Best HR Software 2024: Which Solution Is Best for Your Business?

The best HR software is Rippling, offering a robust, all-in-one human resources solution that excels when it comes to employment management features and international payment options. Rippling also offers transparent pricing, with plans starting at only $35 per month, making it one of the best HR platforms for small businesses.

Rippling obviously isn’t the only HR solution on the market, though, with a wide range of excellent options available for businesses of all sizes and needs. Whether you’re looking for an HR tool to help you keep costs low without sacrificing functionality or you need a robust platform with hefty reporting tools to inform your plans to grow, we’ve got HR software providers that can take care of it.

In this guide, you’ll learn about all the best HR software platforms, including how much they cost, what kind of features they offer, and what you need to know before you choose one for your business.

In this guide:

• Top HR Software Providers
• Buying Guide: How to Choose the Best HR Software
• How Did We Compare the Best HR Software?
• Verdict: What Is the Best HR Software?

Top HR Software Providers

Whether you want to automate onboarding or manage employee perks, here’s our research-led round-up of the best HR software providers on the market:

1. Rippling – Best overall HR software
2. monday.com – Best HR software for beginners
3. Deel – Best value HR software
4. Paycor – Best for growing businesses
5. Paychex – Best for employee management 

1. Rippling – Best Overall HR Software

• Starting price: $35 per month plus $8 per employee
• Free plan: No

We chose Rippling as our top pick because it’s an excellent all-in-one workplace software that helps users manage HR, IT, and finance processes all from one streamlined platform. While the system’s entry price of $35 per month plus $8 per employee is slightly higher than others on this list, it earned our top spot because it offers just about any HR and payroll feature available – from performance management to benefits record management.

Unlike other HR software platforms that specialize in employee onboarding and management alone, you can use Rippling to manage payroll processes too, eliminating the need to outsource this task externally, or integrate a separate payroll software. From sick pay and off-cycle payments to non-employee payments, Rippling offers just about every payroll trick in the book.

Unlike providers such as Paychex, Rippling also facilitates international payments within its main packages, making it ideal for businesses that employ workers overseas.

During our latest round of research, Rippling’s workflow automation feature also impressed us. This no-code tool lets you automate a wide range of processes within Rippling and third-party apps, from building workflows to sending out HR emails. Unlike providers such as Paychex and Paycor, Rippling lets you define these automations based on custom triggers too, helping you to save more time by streamlining more processes.

Add custom triggers with Rippling’s automation feature. Source: rippling.com

Rippling’s HR platform isn’t perfect, though. The feature-rich software may be overwhelming for businesses new to HR software, and unlike systems like monday.com and Paychex, the provider does not offer round-the-clock customer support.

Also, while we think its value offering is impressive overall, its pricing system is far from transparent, as we explore later on.

Rippling EOR features

Rippling also offers an employer of record (EOR) service, which lets companies hire and collaborate with employees overseas legally without opening an entity in that country. This service automates local jurisdiction compliance, ensuring that businesses adhere to regulations, and it also facilitates payments in local currencies, and automates relevant HR processes.

In other words, if you hire and manage employees overbroad this feature will afford you peace of mind. If you’re interested, you can learn more in our guide to employer of records.

Rippling pricing

You can get started with Rippling from the base rate of $35 per month for its Unity plan, plus an additional $8 per user per month.

These entry HR software prices may be head and shoulders more expensive than monday.com and Paychex, but with payroll and benefits features provided in-house alongside other HR processes, Rippling could save you the cost of outsourcing these processes externally, or paying for additional payroll software.

Learn more about Rippling with our in-depth Rippling review.

2. monday.com – Best HR Software For Beginners

• Starting price: $9 per month
• Free plan: Yes

Whether it’s project management, CRM tools, or HR software, our research consistently finds monday.com to be a highly customizable platform with a user-friendly interface that’s simple enough for just about any business to get started on. The software offers a raft of recruitment and employee-focused features through its easy-to-use board templates.

However, because monday.com isn’t a traditional HR software, it lacks a number of HR features that you’d find on dedicated HR systems like Rippling and Paychex, such as benefits administration and payroll management.

monday.com makes onboarding a breeze by giving hiring managers a granular overview of the hiring process with its ‘Recruitment Pipeline,’ and offering pre-made templates for new recruits that answer commonly asked questions and help them get up and running in a matter of minutes.

The provider even lets hiring managers sync their schedules with candidates, allowing for greater calendar visibility than other HR software platforms can offer.

The leads dashboard on monday CRM is simple and comprehensive while also being customizable for our team. Image: Tech.co testing

While monday.com performed excellently in our HR research, it does have drawbacks. The platform lacks some core HR features, namely payroll processing and benefits administration, making it unsuitable for businesses looking for a one-size-fits-all employee management and payroll solution. The software isn’t ideal for teams working with third-party freelancers either, as there is currently no way to facilitate contractor payments using monday.com.

