Assessing tools and choosing free HR software can help HR or recruiting professionals save time and automate routine HR chores on a budget.

In general, software for HR management is an expensive endeavor although there are many workforce management mobile applications. This is understandable given that they handle extremely private information and significantly alter the HR process.

Thankfully, however, there is free software for personnel or HR administration. Can they compete with the premium programs? This question lacks a universally acceptable response.

Every organization should place a high premium on effective HR management. It guarantees that every worker may reach their greatest potential.

In order to do this, repetitive and manual operations are replaced by sophisticated software.

Selecting a free HR software solution for your needs might be challenging given the apparently endless options available. But, this decision is essential if you want to automate and manage employee-related operations like hiring, payroll, benefits administration, and performance monitoring.

Is Free HR Management Software a Good Option?

When it comes to free HR management software, there are a number of important performance criteria that separate the excellent from the poor.

Payroll processing, hiring and onboarding, performance evaluations, personnel management, and time-off management are some of these variables.

Based on our empirical research, it appears that teams searching for free HR software are primarily concerned with the first three of these components.

However, if you search for “free HR software” in Google you should be ready for an overwhelming number of results. You soon will discover that some are truly trial versions, while others are paid advertisements when you use the term “free.”

However, in any case, selecting the right free HR software is a choice that will affect almost every employee in your company, including potential new hires.

Your next free HR software, whether it be for onboarding, payroll processing, benefits administration, or time-off requests, will become a crucial component of your business’s daily operations.

The primary advantage of centralizing your department’s daily operations around the appropriate HR software is the ability to automate or simplify them, freeing up time for more strategic endeavors within the IT recruitment space. 

Free HR Management Software

We made the decision to compile a list of 11 HR software options with a fully functional free edition. Most of them are free software solutions that you may use for an infinite amount of time and for a wide range of HR functions; they are not free trials.

Workable

For businesses searching for a consolidated platform to efficiently handle HR-related duties and employee onboarding, Workable is a great option.

Workable is primarily concerned with expediting the management and onboarding procedures.

Workable gives HR managers a smooth experience with its configurable features, such as personalized onboarding portals and automatic compliance tools.

Among the main services are well-organized corporate paperwork, an understandable organizational structure, and effective time-off scheduling.

Monday

Monday.com streamlines personnel management and HR operations with customized templates, automation, and an intuitive user interface.

Although it’s not a full-fledged HR solution, its collaboration capabilities and flexibility make it a useful tool for HR teams trying to streamline their procedures.

Three boards and two user seats are permitted under the free plan, which is decent enough for many projects.

HRLocker

This free HR platform is the next good tool on our list. Tasks like vacation scheduling, employee data, hiring, and onboarding all can be easily automated by this platform.

Assignments of tasks can also be made to specific workers or departments. The applicant tracking system may also be used by managers to expedite the hiring, candidate searching, and screening processes. You can manage four employees with the free tier.

Homebase

A good free HR tool for scheduling and time monitoring is Homebase. Among other things, it lets supervisors keep track of overtime and breaks.

For hourly teams in industries like restaurants, hospitals, and beauty salons, to mention a few, Homebase can be an ideal choice.

Workers have the ability to sign in and out, and HR may obtain attendance records. Additionally, vacation requests are automatically logged by the Homebase scheduling function.

You may track as many employees as you want in one location with Homebase’s free edition. Additionally, it provides features like application management, time tracking, and scheduling.

Freshteam

You can handle hiring and onboarding with Freshteam in one single place. It’s a fantastic free tool for recruitment and hiring process management.

Freshteam’s easy-to-use interface, affordable upgrade costs, and excellent support are some of its key selling factors.

Small to medium-sized organizations searching for a one-stop shop for their HR needs can benefit from this cloud-based solution. Freshteam includes cheat sheets, videos, and user manuals.

Deel

As a robust HR software platform, Deel is ideal for small firms on a tight budget. In fact, companies with less than 200 employees may use its HR tools for free.

