Frappe HR vs Ravio

Frappe HR and Ravio both touch compensation but for opposite reasons: Frappe HR is a 100% open-source HR and payroll platform covering the full employee…

Best for Frappe HR: Organizations, especially technical ones comfortable with self-hosting or the Frappe ecosystem, that need a full open-source HR and payroll system covering the entire employee lifecycle from recruitment to payroll tax reporting, integrated with ERPNext accounting.
Best for Ravio: High-growth tech companies (Ravio is targeted primarily at this segment) that need live, filterable compensation benchmark data across 50+ countries and 300+ roles to build salary bands and run pay equity analysis, connecting to 75+ HRIS platforms like Workday and HiBob.

At a Glance

 Frappe HRRavio
Primary categoryHRHR
RatingNot documentedNot documented
Pricing modelOpen Source / Usage-based hostingCustom enterprise SaaS subscription; pricing not publicly disclosed, requires contacting sales
Starting priceFree (self-hosted); Frappe Cloud hosting from $5/monthNot publicly disclosed - custom quote based on company size and modules
Free planYesNot documented
Free trialYesNot documented
PlatformsWebWeb
Team collaborationNot documentedNot documented
AI featuresNot documentedNot documented
Public APIYesNot documented

Key Differences

Core Purpose

Frappe HR: Frappe HR is an operational HR/payroll system of record: recruitment, employee lifecycle management, shifts and attendance, leave, expenses, performance, and payroll tax reporting.

Ravio: Ravio is a compensation intelligence tool: real-time benchmarking, salary bands, pay equity analysis, and compensation review workflows sourced from live data across 1,400+ companies.

These are not substitutes — one runs HR operations day-to-day, the other informs pay decisions with market data.

Pricing Model

Frappe HR: Frappe HR can be self-hosted for free under AGPL-3.0, or run on Frappe Cloud starting at $5/month for site hosting (with a 14-day free trial).

Ravio: Ravio's Standard plan starts at £5,000/year, positioned for high-growth tech companies rather than budget-constrained teams.

The roughly 1,000x difference in entry cost reflects that one is a self-hostable open-source system and the other is a data/intelligence subscription with ongoing data-sourcing costs.

Open Source vs. Proprietary Data Product

Frappe HR: Frappe HR is 100% open source under AGPL-3.0 with 8.2K GitHub stars, meaning the code is fully inspectable and modifiable.

Ravio: Ravio is a proprietary Custom/Enterprise product built around live data sourced from HR systems of 1,400+ companies, which isn't something an open-source alternative can replicate without that data network.

Open-source HR software offers customization and data control; compensation benchmarking specifically requires a data network effect that only a centralized commercial provider can build.

Integration Direction

Frappe HR: Frappe HR integrates with ERPNext accounting and supports REST APIs, webhooks, biometric, and bank integrations.

Ravio: Ravio connects with 75+ HR systems, including HiBob, Workday, and Personio, to automatically sync job, salary, and employee data.

Frappe HR integrates outward toward accounting and hardware systems; Ravio integrates inward, pulling salary data from whatever HRIS a company already uses.

Company Transparency

Frappe HR: Frappe HR's founding year, headquarters, and company size are not disclosed on its site.

Ravio: Ravio was founded in 2022, is headquartered in London, UK, and has disclosed $22M in total funding including a $12M Series A led by Spark Capital.

Funding and company transparency can matter for enterprise procurement teams assessing vendor stability, especially for a compensation data provider handling sensitive salary information.

Feature-by-Feature

HR Operations

FeatureFrappe HRRavio
Recruitment/hiring workflowAvailableUnavailable
Payroll processingAvailableUnavailable
Leave and attendance managementAvailableUnavailable
Performance management (goals, appraisals)AvailableUnavailable

Compensation Intelligence

FeatureFrappe HRRavio
Real-time market compensation benchmarkingUnavailableAvailable
Salary band buildingUnavailableAvailable
Pay equity analysisUnavailableAvailable
Compensation review cycle workflowsUnavailableAvailable

Deployment & Pricing

FeatureFrappe HRRavio
Self-hosted/open-source optionAvailableUnavailable
Published starting priceAvailableAvailable
Free trialAvailableNot documented
HRIS integration breadthNot documentedAvailable

Pricing Compared

Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.

