Best HRIS systems in 2024

GoCo is a complete HRIS platform that includes everything you need to handle essential HR tasks like running payroll, managing benefits or finding a benefits broker, and time tracking and PTO management.

While it doesn’t have the same level of comprehensive workflow and project management tools that some of its competitors provide, it does include powerful automated workflows that you can assign to individual employees. Automations will then walk them through each step until completion, removing a lot of needless repetition for multiple employees.

GoCo is a good fit for businesses looking for an all-in-one HR platform to handle all of their HR tasks under a single umbrella. Like a lot of other popular HRIS platforms, it takes advantage of third-party integrations to mortar up some of the gaps in its core services. Broadening its offerings in this way means GoCo is suitable for most HR use cases, including some that its base offerings may not otherwise cover.

GoCo builds all the essential HR functionality you need to keep your business running smoothly into a single, intuitive interface. It expands a solid core of functionality with a wide range of optional integrations and allows users to customize a plan to suit their individual needs. The company also offers hands-on support through its dedicated Success Teams, providing individual support to each customer.

Value

Though GoCo lacks pricing transparency, it does allow users to create custom plans. The company requires each customer to get a custom quote for the services they require and doesn’t surface pricing on its website outside of the fact that its basic Premium HR service costs $5 per user per month before any add-ons. This means that, in theory, you won’t pay for anything you don’t need, and you won’t have to subscribe to a high-priced plan with a lot of feature bloat to get the functionality you need.

Also, while GoCo doesn’t offer a proper free trial, the company does let users take its platform for a test drive through its Product Tour. It gives you access to an account preloaded with data so you can see how the platform functions without entering any of your own employee or business information.

Functionality 

GoCo covers all the most important functions any HR department requires. This includes basics like the ability to quickly run payroll so you can get your employees compensated reliably and quickly rather than taking on the onerous and time-consuming process of manually handling payroll yourself. There are also performance management tools so you can evaluate your team in a meaningful and intelligent way — in this case, through custom review templates and progress tracking.

Performance reviews can be scheduled and automatic reminders can be built to trigger at regular intervals so you don’t need to worry about monitoring a separate calendar app (or relying on managers to manually set up reviews).

There are also workflow tours with drag and drop functionality so you can build them quickly and without fuss. Then, you can assign tasks with automated reminders to your team. You can even autofill fields and tasks with preloaded data to make your entire workflow and assignment process more efficient, meaning GoCo can be a huge boon for harried managers or anyone who feels like they’re an individual having to juggle multiple roles at once.

Support 

Beyond the aforementioned dedicated Customer Success Teams that provide specialized HRIS guidance for every GoCo customer, the company offers a resource center on its site. Here you can find a blog covering HR news, new regulations and features that may affect your business, as well as webinars and an employee onboarding guide.

GoCo also offers customer support by phone or email, Monday through Friday between the hours of 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. CST.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

In many ways, Rippling is actually several platforms integrated into one – at least if you sign up for its Unity platform. It bundles together all of its HR tools with IT and finance platforms so you can cover many of your business’ essential needs through a single provider. If your company is looking for this kind of comprehensive solution, Rippling is a great option. 

That isn’t to downplay its quality as an HR provider, however. Its HR Cloud platform includes all the payroll, compliance, time tracking and other tools you need to meet all your HR requirements, alongside powerful automated workflow tools and other extras that can help make your company more efficient (and potentially save you money). 

Rippling does lack some of the advanced project management and workflow dashboard functionality of some of its competitors, but from a strictly HR perspective, it’s a complete platform.

Rippling is a powerful and complex HR platform that can fill all your basic HR needs and then goes above and beyond with features like the ability to create custom automations for a huge range of tasks and the ability to integrate complete IT and finance platforms with its HR Cloud.

Value 

Like GoCo, Rippling is cagey about its pricing model online. The company requires each client to get a custom quote and the only pricing information it exposes on its site is that basic plans begin at $8 per user per month.

