In the computed table, HRworks leads payroll readiness (5.5 vs 3.7; six judges lean HRworks, none Personalwolke), recruiting and onboarding (4.3 vs 0.0; six to none), employee data governance (4.5 vs 3.0; six to none), sovereignty (5.7 vs 4.0; six to none) and core HR records (4.0 vs 3.2; five to none, one tie). Time and absence is the most contested: 6.2 vs 5.7, two judges leaning HRworks and four tying. Personalwolke's lead is pricing transparency (1.7 vs 0.5; four judges lean Personalwolke, two tie): published prices exist for Personalwolke, while HRworks publishes no prices and pricing was not weighted in HRworks's verdicts. Per-judge weighted totals favor HRworks, from The IT Integrator's 4.8 vs 2.6 to The Payroll Officer's 5.6 vs 3.5. Both list EU-only data residency and US Cloud Act subprocessor exposure; HRworks's legal entity jurisdiction is DE, Personalwolke's is AT. We found no published verdict summary for Personalwolke.
Choose HRworks if
You run payroll through DATEV and want a partner interface — six judges lean HRworks on payroll readiness (5.5 vs 3.7), and its verdict names DATEV as a partner.
You need recruiting and onboarding inside the same HR suite — six judges lean HRworks on recruiting and onboarding (4.3 vs 0.0).
Your data protection officer prioritizes employee data governance — six judges lean HRworks (4.5 vs 3.0).
You require a German legal entity — HRworks's legal entity jurisdiction is DE, and six judges lean HRworks on sovereignty (5.7 vs 4.0).
You need smartphone time capture with breaks, overtime and minus hours — HRworks's verdict evidences these, and time and absence stands at 6.2 vs 5.7 (two lean HRworks, four tie).
Choose Personalwolke if
You need published prices before talking to sales — four judges lean Personalwolke on pricing transparency (1.7 vs 0.5), and published prices exist for Personalwolke.
You require an Austrian legal entity — Personalwolke's legal entity jurisdiction is AT.
Time and absence is your main requirement and you would let price decide a tie — four judges tie the two there (5.7 vs 6.2), and Personalwolke holds the pricing transparency lean.
You want EU-only data residency together with published prices — Personalwolke lists data residency as EU-only and publishes prices.
Read this comparison as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.
The Payroll Officer
Closes payroll every month and answers to the tax adviser when it is wrong. Cares about one thing above all: whether the month leaves this system clean, with backdated changes, mid-month leavers and variable pay handled. Treats "CSV export" as a confession, not a feature.
HRworks
This judge's pick
Personalwolke
Criterion by criterion
Digital personnel file & data model
HRworks
A digital personnel file holding 'sämtliche Personaldaten und Dokumente' is confirmed, with configurable roles and need-to-know access, but the evidence never shows an org chart, custom fields, or effective-dated contract and salary history. Without dated history I cannot trust that a backdated salary change survives the month — this is a flat file with documents, above rubric level 3 only because the suite context and role model are real.
Personalwolke
"Digitale Personalakte" and "Personalverwaltung" are listed as headline features, so a file exists, but the evidence says nothing about org structure, custom fields, or dated history of contract or salary changes — I close months on effective-dated changes, and there is no evidence a change is kept rather than overwritten. That is a flat file with documents, nothing more.
Payroll handoff
HRworks
DATEV is named explicitly as 'Corporate und Schnittstellen Partner' alongside ADDISON, and Payroll sits in the base package — a genuine named payroll path, not a spreadsheet handoff. But nothing documents variable pay, mid-month joiners and leavers, retro-accounting for backdated changes, or a pre-payroll check, which is precisely what I need to close a month cleanly, so it holds just above rubric level 5.
Personalwolke
A payroll path is stated — "Schnittstelle Lohn/Gehalt" (optional in three plans), "vorbereitende Lohnabrechnung", and travel expenses feeding "Lohnverrechnungsanbindung" — which is more than a generic CSV confession. But no payroll system is named, no format is documented, and mid-month joiners/leavers, variable pay and retro-accounting are never mentioned, so it stays below the named-integration tier.
