8 Best Free HR Software of 2026

Connecteam ranks first because its free Small Business Plan is unusually wide. Teams of up to 10 users get all hubs, which means the HR & Skills tools for time off, documents, hiring, onboarding, courses and an org chart sit next to the Operations hub's time clock and scheduling and the Communications hub's chat and updates. For a cafe, cleaning firm or small agency that is the whole HR stack minus payroll, in one app staff install on their phones. The trade-off arrives at user 11. Each hub then has its own price, with HR & Skills Basic at $29 a month for the first 30 users on yearly billing or $35 month to month, plus a small fee per extra user. Teams that need all three hubs pay for three subscriptions. There is no payroll, so budget for a payroll provider. For small teams that want records, leave and onboarding without paying anything, it covers the most ground.

TalentHR is the best pure HR database among the free options. The free plan for up to 10 users includes the employee database, time off tracking, file management with expiry dates for documents such as visas or certificates, reports, onboarding and offboarding checklists, benefits management and an applicant tracker for hiring. That covers all three basics a small team asks for, without the shift and chat tools that make Connecteam broader but busier. Calendar sync with Google and Outlook keeps leave visible. The limits are in the upgrade path. Custom fields, the API and Zapier start on Essential at $2 per user per month, and performance reviews, goals, time tracking and document signing need Premium at $4. Paid plans require at least 15 users, so a team that grows from 10 to 11 pays for 15 seats. Even then, $30 a month for 15 people on Essential is low for this category.

Zoho People is a mature HR product with a free edition that is small but clean. Up to 5 users get employee database management, time off management with vacation planning, and document management, which is enough for a micro business to stop tracking leave in email. Every paid plan starts with a 30-day trial, and when it ends the account moves to the free plan rather than locking you out. Onboarding and offboarding, HR reports and the Zia assistant start on Essential HR, attendance, timesheets and rosters on Professional, and compensation and engagement tools on Premium. That makes Zoho People a sensible choice if you expect to pay for HR later and want to stay in one product, especially if you already use other Zoho apps. For a free-only team the 5 user cap and the missing onboarding are real limits. Zoho's pricing page showed euros from our location, so the USD price check is pending.

Odoo is a full business suite, and its One App Free plan lets you run any single app for unlimited users with no time limit. Choosing Employees gives you an overview of staff sortable by job title, working hours and contract status, an org chart on every profile, contract storage with signature requests, onboarding plans and a skills register for finding the right person internally. That is a solid free employee record for a team of any size. The catch for this list's readers is that time off is a separate Odoo app, so with the free plan you pick either records or leave, not both. Moving to Standard unlocks every app, including Time Off, Payroll, Accounting and CRM, for one per user fee. Odoo also takes more configuration than tools built only for HR. Its pricing page showed euros from our location, so the USD check is pending.

OrangeHRM Starter is one of the best known open source HR systems, and its free module list is long. It covers HR administration, employee management, PTO and leave, recruitment with applicant tracking, 180 degree performance reviews, time tracking, reporting and a mobile app. You can run it on the cloud or download it and host it yourself, and self-hosting gives you the source code and database to customize. With no user cap on your own server, it can serve a team that has outgrown the 5 and 10 user free plans above. The cost is effort. Somebody has to install, update and back it up, and help comes from the Starter community forum rather than a support desk. The interface is more traditional than Connecteam or TalentHR. OrangeHRM Advanced adds more modules and support, with a 30-day trial and pricing by quote, so its price check is pending.

Frappe HR is fully open source under AGPL-3.0, and it goes further than the other free tools by including payroll. The employee lifecycle module handles onboarding, transfers, promotions and exits, leave management supports holiday lists, detailed leave policies and leave encashment, and payroll maps pay structures and employee loans with integrated accounting and tax reports. Staff can use a mobile app. You can host it yourself for free, or pay Frappe Cloud for hosting from $5 a month per site, and that price is not tied to the number of users. The downside is that Frappe HR is built like an ERP. Expect to spend time on setup, and Frappe itself suggests a partner for complex implementations. A five-person team that only needs leave tracking will find it heavy. A growing company that wants HR and payroll in one free system, with cheap managed hosting, gets a lot here.

Homebase is built for hourly teams, and its free Basic plan is aimed at one location with up to 10 employees. It includes basic scheduling, basic time tracking, point-of-sale integration and the option to add payroll. For a coffee shop or salon that is often the most pressing need. As HR software in the stricter sense it is thinner than the tools above. PTO and time off controls, departments and permissions arrive on Plus, and employee onboarding comes with the payroll add-on or the All-in-One plan, which also adds HR and compliance tools. Essentials at $30 per location per month adds advanced scheduling, time tracking and team messaging for unlimited employees. Payroll costs $49 a month plus $6 per employee paid after any introductory offer. If your team works shifts at one site and you can track leave informally for now, Homebase is the easiest free start; if records and leave are the priority, pick Connecteam or TalentHR.

HR.my stands out for one reason: it is free with unlimited employees and unlimited storage, and it has no paid tier to push you toward. The feature list is broad for the price. Managers approve leave and PTO requests, employees see their balances, the system keeps historical records of salary adjustments and job changes and flags contract expiry, payroll generates payslips on monthly, semi-monthly, weekly or bi-weekly cycles, and expense claims take receipts with limits per type. A time clock records attendance, overtime and lateness, with optional selfie and location capture. The site says the service is crowdfunded by its users, which keeps it free but makes the long-term roadmap harder to judge. The interface looks older than the hosted tools above, and onboarding workflows are not a highlight. For a team that has outgrown a 10 user free cap and will not pay yet, it is a practical fallback.