Over the last few years, the role of HR has transformed from transactional to strategic, thanks to technological advancements. In the 1980s, HR technology was just a recordkeeping and payroll processing system on mainframe computers.
Today, HR systems use artificial intelligence (AI) to improve employee experience and increase the efficiency of HR processes.
This meteoric rise has also put HR software at the heart of managing modern workforce challenges. Due to this central role and the resulting market demand, many HR platforms have emerged in the last few years.
To help you find the best HR software for your organization, we are evaluating different platforms based on user-friendliness, integration capabilities, feature richness, customer support, and value for money.
Overview of the HR Software Market in 2024
A hybrid workplace is a dominating trend in the post-COVID-19 world. Top-notch technology platforms are necessary to augment this model and help employees thrive.
According to Gartner’s 2023 Budget and Efficiency Survey, 89% of HR leaders planned to increase or maintain their HR technology budgets, making it the No. 1 area of IT investment for the third year. Through these investments, HR heads aim to deliver business benefits and optimize costs while achieving improved employee experience.
The HR software market size is expected to reach $33.57 billion by 2028, accounting for a compounded annual growth rate of 10.10% from 2021 to 2028. Much of this growth will be driven by technological advancements and the increasing adoption of cloud technologies like SaaS.
Along with technology, the growing need for efficiency and automation of HR activities will also drive this market.
To help you take advantage of these emerging trends and improve your operational efficiency, we present the top HR software choices for 2024.
Top Human Resources Software Picks for 2024
Picking the right HR software is critical to achieving your business objectives. As each software comes with its unique strengths, we’ve evaluated each set of features to decide the best fit.
BambooHR – Best for Small Businesses
BambooHR is one of the best HR software programs for small businesses because it can automate repetitive HR tasks. In turn, this eases the workload of your HR team and, at the same time, makes employees self-sufficient, adding to their user experience. All plans allow employees to edit their details and offer visibility into an organization chart.
Key Features and Benefits
- Time-tracking to automatically calculate hours for hourly employees and overtime for regular employees
- Easy onboarding and offboarding of employees
- A comprehensive view of performance management
- Dynamic dashboards and reports for complete visibility
- Include employee satisfaction with eNPS. This is an anonymous tool to help the HR team understand how employees feel about their organization
Ideal Business Size and Industry
It is estimated that 21,942 companies use BambooHR for applicant tracking. Out of this, 442 companies are in the technology sector, 430 are in marketing, and 377 are in machine learning. The United States is the largest market, with 12,816 customers. More than 50% of its customers have an employee size of 20 to 49.
Pricing Overview
BambooHR offers two plans: Essentials and Advantage. The Advantage plan has advanced options like an audit trail, company branding, an eNPS survey, an Applicant Tracking System (ATS), onboarding and offboarding, reporting, workflows and approvals, and custom email alerts.
Aside from these two plans, there are also add-ons for:
- Payroll
- Benefits administration
- Time tracking
- Performance management
Rippling – Best for Workflows
Rippling is one of the best HR management software today because it supports automated workflow to ease the work of the HR department. With this tool, you can automate tasks based on specific triggers like an employee’s tenure or PTO availability. It also calculates all taxes and benefits automatically to minimize payroll issues.
Key Features and Benefits
- Comes with many apps to simplify HR, IT, and finance tasks
- Use if/then statements to create workflows
- Easy to customize a plan
- Automatically converts currency for your global employees
- Integrates well with many apps
Ideal Business Size and Industry
Rippling has around 1,315 customers, with 37 in technology, 32 in SaaS, and 28 in AI sectors. About 338 of its customers have an employee size of 20 to 49, with the United States being its largest market with 1,037 customers.
Pricing Overview
Rippling starts at £7 a month for every user. You can choose from four plans:
- Core
- Pro
- Unlimited
- Enterprise
Here’s what you get with each plan.
Paychex – Best for Self-Employed Business Owners
Paychex is a top HR software management system for self-employed business owners and small businesses. It improves your hiring process by supporting employee screening and conducting background checks. It comes with employee onboarding solutions as well. Paychex automates payroll tax filing and includes time and attendance tracking.
