Spreadsheets work. Until quietly, they don't.
Most teams considering ZekoHR are not leaving another HR product; they are leaving a folder of sheets. Sheets are free, flexible and familiar, which is exactly why they last longer than they should. Here is the comparison, played straight.
Up to 50 employees free for 12 months. No card, no sales call.
The jobs HR actually does, done both ways
| The job | Spreadsheets | ZekoHR |
|---|---|---|
| Leave balances | A formula someone set up in 2023. Correct until an inserted row breaks it, and only the sheet owner knows. | Balances update on approval. Every employee sees their own; nobody can nudge a cell. |
| Payslip delivery | Mail-merge PDFs emailed one by one, or "ask the accountant". Old payslips live in inboxes. | Payroll runs with pre-flight checks; PDF payslips land in each employee's portal, kept for later. |
| Document expiry | A "renewal date" column nobody sorts by. Expired contracts surface when someone asks. | Documents sit on the employee record with expiry reminders before the date, not after. |
| Approvals | WhatsApp or a nod in a corridor. The sheet records the outcome, never the decision. | Leave and expense approvals are requests with a chain: who asked, who approved, when. |
| Audit trail | Version history exists, if you use one shared file and nobody keeps local copies. Most teams don't. | An audit log records who changed what across records, built in and not optional. |
| Access control | Whoever has the link has the salaries. Sharing one tab safely means duplicating the file. | Roles decide who sees what; employees see their own record, admins see their scope. |
What the table cannot show: spreadsheets cost nothing and bend to any process. ZekoHR asks you to accept its shape in exchange for the rows above. That trade is not worth it for everyone; see below.
When spreadsheets are honestly fine
Your team is under ten
At that size you can hold everyone's leave in your head and a sheet is a backup, not a system. The failure modes above barely bite. Stay on the sheet; come back around fifteen.
One founder does all admin
Approval chains and roles add ceremony when the same person requests, approves and records. A single-admin team gets less from ZekoHR than a team where work is shared.
You will not do the switch
Moving to any system means entering your people once and changing habits. If nobody owns that for a week, the sheet you maintain beats the portal you abandon. Wait until someone owns it.
If none of these describe you, the free year exists so you can test the trade with real data and zero spend: full product, up to 50 employees, 12 months, no card.
Common questions
Can you import our existing spreadsheet?
Start by inviting your people; profiles fill in fast. If you have years of records to move, write to us before you start and we will help you plan the migration honestly.
Can we get our data back out?
Yes. The documented API is available on Pro, expense reports export to CSV, and on cancellation you keep read-only access with 90 days of retention. The exit door is part of the product.
We are seven people. Should we even switch?
Probably not yet, and this page says so above. Under about ten people a disciplined sheet works; come back when approvals, payroll or document chaos start costing real hours.