That said, also like GoCo, Rippling allows you to piece out each of its services individually so you only pay for what you need. This extends to being able to choose to only buy access to its HR, IT or finance services independently while also choosing individual features within each of those categories. You can, for instance, only purchase access to U.S. and global full-service payroll. This allows you to build a custom plan for your business that doesn’t include any pricey add-ons that you won’t use.

Functionality 

Rippling offers a wealth of powerful features. There’s full-service payroll so you can pay your team in minutes, both in the U.S. and abroad, including tax filing, PTO and time off tracking. Rippling provides a complete payroll solution for your business so you don’t need to waste precious time and resources ensuring your employees are properly and accurately compensated.

Time and attendance tracking can also be fully integrated with payroll to ensure you’re paying out exactly what’s due. The same goes for benefits administration, including HSA, FSA and commuter benefits. There are also powerful compliance tools for ACA and COBRA to ensure your business doesn’t get hit with costly fees or penalties along with recruiting tools to help you find the best people for your company wherever they’re located around the globe.

Support 

Rippling provides paid customer support through its HR Help Desk. You can connect to HR experts by phone or email to get answers to pressing questions and also receive real-time compliance updates that can ultimately save you a lot of headaches (and potentially money).

Rippling provides a number of online educational resources, including Rippling University, which provides a number of courses to guide you through handling common HR tasks and using Rippling’s platform. There’s also a blog, a help center with a lexicon of common terms and a breakdown of Rippling’s tools and hiring guides broken out by country.

Learn more: Read our full Rippling review.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

15Five isn’t a traditional HR platform with the core tools you’d expect, like payroll or time tracking. Instead, it’s a supplemental service that’s designed to improve performance at both the employee and management level. Almost all of 15Five’s tools and services are designed to serve this end, and thus its platform is really only a good fit for companies that already have a more traditional HR solution in place.

However, if you do have existing HR that you’re happy with but are looking for tools to increase performance and efficiency, 15Five may be a great addition to your company. It gathers data (with AI assistance) and then creates action items based on that information to help increase employee engagement, retention and, most importantly, performance. It also provides training at the manager level to increase their efficiency and help them interact more effectively with their subordinates.

15Five is less an HR platform than an additional HR service you can introduce to an existing HR ecosystem to improve performance. If you’re happy with your current HR solution but aren’t satisfied with your company’s performance, 15Five may be the answer.

Value 

15Five’s value is very conditional, more so than traditional HR platforms. If you’re already operating a lean, streamlined company with little room for increases in performance and efficiency, 15Five likely won’t add much value to your business. However, for a company struggling with employee engagement or high turnover, 15Five can be a valuable addition that easily justifies its cost.

15Five offers three plans with escalating features and price points. The basic plan, called Engage, focuses on using surveys to gather data and create action items based on their results, backed by AI feedback insights. It’s a good fit for a company trying to take the temperature of its employees or to sample what 15Five has to offer without committing much capital.

The second tier, Perform, provides the most value for the majority of use cases and includes robust performance reviews, Objective and Key Result (OKR) measurements and advice, as well as access to engagement tools like one-on-one meeting agendas.

The Total Platform tier additionally includes advanced tools like high-level AI feedback and an HR Outcomes Dashboard and may be a good value proposition for companies searching to reestablish their core identity or ones that are really suffering from low engagement or employee satisfaction.

Functionality 

A significant amount of 15Five’s performance improvement platform is driven by Spark AI. The base-level Engage package gives you access to this AI feedback. It takes the content of employee surveys, analyzes it and then provides a summary of potential pain points and insights into how you might mitigate them.

AI can also help you draft more concise, less-biased employee reviews or, at the Total Platform level, assist managers with real-time suggestions on talking points or by summarizing things like meetings and employee strengths and weaknesses. The focus is on using trained AI to provide actionable data that can be translated directly into results for your business.

