My top picks for the best HR software for small and medium businesses are:
- BambooHR is the best HR software for small businesses.
- TriNet HR Platform is best for core HR.
- Rippling is best for rapidly growing businesses.
- Paycor is the best HR software for midsize businesses.
- UKG Ready is best for robust analytics.
- Honorable mentions:
- Gusto is best for small businesses new to HR software.
- RUN Powered by ADP is best for small business payroll.
- Zoho People is best for affordability.
What is the best HR software for small and medium businesses?
Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need HR software to automate repetitive HR tasks, consolidate employee records in one place, and support broader company goals. My roundup focuses on versatile all-in-one HR solutions to satisfy your tactical needs, plus features to support your increasingly strategic people operations as you grow.
Overall score
Use case
Starting price*
Company size**
Learn more
BambooHR
3.69
Best for small businesses
$250/mo. for first 25 employees
1–300 employees
TriNet HR Platform
3.58
Best for core HR
$8/employee/mo.
5–300 employees
Rippling
4.03
Best for rapidly growing businesses
$8/employee/mo.
2–2000 employees
Paycor
3.64
Best for midsize businesses
$99/mo.. + $6/employee/mo.
1–1,000+ employees
UKG Ready
3.99
Best for robust analytics
$21–$29/employee/mo.+
2–1,000+ employees
Gusto
3.51
Best for small businesses new to HR software
$40 per mo. + $6/employee/mo.
0–250 employees
RUN Powered by ADP
3.48
Best for small business payroll
$4–$6/employee/pay cycle+
1–49 employees
*Starting prices based on annual contracts (if applicable).
**These are estimates based on the vendor’s breadth of features and capabilities.
+Based on third-party sources.
BambooHR: Best for small businesses
Overall score
3.69/5.00
User scores
4.32/5.00
Pricing
2.75/5.00
Platform/interface
3.89/5.00
Core HR
3.94/5.00
Workforce management
4.04/5.00
Talent acquisition
3.46/5.00
Performance management
2.75/5.00
Pros
- Pre-built workflows for automating repetitive HR tasks.
- Basic applicant tracking system (ATS) for occasional hiring needs.
- Easy-to-use time-off management to promote consistency and fair practices.
- HR mobile app for on-the-go workforces.
Cons
- Payroll, benefits, and time tracking are add-ons not included in either plan.
- Support for payroll and benefits administration is limited to the U.S.
- Lacks native scheduling capabilities for shift workers.
- Need to purchase its Pro plan to access onboarding and eSignature features.
Why I chose BambooHR
BambooHR is a well-balanced HR platform with modules covering most HR operations within the employee lifecycle, from recruitment and onboarding to performance appraisals and termination. Its overall score of 3.69 out of 5 reflects this, as do its user-friendly interface and simple workflows. If you’re new to HR software or looking to centralize your HR data, BambooHR is a great choice.
BambooHR lost points for pricing, scalability, and the absence of more complex modules like succession planning and career development. Its lack of specialization in any particular area also means that small businesses needing advanced features will find BambooHR quite rudimentary.
Its performance module is also lackluster, with goal creation and cascading limited to teams and individuals. This makes it challenging to view goals holistically across departments to align employees with company objectives and impact big-picture changes.
But, if your goal is to start monitoring all HR processes electronically and in the same place, BambooHR is a great option.
TriNet HR Platform: Best for core HR
Overall score
3.58/5.00
User scores
3.58/5.00
Pricing
2.75/5.00
Platform/interface
3.16/5.00
Core HR
3.63/5.00
Workforce management
4.31/5.00
Talent acquisition
4.16/5.00
Performance management
3.13/5.00
Pros
Cons
- TriNet TimeKeeper kiosk timekeeping app is only available for Apple iPads.
- Company announcements and other cross-team communication elements limited to the Zen plan.
- Lacks third-party plug-and-play payroll integrations.
- nterface navigation is unintuitive.
