The Ordio alternative with a price per person instead of per site
Ordio bills per site, from 89 euros a month. With small teams and with several sites that makes a big difference. MetronHR costs 5 euros per person, regardless of the number of sites.
All information about Ordio comes from the official provider pages. As at:2. September 2026.
Features in detail
| Feature | MetronHR | Ordio |
|---|---|---|
| Overtime (automatic calculation) | ~1 | |
| Traffic-light account (warning levels with an automatic alert) | 2 | |
| Working-time models (part-time, flexitime, trust-based working time) | ~3 | |
| Project time tracking / budgets | 4 | |
| Allowances / hour packages | 5 | |
| Onboarding and offboarding workflows | ~6 | |
| Application hosted in Germany | 7 | ~8 |
| Hosting operator without a US parent company | 9 | ~10 |
Sources and notes (10)
- 1. Ordio, Overtime (automatic calculation): Tolerances and the documentation of lateness are included from Plus. An overtime account with a balance, payout and time off in lieu is not named as a separate feature.
- 2. Ordio, Traffic-light account (warning levels with an automatic alert): The product page lists shift planning, time tracking, absences, reporting, payroll preparation and personnel administration. A working-time account with warning levels and an automatic alert is not listed there (ordio.com/de, retrieved 14 September 2026).
- 3. Ordio, Working-time models (part-time, flexitime, trust-based working time): Smart break rules and individual tolerances from Plus. Models for flexitime, trust-based working time or alternating weekly patterns are not listed as a separate feature.
- 4. Ordio, Project time tracking / budgets: Ordio plans shifts and records working time. Projects, clients, activities, budgets and hourly rates are not part of the feature set.
- 5. Ordio, Allowances / hour packages: Client-bound hour packages with renewal and carry-over are not provided for.
- 6. Ordio, Onboarding and offboarding workflows: Individual checklists and forms are included from the Pro package, and the document generator is an add-on at 79 euros per site per month. A joining process with tasks, owners and deadlines per person is not documented.
- 7. MetronHR, Application hosted in Germany: The application and customer data run at Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg and Falkenstein, exclusively in Germany.
- 8. Ordio, Application hosted in Germany: The privacy policy names Hetzner Online GmbH as the hosting provider for the website. For the application itself no server location is named.
- 9. 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.
- 10. Ordio, Hosting operator without a US parent company: For the website Hetzner Online GmbH is named, a German company. For the application the policy names no operator.
~ = 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. Ordio 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
Ordio
- Server location of the application
- For the website Ordio names Hetzner Online GmbH in Gunzenhausen, with processing in the EU. The section on the app describes the data processed but names no data centre and no country for the application.
- Operator and legal jurisdiction
- For the website Hetzner Online GmbH, a German company with no US parent. Not named for the application. The controller is Ordio GmbH, Pilgrimstraße 6, 50674 Cologne.
- Processors outside Germany
- The policy names CDNetworks, Inc. (Diamond Bar, California, USA) as a content delivery network, HubSpot Ireland Limited (processing in the EU, hosted in Germany on AWS), plus Google, Meta, Mixpanel, Userflow, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.
- Source
- Ordio privacy policy for website and appAs at April 2026, retrieved 2 September 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
Staffing rules and occupational safety while planning
Ordio plans shifts and manages staff. Legally compliant time tracking starts there only with the Plus package, and what the plan itself checks is not stated in the feature overview. MetronHR checks as you plan: the eleven hours of rest between two working days, the daily and the weekly maximum, plus the tighter limits of the Youth Employment Protection Act for underage trainees and of the Maternity Protection Act. Staffing rules tie activities to qualifications, including several at once, and if someone drops out the request goes to the pool rather than to management.
A price per person, not per site
Ordio's model rewards large teams at few sites and punishes the opposite. A business with three branches of ten people each pays three times 129 euros on the Plus package, so 387 euros a month, which is 12.90 euros per person. At MetronHR it is 30 times 5 euros, so 150 euros, regardless of whether the people work at one location or five. Anyone with 40 people under one roof, on the other hand, does better with the per-site price, and we say so openly.
Time tracking belongs in the base price
Ordio's Starter package contains no time tracking; it starts with the Plus package at 129 euros per site per month. Since the Federal Labour Court decision of 13 September 2022 (1 ABR 22/21), employers must record the start, end and duration of daily working time. That is not an extra feature but the duty. At MetronHR it is part of the Team plan at 5 euros per person, with a check against maximum working time, rest periods and the duty to take breaks.
Project time and client allowances alongside the duty roster
Ordio plans shifts and manages staff. Anyone who also bills services to clients, say maintenance, consulting, catering jobs or extra services in care, keeps that calculation elsewhere. MetronHR books time against client, project and activity, keeps budgets with a target-actual traffic light and allowances that renew automatically and carry unused hours over.