If it’s just payroll software you’re after, check out our guide to the best small business payroll providers, while monday.com also tops our list of the best project management software providers.

monday.com employee features

monday.com isn’t just a useful tool for recruiting staff. The system also offers competitive features for onboarded staffers, from employee scheduling and employee engagement to wellbeing support.

After testing monday.com out for ourselves, we were particularly impressed by the software’s staff scheduling features. Its user-friendly, customizable boards allow managers to view worker availability, allocate shifts to workers, and analyze the schedule through its “Formula” column.

You can also use these cards to automatically assign tasks to different workers and shifts. For example, if you manage a retail or hospitality store, you can give an employee the responsibility to “Lock up” for the night on closing shifts.

Learn even more by reading our full monday.com review

Task Comments in monday.com allow all users to tag and communicate with each other. Image: Tech.co testing

monday.com pricing

Since monday.com offers affordable entry prices and is one of the only HR software providers on this list to offer a permanently free plan, it’s one of the top options out there for budget-conscious teams. Here are the five different pricing plans available from monday.com:

• Individual: free
• Basic: $9 per month
• Standard: $12 per month
• Pro: $19 per month
• Enterprise: custom pricing

Learn more about the platform’s costs in our full guide to monday.com pricing, or see how its pricing options compare below:

3. Deel – Best Value HR Software

• Starting price: $49 per month
• Free plan: Yes

Deel made it in our top HR software list because it’s a competitively priced HR solution with in-built payroll capabilities. While it may not boast the same brand recognition as monday.com and Rippling, Deel helps you automate a wide range of human resources tasks and it offers one of the most generous free plans on the market, making it the best HR software tool for small businesses.

Deel is a global HR platform that lets you manage onboarding, employee management, and payroll processes from one unified system. In contrast to feature-heavy platforms like Rippling, Deel prioritizes simplicity and offers a completely free service for businesses with less than 200 employees.

While its automation tools may not be quite as advanced as Rippling’s, Deel’s workflow builder lets users automate a range of processes, from terminating workers to synchronizing management tasks across platforms.

Aside from its decent selection of in-house features, Deel also offers seamless integrations with several major software providers like Intuit QuickBooks, Xero, and BambooHR, extending its use even further. It also has 24/7 support, which is another reason it also features in our roundup of the best EOR services.

Deel doesn’t offer a mobile app like other providers monday.com and Rippling, either, making it less ideal for managers who need to handle HR processes on the go.

Deel compliance tools

Deel also stands out from the competition when it comes to compliance and security. From GDPR compliance to SSL to labor law compliance alerts, the HR platform offers a number of safeguards that systems including Paychex lack. The provider even has its very own Compliance Hub, which provides regular regularity updates and risk warnings to help businesses remain in adherence with ever-changing employment laws.

However, while Deel is a capable, affordable platform for international teams, the price of its paid packages increases for firms that exclusively hire US workers. This makes its value offering slightly less competitive for businesses that don’t require international payment features, but the overall cost and the free plan still make it an excellent value pick for most businesses.

Deel’s compliance documentation feature. Source: deel.com

Deel pricing

Deel’s pricing structure is slightly unique. The HR software provider offers five plans, each with its own distinct purpose.

Deel’s free plan, which is eligible for teams of up to 200 people, is called Deel HR. This plan provides HR reports, seamless integrations with Google Workspace, custom document collection for HR processes, streamlined expense, time off, and bonus management, and more.

If you hire employees overseas, Deel’s Employer of Record (EOR) plan lets you payroll workers in over 100 countries, and also takes care of benefits, taxes, compliance, and more. If you hire contractors, Deel’s Contractors plan, which starts at $49 per month, helps employers pay international contractors.

Finally, Deel’s Global Payroll plan is a comprehensive payroll and HR package which takes care of a range of processes, from onboarding to government declaration and employee benefits. Prices for Global Payroll are only available on request.

4. Paycor – Best for Growing Businesses

• Starting price: Custom
• Free plan: No

Paycor is a reliable payroll system that offers several powerful human resources tools, as well as its own HR resource center. The platform offers extremely competitive reporting and compliance features. This makes it ideal for businesses looking to expand their horizons, providing insightful data that can help you plan for the future.

However, some basic capabilities like time tracking are only available as paid add-ons, making it less affordable than other pieces of software, including monday.com and Deel.

Paycor offers top-tier reporting features too. Managers can use the platform to visualize a wide range of HR data, including turnover rates and pay gaps. You’re also able to interpret this data in a range of formats, from charts and tables to less traditional options like bubble grids.

Paycor non-payroll features

Paycor is a payroll system first, but it can be used to handle a variety of HR processes, from onboarding and talent management to expense management and benefits requests.

