Best HR Software for 2024

HR software often includes a base subscription fee and a per-employee fee. Base prices may range from $25 to $200 per month depending on the service and subscription level and per-employee fees might range from $5 to $20 per employee, per month.

When you’re shopping for HR software, it is important to pay attention to which services are included in the base packages and which require a subscription add-on. Many vendors aim to provide an all-in-one service with their subscriptions, but it is relatively common for services, such as payroll to be charged as add-ons.

Many of the vendors on our best picks list do not charge implementation or setup fees but some HR software vendors do. These can often range from $50 to $200 for standard implementation processes. However, services that provide more personalized support and build processes and policies from the ground up, such as Bambee, may charge setup fees of $500 to $2,000.

Onboarding

The onboarding process involves more than documentation for a new employee; it’s a powerful way to communicate your company culture and to show your true colors with the benefits, support and compensation you offer your employees. On the administrator’s side, this complex process means getting your newest team members ready with the right paperwork and equipment — for example, setting up software access, company-provided devices, payroll paperwork, benefits enrollment and other critical operations. HR software tools streamline this process with automated workflows, taking as little as 90 seconds to give each new employee everything they need to succeed and feel comfortable in their new role from the moment they arrive for work on their first day, no matter where that happens to be.

Payroll and Taxes

Another daunting task that demands the highest degree of accuracy is paying your team. Today’s best HR software makes it easy to run accurate payroll for salaried and hourly employees and, more importantly, calculates and files your local, state and federal payroll taxes automatically on your behalf. Many of the best HR software options have even expanded into contractor payment and international payroll. Payroll compliance is not only an essential part of operating a business but also a way to help your business maintain a stellar reputation and attract the best talent.

Benefits Management

Financial and health benefits administration can be a giant headache for new and established HR teams alike. Whether you’re shopping for providers, enrolling new employees or helping a team member navigate a life-changing event, such as the birth of a child, benefits management is another area where you have to satisfy everyone. Most all-in-one HR software platforms have native integrations with thousands of benefits providers or open application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow you to keep your existing benefits packages but manage the data through your HR dashboard. Whichever case suits your company best, keeping all of your benefits data in one place that’s easy for employees to review will save time and reduce your stress greatly.

Performance Management

HR software can help employers streamline their performance review process and improve communication around performance between reviews. Most solutions offer customizable templates designed to simplify employee reviews. Many of the top HR software solutions also support 360-degree feedback where peers, manager and subordinates can all be invited to submit feedback. HR software can also be used to view reporting on employee attendance, productivity and other key performance metrics.

Integrations

Open APIs and marketplace integrations are the easiest ways for SMBs to tailor HR solutions to their teams. Finding an HR software platform that integrates with various other programs is important to keep your company agile and adaptable. For small companies, the software services you need will likely evolve as your business grows, so it’s important to know that you can mix and match your benefits, accounting systems, payroll solutions and other critical apps to meet the challenges you’re sure to face in the years to come. Most HR solutions designed for SMBs offer extensive opportunities for integrations, ensuring you always have access to the tailored solution you need.

Here are a few easy ways to narrow your search when you’re sifting through the long list of potential HR software providers for your company.

1. Features

The most important step in shopping for HR software is to identify the features your company needs. Before you can compare service providers and pricing effectively, you have to know which features you want. That means taking a close look at every aspect of your current HR process — onboarding, offboarding and everything in between — to determine what’s working well and what’s not.

While most HR software platforms offer all-in-one packages to handle every task that falls to your HR department, many platforms are highly customizable, so you can keep your existing health insurance and 401(k) benefits if that’s what you prefer.

2. Budget

Once you’ve decided on features, narrow your search by cost. If you’re looking for an all-in-one provider with standard pricing options, you can whittle down the field easily by eliminating the handful of companies without transparent pricing. Meanwhile, if you’re searching for a tailored solution that will allow you to use some of your existing software partners while adding new tools, you can eliminate many of the providers that only offer specific packages with set pricing.

