Compare HRIS systems at a glance

Best feature

Ideal for...

Ideal user profile 

Choose if...

Price

Simple and easy to use 
Small businesses and startups under 50 people
Anyone whose role is not just HR – CEOs, founders, Head of Ops, director, etc. 
You want straight-to-the-point features for your core HR 
From as little as £5 per month, all-inclusive (cancel anytime)

Best feature

Ideal for...

Ideal user profile

Choose if...

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more

Price

Recruitment 
200+ team members
Talent Manager or Recruiter
You're looking to scale your hiring process
£5-£9 per employee per month (depending on plan)

Best feature

Ideal for...

Choose if...

Ideal user profile

Price

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Payroll
200+ team members
Finance Director or Head of Operations
You need to enhance your payroll automation
Only available on request
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more

Best feature

Ideal for...

Ideal user profile

Choose if...

Price

Hourly timesheets
Teams working in shifts
Head of operations or HR manager
You need to accurately track employee attendance
£1,5-£7 per employee per month (billed annually)
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more

Best feature

Ideal for...

Ideal user profile

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Price

Complete business suite
Large, multinational companies
HR director
You want all of your business securely in one place
Only available on request
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more

Best feature

Ideal for...

Ideal user profile

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Price

Combining HR, finance and IT
500+ people
Head of Ops
You want to invest in HR as well as other departments
From £7 per employee per month
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more

Best feature

Ideal for...

Ideal user profile

Choose if...

Price

HR gamification
300+ people
Ops or HR manager
You want to keep your team engaged
Only available on request
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more

Best feature

Ideal for...

Ideal user profile

Choose if...

Price

AI assisted HR
200+ people
CEO or HR manager
You want some automated help for HR
From £2 per team member per month
Read
more

Best feature

Ideal for...

Ideal user profile

Choose if...

Price

Reporting
500+ people
HR director or COO
You have to keep track of advanced HR data 
Only available on request 
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more

Best feature

Ideal for...

Ideal user profile

Choose if...

Price

Benefits administration
200+people
HR manager
You need software to handle your benefits
From $9 per month per team member
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more

Best feature

Ideal for...

Ideal user profile

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Price

Download this table here

HRIS systems (also called HR software) help you automate HR tasks and save time across all your operations – provided you pick the right one! 

But first, let’s answer the question you might be asking yourself. Do I really need HR software? 

According to the research we’ve done and the people we’ve talked to in and outside of Charlie, we found that HR software is used by:

  • CEOs, founders, directors and anyone in charge of HR tasks at small companies
  • HR associates at big multinational companies
  • Head of Ops and Operations associate at medium businesses 

What’s quite obvious is that, depending on the role you have and the size of your company, your definition of the best HRIS in the UK will be quite different. 

Some platforms hone in on specific HR processes such as onboarding or payroll, while others focus on solving complex HR analytics issues such as employee turnover and retention. It’s also less common to find HR software in the UK that specialise in small businesses (this is where our Charlie platform comes in). 

But, before we talk about Charlie, you'll want to know what the market has to offer for your specific needs. This guide is here to help you compare some of the best HRIS systems, so you can find yours.

This list is the result of three months of in-house research aimed at understanding our competitors better and addressing the needs of our customers.

EDIT: We aim to update this list every 6 months either by adding competitors, removing incorrect information or updating pricing so you can always expect it to be up to date, but please let us know if you spot any mistakes 

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The 10 best HRIS systems in the UK

Ideal Company Size:
1-50 team members
Ideal user profile:

Charlie helps small businesses bring order to their HR chaos. Our software can be set up in just a few clicks and takes care of all of your HR processes. 

If you’re a senior leader, founder, CEO – and the only person looking after HR even though it’s not your main role –
Charlie will help you save time, and elevate your HR processes from scrappy and unreliable to streamlined and compliant.

Manage your time off process – approve or deny requests in one click for all types of leave, get overlapping time off flagged and easily create reports. 

Smoothly onboard your new hires — no more email threads and missed information, get employee details and Right to Work checks done in Charlie through a helpful onboarding flow. 

Roll out regular performance reviews – support your team’s growth with a clear and transparent process that includes a 360 feedback tool. 

Use our built-in Perks platform – reward your hard-working team members at no extra cost. 