15Five also targets improving employee engagement and satisfaction by providing career paths and plans so your team can have a better sense of what’s possible for them in terms of advancement and clear goals to strive for. Through OKRs and goal management, 15Five emphasizes clear ownership of goals across individuals, teams or departments, which can both help focus your employees on tasks and also provide a sense of satisfaction when they’re completed.

Support 

15Five offers a broad catalog of educational resources on its website. These include everything from a content library of books and video guides to podcasts featuring HR veterans and a community tab where you can connect with other users. There’s also a help center to assist you in using any of 15Five’s products or keeping up to date with new features the company has recently unveiled.

You can also reach 15Five customer service by email or live chat Monday through Friday between the hours of 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET, though there’s no phone support option.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

TriNet HR offers a complete HRIS solution that covers all the HR essentials, though many of them are only available as add-ons, particularly if you’re not subscribed to the most expensive package (which TriNet calls Zen). Even if you do subscribe at the highest tier, you’ll still be lacking some of that functionality unless you pay an additional fee per employee per month. Even core services like payroll aren’t included with the two lower-tier offerings and cost an additional $6 per employee per month.

That said, if you can afford it, TriNet’s platform is designed to be easy to use and include everything you need to handle all of the core HR needs of your business as well as (with the higher packages) some handy extras like performance management, employee engagement services and a people hub that resembles a social media dashboard for your company.

TriNet offers all the essential HR tools your company is likely to need as well as some extra features that nearly any company will find useful. This all comes with the caveat that you must have the room in your budget to pay for its admittedly pricey platform.

Value 

While on the surface TriNet’s three packages look scoped appropriately to serve businesses of various sizes, when you drill down into what’s actually on offer the value proposition starts to look a little lacking.

This is primarily because of how many of the core features you’d expect from an HR platform are hidden behind upcharges which, when billed per user every month, add up fast. That said, if you have the room in your budget to afford them, or if you don’t need the entire range of core features that are paywalled, you may find some value in TriNet’s offerings.

It may seem counterintuitive, but for a complete solution, the highest-priced package, Zen, is probably the best value, as it includes payroll services which otherwise cost you an additional $6 per employee per month.

Functionality 

Taken as a whole, TriNet offers a fair amount of functionality. The issue is that a lot of core features, including payroll processing, benefits administration and hiring management, are hidden behind additional fees. With the exception of the hiring/recruiting software, they’re all billed on a per user per month basis as well, so costs can multiply quickly, particularly for medium-sized or larger businesses.

TriNet also doesn’t offer a free trial or free plan option, and many helpful features are only included with the more expensive subscriptions (as noted above, payroll is included by default with the most costly package). This includes performance and compensation management tools and the aforementioned people hub. These are useful tools for keeping your business on track and improving communications, but you’ll have to pay more to get access to them.

Support 

TriNet offers an add-on it calls Advisory Services which gives customers access to expert guidance on common HR issues and payroll processing, though it’s not included in any of the subscription packages by default and costs an additional $8 per employee per month.

The company also has talent and organizational consultants on hand to help you devise a united strategy for your business.TriNet’s official site also offers a selection of educational resources, including eGuides, webinars, templates and tutorials.

TriNet HR also offers 24/7 customer support through live chat on its website or by email, as well as phone support Monday through Friday between the hours of 6 a.m. and midnight ET.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Namely offers a well-rounded HR platform, though it divides functionality across a large number of plans, with the lower tiers fairly restricted in terms of features. One of Namely’s main strengths is the breadth of its employee self-servicing options, which include self-onboarding. Companies that are looking to streamline the recruitment and hiring process and that  don’t want management or HR overloaded with individual employee requests will find that Namely is a great fit.

However, Namely may not suit companies looking for an HR solution that includes a lot of efficiency, project planning or workflow tools, as its services are squarely focused on strictly HR-specific functions. For those looking purely for a traditional HR platform, however, Namely is a solid solution.

Namely is focused on providing a robust, traditional HR platform, and it includes a full range of features designed to serve that end. While it may not include a lot of extras or add-ons outside of its strict HR focus, the suite of HR-specific tools it offers is comprehensive, particularly its employee self-service offerings.

