Personio review and alternatives

It can be challenging for HR leaders to find the right HR software for their people. Maybe you’ve encountered Personio, an HR platform designed to handle recruitment, payroll, attendance, and other essential HR functions. While its all-in-one functionality is appealing, you might wonder if it meets your team’s needs.

To assist in your decision-making process, we’ll review Personio’s features, pros, and cons, and explore some viable HR software alternatives. Of course, we always recommend conducting your own research before making a final decision.

Key insights

• Employee utilization rate measures the percentage of time team members spend on revenue-generating activities, offering insight into productivity and efficiency
• Calculating this rate involves dividing actual billable hours by available hours, then multiplying by 100
• An optimal utilization rate of around 80 percent supports strong performance while protecting wellbeing, with factors like project planning, team size, and training all playing a role.

What is Personio used for? 

Personio is an HR software that provides solutions for HR management, talent management, and payroll. The platform is marketed to businesses of all sizes. It’s built to meet the specific needs of the German/DACH market and includes tools to drive employee engagement. 

Personio review

Personio key features

Source

• HR management: Handles processes such as onboarding, personnel support, and absence management
• Recruitment: Facilitates applicant tracking, document creation, and candidate communication
• Payroll integration: Automates preliminary payroll processes with options for integrations with external payroll software
• Performance management: Supports feedback and performance review processes
• Analytics and reporting: Provides reports and insights into HR metrics
• Integrations: Connects with over 200 apps
• Whistleblowing: Allows users to anonymously report issues 
• Compensation management: Provides visible performance data, salary bands, and built-in guidelines

Pros 

• Multiple HR functionalities in one platform
• Customizable to organizational needs
• Customers report the interface to be straightforward

Cons

• “It doesn’t have most of the features I’m used to from previous HR systems”
• “UX is simply far far behind what you’d expect”
• “It makes my job as a manager harder and adds non-value added manual tasks to my role”

Personio pricing plans  

Personio offers two plans, Core and Core Pro, but does not list pricing details on their website. 

Core includes: 

• Digital employee file management
• Advanced employee list
• Advanced document management (limited)
• Organizational management
• Creation and management of one legal entity 
• Preliminary payroll
• Preliminary payroll app
• Salary management
• Advanced custom reports
• Limited eSignature workflows
• Onboarding and offboarding workflows
• Role-based reminders
• Policies and approval workflows
• Personio marketplace (integrations you can use with Personio)
• Log in with Google single sign-on (SSO)
• Secure login
• Role-based data access control
• Absence management app
• Time and attendance tracking app
• Mobile app

Core Pro includes all of the above, plus: 

• Advanced document management (unlimited)
• Creating and managing unlimited legal entities
• Unlimited eSignature workflows
• Log in with open authorization (OAuth)
• Okta and Microsoft Entra ID integrations
• Access to public API

Personio reviews 

True to the published date of this blog, Personio holds a 4.3/5 star ranking from customer reviews on G2.

If you’re interested in a deeper exploration of individual Personio reviews, you can access further details on several review platforms:

• Personio customer reviews on G2
• Personio customer reviews on Capterra

Best Personio alternatives 

If you’re looking for additional HR software options, here are some great Personio alternatives. 

HiBob

HiBob is a dynamic alternative to Personio. HiBob’s award-winning platform helps growing companies streamline HR, payroll, and Finance workflows, so teams can scale with more clarity and confidence. With connected, real-time people data and AI-powered insights, HR and Finance can stay aligned on headcount plans, workforce costs, and the decisions that shape performance.

HiBob’s HR platform offers unique benefits compared to other vendors:

• Award-winning, modern user interface for both admins and employees
• Built to support global companies with multiple international sites
• Flexible and configurable for companies of 50-10,000+ people

In addition to Core HR, HiBob offers social tools to promote employee engagement, facilitate transparent communication, and build a cohesive team environment. HR leaders appreciate HiBob’s ease of use, modern design, and configurability.