Sync all of your HR stack together — remove copy-pasting between platforms and integrate with the rest of your tech stack. 

Get your recruitment and your HR all in one place with Charlie Recruit – careers website, score cards, interview scheduling, blind hiring and more!  

We’re great for teams under 50 team members, but we’re also a good fit for very small teams under 30 who often struggle to find HR software that’s simple enough for them. 

James Gill, GoSquared – approx. 30 team members

"Using Charlie has saved me so much time and energy. No one wins when I am spending hours on admin tasks every week... Now, I have more time to focus on my most important work."

James Gill

Pricing

As small businesses are tight on budget, we wanted to design a model that made HR software affordable for them – our simple pricing tiers helps you forecast costs easily. 

Get started with Charlie from as little as £5 per month (1 to 4 team members), inclusive of all features, no hidden fees. 

Book a free demo today

Save yourself hours every week – and spend it building a happy, high-performing team instead

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Learn how to cut HR admin

Get any question answered

Zero commitment

Ideal Company Size:
200+ team members 
Ideal user profile:

PeopleHR offers various HRIS software packages depending on your company’s needs. 

Their Enterprise package includes all of the essential for HR management, as well as an efficient Applicant Tracking System to streamline recruitment processes, have flexible interviews and do it all from your mobile — this is ideal for medium companies recruiting across multiple teams and wanting to keep track of hiring budget. 

Something to keep in mind when picking your own HR software is that small businesses won’t necessarily need such a complicated hiring system, and you may just benefit from a simple ATS.

Use the time tracking and rotating work patterns for your teams 

Deal with expenses directly through the platform 

Meet candidates face-to-face with a video interview app

Create and publish engaging and detailed job ads to attract the right candidates

Evaluate candidates against key skills using PeopleHR’s scoring system

Check your hiring pipeline on the go with the mobile-optimised app

“Access PeopleHR offers lots of features, as well as calendar integration, and quick and helpful customer support. I also love the reporting feature, and the ability to customise all of the various permissions with a great mobile app.”

Rob K.

Pricing

PeopleHR offers different packages depending on which features each offer: 

  • Essentials – £3 per employee per month – only the basic features 
  • Professional – £5 per employee per month – basic features + time tracking + expenses management and training 
  • Enterprise – £7 per employee per month – all of the above + recruitment and ATS software 
  • Elite – £9 per employee per month – all of the above + custom workflows with Ripple, custom automated alerts and tasks, flexible employee benefits 
Ideal Company Size:
200+ team members 
Ideal user profile:

ADP’s HRIS solution for companies with over 200 employees integrates payroll software with your HR processes. Your employee data is used to automate payroll and to make sure everyone is paid the right amount for the hours and time off they’ve put in. 

Choose between fully or partially managed payroll administration depending on your needs. ADP also offers a time & attendance system as well as a talent hub, which are adjacent to their main function (payroll management), but can be handy if you’re looking to have these functions together in one place. 

Enjoy the peace of mind of always knowing what to do to comply with HMRC regulations through their payroll software

Get an online employee and manager self-service portal

Have access to certified payroll professionals for your questions

On top of payroll, ADP offers comprehensive reporting for multinational companies from team costs to headcount.

You can also outsource your finance tasks, at an extra price.

Amith R. – between 51-1000 employees

“ADP Payroll Services offers multiple options such as employee attendance and payroll. I don’t have to download multiple software for each task as it provides so many options. It makes our job really easy as we remove a lot of manual processes and save tons of time.”

Pricing

Not provided on the website. You will need to contact their sales representative to get a quote. 

Ideal for:
Teams working in shifts
Ideal user profile:

Zoho is one of the best HRIS systems for companies whose employees work shifts, part-time or irregular hours. You can create and update your timesheets online to easily keep track of attendance and hours worked. 

So if your business works with such patterns, maybe it’s time to invest in Zoho. It’s helpful to consider how Zoho is more of an HR suite along with marketing, sales, etc. so is likely to be quite expensive for a small business.

Use the time tracker to log your team’s working hours.

Set up your personalised approval process for line managers to sign off working hours and overtime.

Let the system do the maths for you. Zoho’s automated billing and invoicing ensure payments are always correct and on time.

