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I’ve always dreaded filling out the paperwork that comes with starting a new job: tax withholding, direct deposit forms, I-9s, benefits enrollment, the list goes on. But it’s worth remembering that someone has to send, review, and process all of those documents for every single hire. And that only scratches the surface of what HR entails.
At mid-sized and larger companies, these responsibilities might be handled by a crack team of specialists. But for small businesses, HR is more likely to be a one-person job—and that one person is probably you. Good news: I’ve done my research and testing and put together a list of the best HR software for small businesses that’ll help lighten your load.
The best HR apps for small businesses
What makes the best HR tool for small businesses?
How we evaluate and test apps
Our best apps roundups are written by humans who’ve spent much of their careers using, testing, and writing about software. Unless explicitly stated, we spend dozens of hours researching and testing apps, using each app as it’s intended to be used and evaluating it against the criteria we set for the category. We’re never paid for placement in our articles from any app or for links to any site—we value the trust readers put in us to offer authentic evaluations of the categories and apps we review. For more details on our process, read the full rundown of how we select apps to feature on the Zapier blog.
Not every small business has the same HR needs, but as soon as you start hiring full-time employees, there are certain tasks you have to be able to do: payroll, benefits administration, onboarding, scheduling, and time-off management. Some of these things can technically be done via email and spreadsheets, but some (like payroll) will become a major headache without dedicated software. After all, taxes are a thing.
If you’re a small business owner, you may be handling the lion’s share of these duties on your own. This means you’re going to want an all-in-one HR app that excels in these key areas:
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User experience: For managers or small business owners, HR tools need to be easy to set up and use without dedicating weeks to learning the ropes. HR apps should also give employees access to an intuitive self-service portal where they can view their pay stubs, time and attendance, and other key information.
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HR features: Small businesses need HR software that can do a lot and do it cheaply. Key HR functions like employee management, scheduling, and basic metrics should be included out of the box, and add-ons should be available to unlock additional features.
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Payroll and benefits: These are complicated processes that often require dedicated software, so I looked for apps that let you manage payroll and benefits as part of an all-in-one HR platform or reasonably priced add-ons.
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Integrations: HR apps should seamlessly connect with other business tools, including accounting software, CRMs, project management software, email marketing tools, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and other no-code integrations through Zapier. They should also use AI to automate workflows and offer insights on HR data.
To evaluate these apps, I tested them myself, pored over hundreds of user reviews, and spoke to management experts who know what a small business HR app needs to pass muster.
The best small business HR software at a glance
|
Best for |
Standout feature |
Pricing |
Website |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
BambooHR |
All-around HRM software |
User-friendly interface |
From $10/person/month |
Visit BambooHR |
|
Gusto |
Payroll |
Automated tax filing |
From $49/month plus $6/person/month |
Visit Gusto |
|
Zoho People |
Affordability |
Per-user pricing |
Free plan available; paid plans from $4/month |
Visit Zoho People |
|
Eddy |
Ease of use |
Straightforward interface |
From $50/month plus $4/person/month |
Visit Eddy |
|
Homebase |
Hourly teams |
Free scheduling and time tracking |
Free plan available; paid plans from $30/month |
Visit Homebase |
|
Deel |
Startups |
Global hiring and HR |
Free plan available; paid plans from $5/person/month |
Visit Deel |
|
OnPay |
Premium features |
Extensive features at a reasonable price |
From $49 plus $6/person/month |
Visit OnPay |
Best all-around HR software for small businesses
BambooHR (Web, iOS, Android)
BambooHR pros:
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Comprehensive HR toolkit
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Clean, easy-to-use interface
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Automates repetitive tasks
BambooHR cons:
BambooHR’s main selling point is that it’s feature-rich but simple to set up and use, which means fewer hours spent learning, implementing, and troubleshooting the software. For small business owners who wear multiple hats, this is a huge plus.
You may even be your company’s entire HR department, so the less time it takes you to onboard employees, field time-off requests, and manage benefits, the better. BambooHR simplifies these tasks by giving managers a centralized hub for employee records, reports, and payroll—and by giving employees self-service dashboards that let them do things like check their PTO balance, access paystubs, and upload documents. You’ll be able to set up automated HR workflows, too, for repetitive tasks like approving requests or alerting employees when it’s time for a performance review.
Those workflows don’t include AI, but BambooHR does put AI within reach on a small business budget. The lowest-priced plan lets you ask the Bamboo AI assistant basic questions about your employee data, such as how much PTO someone has left. If you invest in a higher-tier plan, Bamboo AI can also offer insights on your data and build custom reports.
BambooHR is also excellent as an applicant tracking system, making it easy to screen, filter, and communicate with candidates from the Hiring dashboard. And because it’s an all-in-one HR platform, you can move anyone you hire directly into onboarding without having to switch apps or transfer records.
Brooke Webber, head of marketing at Ninja Patches, told me: “BambooHR allows new hires to complete everything—contracts, tax forms, and even shirt sizes for uniforms—before their first day. I would estimate that we cut onboarding time by 60%, and employees arrived ready to work instead of filling out paperwork in the breakroom.”
