Factorial Alternative: reviews, pricing and comparison (2026)

Factorial is the Spanish HR software unicorn: valued at more than 1 billion dollars, with around 13,000 clients and heading towards 100 million in recurring revenue. An undeniable success, built on a pricing model that hurts small SMEs: a minimum rate of €115.90/month up to 19 employees, whatever you use from the platform. If you came to Factorial for time tracking and found yourself paying for a suite, this guide is for you: a complete analysis of Factorial and its alternatives in 2026.

Transparency: this is written by the Cleverfy team, with data verified in July 2026 (Factorial’s website, business press, review platforms). Factorial is an excellent product for the right profile, we point that out in its section.

What Factorial is and who is behind it

Factorial was founded in Barcelona in 2016 by Jordi Romero (CEO), Bernat Farrero and Pau Ramón (the latter left the company in 2023). Their masterstroke came in 2020: during the pandemic they offered the platform for free, captured thousands of companies and later converted them into paying clients.

The numbers are impressive: a unicorn since 2022 (a $120M round with Atomico, GIC and Tiger Global), around 220 million dollars raised in total (General Catalyst topped up to $200M in 2025), roughly 1,000-1,300 employees, ~13,000 clients across Europe and Latin America and projected recurring revenue above $100M in 2025.

Why does it matter? Because a unicorn with 1,300 employees and investors like Tiger Global needs to grow revenue per client every quarter. Its €115.90/month minimum and its price increases are not an accident: they are the plan. You decide whether your time record should fund it.

What Factorial does well

• Unbeatable breadth: HR, time tracking, shifts, absences, payroll, expenses, recruiting (ATS), onboarding, performance reviews, e-signature, even financial management.
• Integrated ecosystem: everything connected in a single platform, with a solid mobile app.
• A constantly evolving product, the investment muscle shows in the pace of launches.
• Brand and community: documentation, events, content, it is the player that invests the most in its category.

Where Factorial falls short (or gets expensive)

1. The €115.90/month minimum rate up to 19 employees. An 8-person company pays €1,390/year; its legal time-tracking obligation, with a specialist, costs €115-144/year. You are paying 10 times more for the part the law requires.
2. Implementation as a project. Setting up a suite properly takes days or weeks, with training. The opposite of “sign up and clock in”.
3. Inherited complexity. The employee who just wants to clock in navigates a platform designed for the HR department.
4. Rising prices by design. The unicorn model requires expanding revenue per account every year, it is what its investors funded. Not by chance, the worst-rated dimension across its 312 Capterra reviews is value for money (4.1/5).

Factorial pricing in 2026

Item	Figure
Price per user	From €5.50/user/month
Minimum rate	€115.90/month (up to 19 employees)
8 employees	€115.90/month (€1,390/year)
20 employees	From ~€110-150/month depending on the modules contracted
Additional modules (payroll, etc.)	Increase the price per user

The detail nobody tells you when signing up: between 1 and 19 employees you pay the same. The real per-employee price for an 8-person company is €14.50/employee/month, effectively the most expensive on the whole Spanish market.

Real reviews of Factorial

Cross-platform reputation (verified July 2026):

Platform	Rating	Reviews
Capterra	4.4/5	312
G2	4.4/5	105
Trustpilot	4.2/5	744
App Store ES	4.7/5	16000
Google Play	4.6/5	37500
Google Maps	4.0/5	375

On Capterra, Factorial scores 4.4/5 across 312 reviews (verified July 2026): ease of use 4.5, support 4.2 and, the lowest, value for money 4.1. Sentiment: 89% positive, 5% negative.

Real positive quote: “A very practical tool for day-to-day use: one click to log the shift, and absences are requested and tracked easily” (translation of a verified review).

Real critical quote: a user describes the friction of support: “there’s no real ease in getting your issues to move forward, you end up going into their Jira yourself to open the ticket, even while chatting with agents” (translation of a verified review).

Most valued: a real all-in-one, modern interface, mobile app, continuous improvement. Most criticised: value for money (4.1, the same wound as Sesame), support during peaks and initial complexity.

Why SMEs look for a Factorial alternative (summary)

1. The €115.90/month minimum with fewer than 20 employees.
2. They only use time tracking and holidays, the rest of the suite, closed.
3. Renewals rising year after year.
4. Too much platform for the problem they had.

Cleverfy as a Factorial alternative: a direct comparison

	Cleverfy	Factorial
Price	€1.20-1.50/user/month (Pro €2.00-2.50)	From €5.50/user/month
Minimum rate	No minimum	€115.90/month (≤19 empl.)
8 employees	€9.60-12/month	€115.90/month (10-12×)
20 employees	€24-30/month	~€115-150/month (4-5×)
Full time record (web/app/Chrome/QR-PIN kiosk)	✅ All plans	✅
Holidays and absences	✅ Pro plan	✅
Payroll, ATS, performance, finance	❌ (not our product)	✅
4-year history + traceability + Inspection reports	✅	✅
AI assistant	✅ All plans (more volume on Pro)	Depending on plan
Sign-up	10 minutes	Days/weeks
Lock-in	No lock-in	Depending on contract

Savings with 20 employees: between €600 and €960/year, covering exactly the same legal obligation. Cleverfy’s pricing, public.

When to stay with Factorial, and when to switch

Stay if: you have 25+ employees, an HR lead who lives in the platform and you genuinely use 3+ modules (payroll + ATS + performance, for example). At that level, the integrated suite saves money versus five separate tools, and Factorial is among the best in Europe.

Switch if: you are below 20 employees and the €115.90 monthly bill essentially covers the clock-in. Do the brutal calculation: divide your annual bill by the modules you opened last month.

How to migrate from Factorial to Cleverfy

1. Find your renewal date, Factorial works with annual commitments.
2. Export employees and records from their dashboard.
3. Sign up for Cleverfy in 10 minutes and run a 14-day trial in parallel.
4. Free import, with history valid for an inspection.

Other Factorial alternatives

• Sesame HR, the direct rival: more clients, a lower minimum (€82.50/month) and add-ons on the side. Swapping one minimum for another only fixes half the problem.
• Personio, the German mid-market suite, with no public pricing.
• Woffu, a clock-in specialist, cheap up to 10 employees.

Conclusion

Factorial is the Spanish SaaS success story and a great suite product. But its pricing model is designed for the investor, not for the 8-employee SME that only needs to meet the time-tracking requirement. If you are that SME, you are not its ideal client, and you pay as if you were.

Try Cleverfy free for 14 days, the full time record, at the price of a time record. Free migration from Factorial, or a 15-minute demo if you want to see it first.