Guide
HR & recruiting software pricing index (2026): the real numbers
There is no single 'HR software price' because vendors charge on different models: per seat, flat, per job posting, per employee, or by quote. This index lists real 2026 figures for the tools we have tested or found published, names the model each one uses, and cites a source for every number.
Why this page exists
Every “how much does X cost” round-up quotes a single number and moves on. That number is almost always the least useful thing about a tool’s price, because HR and recruiting vendors do not charge the same way. One bills a flat rate per company, the next charges per user, a third charges per job you post, a fourth charges per employee on your payroll, and a fifth will not tell you at all until you take a sales call.
So the figure that actually decides your bill is the pricing model, not the headline. A $189-a-month flat plan is cheap for a team of twenty-five and expensive for a team of two; a $19-per-seat plan is the reverse. This page collects the real 2026 numbers we have either tested on a paid account or found published, puts the model next to each one, and cites a source for every figure. Nothing here is a vendor estimate we could not verify. And if what you need is a bill rather than an index, we also price a full small-team stack for a year using these same figures. When the question is which shortlist to price in the first place, start from the Suite-or-Stack Test.
How to read this index
Every row carries a basis, because a price is only as good as where it came from:
- Tested — we set up and paid for a real account and confirmed the figure ourselves (Manatal, Breezy HR, Gusto, Deel). These also carry a hands-on review.
- Published — the vendor’s own pricing page, with the date we checked it. Real, but a list price, not a negotiated one.
- Third-party reported — no official price exists, so the figure comes from buyer-data services (Vendr, Outsail) or pricing teardowns (Pin). Treat these as a range to sanity-check a quote, never as a promise.
All figures are US-dollar list prices captured in June–August 2026. Prices move; the date on each source is the point of truth. See how WiserStaff tests tools for the full method.
Recruiting and ATS pricing
The applicant-tracking category is where pricing models diverge the most, so read the middle column before the price.
| Tool | Pricing model | Entry & key figures (2026) | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breezy HR | Flat, by active positions (unlimited users) | Free Bootstrap (1 position); Startup $189/mo ($157 annual); Growth $329 ($273); Business $529 ($439); Custom by quote | Tested 9/10, in-app Jul 2026 |
| Manatal | Per user | Professional $19/user/mo ($15 annual); higher plans add automation + API | Tested 9/10, Jul 2026 |
| Workable | By total company headcount | From $299/mo; 3,000 AI credits included, top-ups from $600 per 5,000 (expire after one year) | Published (workable.com), Jul 2026 |
| JazzHR | By job postings | Hero $1,000/yr (postings start at ~3/mo); Plus $3,480/yr (up to 200 jobs); Pro $5,508/yr | Published (jazzhr.com), Jul 2026 |
| JazzHR add-ons | Metered / per feature | Extra Hero postings $9/job/mo; texting $39/mo; offers + eSignature $59/mo; advanced reporting $59/mo | Third-party reported (Pin teardown) |
| Bullhorn | Per user, contract term | Starter $99/user/mo; Core $165/user/mo; Pro quote-only | Published (bullhorn.com), Jul 2026 |
| Bullhorn rollout | One-off project fees | Implementation $1,000–$5,000 (1–10 users); training $100–$500/user | Third-party reported (Pin teardown) |
| Greenhouse | Quote-only (no public list), by total headcount | Core, Plus and Pro all behind “Get a demo”; buyer-reported: ~$5,100/yr under 50 employees, median contract $12,250/yr, implementation $1,000–$15,000, renewal uplifts 8–15% — see the Greenhouse alternatives round-up | Vendor page checked 24 Jul 2026; buyer data third-party reported (Pin, Jun 2026; Vendr) |
