Best Employee Onboarding Software in 2025: 8 Top Choices

A great employee onboarding experience sets the tone for everything that follows. Whether you're welcoming one new team member or ten, the right HR onboarding software will take the stress out of paperwork, streamline training, and make those first days actually enjoyable (for everyone!).

Let’s take a look at the best employee onboarding platforms out there.

TL;DR: The Top 8 Picks for Best Employee Onboarding Software

Short on time? Here’s a quick overview of the best onboarding software on the market.

1. Homebase

2. Bamboo HR 

3. Confluence

4. Jira Service Management

5. Eloomi

6. Gusto 

7. Workday 

8. Innform 

Why you should use an employee onboarding software

Between chasing down paperwork, juggling emails, and trying to remember who’s completed what, things can fall through the cracks quickly without employee onboarding software. Employee onboarding software helps you to:

• Streamline administrative tasks: Ditch the paperwork and automate the boring stuff, so you can focus on the big picture while new hires get up to speed faster.
• Give a consistent, high-quality experience: Consistency counts! Templates and workflows give every new hire the same smooth, high-quality experience, with way fewer missed steps or scrambling for info.
• Improve data accuracy: Take the guesswork (and typos) out of data entry by letting new hires enter their info directly. Everything’s accurate, up-to-date, and HR headache-free from the start.
• Boost productivity and retention: When people feel supported from day one, they stick around longer: good onboarding processes can boost retention levels by 82%. Not only does strong onboarding help you keep your best people, it helps them start contributing and crushing it sooner, pumping up productivity.

8 Best employee onboarding software options in 2025

Let’s jump into the best employee onboarding software picks for 2025, and exactly why they stand out.

1. Homebase

If you're a small business looking for the top employee onboarding software this year for your hourly team, look no further than Homebase. It’s packed with features to make welcoming new hires easier, helping them feel confident, connected, and ready to hit the ground running.

• New hires can seamlessly “self-onboard”—they can fill out their forms and e-sign everything before day one.
• Super easy-to-use interface.
• Built-in messaging makes it easy to say “hi” and start building that team vibe right away.
• Real-time alerts and reminders help keep things moving and make sure nothing slips through the cracks.
• Syncs up with your other HR tools to cut down on manual data entry (and the inevitable typos).
• Mobile-friendly: new hires can get everything done from their phone—perfect for remote or on-the-go teams.

2. Bamboo HR

If you’re a small to mid-sized business, BambooHR’s user-friendly, efficient onboarding tools are a great choice to simplify HR.

• Easily to send out offer letters, collect e-signatures, and handle all the new hire paperwork in one place.
• Onboarding checklist helps HR stay organized, so nothing falls through the cracks during those busy first days.
• A clean, easy-to-use interface.
• Integrates well with other HR tools.
• Some users mentioned the customization options can be a bit limited—especially if you want a more tailored onboarding experience.

3. Confluence

Confluence is a great tool for HR teams who need a central place to create, store, and share important docs all in one spot. It’s not built specifically for onboarding though, so HR teams often have to juggle a few extra tools to fill in the gaps.

• Shines when it comes to documentation—great for organizing policies, training materials, and onboarding checklists.
• Multiple team members can jump in to edit or review docs in real time, keeping everything accurate and up to date.
• A strong option if you're mainly looking to streamline paperwork and keep info in one place—but for full onboarding workflows, it might need a few add-ons.

4. Jira Service Management 

Jira Service Management has some solid features designed with HR teams in mind, especially when it comes to cross-department collaboration (like IT and legal). If quick and easy is the name of the game for you, though, it might not be the smoothest choice.

• Great for syncing up with teams like IT and legal, so HR isn’t working in a silo.
• Integration options are strong, helping everyone stay on the same page.
• That said, it’s not exactly plug-and-play—many users say it can feel a bit overwhelming at first.
• Interface isn’t the most beginner-friendly, so new hires (and even some HR folks) might need a little extra time to get the hang of it.

5. Eloomi

Eloomi does an awesome job of getting new hires up to speed before their first day in a smooth, stress-free way. It’s a strong pick for early engagement—but might need a backup plan to carry that same energy through the rest of the onboarding journey.

• Super user-friendly, so both HR and new employees can easily navigate everything.
• Before day one you can send out paperwork, assign training modules, and start goal setting.
• Communication between HR and new hires is seamless, helping everyone feel connected early on.
• Once the preboarding phase is over, the experience can lose a bit of momentum—some users mention a gap in support during the handoff to full onboarding, which makes the transition feel a bit disjointed.

6. Gusto

Gusto is another great pick for small businesses to keep onboarding smooth, efficient, and headache-free. It covers all the basics with a clean, easy-to-use experience, though it doesn’t have built-in team messaging.

• New hires can fill out forms, e-sign documents, and set up direct deposit before their first day.
• Simple, modern interface.
• Everything is neatly automated, from sending out offer letters to collecting tax forms.
• Shines with its payroll and benefits features, so onboarding flows right into getting paid and covered.
• More focused on administrative onboarding—needs pairing with another platform for team training tools or culture-building features.

