Best HR Software for Small Business in 2022

Big providers like Paychex and ADP Run focus on providing more bundled options at less transparent rates. While Rippling’s pricing isn’t all transparent either, what’s great about its system is that you can select the features you want based on the HR needs of your business. However, you have to purchase its core workforce management solution before you can add other modules to its software.

Hiring support is a big role for HR teams, and Rippling provides numerous tools to help. Its applicant tracking product makes it easy to find qualified candidates and manage screening processes.

Aside from listing job ads on major job posting sites (like Indeed and LinkedIn), sending offer letters and running background checks are done completely online. Plus, you only need to input basic hiring information for incoming employees into its system, and Rippling will guide your new hires through the onboarding process.

Rippling is the only HR software we reviewed that provides basic IT solutions for setting up and managing your employees’ computers and business software. You can even order laptops through Rippling, and all of your staff’s system permissions and app accounts will be set up. If you have resigning employees, it can also help with the deprovisioning process and store your computers in its warehouse for safekeeping and reassignment.

None of the other software in this guide have as robust third-party integration options as Rippling does. It connects with over 500 software applications, making it much more efficient for companies planning to add Rippling to an existing group of software products.

Payroll is an add-on, but Rippling’s offering is still a quality system for users that need HR and payroll support. It offers direct deposit payments and tax filing services, plus it can handle payroll for W-2 and 1099 staff, including international employees. Reporting is also intuitive—it has metrics you can evaluate immediately before running payroll to ensure you’re not missing anything.

Rippling provides customer service, but not over the phone—unless you’re willing to pay a flat monthly rate. You can also email and chat with customer service reps, and many users say they’re very responsive. However, if you want dedicated support, consider either ADP Run or Paychex.

Rippling offers PEO services you can turn on when you need to outsource your HR administration; you can also turn it off with the click of a button when you’re back to only needing the software. ADP Run and Paychex may have PEO services, but they lack Rippling’s easy on/off button. In addition, ADP’s PEO (ADP TotalSource) is a completely separate product that runs on a different software than its small business HR and payroll solutions, so toggling back and forth isn’t an option.

Its reasonably priced plans with full-service payroll, payroll tax filings, and unlimited pay runs is just one of the reasons Gusto is included in and even topped several of our buyer’s guides. With monthly fees that start at $40 plus $6 per employee, it’s optimal for small businesses looking for solid pay processing tools.

This is unlike Rippling, Zenefits, BambooHR, and Homebase, which offer payroll as an add-on and require you to purchase their core HR products first. Zoho People also offers payroll as an add-on, but you must be based in India to use it.

You can pay employees by direct deposit and pay card. You can also pay via paper check—if you print on your own (some providers, like ADP Run, offer check signing and stuffing services). In case your employees need to withdraw money between paydays, Gusto has a “Gusto Cashout” option that grants them advanced access to their earned salary.

Gusto offers a wide range of benefits, such as health, dental, and vision insurance, commuter benefits, retirement plans, HSA, FSA, and 529 college savings accounts. The kicker is that its health insurance is not available in 11 states (Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wyoming) as of this writing.

If this is a dealbreaker for you, consider Paycor, Paychex, and ADP Run for benefits available across the US. Rippling also has extensive coverage, but its benefits modules are paid add-ons.

Gusto doesn’t compare to Paychex or ADP Run on the number of HR features and tools available. Its applicant tracking and job posting solutions aren’t as robust as Freshteam’s, which even includes a customizable career site. While its hiring tools are limited, it does provide for average small business needs, like offer letters, online W-4 and I-9 forms, HR documents, basic time tracking, and a self-onboarding portal.

Gusto provides access to certified HR experts—you can direct any compliance and HR questions you have to them. However, you’ll need to subscribe to Gusto’s highest plan to get it (or pay $8 per person monthly if you’re on the Plus tier).

