The askDANTE alternative with the personnel file included
askDANTE is strong on time management and sells the personnel file as an add-on. At MetronHR the personnel file, onboarding workflows and project time are part of the plan.
All information about askDANTE comes from the official provider pages. As at:2. September 2026.
Features in detail
Sources and notes (8)
- 1. askDANTE, Traffic-light account (warning levels with an automatic alert): askDANTE has an alert centre with alert rules that notifies automatically when working time rules are broken. Graduated warning levels on the overtime account itself, that is a traffic light with several thresholds, do not appear in the feature overview (askdante.com/funktionen, retrieved 14/09/2026).
- 2. askDANTE, Allowances / hour packages: Client-bound hour packages with periodic renewal and carry-over are not documented.
- 3. askDANTE, Digital Employee File: The HR suite with document storage, requests, provision and scanning by app is an add-on at 4 euros per employee per month, available for the Professional and Enterprise plans.
- 4. askDANTE, Onboarding and offboarding workflows: No joining or leaving process with tasks, owners and deadlines is documented. The HR suite covers document storage, not the process.
- 5. MetronHR, Application hosted in Germany: The application and customer data run at Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg and Falkenstein, exclusively in Germany.
- 6. askDANTE, Application hosted in Germany: The privacy policy refers to „our servers in a data centre“, without naming a country or operator. On the pricing page askDANTE offers an exclusive virtual server „in our data centre“ as an add-on for 349 euros a month.
- 7. MetronHR, Hosting operator without a US parent company: The operator is Hetzner Online GmbH, a German company with no US parent. This marketing website is hosted with Vercel, Inc. (USA) in the Frankfurt region, where no employee data is processed.
- 8. askDANTE, Hosting operator without a US parent company: Not named. The provider is DANTE from Kiel, a German company.
~ = available with limits, the notes are below the table. – = no verified information is available for this provider on this feature. That is not a no: we only record a negative where we can cite a source.
An overview of which features exist at all, regardless of plan. The price-performance comparison is on the pricing page, the individual features in detail under Features.
Feature comparison as at September 2026. Information about competitors comes from publicly available sources, in each case the official provider pages with the date retrieved, and can change. askDANTE is a trademark of its respective owner.
MetronHR is also available as a native app for iOS and Android:
Where the data sits
Server location and operator are two different questions. A data centre in Germany does not remove the data from US law: providers with a US parent company fall under the CLOUD Act and the surveillance powers of FISA 702, regardless of where the servers stand. Microsoft's chief legal officer in France testified under oath before the French Senate's committee of inquiry on 10 June 2025 that he could not guarantee that data from European data centres would not go to US authorities (record of the Sénat). That is why both are shown side by side here, each with the source it comes from.
What is compared is what the provider documents for its own application, not the infrastructure of its marketing website. More about our own hosting is in the Trust Center.
MetronHR
- Server location of the application
- Hetzner Online GmbH, Nuremberg and Falkenstein. All servers stand exclusively in Germany.
- Operator and legal jurisdiction
- Hetzner Online GmbH, a German company with no US parent and therefore beyond the reach of the CLOUD Act and FISA 702. No US provider sits in the data path for the application.
- Processors outside Germany
- None for the application. Payment is handled by Stripe Payments Europe (Ireland). This marketing website is hosted with Vercel, Inc. (USA, Frankfurt region), and analytics run through PostHog Cloud EU and the reverse proxy cdn.metronhr.de with a Cloudflare edge. No employee data is processed there.
- Source
- MetronHR privacy policyAs at 08/2026
askDANTE
- Server location of the application
- Not specified further. The privacy policy states that storage takes place „on our servers, in a data centre“, without naming a country, region or operator. For 349 euros a month askDANTE offers an exclusive virtual server in its own data centre.
- Operator and legal jurisdiction
- Not named. The provider is DANTE from Kiel, a German company with no US parent.
- Processors outside Germany
- None named for the application. The policy describes recipients as „our server host“, without naming it.
- Source
- askDANTE privacy policyabgerufen 02.09.2026
All information comes from the providers' publicly available privacy policies and security pages, and the date retrieved is on every card. Providers can change their infrastructure and their processors at any time. The adequacy decision on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework still applies, but is under legal challenge.
What MetronHR does better
Personnel file without an add-on
At askDANTE the HR suite with document storage and phone scanning is an add-on at 4 euros per person per month, available from the Professional plan. For twenty people that is an extra 80 euros a month. At MetronHR the personnel file is part of the Professional plan: contracts, salary data, social security, document upload with expiry reminders for residence permits, driving licence checks and occupational health screening, plus self-service for employees.
Joining and leaving as a workflow, not as storage
askDANTE's HR suite stores documents, requests them and provides them. What it does not cover is the process around the person: contract, access, equipment, mandatory instruction, probation review and, on leaving, the way back, each with an owner and a deadline. MetronHR sets these steps up as a reusable workflow and assigns them automatically when someone joins.
Client allowances and project budgets
askDANTE records project time from the Enterprise plan and can tag it. Budgets with a target-actual traffic light, client hourly rates and hour packages that renew monthly and carry unused time forward are not documented. MetronHR keeps both and prepares the invoice from them.
Server location, named
askDANTE writes that the data sits „on our servers, in a data centre“. Country, region and operator are not stated; anyone wanting more detail books an exclusive virtual server for 349 euros a month. MetronHR names the operator and the locations at no extra charge: Hetzner Online GmbH, Nuremberg and Falkenstein, a German company with no US parent.
