Free HR software 2026: 8 tools tested for SMBs

No free HR software handles French payroll. The 4 genuinely free plans, the 4 paid HRIS tools that take over, and the tipping point.

TL;DR

No free HR software handles French payroll, and that's the only thing you need to remember before comparing. What actually exists for free are permanent plans that manage employee files, time-off requests, and onboarding. Bitrix24 is the most complete, with unlimited users. ClickUp, Notion, and Airtable work if you're willing to build your own database. Beyond around fifteen employees, free plans break down and a paid HRIS starts around €4 HT per employee per month.

What does free HR software actually cover in 2026?

Free HR software covers the cold administrative side: employee records, documents, time-off requests, and onboarding workflows.

Everything else costs money, and for good reason. Generating a pay stub requires maintaining over 300 collective bargaining agreements, tracking every rate change, and filing the DSN (Déclaration Sociale Nominative) monthly to the official net-entreprises portal. Nobody funds that on a free plan. Any vendor promising free payroll is selling something else: a trial, a lead offer through an accounting firm, or an isolated module that leaves you filing declarations by hand.

So the real question isn't "which free HR software should I pick," but "how far do I push free before I pay." After setting up all eight tools on this list, here's my answer: free holds up to around ten employees, if you accept building part of the setup yourself and keeping payroll elsewhere.

Three categories dominate. Collaborative suites with generous free plans that bundle a solid HR module. No-code platforms where you build your own HRIS in an afternoon. Paid French HRIS platforms that start where the first two end.

The 4 genuinely free HR tools I recommend

These four tools offer a permanent free plan—not a disguised trial—and cover an HR scope you can actually use from week one.

Bitrix24, closest thing to a free HRIS

Best for: an SMB with 5 to 50 people wanting a directory, absences, and centralized documents without paying anything.

It's the only tool on this list whose free plan accepts unlimited users. You get the company directory, organizational structure, absence requests with approval workflows, shared storage, and task management. For a team jumping off Excel and WhatsApp threads, the step up is clear.

Limitations hit fast on storage, capped at 5 GB free, and on interface design. It's dense and loaded, with each piece less polished than a specialized tool. Plan for a solid half-day learning curve.

The first paid tier comes as a flat fee, not per seat, around $49/month for five users according to their public pricing. It's the most interesting model in the market once your team grows. Full details on Bitrix24.

ClickUp, for onboarding and HR workflows

Best for: a team already comfortable with project management who wants to industrialize onboarding and internal requests.

The Free Forever plan accepts unlimited members and unlimited tasks. In practice, you turn an onboarding into a reusable checklist template, and a time-off request into a form that automatically creates a task assigned to the manager. Clean and free.

Storage drops to 60 MB on the free plan, which rules out storing contracts and identity documents. The interface is rich enough to be intimidating, and I've seen several teams bail out for lack of naming conventions set from the start.

The Unlimited plan starts at $7 per member per month on annual billing according to their pricing page. Full feature breakdown on ClickUp.

Notion, custom employee file

Best for: a structure under 15 people wanting a readable employee database without paying and without being locked into rigid HR software.

The free plan offers unlimited space for individual use and around ten external guests. An "Employees" database with contract, start date, equipment issued, and documents fields, plus an onboarding page per role: you've got the essentials of an employee file in a few hours.

What Notion won't do: native approval workflows for time off, automatically decrementing leave balance, payroll-ready exports. Nothing is enforced, so everything degrades if no one keeps up internal conventions. Data is hosted in the US, which matters for HR data.

The Plus plan is €9.50 per member per month published on their pricing page. See Notion.

Airtable, structured employee database

Best for: anyone wanting clean, filterable HR data that connects to the rest of your stack.

The free plan accepts up to five editors and 1,000 records per base. For an SMB headcount, that's plenty: one row per employee, views by department, simple automations to flag trial period endings.

The 1,000-record limit fills faster than you'd expect once you add absence history. And per-seat cost jumps to $20/month on the Team plan. Full details on Airtable.

Skip in this category: the free plan on monday.com, limited to two seats, making it useless for HR. And Talkspirit, often listed as free when it's just a 15-day trial.

The 4 paid HR tools that take over

When free breaks down, four solutions cover the French market depending on your profile: modular HRIS, field teams, integrated payroll, or human support.

Eurécia, cheapest French HRIS entry point

Best for: an SMB with 11 to 500 employees wanting to structure time off, expense reports, and reviews without switching payroll providers.

Best scope-to-price ratio on the French market, starting at €4.20 HT per employee per month on the Business plan, with tiered pricing by headcount according to their pricing page.

Key thing to know before signing: zero payroll engine. You need a third-party tool or an accountant, and sync with Silae is one-way only. Modules sell by ten-user packs, initial setup is long, and several independent reviews call the interface dated. I went deep on all that in my full Eurécia review. Full profile: Eurécia.