| Zoho Recruit | Per user, with a free tier; 2 editions | Corporate: Free $0 (1 active job), Standard $17, Enterprise $35/user/mo annual; staffing edition Standard $17, Professional $35, Enterprise $52 annual ($21/$42/$63 monthly); add-ons: client portal $4/mo, video interviews $8/job — full split in the Zoho Recruit alternatives round-up | Rendered on zoho.com, 22 Jul 2026; not yet tested by us |
| GoodDay (project tool, not an ATS) | Per user, with a free tier and flat-rate bundles | Free (up to 15 members, 1 GB storage); Professional $6/user/mo ($4 annual); Business $10 ($7 annual); annual bundles: Professional 10 users $299, 15 users $399; Business $499 / $599 | Published (goodday.work) + in-app capture, 22 Aug 2026, on a 14-day Business trial; paid tiers not tested |
GoodDay is in this table because teams already running projects in it ask whether its hiring board can stand in for an ATS. On price it is the cheapest line here, and it is not the same product. There is no candidate sourcing, no careers page and no CV parsing anywhere in the product or its plan comparison, and the free plan carries no custom fields at all, so a candidate record cannot hold a salary expectation, a source or a skill set. The vendor’s own comparison table places custom fields, public sharing and forms on paid tiers, checked 22 August 2026. Two checkout captures also came in 95 cents above the advertised bundle: $399.95 for the 15-seat Professional year listed at $399, and $499.95 for the 10-seat Business year listed at $499. Both are quoted as found. For tools built to hire, see where free plans stop.
The pattern to notice: for occasional hiring, a flat or free plan (Breezy) usually wins over a year; for a steady per-recruiter desk, a per-seat tool (Manatal) stays cheap while you are small; and a per-posting model (JazzHR) rewards you only if you post very few roles at once. Full workings are in the JazzHR alternatives, Workable alternatives and Bullhorn alternatives round-ups. → See Breezy HR · See Manatal
Payroll and core HR pricing (US)
Payroll pricing is more honest than recruiting pricing: most vendors publish a base fee plus a per-person fee. The trap here is the add-on stack, not the headline. (New to the category? The glossary covers what payroll software actually does before you price it.) And if the real question is whether to buy payroll and accounting as one bill or as a pair that syncs, we price both routes side by side on these same figures. One category sits outside every price on this page: public-works jobs carry a separate weekly reporting obligation that general-purpose payroll tools are not built for, whatever tier you buy.
| Tool | Pricing model | Entry & key figures (2026) | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gusto | Base + per person | Contractor-only $35/mo + $6/contractor ($0 base first 6 mo); Simple $49/mo + $6/person; Plus $80 + $12; Premium $180 + $22 | Tested 8/10, Jun 2026 (re-scored Jul 2026; Simple price re-confirmed 20 Aug 2026) |
| BambooHR | Per employee (+ flat for small teams) | Core $10, Pro $17, Elite $25 per employee/mo; flat from $250/mo at ≤25 employees; payroll/benefits are add-ons; onboarding (New Hire Packet, checklist) in all plans | Published (bamboohr.com), Jul 2026 (re-checked 8 Aug) |
| Zoho People | Per user, with a free tier | Essential HR US$0.84/user/mo billed annually, with onboarding and offboarding; Professional $1; Premium $1.50; Enterprise $2.50; free tier ≤5 users (no onboarding) — applied in the onboarding software round-up | Rendered on zoho.com, 8 Aug 2026 |
| Homebase team plans | Flat per location, unlimited employees | Basic free (1 location, ≤10 employees); Essentials $30/mo ($24 annual); Plus $70 ($56); All-in-One $120/location/mo ($96 annual), the only tier with onboarding packets (W-4/W-9/I-9 e-sign) | Published (joinhomebase.com), 8 Aug 2026 |
