HRIS software isn’t one-size-fits-all. But the best HRIS for small business will provide robust tools for hiring, onboarding, and managing your team all with a price tag that won’t break the bank.
We’ve put together a handy guide to compare all the best HRIS systems to help you make the right choice for your growing business.
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Gusto – Best all-in-one HRIS software for small business
Overview
Gusto tops our list for best HRIS for small business with a wealth of easy-to-use, people-first features and fully integrated functionality. Their intuitive interface simplifies even the most complex tasks, and their suite of hiring tools together with a full slate of team management tools elevate HR to enterprise level even for startups and small businesses.
All of Gusto’s tools feel designed with humans in mind, easily handling the full employee lifecycle from recruiting and onboarding, to engagement and growth, to an employee’s last day. Gusto’s pricing is fully transparent, and the vast majority of their powerful HR tools are available on their mid-range Plus plan. Overall, they offer more functionality at a better price, winning them the top spot.
Robust Hiring Tools
Gusto’s suite of hiring tools help them stand out from competitors who offer similar functionality with a bigger price tag. Integrated ATS (applicant tracking system), custom offer letters, and onboarding checklists all come included in the Plus plan.
Employee Self-service
Self-onboarding makes it easy for employees to upload documents, e-sign contracts, and gives employees lifetime access to paystubs, W-2s, and more — without any work required on your behalf. Employees can manage benefits, access trainings from anywhere, clock in and out, and request time off, and managers can easily review and approve timesheets and time off requests.
Fully Integrated
Having a single HRIS system to handle hiring, employee onboarding, vacation time, sick days, performance management, and benefits administration that seamlessly syncs to payroll—and automatically handles taxes and compliance—reduces your admin burden and streamlines your tech stack while saving you money.
Every time you run payroll, all federal, state, and local taxes are automatically calculated, filed, and paid along with benefits deductions, workers’ comp, and PTO.
Benefits Administration
Offering benefits is often seen as cost-prohibitive for small businesses. But Gusto offers unique no-cost, low-cost, and premium benefits options that make it possible for businesses of any size to access right-sized offerings that can grow as they grow.
Options include free financial planning tools, health reimbursement plans, 401(k)s, 529 savings, and commuter benefits, along with traditional medical, dental, and vision, Flexible Spending and Health Savings Accounts (FSAs and HSAs), life and disability insurance, and more.
Unlike most providers, benefits administration is included at no extra charge in all of their plans, and employees can self-register for the plan they want to further reduce admin.
Talent Management
With company org charts and handbooks, employee happiness surveys, birthday reminders, performance management, and integrated learning and professional development options, Gusto’s people-first team management tools are built to keep teams engaged and on track.
Built-in Compliance Reporting
Gusto’s built-in compliance means you can hire new team members in all 50 states while easily staying compliant with overtime, breaks, and minimum wage. FUTA and SUI payments are calculated and paid automatically. They have AI-powered reporting options for everything from labor and workforce costing to custom payroll reports, and compliance checklists and automated workflows save even more time. For even more robust compliance support, dedicated support & HR resources come included with the Premium plan or as an add-on to their Plus plan.
Key Features
- Seamlessly integrated payroll, HR, time tracking, and benefits
- Next-day/2-day direct deposit
- Robust time tracking tools
- Automated compliance and new-hire reporting in all 50 states
- Support for international contractors in 120+ countries; global payroll currently being rolled out
- Integrated ATS, custom offer letters, and employee onboarding checklists
- Built-in background checks through Checkr
- People-focused tools including org charts, birthday reminders, employee happiness surveys and insights, goal tracking, performance reviews, and professional development options
- Dedicated support from certified HR experts available
- Hundreds of software integrations
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Intuitive, easy to use interface | Simple plan includes only the most basic HR tools |
| All-in-one solution for payroll, time, benefits, and HR | Mobile app lacks full functionality |
| Transparent pricing, no hidden fees | |
| Extensive payroll, HR, time-off and workforce costing reports | |
| Robust people management tools | |
| Great customer service; dedicated HR support available | |
| Hundreds of software integrations included with all plans |
Pricing
Gusto offers three pricing plans, with the Simple plan starting at $49 per month plus $6 per person per month. The Simple plan lacks the more powerful HR tools like their applicant tracking system and performance and team management tools, but it still comes loaded with basic support for hiring and onboarding, PTO, and benefits administration.
