Best of
Best HR management software for small and mid-sized teams
HR management software keeps employee records, time off, onboarding and reviews in one place, so the spreadsheet and the shared drive can retire. The best human resource management software for a small business is the one that fits its payroll, because payroll is where most HR systems start or stop. This list says which do payroll and which do not.
Side by side.
Facts a reader can check on each vendor’s own site. No prices.
- Free plan:
- Seats from one:
- Payroll:
- US only
- Time off:
- Performance reviews:
- Higher plans
- Free plan:
- Seats from one:
- Quoted
- Payroll:
- Add-on, US only
- Time off:
- Performance reviews:
- Pro package
- Free plan:
- Seats from one:
- Payroll:
- Separate app
- Time off:
- Performance reviews:
- Higher plans
- Free plan:
- Seats from one:
- Quoted
- Payroll:
- Time off:
- Performance reviews:
- Add-on
- Free plan:
- Seats from one:
- Quoted
- Payroll:
- US and UK native
- Time off:
- Performance reviews:
- Free plan:
- Seats from one:
- Quoted
- Payroll:
- Sage HRMS and Sage HCM
- Time off:
- Performance reviews:
- Free plan:
- Up to three people
- Seats from one:
- Free up to 3; 5 on paid plans
- Payroll:
- Time off:
- Performance reviews:
- Free plan:
- Seats from one:
- Quoted
- Payroll:
- Time off:
- Performance reviews:
- Free plan:
- Seats from one:
- Quoted
- Payroll:
- Time off:
- Performance reviews:
| Free plan | Seats from one | Payroll | Time off | Performance reviews | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gusto | US only | Higher plans | |||
| BambooHR | Quoted | Add-on, US only | Pro package | ||
| Zoho People | Separate app | Higher plans | |||
| Rippling | Quoted | Add-on | |||
| HiBob | Quoted | US and UK native | |||
| Sage HR, Sage HRMS and Sage HCM | Quoted | Sage HRMS and Sage HCM | |||
| Spodus | Up to three people | Free up to 3; 5 on paid plans | |||
| Oracle PeopleSoft | Quoted | ||||
| ServiceNow HR Service Delivery | Quoted |
Checked on , against each vendor’s public plan pages.
Each one, plainly.
What it is, who it suits, and where it stops.
- 01
Gusto
Payroll first, with HR built around it.
Gusto is payroll first, with HR added around it: hiring documents, time off, benefits and, on the higher plans, performance reviews. It is used by small US companies that want payroll and HR from one vendor. Payroll is US only. There is no free plan.
Best for: A small US company that wants payroll to be the centre of its HR.
- 02
BambooHR
The best-known HRIS for small and mid-sized companies.
BambooHR is the best-known HRIS for small and mid-sized companies: employee records, onboarding, time off and reporting in the Core package, with performance reviews in Pro. Payroll and benefits are add-ons, and payroll is US only. It is sold by quote.
Best for: A company of fifty to five hundred that wants the HRIS first and payroll second.
- 03
Zoho People
The HR app in the Zoho suite, with a free plan.
Zoho People is the HR app in the Zoho suite, with a free plan for up to five users. Records, time off, attendance and shift schedules are in; performance reviews arrive on the higher plans. Payroll is a separate Zoho product and is only sold in some countries.
Best for: A small company already on Zoho, or a team of five or fewer that wants a free HRIS.
- 04
Rippling
HR, payroll, IT and finance on one employee record.
Rippling is an HRIS joined to payroll, IT and finance: one employee record drives payroll, devices, apps and expenses. It suits companies that want HR and IT admin from one system. Performance reviews are an add-on. It is sold by quote, and payroll is native in a handful of countries.
Best for: A growing company that wants HR, IT and payroll to share one employee record.
- 05
HiBob
An HR platform for mid-sized companies, called Bob.
The HiBob HRIS, called Bob, is an HR platform for mid-sized companies with a modern interface, workflows and people analytics. Payroll is native in the US and the UK and runs through partners elsewhere. It is sold by quote and is aimed at companies with a few hundred people, not a few.
Best for: A company of a few hundred people across more than one country.
- 06
Sage HR, Sage HRMS and Sage HCM
Four HR products under one brand.