| Rippling | Quote-only (no public list) | Core ~$8/employee/mo + $35/mo base; add-on modules ~$4–$12/employee each; realistic mid-market $15–$25/employee/mo; median annual contract $45,862 | Third-party reported (GetApp, Outsail, Vendr) |
| Paychex | Quote-only (no public list) | Flex Select, Pro and Enterprise all behind “Request Pricing”; a single Reddit data point ran ~$10k/yr vs ~$6k on Gusto — see the Paychex alternatives round-up | Vendor page checked 20 Jul 2026; anecdote attributed |
| ADP Run | Quote-only (no public list) | Four small-business packages behind “Get Pricing” | Vendor page checked 12 Jul 2026 |
| Payroll4Free | Free (ad-funded), ≤9 employees | $0 software with tax calculations and employee portal; tax-filing service and their-bank direct deposit reported at $35/mo each — the free tier’s real scope is in the free payroll software round-up | Vendor page checked 28 Jul 2026; add-on prices third-party (FitSmallBusiness, Jul 2026) |
| Wave Payroll | Base + per person | $40/mo + $6 per active employee (+$6 per contractor paid), filing in all 50 states; no free payroll plan despite Wave’s free-accounting halo | Published (waveapps.com), 28 Jul 2026 |
| Homebase Payroll | Base + per person (add-on) | $39/mo + $6 per employee paid; Homebase’s free plan is scheduling and time tracking, not payroll | Published (joinhomebase.com), 28 Jul 2026 |
| Square Payroll | Base + per person | $35/mo + $6 per person paid; contractor-only mode $6/person with no base fee; includes direct-tip importing from Square POS | Published (squareup.com), 1 Aug 2026 |
| Toast Payroll | Advertised base + per person | $69/mo + $9 per employee advertised for new single-location customers; real quotes vary by group and contract | Third-party corroborated, Jul 2026 (checked 1 Aug 2026) |
| OnPay | Base + per person | $49/mo + $6 per person as reported by 2026 reviews; OnPay’s own page advertises “starts at $55/mo”, consistent with $49 + one seat | Third-party reported (business.com, 2026; checked 1 Aug 2026) |
| Patriot Payroll | Base + per person | Full Service $37/mo + $5 per worker (taxes deposited and filed); +$12/mo per extra filing state | Published (patriotsoftware.com), Jun 2026 |
| QuickBooks Payroll | Bundled with QuickBooks accounting | Current pricing page quotes payroll only as accounting bundles: $88 + $7/employee, $135 + $7, $228 + $13 at list, all tiers with Auto Payroll and full-service filing, behind a rolling 90%-off-3-months promo — auto-run tools compared in which payroll automation actually runs itself | Rendered (quickbooks.intuit.com), 11 Aug 2026 |
| Xero Payroll | Base + per person, inside a Xero plan | $36/mo + $6 per employee or contractor, sold as “Xero Payroll, powered by Gusto”; requires a Xero accounting plan (Early $25, Growing $55, Established $90 at list); filings in all 50 states at no extra cost, W-2/1099 at year end | Published (xero.com/us), 20 Aug 2026 |
A worked Gusto example, because the per-person fee is the part that compounds: five employees on Simple is $49 + 5 × $6 = $79/mo; twelve employees on Plus is $80 + 12 × $12 = $224/mo. The BambooHR alternatives and Rippling alternatives pages run the same maths against those two.
HR software pricing for mid-market companies: who publishes a number above 50 employees
Transparent HR software pricing thins out fast past 50 employees. On this index, the vendors that print a per-employee list price you can multiply at 50, 100 and 250 people are Gusto, BambooHR, Deel HR, Deel Payroll and Zoho People; Rippling’s range is buyer-reported; Paychex, ADP Workforce Now and Greenhouse quote. The table does the multiplication on the published list prices already cited above, per month, no add-ons, no promos, before payroll taxes and benefits.
