logo
Search for anything...
About

Calamari vs Onfolk - Comparison 2025

Calamari vs. Onfolk

Last updated on

Reviewed by Steph Leung

Stackfix Product & Operations Lead

SL

Onfolk and Calamari serve distinctly different needs in the HRIS market. Onfolk excels as a UK-focused payroll and HR platform, offering superior payroll automation and expert support, making it ideal for UK startups needing comprehensive payroll management.

Calamari, meanwhile, positions itself as a simpler, more focused time-tracking and leave management tool, better suited for companies primarily needing basic HR functions and time tracking capabilities. The choice between the two largely depends on whether payroll automation (Onfolk's strength) or time tracking (Calamari's strength) is more critical for your organization.

Calamari Product Logo

Advantages of Calamari

Calamari offers time tracking capabilities

Calamari includes a time tracking system that allows employees to check-in/out and track project hours, while Onfolk lacks this functionality entirely. This makes Calamari more suitable for organizations needing to monitor work hours and project time allocation.

Onfolk Product Logo

Advantages of Onfolk

Onfolk offers UK payroll management

Onfolk provides comprehensive UK payroll functionality with automatic tax calculations and HMRC filing, while Calamari lacks any payroll capabilities. Our testing revealed that Onfolk's payroll module is particularly user-friendly, making it ideal for startups without dedicated payroll expertise.

Onfolk offers superior customer support
With a team of CIPP-certified payroll professionals, Onfolk's customer support significantly outperforms Calamari's standard support system. This expertise is particularly valuable for companies needing guidance on complex payroll matters.

Calamari is best for

  • Businesses with 10-20 employees
  • Who only need core HR functionality (employee database, time-off management and time tracking)
  • And want a user-friendly platform that requires almost no setup time

Onfolk is best for

  • Businesses based in the UK
  • Who want a low-cost HRIS & payroll solution
  • And/ or teams without in-house expertise who would benefit from Onfolk's intuitive payroll process

Calamari is less good for

  • Businesses with >20 employees
  • Who need anything beyond the HR basics, such as surveys, performance management

Onfolk is less good for

  • Any business based outside of the UK
  • And/ OR is looking for an all-in-one HRIS solution with richer native functionality

Gallery

Calamari logoCalamari
Calamari screenshot
Onfolk logoOnfolk
Onfolk screenshot

Pricing, features & ratings

Calamari logo

Calamari

Starting at

$2.50

employee / month

Billed monthly

Pricing calculatorVisit Website
Onfolk logo

Onfolk

Starting at

$6.83

Converted from GBP

employee / month

Billed monthly

Pricing calculatorVisit Website
Stackfix Verdict
Functionality
2

Functionality

2/10

<p>Calamari is limited to core HR tasks and falls short for anything beyond the basics. It only offers employee data storage, time-off and time tracking.</p><p>It lacks any other features such as performance reviews, employee surveys, onboarding workflows, and detailed reporting.</p>
3

Functionality

3/10

<p>Onfolk focuses on only offering core HR and payroll functionality that UK SMBs will need. <span style="color: rgb(9, 9, 11);">This means compared to most HR platforms, Onfolk lacks a lot of functionality natively, such as performance management, surveys, time-tracking etc. </span></p><p>Onfolk also doesn't seem to have pre-built integrations with 3rd party tools in these categories.</p>
Ease of Use
9

Ease of Use

9/10

<p>Calamari is an exceptionally user-friendly platform, making it easy for most SMB employees to become comfortable with its features in as little as half a day. The interface is well-organized, with information neatly categorized into intuitive tabs, allowing users to navigate the platform effortlessly. This simplicity ensures a smooth onboarding experience and efficient day-to-day usage.</p>
9

Ease of Use

9/10

<p>Partly due to its limited functionality, we found navigating Onfolk intuitive and straightforward. Its payroll module is especially intuitive - an average SMB employee without HR/ payroll background should be able to master the platform and run payroll in under 30 minutes.</p>
Look and feel
7

Look and feel

7/10

<p>Calamari has a very minimalist look with information being presented in easily digestible manners.</p>
5

Look and feel

5/10

<p>We find Onfolk's interface rather plain and dull compared to competitors. It also has acceptable page load times.</p>
Customisability
4

Customisability

4/10

<p>Calamari offers a standard level of customizability across most of its features. Users can create custom fields, define tailored leave policies, and configure approval workflows to suit their organizational needs. However, the platform falls short when it comes to analytics, offering no options for customization. This limitation is likely to disappoint data-driven companies that require flexibility in generating and analyzing reports.</p><p>In conclusion, while Calamari provides adequate customization for operational features, its lack of adaptability in analytics may not meet the expectations of companies relying on data-driven decision-making.</p>
6

Customisability

6/10

<p>Onfolk offers standard levels of customisability. You're able to customise data fields, build custom reports and edit workflow checklists.</p><p><span style="color: hsl(var(--foreground));">It lacks the deeper customisability offered by more mature HRIS (e.g. Rippling, Deel), such as creating complex workflows with branching logic and approval chains. </span></p>
Ease of Setup
10

Ease of Setup

10/10

<p>Calamari offers a free trial without needing to speak to sales. Purchasing doesn't require you to speak to sales if you purchase after the free trial. It takes &lt;10mins to complete basic setup (entering company information, adding employees). Fully customizing and setting up the platform can be done within half a day,. Customization and setup is simple enough that you don't need an expert and more complicated processes can be done with help from the help center.</p>
6
Customer Support
8

Customer Support

8/10

<p>Calamari has a help center which provides articles explaining features of the platform. We found the articles to be very well explained and helpful. There is also an in-platform chat function with customer support agents responding, on average, in under 10 minutes. This is quite impressive compared to most HR systems.</p>
9

Customer Support

9/10

<p>Onfolk prides itself on its expert customer support team, who are members of the CIPP (Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals) and payroll experts. This has been supported by positive early reviews from startups in our network.</p>
Integratability
5

Integratability

5/10

<p>Calamari has integrations with commonly used softwares such as Slack, Google Workspace Microsoft 365, and Jira. They also have an API you can use.</p>
4

Integratability

4/10

<p>Onfolk only supports a handful of integrations with the most relevant third-party software, mostly in accounting, pension and benefits categories. However, it does offer an API for custom integrations.</p>
Ease of Migration
5

Ease of Migration

5/10

<p>You can export most data from the platform through the reports.</p>
8

Ease of Migration

8/10

<p>Exports of key employee data are available via self-serve. <span style="color: rgb(9, 9, 11);">Export of most other data are also available via API or on request. </span></p>
Loading...

Compare other Human Resource Information Systems

Want to find out how Onfolk or Calamari stacks up with their competitors?