Plus plans start at $80 per month plus 2 per person per month and include the full suite of hiring, onboarding, and team management tools. Plus plans also come loaded with popular features like next-day payroll and Gusto’s integrated time tracking.
Dedicated support from certified HR pros along with compliance alerts is available only with the Premium plan or through the HR add-on at $8 per person per month.
Premium plans are priced exclusively, and include everything Gusto has to offer with no hidden monthly fees. For more info on Premium pricing, contact their sales team today.
Free Trial? Yes, Gusto is free until you run your first payroll.
Free Version: No.
Transform your HR processes with Gusto, a platform that’s already the choice of over 400,000 businesses.
Remote – Best HRIS software for global payroll & compliance
Overview
The future of work is global, and Remote makes it easy to hire, pay, and manage your team in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Their impressive suite of international support includes global payroll, contractors, time tracking, hiring, self-service onboarding, compliance, and benefits. The best part is you can pay all of your team members around the world—whether contractor, full-time, or EOR—with a single payment.
Remote understands the local markets, keeping you competitive with local employers, and they handle all of the compliance as an employer of record (EOR). They don’t contract with outside entities, which means better, faster support.
Remote’s time and attendance tools allow you to track hours worked for both employees and contractors, and easily manage PTO, all while ensuring compliance with local labor laws wherever your team members call home. In addition to providing compliant contracts for international contractors, they also offer a ‘contractor misclassification risk tool’ to make sure you’re not hiring contractors that should be considered employees. This can save your business from facing devastating penalties down the line.
One downside is that Remote doesn’t offer the same workforce and project cost reporting that many competitors do. While they make it easy to manage and pay teams across borders, they don’t have a suite of tools to help you optimize staffing or automate scheduling.
Key Features
- Contractor payments in 200+ countries and territories
- Global payroll and EOR in 80+ countries
- Fully integrated payroll, benefits, and HR
- Time-tracking, PTO, and expense management for both employees and contractors
- Seamless onboarding and employee self-service portal
- 100+ currencies supported with no conversion fees
- Localized compliance, contracts, and benefits administration including stock options
- Contractor misclassification risk assessment included
- One-click or autopay contractor invoices
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Integration for domestic and international employees, contractors, full-time and part-time | Customer support via email only |
| Easy onboarding process | No transparent pricing for global payroll |
| Owned entities are not outsourced to third-party vendors | No support for common international payment methods like Payoneer and PayPal |
| Great, user-friendly interface | No workforce or project cost reporting |
| Country-specific compliance and benefits | |
| No extra charge for benefits administration |
Pricing
Remote prices their services based on which kind of global hiring you need. For their EOR service, it costs $599 per employee per month (on an annual plan), which is in line with industry standards. To go month-to-month it increases to $699. Their international contractor payments are reasonable at $29 per month, but if you only have international contractors and not full-time employees (or if you are operating 100% within the US), there are more affordable solutions out there.
For global payroll in countries where you operate your own entity, you have to contact sales for pricing.
Free Trial? You can set up an account and explore features including hiring and onboarding at no cost for 30 days. You’ll only be charged when you pay global workers.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about Remote
Justworks – Best PEO for small business
Overview
Justworks is one of the most affordable PEO options out there, and their HRIS comes with support for payroll, tax filings, onboarding, PTO management, and compliance along with low-cost benefit options like life and disability insurance, health & wellness, commuter benefits, and financial perks. They also offer traditional benefits like medical, dental, and vision, but these are only included with their higher-tier plan.
