HR software for startups, from your first hire to your fiftieth
The hiring pipeline, the signed contracts, the leave and the reviews in one record per person — free for your first 3 people, €2 per person per month after that.
Where Growee fits, and where it does not
Growee does not run payroll or file payroll taxes anywhere, the United States included — BambooHR names payroll among what it unifies (as of August 2026). Option grants and the cap table stay in your cap-table tool, and there is no candidate-sourcing database or one-click posting to dozens of job boards. Growee holds the rest: the hiring pipeline, employee records, signed documents with expiration dates, leave and reviews.
Three things this actually replaces
Usually a hiring spreadsheet, a folder of copied offer letters, and promotion decisions made from memory.
Hiring comes in bursts, so it is priced per use
A round closes and twelve people join in six weeks, then two quarters of nothing. Growee prices hiring by what you use: €10 per job post, €1 per candidate. A quiet quarter costs nothing.
- Careers page published in one click; candidates apply straight into the pipeline
- Pipeline stages you shape yourself, moved with drag-and-drop
- Import a candidate from a CV or LinkedIn; one action converts the hire into an employee record
The offer goes out the day it is agreed
Offer letters, contracts, NDAs and raise annexes start as templates with variables: employee name, salary, company details. The document assembles itself from the record instead of being retyped from the last person's file.
- Templates scoped to contract types, with auto-generate the moment a person is added
- E-signature by link in the browser, no account for the signer
- The signed file stays on the record, with expiration alerts by email before the date passes
E-signature is on the paid plan; document templates and expiration alerts are not. See e-signature →
Reviews start before someone asks about promotion
Around twenty people, someone asks what the next level looks like here. Founders who answer from memory end up renegotiating salary one conversation at a time.
- Evaluation types you define yourself, from technical assessments to salary reviews
- Evaluators per evaluation, with reminders so nothing gets missed
- Salary changes, promotions and role updates recorded in the review land on the employee timeline
Growee vs BambooHR vs TalentHR
Both incumbents run dedicated startup positioning, which makes them the natural head-to-head. Every cell states only what the vendor publishes on its own pages; where a vendor does not publish something, the cell says so rather than guessing.
BambooHR figures and quotes as of August 2026, from bamboohr.com/hr-solutions/startups and bamboohr.com/pricing: Core $10 per employee/month, Pro $17, Elite $25; companies with 25 or fewer employees pay a monthly flat rate starting at $250; flexible month-to-month or extended terms with no annual contract required; the startups page states support from the first hire up to roughly 1,000 employees and names payroll among what it unifies. TalentHR figures as of August 2026, from talenthr.io and talenthr.io/pricing: Free at $0 for up to 10 users with no credit card, Essential $2 per user/month and Premium $4 per user/month (annual-billing rates; monthly billing costs more), both with a 15-user minimum changing in 5-user increments, monthly or annual billing with annual advertised as saving 20%. Rows marked “not published on the pages we checked” mean exactly that — we did not find the claim on the vendor's own site, not that the product lacks the feature. Growee figures are our live plans: free for up to 3 people, then €2 per person per month (€20 per person per year). Growee is priced in euros and both incumbents in dollars.
Explore the pieces
Hiring
Job posts, careers page, pipeline.
See hiringE-signature
Sign by link in the browser.
See e-signatureDocument management
Expiration dates and alerts.
See document managementLeave management
Requests, balances, planner.
See leave managementEvaluations
Review types you define, reminders.
See evaluationsPricing
Published, per person.
See pricingHR software for startups: common questions
What is the best HR software for startups?
If payroll has to run inside the same product, BambooHR is the stronger pick — its startups page says it unifies hiring, onboarding, payroll and people data, and it states support from your first hire up to roughly 1,000 employees (as of August 2026). If payroll already lives with a provider or an accountant, Growee covers hiring, records, documents, leave and reviews at €2 per person per month, free for the first 3 people, with no seat minimum.
Does Growee run payroll?
No. Growee is not a payroll processor and does not file payroll taxes in any country, the United States included. It holds the input side: hours logged against projects, approved leave and balances, contracts, and salary or role changes recorded in an evaluation. The payroll run itself happens at your provider or with your accountant.
How much does HR software cost for a 20-person startup?
On Growee, 20 people is €40 a month at €2 per person, or €20 per person a year, with no seat minimum. Hiring is billed separately at €10 per job post plus €1 per candidate. For comparison (as of August 2026): BambooHR publishes Core at $10 per employee per month, with companies of 25 or fewer billed at a flat rate starting at $250 a month, and TalentHR publishes Essential at $2 per user per month with a 15-user minimum. Growee is priced in euros and both incumbents in dollars, so read this as a comparison of pricing shape rather than an exchange-rate calculation.
One record per person, from offer to review
Free for up to 3 people, then €2 per person per month. No seat minimum, no annual contract.
No credit card required · Free for up to 3 people · Keep your payroll provider