HRIS per-employee-per-month benchmark, 2026
All 20 vendors, sorted by mid-PEPM
| Vendor | Provenance | Low | Mid | High | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho People | published | $3.00 | $5.00 | $8.00 | [1] |
| Sapling (Kallidus) | quote-only | $4.00 | $8.00 | $14.00 | [2] |
| BambooHR | quote-only | $6.00 | $10.00 | $18.00 | [3] |
| Gusto | published | $6.00 | $12.00 | $22.00 | [4] |
| Paychex Flex | published | $5.00 | $12.00 | $22.00 | [5] |
| Rippling | quote-only | $8.00 | $14.00 | $22.00 | [6] |
| HiBob | quote-only | $10.00 | $14.00 | $25.00 | [7] |
| Paycor | quote-only | $5.00 | $14.00 | $28.00 | [8] |
| Paylocity | quote-only | $8.00 | $16.00 | $28.00 | [9] |
| Paycom | quote-only | $10.00 | $18.00 | $30.00 | [10] |
| ADP Workforce Now | quote-only | $10.00 | $18.00 | $28.00 | [11] |
| Namely | quote-only | $12.00 | $18.00 | $30.00 | [12] |
| Deel | published | $5.00 | $19.00 | $29.00 | [13] |
| TriNet Zenefits | quote-only | $8.00 | $21.00 | $33.00 | [14] |
| Oyster HR | published | $29.00 | $29.00 | $29.00 | [15] |
| Remote.com | published | $29.00 | $29.00 | $99.00 | [16] |
| UKG Pro | quote-only | $20.00 | $30.00 | $40.00 | [17] |
| Workday HCM | quote-only | $25.00 | $35.00 | $45.00 | [18] |
| Justworks | published | $79.00 | $101.50 | $124.00 | [19] |
| Insperity | quote-only | $110.00 | $140.00 | $180.00 | [20] |
How to read this
The mid-PEPM column is the central buying-committee estimate. The low and high columns reflect the observed band: low for a Core-only deployment without modules, high for a full-suite deployment with all available add-ons. For published vendors (Gusto, Justworks, Paychex Flex, Zoho People, Deel, Remote, Oyster) the values cite the vendor's pricing page. For quote-only vendors the values are our own buying-committee estimates, derived from the vendor's stated pricing model and the observed market range for that archetype and seat band, and flagged as estimates rather than published list rates.
Remote and Oyster need a caveat that the other published vendors do not. Neither publishes an HRIS seat rate any more, so their band is drawn from the per-head platform lines they do publish: Remote Payroll at $29 per employee/month rising to US PEO from $99 per employee/month, and Oyster Global Contractors at USD 29 per contractor/month. Their Employer of Record headlines, $699 per employee/month at both vendors, are full legal employment rather than an HRIS seat and are deliberately excluded from the band, exactly as they were when both vendors still offered a free HR tier.
Apply a + 12% annual uplift across years 2 and 3 to model the typical 3-year contract economics. Across 3 years that compounds to roughly a 25% increase on the year-1 PEPM line.
PEPM normalisation across bundled vs modular vendors
The PEPM line is not directly comparable across vendor archetypes without normalisation. Three rules of thumb:
- For pure-PEPM vendors (Rippling, BambooHR, HiBob, Paylocity), the headline figure is the PEPM line itself.
- For base-plus-PEPM vendors (Gusto, Paychex Flex, Paycor), add base / headcount to PEPM at the relevant scale. Gusto Plus at 50 employees: $12 + $80/50 = $13.60 effective PEPM.
- For PEO vendors (Justworks, Insperity), the headline PEPM includes payroll, comp, HR support, and benefits administration. Strip the benefits-administration value to normalise against a pure HRIS PEPM.