HR · head to head
Personio vs Sesame HR
Sesame HR
HR
Spanish HR and time recording platform built around the legal obligation to record daily working hours
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Personio payroll processing only available in Germany, UK, and Ireland, limiting multi-country deployment; Sesame HR there is no payroll calculation, so the payroll relationship stays with an external gestoria or payroll system and Sesame is only feeding it data.
- They diverge on capability: Personio covers HR Management, Sesame HR covers Time and attendance.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Personio and Sesame HR actually diverge.
Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (HR).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Personio
- HR Management
- Recruiting
- Payroll
- Time Tracking
- Performance Management
- Onboarding
- Offboarding
- Slack
Only in Sesame HR
- Time and attendance
- Legal time reports
- Shift planning
- Absence management
- Document management
- Expenses
- Performance
- Payroll export
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Personio
No use cases recorded yet. See the Personio review.
Sesame HR
- A Spanish employer that must produce daily working time records for a labour inspectionnot Personio
- A company with shift workers across several sites that needs rota planning and real clock-in data in one placenot Personio
- A business whose gestoria wants clean hours and absence data each month instead of emailed spreadsheetsnot Personio
- A Latin American subsidiary of a Spanish group standardising on the same attendance systemnot Personio
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Personio
- Payroll processing only available in Germany, UK, and Ireland, limiting multi-country deployment
- Recruiting module lacks advanced reporting and LinkedIn integration functionality
- Limited reporting customization requires manual exports and workarounds
- Mobile app has reduced capabilities compared to desktop experience
Sesame HR
- There is no payroll calculation, so the payroll relationship stays with an external gestoria or payroll system and Sesame is only feeding it data.
- The product is built around Spanish and Latin American regulation, so a buyer employing in northern Europe gets attendance tracking without the local statutory logic that made the product valuable in the first place.
- Modules beyond time and attendance are noticeably shallower, and companies expecting the performance or recruitment features to replace dedicated tools are usually disappointed.
- Support, documentation and legal templates are Spanish-first, and English-language material lags behind, which slows adoption in mixed-language organisations.
- Pricing is per employee per month across module tiers, so a company that only wants compliant time recording still pays a headcount-scaled fee for a suite it uses a fraction of.
Pricing, plan by plan
Personio
$5/employee-per-monthNo published plan breakdown. See the Personio review.
Sesame HR
On request- Sesame HR$undefined/year
- Priced per employee per month with module-based tiers
- Time and attendance in the base tier
- Shift planning, performance and expenses as higher tiers or add-ons
Which should you pick?
Choose Personio if
- You need hr management.
- You work on Web, Mobile (iOS, Android).
- You also want recruiting.
Choose Sesame HR if
- You need time and attendance.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want legal time reports.
Questions people ask
- Is Personio or Sesame HR better?
- Neither clearly leads. Personio starts at $5/employee-per-month and Sesame HR at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Personio or Sesame HR?
- Personio starts at $5/employee-per-month and Sesame HR at On request.
- Does Personio or Sesame HR run on more platforms?
- Personio runs on Web, Mobile (iOS, Android). Sesame HR runs on Web, iOS, Android.
- What can Personio do that Sesame HR cannot?
- Personio covers HR Management, Recruiting, Payroll, Time Tracking. Sesame HR covers Time and attendance, Legal time reports, Shift planning, Absence management.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Personio: Does Personio offer payroll processing in my country?
Personio provides native payroll support in Germany, UK, and Ireland, with limited support in other European markets through integrations. Coverage varies by country.
SourceSesame HR: Why is time recording mandatory in Spain?
Royal Decree-Law 8/2019 requires every employer to record daily start and finish times for all employees and to retain those records for four years for labour inspection.
Personio: What is Personio's pricing model?
Personio uses a per-employee-per-month (PEPM) model starting at $5-15/employee/month depending on the plan and features. There is no public pricing page, and exact pricing requires a sales consultation.
SourceSesame HR: Does Sesame HR run payroll?
No. It exports hours, absences and variable pay to a gestoria or payroll system such as A3 or Sage.
Personio: Can Personio integrate with other tools?
Yes. Personio provides a public API and maintains a marketplace of pre-built integrations. The Core Pro plan is required for API access and custom integrations.
SourceSesame HR: Does it work outside Spain?
It is used across Latin America and Portugal. Outside those markets you get the tooling without the country-specific legal logic.
Sesame HR: Can it handle shift workers across multiple sites?
Yes. Kiosk and QR clock-in with geolocation is designed for exactly that, and rota planning sits on top of the same data.
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