| Vendor and plan | Published unit price | 50 employees | 100 employees | 250 employees | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deel HR Core HR | $5/employee/mo | $250 | $500 | $1,250 | Published, captured 27 Aug 2026 |
| Zoho People Premium | $1.50/user/mo (annual) | $75 | $150 | $375 | Rendered 8 Aug 2026 |
| BambooHR Core | $10/employee/mo | $500 | $1,000 | $2,500 | Published, Jul 2026 |
| BambooHR Elite | $25/employee/mo | $1,250 | $2,500 | $6,250 | Published, Jul 2026 |
| Gusto Plus (multi-state payroll) | $80/mo + $12/person | $680 | $1,280 | $3,080 | Tested 8/10; price re-confirmed 20 Aug 2026 |
| Deel Payroll (US, self-service) | $29/employee/mo | $1,450 | $2,900 | $7,250 | Published, US tab captured 22 Aug 2026; the global card lists a run-it-yourself option at $25 (27 Aug 2026) |
| Deel HR Recruit / Develop | $14 / $22 per employee/mo | $700 / $1,100 | $1,400 / $2,200 | $3,500 / $5,500 | Published, captured 27 Aug 2026 |
| Rippling | ~$15–$25/employee/mo, no public list | $750–$1,250 | $1,500–$2,500 | $3,750–$6,250 | Third-party reported (Outsail, Vendr) |
| Paychex Flex, ADP Workforce Now, Greenhouse | Quote-only | quote | quote | quote | Vendor pages, Jul–Aug 2026 (Greenhouse buyer-reported median $12,250/yr) |
Three things the table cannot show. Gusto’s Simple tier ($49 + $6) is single-state, so at mid-market the honest Gusto figure is Plus. BambooHR’s payroll and benefits are add-ons on top of the per-employee HRIS price, so a BambooHR-plus-payroll total is not in this table. And Deel’s Payroll line covers the pay run only ($29 on the US tab on 22 August; the global card now lists a $25 run-it-yourself option); the $5 Core HR line is the HRIS, and a company running both pays both. If the real question is the whole stack rather than one line, the Year-One Bill prices a ten-person stack two ways and the method scales to any headcount.
Global hiring: EOR, PEO and contractor pricing
This is the most misread category, because the headline fee is only ever a platform fee. The real cost adds salary, local employer taxes, a currency-conversion spread and, for an employer of record, often a refundable deposit.
| Product | Pricing model | Figure (2026) | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deel EOR | Per employee, platform fee | From $599/employee/mo (Enterprise reported at $899) | Tested 8/10; published (deel.com), Jul 2026, re-captured 27 Aug 2026 |
| Deel global payroll | Per employee | The Global Payroll card reads “starting at $29/employee/mo” and lists a “run payroll yourself” option at $25/employee/mo (captured 27 Aug 2026); the US payroll tab read $29, labelled self-service, on 22 Aug 2026 | Published, Jul 2026; global card re-captured 27 Aug 2026, US tab 22 Aug 2026 |
| Deel US PEO | Per employee | From $125/employee/mo | Published, Jul 2026, re-captured 27 Aug 2026 |
| Deel contractor mgmt | Per contractor | $49/contractor/mo; Contractor of Record $325/contractor/mo | Published + tested, Jul 2026, re-captured 27 Aug 2026 |
| Deel HR (HRIS) | Per employee | Core HR $5/employee/mo (profiles, time off, documents); Recruit $14 (adds an ATS); Develop $22 (adds goals, reviews, LMS); Full Deel HR quote-only | Published (deel.com/pricing), captured 27 Aug 2026 |
| Deel Find talent | Per worker | $14/worker/mo, standalone or with any Hire product | Published, captured 27 Aug 2026 |
| Deel Benefits Management | Per employee, add-on | $10/employee/mo for Deel Payroll customers | Published, captured 27 Aug 2026 |
| Deel IT | Per user | Starter $49/user/mo; Growth $139; Scale $149 | Published, captured 27 Aug 2026 |
| Deel Mobility (immigration, visas) | Quote-only | Essential, Pro, Managed and Visas all behind “Book a demo”: the one product family on a page titled “Transparent and fair pricing” with no published figure | Vendor page checked 22 Aug and 27 Aug 2026 |
| Remote EOR | Per employee | $699/employee/mo | Published (remote.com), Jul 2026 |
| Remote US PEO | Per employee | From $99/employee/mo | Published, Jul 2026 |
| Justworks PEO | Per person | $59–$109/person/mo | Third-party (US Chamber, Jan 2025) |
The honest comparison for an EOR is not “EOR versus PEO” but “EOR fee versus the cost of opening and running a foreign entity”. The full framework is in the EOR vs PEO guide, and Deel’s caveats are in the Deel review.
