Top 10 HR Software for Startups – Build Your Dream Team!

Hey there, savvy startup founders! Are you ready to transform your ragtag group of misfits into a dream team?

Well, look no further!

We’ve scoured the digital cosmos to bring you the lowdown on the top 10 HR software for startups like yours. We’re talking about cutting-edge platforms that are about to make your HR woes a thing of the past.

So, buckle up, and let’s get down to business.

Free HR Software for Startups

1.    Horilla

Key features:

• Attendance tracking
• Recruitment
• Onboarding
• Payroll

Horilla is an all-encompassing, open-source software solution designed to optimize the multifaceted processes in your HR department. It turns the challenging tasks of managing employee data, payroll, and leave time into a breezy walk in the park.

So, how can this HR software help your startup?

• Recruitment: With Horilla, posting job openings becomes a breeze, and you won’t have to juggle countless emails or resumes anymore. The platform lets you track candidates and interviews in one place, making sure you don’t miss out on that perfect hire because their resume got lost in your inbox.
• Onboarding portal: This feature makes new employees’ first days at the workplace less about paperwork and more about getting settled in. They can fill out their details, sign documents, and get to know the team and company culture, all from the comfort of… well, wherever they are!
• Attendance tracking: Employees can clock in and out with just a click, and managers get real-time reports. It’s like having a personal timekeeper for each team member, ensuring everyone’s hours are accounted for accurately and effortlessly.

Pros:

• 100% free to use
• A comprehensive set of features

Cons:

• It requires technical know-how and time to configure

2.    Sentrifugo

Key features:

• Employee self-service
• Performance appraisal
• Background checks
• Employee expenses

Sentrifugo is a free, open-source Human Resource Management System (HRMS) that greatly simplifies work for your HR department and helps you be super-organized.

Here are some Sentrifugo features that might help your startup:

• Performance appraisal: You can tailor the feedback and rating process to fit the unique culture and needs of your company. It guarantees that performance reviews are not just a formality but a meaningful exercise in growth and development.
• Analytics: Sentrifugo reports give you the lowdown on everything from employee information to attrition rates. It’s like having a dashboard that reveals the heartbeat of your organization, allowing you to make informed decisions and keep your finger on the pulse of employee dynamics.
• Expense tracking: This module offers an easy expense approval form and detailed records. It ensures transparency and efficiency by keeping essential data in a centralized and convenient manner.

Pros:

• Free to download
• Covers a lot of HR processes

Cons:

• It requires technical know-how to configure
• Not user-friendly enough

3.    Remote

Key features:

• Contractor management
• Time off tracking
• Onboarding and offboarding
• Payroll

Imagine all your HR tasks – like payroll, benefits administration, and employee data – living in one cloud-based spot that you can access with just a click, no matter if you’re sipping coffee in a Paris café or chilling in your home office. Remote makes that possible by keeping your distributed team connected, engaged, and efficiently managed.

Here are some of the features included in Remote’s free HR module:

• Onboarding and offboarding: You can create bespoke checklists that greet new hires, making their transition into your team not just seamless but welcoming. These personalized guides help them hit the ground running from day one. And when it’s time to part ways, a similar, thoughtful approach ensures offboarding is smooth and respectful, preserving positive relationships and leaving the door open for future collaborations.
• Self-service portal: Whether it’s from a web interface or a handy mobile app, team members can manage their time, and track their leave. This feature not only streamlines administrative processes but also fosters a sense of autonomy and engagement among employees.
• Expense reimbursement: This feature streamlines the entire expense management process from submission to approval and then payment. No more rummaging through a pile of receipts or filling out tedious forms. Just snap a picture of your receipt, upload it through the system, and boom – you’re done.

Pros:

• Intuitive design
• Well-suited for remote teams

Cons:

• Not always easy to get fast support
• Free version has limited functionality

Paid plans:

• $29 per contractor/month for the Contractor Management module
• $99 per contractor/month for Contractor Management Plus
• $599 (or higher) per month for the Employer of Record module
• $50 per employee/month for the Global Payroll module
• $119 (or higher) per month for the Remote Talent module

4.    MintHCM

Key features:

• Employment history
• Performance appraisal
• Time management
• Skills inventory

From onboarding new talent to tracking employee performance, MintHCM does it all with a flair for efficiency. It’s designed to make the lives of HR professionals a lot easier, giving them more time to focus on what truly matters – building a happy and productive team.

• Employee skills inventory: No more guessing who’s got the chops for that new project. With MintHCM, you have a clear map of everyone’s skills and expertise at your fingertips.
• Employment history: It’s like having a mini-autobiography of each team member’s professional journey, making it easier to celebrate milestones and understand their growth path.
• Shared calendar: Important deadlines, meetings, and holidays – everything in one place, visible to everyone.

