What's the best HR software for a small business in 2026?

Most small businesses with hourly staff don't need an HR platform. They need the schedule out on time, a time clock that works on a phone, and hours that land in payroll without retyping. Homebase is built around exactly that, and its free tier covers a lot of very small teams.

Basic costs $0 for one location and up to 10 employees. It covers basic scheduling and a basic time clock that runs on a tablet, a computer or a point-of-sale system, and it keeps timesheets for 90 days. Mobile clock-in with location tracking is on the paid plans. Past that, pricing is per location, not per head: Essentials at $30 a month, Plus at $70, All-in-One at $120. The pricing page shows a toggle for annual billing that says you save 20%, but it doesn't spell out which plans it applies to, so check the checkout total.

Payroll is a separate line: $29 a month for teams of up to 5, then $49 a month plus $6 for each employee you pay. So 5 people cost $29 a month, 10 people $109. The page runs an introductory offer on payroll; plan your budget on the regular price.

Where it falls short: Homebase is a shift-work tool first. Performance reviews, document-heavy onboarding and the deeper employee record you'd find in BambooHR aren't why you buy it. If your team sits at desks on fixed hours, the free plan won't do much for you.

Tip: start on Basic with your real schedule for one full pay period before you add payroll. If the timesheets come out clean, adding payroll is a small step. If they don't, you've found out for free.

Connecteam gives a team of up to 10 users its whole product for free, for good: the Small Business plan includes a time clock, a scheduler and up to 9 time-off policies with balances. No other tool here gives away that much breadth.

That makes it the default answer for a small crew that never sits at a desk. Your people clock in from the job site, see next week's shifts, ask for a day off. You manage it from your phone too.

Watch the cap. Before you sign up, check whether your own owner account counts toward the 10 users. Once you grow past the free plan, the HR and Skills hub costs $29 a month on yearly billing for the first 30 users, then $0.50 per extra user ($35 a month if you pay monthly). Advanced is $49 and Expert $99.

Where it falls short: Connecteam doesn't run payroll, so you'll export hours to your payroll provider. Its employee records are basic next to BambooHR, and it won't replace a proper HR file if you have office staff with reviews and contracts to track.

Tip: set up your time-off policies with the exact names your payroll provider uses (PTO, sick, unpaid). Your exports will match line for line, and nobody has to guess at month end.

For a lot of very small businesses, "HR software" really means "payroll that doesn't scare me". OnPay is the cleanest answer to that on this list: one plan, one price, payroll at the center.

The math is easy to run. Payroll costs $49 a month plus $6 per worker. Add the HR layer for $15 a month plus $2 per worker. For 5 people, that's $79 for payroll and $25 for HR, so $104 a month. For 10 people, $109 plus $35, so $144 a month.

That's more than Homebase's $29 payroll for a team of 5, but OnPay's HR layer covers documents and onboarding, which Homebase isn't built for. And it's well below BambooHR for a team under 25, which charges a flat $250 a month before payroll even enters the picture.

Where it falls short: the HR side is an add-on to a payroll product, not a full HR platform. Its core HR score is the lowest of the paid tools here. If you need scheduling for shift workers, pair it with Homebase or Connecteam rather than expecting it to do the job.

Tip: price both setups before you sign, payroll alone and payroll plus HR. If your only HR need is storing signed offer letters, a shared folder may do the job until you hire your sixth person.

Breathe HR does something the US tools on this page don't: it prices by company size band, in pounds, with a band built for the smallest teams. Micro covers 1 to 10 employees for £24 a month, excluding VAT. Starter, for 11 to 20, is £44. Regular, for 21 to 50, is £99.

That flat band is the point for a micro business. Whether you have 3 people or 10, you pay £24. Pay annually and you save about 15% on Micro through Pro. There's a 14-day trial and you don't need a card to start it.

Extras are priced separately and add up if you take several: rota at £11 a month, learning £15, recruitment £16, expenses £14, health and safety £12. Payroll isn't among the add-ons listed on the pricing page, so plan to keep your payroll provider or your accountant.

Where it falls short: it's a UK product for UK employers. If you have staff in the US, it's the wrong tool. And once you add rota and expenses, a 5-person firm is paying £49 a month, double the headline price.

Tip: if you only need holiday tracking and staff files, stay on Micro without add-ons for your first quarter. Add the rota module only if you actually build a weekly schedule.

BambooHR is the name most HR roundups put first, and for good reason: its employee records and onboarding are among the best you can buy. The question for a 5-person business isn't quality. It's the flat fee.

Up to 25 employees, BambooHR charges a flat monthly price: Core $250, Pro $425, Elite $650. Above 25, it switches to per-employee pricing at $10, $17 or $25. So a 5-person team on Core pays $250 a month, the same as a 25-person team. Per head, that's $50 for you and $10 for them.

Payroll, benefits administration and time tracking are add-ons. Your real bill will sit above the headline number if you want them.

Where it falls short: it's simply built for a bigger company. At 3 to 10 people, you're paying for depth you won't use for a while. That's why it ranks fifth here and near the top of our general HR software ranking.

Tip: if you're at 15 to 20 people and planning to double, ask whether they'll lock the flat rate for your first year as you cross 25. The jump to per-head pricing is where budgets get surprised.

Factorial, based in Barcelona, packs a lot into its base: employee records, onboarding, e-signatures and a document vault. Modules for time, talent, finance and IT sit on top.

The entry price on its US pricing page is $8 per user per month, and the plan is then built for you after a demo. No module has a public price. Ten users at the entry rate would be $80 a month, but expect the number to grow with each module you add.

Users split on it. Some praise faster onboarding, with one hire going from an hour of paperwork to twenty minutes. Others say features they used to have were moved into paid options, and that phone support lacks depth.

Where it falls short: US payroll isn't its strength. For a US-only team, OnPay runs payroll and Homebase runs shifts for less. Factorial earns its place when you have staff in Spain or France as well as in the US.

Tip: get the list of included modules and their prices written into the contract for its full term. That's the clause that protects you if features move into paid tiers later.