Most small companies do not have an HR department. They have a founder, or whoever happens to be free on payroll day, plus a spreadsheet that has quietly become a system of record.
That is the gap the current generation of HR software closes. Rather than hiring a people team, a small business buys a platform that runs payroll, tracks leave, stores contracts and answers the employee question that would otherwise land in a founder's inbox at 9pm.
This guide compares eight platforms used by small employers, with the prices each vendor publishes on its own site.
How this list was put together
Every figure below comes from the vendor's own pricing page; where a vendor does not publish numbers, that is stated rather than filled in from a comparison site. AI descriptions are quoted from the vendors' product pages, including the ones still flagged as early access.
1. Gusto — payroll, benefits and HR for US small business
The best-known payroll platform for American small businesses, covering payroll runs, tax filings, benefits administration and basic HR policies in one account. It is the safe default for a US company with fewer than 100 staff.
Tiers are published: Simple at $49 per month plus $6 per person, Plus at $80 plus $12, and Premium at $180 plus $22. Gusto's help centre describes Gus, an AI assistant that answers payroll, benefits and HR questions from the Help Centre, plus Cofounder, an AI partner that can prepare payroll and run scheduled tasks. Cofounder is free during early access, with pricing to be announced.
Why it made the list: the clearest picture of AI inside small-business payroll — with a real early-access caveat.
2. Homebase — free scheduling with AI on the paid tiers
Built for hourly teams rather than office staff, so scheduling, time clocks and shift communication come first and payroll sits on top.
Plans are Basic $0, Essentials $30, Plus $70 and All-in-One $120 per location per month. Payroll is an add-on at $49 per month plus $6 per employee (first six months free), and Homebase Hiring Assistant starts at $99 per month. The $70 Plus tier is where the AI-powered Scheduling Assistant appears, so AI is not on the free plan.
Why it made the list: per-location pricing keeps costs flat as your team grows, which rarely happens in HR software.
3. BambooHR — per-employee HR records with a built-in assistant
An HR system of record rather than payroll-first software: employee profiles, onboarding, time off, performance and reporting. It fits once you have 20 or more people.
BambooHR prices per employee per month: Core from $10.25, Pro at $17.50 and Elite at $25, with flat monthly rates of $250, $425 and $650 for very small headcounts. Its Bamboo AI layer includes an AI Assistant that lets an "AI-powered sidekick answer everyday HR questions, from PTO to holidays, using your company data".
Why it made the list: the assistant answers from your own records rather than generic HR advice.
4. CharlieHR — UK HR admin priced by headcount
A deliberately simple UK HR platform covering holiday, documents, onboarding and employee records, for teams without an HR manager on payroll.
CharlieHR publishes a headcount table: from £21 per month for one to four people, £47 for five to fourteen, £108 for fifteen to twenty-nine and £185 for thirty to forty-nine. Recruitment is a separate product from £55 per month, and the £200 Grow plan adds AskCharlie AI.
Why it made the list: it prices by headcount band rather than per seat, so cost stays predictable as you hire.
5. BrightHR — HR advice with an always-on AI chatbot
UK HR software with an employment-law helpline attached, for employers who need someone to ask when a contract or a disciplinary gets complicated.
Three plans are published: Core HR from £16.67 per employee per month (£83.35 per month), Enhanced from £21.20 (£106) and Full from £31.30 (£156.50), all excluding tax. The AI sits in Brainbox+, described as answering "11,000+ HR and H&S questions in seconds", and the homepage line is "Created by experts. Powered by AI."
Why it made the list: the chatbot is paired with real advisers, so an answer can be escalated rather than trusted blindly.
6. Employment Hero — HR, payroll and hiring in one platform
A broader platform combining HR records, payroll, rostering, benefits and a hiring pipeline, strongest for Australian, New Zealand and UK employers.
Core modules are HR Essentials $10 per month, HR Engage $14 and Payroll $10, with conditions attached. Add-ons are per employee with monthly minimums: chat $2, rostering $4, HR advisory $14, managed payroll $20. The Employment Hero AI Recruitment Agent claims to "screen thousands of candidates, delivering ranked shortlists in minutes", and Hero AI is threaded through payroll and rostering.
Why it made the list: the module prices are real, but the minimums on every add-on are the part most teams miss.
7. Rippling — modular HR, payroll and IT from $8 per employee
Rippling bundles HR, payroll, benefits, device management and finance on one employee record, so a change in one place propagates everywhere.
Rippling states that plans start at $8 per employee per month with a monthly base fee, with most configuration a custom quote. Its AI is positioned as an assistant across the platform: "Ask Rippling AI anything across all your data".
Why it made the list: the $8 headline is per module, so budget for the base fee and each extra module.
8. Deel — payroll and HR for globally distributed teams
Deel handles contractors, employer-of-record employment and global payroll in more than 150 countries.
Published starting prices are $14 per worker per month for hiring and HR, $49 per contractor, $125 per US PEO employee and $599 per employee on employer-of-record, with the $14 tier including AI-powered screening, offer generation and interview summaries.
Why it made the list: the AI screening earns its fee precisely where the manual version is painful.
Three worth knowing, and why they are not in the main eight
Two more worth a look: Personio publishes a Core plan from €7.60 per employee per month for European employers, and Justworks prices payroll at $8 per employee per month plus a $50 base fee, with PEO plans at $79 and $124 per employee, though it names no AI on its own pages. HiBob and Payfit market an AI assistant yet publish no figures at all, and Breathe HR describes Breathe AI as already live in early access without publishing a price.
What the pricing shapes tell you
There are three models here and they behave differently as you grow. Per-employee pricing rises with headcount, cheap for a team of five and expensive at fifty. Per-location pricing stays flat as you add staff, which suits shift-based businesses. Headcount-band pricing sits between the two and jumps in steps you can plan for.
The second thing to watch is what is bundled. Gusto, BambooHR and Deel fold AI into the plan; Homebase and Employment Hero charge for it as an add-on with its own minimum. A cheap headline plus a $99 add-on is not a cheap platform.
Separate the shipping AI from the roadmap
Not everything labelled AI is generally available. Gusto's Cofounder is early access for invited customers and free only while in that state, and Breathe HR describes its assistant as "already live in early access". What ships today is narrower and more useful than the demos: answering policy questions from your own handbook, drafting a shortlist, building a schedule, flagging an odd pay run before you approve it.
How to choose without sitting through five demos
Start with the constraint, not the feature list. US-only and hourly-heavy means payroll plus scheduling is the whole problem, which points at Gusto or Homebase. UK-based with salaried staff makes employment-law questions the risk, which points at BrightHR or CharlieHR. If your team is spread across countries, the contractor-versus-employee question decides it.
Then check one thing in each trial: ask the assistant a question whose answer you already know. If it answers from your own handbook and links to the source, the layer is real.
The Honest Takeaway
The AI in small-business HR software is doing three useful jobs: answering policy questions without a human, drafting hiring and payroll paperwork, and catching errors before money moves.
Buy the platform for the payroll and compliance work it does reliably, and treat the AI assistant as the bonus. For a team of five to fifty, the price gap between the cheapest and most expensive option here is about the cost of one administrator's afternoon per month.