Alternatives
OrangeHRM alternative for Sri Lankan SMEs
OrangeHRM is an HR system sold as free open-source software (Starter) or a paid Advanced plan; it has no payroll module and no Sri Lankan statutory features. Humanised is the OrangeHRM alternative with payroll built in: EPF, ETF, APIT and gratuity, Sinhala payslips, bank files, attendance and leave, for 5 to 5,000 employees, from a flat LKR 10,000 a month with a free trial.
OrangeHRM and Sri Lanka
OrangeHRM was founded in 2005, is headquartered in Secaucus, New Jersey, and has kept its engineering team in Sri Lanka, which is why many Sri Lankan companies assume it handles Sri Lankan payroll. It does not. On orangehrm.com on 3 September 2026 the product comes three ways: the free open-source Starter edition you host yourself (HR administration, leave, time and attendance, performance, recruitment and a mobile app), the paid Advanced edition in the cloud or on-premise (adding onboarding, career development, training, surveys and discipline; quote per employee, 30-day trial), and the same Advanced edition through partners. Payroll is offered only through connectors to other payroll products. EPF, ETF and APIT are not listed anywhere on the site.
Why teams look for a OrangeHRM alternative
- They need EPF, ETF, APIT and the returns inside the system, and OrangeHRM leaves payroll to a spreadsheet or another vendor.
- They do not want to host, patch and back up a server, which the free edition requires.
- They want phone support from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on working days, and usually later rather than a community forum.
- They want an employee app with payslips and GPS attendance, and Sinhala payslips for staff.
Humanised
- Price from
- Flat tier: LKR 10,000/month up to 15 employees, LKR 25,000/month up to 50, custom quote above 50. No setup fee. Published on /pricing/
- Company size
- 5 to 5,000 employees, Sri Lanka only
- Deployment
- Cloud; browser plus iOS and Android app; self-serve setup from an Excel import
- Local support
- Phone and WhatsApp (+94 76 443 7726) and email from Colombo, 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on working days, and usually later
- Free trial
- Seven-day trial on an account we set up and load with your own staff data; no card
OrangeHRM
- Price from
- Starter: free, open source. Advanced: quote only, per employee per month, cloud or on-premise, 30-day free trial (orangehrm.com/en/pricing, 3 September 2026)
- Company size
- Small and mid-sized businesses worldwide
- Deployment
- Self-hosted (Starter, open source) or cloud / on-premise (Advanced)
- Local support
- Community for Starter; vendor support on Advanced; company HQ Secaucus, New Jersey, with engineering in Sri Lanka
- Free trial
- Starter free; Advanced 30-day trial
What you get with Humanised instead
Does OrangeHRM do Sri Lankan payroll?
No. OrangeHRM’s pricing and feature pages list HR administration, leave, time and attendance, performance, recruitment, onboarding, training and discipline; payroll appears only as a connector category for third-party payroll systems, and no EPF, ETF or APIT feature is listed (orangehrm.com, 3 September 2026). A Sri Lankan employer on OrangeHRM therefore runs payroll somewhere else and re-keys leave and attendance into it. Humanised runs the payroll itself, with the rules from our EPF, ETF and APIT guides applied every month.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Humanised | OrangeHRM | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price from | Flat LKR tiers, public | Starter free; Advanced on request | Advanced is per employee per month; no amount published |
| Company-size fit | 5–5,000 | SMB to mid-market | |
| Deployment | Cloud + app, self-serve | Self-hosted or cloud | Starter needs your own server, updates and backups |
| Local support hours | Phone/WhatsApp, Colombo | Not listed for Sri Lanka | Community (Starter); vendor support (Advanced) |
| Free trial | ✓ | ✓ | Starter free; Advanced 30 days |
| EPF / ETF / APIT built in | ✓ | ✕ | OrangeHRM has no payroll module; it offers payroll connectors. No Sri Lankan statutory feature is listed |
| Sinhala payslips | ✓ | ✕ | No payslips (no payroll) |
| Employee app | ✓ | ✓ | OrangeHRM Advanced and Open Source apps |
| Attendance devices | ✓ | ~ | Time and attendance module; a biometric timesheets brochure exists; brands not named |
| Leave and rosters | ✓ | ✓ | Leave module in Starter; Sri Lankan rules need configuration |
| Contracts / HR letters | ✓ | Not listed | Document management in Advanced |
| QuickBooks / Xero | ✓ | ~ | Third-party connectors for QuickBooks; no native Xero found |
A tick in the OrangeHRM column means the feature is named on orangehrm.com on the check date. “Not listed” means we could not find it there; it may still exist.
What each costs for 15, 30 and 50 staff
| Staff | Humanised (per month) | OrangeHRM Starter (self-hosted, estimate) | OrangeHRM Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 | LKR 10,000 (Startup) | Licence LKR 0 + hosting and admin: about LKR 15,000–30,000 a month (a small VPS at LKR 5,000–10,000 plus 2–4 hours of IT time for updates and backups); payroll still run elsewhere | On request, per employee |
| 30 | LKR 25,000 (Small Business) | Same; payroll elsewhere | On request |
| 50 | LKR 25,000 (Small Business) | Same; payroll elsewhere | On request |
| Setup fee | None | Your installation time | Not published |
| Annual | LKR 100,000 (Startup) / LKR 270,000 (Small Business) | LKR 180,000–360,000 estimate, plus whatever you pay to run payroll | On request |
The Starter column is an estimate, labelled as such: the licence is free, the server, the person who patches it and the backups are not, and payroll has to be run somewhere else (a spreadsheet, an accountant, or another product), which adds its own cost. OrangeHRM Advanced is priced per employee on request.