The phone app allows your team to check timesheets while they’re on the go.

Stay up to date with reports about employee attendance and time spent on projects.

Megha S. – between 51 and 1,000 employees

“Perfect platform to track work, projects and leaves. Its user-friendly design ensures that users can navigate the platform effortlessly, reducing the learning curve associated with new software. With Zoho People, getting started is a breeze.”

Pricing

Multiple packages available. Most timesheet functionalities are included in the Professional Plan for £1.5 per user per month, billed annually.

If you’d like to benefit from more, you can pick from four other packages on the Zoho website.

Ideal Company Size:
Multinationals and large corporates  
Ideal user profile:

Large companies with multiple international offices and a substantial budget choose Oracle for its advanced HRIS platform that allows them to monitor and report on not only HR but also Supply Chain Management, Customer Relations and Enterprise Performance Management.

Combines employee data, workload management and development tools all in one system.

Offers comprehensive data about business performance that allow you to make sense of a large and distributed team

The cloud software provides a high-security level while combining  information  within and outside of the organisation

With its AI systems, Oracle makes human error almost impossible, as well as providing further insight into the business

Arun R. – more than 1,000 employees

“We like the way Oracle contains all of our employe data. We are currently implementing the Oracle Recruiting Cloud and having our candidate/pending worker data in the same system as our HR system is going to greatly reduce the time it takes for us to enter a new hire. This is important because we have a forceforce of approximately 22,000+ and we hire 100+ new employees each week.”

Pricing

You will need a quote as it depends on the package you choose.

Ideal Company Size:
500+ people 
Ideal user profile:

Rippling offers many possibilities for people who are interested in investing in their HR – it’s built around three functionalities which are HR, finance and IT. 

It could be a good opportunity for your company to build your HR processes and more in the same place. 

With more than 500 integrations to its software, Rippling makes for a great choice if you already have a tech stack on hand. 

UK and Global payroll handled directly through Rippling 

Do your headcount planning and comp bands to align on pay and hiring 

Automate some of your learning opportunities to invest in L&D

Manage your workforce’s benefits directly on the platform

Automate your employee scheduling for rota planning 

Hilary M. – more than 500 team members 

“Rippling streamlines so many processes, and allows for us to work across teams more efficiently. It is easy to use and learn. The implementation was a bit rocky and has taken time to do so fully. However, the customer support team has helped us every step of the way, giving us tutorials and answers.”

Pricing

Not currently available on their website 

Ideal Company Size:
300+ people 
Ideal user profile:

Hibob describes itself as the modern platform for HR, and it’s true if you want to add some spice to your HR stack. 

With Hibob, you not only get software that can solve most of your HR tasks and build HR processes, but you also have the possibility to boost your employee engagement through gamification. 

If you’re looking for HRIS that has all of this in store to keep your employee moral up, then this may be the platform for you.

Core HR including a company homepage, people directory, document management and people analytics

Onboarding feature that includes automated workflows, a welcome video and an introduction to the company 

A compensation hub for your salaries, where you can be flexible by using salary bands and deal with salary reviews

An anonymous reporting tool for employee grievances

Shoutouts to acknowledge successes and wins for your team 

Mayera S. – more than 50 employees

“What I like the most is how people centric it is. It gels very well into our culture, for example the different views in the directory and the fact that you can blend your values with it. The task list, triggers and flows have been really helpful in creating a seamless experience, helping us move away from operational tasks and focus on strategy.”

Pricing

You’ll need to contact Hibob for them to provide a quote. 

Ideal Company Size:
200+ people 
Ideal user profile:

SenseHR offers many features that could be helpful for your team, and that’s when you have to decide whether it would be the right choice for you. 

One of the main features is its AI assisted HR which helps you find information within the software. 

It can be a great addition to the rest of this HR suite if you have a large team and need to go through records quickly.

Store your documents and employee records in one place

Use the Ami AI system to find records and information, get HR planning advice and write custom letters and templates for your team

Manage your full-time and part-time workers directly onto the platform 

Customise the platform with your logo, your font and your colours 

Do your HR directly from your phone with their mobile app

Pricing

Three packages are available depending on the features you need: 

  • £2 per team member per month for Essential
  • £4 per team member per month for Premium
  • £6 per team member per month for Elite
Ideal Company Size:
500+ people 
Ideal user profile:

BambooHR has been a staple on the HR software market for a while, but is it the right fit for you? 