Value 

Unfortunately, Namely doesn’t surface much of its pricing data online, which can make it difficult for prospective customers to evaluate what’s on offer without going through the onerous process of arranging a call with the company and providing all of their data and contact information. It does note that its basic plan starts at $9 per employee per month, though that plan (called Namely Now) is very limited in terms of functionality.

On the upside, Namely does provide a range of four plans with varying features so you’re likely to find one that will suit your specific use case. However, if you’re looking for a single, all-in-one HR solution, it’s likely that you’ll have to shell out for one of the more expensive plans.

Functionality 

As mentioned above, Namely offers a comprehensive set of HRIS-specific features, with few additional bells and whistles. They’re apportioned across four plans, with the basic plan being fairly restrictive and the top plan being a relatively comprehensive HRIS option.

The basic plan includes payroll and some other core HR services but lacks essentials like recruiting, compliance, performance or time tracking tools. Onboarding and large group benefits are an additional fee as well. These are all services that the majority of small businesses will need or could benefit greatly from, making the basic plan a pretty unappealing prospect.

The second plan, Namely Plus, includes the above tools that are lacking from the base plan, but large group benefits are still an upcharge.The third plan, Namely Plus People, does add managed payroll service, meaning you get some help with payroll processing, which can be a boon for new business owners.

The top-tier plan throws in workers’ comp plans and shared liability compliance which may be valuable for specific industries, particularly for businesses where employees engage in hazardous labor.

Support 

Namely offers a handful of educational resources on its official website, including a blog that addresses recent news and trends in the world of HR and some common questions, as well as a library where you can check out eBooks and view webinars.

There are also event listings and a documentation center for developers that covers Namely’s API. With its two highest plans, Namely also offers managed payroll and managed benefits service to help you navigate two of the thorniest tasks facing HR managers.

You can also reach Namely’s general customer service by phone, or its sales department by email form on the site or by phone between the hours of 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. ET.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

SAP SuccessFactors is an HR platform broken into multiple, separate offerings and is only available to large businesses. According to an SAP customer service representative we spoke to, SuccessFactors’ core HR offering is only feasible for businesses with 300 or more employees, and its payroll processing service is only available to companies with more than 1,000 employees. 

Obviously this disqualifies the vast majority of SMBs, though if you’re in charge of a large business, SuccessFactors may be a useful platform for your company, as it offers comprehensive HR, payroll, LMS and performance management. 

For smaller businesses, SAP also operates a platform called SAP Business One. It provides accounting, financial, inventory, sales and payroll support (through an add-on) for companies at a more modest scale.

SAP offers a huge range of products and services meant to comprehensively address all of a large business’ HR and compliance needs. It offers a professional, well-organized platform designed to be a one-stop shop for large companies with complex HR needs.

Value 

SAP SuccessFactors’ pricing structure is a bit confusing. Instead of offering comprehensive plans that serve as umbrellas for a laundry list of features the way the majority of HRIS companies do, SAP breaks its services into categories and offers them piecemeal.

This structure has both positive and negative implications for value. On the upside, it means clients can choose which services they want and only pay for them, at least in broad terms, though it’s important to note that individual services within larger categories like “core HR” or “payroll” can’t be added or removed à la carte.

In the con column, this also means that you have to pay for each service category separately, and the price can climb quickly if you want an all-in-one HRIS solution.

Functionality 

SAP SuccessFactors offers a huge number of service categories, and most of them are packed with features, so there’s functionality to serve almost every HR consideration of a large company and beyond.

Within the core HR functions, there are vital tools for big companies such as the ability to get an overview of a large workforce through employee profiles and org charts. It also includes employee self-service features and alerts so management doesn’t have to waste precious time servicing individual employees’ HR informational requests.

The payroll platform offers a single platform to handle all of your payroll needs, and includes automation features so that you’re not wasting time manually processing payments every cycle. It’s also SuccessFactors’ home for time management and benefits tools.