It is the ideal all-in-one solution for developing and expanding a company, offering a wide variety of crucial functions for efficient HR administration.

Deel’s connections allow you to automate a variety of standard HR processes, including equipment management and background checks.

Odoo

Oddo provides different HR and business solutions to meet a wide range of demands for an organization and in several languages.

Odoo is noteworthy since almost all of its feature offerings are separated into stand-alone applications besides the CRM and ERP features, which compete with premium services such as Microsoft Dynamics 365. 

All of them are free for an infinite number of people for an infinite amount of time, or until you add another application or run out of space.

If all you need, say, is a payroll app or a time-off tracking software, this is a great option and may be rather affordable if you just need a few other apps.

OrangeHRM

OrangeHRM is a scalable tool for both small and big organizations. The whole employment life cycle is managed by the tool, from hiring new hires to firing or retiring employees.

With the exception of payroll processing, the tool provides every functionality required to operate an HR department in the present day.

Their open-source version does need you to run your servers, but it is fully free and very scalable.

Zoho People

Performance management, staff development, time and attendance monitoring, file and document management, and time off management are all included in the famous Zoho’s free package.

Office preparation features and an employee database are offered by Zoho People, which is free for up to five users.

Sentrifugo

Sentrifugo is an excellent choice for your organization if you want to follow the open-source way.

With the exception of the fact that you must manage your own servers because it is open-source, it is totally free.

Having said that, the Sentrifugo platform is quite adaptable and simple to set up. Employees can view and amend their personal information by logging into Sentrifugo’s employee self-service site.

Employee handbooks and other policy papers are also seen by them. Workers can also provide remarks for management and self-evaluations.

WebHR

This cloud-based, free tool is perfect if your company needs a lot of staff communication.

WebHR is referred to as “The Social HR Software” for a reason: the built-in messaging and employee discussion boards.

Since this program is only free for organizations with five employees or fewer, it is ideal for small firms.

Onboarding, time and attendance, file and document management, reporting, employee self-service portal, and vacation time are a few important free modules.

Bitrix24

Bitrix24 lets you handle all personnel data and make an organizational chart for your business.

You can schedule meetings and appointments with the scheduling feature and record them in the calendar.

Bitrix24 serves as your company’s social network as well. In a workplace, you may collaborate and talk about projects with your coworkers.

How to Choose Free HR Software?

Remember the following as you go through your own special process of choosing tools:

Begin by determining the obstacles you hope to go beyond. This will assist you in defining the capabilities and features that the free HR software must have.

Think about who will use the product and how many licenses you’ll need in order to assess cost and needs.

You should probably look for free HR software that gives all employees access at the employee level, with managers and HR administrators having privileged access.

Utilize a ranking system to determine which of your users’ wants are most important to your power users, managers, and staff members, and make sure those needs are addressed.

Make it clear which tools (like time tracking or learning management systems) you’re replacing, which ones are remaining, and which ones you’ll need to interface with.

Choose whether the tools must work together or if a free all-in-one HR program may take the place of several different tools.

Take into account your current workflows and systems when choosing the tools. Examine the things that are doing well and the areas that want attention that are producing problems.

Examine the skills you hope to acquire or enhance, as well as your success criteria. To ensure that nothing falls between the cracks, you might want a solution to automate some of your payroll, scheduling, or performance management procedures.

Final Thought

In one way or another, every software we’ve covered has a free plan that you can try. A few of them have a user maximum of five or fifty workers, while others are free because they are open source or provide unlimited basic subscriptions.

Many of them also can aid in automating tedious activities and streamlining the hiring process.

Your staff will have more time to concentrate on more crucial work as a result, which means that HR management software doesn’t even need to be expensive.

Just have a look at the tools that we previously showcased. Many features are available to users, and some of them are completely free.

If this is your first time using HR software, what features should you look for first? You can contact Denarjes to help make sense and choose one based only on functions better in terms of user experience and integrations.

Frequently Asked Questions