A server location named for the application too
In its privacy policy Ordio names Hetzner Online GmbH as its hosting provider, but expressly for the website; for the application the policy states no data centre and no country. For the delivery network Ordio names CDNetworks, Inc. from California. MetronHR names the operator of the application: Hetzner Online GmbH, Nuremberg and Falkenstein, exclusively in Germany.
Price comparison
Ordio bills per site, MetronHR per person. Whether that is cheaper or more expensive depends solely on the team size per site.
| Service | MetronHR | Ordio |
|---|---|---|
| 8 people at one site, with time tracking | Team 40 euros a month, so 5 euros per person | Plus 129 euros a month, so 16.13 euros per person |
| 30 people at one site, with time tracking | Team 150 euros a month | Plus 129 euros a month, so 4.30 euros per person |
| 3 sites with 10 people each, with time tracking | Team 150 euros a month, the number of sites makes no difference | 3 × 129 euros, 387 euros a month in total |
| Time tracking in the cheapest package | included in Team | not included, only from Plus |
| Project time with client and budget, client allowances | included in Professional | not available |
| Trial period | 14 days. | 7 days |
8 people at one site, with time tracking
- MetronHR
- Team 40 euros a month, so 5 euros per person
- Ordio
- Plus 129 euros a month, so 16.13 euros per person
30 people at one site, with time tracking
- MetronHR
- Team 150 euros a month
- Ordio
- Plus 129 euros a month, so 4.30 euros per person
3 sites with 10 people each, with time tracking
- MetronHR
- Team 150 euros a month, the number of sites makes no difference
- Ordio
- 3 × 129 euros, 387 euros a month in total
Time tracking in the cheapest package
- MetronHR
- included in Team
- Ordio
- not included, only from Plus
Project time with client and budget, client allowances
- MetronHR
- included in Professional
- Ordio
- not available
Trial period
- MetronHR
- 14 days.
- Ordio
- 7 days
Prices per ordio.com/preise, retrieved on 2 September 2026, per site per month with annual billing; with monthly billing they are 16 per cent higher. Ordio additionally offers add-ons between 39 and 99 euros per site per month as well as Payroll Plus at 15 euros per payroll run. For large teams at a single site Ordio's per-site price is clearly ahead.
No credit card needed · cancellable monthly
FromOrdio moving to MetronHR
Your data comes with you.Ordio 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
AtOrdio export
- Custom reports as PDF, Excel or CSV
- Bulk calculation of times as PDF or 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 fromOrdio according to Ordio, time tracking and 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 Ordio to MetronHR.
Ordio bills per site, with annual payment: Starter 89 euros, Plus 129 euros, Pro 169 euros, Enterprise from 344 euros a month; with monthly payment the prices are 16 per cent higher. On top come add-ons from 39 to 99 euros per site per month as well as Payroll Plus at 15 euros per payroll run. MetronHR costs 5 euros per person on Team and 10 euros on Professional. The comparison tips at around 26 people per site: below that MetronHR is cheaper, above it Ordio. As at 2 September 2026.
The Starter package covers shift planning, personnel files, documents and absences. Legally compliant time tracking, the terminal, GPS checks and break rules start with the Plus package at 129 euros per site per month. For businesses that have to meet the recording duty, Starter is therefore not a complete offer. At MetronHR time tracking is part of the cheapest plan.
With large teams at one site in hospitality, retail or leisure, especially if payroll is to run alongside. Payroll Plus bills at 15 euros per run, and there are also tip management, an events module and a document generator. MetronHR deliberately does not cover those areas, because payroll is calculated at the tax firm. The price for that is per-site billing: at Ordio time tracking starts only with the Plus package at 129 euros per site per month, and below around 26 people per site MetronHR is cheaper.
Ordio's privacy policy (as at April 2026) names Hetzner Online GmbH in Gunzenhausen as the hosting provider for the website and CDNetworks, Inc. from California as the delivery network. For the application no data centre and no country are named. MetronHR runs at Hetzner Online GmbH in Nuremberg and Falkenstein, exclusively in Germany, and names that for the application itself.
Project time tracking with clients, projects and activities, project budgets with a target-actual traffic light, client-bound hour packages with renewal and carry-over as well as working-time models for flexitime and trust-based working time. Ordio in turn covers payroll, tip management and event staffing, topics MetronHR deliberately leaves out.
Yes. From the Pro package Ordio offers a public REST API and reporting exports. From those you carry over master data, the personnel file, planned and recorded times and absences. Worth checking is the annual commitment: the package prices quoted apply with annual billing, so the switch date should fit.
Question not answered here? Every step is explained in the help centre.
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