Sage sells four HR products under one name. Sage HR is the small-business app, for teams up to a few hundred; Sage HRMS is the older HR and payroll suite for North America, Sage HCM is the newer North American line, and Sage People is the mid-market HCM built on Salesforce. They share a name, not a codebase, so growing from one into another is a migration. All are sold by quote except Sage HR.
Best for: A company already on Sage accounting that wants HR from the same vendor.
- 07
Spodus
HR basics beside the customers, deals and invoices. No payroll.
Spodus is a client-operations workspace with an HR module inside it: employee records, an org chart, time off, onboarding and reviews. It has no payroll and no benefits. It fits a service business that wants the team's records beside its customers, deals and invoices rather than a standalone HRIS. It is free for up to three people, and paid plans start at three seats.
Best for: A service business that keeps payroll with its accountant and wants HR records in the same workspace as its customers.
- 08
Oracle PeopleSoft
Oracle's enterprise HR system.
PeopleSoft HCM is Oracle's enterprise HR system. Universities, governments and large companies run it, often on their own hardware, for payroll, benefits, time and reviews. It is sold by quote with an implementation project. It is not a small-business product.
Best for: A large organisation with a PeopleSoft team already in the building.
- 09
ServiceNow HR Service Delivery
HR case management, not an HRIS.
ServiceNow HR Service Delivery is not an HRIS. It is a case and request system for HR teams at large companies: employees ask for things, HR works the queue, and the record system stays in Workday, SAP or PeopleSoft. It is sold by quote. It holds no payroll and no leave balances of its own.
Best for: An HR department at a large company that already runs ServiceNow for IT.
How we chose.
We started with the HR software companies people search for by name, from the small-business apps to the enterprise suites, and added the ones a small team is most likely to be offered. Then we read each vendor's public plan pages on the date above. The columns are facts, not scores: whether there is a free plan, whether a seat minimum applies, and whether payroll, time off and performance reviews are in the product. Best HR systems lists usually rank by feature count; a small business is better served by asking who runs its payroll.
More best-of lists.
The same table, dated the same way, for the other categories a service business buys.
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- Head to headSpodus against one tool at a time
Two ways
to start
Start fresh today, or bring the clients, deals and history you already have.
Start fresh
Free for up to three people.
You get every product: CRM, invoicing, support, team, chat and Spodus AI, which asks before it changes anything. Upgrade when your team grows.
Start for freeBring your data
Bring your data from the tool you use now.
Your deals arrive with their stages, owners and dates. Connect your work email, and each client's emails land on their record. On a paid plan, we'll move it all for you, free.
See the whole workspace, not one row of it.
Start today, or bring your own data to a demo and see it there.
Questions, answered
For a US small business that wants payroll and HR together, Gusto is the usual pick, with BambooHR for companies that want the HRIS first. Zoho People is the choice with a free plan. The best HRIS for small business is one that talks to your payroll, whether it runs payroll itself or connects to the provider you already use.
Very little. HRIS is the employee record system. HRMS adds payroll and time. HCM adds talent, learning and planning. Vendors use all three for the same product, so a list of the best HRMS systems, the best HRIS systems and the best HCM software names the same companies. The best HR management system for you is the one whose modules match the jobs you actually have.
The names that appear on most lists of the top rated HRIS systems for small and mid-sized businesses are BambooHR, Gusto, Rippling, HiBob, Zoho People, Personio, Deel, Paylocity, Paycor and ADP Workforce Now. For large enterprises the lists name Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle and UKG. Any top HR software list depends on company size, so check which size the list was written for.
The HRIS companies most small businesses meet are BambooHR, Gusto, Rippling, HiBob, Zoho and Sage. The enterprise HR tech companies are Workday, SAP, Oracle, UKG and ADP. Human resource software companies also include payroll-first vendors such as Paychex and Paylocity, which sell HR as an add-on to payroll. The line between the groups is company size, not features.
If payroll stays with your accountant or your provider, you need records, time off, onboarding and reviews. BambooHR Core, Zoho People and Spodus all do that without selling payroll. A best human resource management system list will rank the payroll vendors higher; if you do not need payroll, ignore that part of the ranking.