Best HRMS Software for Small Business (2026): Top 8 Compared

Gusto is a US payroll and HR platform that states more than 500,000 businesses run on it. Its homepage is written for owners rather than HR departments: running payroll, filing taxes, hiring and onboarding, offering benefits and staying compliant. The HRMS functions sit around the payroll record. New hires complete self-service onboarding, offer letters and onboarding checklists are built in, documents are signed digitally, and time tracking feeds hours directly into payroll.

Pricing is published in three tiers. Simple costs $49 per month plus $6 per person and covers unlimited payroll runs, tax filings and basic paid time off and holiday pay policies in one state. Plus costs $80 per month plus $12 per person and adds time tracking and scheduling, multi-state payroll, contractor invoice management and unlimited next-day pay. Premium costs $180 per month plus $22 per person and adds premium account support with a named advisor, HR guidance and tools, Gusto Business Compliance, and project-based rules and costing. Add-ons include Time & Attendance Plus at $6 per person per month on Simple and Business Compliance at $85 per month per state on an annual contract for Simple and Plus.

For a small business, the main decision is the tier. A single-state team of ten pays $109 per month on Simple, while a team with remote staff in several states starts on Plus. Gusto fits an owner who wants payroll and core HR in one place and is comfortable with an HR system built around payroll.

Justworks describes itself as a platform for the small business journey, combining payroll, benefits, HR and compliance. It sells two kinds of product on one platform. The Payroll plan is software: payroll for all employees, HR tools, expert support and access to time tracking, priced at $8 per employee per month plus a $50 monthly base fee. The PEO plans make Justworks a co-employer for payroll tax and benefits purposes.

PEO Basic costs $79 per employee per month with no base fee and covers payroll, compliance support, HR consulting and tools, 24/7 support and 401(k) access. PEO Plus costs $124 per employee per month and adds medical, dental and vision administration, HSA and FSA accounts, mental health benefits and fertility benefits. An employer of record service for international hires costs $599 per employee per month. The features table lists multi-state payroll, contractor payments, off-cycle payments, tips processing and digital pay stubs, along with tax filings and W-2 and 1099 filings.

For a small business comparing HRMS options, the useful feature is the path between products. A ten-person team on the Payroll plan pays $130 per month; the same team on PEO Plus pays $1,240 per month before insurance premiums, but gains benefits administration and HR consulting. The homepage states that a business can add benefits access, time tracking, dedicated HR consulting and contractor management without learning a new system. Justworks fits a US employer that expects its HR needs to grow from payroll into benefits and compliance support.

Eddy describes itself as an all-in-one HR and payroll platform built for small and midsize businesses. Its homepage focuses on owners and office managers who are not HR specialists: one employee database for documents such as W-4s and I-9s, contact details, pay rate history and certifications with expiry dates, plus hiring, onboarding and time tracking.

The pricing page lists three HR plans. Starter costs $4 per person per month plus a $50 monthly base and includes the core HR platform: record tracking, document storage, benefits tracking, onboarding, time tracking, paid time off and basic reporting. Growth costs $8 per person per month plus a $75 base and adds training tracking, custom signature documents, onboarding templates, custom data fields, an org chart and manager approval flows. Premium is custom-priced and bundles Eddy Payroll, hiring, exclusive pricing and premium support.

Payroll is a separate add-on at $6 per person plus a $50 monthly base. Eddy lists unlimited payrolls, two-day, four-day and next-day direct deposit, quarterly and annual tax filing, and W-2 and 1099-NEC preparation in all 50 states, and notes that payroll is currently only available in the US. Hiring costs $199 per month and posts jobs to the career page and major job boards. A ten-person team on Starter with payroll pays $200 per month. Eddy fits a US small business that wants a records-first HRMS and wants to choose when to add payroll.

Homebase is a scheduling, time clock, payroll and HR app for hourly teams. It states it is trusted by more than 150,000 small businesses, and that over 3.5 million small business employees used it in 2025. Customer stories on the homepage come from owners of local stores, bakeries and similar businesses.

The product is organized around the shift. Managers build schedules from staff availability, employees clock in on any device, and hours, breaks and overtime flow into timesheets that feed payroll. The higher plans add the HRMS functions: the All-in-One plan lists employee onboarding, labor cost management and HR and compliance, and the plan comparison includes automated W-4, W-9, I-9 and direct deposit paperwork, document and ID uploads, and PTO policies with accrual tracking.

Pricing is per location. Basic is free for one location with up to 10 employees and includes basic scheduling, basic time tracking and point-of-sale integration. Essentials costs $30 per location per month with unlimited employees and adds advanced scheduling, time tracking and team communication. Plus costs $70 and All-in-One $120 per location per month. Payroll can be added to any plan for a $49 monthly base fee plus $6 per employee paid. Other add-ons include a tip manager at $25 per location per month, background checks at $30 each and a hiring assistant from $99 per month.

