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Quick answer: “HR software” prices swing wildly because it’s really three different products wearing one label. Pure payroll runs $70 to $140/month for 5 employees (Gusto, Wave). A full HRIS runs $250/month flat under 25 employees on BambooHR, or $79 to $125 per employee per month if you go the PEO route (Justworks, Deel). Under 10 employees, most teams don’t need any of this yet, payroll plus a spreadsheet covers it.
Payroll, HRIS, or Engagement Software: Which One Do You Actually Need?
Start here, because this is where most buyers waste money: “HR software” bundles three unrelated products under one search term, and they solve different problems at different price points.
Payroll-only runs paychecks, withholds taxes, and files them with the government. That’s it. Gusto and Wave Payroll live here.
HRIS (Human Resource Information System) manages employee records, PTO balances, onboarding paperwork, and org charts, usually with payroll bolted on as an add-on. BambooHR, Rippling, and the PEO providers (Justworks, Deel, TriNet) live here.
Engagement and survey tools measure how people feel about working there: pulse surveys, peer recognition, performance reviews. ThriveSparrow lives here, and it’s worth being direct about this because a lot of comparison lists get it wrong: ThriveSparrow is not a payroll or HRIS product. It doesn’t run paychecks or track PTO. It runs surveys, 360-degree reviews, goal tracking, and a “Kudos” peer recognition system. If you searched for HR software expecting payroll, it’s the wrong tool. If you’re a 25-person company noticing that nobody knows what their manager thinks of their work, it’s the right one.
Knowing which bucket you’re actually shopping in cuts your options from twenty to about four, before you even open a pricing page.
What Does HR Software Actually Cost at 5, 15, and 50 Employees?
Here’s the table nobody publishes because every vendor wants you filling out a “request a quote” form instead. These numbers come straight from each provider’s own pricing page, checked September 2026, using their base tier where a base tier exists.
| Tool | Category | Pricing structure | 5 employees/mo | 15 employees/mo | 50 employees/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wave Payroll | Payroll only | $40 base + $6/employee | $70 | $130 | $340 |
| Gusto Simple | Payroll only | $49 base + $6/employee | $79 | $139 | $349 |
| Gusto Plus | Payroll + basic HR | $80 base + $12/employee | $140 | $260 | $680 |
| BambooHR Core | HRIS | Flat $250/mo under 25 employees; $10/employee/mo above 25 | $250 | $250 | $500 |
| TriNet Zenefits Growth | HRIS + payroll add-on | $16/employee + $6/employee payroll | $110 | $330 | $1,100 |
| Justworks PEO Basic | PEO (payroll+benefits+compliance bundled) | $79/employee flat | $395 | $1,185 | $3,950 |
| Deel US PEO | PEO, global-hire focused | $125/employee flat | $625 | $1,875 | $6,250 |
| ThriveSparrow Full Platform | Engagement, not payroll | $9/employee/mo (annual) | $45 | $135 | $450 |
| Rippling | HRIS, modular | Custom quote only, no published per-employee rate | Quote required | Quote required | Quote required |
Two things jump out. First, BambooHR’s flat-rate floor under 25 employees means a 5-person team and a 20-person team pay the identical $250/month starting price, so BambooHR gets dramatically cheaper per head as you approach 25 and then resets to per-employee pricing right past it. Second, the PEO providers (Justworks, Deel) aren’t comparable to payroll or HRIS line for line, because that price bundles workers’ compensation insurance, group health benefits access, and compliance liability transfer, not just software. Comparing Justworks at $395/month for 5 people against Gusto at $79/month for 5 people looks like Justworks is five times more expensive; it’s actually a different purchase entirely.
Payroll-Only: Gusto vs Wave, and Which Base Fee Actually Matters
If all you need is “pay people correctly and file the taxes,” go here first before looking at anything with “HR” in the name. Wave Payroll charges a $40 monthly base fee plus $6 per active employee or paid contractor, unified across all 50 US states since April 2025, so you’re not penalized for hiring in a state that used to require manual tax filing. Gusto’s Simple plan runs $49 base plus $6/employee, essentially the same per-employee rate with a $9 higher floor, but Gusto’s Simple tier is genuinely payroll-only; if you want any HR features (offer letters, PTO tracking, basic onboarding checklists), you need Gusto Plus at $80 base plus $12/employee, which roughly doubles your bill at every headcount.
