Line item / hris pepm benchmark

HRIS per-employee-per-month benchmark, 2026

The 2026 PEPM range across the 21 vendors on hriscost.com runs from $1.50 (Zoho People Essential HR) to $140+ (Insperity PEO admin fee). Published-list SMB vendors cluster at $4-$10. Mid-market vendors land $10-$25. Enterprise platforms (Workday, UKG Pro) run $25-$45. PEO admin fees (Justworks, Insperity) sit in a separate band because the headline figure bundles benefits administration.

All 21 vendors, sorted by mid-PEPM

VendorProvenanceLowMidHighSource
Deelpublished$0.00$4.00$12.00[1]
Oyster HRpublished$0.00$4.00$10.00[2]
Remote.compublished$0.00$4.00$10.00[3]
Zoho Peoplepublished$1.50$5.00$10.00[4]
Sapling (Kallidus)quote-only$4.00$8.00$14.00[5]
BambooHRquote-only$6.00$10.00$18.00[6]
Gustopublished$6.00$12.00$22.00[7]
Paychex Flexpublished$5.00$12.00$22.00[8]
Ripplingquote-only$8.00$14.00$22.00[9]
HiBobquote-only$10.00$14.00$25.00[10]
Paycorpublished$5.00$14.00$28.00[11]
Paylocityquote-only$8.00$16.00$28.00[12]
Paycomquote-only$10.00$18.00$30.00[13]
ADP Workforce Nowquote-only$10.00$18.00$28.00[14]
Namelyquote-only$12.00$18.00$30.00[15]
TriNet Zenefitsquote-only$8.00$21.00$33.00[16]
UKG Proquote-only$20.00$30.00$40.00[17]
Workday HCMquote-only$25.00$35.00$45.00[18]
Justworkspublished$59.00$84.00$109.00[19]
Insperityquote-only$110.00$140.00$180.00[20]
Mid PEPM is the buying-committee central estimate for a mid-market deployment. Published values cite list. Quote-only values cite buying-committee evidence with explicit disclosure.

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, Paycor, Zoho People, Deel, Remote, Oyster) the values cite the vendor's pricing page. For quote-only vendors the values cite buying-committee evidence captured from public deal-leakage references like Vendr and Spend Match.

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.

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