The five pricing models, and who each one punishes
| Model | How it charges | Cheap for | Punishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat, per company | One price, unlimited users | Larger or growing teams | The two-person team paying for twenty-five |
| Per seat / per user | × number of users | Small teams, few logins | Every new hire who needs access |
| Per job posting | × concurrent open roles | Teams that hire one role at a time | Anyone hiring in bursts |
| Per employee | × headcount on payroll | Tiny headcounts | Growth, and add-ons that also stack per head |
| Quote-only | Sales call decides | Nobody predictably; you lose price transparency | Small teams with no procurement leverage |
Match the model to your shape, not your size in the abstract. A five-person team that hires constantly and a five-person team that hires twice a year should buy on opposite models.
What we have not priced yet
Zero-fabrication cuts both ways: if we have not tested a tool or found a real published figure, it is not in the tables above with an invented number. On the list to price or test next: Zoho Recruit (free tier and staffing edition, published but untested by us), plus the fuller quote-only tiers of Deel and Rippling that no public page states. When those are verified, they land here with a source, not before.
If a figure on this page looks out of date, the source and date in the final column is where to check. Prices in this category move quarterly.
FAQ
How much does HR software actually cost in 2026?
It depends entirely on the pricing model, not just the tool. On real 2026 figures: a recruiting ATS runs from free (Breezy HR Bootstrap) or $19 per user per month (Manatal) up to $99 to $165 per user per month for an agency platform like Bullhorn. US payroll and core HR starts around $49 per month plus $6 per person (Gusto) or $10 to $25 per employee per month (BambooHR). Global employer-of-record fees start near $599 per employee per month. The model, per seat versus flat versus per employee, changes the bill more than the sticker does.
Which HR tools publish their prices and which hide them?
As of July 2026, the ones that publish a real price list include Gusto, BambooHR, JazzHR, Bullhorn, Workable, Breezy HR, Manatal and Deel (its headline platform fees). The notable quote-only holdouts are Greenhouse, Rippling, Paychex and ADP Run: the figures circulating for them come from third-party buyer research or user reports, not their own pages. Publishing prices is itself a useful signal for a small team without procurement help.
What is the cheapest way to start?
For recruiting, Breezy HR's free Bootstrap plan (one active position, unlimited users) and Zoho Recruit's free tier are the genuine zero-cost starts; among tools we have tested hands-on, Manatal is $15 per user per month billed annually. For US payroll there is no free tier worth trusting, but Gusto's contractor-only plan at $35 a month (currently $0 base for six months) is the floor if you have no W-2 employees.
Why is the same tool quoted at different prices on different sites?
Three reasons. First, model confusion: a flat plan and a per-seat plan cannot be compared on the sticker alone. Second, add-ons: a headline like Deel's $599 employer-of-record fee is a platform fee, before salary, employer taxes and currency spread. Third, source: a vendor's published rate, a hands-on tested rate, and a third-party estimate (Vendr, Pin, Outsail) are three different things. This index labels which is which.
Which HR software vendors publish mid-market pricing?
Few do. On this index, the vendors with a published per-employee list price that still applies at 50 to 250 employees are BambooHR (Core $10, Elite $25 per employee a month), Deel HR (Core HR $5, Recruit $14, Develop $22), Deel Payroll ($29 per employee for the US self-service version), Zoho People (Premium $1.50 per user) and Gusto (Plus $80 plus $12 per person). Rippling has no public list and is buyer-reported at roughly $15 to $25 per employee; Paychex Flex, ADP Workforce Now and Greenhouse are quote-only. Multiplied out, a 100-person company sees published HRIS prices from $150 (Zoho People) to $2,500 (BambooHR Elite) a month before payroll, benefits and add-ons.
