# Sesame HR — HR Management

Sesame HR by Sesame HR (Sesame Technologies S.L.) holds a panel rating of 2/5 from 6 AI judges (category median 2/5), as of 2026-10-15. Provenance: provenance unknown; sovereignty: not determined.

- Vendor: Sesame HR (Sesame Technologies S.L.) (https://www.sesamehr.com)
- Category: [HR Management](https://whats-best.ai/software/hr-management.md)
- Provenance (editorial classification): provenance unknown
- Canonical page: https://whats-best.ai/software/hr-management/sesame-hr
- Alternatives: https://whats-best.ai/software/hr-management/sesame-hr/alternatives ([markdown](https://whats-best.ai/software/hr-management/sesame-hr/alternatives.md))
- Data as of: 2026-10-21 · evaluated 2026-10-15 · oldest source captured 2026-10-13

**AI-generated.** Every score, rationale and verdict here is written by a panel of AI judges from public evidence — an analysis, not a hands-on test. Every fact quotes the vendor page it was read from. No score can be bought. How scores are made: https://whats-best.ai/methodology

## At a glance

- Vendor: Sesame HR (Sesame Technologies S.L.)
- Headquarters: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
- Data hosting: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026
- Free plan: Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026

## The panel's verdict

Sesame HR, from Sesame Technologies S.L., a Spanish limited company, is an HR management product whose strongest scores land on core HR records, payroll readiness and employee data governance — each holds a flat 4. Judges repeatedly name the role model the strongest thing on display: view and edit per installed tool plus per-data-point toggles across personal, work and custom fields that apply automatically. Payroll preparation is real — configurable periods from monthly down to daily with a closing date, bulk salary-supplement import and overtime balance rules — but every captured exchange is an Excel file, and we found no public information on any named payroll system or defined handoff format. Sovereignty scores spread the widest, from 1 to 3: beyond the vendor's Spanish corporate form, we found no public information on hosting region, subprocessors or certification. Time and absence and recruiting and onboarding each spread from 3 to 4, the lower scores weighing the unevidenced working-time capture and the unevidenced recruiting half of the join path most heavily. No public pricing was found on the captured pages.

**Speaks for it:**
- Role permissions switch view and edit per installed tool and per individual data point across personal, work and custom fields, with changes applying automatically across the product.
- Payroll preparation covers configurable period types from monthly to daily with a closing date, bulk salary-supplement import and overtime balance rules.
- Onboarding and offboarding templates can be assigned during employee creation, in batch across a group, and start automatically on the chosen date.
- Absence requests run through validators with mobile filing, configurable absence types and half-day requests calculated from the assigned daily or weekly schedule.
- Employee records support custom fields, saved filterable templates with fields such as annual salary and work schedule, and Excel export.

**Held against it:**
- We found no public information on hosting region, subprocessors, data-centre providers or certification, leaving the Spanish corporate form the only signal the judges found.
- We found no public information on any named payroll system or defined handoff format; the only outbound format in evidence is an Excel download.
- We found no public information on working-time recording of any kind, which judges tied to the German recording duty.
- We found no public information on applicant tracking, careers pages or structured hiring stages, so the join path begins at the employee record.
- We found no public information on an audit log of who read what, retention periods, executable deletion or a published data-processing agreement.

**Best for:**
- You need to restrict sensitive fields — salary, bank account, ID numbers — down to the individual data point for each role.
- You prepare payroll in-house and can work with configurable periods from monthly to daily and bulk Excel supplement imports.
- You want onboarding and offboarding that batch-assigns to groups and starts automatically on a selected date.
- You need absence requests with validator approval, mobile filing and half-day handling based on each employee's assigned daily or weekly schedule.

**Avoid if:**
- You must feed a named payroll system such as DATEV or Lohn und Gehalt through a defined handoff format, since the only outbound format in evidence is an Excel download.
- Your procurement requires a documented hosting region, subprocessor list and data-centre certification, since sovereignty scores spread from 1 to 3 with the Spanish corporate form as the only signal.
- You need working-time recording to satisfy the German recording duty, since time and absence scores run from 3 to 4 and we found no public information on working-time recording of any kind.
- You need applicant tracking and structured hiring rather than onboarding alone, since recruiting and onboarding scores run from 3 to 4 with only the onboarding half of the join path evidenced.