Pros:

• Free to use
• Highly customizable

Con:

• The interface could be sleeker and more user-friendly

5.    Deel

Key features:

• HR reports
• Time off tracking
• People directory
• Org charts

Deel is your go-to when you want to onboard someone from halfway across the globe without breaking a sweat. It takes care of all those pesky legalities, payroll, and compliance stuff that can give you headaches.

Deel’s free HR module offers the following benefits for your startup:

• People directory: Deel serves as a central hub where every member of your dream team is just a click away. No more sifting through files to find employee data – it’s all securely stored and easily accessible.
• HR analytics: Versatile reports let you analyze the heartbeat of your organization, giving you insights on retention rates, churn rates, and other metrics you need to make informed decisions.
• Org charts: This feature visualizes employee roles and how everyone fits into the grand tapestry of your company. It makes navigating your company’s structure as easy as pie.

Pros:

• Intuitive user interface
• Streamlines workflows

Cons:

• Free version has limited functionality
• Paid plans are not very budget-friendly
• Customer support can be slow sometimes

Paid plans:

• From $599 per month for the EOR plan
• From $49 per month for the Contractors plan
• Custom prices for the Global Payroll and Immigration modules

Paid HR Software for Startups

1.    Oyster

Key features:

• Global hiring
• International payroll
• Contractor transition
• Immigration support

Oyster functions as your backstage pass to hiring the best and brightest, no matter where they’re located. It makes it a breeze for businesses to expand their teams worldwide, ensuring that paperwork doesn’t stand in the way of great talent.

Running a born-global startup? Here’s how Oyster can help:

• International payroll: Supporting over 140 currencies, the system ensures your team gets paid on time, every time, no matter where they’re located.
• Contractor conversion: This functionality allows you to effortlessly transition your contractors to full-time status, tracking and managing the entire process tidily in a single place.
• Talent mobility: Relocating employees can be as fun as getting a root canal procedure. But with Oyster’s deep well of expertise in visa application and eligibility, moving your best people where they’re needed most is suddenly a whole lot easier.

Pros:

• Helps to establish a transparent HR management process
• Excellent for connecting with talents across the globe

Cons:

• Steep learning curve
• Slow response to urgent issues from the support team

Prices:

• $29 per contractor/month for the Contractor plan (the first month is free)
• Starting from $499 per month for the Employee plan (if billed annually)
• Custom price for the yearly seat-based subscription for scaling teams

2.    Keka

Key features:

• Payroll
• Employee data
• OKRs and goals
• Meeting scheduler

Keka is a cloud-based platform that simplifies and automates the nitty-gritty of HR management. It’s designed to make life easier not just for managers but for employees too, building a more productive, happier workplace.

Here are just a few benefits that Keka offers:

• OKRs: This feature turns performance management into a game of darts where you’re always hitting the bullseye. It’s all about setting clear objectives and targets to make sure everyone’s heading in the right direction.
• 1-on-1 meetings: You can schedule a virtual coffee chat with your team members spread across different time zones. Besides, handy checklists of topics to cover will save you from awkward silences or meandering conversations.
• Employee profiles: This isn’t just a dry database of employment history. It’s a vibrant community board where your team members can share professional triumphs, values, and other job-related things. Essentially, Keka brings employees closer, transforming a scattered workforce into a tightly-knit

Pros:

• Versatile solution
• Perfect for distributed teams

Cons:

• Limited integration options
• Not flexible enough

Prices:

• Custom price for startups
• $500 per month for the Foundation plan
• $800 per month for the Strength plan
• $1100 per month for the Growth plan

3.    Workable

Key features:

• Streamlined recruiting
• Zoom integration
• Org charts
• Onboarding portal

Workable turns the daunting world of recruitment into a walk in the park. With its help, you won’t just post jobs and cross your fingers. Instead, you will automate the hiring process, sift through candidates like a pro, and zero in on the perfect fits without breaking a sweat.

So, what good can Workable offer?

• AI-powered candidate sourcing: This functionality does the heavy lifting by finding top talent, so you spend less time searching and more time engaging with potential hires.
• Zoom integration: Conduct job interviews with a click, face-to-face with your candidates. Avoid scheduling nightmares and make meetings easier and more efficient for everyone involved.
• Custom onboarding workflows: This feature is meant to fit your company like a glove while empowering new hires to hit the ground running from day one. After all, it’s not just about making a great first impression – it’s about kickstarting a productive and engaged employee lifecycle.