It will particularly be helpful if you’re looking for HRIS that offers many possibilities when it comes to reporting. 

So, for example, if you’re an HR director or even a COO, you’ll be able to get quick numbers together when it comes to all kind of HR metrics. Does that sound like what you’re looking for? Let’s have a look. 

Simple data decisions and data management 

Discover people insights through the many functionalities and filters offered by Bamboo

Analytics integrated into most of Bamboo’s features

Possibility to benchmark your turnover, get benefits summaries, and more 

HR reports that are beautifully presented and ready to show to leadership 

Dynamic dashboards with different widgets 

Megan E. – more than 500 employees

“Its super easy to use, keep track of things, and have it as an employee document storage, as well as to run reports. It’s very user friendly and our employees love being able to find all their information in one place.”

Pricing

You will need to contact BambooHR directly for a quote. 

Ideal Company Size:
+200 people 
Ideal user profile:

When you’ve scaled enough so that you can offer your team an array of benefits, it’s good to make sure you keep an eye and stay on top of them, especially when it comes to spending. 

That’s where software can help you achieve this and where Namely seems to excel. So if you’re currently wondering how to handle your benefits, maybe have a look at what Namely can offer along with the rest of their HR features.

Get benefits in one place along with HR tasks and HR data

Plan easily through Namely’s benefits features

Report on your spending and benefits use 

Get paperless enrollment through Namely’s modern platform 

Staff user – more than 200 employees

“From an end-user experience, it's very seamless and consolidates all the information I need to know about my benefits, employment, salary, documents, PTO, birthdays, etc. ALL in one place! Previous companies had at least 3-5 different systems to do this and it would get confusing and frustrating.”

Pricing

Namely has four packages that include different features:

  • Namely now – from $9 per month per team member
  • Namely plus – no price available 
  • Namely plus people – no price available 
  • Namely complete – no price available 
Jenny Tatum

Written by:

Jenny Tattum

Jenny is a Senior Product Manager at CharlieHR. She has years of experience with product planning and development, and user research too – she put together this guide by collecting data and information on competitors so we could improve our product and tailor it to small business owners.

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HRIS systems FAQs

What is HRIS?

HRIS stands for Human Resource Information System. It’s also called HR software or HRMS. HRIS is a type of software companies use to manage and automate all sorts of HR processes, from time off to performance reviews, employee data storage and onboarding. 

What is the difference between HRIS and HR software in the UK and are they all the same? 

The two terms basically identify the same type of software, combining multiple features that help you keep all aspects of HR under control. There is no actual difference between the two. 

Not all HRIS and HR software are the same. Some HRIS, as we showed in this guide, provide more complex features such as payroll or a complete suite of tools for your business. 

However, and when it comes to being a small business where you’re the only one dealing with HR, you need a tool that’s easy to use and with a fast setup. 

Sometimes, it’s better to go for a tool that focuses on the needs of your business rather than a very complex one that will cost a lot of money and won’t be very useful.

How much does HRI/HR software software cost?

The cost of HR software can vary massively depending on what features are included and how big your company is. Some products will have the price clearly visible on their website (like Charlie), while others will only give you a quote after you get in touch with them. 

It’s really important, as someone navigating HR software for the first time, that you put together a list of software you want to try out and how much they’ll cost, so you can understand what you can afford. You can use our list and download it as a PDF to keep track of it here.

How do I choose the best HRIS system for my business?

When evaluating different HRIS software packages, it’s useful to think about whether they are a good fit for your company size and your business's needs. If you’re a small company, you will not need the same advanced, costly features as larger companies. Here’s a list of questions to help you in your decision: 

  • Is the HR software good to scale up my team? 
  • Does it have the essential features I need and integrations I use? 
  • Is it easy to set up and use? 
  • Do they have a good response time for their support team? 
  • Is it simple enough for my small team? 

Use our table at the top of this article to find the best HRIS for your company. 

Book a free demo today

Save yourself hours every week – and spend it building a happy, high-performing team instead

Book a demo

Learn how to cut HR admin

Get any question answered

Zero commitment