## Scores by judge and criterion

Scores out of 5, each judge scoring independently against the published rubric (v1). "n/r" = not rated: the vendor publishes no price.

| Criterion | The People Lead | The Payroll Officer | The Works Council Advocate | The Data Protection Officer | The IT Integrator | The Skeptic |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Digital personnel file & data model | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Payroll handoff | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| Absence & working-time | 1.5/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 | 2/5 |
| Recruiting & onboarding | 1.5/5 | 2/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 2/5 |
| Employee data protection & co-determination | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 | 2/5 |
| European sovereignty | 0.5/5 | 1.5/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 | 1/5 |
| Pricing transparency | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r | n/r |
| **Weighted verdict** | **2/5** | **2/5** | **1.5/5** | **1.5/5** | **1.5/5** | **2/5** |

### The judges

- **The People Lead** (v1.0): Runs HR for 400 people with two colleagues and is replacing a shared drive and eleven spreadsheets. Optimizes for the record being true and the month closing without chasing anyone. Buys breadth that actually connects, and is unmoved by a beautiful org chart sitting next to a manual vacation calculation.
- **The Payroll Officer** (v1.0): 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.
- **The Works Council Advocate** (v1.0): Sits on the Betriebsrat and has to approve this rollout under BetrVG §87. Reads every feature for whether it can monitor behaviour, and asks what is logged, who can read it and what can be switched off. A tool that cannot answer those questions does not get installed, however good it is.
- **The Data Protection Officer** (v1.0): Answers for the most sensitive personal data the company holds, about people who cannot decline the processing. Wants retention that executes rather than promises, a published subprocessor list, and applicant data that deletes itself on the stated date. Treats an unpublished DPA as a finding.
- **The IT Integrator** (v1.0): Owns identity and has to make the HR system the source of truth for accounts. Wants SCIM provisioning, SSO that is not an enterprise upsell, and an API with documentation rather than a partner form. Judges onboarding by whether it can create the account, not by whether it has a checklist.
- **The Skeptic** (v1.0): Has watched three HR suites promise one system and deliver five modules with a shared logo. Reads every claim for what it does not say: which module the feature lives in, what it costs on top, and whether "integration" means a maintained connector or a documented endpoint someone could build against.

## European sovereignty — proven facts

No sovereignty finding yet.

## Key facts

Each fact is the vendor's own statement, cited to the source page it was read from ([S*n*] → Sources).

**Integrations**
- Excel export: Employee template data can be downloaded as an Excel sheet [S1]

**Product**
- Absence request steps: In the app: Time off section, select option, choose days, select reason from dropdown menu, then request [S5]
- Absence request workflow: yes [S5]
- Assign during employee creation: onboarding template can be chosen in the last step of new employee creation [S7]
- Assign process options: three options for assigning an onboarding/offboarding process [S7]
- Assign via all tab: assign via All > Add: select employee, process type, start date, template [S7]
- Automatic start: yes [S7]
- Batch assignment: batch assign onboarding/offboarding to multiple employees via Batch actions [S7]
- Bulk supplement import: yes [S4]
- Data privacy actions: view · edit [S2]
- Data privacy automatic: Changes apply automatically across all Sesame sections [S2]
- Data privacy path: Configuration >> Roles and accesses >> [Role name] >> Data privacy [S2]
- Data privacy section: Data privacy section controls which employee information is available to users assigned to a role, General or Specific [S2]
- Data privacy sections: Personal data, Work data, Custom fields [S2]
- Employee search: Employees menu includes a magnifying-glass search to find employees quickly [S1]
- Employee templates: Folder in Employees menu opens template section for creating filtered employee databases [S1]
- Half day absences: yes [S6]
- Half day calculation methods: daily schedule · weekly schedule [S6]
- Half day configuration: Configuration > Calendars > Time Off > Create > Absence · Allow the request for half a day's absence · Days [S6]
- Half day request options: Full day · Half day (04h 00min) [S6]
- Half day schedule basis: assigned schedule [S6]
- Import period bound: downloaded file corresponds to the current payroll period [S4]
- Import period mismatch handling: user can continue in that period or cancel if file is from a different period [S4]
- Import progress notification: user is notified when upload is in progress [S4]
- Import supplements excel: all employees or selected employees · Excel [S4]
- Mobile absence requests: yes [S5]
- Payroll access configuration: yes [S3]
- Payroll document manager upload: yes [S3]
- Payroll employee distribution: yes [S3]
- Payroll leaves report download: yes [S3]
- Payroll multi currency periods: yes [S3]
- Payroll overtime balance rules: yes [S3]
- Payroll period closing date: yes [S3]
- Payroll period menu: Period · yes · yes [S3]
- Payroll period types: monthly · biweekly · fortnightly · weekly · daily [S3]
- Payroll signature request: yes [S3]
- Payroll supplements bulk import: yes [S3]
- Payroll table information: yes [S3]
- Role access autosave: yes [S9]
- Role access categories: Time management · Employees · Company [S9]
- Role access levels config: Role access levels are configured per tool with view and edit options [S9]
- Role creation options: Roles can be created from scratch or by duplicating an existing role [S10]
- Role fields: Role creation requires Name and Description fields, plus Access levels configuration [S10]
- Role navigation: Roles and accesses is located under Configuration >> Company [S10]
- Role types: Role types: General or Specific [S10]
- Template creation: Templates are created by clicking + and selecting data fields such as phone number, annual salary and work schedule [S1]
- Template edit delete: Templates can be edited or deleted via a three-dot icon [S1]
- Template sharing: Templates can be shared when necessary [S1]
- Template sorting: Templates can be sorted alphabetically and downloaded as an Excel sheet [S1]

## Questions

### Is Sesame HR European?

Not determined: the vendor’s pages as captured do not say where Sesame HR is based.