Frappe HR

Self-Hosted (Open Source) — Free N/A
Frappe Cloud - Sites — From $5/month Monthly, usage-based
Frappe Cloud - Servers — From $20/month Monthly, usage-based
Frappe Cloud - Premium Servers — From $125/month Monthly, usage-based
Enterprise — Contact for pricing Custom

Ravio

Custom / Enterprise — Not publicly disclosed annual contract (typical)

Pros & Cons

Frappe HR

Pros

  • Fully open source under AGPL-3.0, with no per-employee license fees for self-hosted deployments
  • Deep, full-featured module set spanning payroll, recruitment, performance, and attendance rather than a narrow HR tool
  • Highly customizable without code through the Frappe Framework's built-in workflow and form builder
  • Frappe Cloud hosting pricing is based on infrastructure rather than per-user seats, which can be cheaper at scale
  • Backed by a large open-source community and network of 200-plus certified implementation partners

Cons

  • Self-hosting requires ongoing server management, security, and backup responsibility
  • Steeper learning curve than narrowly focused commercial HR SaaS tools like Gusto or BambooHR
  • Smaller third-party integration marketplace compared to large commercial HRIS platforms
  • Advanced support (beyond community forums) typically requires paying for Frappe Cloud or a certified partner
  • Payroll tax rules for markets outside India may need additional configuration or a partner's help

Ravio

Pros

  • Real-time data model is more current than traditional annual compensation surveys
  • Broad international coverage across 46+ countries suits multi-country tech companies
  • Give-to-get data model incentivizes clients to keep their contributed data fresh
  • Backed by well-known venture investors including Spark Capital, Blackbird, and Cherry Ventures
  • Combines benchmarking with pay banding and pay equity tools in one platform

Cons

  • Pricing is not public and requires a sales conversation to obtain a quote
  • Primarily built for tech and growth-stage companies, less tailored to other industries
  • Founded in 2022, giving it a shorter track record than legacy compensation survey providers
  • Benchmark data quality depends on the breadth and accuracy of participating clients' HRIS data

Use Cases

Choose Frappe HR: Organizations, especially technical ones comfortable with self-hosting or the Frappe ecosystem, that need a full open-source HR and payroll system covering the entire employee lifecycle from recruitment to payroll tax reporting, integrated with ERPNext accounting.
Choose Ravio: High-growth tech companies (Ravio is targeted primarily at this segment) that need live, filterable compensation benchmark data across 50+ countries and 300+ roles to build salary bands and run pay equity analysis, connecting to 75+ HRIS platforms like Workday and HiBob.
Need both: A company running Frappe HR as its system of record for payroll and employee data could connect it to Ravio (via Ravio's 75+ HRIS integrations, if Frappe HR is supported) to pull in live market benchmarking data and build defensible salary bands on top of the payroll data Frappe HR already manages.

Frappe HR

  • End-to-end payroll and compliance — Mid-sized companies use Frappe HR to run payroll, compute taxes, and generate payslips without paying per-employee SaaS fees.
  • Custom HR workflows for regulated industries — Organizations with unique approval chains or compliance requirements use the no-code workflow builder to model processes that off-the-shelf HR SaaS tools cannot easily support.
  • Unified ERP and HR data — Businesses already running ERPNext adopt Frappe HR to keep employee, payroll, and financial data inside a single connected ecosystem.

Ravio

  • Competitive pay benchmarking — People and Total Rewards teams use Ravio's live market data to set competitive salary and equity ranges across multiple countries.
  • Pay band and leveling design — HR leaders build structured compensation bands and career leveling frameworks using Ravio's architecture tools.
  • Compensation budgeting and board reporting — Finance and HR leadership use current benchmark data to plan compensation budgets and report on pay equity to the board.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Frappe HR and Ravio do the same thing?

No. Frappe HR is an operational HR and payroll system covering the full employee lifecycle. Ravio is a compensation benchmarking platform that provides live market salary data to inform pay decisions, not a system for running HR operations.

Is Frappe HR free?

Yes, it can be self-hosted for free under the AGPL-3.0 open-source license, or deployed on managed Frappe Cloud starting at $5/month for site hosting with a 14-day free trial.

How much does Ravio cost?

Ravio's annual plans start from £5,000/year, targeted primarily at high-growth tech companies rather than very small companies.

Is Ravio's compensation data reliable?

Ravio states its data is sourced live directly from the HR systems of 1,400+ companies across 50+ countries and 300+ roles, rather than from surveys, and it integrates with 75+ HR systems including HiBob, Workday, and Personio to keep data current.

Can Frappe HR and Ravio be used together?

Potentially, since they serve different purposes. A company could run Frappe HR as its HR/payroll system of record while using Ravio's HRIS integrations to pull in market benchmarking data for building salary bands, if Frappe HR is among Ravio's supported integrations.

Is Frappe HR open source?

Yes, Frappe HR is 100% open source under the AGPL-3.0 license with 8.2K GitHub stars. Ravio is a proprietary, closed compensation data product.

Read the full Frappe HR review · Read the full Ravio review