Hourly
Payroll, time tracking, HR and workers' comp in one place for small businesses with hourly workers.
By Hourly · 4.5/5 verified-buyer score
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- Small US businesses with 5–200 hourly workers in construction, trades, maintenance and food service
- Owners who want workers' comp premiums tied to real-time payroll instead of annual audit surprises
- Teams that need GPS time tracking and job costing next to payroll in one app
- Businesses moving off spreadsheets or a PEO that bundles and hides its fees
Ideal size: 5–200 hourly employees people · Small US business with hourly, field or shift workers
Not for
- Enterprises needing multi-country payroll or deep HR compliance suites
- Salaried, knowledge-worker companies with no hourly or shift workforce
- Buyers who need published list pricing for every tier, since Platinum+ is quote-only
- Companies looking for full PEO employee-leasing and co-employment services
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
2–4 weeks
~14 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$4,560/yr
Starts at $960 · Monthly base fee plus a per-active-employee fee, billed monthly, no obligation and cancel anytime
Implementation Friction
2/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Buyer Score
out of 5 · verified buyers
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
No seat minimum; you are charged only for active users, anyone who records a shift or is paid in a month
Add-on costs
- Workers' comp insurance is a separate pay-as-you-go policy, synced to real-time payroll data
Company & support
Who is behind Hourly, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- Not recorded
- Headquarters
- Not recorded
How you get support
- PhonePlan not stated
- EmailNot listed
- Live chatNot listed
- Support portal / ticketsNot listed
- Community forumNot listed
- Help centre / docsNot listed
- Dedicated account managerPlan not stated
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- Business hours
- Response time
- Not stated
Customer support line (650) 422-3300, 6am–5pm Pacific Monday to Friday; the (844) number is a separate sales line.
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where Hourly sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- Hourly
- GoCodes
- Shipday
- Routific
- Togal.AI
- Knowify
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including Hourly. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
No supported MCP path today, so it cannot be driven from an AI client.
AI & MCP readiness
What Hourly ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
Hourly combines payroll, time tracking, HR and pay-as-you-go workers' comp for US small businesses with hourly workers. Real-time wage data drives to-the-penny workers' comp premiums, GPS time tracking and job costing. Plans start at $80/month base plus $12 per active employee, with automated tax filing, W-2s and same-day direct deposit on higher tiers. A 90-day money-back guarantee applies.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Hourly cost?
Published pricing shows a monthly base fee plus a per-active-employee fee: Gold is $80/month base plus $12/month per employee, and Platinum is $120/month base plus $16/month per employee. Platinum+ is quote-only. A 90-day money-back guarantee refunds subscription costs if the product does not work for you.
Do I have to buy both payroll and workers' comp from Hourly?
No. Hourly recommends using both so real-time payroll data can drive accurate workers' comp premiums, but you can start with one while waiting to switch the other. The company says it handles the payroll transition for you and notifies you when it is complete.
Is Hourly a PEO?
No. Hourly states it is not a professional employer organization. It says PEOs typically lease employees and bundle fees so it is hard to see what is payroll, what is taxes and what is the PEO fee, whereas Hourly shows each part of the cost separately and the workers remain yours.
What is an active user, and how am I billed for employees?
Hourly charges only for active users, defined as anyone who records at least one shift or gets paid at least once in a month. That avoids curating or switching employee lists each month.
What security and reliability controls does Hourly describe?
Hourly's security page describes SSL/TLS encrypted web sessions, firewalled network perimeters, VPN-authenticated administrative access, intrusion detection, secure PIN hashing, logically segmented customer data, fraud and toll-fraud monitoring, and geographically distributed redundancy with real-time database replication and failover.
Do I need separate workers' comp insurance to use Hourly?
Hourly integrates workers' comp with payroll so premium billing is automatic and based on real-time wages. You can work with your own insurance agent to connect a policy to the platform, or use Hourly's pay-as-you-go workers' comp offering.