It’s worth noting that payroll, benefits administration, time tracking, and global employment are paid add-ons. Since BambooHR charges per employee, costs can add up with more team members and features. But they do offer a discount if you bundle add-ons—and it’s worth it to know everything is taken care of.
With more than 150 pre-built integrations, BambooHR covers a lot of bases. But you’ll be able to cover even more if you connect BambooHR with Zapier, which lets you do things like automatically add time-off requests to Google Calendar or post new employees to Slack channels. You can even use Zapier MCP with your AI assistant to kick off workflows directly from the chat window. Learn more about how to automate BambooHR.
BambooHR pricing: From $10/employee/month for the Core plan
Best small business HR app for payroll
Gusto (Web, iOS, Android)
Gusto pros:
Gusto cons:
Gusto has carved out a niche for itself in the payroll system space, but small businesses need HR apps that can do more than just manage tax filing and direct deposits. That’s probably why Gusto has expanded to include benefits administration, time and attendance, hiring and onboarding, and performance tracking.
Still, Gusto is primarily a payroll app, and you’ll have to upgrade to higher-tier plans to get access to the full employee management suite. On the Simple plan, you get unlimited payrolls and automated tax filing for a single state, plus a self-service portal where employees can access paystubs and health insurance administration. For almost everything else—including time tracking and custom onboarding—you’ll either have to purchase add-ons or jump to the Plus and Premium plans.
But Gusto still packs in a lot of value for small businesses, as its user-friendly, full-service payroll system is a huge time-saver. Michael Nemeroff, co-founder and CEO of RushOrderTees, told me that, before Gusto, he was “manually processing payroll and constantly worrying about whether we were filing taxes correctly and getting paychecks out on time.”
“Gusto processes federal, state, and local filings automatically,” Michael added. “We reduced payroll time by at least 75%, which allowed me to concentrate on running the business rather than chasing paperwork.” And you won’t pay extra for these tax services so long as you’re only filing in one state. Gusto even recently released a few AI-powered tools that assess your finances and offer recommendations to help you become an S Corp or get tax credits.
Gusto doesn’t connect with Zapier yet, but it integrates natively with apps like Xero, QuickBooks, Clover, and nearly 150 others.
Gusto pricing: From $49/month plus $6/month/person for the Simple plan
Best affordable HR software for small businesses
Zoho People (Web, iOS, Android)
Zoho People pros:
Zoho People cons:
Software giant Zoho has an offering for pretty much any app class you can think of, and HR is no exception. Zoho People is its employee management solution, and it’s one of the most affordable apps in this space.
When I say affordable, I’m talking a monthly cost of $4 per user for the Essential HR plan, with no other fee attached (and no minimum number of users). There’s also a free plan that gets you access to a basic employee database, time-off management functionality, and document management for up to three users.
While Zoho People won’t do everything an app like BambooHR does—fewer employee experience tools, for one—it still gets you a pretty impressive feature set even at the cheapest tier, covering onboarding, time-off, shift and document management, and reports. Plus, you’ll be able to use Zoho’s AI assistant, Zia, which can assist with HR tasks like time-off requests and answer employee questions.
Kevin Liu, VP of Data Solutions at Octoparse, likes the app for its automation capabilities. “Tasks, like leave tracking, attendance management, and performance reviews, are fully automated, cutting down on tedious admin work. For businesses with limited HR staff, this can be very beneficial,” he told me.
Upgrading to higher plans costs as little as $2 or $4 per user and will net you tools like attendance management and timesheets (on the Professional plan) or performance tracking, advanced analytics, and compensation management (on the Premium plan).
However, it’s important to note that Zoho People isn’t built for payroll or hiring. Instead, it integrates with other apps—Zoho Payroll and Zoho Recruit—which you’ll have to pay for separately. Depending on your needs and the size of your business, this may not be an issue, but it does mean that Zoho People can’t serve as an all-in-one HR platform on its own.
As with other apps in the Zoho ecosystem, you can connect Zoho People with Zapier and integrate with the tools you use on a daily basis. This lets you automate tasks like adding new Zoho People records to Google Sheets. You can also give AI data management a shot by connecting your favorite AI assistant to Zapier and securely accessing your Zoho data in the chat.
Zoho People pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $1.50/user/month for the Essential HR plan
Best small business HR tool for ease of use
Eddy (Web, iOS, Android)
Eddy pros:
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Clean, shallow navigation with no tab sprawl
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Mobile time tracking with location capture on every plan
Eddy cons:
When you’re juggling all the HR functions for your small business, you probably don’t have time to sit down and learn a complicated tool. Eddy is easy enough for anyone to pick up quickly and still get the most from.
When I first gave Eddy a shot, I found the features I wanted to try in just a few clicks. No page buries you in tabs, which was an issue I encountered with a lot of the other all-in-one HR systems I tried. Many reviews I read said the same thing, noting that it’s easy to import records and generally understand the software.
Eddy includes most of the features you’d hope for in an all-in-one HR tool, including time tracking, employee management, and onboarding, on the lowest-tier plan. All plans even support mobile time tracking that records time by location. But you can only get the payroll and hiring features as relatively pricey add-ons or as part of the custom-priced plan.
