Questions to ask when comparing Employment Hero vs BrightHR
Can BrightHR support growing Canadian businesses?
BrightHR is a UK-based HR software provider owned by Peninsula Group. It is positioned as a low-cost solution for small businesses, often bundled with HR advisory services and sold on long-term contracts. While this can look attractive upfront, many Canadian SMBs find that BrightHR’s product depth, flexibility, and mobile experience struggle to keep up as teams grow.
Employment Hero is built to scale with Canadian SMBs by combining HR, payroll, scheduling, and time & attendance in one unified platform. As your organization grows or your needs evolve, core workflows stay connected, reducing manual work and admin overhead.
If you’re looking for a platform that reduces admin as you grow, without locking you into long-term contracts, Employment Hero is the clear choice.
Does BrightHR meet my integration requirements?
BrightHR’s tools are functional but fragmented. Because they do not offer a native payroll solution, core workflows like onboarding remain disconnected from your pay cycle. As you scale, this fragmentation creates administrative bottlenecks and increases the risk of costly errors.
Employment Hero reduces the need for integrations from day one because the core platform is genuinely all-in-one. For the tools you do want to connect, we offer seamless integrations with essentials like Indeed for recruitment.
Can BrightHR deliver a unified employee experience?
BrightHR offers basic employee self-service, but its experience is largely desktop-first, with limited mobile functionality. For Canadian SMBs with frontline, field-based, or shift-based teams, this often results in fragmented workflows and lower adoption.
Employment Hero delivers a truly unified employee experience through a single, mobile-first Work app. Employees can access pay, schedules, time off, and key HR tasks in one place, while managers handle approvals and updates on the go. The result is higher adoption, fewer questions, and a smoother day-to-day experience as teams grow.
How flexible are BrightHR’s contracts and commitments?
BrightHR often requires long-term commitments, often up to five years – with restrictive auto-renewal clauses. While the entry price is low, there is a significant hidden cost to being locked into a platform that may lack the flexibility your business needs as it scales.
Employment Hero takes a different approach. We offer shorter contracts and flexible terms because our platform is designed to keep delivering value as your business evolves. Businesses use Employment Hero because the platform continues to deliver value, not because they’re contractually locked in.
Disclaimer: Information is accurate as of the publication date. Product features and pricing are subject to change by the respective providers. While we review this data periodically, users should verify current details directly with the competitor.
How Employment Hero compares to BrightHR
All-in-one HR and Payroll
Employment Hero offers a centralized HR system, offering automation, compliance tools, employee self-service features and an integrated payroll system. This reduces admin time, the tech stack bloat and minimizes errors to improve overall efficiency — freeing you up to focus on growing your business.
All-in-one HR: Integrated payroll, scheduling, time & attendance, and benefits
CRA-ready payroll: Automated T4s, source deductions and remittances
Digital onboarding with native e-signatures
ATS & LMS: Built-in hiring and training
Local experts: 100% Canadian support
BrightHR
No native payroll
Manual exports and handoffs to payroll providers
No native e-signature for onboarding
Tools acquired and stitched together over time
Support designed to tackle real-world SMB challenges
When managing people and compliance, slow or vague support isn’t just frustrating—it’s a liability. Growing SMBs need immediate access to experts who provide clear, practical answers to complex problems, not generic responses that leave you at risk.
We offer Canadian-based support teams and HR advisory services led by experts who understand that smaller businesses need responsive, personalized attention—not just a ticket number. Our team has a thorough understanding of local compliance requirements, payroll complexities and the unique challenges facing growing Canadian companies.
Canadian-based support teams
Built for Canadian law and compliance
Deep understanding of provincial compliance
Practical HR & employment advisory available
BrightHR
Support is delivered primarily from the UK and Ireland
HR advisory is tied to an insurance-led model, resulting in highly prescriptive guidance with limited flexibility.
Streamlined hiring and onboarding
Hiring shouldn’t feel like ten tabs and a spreadsheet. Employment Hero gives SMBs the tools to recruit, onboard and upskill without jumping between systems.
Full-cycle hiring: Postings to offers in one place
Built-in Robust LMS powered by Go1
Hire faster, without missed steps or manual follow-ups
BrightHR
No native ATS
Hiring workflows not fully supported end-to-end
No native e-signature
Manual processes increase as teams grow
Employee experience that actually adds value
Retention starts with giving people a workplace experience that feels supportive, modern and connected. We move beyond basic HR with a native, all-in-one platform featuring built-in rewards, recognition, and upskilling—plus an integrated benefits experience employees actually value. With our robust mobile app, your team stays engaged and empowered, whether they’re at a desk or on the move.
Integrated LMS: Growth and development tools
Hero Points: Redeemable rewards and gift cards
Central Portal: Unified pay, time off, schedules and announcements
BrightHR
Basic employee self-service functionality
Limited employee training and development tools
Limited mobile experience
Hiring success from our customers
Ready to upgrade your HR platform?
Get started with Employment Hero today and experience smarter HR, payroll and hiring. All in one place.
