Personio review

Personio is the HR system to consider for startups headquartered in Europe. Its pitch is compliance built for European organisations, and its Core plan covers employee profiles and org charts, a digital employee file, time tracking, absence management, standard work schedules, preliminary payroll, salary management, onboarding and offboarding workflows and reporting templates. Core Pro adds position management, unlimited documents and eSignatures, unlimited legal entities, API access and workforce planning, which matters as soon as a startup opens a second company in another country. Core Enterprise adds a sandbox, surveys, whistleblowing and AI Studio. Personio says it serves more than 16,000 organisations. For an early startup, the limits are real: no public pricing, the Core plan allows only one legal entity and eSignatures for 8% of employees, and Personio does not employ people where you have no entity, so an EOR is still needed.

Who it is for

European startups with one or more legal entities that need HR compliance built for European rules.

Price

See vendor pricing (USD check pending).

US price check pending. See the vendor pricing page.

Key features

• Employee profiles, org chart and digital employee file
• Time tracking, absence management and work schedules
• Preliminary payroll and salary management
• On and offboarding workflows with role-based reminders
• Unlimited legal entities, API access and workforce planning on Core Pro

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Compliance built for European organisations
• Strength: Absence management is unlimited on every plan
• Strength: Google single sign-on and mobile app included
• Weakness: No public prices; a demo is required
• Weakness: Core plan limits you to one legal entity and eSignatures for 8% of employees
• Weakness: No employer of record for countries where you lack an entity

Key facts

• Pricing: Quote after demo
• Plans: Core, Core Pro, Core Enterprise
• Legal entities on Core: 1
• Organisations: 16,000+

Where it ranks

Personio is No. 10 in our Best HR Software for Startups verdict.