Employment Hero vs HollyHR
Employment Hero
employmenthero.comHollyHR
hollyhr.comSide by side
| Figure | Employment Hero | HollyHR |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | £1/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 20 | 9 |
| Spec score · HR Software | 9.2 (#4) | 8.5 (#24) |
| API | Employment Hero exposes a RESTful JSON API using OAuth 2.0 bearer authentication; access tokens expire after 15 minutes and refresh tokens are supported. | The developer platform provides scoped REST API access, generated OpenAPI contracts, webhooks and a TypeScript SDK. |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Headquarters | Sydney, Australia | The registered office is 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, United Kingdom. |
| Integrations | Official integrations include Xero, MYOB AccountRight Payroll, QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, NetSuite, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and Slack. | Official connection options include Zapier, Make, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Claude, Google Calendar, Outlook, Xero Payroll UK and a Staffology Payroll preview. |
| Employee onboarding | Yes | Reusable onboarding packs create person-specific journeys with owners, relative due dates and right-to-work evidence. |
| Rating on Software Advice | 4.4 out of 5; review count is not shown on the opened page | No rating shown from 0 reviews |
| Support | The Help Centre provides step-by-step guides, troubleshooting, videos, webinars, interactive demos and topic areas covering recruitment, people, payroll, time, engagement, development and workflows. | Free users receive the help centre and email support; Standard adds priority support with a one-UK-business-day target. |
| What it does | Employment Hero provides an Employment Operating System combining HR, payroll, hiring and rostering, plus an employer-of-record service called HeroForce. | HollyHR is UK-focused core HR software for small teams covering employee records, leave, sickness, documents and onboarding. |
Plans
Employment Hero
- Pro 50Priced on request
- Pro 50Price not published
- Pro 100Priced on request
- Pro 100Price not published
- Pro 200Price not published
- Pro 200Priced on request
- HR Essentials$10 a month
- HR EssentialsPriced on request
- HR Engage$14 a month
- HR EngagePriced on request
HollyHR
- FreeFree
- Standard£2 a month
- Plus£4 a month
- FreeFree
- Charity Standard£1 a month
- Charity Plus£2 a month
- Plus (coming soon)£4 a month
- Standard annual£20 a year
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Employment Hero
Employment Hero is an HR service available on web, iOS and Android. Its listed capabilities include employee records, time-off management, onboarding, performance management and time tracking, with mobile apps available. HR Essentials includes leave management, employee and document records, onboarding and offboarding, policies and compliance tools, plus a help centre and chat support. HR Engage includes the Essentials features as well as recruitment, expenses, performance management, learning management and advanced HR. HR Elite includes Engage features, then adds talent development, advanced analytics and reporting, workflows, and advanced customisations, security and integration. The Pro tiers are described by AI video interview volume: Pro 50 includes 50 interviews, Pro 100 includes 100, and Pro 200 includes 200. The maker, Employment Hero, was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia. The listed plan details cover both HR administration and interview volumes, but do not provide plan prices.
HollyHR
HollyHR is core HR software for small UK teams, bringing people records, working patterns, leave, documents, starter processes and reports together. Teams can manage leave requests and approvals, balances, sickness records and UK public holidays, with a shared Who’s Away calendar. Reusable onboarding packs create individual journeys with due dates and owners; private files, right-to-work evidence and policy acknowledgements stay with employee records. Built-in headcount, turnover and time-off reports export as CSV or PDF. Organisation export includes CSV data, available uploaded files and a manifest. HollyHR connects with services including Zapier, Make, Slack, Microsoft Teams, Claude, Google Calendar, Outlook and Xero Payroll UK, with differing capabilities and availability. Approved leave can be sent to Xero after employees and leave types are matched, but salary, tax, bank, pay-run and employee-creation data do not sync. API reads and signed webhooks are available on every plan; creating records through the API or integrations requires Standard and System Admin permission. A free plan covers up to 10 active employees; Standard starts at £2/user/mo. The service runs on web and through an API.