10 Best HRIS Systems Of 2025

The best way for a business to transform HR from a cost center to a revenue enhancer is by applying management tools that make workers more productive. Rippling’s workflow automations can be used to reduce the time and effort required to complete nearly every administrative task your operation requires: from new employee onboarding to dispensing and tracking the equipment workers rely on in their jobs.

You can assign roles and permissions that allow managers and employees to create custom workflows that convert simple if… then… else… instructions into a virtual workforce able to complete such tasks as expense reporting, time-off scheduling and compliance notifications with no human intervention.

Rippling’s workflow automations can be triggered by specific responses to an employee survey that create actions such as scheduling a meeting or adding PTO.

The downside of Rippling’s automated workflows is that the company’s Core platform restricts their use to onboarding tasks, and its Pro product allows only 10 custom workflows, although you can purchase unlimited workflows as an add-on.

Learn more: Read our full Rippling review.

Nothing can sink your company’s morale faster than when employees and HR administrators learn you’re about to switch to a new HR system. BambooHR takes the sting out of the process of migrating to and learning a new HR platform, especially for businesses making the transition from small to midsize.

That’s where the simple, open BambooHR interface can make a big difference in how smoothly your work teams function. For example, HR and business managers will need access to more reporting capabilities for workforce planning and employee management. BambooHR’s clear reporting features make generating and interpreting reports fast and straightforward. For example, standard reports for workforce planning, PTO use and employee turnover can be created with just a few clicks and are saved automatically to your Home dashboard for easy access.

Planning for a growing company’s future workforce needs is made easier by BambooHR’s informative and readable analytics features.

BambooHR’s integrated approach to HR, payroll and benefits administration in its Core, Pro and Elite plans applies the company’s clear and intuitive interface across all functions. The payroll, benefits and time-tracking components are sold separately, but you get a 15% discount when purchasing payroll and benefits administration together.

Learn more: Read our full BambooHR review.

For most SMBs, it’s difficult to separate their HR operations from their payroll processing. However, HRIS vendors tend to focus on one of these two important administrative areas and make the other a kind of tag-along service. Despite its name, Paycor is clearly an HR software vendor first and a payroll processing service second. (Note that the company was recently acquired by Paychex.)

At the heart of Paycor’s services is its enterprise-like human capital management (HCM) platform that extends from recruiting new workers to retaining them by creating an engaging work environment and helping employees advance in their careers. The HCM approach integrates payroll and HR management, expense management and HR analytics for businesses with fewer than 50 workers as well as those with more than 1,000 employees.

Paycor’s HCM tightly integrates HR and payroll management, providing enterprise-like features to companies with as few as a couple dozen employees.

The downside of small businesses adopting an enterprise approach to HRIS and payroll processing is the time and effort required to implement the system’s many bells and whistles. For example, the main Paycor HR screen gives managers and employees dozens of options within a single window, so they’ll likely find themselves shuffling through a series of dropdown menus to navigate to the functions they’re looking for. Many small companies will be better served by a simpler HRIS that they can grow into as their needs change.

Learn more: Read our full Paycor review.

Workday’s HRIS goes beyond managing and tracking your workforce to personalizing schedules and assignments to make best use of their skills and capabilities. This serves the dual purpose of enhancing the group’s output and improving the work lives of employees by allowing them to do what they do best.

Imagine, for example, that you’ve got an empty shift to fill. Workday’s smart scheduler lets managers select the shift on their work calendar and request that the system suggest workers to take the shift. The list of suggested workers for the unassigned shift ranks the available employees by how closely they match the role’s requirements. Managers are also given the option of posting the open shift to the group’s shift board so employees can volunteer to take the shift.

The smart scheduling in Workday’s labor optimization tool automatically ranks available employees for open shifts based on their suitability to the role.

This level of workforce optimization is most useful to midsize and larger firms, but companies of all sizes can benefit from this and other enterprise-grade HRIS features sold by Workday. The risk for a small business is that it will be paying for more HR functionality than it needs. However, it’s never too soon for an organization of any size to start thinking like a big business.

Learn more: Read our full Workday review.

The trend among HRIS vendors is to move away from selling preconfigured packages and toward the cafeteria approach of SMBs purchasing only the HR, payroll and other features they need in custom bundles. This makes it more time-consuming to shop for an HRIS system, but on the plus side, businesses are less likely to be paying for HR features they don’t need.

Uzio takes much of the sting out of buying an HRIS by providing a fast quote calculator that  shows the price you’ll pay for the modules you require and your employee headcount. For example, a custom package combining Uzio’s payroll ($6.50 per employee a month), HRIS ($4.50 per employee a month), Benefits Administration ($4.50 per employee a month) and Tax Admin ($2.00 per employee a month) would cost a 20-worker company $350 a month with the free Core compliance package, plus a one-time implementation fee of $125.

Uzio’s fast quote calculator lets you shop for an HRIS with just the right features in only minutes.

