HR Planner vs. HiBob: What’s better for small UK businesses?

If you’re ready to choose a new HR solution, you’re in the right place!

This unbiased comparison guide will walk you through how HR Planner compares to HiBob, so you can decide which is better suited to your business. We cover everything from features to pricing, so you’ll have all the information you need.

Let’s dive in!

HR Planner or HiBob: Key takeaways

Got limited time and need a brief overview? Here are the key takeaways to consider before revisiting our comprehensive comparison later:

HR Planner

  • No hidden costs – Priced at just £2.50 per user, per month. There are no hidden costs and users get full functionality.
  • User-friendly – HR Planner offers intuitive customisable dashboards and unlimited custom fields, allowing you to see key information instantly.
  • Tailored for SMEs – HR Planner was designed by an SME, so we know you’ll have all the features you need to manage your HR successfully.

HiBob

  • No low cover protection Without this feature, it can be difficult to manage staffing levels. Approving holiday will require manual checking to ensure you have cover for particular roles, skills or departments, should a team member submit a request.
  • Best for time and attendance tracking – If this is on your wish list, HiBob has this functionality.
  • Differing pricing – HiBob requires you to contact them for custom pricing. When contacted independently through our research, a minimum monthly cost of £550 (for up to 35 employees) was given.

User experience: HR Planner vs. HiBob

HR Planner

HR Planner offers an easy-to-use tool for SMEs, packed with customisable user experiences to make managing HR simple.

With over two decades industry experience working with SMEs, we have designed HR Planner to create a hassle-free experience  that can be tailored at an individual and company level:

  • Custom dashboards
  • Unlimited custom fields
  • Unlimited custom leave types
  • Custom role-based access
  • Custom reports

HiBob

HiBob offers a user-friendly interface which is clear and makes it easy to navigate a wide range of features.

It comes with customisable dashboards to make accessing information quick and easy. This flexibility makes it straightforward to match the unique needs of various businesses.

Key features: HR Planner vs. HiBob

Skills / certification management

HR Planner

HR Planner offers a skills management module designed for SMEs to make guiding your team’s development a breeze. It allows businesses to identify skill gaps, manage certification expirations and plan for upskilling opportunities.

Features include customisable skill types, expiration alerts for certifications and support for document storage related to skills. This helps to ensure staff are highly skilled and their individual development is fully supported.

HiBob

HiBob does not currently offer skills or certification management.

Low cover protection

HR Planner

HR Planner offers low cover protection as standard. This makes it easy to ensure your business has the right staffing levels at any one time, as a department or whole company.

For instance, it prevents employees booking time off if minimum staffing levels are already reached. This instantly prevents staff shortages and saves authorisers the time of checking multiple calendars or keeping spreadsheets updated to manage holiday requests.

HiBob

Low cover protection is not currently available with HiBob.

Surveys / forms

HR Planner

We’re excited to announce a new all-singing-all-dancing Survey & Forms module will be coming to HR Planner soon!

As part of our scheduled releases, users will be able to create everything from pulse surveys to training programmes, making managing onboarding and offboarding a doddle.

HiBob

HiBob makes it possible to carry out anonymous surveys to gather genuine employee feedback, identify areas for improvement and maintain employee engagement.

The platform offers built-in templates for ease of use, including the option to measure employee satisfaction. Results are accessible via a dashboard or a visual heatmap, with options to drill down into specific questions for more detailed insights, and are easy to share so leadership can take action.

Rotas, time & attendance

HR Planner

HR Planner offers a comprehensive rotas and working patterns tool, but does not currently offer time and attendance functionality.

Rotas let you assign shifts to your team, and customisable work schedules show who is working each day, to make managing your staff simple.

HiBob

HiBob makes it possible to track time and attendance. Employees can log their time wherever they are and manually edit the hours they worked.

The feature helps to monitor attendance, offering accurate record keeping for payroll and potential disciplinary issues.

Reports

HR Planner

With HR Planner you can quickly create bespoke reports using custom fields to see the information you need at the click of a button.

Choose from plenty of in-built user-friendly reports, designed with SMEs in mind, or use our Advanced Report Designer for a fully customisable solution. The designer allows you to tailor your reports with charts, gauges, bar codes and more, and export in various formats such as PDF, XLSX etc.

HiBob

HiBob has a pre-built reports template which allows users to instantly generate, schedule and share detailed reports.

Businesses can also customise reports and use data-driven insights to make informed decisions across all levels of the organisation.

Pricing: HR Planner vs. HiBob

HR Planner

For one simple, transparent price – only £2.50 per user, per month, you get full set up and access to HR Planner. For a company with 25 employees, this works out at just £62.50 per month.

Annual discount?

You can get a discount if paying annually, with pricing per user working out at just £2.29 per month.

HiBob

HiBob requires potential customers to contact them directly for pricing. Independent research found it to be £550 per month (for up to 35 employees), when reflecting a comparable plan to the features HR Planner offers. This works out at £15.71 per month, per user.

It is unclear as to whether features such as time and attendance would cost extra.

So, who’s better?

Well, this can only be decided by you – which solution best meets your business’ needs?

We always find customers value how easy HR Planner is to use and the fact that the system has everything an SME needs.

With one transparent price and no hidden costs, it couldn’t be any simpler to get started and our friendly UK-based team will support you every step of the way. 

If you’re unsure, why not sign up for a 14-day free trial? No credit card or commitment required. Alternatively, if you’d like to talk through your requirements with our team, give us a call on 01252 636070 or email support@hrplanner.uk.