Price comparison
askDANTE has two free plans that deserve to be taken seriously. So this starts with what they cover, and then with where the comparison turns.
| Service | MetronHR | askDANTE |
|---|---|---|
| 5 people, full feature set | Professional 50 euros a month | Enterprise FREE, free of charge |
| Any number of people, time tracking, holiday, working-time accounts | Team 5 euros per person | Starter FREE, free of charge |
| 10 people with requests, electronic sick notes, shift planner, reports, payroll connection | Team 50 euros or Professional 100 euros a month | Professional 45 euros a month billed annually |
| Personnel file with documents | included in Professional | HR suite add-on, 4 euros per person per month |
| 10 people with a personnel file | Professional 100 euros a month, with onboarding workflows and project budgets | 45 euros plus 40 euros, 85 euros a month in total |
| Onboarding workflows, client allowances, project budgets | included in Professional | not available |
| Dedicated server | On-premise in the Enterprise offer | Add-on at a flat 349 euros a month |
5 people, full feature set
- MetronHR
- Professional 50 euros a month
- askDANTE
- Enterprise FREE, free of charge
Any number of people, time tracking, holiday, working-time accounts
- MetronHR
- Team 5 euros per person
- askDANTE
- Starter FREE, free of charge
10 people with requests, electronic sick notes, shift planner, reports, payroll connection
- MetronHR
- Team 50 euros or Professional 100 euros a month
- askDANTE
- Professional 45 euros a month billed annually
Personnel file with documents
- MetronHR
- included in Professional
- askDANTE
- HR suite add-on, 4 euros per person per month
10 people with a personnel file
- MetronHR
- Professional 100 euros a month, with onboarding workflows and project budgets
- askDANTE
- 45 euros plus 40 euros, 85 euros a month in total
Onboarding workflows, client allowances, project budgets
- MetronHR
- included in Professional
- askDANTE
- not available
Dedicated server
- MetronHR
- On-premise in the Enterprise offer
- askDANTE
- Add-on at a flat 349 euros a month
Prices per askdante.com/preise, retrieved on 2 September 2026. askDANTE itself points out that the plans named are a recommendation and that further offers are possible on request. Both providers offer a 14-day trial.
No credit card needed · cancellable monthly
FromaskDANTE moving to MetronHR
Your data comes with you.askDANTE hands them over as a file, MetronHR reads people, personal data, hours and absences out of it, and before anything is taken over you see row by row what will happen. For a team under thirty people that is a matter of one to two hours, most of it spent putting the file together.
- 1
AtaskDANTE export
- Reports as PDF, CSV or Excel
- Timesheet and time account as PDF, Excel or CSV
- Movement data for payroll in a generic CSV format
- 2
Load the template and map the columns
The template comes as Excel and as CSV, with a second sheet that states for every column whether it is required, its format, an example and the permitted values. If your file's header row matches, the mapping falls away entirely. Otherwise the assistant proposes the mapping and marks everything that did not match word for word.
- 3
Check, then take it over
The dry run is mandatory and writes nothing. It shows for every row whether it will be created, changed, skipped or rejected, naming the column and the value behind the finding. Only the second click takes it over, in one transaction. The default is "create new ones only", and an empty cell never changes a value that has been maintained.
Export routes fromaskDANTE according to askDANTE manual, reporting, retrieved on06.09.2026.
Comes with you
- People, with staff number, work address and employment contract
- Remaining holiday and the overtime balance as an opening value per person
- Departments, clients, services and projects
- Time entries and absences for the current year
- Public holidays, including regions that differ
Does not come with you
- Files from the old personnel file, they are uploaded again
- The history of an hours account, MetronHR starts from the opening value
How the move works in detail, what the dry run shows and why no invitation email goes out with it is set out on the page switching time tracking.
Frequently asked questions
What you need to know about switching from askDANTE to MetronHR.
Because the two free plans have a limit. Enterprise FREE applies to exactly five people, Starter FREE has no user limit but no shift planner, no requests and no reports. Anyone who gets by with that needs nothing else today. As soon as personnel files, onboarding workflows, project budgets or client allowances are needed, the free route ends: the personnel file costs an extra 4 euros per person at askDANTE, and the other three do not exist there. At MetronHR all four are included in the plan, from 5 euros per person.
askDANTE Professional costs 4.50 euros per person per month, so 45 euros for ten people billed annually. The HR suite costs an extra 4 euros per person, an exclusive server a flat 349 euros a month. MetronHR costs 5 euros per person on Team and 10 euros on Professional. For pure time management askDANTE is cheaper, with a personnel file the two are close, and MetronHR then brings onboarding workflows and project budgets with it. As at 2 September 2026.
With very complicated time management. Time types, home office quotas, rotating shift systems, an alarm centre with rules and payroll preparation are mature at askDANTE. Two points belong with that: a dedicated server is an add-on there at 349 euros a month, and for the standard setup the privacy policy names only „our servers, in a data centre“, with no country and no operator. MetronHR names Nuremberg and Falkenstein at Hetzner Online GmbH, at no extra charge, and includes personnel files, onboarding workflows and project budgets in the plan.
The privacy policy says storage takes place "on our servers, in a data centre", without a country, region or operator. The provider is DANTE from Kiel, so a German company. As an add-on there is an exclusive virtual server in the provider's data centre for 349 euros a month. MetronHR runs at Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg and Falkenstein, named at no extra charge.
Onboarding and offboarding workflows with tasks, owners and deadlines, client-bound hour packages with renewal and carry-over, project budgets with a target-actual traffic light, and day planning in 15-minute steps with activities, staffing rules and qualification requirements. At MetronHR the personnel file is part of the plan; at askDANTE it is an add-on.
Yes. askDANTE offers reports and a REST API with which master data, times, working-time accounts and absences can be extracted. From that you carry balances and master data into MetronHR. The hardware is worth checking: askDANTE sells its own terminals, while MetronHR uses an Android tablet as a terminal.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
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