Why I chose TriNet HR Platform
If you’re a small business looking for coverage of essential HR operations at an affordable price, TriNet HR Platform is your best bet. With its starter Essentials plan, you get employee recordkeeping, leave management, TriNet-brokered benefits administration, time tracking, and scheduling. This is the only platform in my roundup that offers all these HR modules in its lowest-priced plan.
Plus, if you’re relatively new to HR software, HR Platform’s limited customization options mean faster setup. It also adds consistency to your HR processes as you solidify your company processes, like time-off approval workflows and schedule posting cadences, that you may never have formalized.
However, HR Platform is not the best choice if you have complex needs, like labor cost scheduling or global contractor payroll. Switching between modules is time-consuming, while features like its newsfeed for employee engagement don’t provide nearly the same capabilities as alternatives like Paycor.
As a result, be prepared to switch to a more advanced solution as your headcount grows or integrate with standalone HR platforms to fill in functionality gaps.
Rippling: Best for rapidly growing businesses
Overall score
4.03/5.00
User scores
4.77/5.00
Pricing
3.00/5.00
Platform/interface
4.34/5.00
Core HR
4.19/5.00
Workforce management
4.38/5.00
Talent acquisition
3.78/5.00
Performance management
3.2/5.00
Pros
- Employer of record (EOR) services and dynamic employee profiles for over 150 countries.
- Device management capabilities, including an offsite warehouse for inactive device storage.
- IT and finance products available to consolidate business software applications.
- Advanced workflow creation features to automate rote HR processes.
- Compliance 360 for time and paid leave labor law compliance monitoring both domestically and globally.
Cons
- Payroll, benefits administration, and time tracking are paid add-ons.
- Lacks scheduling, geofencing, and mobile recognition options to support frontline workers.
- Reporting, workflow automations, and notifications can overwhelm small businesses needing plug-and-play solutions.
- Device inventory management limited to the U.S., Canada, and the UK.
Why I chose Rippling
Scoring 4.03 out of 5, Rippling is best if you’re growing quickly and want to avoid switching HR software providers every few years. Rippling offers compliance controls that monitor your HR wage and time policies to ensure they meet regulatory standards, even as you expand to new states or internationally.
Other features create a more cohesive experience for your employees as your workforce becomes more diverse. For example, platform localization in over 150 countries makes employee profiles match regional text, date, and currency formatting. This means the platform feels made for them, even if your headquarters are in the U.S.
Rippling also leverages its IT and finance solutions to serve your distributed teams better. Even if you lack an IT department, you can provision and deprovision company applications and set up, ship, and deploy electronics to your teams. And you can create easy if-then workflows in Rippling to automate onboarding, review cycles, promotion approvals, and report runs for consistent and streamlined processes by entity, location, or department.
Despite this, I wouldn’t recommend Rippling if you’re new to HR software. While the software is easy to navigate, Rippling’s customization options create a steep learning curve for newbies. Its reporting module alone is complicated since the formula language Rippling uses for reports is not a one-on-one comparison to Excel. Creating visualizations also requires a lot of trial and error to get right.
Plus, Rippling focuses on expanding its software capabilities at the expense of its customer service. For instance, you have to pay to access HR phone support. Employees also can’t contact Rippling for questions on their accounts, forcing them to contact you for technical issues.
Did you know?
Rippling’s adaptable and customizable platform makes it a forerunner in many of our buyer’s guides. Check out how it ranked in some of our top picks below.
Paycor: Best for midsize businesses
Overall score
3.64/5.00
User scores
4.05/5.00
Pricing
2.19/5.00
Platform/interface
3.71/5.00
Core HR
3.6/5.00
Workforce management
4.44/5.00
Talent acquisition
3.78/5.00
Performance management
3.13/5.00
Pros
- Physical time clocks to support more accurate time punches for onsite workers.
- Earned wage access (EWA) options to give employees access to their funds sooner and support financial wellness.
- Risk assessment team to prepare against cybersecurity threats and monitor and update the system against data vulnerabilities.
- AI-powered advanced analytics.
- 14-day free trial demo on HR, payroll, onboarding, and time modules.
Cons
- Expensive solution for small businesses.
- Does not support international operations.
