Category pricing · HR, payroll, and hiring software
HR and hiring pricing — every ATS, every payroll platform, every assessment tool
Every product in this category bills on a different unit (recruiter seat, employee, assessment, hire) — total cost is opaque without per-unit modelling.
34 tools in this category. Every row in the table below links to the full per-tier pricing page for that vendor, with hidden fees, recommended tier by team size, and tier-jump pain spelled out.
About HR, payroll, and hiring software
HR and hiring SaaS has the densest pricing of any category we cover because every product targets a different sub-stage of the employee lifecycle and bills on a different unit. ATSs (Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby) price per recruiter seat with job-slot ceilings; HRISs (Rippling, Gusto, Deel, BambooHR) price per employee with payroll, benefits, and IT modules sold separately; pre-employment assessment tools (Codility, HackerRank, TestGorilla) price per assessment or per hire. The pages below cover all three layers with the per-unit math at common team sizes. For most growth-stage companies, the dominant cost line is the per-employee HRIS bill plus payroll, which routinely lands 25-40 USD per employee per month all-in.
34 hr, payroll, and hiring software compared
Entry-tier price below is the cheapest paid per-seat or per-month tier each vendor publishes. Custom-quote tiers and usage-based add-ons aren't included; click any tool to see the full per-tier breakdown.
Best for
- Founders choosing first paid HRIS (Rippling vs Gusto vs Deel vs BambooHR)
- Talent teams sizing Greenhouse vs Lever vs Ashby
- Engineering hiring managers comparing Codility / HackerRank / TestGorilla
What to evaluate
- Per-employee / per-recruiter / per-assessment list price
- Module bundling (payroll, benefits, IT, equity, time tracking)
- Job-slot or candidate-volume ceilings
- International employer-of-record cost (if global hiring)
Frequently asked questions
Is Rippling or Gusto cheaper for a 25-person US-only team?
Rippling Core is 8 USD per employee per month base + payroll module (8 USD per employee per month) + benefits administration (varies); 25 employees on core + payroll is roughly 400 USD per month base. Gusto Simple is 40 USD per month base + 6 USD per employee per month, so 25 employees is 190 USD per month base. Gusto is roughly half the per-employee list at this team size; Rippling differentiates on the unified-platform model (HRIS + IT + finance in one) which Gusto doesn't offer.
What does Greenhouse cost for a 5-recruiter team?
Greenhouse does not publish per-seat list pricing — quotes are sales-led. Third-party reports consistently land Greenhouse Essential at 6,000-9,000 USD per year per recruiter (500-750 USD per recruiter per month). For 5 recruiters that's 30K-45K USD per year. Lever (also sales-led) typically lands 20 percent cheaper. Ashby (the SMB-friendly competitor) publishes pricing starting at 400 USD per month for 1 recruiter + 100 candidates with transparent per-recruiter overages.
How much does an employer-of-record (EOR) like Deel actually cost?
Deel EOR is typically 599 USD per employee per month for a single full-time international hire, with custom pricing for 50+ employees. Remote.com is 599 USD per employee per month at the standard tier. For a US company hiring its first 5 international employees, the all-in EOR cost is roughly 36K USD per year. EORs are usually cost-justified when the alternative is opening a foreign legal entity (60-100K USD setup + ongoing compliance).