Pros:

• All-round functionality for staff recruitment
• Flexible settings

Con:

• Lacks some essential features like payroll and attendance tracking

Prices:

• $149 per month for the Starter plan
• $299 per month for the Standard plan
• $599 per month for the Premium plan

4.    Breathe

Key features:

• Leave management
• Shift planning
• NPS surveys
• People Portal app

Breathe HR is designed for small to medium-sized businesses that want to ditch the paperwork and focus on what really matters: building a fantastic workplace culture.

Breathe offers some seriously cool features for modern startups:

• People Portal mobile app: It’s like having your own HR department in your pocket. Need to request time off? No problem. Do it on the go, wherever you are. No more waiting until you’re back in the office to deal with paperwork.
• Employee Net Promoter Score (NPS): This nifty tool lets you gauge how satisfied and loyal your employees are, which is essential for building a positive company culture.
• Salary forecaster: This feature is a game-changer for budgeting. It lets you track costs, plan for the future, and simplify complex financial planning.

Pros:

• Simple to use
• Great value for small teams

Cons:

• Limited integration options
• Employee data management can be time-consuming

Prices for Breathe Core HR:

• £179 per year for 1-10 employees
• £350 per year for 11-20 employees
• £793 per year for 21-50 employees
• £1458 per year for 51-100 employees

5.    Sloneek

Key features:

• People analytics
• Smart recommendations
• Activity and time tracking
• Skills management

Sloneek is an AI-powered solution that helps to manage everything from time off to employee onboarding – with just a few clicks. It’s designed for startups that want to focus on innovating and growing, without getting bogged down by HR paperwork.

Here’s what Sloneek can do for you:

• Skill management: The software acts as a personal career coach for your team. It doesn’t just assess where they’re at now but also helps you plot a course for their growth and rest assured the right people are developing the skills your company will need tomorrow.
• Engagement surveys: This feature assists in gathering insights on the team’s vibe and hearing everyone out without the need for an actual crowded meeting room.
• Attendance management: By integrating advanced GPS tracking, face scanning, and a mobile app, it allows you to accurately monitor the whereabouts of your team members, which is particularly beneficial for remote or field-based workforces.

Pros:

• Automation gives an efficiency boost
• Excellent customer support
• A diverse and comprehensive feature set

Con:

• Reports are limited and not always easy to understand

Prices:

No information is available on the website.

Bonus Tool: actiPLANS

Want to be able to streamline leave management, track and schedule employee locations, or analyze team availability, without wading through endless spreadsheets or complicated interfaces?

actiPLANS understands the unique rhythm and hustle of startup life, which makes it an excellent alternative to more cumbersome HR systems.

Here’s what makes actiPLANS a great choice for your startup:

• Flexible time off management: No matter how complex your PTO policy is, actiPLANS can handle it with ease. It has everything from customizable PTO settings to bespoke leave types to align the time off tracking process with your company’s culture just perfectly. And guess what? The leave request approval process can be automated. That means no more back-and-forth emails!
• actiPLANS Mobile: Employees can handle their time off requests on the go and peek at their colleagues’ availability. This way, planning a day off or catching up on who’s in and who’s out becomes as easy as scrolling through your favorite social media feed.
• Visual employee schedules: Whether you need to plan and track different work locations, shifts, events, or any other employee activity, you can do so on an intuitive visual timeline. This feature ensures that your team is always in sync and collaborates efficiently.
• Detailed reports: They help maintain that perfect work-life balance in your team, prevent absenteeism, and predict workforce capacity, keeping everyone happy, healthy, and ready to take on the world.
• actiTIME integration: While actiPLANS focuses on leave management, making sure you know who’s available and when, actiTIME covers staff attendance and the progress tracking aspect of employee performance. Blending the two together streamlines your workflow in a way that feels almost magical.

Pros:

• Highly flexible settings
• Intuitive visual interface
• Simplicity

Cons:

• Limited integration options
• No features for recruitment, onboarding, etc.

Prices:

• Free 30-day trial
• Free version for 1-3 employees
• $1.5 per user/month for 1-40 employees
• $1.2 per user/month for 41-200 employees
• Custom fixed price for companies with 200+ employees

Conclusion

Choosing the right HR software for your startup is akin to finding the perfect teammate – it’s all about compatibility, functionality, and growth potential.

Whether you’re looking to streamline hiring, onboard new talent with ease, or foster a culture of continuous feedback, the tools we’ve explored are your allies on this exciting journey.

Remember, the ultimate aim is to build a dream team that propels your startup to stellar heights. Go ahead, make your choice, and watch your dream team come to life!