The HRworks alternative at half the price
The full HR and time package at a transparent price, with no setup fee, no mandatory training and no minimum purchase.
All information about HRworks comes from the official provider pages. As at:2. September 2026.
Features in detail
Sources and notes (10)
- 1. HRworks, Traffic-light account (warning levels with an automatic alert): HRworks mentions „automatic warnings for managers and admins when target hours are exceeded or undercut“. The automatic alert is therefore evidenced, while several graduated warning levels in the manner of a traffic-light account are not mentioned on the product page (hrworks.de/produkt/zeiterfassung-online, retrieved 14 September 2026).
- 2. MetronHR, Shift and duty planning / roster: An optional module, included in the Professional plan and activated per company, either as shift planning or as duty planning with a day plan. MetronHR also works entirely without both.
- 3. HRworks, Shift and duty planning / roster: No native shift planning; HRworks points to an external partner integration for that.
- 4. HRworks, Allowances / hour packages: The product page on time tracking describes booking working time against „projects and sub-projects“. It does not mention client-bound hour packages with periodic renewal and carry-over, nor client hourly rates or budgets as separate fields (hrworks.de/produkt/zeiterfassung-online, retrieved 3 September 2026).
- 5. HRworks, Analytics & reports: Standard reporting included; multi-dimensional, freely filterable reports with an Excel export are not part of the standard scope.
- 6. MetronHR, Application hosted in Germany: The application and customer data run at Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg and Falkenstein, exclusively in Germany.
- 7. HRworks, Application hosted in Germany: Server location Dublin, Ireland, by its own account. EU and GDPR compliant, but not in Germany.
- 8. 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.
- 9. HRworks, Hosting operator without a US parent company: The operator is Amazon Web Services, a US group. HRworks itself names AWS as a sub-processor.
- 10. HRworks, Mobile app: Only a responsive web app; HRworks does not offer a native iOS or Android app.
~ = 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. HRworks 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
HRworks
- Server location of the application
- Amazon Web Services in Dublin, Ireland. Within the EU, but not in Germany.
- Operator and legal jurisdiction
- Amazon Web Services, a US group. HRworks encrypts the data with the AWS Key Management Service so that, by its own account, AWS cannot read it.
- Processors outside Germany
- AWS as a sub-processor in Ireland, plus heyData GmbH in Berlin as external data protection officer.
- Source
- HRworks privacy policyabgerufen 08/2026
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
A setup fee, mandatory training, a base fee: MetronHR has none of those
HRworks real costs (as at 06/2026, per the official pricing page hrworks.de): 12.90 euros per user per month (core system) + a variable base fee of 60 euros a month (up to 49 users) rising to 300 euros a month (from 300 users). At least 20 active users are billed. On top come one-off setup fees of 1,550 euros (20 to 49 employees) up to 4,480 euros (100 to 299 employees), above that on request; the two-day administrator training is included in the setup fee. MetronHR: from 5 euros per user on Team or 10 euros per user on Professional, no base fee, no setup fee, no minimum purchase.
Self-service setup instead of a multi-week five-stage onboarding
The HRworks implementation officially runs in five stages: setup wizard, project planning with a personal consultant, Q&A, data check and handover with two days of mandatory administrator training. There is no genuine self-service trial; entry is via demo access and an appointment. MetronHR: register, invite employees by email, productive in 5 minutes. The standard working-time model, the public holiday calendar (Germany including all 16 federal states) and approval rules are preset.
Client allowances with auto-renewal, not available at HRworks
HRworks can record project times, but knows no client-bound hour packages with a periodic reset. Exactly the retainer model that agencies, IT service providers and law practices need: 20 hours of support a month, renewed automatically at the turn of the month, with roll-over logic. MetronHR delivers that out of the box, including a usage dashboard and invoice preparation.