Combo, for field teams

Best for: restaurants, retail, healthcare, any sector where schedules shift weekly and HR starts with actual hours worked.

Starting at €60/month per location on the Time plan, €80 on People which adds advanced time off, work-time modulation, and e-signature.

Real pricing isn't on their site: no public pricing tiers, and the time clock plus Silae connector bill separately, per employee. Trial is only 7 days. HR modules outside scheduling stay basic: the tool complements an HRIS, it doesn't replace one. My Combo review digs into the details. Full profile: Combo.

PayFit, payroll in-house without an accountant

Best for: a French SMB with 10 to 200 employees wanting control over payroll and to stop back-and-forths with their accounting firm.

Pay stubs, DSN filings, withholding tax, and over 350 up-to-date collective agreements. Higher tiers add time tracking, reviews, and expense reports, making it a full HRIS.

No public pricing: everything is custom quote, based on a base subscription plus per-employee cost. Add setup fees and annual commitment. That's my main complaint. Full profile: PayFit.

Nibelis, HRIS with dedicated consultant

Best for: a French SMB or mid-market company preferring a human contact over a self-service interface.

The support is the real product here: a dedicated payroll consultant, full HRIS scope, solid French legal compliance.

No public pricing, no free trial: you must talk to a sales rep, making it impossible to evaluate alone. Mobile app is poorly rated on the French App Store, interface looks dated next to newer HRIS platforms, and initial setup is flagged as complex. Full profile: Nibelis.

For large accounts and multi-country groups, ADP remains the reference, also by quote. And if your need is just time clocking, a tool like Buddy Punch will cost less than a full HRIS.

Comparison table of 8 HR tools

Here are all eight side-by-side, showing what their free plan really covers and the price of the first paid tier.

Pricing checked July 2026 from vendor public pricing. Custom quotes vary by headcount and scope.

Why no free HR software will ever handle your payroll

French payroll costs too much to maintain for a free plan—collective agreements, contribution rates, monthly DSN filing.

Every regulatory change must be pushed into the calculation engine, tested, then deployed before the next filing deadline. A vendor who misses an update exposes clients to audit penalties. This work is funded by subscription, not free plans.

Three options if you go free. Hand payroll to your accountant and use HR software just to prepare variables. Take a dedicated payroll tool alongside it. Or switch to a full HRIS once the double work costs more than the subscription, typically between 10 and 15 employees. I compared the supposed free tools in this segment in my piece on free payroll software: the conclusion is ironclad—none does French payroll for free.

What I learned building a free employee file

While testing these free plans for SaaS Radar, I built the same mock twelve-person employee file twice, once on Notion and once on Bitrix24.

On Notion, the database was ready in two hours, clean and pleasant to read. The wall came on day three: no way to auto-decrement a leave balance after approval. Workarounds exist with formulas, but they break the moment someone takes a half-day. I ended up maintaining the balance in a manually-updated column, which is exactly the problem I was trying to solve.

On Bitrix24, opposite. Three hours to understand the interface and set the organizational hierarchy, then the absence approval workflow worked first try, with the balance moving itself.

The lesson: if your top need is tracking time off, don't go no-code. Pick a tool that already has approval workflows built in. This topic deserves its own comparison, which I wrote here: time-off management software.

Second point verified during testing: retention periods. An employee file holds sensitive data, and the CNIL sets specific durations by document type. No free tool auto-purges. You set reminders yourself.

Which free HR software to pick by profile

The right choice depends on three variables: your headcount, whether you have field teams, and whether payroll is in-house or outsourced.

Under 10 employees with payroll at an accountant: Bitrix24 free. Directory, absences, and documents covered without spending a cent, with a clean exit path as the team grows.

Same headcount but already no-code culture: Notion for readability, Airtable for structured data. In both cases, keep time-off tracking elsewhere.

Between 10 and 50 employees in offices: Eurécia, the best French HRIS entry point, once you've solved the payroll question.

Field teams with variable schedules: Combo, regardless of headcount. No free tool handles work-time modulation.

Want to take payroll in-house: PayFit if you accept a custom quote, Nibelis if you want a consultant on the line.

Key takeaways

• No free HR software generates French pay stubs, and none ever will: regulatory maintenance costs prohibit it.
• Bitrix24 is the only free plan accepting unlimited users with an absence approval workflow that actually works.
• Notion and Airtable deliver an excellent employee file but leave you managing time-off balances by hand.
• The switch to paid plays out between 10 and 15 employees, with entry pricing around €4 HT per employee per month.
• Field teams fall outside the frame: scheduling and work-time modulation demand a dedicated tool from day one.