Sources: orangehrm.com/en/pricing, 3 September 2026. Hosting estimates are Humanised’s, based on Sri Lankan VPS pricing in September 2026. Humanised tiers from gethumanised.com/pricing/.
How switching from OrangeHRM works
- Export from OrangeHRM. Employee records as CSV from the admin screens (Starter users can also export from the database); leave types and balances; attendance history if you want it.
- Bring the payroll history from where payroll actually ran. Year-to-date earnings, deductions and APIT come from your spreadsheet, accountant or payroll product, not from OrangeHRM.
- Import and run in parallel. Load the Humanised import sheet, set pay components and leave rules, run one cycle beside the old process and reconcile EPF, ETF, APIT and net pay.
- Cut over and decommission. Month start or 1 April; keep a read-only archive of the self-hosted server for the retention period, then switch it off.
| What we import | From |
|---|---|
| Employee master, jobs and salary data | OrangeHRM CSV export |
| Leave types, balances and history | OrangeHRM leave reports |
| Attendance history and device IDs | OrangeHRM time module or the devices |
| Year-to-date payroll and APIT | Your existing payroll (spreadsheet, accountant or other product) |
| Documents | OrangeHRM document export |
Two to three weeks is typical, most of it spent assembling the payroll history from outside OrangeHRM. Onboarding is included; no setup fee; the free trial covers the parallel run.
Which one should you choose?
Choose Humanised if…
- You need payroll with EPF, ETF, APIT, gratuity and the C-form, R4 and T10 returns inside the same system as HR.
- You do not want to run a server, apply updates and keep backups yourself, and you want phone support in Colombo.
- You want Sinhala payslips, biometric attendance, an employee app and QuickBooks or Xero posting without add-ons.
Stay with OrangeHRM if…
- You have in-house developers, want to own and customise the source code under its open-source licence, and payroll is handled elsewhere.
- You operate in several countries and need a global HRIS with local payroll done by partners in each.
- You are on an Advanced plan that already covers your recruitment, performance, training and onboarding needs and you are happy to keep payroll separate.
Other OrangeHRM alternatives in Sri Lanka
- Humanised — Sri Lankan SMEs of 5–5,000 wanting HR and payroll with published LKR pricing from LKR 10,000/month, no setup fee
- MiHCM — Microsoft 365 companies and regional payroll on request
- PeoplesHR (hSenid) — mid-size and large companies, multi-country payroll on request
- Better HR — small teams wanting the lowest published per-employee price LKR 399 per user per month, annual
- Gallery HR — SMEs wanting recruitment, performance and claims bundled on request
- Zoho People — companies already on Zoho One; Sri Lankan payroll by configuration from USD 1 per user per month
Prices as published by each vendor on 3 September 2026; “on request” where none is published. See HR software in Sri Lanka for the wider market.
Try Humanised while you are still on OrangeHRM
Start a free trial, import your staff from Excel and run one month in parallel. Or message us on WhatsApp at +94 76 443 7726.
Start free trialFrequently asked questions
Is OrangeHRM free to use in Sri Lanka?
The Starter edition is free, open-source software you host yourself; the Advanced edition is quoted per employee per month with a 30-day trial. Hosting, updates and backups of Starter are your cost.
Does OrangeHRM calculate EPF, ETF and APIT?
No. OrangeHRM has no payroll module and lists no Sri Lankan statutory feature; payroll is offered only through connectors to other products (orangehrm.com, 3 September 2026).
Is OrangeHRM a Sri Lankan company?
It is headquartered in Secaucus, New Jersey, founded in 2005, with its engineering team in Sri Lanka.
What is the best OrangeHRM alternative for a Sri Lankan small business?
Humanised, because it includes the payroll OrangeHRM leaves out: EPF, ETF, APIT, gratuity, the returns, Sinhala payslips and bank files, with attendance and leave, from LKR 10,000 a month.
Can I import my OrangeHRM employee data into Humanised?
Yes. Export employees, leave types and balances as CSV from OrangeHRM; payroll history comes from wherever you ran payroll.
Can I try Humanised instead of booking an OrangeHRM demo?
Yes. The seven-day trial needs no card; we set up the account and import your staff from Excel so you can run a pay cycle in parallel.
Do I need my own server to run Humanised?
No. Humanised is cloud software, updated and backed up by us, with phone and WhatsApp support in Colombo.
Which is cheaper over a year, open-source OrangeHRM or Humanised?
Humanised Small Business is LKR 270,000 a year for up to 50 staff including payroll. Self-hosted OrangeHRM costs an estimated LKR 180,000–360,000 a year in hosting and IT time, plus whatever you pay to run payroll elsewhere.
OrangeHRM is a trademark of its owner (OrangeHRM Inc.). Humanised is not affiliated with OrangeHRM. Competitor facts were checked on orangehrm.com on 3 September 2026; tell us at inquire@gethumanised.com if something has changed. Third-party figures are named where used.