Reports from four angles, flexible instead of rigid
MetronHR analyses the same times by person, project, client and service, each drilling down to the individual entry and with an Excel and CSV export, with no add-on module. That gives you project, client and employee reports directly in the tool.
A native mobile app for field work, the workshop and the building site
HRworks relies on a responsive web app and documents browser-based access only on its own website; the provider offers no native iOS or Android app. For teams in the field, in the workshop or on the building site a native app is a clear advantage. The MetronHR app (iOS/Android, available in the Apple App Store and on Google Play) offers time tracking with a stopwatch, project, client and activity booking, absence requests and a self-service file, designed for daily use on a phone.
Price comparison
HRworks adds up several items; here are all the cost components side by side.
| Service | MetronHR | HRworks |
|---|---|---|
| Price per user / month | from 5 euros | 12,90 € |
| Monthly base fee | none | 60–300 € |
| One-off setup fee (incl. administrator training) | none | 1.550–4.480 € |
| Minimum purchase | none | 20 users |
Price per user / month
- MetronHR
- from 5 euros
- HRworks
- 12,90 €
Monthly base fee
- MetronHR
- none
- HRworks
- 60–300 €
One-off setup fee (incl. administrator training)
- MetronHR
- none
- HRworks
- 1.550–4.480 €
Minimum purchase
- MetronHR
- none
- HRworks
- 20 users
Source: official HRworks pricing page, as at 06/2026. Setup fee includes administrator training; from 300 employees on request.
No credit card needed · cancellable monthly
FromHRworks moving to MetronHR
Your data comes with you.HRworks 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
AtHRworks export
- Reports from HR Analytics as CSV and XLSX
- Standard time management reports as HTML, PDF and XML, the import reports additionally as TXT and CSV
- 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 fromHRworks according to HR WORKS, HR analytics software, 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
The standard reports output HTML, PDF and XML, and no import reads from any of those. To switch, take the report from HR Analytics or an import report, both of which deliver CSV.
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 HRworks to MetronHR.
Per the official HRworks pricing page (as at 06/2026): HRworks bills 12.90 euros per user per month, plus a variable base fee from 60 euros (up to 49 users) to 300 euros a month (from 300 users), with a minimum of 20 users. On top comes a one-off setup fee of 1,550 to 4,480 euros (depending on company size; from 300 employees on request, with the two-day administrator training included). Example for 25 users: 25 x 12.90 euros + 60 euros = 382.50 euros a month plus 1,550 euros once (setup including training). MetronHR: 25 x 5 euros = 125 euros a month (Team) or 250 euros a month (Professional), with zero one-off costs.
MetronHR fully covers the typical requirements of mid-sized companies: time tracking, absences, personnel files, onboarding workflows, working-time models and compliance with the Working Time Act and the Federal Labour Court ruling, plus native project time tracking, client allowances, flexible reports and a native mobile app for iOS and Android. Specialist topics such as integrated travel expense accounting or a payroll module of its own are not part of the core scope. For payroll you export hours, overtime and absences as Excel or CSV.
HRworks hosts in the AWS high-security data centre in Ireland (EU, AES-256 encrypted), so EU compliant but not in Germany. MetronHR runs at Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg and Falkenstein, so exclusively in Germany and with a German operator that has no US parent. Anyone who has to meet a „hosting in Germany“ requirement, for example in practices, law firms or the public sector, meets it with MetronHR and not with HRworks.
HRworks officially documents a five-stage process: setup wizard, project planning with a consultant, a Q&A phase, a data check and handover with two days of mandatory administrator training. The whole process is accompanied by a personal consultant by phone and remote access. MetronHR: self-service setup in 5 to 10 minutes, preconfigured defaults (40-hour week, public holidays, approval rules), shift and group hierarchies set up in half a day.
Yes. MetronHR scales from a five-person team to over 100 employees. The Professional plan covers most mid-market requirements, at the same price per user, with no minimum purchase of 20 users as at HRworks.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
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