. An HR person that has paperwork and recruiting fairly under control can then focus his or her attention on human capital management, improving the overall employee experience at the company, as well as finding ways to foster the company’s culture and develop employees through training programs.
How are most HR management solutions for small businesses priced?
With most of the vendors listed on this roundup, pricing is on a per user per month basis. Some of them will have an additional monthly base fee, and the majority of them will offer custom pricing based on your business needs. Some of them also offer independently-priced add-ons, which is great for small businesses that want to pay only for the features they’ll actually use.
Now, if you’d like to get a rough idea of what you can expect to budget depending on your organization’s size, we’ve put together the following estimations based on our own experience and conversations our HR expert council:
We're also crowdsourcing data on HRIS pricing through a survey that's anonymous and takes only two minutes. Anyone who helps out the community by filling it out will get access to the entire data set.
Key HR software features for small businesses
If this is your first HR tech purchase, which features should you be prioritizing? While that depends mostly on your particular situation and business needs, we could say that the top HR tech vendors offer some, if not all, of the following:
- Employee management: The Core HR functions for any tool should include an employee directory, perhaps an org chart, and the chance for employees to alter their records themselves. As mentioned above, this is key in order to reduce time and make sure everything about an employee’s relationship with the company is up to date,
- Onboarding & Documents: Many of these tools come with a basic Applicant Tracking System that can do everything from sourcing and managing job postings and interviews all the way to onboarding a new hire. Some of them can also take care of the necessary documentation through automated workflows. You don’t need to be chasing people for their signature if they can access, sign, and upload all the necessary documents themselves through the platform.
- Employee Performance: An HRMS can also help with defining goals for an employee, both individual and collaborative, and keeping track of it. The same tool could allow for feedback to be recollected and consulted by employees and managers when it’s time for performance reviews.
- Time Management: If we’re talking about a plan with HR tech essentials, this should include some form of time management, whether it’s for scheduling, time and attendance tracking, processing leave requests, or at the very least syncing with one of the main calendar apps.
- Benefits Administration: While this is tricky because it can vary a lot from one region or country to another, a vendor should get bonus points if they have a module for you to manage your employee’s benefits as well.
Some other features that you should consider include:
- Social recruiting
- Sourcing
- Reporting & Analytics
- A good mobile app (that’s for both Android & iOS)
As a final note on features, if the vendors you’re looking at happen to not have one of these, make sure that they at least integrate with some tools that do. You should also consider whether those tools fit your budget or not.
Questions to keep in mind when demoing HR software for small companies
While most of the top HR software solutions for small businesses like yours offer a free trial or an instant self-service demo, it’s likely that some of them will also have you schedule a live demo with one of their reps. If this is the case with the vendors you’ve narrowed down, it’s really important to come prepared with questions.
To get you started with your demo prep, here are some sample questions that you can bring to the demo. You can also download our free excel organizer to make notes on each vendor and compare them later.
- How will this solution seamlessly integrate with our existing tech infrastructure, and what integrations will be required?
- How will other team members effectively utilize this solution within the organization?
- What are the critical functionalities I should inquire about?
- How can this tool enhance and elevate the applicant experience?
- What aspects might make me or my team apprehensive when transitioning from our current processes to this platform?
- How does the vendor ensure the security of employee data?
- What can I expect about the caliber of customer support? Does the platform have a help center? Online guides? Are the support resources high-quality and accessible to all?
Just because you’re a small business, doesn’t mean that you should be reluctant to control the demo. These solutions are specifically designed for businesses like yours, so it’s better for everyone involved if you can articulate your needs and the use cases you care the most about.
Last advice on buying HR software if you’re a small business
Now you’ll probably want to pick 2-3 vendors and either start free trials or book demos with them. Before you do that, however, our last piece of advice, as with any software buy within an organization, would be to make sure every stakeholder is aligned with the decision.
Even if it’s easier to get everyone onboard with an X or Y solution and think that it’s the right HR software, you should also consider the future of the business. Will this solution still be able to handle your organization’s needs in two years? How about 5 years?
Most of the vendors selected here are quite scalable, so even if you’re starting with the most basic plan, or even the free one, there is a decent chance that that vendor will be able to stay with you and your business, if all goes well, for many productive years.
About Us
- Our goal at SSR is to help HR and recruiting teams to find and buy the right software for their needs.
- Our site is free to use as some vendors will pay us for web traffic.
- SSR lists all companies we feel are top vendors - not just those who pay us - in our comprehensive directories full of the advice needed to make the right purchase decision for your HR team.