Paychex offers multiple plans that target different business sizes. Its Paychex Solo tier even sets this provider apart from the other HR software we reviewed since none offer options specific to solopreneurs. It also has a Paychex Flex product with three plan options, wherein premium tiers come with more compliance support. It even provides a PEO package, a service that other competitors on this list don’t offer (except Rippling and ADP).

In part, Paychex earned its way into this list because of the numerous HR tools it has. It ranges from onboarding and time tracking to workforce management and training options—although some of these features typically cost extra.

Paychex’s hiring tools can help you find qualified candidates and ensure they’re the right fit when you’re ready to grow. Applicant tracking, background checks, and employee screening solutions are also available. Its team of HR professionals can even provide recommendations and expert support in case you have recruiting concerns. And to help get your new hires up to speed on the job, Paychex offers online learning sessions, including sexual harassment prevention training.

Paychex is licensed as an insurer, so it offers insurance directly. Unlike Gusto and Zenefits, which have limited health benefits coverage, its health insurance covers all 50 states. Also, one unique benefit it offers that the other providers on this list don’t is a financial wellness program.

Paychex can manage both employee and contractor payroll, but it doesn’t have Gusto’s low-cost contractor-only plan. While it can handle tax payments and filings to federal, state, and local agencies, you have to pay extra for some of its payroll administration services.

The good thing about TriNet Zenefits is that its base HR product includes the basic hiring features small businesses need—from online offer letters to self-onboarding and employee information management. Storing new hire forms and other company files (like policies and handbooks) is also made easy with TriNet Zenefits’ document management feature.

However, it lacks the job postings of Homebase, Rippling, and ADP, the hiring services of Paychex, and the applicant tracking tools of BambooHR, Zoho, Freshteam, and Paycor. Gusto also has applicant tracking capabilities, but its job postings have limited reach.

TriNet Zenefits supports and automates a host of compliance tasks across payroll, benefits, and general HR, such as generating pay stubs that adhere to state requirements, sending required notices during onboarding and offboarding, and monitoring Affordable Care Act compliance. Its Compliance Assistant tool helps you develop a deeper understanding of what’s required of your business, set reminders for deadlines, and monitor your compliance status.

TriNet Zenefits’ HR solutions are designed to handle all aspects of the employee lifecycle. In addition to helping you onboard and pay employees, it comes with online solutions for managing PTO and planning compensation strategies.

Monitoring employees’ work performance and engagement levels are possible with its full suite of performance reviews, goals management, and survey tools. It also helps administer your benefits plans, but its medical, vision, and dental insurance options do not cover Hawaii. For health insurance that covers all US states, consider Paycor, ADP Run, or Paychex. Rippling is also a good option, but its benefits modules are paid add-ons.

In all TriNet Zenefits’ plans, time and scheduling are included—which means no add-on fees. This is a great feature for companies with hourly employees because they won’t have to shop around for time clocks and other systems that integrate.

TriNet Zenefits can handle both employee and contractor payments, including tip reporting and wage garnishments. In addition to payroll tax calculations (federal, state, and local taxes), the provider will remit tax payments and file the applicable tax forms for you. However, unlike Gusto, ADP Run, Paychex, and Paycor, which include payroll in all of their plans, TriNet Zenefits charges extra for this.

ADP Run is most comparable to Paychex Flex and offers a set of plans for small businesses and enterprises—although ADP doesn’t have a special tier for solopreneurs. You can also upgrade to its PEO service when you feel like you need the work and expertise of an HR manager but aren’t yet ready to hire one full time. However, it isn’t as flexible as Rippling, which lets you easily turn off PEO and switch to using its software again.

ADP doesn’t just post to a couple of job sites, but to 25,000. It also provides training tools, including prerecorded training courses to help you scale faster. Ultimately, it gives you the solutions to onboard new employees efficiently without taking away unnecessary time from your schedule.