Absence & working-time
HRworks
Online capture via terminal and smartphone, breaks, overtime and minus-hour accounts, soll/ist control and a monthly per-employee overview are all evidenced, vacation and sickness are recorded with automatic notifications, and the vendor claims EuGH-conform automatic documentation of working time. Missing are public-holiday calendars per location, rest-period rules, tamper-evident records and an export I could hand a labour inspection — that is what holds it below 8.
Personalwolke
Vacation management with aliquotation explicitly covering Eintritt, Teilzeit, Austritt and Karenz is exactly the proration I need for mid-month leavers, and there is start/stop capture, terminal hardware and "komplexe Zeitwirtschaft inkl. Berechnung" with reports. But carry-over, sickness, holiday calendars and any word on ArbZG recording duty or tamper-evidence are absent, so it does not reach the legal-obligation tier.
Recruiting & onboarding
HRworks
Applicant management 'von A bis Z', a careers portal in corporate design, and onboarding described as seamlessly integrated into the whole employee life cycle are all evidenced in one suite. But structured stages, rejection handling, interview scorecards, applicant deletion deadlines and e-signed contracts appear nowhere — the join path exists, its governance is unevidenced.
Personalwolke
The module list is Time, Travel, Project Time and HR-Expert, and of the "über 60 smarte Features" not one is applicant tracking or onboarding — the evidence is silent on the entire join path. Hiring stays in the shared inbox.
Employee data protection & co-determination
HRworks
An independent Bitkom Consult GDPR audit, ISO 27001 certification, a comprehensive role system with need-to-know access, and logged inputs and logins are solid, documented ground. But the DPA is only 'anzufordern' rather than published, and retention periods, executable deletion, field-level read-logging and any subprocessor list are silent — a works council would not get its answers from this sheet.
Personalwolke
A DPA is available on request, GDPR conformity is claimed, and the security story is SSL plus 2FA — but no retention periods, no executable deletion, no audit log, no role granularity, and the only subprocessors named are the website's analytics tools. That is the DPA-on-request tier and no further.
European sovereignty
HRworks
The imprint pins a German GmbH with HRB Freiburg and German Gerichtsstand, and hosting is stated as EU on AWS servers — a real EU contracting entity with EU hosting, which clears rubric level 5's floor. But AWS is the only named infrastructure, no region beyond 'EU' and no subprocessor list are published, and the sovereignty pipeline itself flags the chain as unverified, so I cannot go higher.
Personalwolke
The server is stated to be in Österreich and the imprint shows an Austrian Firmenbuch entry, VAT ID and Vienna address, so as a buyer I read a genuinely EU vendor. But the data-centre provider is unnamed and the product's own subprocessor chain is unpublished — the pipeline's unknowns are real — which keeps it one tier down.
Pricing transparency
HRworks
The pricing page offers 'Ihr passendes Angebot' — a quote form, no numbers — and the Pro package is described but unpriced, so no HR lead can compute an annual invoice for any headcount. Only the 'ohne Mindestlaufzeiten' statement and a free trial are public, which is rubric level 0 plus one courtesy disclosure.
Personalwolke
The pricing page describes the model — "Monatliche Miete auf Basis Mitarbeiteranzahl & Module", a one-time setup fee, module and loyalty discounts, 30-day trial — but not a single euro figure appears anywhere on the evidence. No HR lead can compute an annual invoice from this; it is a sales conversation dressed as a price page.
Sovereignty, side by side
Dimension
HRworks
Personalwolke
Legal entity
Not determined
Incorporated in AT
Ownership
Not determined
Not determined
Data residency
EU only
Not determined
Subprocessors
Not determined
EU only
Facts, side by side
Only facts both products carry under the same definition — anything else would not be a fair row.