- Several core HR features are reserved for higher plans and add-ons, like onboarding, benefits administration, leave management, and customizable reports.
Why I chose Paycor
With a 3.64 out of 5 score, midsize businesses will like Paycor’s breadth of offerings that support core HR and long-term business objectives. I was particularly impressed with its support for complex payroll cadences, like shift differentials, plus its modules pinpointing employee engagement and retention.
For example, Paycor’s compensation management module lets you monitor pay equity as your company becomes more diverse and segmented. Meanwhile, its learning management system (LMS), performance, and feedback features facilitate consistent training cadences across the company while giving employees room to develop professionally in the areas that interest them.
Despite this, Paycor is confusing to navigate and requires more training during the implementation process. Many of its modules outside of payroll lack refinement compared to standalone solutions, including its HRIS, document creation, chat function, and employee recognition functions. Even so, Paycor’s customization and cross-module people analytics make it a worthy choice for more complicated business needs.
UKG Ready: Best for robust analytics
Overall score
3.99/5.00
User scores
3.86/5.00
Pricing
1.13/5.00
Platform/interface
3.94/5.00
Core HR
4.81/5.00
Workforce management
4.73/5.00
Talent acquisition
4.69/5.00
Performance management
4.63/5.00
Pros
- Modules covering strategic HR processes like succession planning, employee development, skills gap analysis, and compensation management.
- Advanced recruiting with résumé parsing, knockout questions, pre-employment assessments, and sentiment analysis.
- Access to UKG products supporting industry-specific needs, like time and scheduling solutions for casinos, healthcare, public safety, and government contractors.
- UKG Bryte generative AI for action planning, Q&As, and workforce insights.
Cons
- Complicated user interface requiring significant training.
- Does not reveal pricing.
- Lacks human resources outsourcing (HRO), PEO, or EOR services.
- Users report implementation typically takes longer than expected.
Why I chose UKG Ready
UKG Ready may have only received a 3.99 out of 5, just a hair below Rippling’s 4.03, but don’t let that dissuade you. Its powerful analytics and real-time reporting are leagues ahead of other SMB HR platforms on this list. In fact, UKG Ready’s customizable reporting dashboards and charts in every module make it stand out as a platform personalized to each business rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.
This is especially important for midsize businesses with increasingly diverse operations by location, department, and team. UKG Ready accommodates these through support for multiple business entities, highly configurable settings and access controls, and industry-specific data collection. As a result, it’s flexible enough to support businesses with a mix of in-office and deskless employees, unlike Rippling’s very tech-focused solution.
However, UKG Ready is not the best if you need an immediate HR solution. Implementation is slow, requiring significant training and customization to fit your business operations. The UI is complicated, with some tasks as simple as inactivating an employee taking minutes to complete. And it doesn’t have HR outsourcing (HRO), PEO, or EOR services if you want to offload or share some of your HR responsibilities.
But for a platform targeting midsize businesses, UKG Ready’s access to high-tier analytics features, including narrative generative AI insights, makes it an effective solution for big-picture business strategy and planning.
Honorable mentions
Many platforms I reviewed have great features that might better appeal to your particular needs. If the above platforms don’t quite fit, check out my runners-up.
Gusto: Best for small businesses new to HR software
Alternative for: BambooHR and TriNet HR Platform
When to choose Gusto: Gusto provides easy step-by-step instructions and implementation services to set up your business and HR workflows for the first time. Gusto-brokered benefits, tax notice investigations, and state tax registration services are particularly noteworthy if you’re a startup with an administrative team of one and need support developing compliant business and people operations.
Why it didn’t make the list: Gusto’s bare-bones system is excellent if you’re a small business, but its reporting module lacks tools to craft custom visualizations for more detailed data insights. Its employee-training feature is also limited to state-mandated anti-harassment courses while onboarding workflows are little more than to-do lists sent to various stakeholders. As a result, expect more manual data entry than competitors like BambooHR and TriNet HR Platform.
Our Rating: 3.51/5
Did you know?