3. Customer Service and Reviews

Once you have your desired features identified and the potential costs relatively even among your remaining options, it’s time to consider the level of support you expect. We’ve combined customer service and reviews into a single consideration because we think they tell the same story. While you always have to take customer reviews with a grain of salt — knowing that you’re most likely seeing the very best and very worst experiences rather than the average customer’s opinion — it’s still valuable to be able to judge a software provider based on its highest and lowest performance.

During the sales process, you’re likely to encounter friendly and helpful service, but will that positive experience continue a few months down the line? If not, customer reviews are where you’ll find that important piece of information. However, if you have an experienced HR team on staff, you may not run into the same issues other customers are having. If you don’t have access to full-time HR staff, you may want to prioritize access to a customer support manager who is dedicated solely to your company.

4. User Interface (UI)

We found all the HR software options that we selected as top picks to be relatively user-friendly, but they all offer a somewhat different UI and experience. Some HR software vendors offer free trials or limited free plans that allow you to test out the platform for yourself. Many of the ones that don’t offer free trials have some form of interactive product tour, which will still let you explore the UI. When reviewing each HR software’s UI and navigability, think about the skill level and average experience of your employees. Certain HR software offers a lower learning curve for less tech-savvy teams or those new to HR software.

When evaluating UI, it’s important to consider what features your employees need access to. Many vendors, like Insperity, offer a range of useful self-service features for workers to navigate. Source: Insperity

5. Integrations

Don’t forget about integrations. If there is a communication tool, time tracking program, accounting software or any other supplemental HR tools that you’d like to use alongside the new software, double-check that they integrate with your top choices. Most of the top HR software integrates with major business software programs like QuickBooks, Google Suite, Asana and Microsoft Office. However, each software has its own integration marketplace and it’s best to make sure before you commit to specific HR software.

If you’re still managing your HR tasks through an Excel spreadsheet or on paper, then you’re spending too much time in the weeds and opening yourself up to costly mistakes. Today’s HR software platforms use intelligent workflows and easy-to-use automation to take many of the tedious and potentially troublesome tasks, such as filing your local, state and federal payroll taxes, completely out of your hands. In simpler terms, these are the main advantages of using HR software:

• It improves productivity: An all-in-one HR software solution can boost your employees’ productivity by providing a single, centralized platform to complete their tasks.
• It ensures compliance: Keeping all of your data in one place makes it much easier to adhere to evolving HR compliance requirements, with alerts that keep your team on top of critical regulatory tasks.
• It supports your staff: Whether it’s administering financial and health benefits or enabling requests for well-deserved vacations, an intuitive HR software system can support your employees in ways that bring satisfaction to their careers.
• It saves you money: If you currently handle all of your important HR tasks with a piecemeal solution from various service providers, chances are that you can find a much better price for everything you need by customizing a service through one or a few providers. Even if you still use more than one service provider, you can often find integrations to bring all of your HR data into one useful dashboard.
• It helps you make informed decisions: Many HR software providers offer performance management with reporting and analytics that provide actionable insights to improve employee satisfaction and performance while reducing turnover, all of which benefit your company’s bottom line and reputation as an employer.

HR analytics help you make informed workforce management decisions. Source: Deel

While the vendors mentioned above are our top picks, there are many other great HR solutions on the market. If you are still looking for the right solution for your business, consider these other top-rated alternatives.

Paychex

With cloud-based HR software used by more than 740,000 customers, Paychex Flex knows how to support teams with integrated solutions for payroll, health benefits, financial benefits and all other HR requirements. Paychex Flex’s software includes guided digital onboarding documents, new-hire checklists, automated document collection with fillable forms and more. The totally paperless experience, paired with the confidence of E-Verify solutions, gives you all the tools you need to support your staff from anywhere they want to work. With Paychex Flex’s centralized document management capabilities, you can upload, secure and access important employee documents from any location seamlessly.