I was impressed by how easy it is to use Uzio’s time-tracking feature. You can view reports on the total hours worked, overtime hours and remote work completed (geofencing) from within the schedule app itself. Managers can approve a worker’s hours from the schedule and view a breakdown of the time they spent working on specific projects during the pay period. Customizable job codes make it easy for employees to indicate the project they’ll be working on while clocking in.

One of the best ways for a small business to retain their most valuable employees is by offering them a benefits package that matches or tops those offered by large organizations. All three of Gusto’s HRIS packages come with administration of medical, dental and vision insurance, with Gusto serving as your broker. You pay only the plan premiums, or if you wish to retain your current benefits broker, the company charges $6 per eligible employee each month (included with the high-end Premium plan). The company also offers employee spending and savings accounts.

Benefits that Gusto sells as add-ons to its three HRIS plans include health savings accounts (HSA), flexible spending accounts (FSA), dependent care FSAs, life and disability insurance and workers compensation. Employee benefit deductions are applied to payroll runs automatically, and Gusto’s benefits advisors are available to help you decide on the best package for your workers.

Gusto’s benefits administration page shows an overview of the benefits your business offers.

I was pleasantly surprised by the financial benefits available from Gusto that offer employees auto-saving and budgeting tools that are built into the company’s mobile app. Employers can also offer their workers an interest-earning debit card and checking account, commuter benefits and 401(k) retirement savings. A useful feature of the Gusto Wallet app is its Spending account that tracks payments for transportation, housing, food and other expenses to help employees establish and maintain a budget.

Learn more: Read our full Gusto review.

Zoho People proves that no business–and no business budget–is too small for an HRIS. A startup or other operation with five or fewer employees can get bare-bones time-off and document management along with a rudimentary employee database by using Zoho People’s free version. However, any employer of five or more workers will benefit by spending as little as $1.50 per employee a month ($1.25 per employee per month under annual billing) to get the company’s Essential plan that adds onboarding, scheduling and support for unlimited administrators.

It takes only a few minutes to create a free Zoho People account. After you provide your contact information and verify the account by clicking an email link, you’re asked whether you want to have sample data added to the account or start from scratch. The sample data can be deleted at any time. You then set up your organization by adding information about it and your workers. From the Zoho People home screen you have access to upcoming activities, feeds, profiles, approvals and scheduling information.

Access upcoming activities, feeds, approvals and employee scheduling information from the Zoho People home screen.

The Professional, Premium and Enterprise versions of Zoho People are better options for most SMBs because they add more time and attendance features. In addition, the Premium and Enterprise products come with employee and compensation management, which is especially useful to growing businesses. Add-ons for all paid plans cover learning management (included with Enterprise), custom reports and premium support.

Change is the only constant in the business world, and as the pace of change in industries and markets increases, planning becomes a primary skill for all managers. Personio’s workforce planning tools connect the many different components of the company’s HRIS solution to support staffing and other business decisions in fast-changing work environments. Managers have access to the most up-to-date information imported automatically from the product’s time-tracking, document management and other core HR features.

The workforce planning tools in Personio’s HRIS import up-to-the-minute data to report on the current effectiveness and future requirements of your company’s labor force.

The strength of Personio’s HRIS approach for small businesses is its decision-support tools that it refers to as People Analytics. They’re designed to handle fast, ad hoc requests for reports whose insights cross functions, departments and locations. The reports are delivered in clear, non-technical language and are designed to detect and address bias in the data. They also highlight the areas of your business’s workforce that require your attention.

HiBob makes creating a vibrant workplace culture the heart of its HRIS products, starting with its Your Voice feature that collects anonymous feedback and lets employees safely report workplace problems. Your Voice makes it easy to track and address reports from workers through its case management dashboard, including average resolution time and the impact of outcomes.

Engagement is about more than identifying and addressing problems, however. HiBob’s proactive approach invites employees to complete their personal profiles, post short video bios and find common ground with coworkers through common interests or shared locations for remote workforces. The system encourages managers and employees to celebrate their coworkers’ accomplishments on and off the job and establish mentor-mentee and peer relationships that can last through their careers and beyond.

For a growing number of SMBs, the best HRIS option is to let the pros handle it so they can focus more of their time and energy on running the business and less on administration. Two great options for outsourcing HRIS are TriNet’s HR Plus, which lets companies retain their status as the employer of record, and its professional employer organization (PEO) service that handles all HR-related matters and creates a co-employer relationship with your business.

HR Plus is an administrative services organization (ASO) that combines TriNet’s HR platform for HR, payroll and benefits with tax compliance, an HR Operations audit, performance management, learning management, COBRA, flexible spending accounts (FSA) and advice from tax specialists. You also get access to a dedicated payroll manager for added compliance assistance as well as help confirming the accuracy of your payroll and deductions.

TriNet PEO works with your company to craft a custom HRIS solution that covers payroll, benefits administration and all aspects of employee management, including recruiting, onboarding and time and attendance. The service also offers risk mitigation analyses, workers compensation management and 401(k) retirement plans. However, PEOs require that you give up some control over your workforce, and while you retain full management of the business itself, you share some liability with the PEO for the management of your employees.

Learn more: Read our full TriNet review.