The decision rule is this: if you’re comparing Wave against Gusto Simple, pick whichever one you already use for invoicing and bookkeeping, since both plug into that side of your books anyway and the per-employee math is close enough not to matter below 20 people. If you’re comparing Wave against Gusto Plus, you’re actually comparing payroll-only against payroll-plus-HRIS, and that’s the real decision, not the $9 base fee difference.
Full HRIS: BambooHR’s Flat Fee, Rippling’s Hidden Price Tag, and the PEO Trade-off
BambooHR is the most transparent HRIS on this list and also the one where the pricing structure itself is the interesting part. Below 25 employees, you pay a flat rate starting at $250/month regardless of whether you have 3 people or 24, on the Core tier. Cross 25 employees and pricing flips to per-seat: Core at $10/employee/month, Pro at $17, Elite at $25. That means the worst possible time to sign up for BambooHR is at exactly 24 employees, because you’re paying close to the same $250 you’d pay at 5 employees, and the best possible time to lock in a rate is right before you cross 25, since growing past that threshold immediately puts every new hire on a per-seat meter.
Rippling deserves a callout for the opposite reason: it publishes almost nothing. Its pricing page confirms only that most products bill per-employee-per-month with modules (Payroll, Benefits, Device Management, IT) sold separately on top of a required core platform fee, and every actual number requires submitting a quote request. If a vendor won’t show you a number until you talk to sales, budget extra time for that call and go in with a specific headcount and module list, because “how much does Rippling cost” genuinely has no public answer to check against.
The PEO route, Justworks at $79/employee/month for Basic or $109 for Plus, Deel at $125/employee/month for its US PEO, isn’t really an HRIS alternative so much as an “outsource the entire employer relationship” product: you get bundled group health insurance access, workers’ comp coverage, and co-employment compliance handling in exchange for a per-employee fee that dwarfs Gusto or BambooHR. That math can genuinely work for a 5-person startup that would otherwise have zero leverage buying small-group health insurance on its own. It rarely works for a company that already has benefits sorted and just wants software.
Do You Need Engagement Software Like ThriveSparrow Before 25 Employees?
Usually not, and here’s the honest signal for when that changes: once you have a layer of managers between you and individual contributors, you lose direct visibility into morale, and that’s the point ThriveSparrow’s $9/employee/month full-platform bundle (or $4/employee for just Engage + Kudos surveys and recognition) is built to solve. Below that, a founder running 5 to 15 people usually still has one-on-one visibility into how everyone is doing, and a paid survey tool measures something you can just ask about directly in a 15-minute check-in. ThriveSparrow does have a free tier covering one-on-one meeting notes and continuous feedback, which is a reasonable way to test whether structured feedback actually changes anything before paying per employee for the full survey and Kudos suite.
What About Internal Help Desk Tools Like SparrowDesk?
SparrowDesk isn’t HR software either, it’s a general help desk platform (email, live chat, shared inbox, a customer-facing help center), and some small teams repurpose that kind of tool as an internal ticketing system for HR and IT requests once “just message someone on Slack” stops scaling. The free tier covers up to 3 seats with live chat and email ticketing, Starter is $16/month with 5 seats, Professional is $49/month with 20 seats and adds SLAs and round-robin assignment, and Enterprise is $89/month with 50 seats plus SSO. Check SparrowDesk’s current seat limits before committing a plan, since “seats” here means support agents answering tickets, not total employees, so a 15-person company doesn’t need 15 seats, it needs seats for whoever handles the requests.