Gusto is slowly expanding its international payroll capabilities through its partnership with Remote. It currently offers EOR services in Australia, Canada, India, Mexico, the Philippines, and the United Kingdom and expects to roll out to more countries soon. This is welcome news if you want to transition your international contractors into full-time employees.
RUN Powered by ADP: Best for small business payroll
Alternative for: BambooHR
When to choose ADP Run: If you have fewer than 50 employees and only need payroll, then ADP Run is your best bet. Besides multi-state payroll support on all tiers, your accounting or payroll specialists can run payroll on the go using the ADP Run mobile app. You can also offer your employees on-demand pay through its Wisely debit card alongside financial wellness tools similar to Paycor.
Why it didn’t make the list: ADP Run becomes costly if you have multiple pay schedules since it charges per payroll. While it offers an ATS, basic HR forms, a handbook creation wizard, and HR support in its higher plans, they’re lackluster compared to BambooHR. It also requires running processes like performance reviews and engagement surveys off the platform, preventing you from moving your people operations to a wholly digital environment.
Our Rating: 3.48/5
Zoho People: Best for affordability
Alternative for: Rippling
When to choose Zoho People: Zoho People offers various modules to support most of your HR needs, including advanced workflow automations, recruiting, reports, analytics, and a learning management system (LMS). You can access all of these features at an extremely competitive price. Its highest tier, People Plus, costs $9 PEPM, only one dollar more than Rippling’s least expensive Rippling Platform Core plan. And, if you’re really on a budget, Zoho People also has a free plan.
Learn more: How Much Does HR Software Cost?
Why it didn’t make the list: Zoho People includes a lot of functionality at a great price, but its platform is clunky and confusing. Users report that customer service is unhelpful, and you have to perform software data migration and implementation yourself. Plus, Zoho People only offers payroll support in 21 states and requires you to file payroll taxes yourself.
Our Rating: 3.18/5
Why do small businesses need HR software?
Human resource software helps HR teams at small businesses stay organized with hiring, training, and managing employees. HR software solutions do this by providing a central interface to manage and even automate these different functions.
HR software also offloads tasks from HR staff to employees by offering self-service portals. There, employees can view and edit their personal information, make changes to their benefits, or connect with coworkers.
Why do medium-sized businesses need HR software?
Medium-sized businesses require HR software that can accommodate their growing workforces and handle more complex automations. As a result, most medium-sized HR software solutions offer enhanced reporting features, internal ATS or recruitment support, and robust workforce management features, including performance management.
These HR tools aid organizations in transitioning from purely operational HR processes to more strategic ones to keep the business growing.
Also read: HRIS vs. HRMS vs. HCM: What Is the Difference?
Types of HR software and tools SMBs need
Human resource software allows HR teams at SMBs to manage and automate core and strategic HR functions, including:
Also read: 14-Must Have HR System Features
The right combination of functionalities will depend on your size, industry, and needs. For example, smaller businesses often can’t afford to purchase a fully integrated human resources information system (HRIS) platform that bundles all core HR features together.
However, as you grow, comprehensive HR platforms become more cost-effective, secure, and user-friendly than stitching together disparate apps.
Learn more about the different types of HRIS to make a more effective HR software decision.
How to choose the right HR software for small and medium businesses
Small and medium businesses need HR software to automate rote HR operations, like paystub delivery, so their small or non-existent HR teams can focus on higher-priority work. They also need solutions that provide the flexibility to quickly add or remove features as their needs evolve.
Our picks below help you with the above, plus emphasize particular focus areas to satisfy your needs:
- Choose BambooHR if you’re a small business needing an easy-to-use product with pre-defined HR workflows.
- Select TriNet HR Platform if you want an affordable platform covering all small business core HR processes.
- Pick Rippling if you’re experiencing rapid growth and need customizable features to support your changing business operations.
- Go with Paycor if you’re a midsize U.S. business looking for more advanced modules across the employee life cycle.
- Select UKG Ready if you’re a midsize business requiring more advanced analytics for strategic people operation planning.
If you’re still unsure what the best solution is for your company, explore our HR Software Guide for a list of options that fit your needs.