The provider even offers a self-serve portal for employees, where they can view internal announcements, manage their own benefits, and take time off. This helps to improve the experience of workers while sparing up time for HR professionals – a win-win for any business that wants to operations when it comes to the nitty gritty functionality of HR.

A screenshot of Paycor’s overtime insights. Source: paycor.com

Paycor pricing

Paycor offers four main pricing plans: Basic, Essential, Core, and Complete. The provider’s plans operate on a sliding scale, with its priciest package, Core, offering its full suite of HR and payroll features.

See how Paycor’s pricing plans compare below:

5. Paychex – Best for Employee Management

• Starting price: $39 per month, plus $5 per employee
• Free plan: No

Paychex is a versatile payroll and HR software that excels at healthcare and benefits management, which is why we dubbed best for employee management. It gives you more tools that most to keep your employees happy, including wellbeing check and tracking to encourage your team to flourish in and outside the workplace.

However, like Paycor, Paychex doesn’t list its prices online, and its interface is slightly less user-friendly than our frontrunners Rippling and monday.com, making it less appealing if you’re new to HR software.

Paychex offers just about any feature you’d expect from a dedicated HR and payroll system. The software lets you screen and conduct background checks on potential candidates, create custom messages to send out to recruits, and reach out to seasoned human resources professionals if you need advice in a pinch.

Paychex employee management features

Paychex really shines when it comes to employee management. Unlike project management platforms like monday.com, the provider gives managers a granular level of control over healthcare and staff benefits. From health savings accounts and health insurance to financial wellness programs, you can manage a range of programs with the software, eliminating the need to rely on separate services.

Unfortunately though, Paychex’s advanced HR functions come at a cost. Many note that the Paycheck interface can be a bit complicated, without the more intuitive, comprehensive functionality of monday.com or Deel. With this in mind, if you’re looking for a shallow learning curve, we’d recommend trying out a different HR software that isn’t Paychex.

Paychex Flex payroll dashboard. Source: paychex.com

Paychex pricing

Paychex’s pricing starts at $39 per month, plus $5 per employee for its Essentials plan. This makes the platform slightly more affordable than our frontrunner Rippling, especially for businesses with larger teams.

However, if you want to unlock enhanced HR features and employee training tools prices can escalate quickly, as you’ll need to opt for one of the provider’s custom packages: Select or Pro.

Learn more about the provider’s costs in our full guide to Paychex pricing, or compare plans using our table below:

Buying Guide: How to Choose the Best HR Software

When browsing the market for your next HR solution, don’t go in blind. Make sure you invest in a piece of software that compliments you and your team, by considering the following factors.

Type of HR software

There are multiple different types of HR software to choose between, each with its distinct purpose. The main types are:

• Human resources management systems (HRMS), which handle generic HR functions
• Human capital management (HCM), which is more employee-focused
• Human resources information systems (HRIS), which prioritize information management

HR software features

Before choosing a platform you should ask yourself what processes you’re looking to manage, and then look for features that correspond with your needs. I.e, do you need a system that offers international payment features? Or systems with extensive onboarding and recruiting features?

Integrations

Software integrations offer valuable ways to synchronize data across existing platforms. So before investing in a solution, you need to make sure the provider is compatible with your current workplace software. 

Pricing

Allocate a budget for the software before shopping for solutions, and make sure you choose one within your means. Remember that lots of HR software providers will charge a per employee fee on top of their base rate, so bear this in mind when making calculations. 

Ease of use for HR managers

User experience can vary wildly across HR platforms. To make your life easy, pay attention to systems that are easy to navigate. Finding a platform with a shallow learning curve is especially important if you’re new to HR software in general. It’s also worth looking into the software onboarding support and training offered by the provider.

Ease of use for employees

Lots of HR platforms also offer employee-focused apps to give workers more control over important workplace practices, and to free up time for your HR managers. If this is the case, make sure you only consider software with user-friendly, decently-rated employee apps.

Security

Security is of the utmost importance when handling sensitive employee data. To make sure your information is kept secure, we recommend looking out for protocols like multi-factor authentication, automatic data backups, and strict password controls.

Check out our HR software guide for more information

How Did We Compare the Best HR Software?

We understand how important choosing the right HR software for your team is, and that’s why we go the extra mile when researching and reviewing the top providers.

First, we conduct an initial exploration to find the most relevant and useful platforms on the market. Then, we analyze their potential using a vigorous methodology that focuses on the concerns businesses care about the most, including the quality and quantity of HR and payroll features, entry price, average plan cost, presence of a free plan, and user experience.

These findings then help determine each software’s overall potential, which businesses they are best suited for, and how they size up against the wider competition.

So much more goes into our research and testing process, though. If you’d like to learn more about how we test and review products at Tech.co, you can learn more about our research here.