Frappe HR vs HollyHR

Frappe HR is open-source HR and payroll software for handling recruitment, employee lifecycle tasks, shifts and attendance, leave, expenses, performance, payroll, and income tax. Recruitment features cover staffing plans, job listings, applicant tracking, interviews, feedback, offers, and analytics. Payroll supports rule-based salary structures, bulk assignments, payroll runs, off-cycle payments, multi-currency payroll, employee loans, and timesheet-based payroll. Users can build custom forms, fields, workflows, reports, and dashboards with the Frappe Framework. The software integrates with ERPNext accounting and can connect to biometric tools, banks, and third-party software; a mobile app provides smartphone access. Its product page describes role-based permissions, audit logs, and activity trails. Frappe Cloud provides regular backups and encrypted communication. Frappe HR can be self-hosted using installation scripts and is licensed under AGPL-3.0. The software is listed at free, while hosting and implementation cost extra. Listed Frappe Cloud options start at $5 a month; self-hosted VPS costs are estimated to start around $40/month, with additional operating costs.

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.