Read our review on Paychex to learn more.

Deel

Deel is a comprehensive platform designed for global payroll and compliance for international employees and contractors. It simplifies the complexities of international employment by handling local tax compliance, contracts, and payments in over 150 countries. Deel is best suited for businesses seeking to expand their workforce globally without the administrative burden of managing diverse regulatory environments. With Deel, companies can efficiently manage their global teams, ensuring legal compliance and timely payments.

Read our review on Deel to learn more.

GoCo

For smaller companies with limited HR resources or larger enterprises experiencing strong growth, the ability to automate recurring tasks can save a lot of time and help ease their strained resources. GoCo’s automation tools can streamline everything on your daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly to-do lists. The simple dashboard offers quick access to easy-to-use templates to help automate processes for your onboarding, performance reviews, employee request workflows, new-hire orientation, employee surveys, expense reports and much more. The document management process is automated further via the addition of artificial intelligence (AI) to the GoCo platform. Learn more about GoCo here.

TriNet HR Platform

TriNet’s PEO service offers robust features centered on benefits administration and HR support, while its HR Platform product ― formerly Zenefits ― streamlines daily HR tasks for businesses that would prefer not to partner with a PEO. With its HR Platform service, it offers tools for companies who may already have an in-house HR team but are looking to streamline daily HR functions. HR Platform offers self-service onboarding, “three-click” payroll that syncs data across the platform, compliance support, employee mobile app self-service, benefits administration, integrations, analytics and a compliance support tool. We liked the flexibility the HR Platform offers for non-PEO customers, but prospective clients should note that payroll is available only with the top-tier subscription offering. In addition, while the PEO platform offers 24/7 support, customer service for the HR Platform isn’t as robust.

Read our TriNet PEO review or our TriNet HR Platform review to learn more.

Papaya Global

Papaya Global is a global payroll and workforce management platform that simplifies complex payroll processes for businesses operating in multiple countries. It offers a unified solution for managing payroll, onboarding, compliance, and benefits administration across different jurisdictions. Papaya Global is particularly beneficial for multinational companies looking to streamline their global payroll operations and ensure compliance with local regulations. The platform’s user-friendly interface and comprehensive reporting tools make it an excellent choice for HR and finance teams seeking efficiency and accuracy in their payroll management.

Read our Papaya Global review to learn more.

Namely

Namely is a people operations platform for midsize companies. It’s designed to make life easier for everyone in the organization — the company says Namely saves its clients an average of 11 hours per week by keeping their payroll, benefits, compliance requirements and other HR tasks in sync. This people-focused platform has powerful tools for new-hire onboarding, custom review cycles, performance tracking and more. The enrollment wizard makes it easy for your employees to find the right benefits when they join your team or enroll in a new plan after a major life event, such as a marriage, with new deductions automatically synced to payroll.

Sage

Sage HR is a complete solution for employee onboarding, with automated processes and reports that offer meaningful insights. The software provides intuitive “recipes” for custom workflows to manage all of your critical HR tasks. The standard features in the Core HR + Leave Management module include onboarding, e-signature, employee database, employee mobile self-service, a shared calendar, time-off request approval via mobile, Slack or email and real-time schedule tracking. From there, you can add feature-rich modules for performance management, timesheets, shift schedules, expenses and recruitment.

The HR software market is constantly changing and growing as HR software vendors adapt to workforce trends, technological advancements and regulatory changes. Below are some of the top HR software trends to watch in 2024.

HR Software Market Growth

The global HR software market was valued at $32.58 billion in 2021 and is expected to grow to $76.5 billion by 2031, according to an Allied Market Research analysis and industry forecast. The sector has seen significant growth over the last few years, according to an Allied Market Research press release, driven by the increasing demand to streamline HR processes, improve employee experiences and support organizational goals. Also driving the growth is a surge in hybrid and remote work and the need for cost-effective HR solutions, the analysis found.