There are a number of other service categories as well, including learning management systems, sales performance management and other tools designed to get the most out of your employees and maximize your company’s performance.

Support 

SuccessFactors offers several support options for your business, including data-driven and AI-powered insights as well as specific programs and services aimed at empowering your employees or management. These include Preferred Success, a partnership with SAP through which it will provide adoption plans, quality reviews and analysis of your business, as well as educational tools provided through the SAP Learning Hub.

In the same vein, SAP offers Enable Now, which provides in-application tutorials and resources to empower your employees to get the most out of SAP’s platforms without you having to expend resources to train them. Finally, there’s the MaxAttention option, which, as the name implies, gives you lots of personalized, hands-on attention from SAP business experts to help optimize your processes and maximize efficiency across all parts of your business.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Eddy is a straightforward HRIS platform that offers all the functionality you need to manage your human resource needs. It’s a good fit for businesses that want a simple, easy-to-use HRIS resource that is nonetheless powerful and fully featured. 

It achieves these aims by providing a broad core suite of HR management tools and also by integrating them in a seamless, intelligent way. This means, for instance, that time tracking tools like timesheets automatically feed data to payroll, saving you time and resources you’d otherwise needlessly expend on data entry. 

It’s also a good fit for small businesses that don’t have a ton of personnel to serve HR functions, because a lot of its processes are automated. PTO, for instance, can be scheduled automatically, and the Eddy mobile app allows employees to easily and accurately track their hours.

Eddy offers a well-unified platform with all the tools an HR department requires, though bear in mind that some essential features, like hiring support and payroll processing, are paid add-ons for the two base plans.

Value 

Eddy offers two reasonably priced basic plans: a Starter plan that costs $50 per month plus $4 per person per month, and a Growth plan available for $75 per month and an additional $8 per person per month. There’s also a Premium plan that requires a custom quote but is the most complete offering in Eddy’s catalog.

The two basic plans offer reasonable value for their features, but unfortunately, neither of them includes payroll or hiring support. Payroll will run you an additional $6 per person per month, and hiring will add a flat $199 per month to either plan. Given how essential those two features are, that puts a significant drain on the value of each core package.

The Premium package includes both, as well as Premium support, but because it requires a custom quote, pricing may vary significantly from client to client and it’s hard to evaluate that tier’s value.

Functionality 

The base package gets you started with some table-stakes HR features, like record tracking, PTO, benefits tracking, onboarding and time tracking, but as mentioned above, it lacks payroll and hiring. These are all core HR functions that most small businesses rely on to keep their finances in order and help manage employees, but payroll is a pretty vital function to only be available as a costly add-on.

The second tier package, Growth, also lacks payroll and hiring functionality, though it adds training tracking which is useful for monitoring which of your employees have been trained up on which systems as well as other handy features like an org chart to map your employee’s roles and get an at-a-glance sense of your company’s hierarchy. You can add hiring and payroll to either package for an additional fee, but they also come included at the Premium tier.

Support 

Eddy doesn’t offer much in the way of white-glove services except in its Premium package, which includes premium customer support. It does have a Help Center that offers tutorials on its various services and a blog with articles on HR news and guides on topics directly or peripherally related to HR topics.

There’s also the Eddy HR Encyclopedia with more than 700 HR articles and podcasts. Finally, Eddy hosts the HR Mavericks Podcast which is dedicated to helping small businesses with their HR and people functions.

You can also contact Eddy customer support through an email form or by phone. The company also provides a physical address for its HQ on the website.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Papaya is best suited for larger businesses looking mainly for a payroll solution. While the company does offer other products, payroll is its main focus, so you’ll need to look elsewhere for your other HRIS needs. However, Papaya’s focus means that its payroll offerings are broad and deep and can serve both global and U.S.-based workforces. In fact, Papaya touts itself as the only global payroll and payments platform.