Under 10 Employees? Skip the HRIS Entirely
This is the section most vendors won’t tell you: if you’re under 10 people, you almost certainly don’t need an HRIS at all. Run payroll on Wave (free bookkeeping, $40 plus $6/employee for payroll) or Gusto Simple, track PTO and documents in a shared spreadsheet or Google Drive folder, and handle onboarding checklists in whatever project tool you already use. That covers the actual legal and operational requirements at that size for a fraction of BambooHR’s $250/month flat fee. If payroll compliance itself, not software, is the part that scares you (multi-state withholding, first hire in a new state, contractor-vs-employee classification), it’s often cheaper to hire a fractional HR or payroll specialist by the hour through a marketplace like Upwork for the specific setup task than to commit to a monthly HRIS subscription you’ll mostly leave idle.
Who Should NOT Buy Full HR Software Yet
Skip BambooHR, Rippling, or a PEO if you’re under 10 employees and don’t have multi-state payroll complexity, since the flat fees and per-employee minimums cost more than the problem they solve at that size. Skip a PEO specifically if you already have a group health plan you’re happy with, since you’re paying $79 to $125 per employee per month partly for benefits access you don’t need. Skip ThriveSparrow or any engagement tool if you can still name, from memory, how everyone on your team is doing this week, that’s a sign the problem it solves doesn’t exist yet at your size. And skip Rippling’s sales call entirely if you can’t yet answer “how many employees, which states, which modules” with confidence, since that call runs on your specifics, not a published price sheet.
How to Pick the Right Tool in Under 15 Minutes
- Count your actual headcount today, not your headcount in 12 months. Pricing tiers (BambooHR’s 25-employee cliff, TriNet’s per-seat model) are built around thresholds, and buying for a future headcount locks you into a higher bracket early.
- If your only pain is “run payroll correctly,” open Wave Payroll’s signup page and Gusto’s Simple plan side by side, and pick based on which one your existing bookkeeping already touches.
- If you need PTO tracking, onboarding documents, or an employee directory beyond payroll, get a real BambooHR quote before your headcount crosses 25, since that’s the exact point its pricing model changes underneath you.
- If a founder or manager literally cannot answer how their direct reports are feeling right now, test ThriveSparrow’s free one-on-one and feedback tier first, before paying $4 to $9 per employee per month for the full survey suite.
- If none of the above fit and you specifically need bundled health benefits for a tiny team with no HR staff, request quotes from both Justworks and Deel using the same headcount and state list, since the $79 versus $125 per-employee gap compounds fast past 15 people.
HR Software for Small Business: Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest HR software for a small business?
For pure payroll, Wave Payroll is the cheapest published option at $40/month base plus $6/employee. For a full HRIS with PTO tracking and employee records, BambooHR’s flat $250/month rate under 25 employees is the cheapest predictable option, though a spreadsheet plus payroll software covers most needs below 10 employees at no extra cost.
Do I need an HRIS if I only have 5 employees?
Usually not. At 5 employees, payroll software (Wave or Gusto Simple) plus a shared spreadsheet for PTO and documents covers the practical requirements. An HRIS earns its cost once you’re managing multiple state registrations, a layer of managers, or enough headcount that manual tracking starts causing errors, typically past 15 to 25 people.
Is ThriveSparrow a payroll or HR management system?
No. ThriveSparrow is an employee engagement and performance platform: surveys, 360-degree reviews, goal tracking, and peer recognition. It does not run payroll or manage PTO balances. If you need payroll or employee records, look at Gusto, Wave, or BambooHR instead.
How much does a PEO like Justworks or Deel actually cost per employee?
Justworks PEO Basic runs $79 per employee per month with no separate base fee; Deel’s US PEO runs $125 per employee per month. Both bundle payroll, group health benefits access, workers’ compensation, and compliance handling into that per-employee rate, which is why they cost several times more than standalone payroll software.
What’s the difference between HRIS and payroll software?
Payroll software’s job ends at running paychecks and filing payroll taxes. An HRIS adds employee records, PTO balances, onboarding workflows, and org charts on top, usually with payroll available as an add-on module rather than the core product. Gusto and Wave are payroll-first; BambooHR and Rippling are HRIS-first.
Why doesn’t Rippling publish its pricing?
Rippling sells HR, finance, and IT modules separately on top of a required core platform fee, and the combination of modules, headcount, and per-employee rates varies enough that the company routes every quote through a sales call instead of a public pricing page. Go into that call with your exact headcount, states, and module list ready.
