10 Best HR Software for Small Business of 2026

Gusto ranks first because it covers what a small business without HR staff needs every month at a price that is easy to predict. The Simple plan includes unlimited payroll runs, federal and state tax filings and payments, direct deposit or printed checks, payroll approvals and basic PTO and holiday pay policies. Employees get their own app for pay stubs and details, and owners can run payroll from a phone. Moving to Plus at $80 a month plus $12 per person adds time tracking, scheduling, multi-state payroll and unlimited next-day pay, which matters once you hire in a second state or manage hourly staff. Premium adds HR guidance tools and a named advisor. The limits are clear: Simple is single-state, and deeper HR work such as reviews and compliance help costs more. For a five to thirty person company that wants payroll done right first, it is the easiest place to start.

Rippling earns second place on features. Its core idea is that every product, from HR records to payroll and app access, reads from the same employee profile, so a new hire or a change of role is entered once. For a small company that is still a handful of people, this matters most if you expect to grow quickly or already juggle laptops and software accounts for each hire. The starting rate is low at $8 per employee per month, but Rippling adds a monthly base fee and prices payroll, benefits and other modules separately, and the full price is only available through a quote. Eligible US startups backed by venture capital can get six months free. Setup takes more thought than Gusto or OnPay, since you choose which modules to switch on. Owners who just want payroll and PTO may find it more than they need today, but it removes a later migration.

OnPay ranks third mainly on value. Its Payroll Essentials plan costs $49 a month plus $6 per worker, the same entry point as Gusto, and its HR tools are listed as an add-on at $15 base plus $2 per worker, with bundles for HR and time tracking together. The HR features are aimed squarely at owners doing HR themselves: you send offer letters and paperwork from the app, new hires e-sign and enter their own direct deposit details, and you assign onboarding tasks such as computer setup. PTO policies with custom accruals sync to payroll, document templates collect e-signatures, and org charts build themselves as people are added. OnPay also handles new hire reporting in your state. The trade-off is depth: there is no performance management or broad module catalog like Rippling's, and benefits and time tracking are separate line items. For a small team that wants payroll and tidy HR paperwork at a low monthly bill, it is hard to beat.

Justworks fits the owner who wants payroll handled now and may want someone else to carry HR compliance later. The Payroll plan costs $8 per employee per month plus a $50 base fee and includes payroll, HR tools and expert support. PEO Basic at $79 per employee adds compliance support, and PEO Plus at $124 adds administration of medical, dental and vision plans plus HSA and FSA accounts, with no base fee on either PEO plan. That ladder is the main reason to choose it: a ten-person company can start on software and move to a PEO without switching providers. Extras are priced openly, including time tracking at $8 per employee, dedicated HR consulting at $30 per employee and employer of record hiring abroad at $599 per employee. The cost adds up quickly once you stack add-ons, and the PEO plans cost far more per head than Gusto or OnPay, so price them only if you want the service.

BambooHR is the most complete HR database on this list and one of the easiest to use. Core includes employee records, custom reports, dashboards, workflows and approvals, job posting with candidate records and offer letter templates, and time-off requests with accruals and a shared calendar. For a small business with no HR department, that means hiring, onboarding and PTO live in one tidy system. Its weakness for this audience is price. Companies with 25 employees or fewer pay a flat $250 a month for Core, $425 for Pro and $650 for Elite, so a ten-person team pays $25 per head before payroll, which is a separate add-on. Above 25 employees it switches to per-employee pricing starting at $10.25. It scores lower on value than payroll-first tools, but if your problem is records and process rather than paychecks, it delivers more structure than any of them.

Eddy is built for the small business owner who wants real HR software at a low per-person cost. The Starter plan, at $4 per person per month plus a $50 base, covers records, document storage, benefits tracking, onboarding, time tracking, PTO and basic reporting. Growth adds training tracking, custom signature documents, onboarding templates, custom data fields, an org chart and manager approval flows. Payroll is an add-on at $6 per person plus a $50 base, with unlimited payrolls, quarterly and annual tax filings and W-2 and 1099 preparation, and hours and time off feed into it automatically. A hiring add-on at $199 a month posts jobs to major boards. Because payroll carries its own base fee, a team using HR and payroll pays two base fees, so compare totals with Gusto and OnPay. For businesses that want time tracking and PTO included from the start, Eddy offers a lot for the price.

Homebase approaches HR from the shift floor rather than the office. Its free Basic plan covers scheduling and time tracking for one location with up to 10 employees, and paid plans are priced per location with unlimited employees, from Essentials at $30 a month. Plus at $70 adds an AI scheduling assistant, PTO and time-off controls and departments with permissions, and All-in-One at $120 adds onboarding and HR and compliance tools. Payroll is an add-on for any plan at a $49 base plus $6 per employee paid, and onboarding is included with payroll. Extras such as a tip manager, background checks and a task manager suit restaurants and shops. The downside for this list is that core HR features sit on higher tiers, so an owner who wants PTO and onboarding pays for Plus or All-in-One. Per-location pricing is a real advantage for single-site businesses with large hourly crews.

Connecteam is the cheapest way here to give a frontline team proper HR tools on their phones. Its small business plan includes every hub free for up to 10 users. Beyond that, the HR and Skills hub starts at $29 a month for the first 30 users on yearly billing, or $35 monthly, plus a small charge per extra user. That hub covers time off with approvals, courses and quizzes, documents, recognition, celebrations, hiring, onboarding and an org chart. The operations hub, priced separately, adds a GPS time clock, scheduling and forms, and connects to payroll providers. The main gap for owners without an HR department is payroll: Connecteam does not run it, so you still need Gusto, OnPay or another provider. Splitting features into hubs also means a team that wants time tracking and HR pays for two subscriptions. For deskless crews of 10 to 50, the price per head is very low.

Paycor brings a full human capital management suite within reach of small businesses, but it asks more of the buyer than the tools above it. Its small business offering covers payroll you can edit and run on your own schedule, custom and scheduled reports, an HR Support Center with toolkits, forms, law alerts and templates, and mobile onboarding that lets new hires fill in information and acknowledge documents before day one. Scheduling with shift notifications and trades suits hourly teams, and Paycor can help claim the Work Opportunity Tax Credit. The drawbacks are price transparency and effort: Paycor publishes no prices, so you need a sales conversation, and the platform is broader than a five-person business needs. It makes sense for small companies close to the midsize range that want one vendor as they grow.

TriNet HR Plus is for the owner who wants experts on call without handing benefits to a PEO. TriNet describes it as an Administrative Services Organization that combines its HR platform, formerly known as TriNet Zenefits, with access to HR professionals. The platform covers workforce data, time tracking, attendance, time off, performance management, built-in payroll that syncs earnings and deductions, benefits administration with a dashboard shared with your broker, and mobile self-service onboarding. Payroll Pro adds a dedicated certified payroll professional, and People Pro adds a dedicated HR manager for policies, complaints and onboarding support. Pricing is a flat fee per employee per month, but TriNet publishes no figures, so you need a quote. It ranks last here on value and ease of use because it is service-heavy and harder to price, not because it lacks features. Small companies with compliance worries and no HR hire are its natural buyers.