Key Features and Benefits
- Flexible payroll processing to include all types of employment
- It comes with a self-service portal for employees
- Customizable dashboards for comprehensive visibility
- It includes employee financial wellness tools
- Integrates well with QuickBooks, Sage, and insurance apps
Ideal Business Size and Industry
Paychex has 6,928 customers, of which 94% are based in the U.S. The majority of its customers have 100+ employees. Also, 109 of its customers are in recruitment, followed by 108 in accounting and 107 in HR.
Pricing Overview
Paychex offers three plans:
- Essentials: Businesses with 1 to 19 employees.
- Select – The most popular choice
- Pro – For advanced features like integrations and pre-employment screening.
Essentials is priced at $39 per month plus $5 per employee per month. For the remaining two, contact Paychex for a custom quote.
Gusto – Best User-friendly Interface
Gusto is an easy-to-use human resource software thanks to its intuitive and well-designed user interface. This interface also makes employee onboarding a breeze and prevents manual errors. Additionally, you can even automate many of the basic HR tasks to boost your team’s productivity.
Key Features and Benefits
- Tracks time and time-off requests
- Creates letters, checklists, and the required software for quickly onboarding new employees
- Supports performance review and management
- Integrates well with all popular tools
- Generates insightful reports for informed decision-making
Ideal Business Size and Industry
Gusto is estimated to have 389 customers, of which 29 are in accounting, 22 are in finance, and 20 are in bookkeeping. Most of its customers have 20 to 49 employees, with the United States alone accounting for 334 customers.
Pricing Overview
Gusto offers three plans (all prices are per month):
- Simple: $40 + $6 per person.
- Plus: $80 plus $12 per person
- Premium: Custom quote
Besides these plans, there’s one for a contractor-only business, which costs $6 per contractor.
Zenefits – Best for Managing Freelancers
Zenefits is another top HRMS system that has all the HR tools to manage remote employees and freelancers. It also comes with streamlined onboarding, easy PTO tracking, well-defined org charts, and clean performance review dashboards that make it easy for your HR department to provide an excellent working experience.
Key Features and Benefits
- New hires are automatically synced with the payroll for easy onboarding
- Tracks time and syncs it automatically with salary
- It automatically deducts benefits and insurance premiums
- Sends automated reminders and tasks
- Provides a detailed breakdown of payrolls for analysis
Ideal Business Size and Industry
Zenefits has 558 customers, most of which are in the United States. It mostly services companies in technology (21), marketing (18), and SaaS (13). Around 155 of its customers have 20 to 49 employees, followed by 130 companies with 100 to 249 employees.
Pricing Overview
Zenefits offers three plans. The pricing mentioned below is per employee per month.
- Essentials – $8
- Growth – $16
- Zen – $27
Plus, there are add-ons like Payroll ($6), Services ($8), and Own Broker ($5). The recruiting module costs extra at a flat $35 per month. The advantage of this pricing is its flexibility, as you can add the modules you want.
Deel – Best for a Global Workforce
Deel is one of the best HRMS systems today, as it is designed to handle a global workforce. It combines global hiring with payroll management to ease the workload of your HR team. This is a free platform built to scale with your growing business.
Key Features and Benefits
- Makes it easy to hire and onboard global employees
- Streamlines HR activities for a global team
- Ensures compliance with the regulations of different countries
- Automates invoicing and global payments
- Provides comprehensive visibility into your global HR processes
Ideal Business Size and Industry
Deel has 75 customers, out of which 21 companies have 100 to 249 employees. Also, a majority of its customers, 31 of them, are based in the U.S.
Its customers are spread across multiple sectors, with finance and SaaS sectors leading followed by technology and esports.
Pricing Overview
Deel offers five plans. The prices are quoted per month.
- EOR – Starting at $599
- Contractors – $49
- Global payroll – Custom
- Deel HR – Free for teams of up to 200 people.
- Immigration – Custom quote.
You can even combine one or more plans based on your business needs.
Workday – Best for Reporting
Workday, one of the best HRMS software today, specializes in generating custom reports that you can use for internal auditing and compliance with leading industry standards. It helps teams in finance, HR, and operations to make informed decisions. It uses AI to improve the efficiency of HR processes like hiring, training, and payroll processing.
