Best free HR software for teams under 10 employees (2026)

What "free" means in 2026

Vendors use the word four ways. Free for now: HourSquare. A free plan with a seat cap and no time limit: TalentHR up to 10 users, Zoho People up to 5. A free trial: CharlieHR gives 7 days. A demo request: Personio and HiBob do not publish prices, and BambooHR states no free plan or trial on its pricing page. Deel HR is no longer on the free list: its own pages show no free plan, although older guides still call it free. Always check which one a vendor means before you evaluate it.

Free plans worth evaluating

HourSquare: every module free for now

HourSquare is free for now with every module, no card to sign up and no trial expiry. You register and set it up yourself; no demo or sales call is needed. It includes the employee directory and org chart, documents, leave policies with accrual, timesheets and shift patterns, native payroll with payslips and tax packs for 24+ countries, onboarding and offboarding templates, surveys and pulse surveys, an anonymous whistleblowing channel, a reports hub with exports, SSO, 2FA with passkeys and an audit log. Gaps to know about: no performance reviews, no applicant tracking, a public API that covers time clocks, employees and time entries only, and no native mobile app (the web app has a phone layout).

TalentHR: free up to 10 users, 15-seat minimum on paid

TalentHR (from Epignosis, the maker of TalentLMS) has a free plan for up to 10 users with no time limit that includes an ATS, onboarding and time off, plus a native anonymous whistleblowing channel from the Essential tier. Paid plans are USD 2 and USD 4 per user per month but require a 15-user minimum, so an 11-person team pays for 15. There is no payroll, and time tracking, performance and surveys are on the Premium tier only.

Zoho People: free up to 5 users

Zoho People has a free plan for up to 5 users (3 for visitors in the USA) covering the employee database, leave and documents, and paid tiers from USD 1.25 per user per month billed annually; the vendor page draws its prices by script, so that figure comes from a third-party summary. The cap is tight, and payroll is a separate Zoho product limited to India, the USA, Canada and the GCC. It makes most sense if you already run Zoho CRM or Zoho Books.

Trials, demo requests and paid-only (not free plans)

Deel HR is not free any more: its own HR page lists Core at USD 5 per employee per month, with Advanced and Elite tiers above it, and no free plan is named on deel.com as of 2026-10-05, although older guides still call it free under 200 employees. It is the entry point to paid products priced per worker per month: contractors from USD 49, EOR from USD 599, ATS from USD 14, and it fits teams that hire across several countries. CharlieHR offers a 7-day trial and then banded GBP pricing from £5/month (promotional) for 1–4 people. BambooHR states no free plan or trial on its pricing page and starts at USD 10 per employee per month, with a flat rate from USD 250/month for companies with 25 or fewer employees. Personio and HiBob do not publish prices; HiBob's pricing page is a demo-request form. If you have under 10 employees and want to evaluate without commitment, the free plans above are the shortlist.

Decision framework

• Need pay runs and payslips inside the free plan? HourSquare is the only option on this list that includes them.
• Need an ATS on a free plan? TalentHR.
• Already run Zoho CRM or Zoho Books? Zoho People.
• Hiring across several countries and planning to buy payroll or EOR? Deel, which is paid.
• Need payroll tax packs for 24+ countries, with public holidays and the work week set per workplace? HourSquare.
• Want every employee free above 10 users? HourSquare is free for now. TalentHR stops at 10 users and Zoho at 5. TalentHR's paid plans start at USD 2 per user with a 15-user minimum.