Compare HR Software in the United States

How we compare HR software

We list 12 HR platforms sold to US small businesses, and a published rate card exists for 7 providers. Where a vendor quotes instead, the table shows a quote. Every published figure comes from the vendor's own US pricing page.

The calculator asks for employees and, separately, staff overseas. Domestic headcount prices each provider's plan on the axis it bills, per employee, per location or per hub, and staff overseas are costed at the provider's published Employer of Record rate where it has one. The table sorts by the monthly estimate. Commission does not change the order.

PEO, HRIS, shift tool or EOR: four things an HR software table sells

Settle this before you look at a price, because a cost per employee per month means something different in each group. A PEO, a Professional Employer Organization, enters a co-employment relationship with you and takes on payroll and much of compliance. An HRIS leaves you as the employer: the software holds records, runs onboarding and in several cases runs payroll. A shift tool is scheduling, a time clock and messaging for hourly workers. An Employer of Record employs someone in another country on your behalf.

Homebase and Connecteam are the shift tools here. Work out which group you are shopping in first; the price columns are not comparable across them.

Co-employment: what a PEO does that ordinary HR software cannot

Under a PEO arrangement your employees are reported under the PEO's federal employer identification number. The PEO files employment taxes, sponsors the benefit plans, and carries a defined share of the compliance burden. You still hire, manage and fire. The pooling is the point: a PEO presents its whole client book to a carrier as one large group, which is how it reaches rates a small employer cannot access alone. Justworks is the row here that is a PEO outright rather than offering one: its benefits row reads Yes (large-group) and its contract row reads Monthly, and it lists time tracking as Yes (add-on), so some functions that look included in a demo are priced separately.

Ask any PEO what is bundled into the per-employee fee; what happens to your people if you leave, because coverage sponsored by the PEO ends when the arrangement ends; and whether it is a PEO or an ASO, since an administrative services organization does similar work without co-employment or the pooled insurance. A PEO earns its fee when benefits are your recruiting problem, or when you are spread across several states.

Health coverage and benefits, the job US HR software is bought for

What separates the rows is the relationship each product has with the coverage itself. Some give you access to plans they sponsor, which is the PEO model. Some administer plans you already hold, connecting enrollment and deductions to payroll without selling you insurance. Some offer partial cover or none.

A row reading no or limited is not a failing; a scheduling tool is not trying to be your benefits platform. But if benefits administration is the workload you want to remove, it is a disqualification. Where the row reads yes, confirm whether the product acts as a broker earning commission on the plans it places, and whether your existing carriers are supported.

ACA, I-9 and fifty state rulebooks your HR software has to keep straight

American employment rules are a federal layer with fifty state layers on top, plus city and county rules in places. Once you become an applicable large employer, forms 1094-C and 1095-C are an annual obligation. Every new hire needs work authorization verified on a Form I-9, and E-Verify participation is mandatory for some employers and some states and voluntary for others.

Add-on means the capability follows a paid module rather than the core product. Not stated means the vendor does not say, not that the answer is no. Paid sick leave, vacation payout, final paycheck timing and notice requirements all vary by state, and an employee who moves house can change which rules apply.

None of that makes any product compliant on your behalf, and nothing here is legal advice. Ask each vendor which of these obligations it performs, which it tracks, and which it hands back to you.

Per employee, per location or per hub: how HR software bills

The billing shape tells you more about your future bill than the headline figure. Per employee means hiring moves the bill. Per location means opening a second door moves it and hiring does not. Per hub means the time clock and the HR records can be separate subscriptions.

A minimum means a small team pays that figure instead of the multiplication, and an annual commitment changes what a bad first quarter costs you.

The Free plan row shows which providers have a free rung and what it covers.

Hiring abroad without an entity: EOR rates inside an HR software table

An Employer of Record is here because buyers arrive searching for HR software and discover they cannot legally pay the developer they just hired in another country. The EOR employs the person under local law and invoices you, and its rate is per employee per month on top of salary and local employer costs.

Before treating a headline EOR rate as your cost, check whether the country you need is covered at that rate, and ask what deposit or prepayment is required before the first employee starts. Check the Native payroll row if you hoped to run domestic payroll on the same vendor, because some deliberately do not. And ask whether the person should be an employee at all: contractor engagement is cheaper and faster, and it is where misclassification exposure lives in both countries. That is a question for counsel. For most small US employers this becomes relevant when you want to keep someone who has moved abroad, and the rate then competes with the cost of standing up a foreign entity.