Zoho People vs HourSquare: a low-cost suite HRIS against an all-in-one HR platform

What Zoho People costs

Zoho's own pricing page (checked 2026-10-05) shows the free plan as up to 5 users, or 3 for visitors in the USA, covering the employee database, leave and documents, with a 30-day trial on paid plans. The paid prices on that page are drawn by script, so the per-user figures here come from third-party summaries: paid tiers starting at USD 1.25 per user per month billed annually (USD 1.50 monthly) for Essential HR, rising to USD 4.50 annual or USD 5.00 monthly for Enterprise, with a five-user minimum on paid plans. Attendance, timesheets and shift configuration require the Professional tier or above; appraisals and OKRs need Premium; the learning module needs Enterprise. Payroll is not inside Zoho People: it is a separate Zoho Payroll product available in India, the USA, Canada and six GCC countries. HourSquare is free for now, with every module.

Where Zoho People is stronger

• Recruiting and performance reviews (appraisals and OKRs) exist in the suite; HourSquare has neither.
• Native iOS and Android apps today; HourSquare is a responsive web app with a phone layout and no native app.
• A public API and native integrations with the rest of Zoho (CRM, Recruit, Payroll) plus tools such as Microsoft Teams and Adobe Sign; HourSquare offers a public REST API for time clocks, employees and time entries, calendar feeds and exports, but no chat or e-signature integrations.
• Choice of data-center region at signup, useful if you need data held outside the EU.

Where HourSquare is stronger for a self-serve team

• Nothing is tier-gated: timesheets, shift schedules, surveys, pulse surveys and the whistleblowing channel are all in the one bundle.
• Payroll lives in the same product as time and leave, with pay runs, payslips, payment and accountant exports, and tax packs for 24+ countries.
• A free start for every module, where Zoho's free plan stops at 5 users, with no trial expiry and no card to sign up.
• Documented roles and per-employee permissions, an audit log of sensitive-data reads and record changes, per-company SSO with enforce mode, 2FA and passkeys. Zoho People's public features page does not name an org chart, a roles model or an audit log, so we could not compare those rows.
• EU hosting with GDPR-native export and deletion, without having to choose a region.

Moving from Zoho People

There is no automated migration between the two products. Export your employee list and reports from Zoho People as spreadsheets, then set up HourSquare yourself: signup and setup are self-serve. Leave policies, reporting lines and onboarding templates are re-created in HourSquare rather than transferred. If you later leave HourSquare, you can export the employee list and reports as CSV or Excel, and each person's data, from the product.

How to decide

1. Count your team. HourSquare is free for now with everything included; Zoho's free plan stops at 5 users and its paid tiers gate the modules you probably want.
2. Check where you run payroll. If it is not India, the USA, Canada or the GCC, Zoho Payroll does not cover you; HourSquare ships tax packs for 24+ countries.
3. List what you need from the Zoho suite. If CRM, Books or Recruit are central to your business, staying inside Zoho has real value.
4. Decide whether recruiting or performance reviews are must-haves. HourSquare does not have them.
5. Check whether a native mobile app or a broad public API is a requirement today; HourSquare has no native app, and its API covers time clocks, employees and time entries only.