This global mindset is reflected in Papaya’s flexible approach to currency on both the funding and payout ends. Papaya allows clients to fund in 14 different currencies, and, even more impressively, pay out in the local currencies of over 160 countries. If your company employs, or seeks to employ, workers, contractors or freelancers in a variety of locales around the world, Papaya is a great solution for payroll, even considering how limited its other functions are.

Papaya excels because of its focus on offering a cohesive international payroll experience. Instead of offering breadth, Papaya goes deep exclusively on payroll and payment services, and as a result has built the most complete payroll platform of any of the companies on our list.

Value 

Papaya takes a wholesale approach to its pricing structure. This means that the more employees you cover with a Papaya plan, the less you pay, generally speaking. Overall, Papaya runs on the expensive side for HRIS solutions, but its specialized, global nature somewhat justifies its pricing in terms of value, and in some cases, it will be your best (or perhaps only) payroll option.

While Papaya says that it’s built to cover businesses of any size, on its pricing table, the low figure for number of employees is 101. That plan, Grow Global, gives you access to services for up to four entities, and, like all of Papaya’s plans, includes full liability coverage and Papaya’s extensive payment disbursement systems. However, it’s the most expensive plan, at $25 per employee per month for businesses with 101 to 500 employees.

The middle plan, Scale Global, covers companies employing between 501 and 1,000 employees, and both it and the Enterprise Global plan provide services for up to 10 entities. Scale Global will run you $20 per employee per month, while Enterprise Global costs $15 per employee per month. It serves the largest companies – those with over 1,000 employees.

Functionality 

Papaya is all about payroll. It offers regulated, automated, global workforce payments to ensure your employees get paid accurately and on time which is a huge element of employee satisfaction.

Papaya guarantees that payments will always land on time, anywhere. There’s also built-in fraud protection, an important consideration when working in a vulnerable global environment, and regulatory and compliance assistance, which can be a tangled mess if you’re employing people in multiple countries.

Papaya does offer some tangential services beyond payroll and payment, though they’re mostly supplemental to the core payroll offerings. For example, there’s data security to ensure your employees’ financial and transaction data is protected.

Papaya also provides lots of payroll data tools to get a better look at your finances and examine where you’re spending the most on compensation and why. On the global workforce side, Papaya also offers global hiring resources, support for employing overseas contractors and even immigration guidance to help your employees relocate across borders.

Support 

Papaya offers its clients customized, white-glove customer service. Each client is connected to a single point of contact for all their questions, issue resolution or any other support needs, chosen from Papaya’s team of experts. Your account manager will then coordinate a team of legal experts, compliance professionals and payment experts to ensure you’re always compliant and that your payroll operations are proceeding smoothly.

Beyond contacting your account manager directly, Papaya also offers customer support through email, on the Papaya platform itself or through WhatsApp. All communications are tracked to improve accountability.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Sage HR is designed to suit SMBs with up to 250 employees (in contrast to Sage’s other HR-focused product, Sage People, which is built for larger, multinational businesses). It has a lot of features designed to take tasks off your plate and to be as user-friendly as possible, including automations for onboarding, time tracking and other functions, as well as a simple interface that’s easy to navigate. 

It’s a good fit for teams that don’t have extensive experience with HRIS platforms, as it’s easy to use and can handle a lot of tasks that some platforms require you to deal with manually.

The modular nature of Sage HR also means it’s relatively scalable, so you can add features that your business requires as you grow and evolve. Bear in mind, however, that it does lack some core functionality, like payroll, that may be deal breakers for some SMBs.

Sage HR’s ease of use is very appealing to managers who don’t want to spend a lot of time managing a complex HRIS platform. Despite not offering a handful of advanced features, including payroll, it does offer an otherwise fairly comprehensive HR solution and is well suited to meet the majority of a small business’ HR needs.

Value 

Sage HR’s value will depend in large part on how many of its services you need and decide to take advantage of. Its pricing structure is modular, meaning you start with some core HR services and then will have to pay an additional per employee per month fee or a straight per month fee to access.

