Sesame HR

Reshape your team's work experience

Payroll HR & Recruiting HR Management Time Tracking www.sesamehr.com

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Founded

2015

Starting Price

$3.75

About Sesame HR

Sesame HR is an all-in-one HR platform for small and mid-sized companies that combines time tracking, absence and shift management, recruitment, performance reviews, and payroll support in one modular system. Every plan includes a Core layer (org chart, document manager, onboarding/offboarding, contract management, digital signatures) and teams add only the modules they need. Founded in Valencia, Spain in 2015, it now serves more than 20,000 customers across Europe and the Americas.

Pros & Cons

Pros

Modular pricing means you pay only for the HR functions you actually switch on, and can start with time tracking for under $4 per employee
Entry pricing undercuts most all-in-one HR suites, with a Core layer (org chart, documents, e-signature, onboarding) bundled into every plan rather than sold separately
Clocking in works across web, mobile, QR code, and physical terminals, which suits shift-based and on-site teams that competitors often ignore
Consistently high review scores for hands-on onboarding and responsive support (4.7/5 on Capterra, 4.5/5 on G2 as of early 2026)
Strong compliance orientation for European labour law, including inspection-ready time records and overtime balances
14-day free trial with no card required, so you can test the modules before committing

Cons

The modular flexibility makes initial configuration tedious — reviewers report a slow setup before the system fits their processes
Plan minimums (from $56.25/month) mean very small teams under roughly 15 employees pay more per head than the headline rate
SSO and API access are gated to the top Scale plan, so integrating with your existing stack costs the most expensive tier
Not a true global payroll engine — it tracks payroll incidents and feeds data to payroll rather than running multi-country payroll itself
Managing multiple companies or entities in one account requires significant extra configuration
Product and support depth is strongest in Spanish-speaking markets, which can show in localization and documentation elsewhere

Key Features

Time tracking and clock-in

Employees clock in and out from web, mobile app, QR code, or a physical terminal, with optional geolocation and break tracking. Includes a live Who's In panel, hours dashboard, and export-ready reports for labour inspections.

Time off and holiday management

Online leave requests with approval workflows, multiple absence types, remaining-balance visibility, a shared team calendar, plus absenteeism and overtime-balance reporting.

Shift scheduling

Drag-and-drop visual timetable with rotation patterns, bulk assignment, shift swaps between employees, and AI-assisted schedule generation.

Recruitment (ATS)

Branded job portal, Kanban candidate pipeline, talent pool, collaborative scorecards, automated candidate emails, and AI CV screening.

Performance management

Goals and OKRs, 180-degree and 360-degree evaluations, an editable 9-box talent grid, continuous feedback, and structured 1:1 meeting tracking.

Core HR and employee records

Central employee database, organizational chart and directory, contract management, 3 GB document manager, onboarding and offboarding checklists, and one digital signature per employee per month included.

Culture and engagement

Workplace climate surveys, eNPS measurement, peer recognition, and an internal communication feed to keep distributed teams aligned.

Payroll support and expenses

Payroll incident tracking that feeds verified hours, absences, and overtime to payroll, plus expense and per-diem control so finance works from HR data instead of spreadsheets.

Training (LMS)

Built-in learning management with learning paths, AI-generated courses, and completion certificates, available as an add-on module.

Sesame AI

AI add-on layered on top of any plan for tasks like shift scheduling, CV screening, course generation, and HR data summaries.

Mobile apps and workspace booking

iOS and Android apps for clocking in, requesting time off, and viewing schedules, plus desk and meeting-room booking for hybrid offices.

Pricing

Essential

$3.75/user/month

Billed annually (20% cheaper than monthly)
Minimum spend $56.25/month
Sesame Core: org chart, directory, document manager (3 GB)
Onboarding/offboarding and contract management
Digital signature (1 per employee/month)
Time tracking (Business tier)
Time off and holidays (Business tier)
Shift scheduling (Business tier)
iOS and Android apps

Connect

$4.25/user/month

Everything in Essential
Minimum spend $63.75/month
Recruitment / ATS (Business tier)
Internal communication (Business tier)
Tasks (Business tier)

Growth

$6.25/user/month

Everything in Connect
Minimum spend $93.75/month
Core upgraded to Enterprise tier
Time tracking and time off at Enterprise tier
Performance management (Business tier)
Culture and engagement surveys (Business tier)
Most popular plan

Scale

$7.00/user/month

Everything in Growth
Minimum spend $105.00/month
Internal communication at Enterprise tier
Performance management at Enterprise tier
SSO included
API access included
Advanced data controls and security

Custom

Build a plan module by module with a Sesame expert
Mix Business and Enterprise tiers per module
Add-ons such as Training (LMS) and Sesame AI
Pay only for the modules you use

Best For

Shift-based teams needing compliant time records

Hospitality, retail, and clinic teams clock in via QR, terminal, or app, and managers get inspection-ready hour reports and overtime balances without chasing paper timesheets.

Replacing spreadsheets at a growing SMB

A 30 to 200-person company consolidates employee records, contracts, leave requests, and onboarding checklists into one system, starting with the Essential plan and adding modules as HR maturity grows.

Hiring without a separate ATS

HR teams that only make a handful of hires a year run a branded job portal and Kanban pipeline inside the same tool they use for time off, instead of paying for a standalone recruiting platform.

Building a performance review cycle from scratch

Companies formalizing appraisals use OKRs, 180/360-degree evaluations, the 9-box grid, and 1:1 tracking to run a first structured review cycle.

Feeding clean data into payroll

Finance teams pull verified hours, absences, overtime, and expense claims from Sesame each month so payroll incidents are logged in one place rather than emailed.