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Best Sage HR Alternatives in 2025

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5 min read
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Deciding on the best Sage HR alternative can be difficult. With so many options available to digitize and automate your HR processes, how do you know which one would work best for your business? A good HR management tool offers a wide range of features, and it’s essential that you know what features your team needs to enhance their efficiency. Luckily, we’ve compared the top Sage HR alternatives for you! Now you can get an overview of what these platforms offer and make an informed decision. Let’s take a look at the best alternatives to Sage HR in 2025.

1. Factorial: All-in-one Platform

A look into Factorial's profile dashboard, the best all-in-one HR software for 2025.

Factorial is a business management platform created in Barcelona and designed for all company sizes, from small businesses to large companies. Its platform provides a comprehensive suite that encompasses all key areas of HR, from onboarding to payroll. You can automate essential workflows, saving you and your HR team time and effort.

What makes Factorial a great Sage HR alternative is its capabilities to create customisable reports, powerful talent management software, and an easy-to-use interface. Overall, a robust platform to handle all your business needs.

Featured Features

  • Time and attendance software: Manage PTO requests, absences and employee hours with one, unified platform. All time-related data will be easily accessible and manageable while giving managers and team members greater visibility into their schedules, and PTO balance, and more.
  • Centralised document management: Store and organise documents, including company SOPs, contracts, and personal employee information. Additionally, you can request that documents be electronically signed (100% legally binding).
  • Conduct performance evaluations: Encourage a feedback culture by setting customised performance cycles and conducting 360° performance reviews to gain deeper insights. With Factorial, you can generate AI summaries to get the main takeaways at a glance.

Key advantages

Factorial is a fantastic resource for both UK small businesses and larger companies – across all industries. It offers robust features that allow employers to manage their core business functions from one platform. This saves your team time from juggling different tools and searching for information across your tech stack. Save your team time, money, and the headache of navigating multiple tools and just do it from one.

Comparison: Factorial vs Sage HR

Feature Factorial Sage HR
Legal time control ✔️ Automatic and legally compliant ❌ Requires manual adjustments
Payroll ✔️ Native in select countries + 3rd party integrations ❌ Not native to the platform & requires integrations
Performance evaluations ✔️ Visual and configurable with 360° performance reviews ✔️ Less flexible & simple
Ease of use ✔️ Modern & intuitive with advanced customisation capabilities ✔️ Clean interface, but less intuitive
Pricing ✔️ Starts at £5.40 and offers a free 7-day trial ✔️ Tiered pricing based on number of employees and add-on features

📌 Interested in learning more about Factorial? Find out more here.

2. HiBob: Focus on organizational culture and employee experience

hibob leave management system

HiBob is a self-proclaimed people platform. It focuses on supporting companies with strong cultures and enhancing the employee experience. HiBob’s platform automates administrative processes and offers tools to boost productivity levels. Due to its social media-like and user-friendly interface, many users would claim HiBob as a great alternative to Sage HR.

Featured Features

  • Tailored for hybrid, remote global teams
  • Approval flows and automation for PTO requests
  • Offers work climate surveys and feedback tools to assess employee engagement
  • Employee portal and document access
  • Scalable platform for growing businesses

Key advantages

HiBob is recognized for its human-centric approach. It’s not limited to tracking hours or vacation time, but allows you to manage goals, track performance, and continuously measure the work environment. This makes it a powerful tool for strategically minded HR teams.

Another advantage is its automation system, which allows you to customize recurring actions (such as sending review reminders or signing documents upon completion of onboarding). It also features a simple yet efficient ATS, ideal for growing businesses.

3. Breathe HR: Well-suited for SMEs

Check out BreatheHR alternatives such as Factorial to automate your daily tasks.

BreatheHR is a UK-based HR software solution that is designed for small businesses. It’s a strong alternative to Sage HR thanks to its simplicity and user-friendly interface, which transforms complex workflows into simple, manageable tasks. It also offers an employee self-service portal, allowing your team to access their files from anywhere – even on mobile.

Featured Features

  • Create Rota shifts and automate the scheduling process
  • Monitor and track company expenses
  • Recruit top talent with their ATS features
  • Provide feedback, set goals, and track your team’s performance
  • Ensure compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR.

Key advantages

BreatheHR is a flexible platform for scaling companies; it easily adapts to meet your needs at whatever stage your business is at. Additionally, it offers a comprehensive reporting and analysis system. You can create custom dashboards with your company’s key metrics, including data on absences, turnover, and performance. BreathHR’s performance module allows you to tailor your performance review cycles to provide a positive employee experience. Moreover, you can set objectives, track progress, and store feedback all in the same spot. Ultimately, BreatheHR automates your HR processes so you can focus on making strategic impact to grow your team and business.

What to consider when choosing a tool?

Choosing HR software isn’t just a matter of digitizing processes. It’s about finding a tool that aligns with the company’s strategy , complies with local regulations, and facilitates both the HR department’s work and the employee experience.

Before choosing a platform, you should first ask yourself which HR processes you want to automate. What are your company needs? And, what is your company budget? Asking yourself these core questions will make it easier to come to a decision. Do you want a wide variety of digital tools or do you want to simplify your HR tasks with one solution?

In addition, when making your comparison, consider your employees’ feedback . What do they expect from such a tool? How can they get the most out of HR software as well?

Final thoughts: Sage HR alternatives

While Sage HR is a solid choice for UK businesses looking to automate their business functions. Tools like Factorial, HiBob, or BreatheHR should be considered for their unique features, flexibility, and scalability.

  • Factorial is an all-in-one, comprehensive business management software. It offers features that cover everything from payroll to performance management.
  • HiBob is the perfect solution for hybrid, remote, and global teams with a focus on employee engagement and flexibility.
  • BreatheHR is ideal for UK small businesses seeking simplicity and ease of use without going over budget.

👉 Get your free 7-day free trial of Factorial.

The Best Alternative to SageHR: Factorial

While Sage HR has been a popular solution, Factorial is the most balanced, comprehensive, and well-rounded option for all company sizes. Additionally, Factorial combines an intuitive interface with a suite of integrated features. It’s not about disconnected modules or difficult-to-implement tools, but rather a seamless experience where everything – from absences to performance reviews and document signing – is connected. This technological consistency facilitates adoption among non-technical teams and improves the employee experience.

Another important advantage is its transparent and scalable model. Factorial offers a clear pricing structure with no hidden costs, allowing companies to grow without having to reinvent their processes. While other solutions require additional modules for basic functionalities (such as digital signatures or approval workflows), this company includes these tools in its core offering, providing value from the start.

In short, if your company is looking for an HR platform that’s easy to use, supports multiple languages and currencies, legally secure, and is designed specifically to grow with your company, Factorial is the most comprehensive option. Especially for businesses looking to leave spreadsheets behind and start managing talent professionally and efficiently.

🚀 Get to know Factorial for free here.

Did you like this article? Mailan specializes in creating business management content that is accessible and easy to digest. She graduated from CSU Long Beach with a B.A. in Communications and later pursued her Masters at UPF in Barcelona with M.A. in Media and Communications. Her passions include learning languages, cooking, reading, and watching movies (everything minus horror). Check out Factorial's blog for more of her posts on time management in the office, tracking business expenses, and the latest HR news and trends.