Whether onboarding new hires or assigning admin permissions to users with different job titles and levels of seniority, Justworks’ software is highly rated as easy to use, and their customer service responds quickly and is available 24/7. They also recently released a mobile app to allow your employees to easily access the data they need.
Justworks is one of the more affordable PEOs on the market, but they achieve this by paring down some of their offerings. Their HR suite includes e-signing, org charts, employee handbooks, new hire compliance, onboarding, and PTO policy management, but doesn’t provide hiring tools. They do offer an integration with Greenhouse’s applicant tracking system, but you’ll have to pay extra. Time tracking also isn’t included, and Justworks Hours costs an additional $8 per user per month.
For smaller businesses looking to take complex HR and compliance tasks off their plate, Justworks is an affordable option that can grow as you grow your business. But for larger businesses with money to spend, there are more robust PEOs out there.
For medium-sized businesses looking for a more robust suite of hiring tools, check out TriNet Zenefits instead.
Key Features
- Full service PEO
- Unique, low-cost options for commuter, health & wellness, and financial benefits
- New-hire compliance in all 50 states
- Self-service employee onboarding
- E-signing and secure document storage
- Flexible admin permissions
- Highly rated customer service
- Mobile app
- International contractor support (rolling out EOR services soon)
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Transparent pricing | Time-tracking app costs extra |
| Affordable for smaller businesses with the option to grow | Offering traditional benefits nearly doubles the monthly base price |
| Highly rated, user-friendly interface | Fewer HR tools than some other PEOs |
| 24/7 customer service on phone, email, chat, Slack, or SMS | |
| Unique, low-cost benefits available |
Pricing
Justworks has two pricing tiers: Basic and Plus. The Basic plan costs $59 per employee per month up to your 50th employee, where it drops down to $49 per employee per month. This includes everything Justworks offers save for traditional benefits and their time tracking app. The Plus plan jumps up to $99 per employee per month ($89 from your 50th employee onwards) and includes traditional benefits like medical, dental, vision, COBRA, and access to HSAs and FSAs.
Free Trial? Yes, 14 days.
Free Plan: Yes.
Learn more about Justworks
ADP – Best HRIS software for mid-sized businesses
Overview
ADP is a behemoth in the space and offers two payroll and HR solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses: ADP Run for businesses with fewer than 50 employees and ADP Workforce Now for businesses with 50–999. ADP Run includes payroll, onboarding, and reporting features, while ADP Workforce Now also includes retention tools like employee engagement and development. They also offer a full-service PEO option, ADP Total Source.
While ADP Run is a highly rated platform, and includes hiring and onboarding tools, its lack of employee engagement and retention tools puts them at a significant disadvantage. It’s primarily a payroll tool with a few extra HR functions, and their pricing puts them out of reach for many. For this reason, we don’t recommend it for startups or smaller businesses. For businesses with more than 50 employers, however, their Workforce Now packages provide a robust solution for managing teams.
ADP consistently tops lists of best HRIS software, likely because their list of features is so long. Workforce Now offers everything any team might need to manage HR, payroll, benefits, and more, along with over 700 integrations. Best of all, you can build a package that includes only the services you need.
The only questions are: how much does it cost, and is that included in the plan I have? Getting the answer requires reaching out for a custom quote.
Key Features
- Fully integrated HR, payroll, benefits, and time tracking
- Over 700 software integrations available
- Mobile app
- Every HR, time, and people tool imaginable
- Features siloed based on # of employees
- Highly rated payroll tool
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| HR Outsourcing and PEO options available | Software feels clunky and dated |
| Robust options for businesses with 50–999 employees | Slow customer service |
| Tons of products and features for maximum scalability | Pricing is not transparent and difficult to piece together |
| No employee retention tools or benefits administration available in small business packages |
Pricing
ADP’s pricing tiers are confusing at best. For businesses with fewer than 50 employees, they offer 4 pricing tiers: Essential Payroll, Enhanced Payroll that includes wage garnishment, unemployment, background checks and job postings, Complete Payroll and HR+ that adds on some HR tools like employee handbooks, proactive compliance alerts, a job description wizard, and access to the HR help desk, and HR Pro Payroll and HR, that includes an applicant tracking system, onboarding tools, and an LMS.