Most of the integrations only connect to Eddy’s hiring or payroll, too—keep that in mind if you can’t afford a pricier plan. If integrations aren’t a high priority for you, though, Eddy offers solid native features at a reasonable price.
Eddy pricing: From $50/month plus $4/month/person for the Starter Plan
Best small business HR app for hourly teams
Homebase (Web, iOS, Android)
Homebase pros:
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Easy-to-use time clock and timesheets
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Tracks labor law compliance
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Free plan for up to 10 employees
Homebase cons:
Homebase is an HR app with a specific focus on small businesses—especially those with hourly teams. If your employees clock in and out of their shifts, you’ll appreciate Homebase’s easy-to-use schedule and time clock, which can be accessed from the mobile app. On top of this, it can handle payroll processing, hiring and onboarding, and even team communication with a built-in messaging tool.
What features you get will depend on what plan you subscribe to, but if you just need employee scheduling and time tracking, you can use Homebase’s generous free plan for up to 10 team members. There’s no time limit and no catch, and if your team grows, you can jump to the Essentials plan and invite unlimited employees.
Homebase shows you when employees clock in, when they start and end breaks, and when they sign off for the day—all in a handy time card view that can be accessed on desktop, mobile, or POS (point of sale) devices. Your employees will see the same view, and they’ll even get alerts if their schedule changes or if they miss breaks (which is important for labor law compliance).
Homebase generates timesheets automatically for every pay period, and if you purchase the payroll add-on, your team can get paid automatically, too. This add-on will cost you an extra $39 per month base fee plus $6 per month per employee paid. Or you can sync Homebase timesheets with a separate payroll app that handles payment processing and taxes, like Gusto or ADP.
To expand its functionality, Homebase connects with a range of POS systems and payroll software. It also offers AI-powered scheduling and hiring at splurge-level pricing for small businesses. But as of right now, it isn’t compatible with Zapier.
Homebase pricing: Free plan available; paid plans start at $30/month for the Essentials plan
Best small business human resource system for startups
Deel (Web, iOS, Android)
Deel pros:
Deel cons:
Deel services a lot of big-name enterprise companies. But it’s also a super compelling platform for distributed startups, with a special emphasis on global hiring and HR management.
Deel is an all-in-one HR platform that can handle the same tasks as the other apps on this list: payroll, time and attendance, employee management, and so on. And it does these things well, with automated onboarding that can be set up in as little as five minutes, options to build training courses and employee surveys, and detailed performance tracking, to name a few highlights.
What’s unique about Deel is its international focus. It allows you to manage employees from more than 160 countries, all while staying compliant with local labor laws. On top of letting you onboard and track attendance for workers across the globe, you can also use Deel to hire contractors or full-time employees and run their payrolls with automated tax filing and currency conversions.
Of course, not every small business needs to hire people from around the world, but for startups with aggressive growth strategies, it can be a useful way to bring in top talent. If that sounds like something your business would benefit from, Deel may be the HR tool for you.
If you do decide to hire and run payroll internationally, Deel can be on the pricey side (although prices are lower if all your employees live in the U.S.). But its HR plan is fairly affordable and surprisingly comprehensive.
Deel has integrations with a range of accounting, productivity, and other software, but you can connect it with Zapier and get access to thousands more. Zapier lets you do things like automatically create Airtable records and Trello cards from new Deel contracts and kick off HR workflows directly from your AI assistant.
Deel pricing: From $5/employee/month for the Core HR plan and $29/employee/month for Global Payroll
Best small business HR management software with premium features
OnPay (Web, iOS, Android)
OnPay pros:
OnPay cons:
I’m always here for a good deal on a quality product, like the time I found a pair of Doc Martens for $15 at a thrift store. OnPay reminds me a lot of those kicks, without the potential perils of secondhand shoes. It’ll have you saying, “Thanks, I only paid this much,” when your HR friends comment on your new software.
OnPay’s value prop is as a payroll solution for small businesses. But if you grab the HR add-on, you get to make use of features like onboarding workflows, custom reporting, and provisioning. The total cost is a little higher than the other options on this list, but not bad if you want to invest in a single tool.
You won’t get the latest agentic payroll intelligence to run your books for you. But for a small business HR professional, those kinds of features might be overkill anyway. OnPay is as close to premium as you can get within a small budget.
OnPay pricing: $49 plus $6/person/month for core features; HR package costs an additional $15/month and $2/person/month
Automate HR workflows with Zapier
When it comes to picking the right HR software for your small business, nobody knows better than you what your needs are. Still, this list should help you narrow down your options from 100+ to a handful.
Zapier can streamline your HR workflows even more by integrating the apps you use every day, so you can focus more on keeping your employees happy than filling out paperwork. Connect your HR systems to your entire tech stack and automate everything from talent pipeline management to HR compliance. Learn more about how to automate your HR stack with Zapier.
Related reading:
This article was originally published in April 2025. The most recent update, with contributions from Melissa King, was in September 2026.
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