HR software helps recruit, manage, and engage employees.
As an HR professional, you'd understand how complex it is to manage employees, their needs, and their data. Luckily, there are HR software solutions on the market that can help simplify your HR operations.
HR software isn't always affordable though, and you may not have the budget to pay top dollar for a premium solution, which is why you should look into free HR software systems. Costing zero dollars, these products are more than just a free sample and can have all the functionality you need to run your small business.
In this article, we highlight the top four free HR software products for small businesses, in alphabetical order, based on verified software reviews.
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1. 7shifts: Offers drag-and-drop scheduling for employees
7shifts is an employee scheduling solution that helps restaurant owners and human resources professionals create and update their personnel’s schedules using a drag-and-drop builder and customizable templates. However, the tool also has other HR software features that help human resources professionals in various industries (finance, entertainment, retail, etc.) manage their staff. These features include hiring employees, document storage, task management, payroll, and employee engagement. 7shifts comes with applications for Android and iOS mobile devices.
Free featuresScheduling: Allows you to schedule employees by creating and assigning shifts. Employees are automatically alerted about their upcoming shifts.
Time clock: Helps track the team's work hours and attendance with an integrated time clock app. It allows the employees to edit their punch-in time in case of errors.
Team chat: Permits users to send real-time messages to each other for easy collaboration. The tool also supports group chats and file sharing.
Applicant tracking: Lets you track the status of candidates’ job applications. It also allows you to store candidate information, including contact details and availability, at a centralized location.
Customer support options: Live chat, email, and call
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Cost to upgrade: $29.99 per location, per month (billed annually)
Device Compatibilty
Screenshots
Schedule management in 7shifts
2. ChartHop: Provides managers easy access to employee details
ChartHop is an HR solution that brings employee data from disparate sources and third-party applications together. Using this solution, managers can perform functions such as creating compensation plans, capturing employee feedback, and analyzing employee data to make data-driven decisions.
Free featuresOrganization chart: Visualizes the entire team structure through a dynamic organization chart. This feature allows anyone from the organization to view their co-workers' data, including their designation and location.
Employee directory: Creates individual employee profiles highlighting their job duties, hobbies, work experience, birthdays, work anniversaries, etc.
HRIS, Slack, and Carta integrations: Supports integration with human resources information systems (HRIS), Slack, and Carta. ChartHop pulls data from the integrated tools to keep employee details up to date.
Single-sign-on (SSO): Lets you log in to your ChartHop account using single-sign-on authentication for added security.
Customer support options: Live chat, knowledge base, and how-to videos
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Cost to upgrade: $8 per user, per month (billed annually)
Device Compatibilty
Screenshots
Dynamic organization charts in ChartHop
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3. Connecteam: Keeps employees engaged with rewards, quizzes, and more
Connecteam is an HR tool that helps with employee management and engagement. This tool lets you communicate with your team, track their work hours, and create tasks for them. Moreover, this HR solution allows you to keep your employees engaged with rewards, quizzes, training, and more. You can use this HR software solution to recognize employee milestones and conduct online training programs so that your employees are continuously upskilling themselves. Connecteam comes with applications for Android and iOS mobile devices.
Free featuresEmployee time clock: Lets employees clock in and out at the click of a button. The tool also tracks employees’ GPS location so that managers know which of their team members checked in and from where.
Employee scheduling: Simplifies the employee scheduling process by offering customizable schedule templates.
Task management: Helps create tasks and assign them to employees. The tool automatically notifies managers about task updates in real time via push notifications.
Checklists and forms: Allows employees to fill out forms, reports, checklists, and more. They can also add attachments to forms using this feature.
Customer support options: Knowledge base, live chat, email, and phone
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Cost to upgrade: $29 per month for 30 users (billed annually)
Device Compatibilty
Screenshots
Employee time clock in Connecteam
4. Homebase: Helps establish transparency and improve employee satisfaction
Homebase is a human resources solution for small businesses that helps simplify employee management by allowing you to oversee employee work schedules, time clocks, payroll, and more. This HR management software also helps improve employee satisfaction by encouraging transparency within the team. The employees are given access to view each other's schedules and earnings. The team can communicate with each other and trade shifts. Moreover, the HRM software also gives employees early access to their wages so that they can handle emergency expenses. Homebase comes with applications for Android and iOS mobile devices.
Free featuresTime tracking: Helps track employees' work hours and manage their wages. This tool also helps track breaks, overtime, and paid time off.
Scheduling and availability: Facilitates creating employees' schedules and allows you to keep track of their availability, bandwidth, and time-off requests.
Messaging and mobile app: Offers a mobile app to keep employees updated about their schedules, wages, and more, and lets you communicate with them via messaging.
Hiring: Comes with customizable job description templates that you can use to create job posts and publish them on various job boards to invite applicants.
Customer support options: Knowledge base, live chat, email, and phone
Trial/Free Version
- Free Trial
- Free Version
Cost to upgrade: $20 per location, per month (billed annually)
Device Compatibilty
Screenshots
Time sheets in Homebase
How to choose the right free HR software
Keep these things in mind when comparing different best free HR software options:
Consider how fast your business is growing: Free HR software solutions often carry limits on the amount of data you can store or the number of users the tool can support. As a growing business, you may reach these limits at a certain point in the future. Therefore, consider how fast your business is growing and opt for a tool that offers scalability to meet your growing requirements.
Check the cost to upgrade: Whether you plan to upgrade eventually or accidentally go over the limits of the free plan, always make note of how much it will cost you to go up to the next tier.
Prioritize the employee experience: If a product has self-service capabilities for employees, make sure the system is intuitive and easy to use for them. If it's clunky or frustrating, employees won't use it, and you'll be stuck processing every worker's HR requests yourself.
What is the cost to upgrade from a free HR software plan to a paid one?
If time tracking and employee scheduling functionalities are all you need, free HR software may fulfill your requirements indefinitely. However, if you wish to increase the number of users or increase your integration options, you may have to upgrade to a paid HR software plan. Understanding the pricing plans is easy as most HR software in the market is priced on a per-month basis and can be divided into three pricing tiers based on their starting price.
Price ranges:*
$3 - $6
$7 - $29
$30+
*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest-priced offering found on vendor websites on November 1, 2022. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.
Hidden costs associated with HR software
The above pricing list summarizes pricing for the base plans of most products. However, even free HR software plans may have some hidden costs. These costs may include an additional fee to add your branding to surveys and reports or to add extra users. If you choose to customize the software by integrating it with other systems, such as payroll software, you may again be required to pay an additional fee. System upgrades and maintenance are other areas where there may be extra costs. Therefore, make sure to check with your vendor for any hidden costs that may be associated with the product you are considering.
Frequently asked questions when selecting free HR software
When talking to software vendors and learning more about different free HR management software options, here are some key questions you should be asking:
The employee self-service portal allows employees to keep their information updated. Such a portal also gives employees access to organization charts and company policies. Since these self-service options help you save time, ask the vendor if their tool offers this functionality.
To understand your HR operations better, you would want to collect and analyze data related to head count, absenteeism rate, and overtime, among other HR metrics. Ask your vendor if their human resources management system has data collection, analysis, and visualization capabilities.
Vendors often charge extra for support or cut it out altogether with the free versions of their products, which can be a major issue if you run into a problem. Ask your vendor about the types of available support options and if you would have to incur any costs to seek priority support in case of time-sensitive issues.