This can start to get expensive as you add multiple services, especially for larger teams. Recruiting, for instance, is a flat $200 per month fee, but timesheet functionality will run you an additional $3 per employee per month, which can add up quickly if you’re close to that 250-employee limit Sage HR is designed to serve.

However, the core platform at $5.50 per employee per month does offer some solid functionality for that price point, and it is a nice feature that you only pay for the extra services that you need.

Functionality 

Sage HR’s core plan gives you access to leave management and a handful of HR essentials, but the platform does offer extensive add-ons and extra services if you need a more complete platform. These include performance tools so you can set goals for your team, stay apprised of their progress and schedule one-on-one meetings. There’s also shift scheduling to manage your employees’ time in a single, simple module and check your schedule/coverage at a glance.

Sage HR also allows you to optionally include expense management in your plan, which allows employees to submit expense reports from a mobile app while they’re traveling. As mentioned above, recruitment tools are also available, allowing you to create job ads, manage applications throughout a complete pipeline and set up interviews.

Support 

Sage runs a blog that covers all of its products, which is hosted on its website. There you can find free guides and templates on topics as broad as how to start a business or manage a business tax calendar, read finance and tech news and features or check out news from a variety of different industries.

You can also reach out to Sage HR support by phone or at one of their US-based offices.

Our editorial team created our expert opinion scores. The expert score contributes to 10% of the data-focused methodology, which underpins our Blueprint rating for each company. The expert score combines first-person experience, subject matter expertise and extensive research to develop these metrics as another source of truth for readers during their decision-making process.

Paycor is a good fit for small businesses that are looking primarily for payroll services, and perhaps a handful of extras, but don’t need a complete HRIS platform. It may be a good supplementary choice for users of a platform like the one we previously discussed, Sage HR, which lacks any kind of payroll functionality.

Beyond payroll processing, Paycor does offer some other useful services, including employee self-service features that let your team quickly access information like earned wages, budgeting tools, and even a direct-bill pay tool. The company also has tax tools both for your business and your employees, which can provide guidance on what you need to do to stay compliant, file your taxes and process W-2s and 1099s.

Paycor is a great tool for businesses that need comprehensive wage and payroll solutions, and it also comes with supplementary features like tax assistance and employee self-service tools. For anyone searching for a payroll platform that doesn’t require a complete HRIS solution, Paycor is an excellent choice and can pair well with another HR platform that doesn’t include payroll processing.

Value 

Because Paycor doesn’t publish pricing online and pricing information is on a per-quote basis, it can be difficult to properly assess the value offered by the platform. However, the company does offer four core plans that offer varying degrees of functionality at varying price points so you’re more likely to find a match for your business’ specific needs.

The Basic plan offers the essential payroll features as well as some tax features and limited online reporting. Stepping up to the Essential tier, the second plan, adds some useful tools like time-off requests and PTO tracking, which can be a huge boon for a payroll platform designed to help you manage employee reimbursement.

At the third tier, you also get tools to handle other HR tasks if you want to try to use Paycor as your only HRIS platform, while the highest tier adds career management and talent development services to help your employees grow and prosper (and, in turn, maximize their value to your business).

Functionality 

Paycor is at its core a payroll processing solution, and it shows in the depth and breadth of its payroll features. You also get access to EWA, which allows you to give your employees access to funds before payday, as well as wage-related self-service options and scheduling to automatically run payroll on a specific day or at a specific time.

Beyond that, there are the tax compliance features as well as access to a sandbox where you can test features and play with new tools without worrying about messing up any of your actual HR or payroll systems.

Support 

Paycor has a resource center where you can find educational features and supplementary content related to its platforms. There are webinars to learn about HR and compliance trends, guides and white papers to get advice and read up on best practices, case studies demonstrating customer’s success with Paycor and how they made it happen and an HR glossary explaining common terms.

You can also reach out to Paycor support by phone, Monday through Friday between the hours of 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. EST.

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