Where ADP stands out is their Workforce Now packages for medium-sized businesses from 50–999 employees. They offer three tiers: Select, Plus, and Premium. Select is a basic suite of HR and payroll tools. Plus includes benefits administration, and Premium adds on their suite of time and attendance tools including time tracking and PTO management.
With any of the Workforce Now packages, you can add on modules for Talent Acquisition, Performance Management, Compensation Management, HR Assist, Analytics and Enhanced Insights, and Learning Management.
According to Forbes, users reported pricing starts from $62 per month, but the average business should expect to spend a lot more than that. For example, the ADP support team quoted payroll only for 50 employees at $400 per month.
Free Trial? Yes, three months free on select products.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about ADP
BambooHR – Best purebred HRIS system
Overview
BambooHR is great for both small- and medium-sized businesses who want to easily manage personnel records, payroll, and perks. BambooHR is the most HR-focused entry on this list—it’s a purebred Human Resources Information System (HRIS) with payroll, benefits, and time tracking as extras.
Onboarding, offboarding, document storage, employee satisfaction, and robust reporting options are all built right in. Out-of-the-box workflows for time off requests, salary changes, and more make it easy to save time on admin while being sure nothing slips through the cracks.
For tools like performance management, payroll, and benefits administration, you’ll need to pay extra. But their performance management tools are some of the best out there, and visualizations of employee progress and satisfaction, along with customizable automations and reporting on almost any piece of data set them apart as a team management tool. Employee self-service for onboarding, personal information, document storage, and benefits is also best-in-class.
While BambooHR does come with “benefits tracking,” it’s a clunky feature that requires a lot of manual entry. If you’re looking for HRIS software with benefits, you’re better off paying for their benefits administration add-on or choosing a provider that includes benefits, like Gusto.
If you don’t have complex payroll needs, and you’re looking for a more HR-focused tool, BambooHR has all the bells and whistles to help streamline admin and manage your team while improving productivity across the board. Or, if you already have payroll and time tracking tools you love, using Bamboo to jumpstart your performance management is a great choice.
Key Features
- Best-in-class performance management tools and visualizations
- Intuitive, user-friendly onboarding and offboarding workflows
- Automated workflows for time-off requests, promotions, compensation changes, and more
- Payroll processing in all 50 states
- Multiple PTO policies and automated accruals
- Integrated Applicant Tracking System
- Custom reporting options on any data housed in the system
- Payroll, benefits, time tracking, and performance management available as add-ons
- 125+ software integrations
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Industry-leading HR suite | Limited functionality in mobile app |
| Best-in-class onboarding, offboarding, and employee self-service | Essentials plan is bare-bones |
| No transparent pricing | |
| No international support | |
| Chat & phone support only available on Advanced plan |
Pricing
BambooHR no longer shares pricing information on their website, and you’ll need to reach out to get a custom quote. For companies with more than 20 employees, their HRIS software is priced on a per-employee, per-month basis. For companies with 20 employees or fewer, pricing is charged at a monthly flat rate.
BambooHR has two available plans along with a handful of optional add-ons. The Essentials Plan comes with employee records management, standard reporting and analytics, time-off management, as well as a few automated workflows. Previous pricing started at $108 per month for the first 20 employees.
The Advantage Plan includes advanced reporting, custom workflows, onboarding and offboarding, their applicant tracking system, and employee wellness features.