Like Paychex, ADP issues insurance directly from its organization. You can choose from health plans to retirement options, and more. It even has retail and restaurant discounts that you can offer as a perk to employees. On top of that, it’s licensed in all 50 states, so you don’t have to worry whether or not your business is covered. In contrast, TriNet Zenefits’ health plans don’t cover Hawaii; Gusto’s health insurance is limited to 39 states; and Homebase, Zoho People, BambooHR, and Freshteam don’t offer benefits plans.

Aside from direct deposits, ADP has a pay card program to give your unbanked employees more payment receipt options. Subscribing to one of ADP Run’s premium plans also grants you access to secure paychecks with check signing and stuffing services. It even delivers the checks to your office so you can distribute them to your employees on pay day. None of the other providers in this guide offer robust paycheck services.

Its payroll tools include tax payment and filing services, year-end tax reporting, and proactive alerts in case there are payroll errors. Employees can use its self-service portal to view their payslips, tax forms, and benefits information online.

However, for $99 plus $5 per employee monthly, its starter plan with payroll and HR tools isn’t as reasonably priced as Paychex ($39 plus $5 per employee), or even Rippling and TriNet Zenefits, which both offer payroll as an add-on ($18 per employee monthly and $16 per employee monthly, respectively). You can also find other affordable options if payroll is all you need, like Gusto ($40 plus $6 per employee monthly).

For companies focused on employee management, Paycor’s training, talent development, and performance management modules are useful. It even provides a compensation solution to help you plan and execute salary increases, bonuses, and rewards. Aside from TriNet Zenefits, none of the providers in this list offer a solution that streamlines compensation planning.

However, Paycor lacks compensation benchmarking capabilities. If you need salary comparison tools, consider ADP’s DataCloud, which provides current market insights to aid you in creating competitive salary packages.

Companies that need support as they grow will find Paycor’s recruiting and applicant tracking tools helpful as it streamlines essential hiring processes like resume parsing and sending offer letters. You can even create a career page to help boost your employer brand. However, its job postings don’t reach 25,000 job sites like ADP does.

You can get access to dedicated HR professionals who will help you answer questions about payroll and HR compliance. Their job is to stay abreast of changing regulations, so they’re always able to inform you when you need to make changes (like minimum wage and payroll tax regulation updates).

The system allows you to run satisfaction surveys that come with Net Promoter Scores (NPS) for measuring employee loyalty and engagement levels. It helps you gauge how your workers feel about the company so you can identify where to improve. Like survey tools from ADP, Gusto, TriNet Zenefits, and Paycor, this functionality is available only in BambooHR’s premium plans. However, it is still better compared to the other software on this list that don’t have engagement survey capabilities.

Access and store employee information in one centralized database. All staff data changes you make to the HR database will automatically flow to its other solutions, including third-party integrations—this helps streamline processes and reduce errors due to duplicate data entries. It also comes with permission settings that allow you to control what employees can edit and view in BambooHR’s self-service portal.

One feature that Gusto, Homebase, and TriNet Zenefits don’t offer is training tracking. With BambooHR, you can set up the different training required for each employee (plus optional ones) with deadlines you can use to confirm they are completed on time. This helps support your employees’ developmental plans and ensures your staff attend required programs, like sexual harassment prevention training.

BambooHR integrates with many apps (more than 50), which are all available on the Bamboo Marketplace. And if your business is already using software it doesn’t want to let go of, BambooHR’s open API can help share information across the different systems. However, if you’re looking for robust integration options, we recommend Rippling, as it connects with 500+ third-party software.

BambooHR can help you pay employees, although it handles payroll through a partner, TRAXPayroll. You also have to pay extra for it, unlike Paycor, Gusto, ADP Run, and Paychex, which have payroll as their base solution.

Zoho People has simple onboarding features that include a self-service portal, so new hires can enter their personal information on their own time. While you can schedule when their company-provided computer should be set up, it lacks Rippling’s robust IT tools that cover the complete device and app provisioning processes.