Homebase fits a single-site or multi-site small business whose main HR workload is hourly staff. An office-based team with salaried employees will find more relevant record-keeping in an HR-first product.

Connecteam is a mobile employee app for teams that work in shifts or away from an office. It is sold in three hubs: Operations (time clock, job scheduling, forms and tasks), Communications (chat, updates, directory, surveys, knowledge base and help desk) and HR & Skills (time off, courses, quizzes, documents, recognition, celebrations, hiring, onboarding and an org chart). A business can buy one hub, two or all three.

The pricing page addresses small businesses directly. The Small Business Plan is free for life for businesses with fewer than 10 users and includes features from all hubs; the seat pricing help article clarifies that the limit is 10 active and archived users in total. Teams between 10 and 30 users can use the free Limited plan in each hub after the 14-day trial.

Paid hubs charge a fixed monthly price for the first 30 users and a per-user rate above that. On the Operations hub, Basic costs $29 per month billed yearly or $35 billed monthly, Advanced $49 or $59 and Expert $99 or $119. Additional users on the HR hub cost from $0.50 per month on Basic billed yearly up to $3.60 on Expert billed monthly. Higher HR tiers raise limits on e-signature documents, onboarding packs and time-off policies.

Connecteam does not run payroll. Its Operations hub lists a payroll integration, so timesheets go to the payroll provider the business already uses. It fits a small business whose staff clock in on a phone and need HR tasks handled in the same app.

Breathe is a UK HR software company that states it is used by more than 17,000 UK SMEs and is designed for businesses with up to 250 people. It is an HR-records-first system. The features table lists a self-service platform, leave and sickness management, a mobile app, training records, workflows and tasks, permission controls, employee NPS surveys, holiday approval automation and sickness triggers, document management with e-signatures, a reporting library with payroll export, company goals, appraisals and one-to-ones, and custom fields.

Pricing is per business account, not per user, and rises in employee bands. A business with 1 to 10 employees pays £24 per month, 11 to 20 pays £44, 21 to 50 pays £99, 51 to 100 pays £175, 101 to 150 pays £419 and 151 to 200 pays £579. Annual billing saves up to 15%: the smallest band costs £245 a year instead of £288. Breathe's FAQ explains that a business moves up a plan when headcount crosses a threshold and can move down if it shrinks.

Optional modules are added per month and priced by band, including Rota, Time & Attendance from £11, Recruitment, Learn, Health and Safety, and Expenses up to £49. Support includes a knowledge base, 24/7 online chat and getting-started webinars.

Breathe fits a UK small business that runs payroll through its accountant or a separate payroll provider and needs a tidy record of leave, absence, documents and reviews. A US employer will need a different product.

Zoho People is the HR application in Zoho's business software suite. It has a dedicated small-business page, which argues that a small business should automate routine HR operations and points to easy setup with minimal IT knowledge and integrations with Zoho Books, QuickBooks, Zoho Invoice and Zoho Recruit. Payroll, recruitment and expenses are separate Zoho products that connect to it.

The pricing page describes a free edition for up to 3 users on US plans and 5 users on global plans, covering the employee database, time-off management and document management. Paid editions build in layers. On US plans, Essential HR adds onboarding and offboarding and HR reports; Workforce adds attendance and timesheets with overtime compliance; Talent adds OKRs, performance evaluation and a learning management system; Enterprise combines all three with a sandbox and premium support. Paid editions require a minimum of 5 users, are billed per user monthly or yearly, and the yearly option is described as saving more than 20%.

The per-user figures on the pricing page load at runtime and were not present in the page content fetched for this comparison, so this entry records no price for the paid editions. A 30-day free trial is available on all plans, and an expired trial moves to the free plan.

Zoho People fits a small business that already runs Zoho CRM, Books or Recruit, or a very small team that wants a free records and leave system before paying for more.

Rippling sells HR, IT and finance software built on one employee record. Its small-business page states it is trusted by more than 20,000 businesses and presents the product as automation for payroll, benefits and labor compliance work that a small business has no team to handle.

The HRMS functions centre on that record. Rippling states that payroll calculates and files federal, state and local taxes, that benefits administration is integrated with payroll so a life event such as a change in marital status updates deductions, and that plan selection, broker partners, payroll and HRIS sit in one place. Onboarding sends offer letters and prompts benefits enrollment, and IT management can ship laptops and control app access by role. Time tracking feeds hours into payroll.

Rippling does not publish prices. The pricing page asks for headcount and the products needed, then sends a custom quote. Its FAQ states that each HR, finance and IT product, such as payroll, expenses, benefits or device management, can be bought separately on top of the required core Rippling Platform, and that most products are billed per employee per month, with some including a monthly base fee. A small business should request a quote for the exact products it needs and compare the total with published prices from Gusto, Justworks or Eddy.

Rippling fits a small business that wants HR and IT administration connected from day one and expects to add products as it grows.