### Where does Sesame HR store data?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

### Does Sesame HR have a free plan?

Not stated on the vendor’s pages as of 13 Oct 2026.

### What are the best alternatives to Sesame HR?

As of 21 Oct 2026, the panel rates [rexx systems (3.5/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/hr-management/rexx-systems), [HRworks (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/hr-management/hrworks) and [Kenjo (3/5)](https://whats-best.ai/software/hr-management/kenjo) highest among the other 30 HR Management products evaluated. Ratings that look equal are rounded to half stars; the order uses the unrounded rating, then the name. The highest-rated European alternative is [rexx systems](https://whats-best.ai/software/hr-management/rexx-systems) (EU-Made). Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: [how scores are made](https://whats-best.ai/methodology#ordering). The full list, with European products first: [Sesame HR alternatives](https://whats-best.ai/software/hr-management/sesame-hr/alternatives).

## What this page leaves out

- We found no public information on pricing on the pages we read (help.sesamehr.com/en_US/employee-management/how-to-filter-your-employee-database, help.sesamehr.com/en_US/roles/manage-access-to-employee-data, help.sesamehr.com/en_US/payroll/how-can-i-set-up-a-payroll-period, help.sesamehr.com/en_US/payroll/how-can-i-import-supplements-in-bulk, help.sesamehr.com/en_US/time-off-and-holidays-user/how-to-request-absences-and-leaves-from-work-through-the-app, help.sesamehr.com/en_US/time-off-and-holidays/can-i-configure-half-day-absences-for-my-team-to-request and 4 more). If the vendor publishes it somewhere else, send us the page.
- We found no public information on compliance on the pages we read (help.sesamehr.com/en_US/employee-management/how-to-filter-your-employee-database, help.sesamehr.com/en_US/roles/manage-access-to-employee-data, help.sesamehr.com/en_US/payroll/how-can-i-set-up-a-payroll-period, help.sesamehr.com/en_US/payroll/how-can-i-import-supplements-in-bulk, help.sesamehr.com/en_US/time-off-and-holidays-user/how-to-request-absences-and-leaves-from-work-through-the-app, help.sesamehr.com/en_US/time-off-and-holidays/can-i-configure-half-day-absences-for-my-team-to-request and 4 more). If the vendor publishes it somewhere else, send us the page.
- 5 product facts could not be confirmed on the vendor’s page as captured and were left out of this page and of the panel’s material.

## Sources

- [S1] Digital personnel file & data model — found from sitemap: https://help.sesamehr.com/en_US/employee-management/how-to-filter-your-employee-database (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S2] Digital personnel file & data model — found from sitemap: https://help.sesamehr.com/en_US/roles/manage-access-to-employee-data (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S3] Payroll handoff — found from sitemap: https://help.sesamehr.com/en_US/payroll/how-can-i-set-up-a-payroll-period (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S4] Payroll handoff — found from sitemap: https://help.sesamehr.com/en_US/payroll/how-can-i-import-supplements-in-bulk (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S5] Absence & working-time — found from sitemap: https://help.sesamehr.com/en_US/time-off-and-holidays-user/how-to-request-absences-and-leaves-from-work-through-the-app (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S6] Absence & working-time — found from sitemap: https://help.sesamehr.com/en_US/time-off-and-holidays/can-i-configure-half-day-absences-for-my-team-to-request (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S7] Recruiting & onboarding — found from sitemap: https://help.sesamehr.com/en_US/onoffboarding/how-can-i-assign-an-onboarding-or-offboarding-process (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S8] Recruiting & onboarding — found from sitemap: https://help.sesamehr.com/en_US/onoffboarding/can-i-assign-an-onboarding-process-while-creating-an-employee (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S9] Employee data protection & co-determination — found from sitemap: https://help.sesamehr.com/en_US/roles/how-can-i-configure-the-access-levels-of-a-role (checked 2026-10-13)
- [S10] Employee data protection & co-determination — found from sitemap: https://help.sesamehr.com/en_US/roles/how-can-i-create-a-role (checked 2026-10-13)

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Cite as: whats-best.ai, "Sesame HR — HR Management", AI panel analysis, as of 2026-10-21. https://whats-best.ai/software/hr-management/sesame-hr

Corrections: https://whats-best.ai/correct/712?target=page