5 self-hosted options
Open-source alternatives to Workday
The best open-source alternatives to Workday are Frappe HR, OrangeHRM and Horilla.
About Workday: An enterprise cloud suite for human capital management, payroll and finance.
Every option below is free to self-host and ranked by GitHub stars, so you can move off Workday without giving up the features you rely on.
Top picks
- Rank 1:
Frappe HR
frappe/hrms
Complete HRMS solution with over 13 different modules right from employee management, onboarding, leaves, to payroll, taxation, and more.
HR & Time TrackingPythonDocker - Rank 2:
OrangeHRM
orangehrm/orangehrm
Long-running open-source HR management system covering employee records, leave, time and recruitment.
HR & Time TrackingPHPDocker - Rank 3:
Horilla
horilla/horilla-hr
Django HRMS with employee management, recruitment, onboarding, attendance, leave, payroll and performance reviews.
HR & Time TrackingHTMLDocker
Why switch
Why teams move off Workday
Self-hosting is not only about saving money. These are the reasons people make the switch.
Own your data
Your data lives on a server you control, not on Workday's infrastructure. No surprise policy changes and no lock-in.
No per-seat pricing
Open-source alternatives to Workday are free to run for as many users as your server can handle. A small VPS often costs less than a single subscription.
Customize and extend
Read the code, add plugins, connect it to your own tools and automate it through open APIs. When you need a feature, you can build it or fund it.
Full ranking
All 5 Workday alternatives
Ranked by GitHub stars. Open any app for live stats, license details and a deploy option.
- 1
Frappe HR
Complete HRMS solution with over 13 different modules right from employee management, onboarding, leaves, to payroll, taxation, and more.
HR & Time TrackingDocker - 2
OrangeHRM
Long-running open-source HR management system covering employee records, leave, time and recruitment.
HR & Time TrackingDocker - 3
Horilla
Django HRMS with employee management, recruitment, onboarding, attendance, leave, payroll and performance reviews.
HR & Time TrackingDocker - 4
MintHCM
Tool for Human Capital Management based on two popular, well-known business applications SugarCRM Community Edition and SuiteCRM.
HR & Time Tracking - 5
Ever Gauzy
Open business management platform for collaborative, on-demand and sharing economies (ERP/CRM/HRM/ATS/PM).
HR & Time TrackingDocker
What is the best open-source alternative to Workday?
Frappe HR is the most popular open-source alternative to Workday, with 8,879 GitHub stars. OrangeHRM and Horilla are also strong choices. Compare features, license and recent activity to find the best fit for your team.
Is there a free alternative to Workday?
Yes. All 5 apps on this page are open source and free to self-host, so you can run a Workday replacement without per-user fees. You only pay for the server, and a small VPS is usually enough for personal use or a small team.
Can I self-host an alternative to Workday?
Yes. Frappe HR, OrangeHRM and Horilla ship a Docker image, so you can run them on a home server or VPS with Docker Compose in a few minutes. Your data then stays on hardware you control.
How do I migrate from Workday?
Start by exporting your data from Workday, then check the import options of the app you pick, since many projects ship importers for popular formats. Run both side by side for a week before you switch so nothing is lost.