The best free and open source HR and payroll software
If you can run your own server, open source HR and payroll can cost nothing in license fees and keep your data fully in house. We weighted license cost, self hosting and data control, payroll depth, setup effort, and community support, then ranked the six that small teams actually deploy.
Reviewed by M. HALLORAN·Updated APRIL 2026·How we vet
Tools compared6
Criteria weighted5
Last reviewedJune 2026
Paid placements0
How we ranked the field
Scored on our five criteria, reweighted for self hosters: no license cost, real data control, payroll capability, setup effort, and the size and health of the community behind each project. See the full rubric →
No license cost30%
Self hosting and data control25%
Payroll capability20%
Ease of setup15%
Community and support10%
01
RANK
★ Editor’s Choice
Frappe HR
Best free all in one HR and payroll
Frappe HR is the most complete free option, with employee records, leave, attendance, and a built in payroll engine in one open source app. Self hosting is free under GNU GPL, and managed Frappe Cloud starts low if you would rather not run servers. Payroll tax logic still needs local configuration, which takes effort outside India.
Odoo Community is a free, LGPL licensed ERP whose HR apps cover employees, leave, recruitment, and timesheets. It shines if you also want accounting or inventory on one stack. Full payroll and some features are reserved for the paid Enterprise edition, so plan for add on development.
OrangeHRM Starter is a long running, free and open source HRIS covering leave, time, performance, and a simple ATS. It is approachable to install and use. Payroll is not in the free core and comes as a paid add on, so it suits HR records more than running pay.
TimeTrex Community pairs strong time and attendance with an integrated payroll engine, which is rare among free tools. The interface feels dated and setup is technical, but for shift heavy teams that want clock in data flowing into pay, it earns its place.
IceHRM is a tidy, easy to deploy open source HRIS with no user limits on the free edition. It handles leave, documents, and basic HR well. Payroll and richer modules sit behind the paid tier, so treat the free version as a clean people database.
Sentrifugo is a fully free HRMS with surprisingly broad modules, from onboarding to expense and asset management. Development has slowed and there is no native payroll, so it fits teams with IT support who want a no cost records system rather than a pay engine.