HR · head to head
Humaans vs Sesame HR
Humaans
HR
API-first HRIS for fast-growing companies that treat employee data as a system of record other tools read from
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
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: Humaans there is no payroll engine anywhere in the product, so every country you employ in still needs its own payroll vendor and a synchronisation that someone owns when it breaks.; 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: Humaans covers Employee records, 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 Humaans and Sesame HR actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), 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 Humaans
- Employee records
- Workflows
- Time off
- Open API and webhooks
- Onboarding
- Reporting
- App directory
- Self service
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.
Humaans
- A 150 person technology company that wants employee data clean enough to drive access provisioning automaticallynot Sesame HR
- An operations team that will build against an API rather than wait for a vendor integrationnot Sesame HR
- A company replacing spreadsheets and Google Drive folders in weeks rather than running a six month HRIS projectnot Sesame HR
- A multi-country employer that already has payroll handled per country and needs one consolidated employee recordnot Sesame HR
Sesame HR
- A Spanish employer that must produce daily working time records for a labour inspectionnot Humaans
- A company with shift workers across several sites that needs rota planning and real clock-in data in one placenot Humaans
- A business whose gestoria wants clean hours and absence data each month instead of emailed spreadsheetsnot Humaans
- A Latin American subsidiary of a Spanish group standardising on the same attendance systemnot Humaans
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Humaans
- There is no payroll engine anywhere in the product, so every country you employ in still needs its own payroll vendor and a synchronisation that someone owns when it breaks.
- Applicant tracking, learning and benefits administration are absent, meaning a company wanting a single supplier will buy three or four contracts to match what a suite sells as one.
- Acquisition by Employment Hero in 2024 puts an independent, integration-first product inside a vendor that sells a bundled employment platform, and buyers should ask directly how long the standalone product will be sold on its own terms.
- Per employee per month pricing with tiered features means the cost rises with headcount growth at exactly the point a scale-up is least willing to renegotiate, and useful features such as workflows sit above the entry tier.
- Country-specific compliance depth is limited, so statutory leave rules, local document requirements and reporting obligations often need configuring by hand rather than arriving as a maintained country pack.
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
Humaans
On request- Humaans$undefined/year
- Priced per employee per month with tiered feature sets
- Employee records, time off and documents
- Workflows and reporting on higher tiers
Sesame HR
On request- Sesame HR$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 Sesame HR if
- You need time and attendance.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want legal time reports.
Questions people ask
- Is Humaans or Sesame HR better?
- Neither clearly leads. Humaans starts at On request and Sesame HR at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Humaans or Sesame HR?
- Humaans starts at On request and Sesame HR at On request.
- Does Humaans or Sesame HR run on more platforms?
- Humaans runs on Web. Sesame HR runs on Web, iOS, Android.
- What is Humaans best used for?
- Humaans is most often used for a 150 person technology company that wants employee data clean enough to drive access provisioning automatically, an operations team that will build against an api rather than wait for a vendor integration, a company replacing spreadsheets and google drive folders in weeks rather than running a six month hris project, a multi-country employer that already has payroll handled per country and needs one consolidated employee record. Of those, a 150 person technology company that wants employee data clean enough to drive access provisioning automatically and an operations team that will build against an api rather than wait for a vendor integration are not what Sesame HR is typically brought in for.
- What can Humaans do that Sesame HR cannot?
- Humaans covers Employee records, Workflows, Time off, Open API and webhooks. Sesame HR covers Time and attendance, Legal time reports, Shift planning, Absence management.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Humaans: Does Humaans run payroll?
No. It holds the employee record and pushes data to payroll providers. You buy payroll separately in each country.
Sesame 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.
Humaans: Who owns it now?
Employment Hero acquired Humaans in 2024. It continues to be sold, but the parent company also sells a bundled employment platform.
Sesame 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.
Humaans: Is the API genuinely complete?
Yes. It is the design centre of the product rather than an afterthought, with documented REST endpoints and webhooks across the core objects.
Sesame 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.
Humaans: How long does implementation take?
Typically weeks. There is no configuration consultancy requirement, which is a large part of why teams choose it over a mid-market suite.
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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