Key Features and Benefits
- Embeds AI into every process for greater efficiency
- Combines finance and HR applications for streamlined workflows and improved visibility
- Helps adapt to changes quickly
- Deploys quickly and setup is easy
- Integrates with the most popular apps
Ideal Business Size and Industry
Workday is a top HR software with 32,082 customers and a 25.26% market share in HRMS. The top three industries of its customers are technology (536), education (468), and marketing (424) respectively. Most of its employees have 20 to 49 employees closely followed by smaller organizations with 0 to 9 employees. Also, more than 75% of its customers are based in the U.S.
Pricing Overview
Workday has not disclosed its pricing, so you have to contact its sales team.
Oracle Human Capital Management (HCM) Cloud – Best All-In-One Platform
Oracle HCM is a comprehensive platform that combines people, processes, and technology to help organizations manage their employees more efficiently. At the same time, it enhances employee experience and boosts productivity, making it a win-win for every stakeholder.
Key Features and Benefits
- Comes with a friendly user interface
- Supports employee self-service
- Generates insightful reports
- Easy to configure workflows
- Manages the entire employee lifecycle
Ideal Business Size and Industry
Oracle HCMS is a top HRMS software with 11,773 customers. Its customer base encompasses a wide range of industries, with the top three being recruitment, technology, and engineering. Most of its customers are large enterprises with an employee size of 1,000+. Like the other tools, the U.S. accounts for 65% of its customers.
Pricing Overview
The global HR model is priced at $15 per employee per month for a minimum of 1,000 employees. Plus, there are add-ons like (cost is per employee per month):
- Help desk feature – $4
- Talent module – $10
- Recruiting and talent acquisition – $5
- Learning – $3
- Payroll – $7
- Labor – $4
As you can see, the pricing is flexible and you pay for what you use.
SAP SuccessFactors – Best for Large Organizations
SAP SuccessFactors is a Human Experience Management (HXM) platform designed for large organizations aiming to balance the experience of individual employees with the strategic functionalities of a business. It can also be extended to other modules like resource planning and CRM to gain a competitive advantage.
Key Features and Benefits
- Focuses on employee experience
- Includes customizable surveys to understand the pulse of employees
- Helps identify skills gaps within the organization
- Identifies top-performing employees for further training
- Eases payroll processing
Ideal Business Size and Industry
The SAP SuccessFactors has 9,735 customers for its Employee Central module. Its top three customer industries are recruitment, SAP, and engineering. Most of its customers have more than 1,000 employees and are located in the United States, followed by Europe.
Pricing Overview
SAP SuccessFactors starts at $31.92 per employee. Since it has many modules, contact the sales team for a quote.
ADP Workforce Now – Best Hr Software for Payroll Management
ADP Workforce Now is a popular HR software that eases payroll management. It centralizes payroll calculation, time tracking, and benefits administration for greater control and visibility. It also electronically files local, state, and federal taxes and alerts payroll administrators.
Key Features and Benefits
- Processes payroll quickly, so more time opens for other activities
- Manages employee and time-off schedules
- Generates reports to provide meaningful insights
- Accessible from all devices
- Manages compliance with different taxation laws
Ideal Business Size and Industry
ADP Workforce Now has 21,030 customers with a market share of 15.64% in the workforce management sector. Its top customer sectors are education, engineering, and manufacturing. Most customers have 100 to 249 employees and are in the U.S.
Pricing Overview
ADP offers three plans:
- Select
- Plus
- Premium
Contact the Sales team for a quote.
Comparison of Key Features
Below is a look at five key features and the performance of each tool.
| Features | BambooHR | Rippling | Paychex | Gusto | Zenefits | Deel | Workday | Oracle | SAP | ADP |
| Absence management | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Disciplinary action | ✅ | ✅ | ||||||||
| Workforce analytics | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ||||
| Modular | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ||||||
| Mobile app | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Overall, go for SAP and Oracle HCM if you’re a large enterprise that needs a comprehensive suite of features. For midsize organizations, Workday, BambooHR, Deel, and ADP are good choices. For small businesses, Rippling, Paychex, and Gusto work well.