They also offer four add-on packages: payroll (previously priced at $150 per month for up to 20 employees + $7.25 per employee per month after that), benefits administration (previously priced at $5 per employee per month), performance management (previously priced at $5.75 per employee per month), and time tracking (previously priced at $3 per employee per month). These modules all have volume discounts, so the per employee cost will drop as your business grows.
Free Trial? Yes, 7 days.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about BambooHR
Homebase – Best HRIS software for hourly workers
Overview
Homebase is an all-in-one scheduling, time tracking, payroll, and HRIS solution created specifically for shift-based businesses. HR needs for restaurants, retail, and other hourly businesses differ significantly from traditional white collar offices. But a lot of HRIS systems for small business focus on tools targeted toward salary-based businesses and lack even basic scheduling functionality.
Luckily, Homebase has one of the most robust scheduling tools on the market. Auto-schedule by availability or using sales and labor forecasts. Shift swapping is a breeze, and communication between team members is easy within the app.
While Homebase is more of a time-tracking tool with an HR add-on, they’ve got everything hourly-based businesses need to manage their teams. Their HR suite includes hiring and onboarding with automated job postings across multiple job boards, employee happiness surveys and no-cost benefit options, and secure document storage and compliance designed with shift-based businesses in mind. Sick leave, PTO, and vacation time are easy to manage and track, and a team of HR pros is available to answer your compliance questions.
While there are more powerful HRIS-focused platforms on the market, Homebase is the easy winner for shift-based businesses looking to streamline their tech stack while still accessing all the people tools and functionality they need.
Key Features
- Designed specifically for shift-based businesses
- Powerful time and scheduling tools
- Recruiting, hiring, and paperless onboarding
- Payroll add-on available with automated tax filings
- Built-in compliance for meal time, breaks, and minimum wage
- Integrations with popular POS, recruiting, accounting, and payroll software
- Robust, native communication tools
- Mobile app for time tracking, communication, shift swapping, and more
- Employee happiness surveys and retention tools
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Automated scheduling saves hours each month | Payroll add-on is expensive |
| People-focused tools to keep your team happy and engaged | Full suite of HR tools is only available in the All-in-One plan |
| Competitively priced, even for top-tier plan | Difficult to correct time for incorrect clock-ins |
| Easily integrates with payroll providers | Occasional software bugs reported |
Pricing
Homebase offers four pricing tiers. Their Basic plan is free and includes just scheduling, time, and hiring features for up to 20 employees at a single location.
The Essentials plan is $20 a month billed annually for unlimited employees and includes team communication, performance tracking, and remote and field tools.
At $48 per month (billed annually), the Plus plan adds on labor cost control and budgets, time-off and PTO tracking, as well as permissions and policies. The All-in-One plan adds the HR tools you need to thrive including new-hire onboarding, employee document storage, and their full HR and compliance suite at $80 per month.
For the payroll add-on, it’s $39 a month + $6 per employee paid per month.
Homebase offers no-commitment monthly plans at slightly higher prices than listed above.
Free Trial? Yes, 14 days.
Free Plan: Yes, basic scheduling, time, and hiring features for up to 20 employees at a single location.
Learn more about Homebase
TriNet HR – Best affordable HRIS software
Overview
TriNet used to operate solely as a PEO, before they merged with Zenefits. Their product became TriNet Zenefits for a time, and now Zenefits has been dropped entirely. Their standalone HRIS is now called TriNet HR and their PEO is now called TriNet PEO. The recommendation here is for the standalone HRIS software, not for their PEO.
All of TriNet HR’s packages include automated self-onboarding with offer letters and background checks, employee self-service, digital docs and signatures, and account provisioning. They also come loaded with employee scheduling, time off tracking, PTO, data and document management, company directories and org charts, software integrations, mobile app access, and their basic analytics dashboard. For most companies looking for an HRIS to manage employee data, this is more than enough. And at just $8 per employee with no base package fee, it’s incredibly affordable.