While Zoho People’s free plan lets you monitor PTO, its time and attendance options grow more robust if you sign up for its premium tiers. It also lets you assign shifts and customize shift rotations if that fits your business model. And since it captures and verifies employee clock-ins/outs through facial recognition, it helps eliminate buddy punching and prevents time theft.

However, if you’re looking for free-to-use time tracking and employee scheduling tools, consider Homebase because its free plan (for businesses with one location) includes both functionalities plus job postings and applicant tracking.

Help employees develop their skills and recognize their contributions by giving feedback through Zoho People’s performance management module. Aside from employee evaluation forms, it offers 360-degree feedback and customized performance appraisal methods. Analyzing your employee’s work performance and potential is also made possible through an online 9-box matrix for identifying your top performers, rising stars, and those who need training. None of the other providers offer a similar matrix for assessing employees.

Unlike the other providers on this list that offer access to either HR advisers (like Gusto and Paycor), dedicated specialists (such as ADP and Paychex), or an HR help desk (like Rippling), Zoho People provides an HR case management tool that organizes and tracks the status of all of the questions your employees ask. This is a great feature for an HR specialist or manager.

With Homebase’s free plan, you can track time and create work schedules for unlimited employees. This means that you don’t have to worry about software costs as you hire more employees—provided they are all assigned in the same business location.

Aside from tracking employee attendance and creating staff schedules, Homebase’s free plan comes with hiring, job posting, onboarding, and team messaging solutions. Note that ADP Run, BambooHR, and Paycor charge extra for time tracking, and Gusto and Zoho People offer this in premium plans. Paychex, Freshteam, and Gusto also don’t have scheduling tools, while Rippling requires you to purchase two modules if you want to monitor employee attendance and track applicants as they move through the hiring pipeline.

Available as a paid add-on ($39 plus $6 per employee monthly), Homebase can handle both employee and contractor payroll—but not for businesses located in Nevada (as of this writing). For payroll that covers all US states, we recommend Gusto, ADP Run, Paychex, and Paycor. If you don’t mind paying extra to access affordable pay processing tools, then consider Rippling, as its payroll add-on only costs $8 per employee monthly. Plus, Rippling can create a custom package based on your HR and payroll needs, similar to the quote we received ($35 plus $8 per employee monthly), which includes employee information management, payroll, time tracking, and workflow automation tools.

New hires get their onboarding packets online, which include documents they need to fill out and direct deposit forms they can electronically sign. You can also store and manage basic employee information, as well as track PTO policies and requests.

In addition, Homebase can help you stay compliant with regulations that impact overtime, employee breaks, schedules, and payroll. However, you have to pay if you want HR advisory services—a feature that ADP Run, Gusto, and Paycor offer in premium plans.

Small businesses with simple hiring needs can benefit from Freshteam’s free plan. It lets you post three job listings at a time, track applicants using Kanban boards, create a basic career site, and collaborate with hiring stakeholders and team members. It even includes basic HR solutions for managing employee information, PTO, and a staff directory.

While its free plan includes essential features to help you find and hire qualified candidates, it lacks the additional time tracking and scheduling tools that Homebase offers in its free tier. Plus, Homebase can post your jobs to popular job boards (like Indeed and ZipRecruiter) at no cost. With Freshteam, you have to upgrade to its paid plans to unlock job board integrations.

Freshteam’s offer management capabilities are more robust than the other HR systems for small businesses we reviewed. It lets you create, edit, and upload offer letters into its platform, and successful applicants can electronically sign offer letters using SignEasy. It even has candidate tracking tools to help you understand why offers get rejected.

Keeping track of external recruiters who help you find qualified candidates for your open job posts can be confusing, especially if you work with several vendors. With Freshteam, you can provide vendors access to an online portal where they can upload candidate resumes and track application statuses without having to depend on you. None of the HR systems in this guide have this functionality.