Case Studies and User Testimonials
Let’s look at case studies and user testimonials to understand how organizations use the best HR system to solve common problems.
- Workday – Flexibility for a Think Tank
A think tank for climate change uses Workday to manage its organization. Since its activities mainly revolve around community awareness and development, the flexibility of Workday ensures that the organization can support its staff while matching roles with the right people. Workday insights also help improve the overall productivity of this organization.
- BambooHR – Employee Experience for a Healthcare Company
A company in the hospital and healthcare industry with 51 to 200 employees uses BambooHR for onboarding employees and tracking their work schedule. A highlight of this tool is its mobile app that allows employees to track their time and stay on top of company-wide announcements. The HR team also finds it easy to process payroll and manage personnel documents.
- Rippling – Easy People Management for an Insurance Company
An insurance company with 201 to 500 employees uses Rippling for HR management. The employees of this organization find Rippling to be intuitive and easy to use. Its advanced reporting features and SSO make it a powerful tool for the HR team.
These case studies and user testimonials show how companies can benefit by using the best HR software. A key aspect of ensuring the best software option is to understand the existing tech stack and the available integration of your current HR platform.
Integration and Compatibility With Other Tools
When choosing human resources software for your business, first evaluate how well it can work with your existing platforms. Check the compatibility of the existing platforms with your selected HR tools to narrow down your choices and plan better for the integration.
Below are the steps you can take for a smooth integration.
- Identify the processes that can benefit from technology and choose a tool to address your needs.
- Create an implementation plan after identifying the potential issues of the integration.
- Develop a timeline and assign clear responsibilities.
- Start the integration process.
- Set up a process to monitor the progress.
- Educate and train employees on using the new platform.
- Continuously evaluate for new updates and their likely impact on your operations.
Tips for Choosing the Right HR Software for Your Business
Part of finding the best HR software for your business is to consider factors like your organization’s size, the number of employees, the complexity of HR processes, interdependency across systems, and other specific HR needs. It’s a good idea to list your needs and evaluate each tool against them.
Finally, narrow it down to about five tools. Look for demos or trial periods and try out each tool. Check if there are user training videos and manuals that will shorten the learning curve.
During the evaluation process, involve employees from the finance and IT departments to get well-rounded feedback on your selected tools. From here, select the one that best matches your needs.
Although the process may seem cumbersome, it can help you select software that aligns with your organization’s current and future needs.
Future Trends and Developments in HR Software
While evaluating the top HRMS systems, keep an eye on upcoming trends. In particular, understand how emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, and machine learning will enhance these platforms.
2024 will see more focus on employee experience backed by the ethical use of AI technologies. This trend means the launch of easy-to-use tools to reduce the learning curve. Besides boosting experience, the future will also see the use of AI in matching roles with potential talent. However, AI can come under intense scrutiny by industry regulators to ensure the privacy and security of personal data.
These trends will shape the HR software market in 2024. These developments will set the stage for innovations including improved machine learning algorithms and simplified workflows to enhance productivity with little time and effort.
Summing Up the HR Software Scene in 2024
2024 will see the extensive use of AI to enhance HR processes and improve employee experience. The market trends indicate a growing demand, particularly in supporting employee experience, aligning with organizational needs, and harnessing the power of AI for more informed decision-making.
In this article, we evaluated the top HR software tools to showcase their strengths and help you identify the best fit for your needs. The top picks we discussed in this article are BambooHR, Rippling, Paychex, Gusto, Zenefits, Deel, Workday, Oracle HCM Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, and ADP Workforce Now.
These HR platforms cater to diverse organizational needs, ranging from small businesses to large enterprises. All these tools emphasize user-friendly interfaces, automation, and comprehensive people management as their central offerings.
Looking forward, trends in HR software platforms will continue to focus on employee experience, ethical AI use, and increased scrutiny of data privacy. Technologies like AI, blockchain, and machine learning are poised to shape the industry, making HR software more sophisticated in the future. These advancements aim to streamline workflows, improve efficiency, and provide a seamless experience for HR professionals and employees alike.