An analysis by Data Bridge Market Research also noted the growth and expansion of HR software into different verticals, such as banking, healthcare, retail and other core industries, is helping to advance the space. Other factors driving this growth include greater awareness of the benefits of HR software and improvements in the automation capabilities of the software. Robotic Process Automation (RPA), the process of using a software bot to automate repetitive, high-volume tasks ― is expected to fuel the growth of the HR technology market size through 2031, the Allied Market Research Analysis found.

Use of AI and Regulatory Restrictions

One recent trend sweeping across the HR software space is the use of artificial intelligence (AI). AI can be a powerful tool for recruiting, analytics, candidate and employee communications and more. An increased emphasis on automation and data analysis in HR software means vendors are finding new ways that AI can serve businesses. Generative AI in particular will continue to affect how HR managers craft job descriptions, draft policy handbooks and answer basic questions about employee benefits and pay, according to ADP’s 2024 HR trends series, with more use cases continually emerging.

However, experts caution that employers should use discernment as they explore the new technology and at the same time governments are cracking down on the use of AI. Various laws and regulations have emerged regarding how AI can be used within the HR sphere. For example, some cities and states have already enacted laws around using AI for hiring purposes ― namely, how AI is used, audited and communicated. Employers will need to use their HR tools wisely, as HR vendors continue to enhance their HR tools with AI features in 2024.

Global Payroll and HR Functionality

One new feature that we can look forward to in 2024 is the expansion of globalized payroll functionality within HR software options. Popular HR vendors like Rippling and Gusto have recently introduced international payroll capabilities to support the increasingly global workforce and we anticipate that more HR software vendors will start introducing payroll solutions that can support employees around the world.

Employee Upskilling and Reskilling

In the face of a rapidly changing tech landscape and evolving job requirements, companies are realizing the crucial role of upskilling and reskilling their workforce. HR software is stepping up to the challenge by becoming a powerful tool for employee development. We can look forward to HR software that can aggregate and analyze HR data, pinpoint individual skill gaps and recommend personalized learning paths with targeted content, mentors and even real-time progress tracking. This data-driven approach ensures upskilling efforts are laser-focused and yield measurable results, ultimately empowering employees to stay ahead of the curve and thrive in their careers.

At Business News Daily, our team of small business human resource experts have been researching and testing HR software for years, comparing some of the leading solutions across nearly 110 key metrics. We considered 26 HR software platforms and closely reviewed and tested 16 of them before selecting our seven best picks above.

Below are the factors we considered when determining our best picks. Each is weighted according to how much the criteria typically influences business owners’ buying decisions.

• Pricing (30%): We considered not just the base cost of the software but also the number of pricing plans, per-user fees, and add-on costs to determine which provide the most value per dollar.
  
• Features (25%): We particularly evaluated the dashboard and tested employee onboarding tools, benefits management capabilities, payroll processing and tax administration, and performance management features. We also considered integrations for connecting each platform to other popular business software, such as accounting software and learning management systems.
• Usability (20%): We paid close attention to the ease with which the software could be set up, how intuitive we found the navigation and use of key features, and the training and informational resources available to new users. We also considered whether the software offered a responsive mobile app or mobile browser for employees and HR administrators.
• Customer Support (15%): We examined the ease with which customers can contact the team in need of help. We reviewed customer feedback to determine how well the customer service team meets the needs of existing customers.
• Expert Insight (10%): Our product reviews are conducted by software and industry experts who are deeply familiar with human resources solutions. Given their institutional knowledge of different platforms and firsthand experiences using these programs, we take their judgment into account when determining our best picks.

In addition to scoring each HR software we reviewed based on these criteria, we also determined the best use case scenarios for each. No two businesses are exactly alike, so we put ourselves in the shoes of different types of small business owners to identify the best HR software for a variety of needs.

To learn more about how we review and test human resource products and services for small businesses, read about our editorial process here.