However, if you’re looking for benefits administration, recruiting tools, or learning management, these are available only as add-on modules to their packages at a per-employee-per-month rate. Payroll is only included in their highest-tier package, though it does come with automated federal and state tax filing, as well as new-hire reporting.
At the end of the day, TriNet HR isn’t the best HRIS system on the block, but their affordable pricing makes it possible to access the HRIS functionality you need for much cheaper than most competitors in the space.
Key Features
- Affordable base plan
- Time tracking, PTO, and scheduling tools
- Paperless employee self-onboarding
- Payroll add-on available with automated tax filings
- Robust, native communication tools
- Mobile app for time tracking, communication, PTO requests, and more
- Employee happiness surveys and retention tools
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Very affordable base plan | Payroll is not highly rated and not included in any plans |
| Base plan comes with more tools than most | Minimum 5-employee requirement for all plans |
| Transparent pricing | Limited integrations |
| Robust reporting options | Benefits, hiring tools, payroll, and HR advisory are all paid add-ons |
| Can be difficult to reach customer service |
Pricing
TriNet’s HR Platform starts with the “Essentials” plan at $8 per employee per month, and then offers two higher-tier plans, “Growth” at $16 and “Zen” at $27 per employee per month. But these prices are only available if you make an annual commitment. For month-to-month packages, the prices go up to $10, $20, and $33 per employee per month, respectively.
The Essentials plan comes loaded with all of the basic HRIS systems functionality you need including onboarding and offboarding and employee and data management, but it lacks more robust reporting and analytics.
For their full suite of reporting, analytics, data, compensation, and performance management, you’ll need to upgrade to their Growth plan. Payroll can be added to either of these plans for $6 per employee per month.
Finally, the Zen plan adds on retention tools like employee engagement, a “People Hub” to facilitate communication, and payroll at no extra cost. However payroll is only included for select industries.
Benefits administration, recruiting tools (powered by JazzHR), and HR advisory services aren’t included in any plans. The benefits administration fee is waived only if you choose a benefits broker referred by TriNet.
It’s also worth noting that Zenefits isn’t built for start-ups and very small businesses. They have a minimum requirement of 5 employees for any of their pricing plans. You can still use their service if you only have two or three employees on payroll, but you’ll still have to pay for all five.
Free Trial? No.
Free Plan: No.
Learn more about TriNet HR
FAQ
What is a PEO?
PEOs, or Professional Employer Organizations, act as “co-employers” for your team members. They become the employer of record, taking HR administration like payroll, benefits, and compliance off your plate completely, as opposed to small business HRIS systems that help your team manage these functions themselves. But it’s important to note that PEOs do not take over any HR decision-making in your company, such as who to hire, when, or how much to pay them.
Why do businesses need HRIS software?
HR is one of the most complex pieces of running a business. For small businesses especially, the learning curve is steep, and it can take valuable hours each week. On top of the time commitment, compliance errors can easily end up in massive penalties if you’re not careful. The best HRIS systems for small business take that complexity off your plate and give you peace of mind that things are getting done right.
What should the best HRIS systems include?
The most basic tools for HRIS software are hiring, onboarding, compliance, and offboarding. Think about HRIS software as guiding you through the employee lifecycle. The best HRIS for small business, however, will be much more robust. The best HRIS software can not only keep you compliant in hiring, firing, and payroll, but can also help you attract and retain talent to grow your business.
Functionality to look out for includes: Applicant Tracking Systems, employee self-onboarding, PTO management, integrated payroll, performance management tools like incentives and reviews, professional development options, benefits administration, and team management tools like org charts, company directories, communication tools, and even birthday reminders.
How much do the best HRIS systems cost?
As there is a wide range of HRIS software for small business, there is a wide range of prices depending on how powerful a tool you need. Many tools built for smaller businesses tend to include only the most basic functionality in order to keep prices low. Many more robust tools are simply too expensive for startups and very small businesses to afford. But there are affordable, yet robust options targeted specifically for businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
