Yes, openHR is genuinely free payroll software for South Africa with advanced HR features included. We've built this system using modern web technologies that keep things fast and efficient. Originally designed for small businesses, we ve improved it to make it publicly available to support businesses of all sizes and contribute to job creation.

openHR s features span Payroll (payslips, EMP201, UIF, IRP5s, tax directives), HR Admin (leave, contracts, disciplinary code, transgressions, confirmations), Employee Lifecycle (onboarding, self-service, organograms, training), Finance (advance forms, expense claims, refunds), and Strategic Oversight (audit trails, reports, surveys, AI onboarding) - each cluster designed to assert dignity, traceability, and legacy-aware control across the employee journey. Most of these features are free without any limits, for paid features, please view our pricing and features pages.

openHR.co.za was developed for the South African market and fully complies with all SARS requirements. On top of all the payroll features that automatically update with changing legislation, openHR also offers advanced HR features like employee reviews, surveys and even an asset manager.

openHR.co.za offers a self-help service for employees through WhatsApp that is as easy as a chat. This frees up time for you to do what matters most. Employees can capture their own leave and advance (loan) applications, and expense claims. They can also view the status of up to 10 of these submissions, including the status, balances or payment status. Employees can also view leave balances - for the same leave types as selected to be printed on payslips. Employees can also request up to 22 historical payslips. Payslips are encrypted and password protected. Employees also enjoy end-to-end encryption, and verification uses multiple different data points and security measures (including those provided for by Meta and WhatsApp) to ensure safe access. We also recommend setting up two factor authentication on employee WhatsApp accounts and activating chat lock with the openHR self-service contact. We also require verification after an hour of inactivity to further protect employees, and we have rate limits of access requests for ultimate security.

On openHR.co.za all employee and company data is encrypted and securely stored in the cloud. It is load-shedding safe. Payslips are also safely stored behind passwords.

openHR is one of the easiest systems available today with free expert human support. We also offer step-by-step video guides that are available for free under our resources section and on YouTube.