7. Workday

Workday is a robust platform built for larger organizations, and its onboarding tools are as strong as the rest of its HR features. Some users say it can feel a bit overwhelming at first, especially for smaller teams or less tech-savvy users.

• Gives new hires a structured, step-by-step onboarding experience that’s integrated with payroll, benefits, and performance tracking.
• New employees can complete forms, watch welcome videos, and access key resources before day one.
• HR teams can customize workflows, assign tasks, and track progress—especially great for complex or multi-location companies.
• Setup and customization often require IT support or a consultant.

8. Innform

Especially if you're in the hospitality or service industry, Innform is a strong contender to make staff training simple, accessible and fun.

• Easy course creation: get training content up and running quickly using pre-made templates or building from scratch.
• Automated training paths: assign courses to the right team members based on their roles or locations.
• Make learning interactive with built-in quizzes and certificates. 
• Mobile-friendly: people can train from their phone—perfect for remote or on-the-go teams.
• Supports multiple languages.
• Some users say the interface isn’t as intuitive as they’d like; advanced customization options are a bit limited compared to other platforms.

How to choose the best employee onboarding software 

The best onboarding software really depends on the kind of business you’re running. But across the board, there are a few must-haves you’ll want to keep in mind before you hit “sign up.”

Here’s what you should look for in your onboarding software:

Make sure it plays nice with others. Look for onboarding software that actually gets along with your existing systems—payroll, time tracking, employee databases, the whole crew. The smoother the integrations, the less manual work (and headaches) for you.

Customization matters. Your onboarding software should let you customize things like workflows, forms, and templates, so it all feels like it’s coming from you—not some “one size fits all” boilerplate. Whoever you’re onboarding, flexible options help you design a process that makes sense for every role.

Don’t sleep on analytics and reporting features. Look for software that shows you stuff like task completion rates, employee engagement, and where people might be getting stuck. The right data can help you fine-tune the process and spot problems early.

Consider scalability as you grow. Make sure your onboarding software can keep up—look for tools that scale easily. More users, more workflows, more complexity? No problem. A good platform should grow with you, not make you start over every time you add a new department or open a second location. 

Homebase: Employee onboarding for small business, but way easier? 

If you’re a small business owner or HR manager growing your hourly team, say goodbye to day-one chaos. Homebase makes onboarding new people way easier and smoother—and here’s why:

Custom digital welcome packets help you make a strong, polished first impression. Electronic tax and employment forms let new hires handle their own paperwork before they even walk in. With built-in e-signatures, there's no more printing, scanning, or chasing down forms—and everything gets securely stored in one place, so you're always organized and audit-ready.

The experience starts strong, and stays strong—we help you hire, onboard, schedule, track time, pay your team, communicate with them, and stay compliant. ll in one simple mobile app. 

Homebase combines simplicity and power in one awesome platform that helps you start off on the right foot, every time.

Try Homebase free today and see why 100,000+ small businesses trust us to make their teams unstoppable.

Best employee onboarding software FAQs

How does employee onboarding software work? 

Employee onboarding software helps you ditch the paperwork pile-up by guiding new hires through everything they need (forms, training, checklists) all in one spot. From day one, it keeps things organized, automated and easy for both new team members and managers.

What are the benefits of using employee onboarding software?

Using employee onboarding software has a ton of benefits. The right software helps you streamline tasks, give a consistent experience, improve data accuracy, and get new hires up to speed (and loving their jobs) faster. Without it, you're stuck chasing paperwork, juggling emails, and guessing who’s done what.

How much does employee onboarding software cost?   

Employee onboarding software costs range, depending on how robust a platform you need. While some big platforms like Workday have a starting price of about $100 per user, per month, Homebase’s Basic plan—which includes hiring, onboarding, time clocks, scheduling, messaging, and more—is free for up to 20 employees. Once you’re ready to upgrade to more advanced features, the Essentials plan is only $20 per month per location for unlimited employees.

‍What is the best free employee onboarding software?    

‍Homebase stands out as the best free employee onboarding software for small businesses. At no cost, it gives you all these essential features with a user-friendly interface:​

• Streamlined onboarding: New hires can knock out forms like W-4s and I-9s before day one—no paperwork pileups, no stress.
• Integrated hiring tools: Post jobs to sites like Indeed and ZipRecruiter for free, then track applicants and schedule interviews all in one spot.
• Team communication: Built-in messaging makes it super easy to stay in touch—send updates, ping the team, and see who’s read what.
• Compliance & HR help: Homebase keeps you covered with secure doc storage, cert tracking, and even access to real HR pros when you need backup.

Can onboarding software help with compliance?     

It sure can. Onboarding software can be a big help with compliance—it makes sure all the right forms get signed, stored, and submitted on time. Plus, it keeps everything organized so you’re not scrambling during audits or forgetting key documents.

What’s the difference between onboarding and HR software?

Onboarding software is all about getting new hires settled in—think welcome emails, e-signing forms, and first-day checklists. HR software covers way more ground, like payroll, benefits, time tracking, and everything in between. An all-in-one app like Homebase lets you combine the two!

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