Key features: 

• Core HR: Centralize and secure team member profiles, documents, and essential HR records in one place
• Finance: Connect people plans to budgets by modeling headcount and workforce costs and keeping HR and Finance working from the real-time data
• Hiring and Onboarding: Streamline the recruitment journey with applicant tracking, interview scheduling, candidate evaluations, offer letters, and guided onboarding workflows
• Payroll: Pay team members accurately and on time with automated calculations, approvals, and reporting that reduce manual work and support compliance
• Time and Attendance: Track hours, attendance, absences, and time off accurately with integrated time-tracking tools to ensure timely paychecks
• Performance and Learning: Conduct 360-degree performance reviews, set and track goals, and provide continuous feedback and then create, assign, and track learning journeys with the built-in LMS
• People Analytics: Gain workforce data to share info from KPIs, reports, proactive insights, and attrition indicators with other stakeholders

Learn more about HiBob

Rippling

Rippling offers a different angle on HR software., It integrates HR, IT, and finance management. Its HR Cloud focuses on managing and automating the employee lifecycle. Its IT Cloud handles the organization’s IT efforts, and its Finance Cloud helps teams manage and report spending.

Key features: 

• HR management: Automate the employee lifecycle, including onboarding, offboarding, and handling HR tasks such as compliance and document management
• Performance management: Assess team members with customizable review cycles, questions, and ratings
• Payroll: Hire, pay, and manage people in multiple currencies across different countries
• Talent recruitment: Streamline headcount planning, job posting, onboarding, offboarding, and backfilling
• Time and attendance: Track, review, and approve hours and overtime requests
• Surveys: Conduct surveys to measure employee satisfaction trends

Workday HCM

Workday HCM is a human capital management platform. It integrates common HR functions with advanced analytics and reporting tools to provide in-depth insights into workforce management. HR leaders can leverage Workday’s functionality to handle global workforce management, compensation management, and workforce planning.

Key features: 

• Human resource management: Supports multiple HR tasks including talent acquisition, benefits administration, and compensation management
• Workforce management: Automate tasks including time, attendance, and absence tracking
• Employee experience management: Provides insights and recommendations to team members
• Analytics and reporting: Generate comprehensive reports to compare data against global and industry benchmarks 
• Payroll management: Access continuous processing capabilities for global payroll
• Talent management: Deliver personalized experiences and drive workforce agility with AI- and ML-driven skills intelligence foundation
• Manager insights hub: View insights on ways to promote growth and engagement for teams

Factorial

Factorial handles common HR processes for talent management, document management, recruitment, time and payroll, expenses, and more. The platform offers several integration options and an open API for building custom integrations. 

Key features: 

• Talent management: Manage talent with a 360-degree feedback system, applicant tracking system, onboarding and offboarding checklists, and employee goal tracking
• Time and payroll: Manage hours, time off requests, shifts, and payroll for accurate salary processing
• Document management: Organize and secure essential HR documents
• Finance: Manage expenses for budgeting and financial planning
• Mobile app: Team members can clock in and sign documents on the go
• HR reports and KPIs: Generate real-time data on workforce and business trends
• Employee portal: Give teams access to all their personal information and documents

BambooHR

BambooHR covers HR system basics like performance management, automating onboarding and offboarding, and team member data. It also includes an employee wellbeing feature that gathers and analyzes feedback from team members. 

Key features: 

• Performance management: Access 360-degree feedback tools and customizable evaluation questions to support employee growth
• Employee experience management: Share eNPS surveys to generate anonymous employee satisfaction scores and create a community for internal communications
• HR data and reporting: Manage and analyze people data with automated reporting and analytics
• Hiring and onboarding: Use applicant tracking to streamline hiring and customizable onboarding workflows to integrate new hires
• Payroll, time, and benefits: Integrate payroll processing with time tracking, employee benefits management, and PTO tracking

The bottom line on Personio and Personio alternatives

Personio offers an all-in-one system of HR tools that can cater to many businesses. But, it may not fully satisfy your HR team’s goals. It’s important for teams to conduct their own research, attend some demos, and compare platforms to ensure the software aligns with their specific needs.

For organizations looking for an employee-centric experience that focuses on team member satisfaction, consider Bob. 

With HiBob, you can streamline HR processes like onboarding and offboarding, nurture a positive workplace environment, and tailor the software to meet your unique organizational needs. You also keep HR and Finance aligned with real-time people data for clearer visibility into headcount and workforce costs. AI-powered insights and guided support help reduce manual work and highlight trends sooner, so you can drive engagement and make faster, more consistent decisions from one platform.

Explore how HiBob can transform your HR management.

Disclaimer:
This content reflects HiBob’s perspective, informed by our experience supporting HR teams as they evaluate and implement HR software. It is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as independent research or professional advice. Prospective users should conduct their own evaluation before making a decision.

Feature descriptions, pricing references, and availability for third-party platforms are based on publicly available information at the time of publication and may change. HiBob does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of information related to third-party products. Prospective users should verify details directly with each provider.