Last updated: 2026-09-22
Humaans is a London-based HRIS founded in 2019 that ships a first-party MCP server, letting Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot Studio query and act on employee data. Its Athena agent layer automates People Ops admin work end to end, and the platform holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 2022 certification.
About Humaans
Humaans is a London-based HRIS founded in 2019 by Giovanni Luperti, built as an API-first system of record for people data, documents, onboarding and absence tracking across globally distributed teams. The company has raised $20M over a seed and Series A round from investors including Y Combinator, Frontline Ventures, Exor, Lachy Groom, Stewart Butterfield, Tobias Lutke, Dylan Field, Jeff Weiner and Claire Johnson.
What separates the 2026 product from a standard HRIS is how directly its AI layer plugs into everyday HR admin. The Humaans AI Companion fields staff questions about leave balances, policy wording and stored documents in plain language, limiting what it surfaces to each person's own access level. Athena, a separate agentic layer, goes further: it executes multi-step People Ops admin tasks itself and gives HR teams a no-code builder for assembling new automated workflows. Perhaps most unusual for HR software in 2026, the underlying data is also reachable by outside AI systems through an official Model Context Protocol connector, letting tools like Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot Studio pull and update records directly, something most HR vendors still charge extra for.
The platform fits People Ops leaders and HR admins at startups and scale-ups who want a single system of record plus onboarding automation, rather than a full payroll suite. An org chart, workforce analytics and automated reporting round out the core HRIS, and the product's API and webhook layer reaches identity tools like Okta and Entra ID, workplace suites such as Slack, Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, plus DocuSign for signatures and Greenhouse for the recruiting handoff.
Humaans is web-only, with no native iOS or Android app, so a manager checking something on the move opens a browser tab rather than an installed client. Its security posture has been through independent audit: the company carries a current SOC 2 Type II report and an ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certificate, alongside a GDPR data processing agreement for customers acting as data controllers. Pricing sits behind a sales conversation rather than a public rate card; see the FAQ below for what that means for a first purchase.
Pricing
Humaans publishes no self-serve numeric pricing as of September 2026. The HRIS system of record is sold in two sales-quoted tiers, Growth and Enterprise, both requiring a demo call; Enterprise adds SAML single sign-on, unlimited custom permission roles and fields, webhooks, an audit log export and a dedicated customer success manager. The Athena agentic AI platform is a separate contact-sales add-on.
Third-party pricing trackers (Vendr, GetApp) still list an older self-serve Starting Up tier at $7 per seat per month, but that tier is absent from the live pricing page, and Humaans offers no free trial, only a booked demo.
Key Features
- Humaans AI Companion: Answers employee questions about policies, time off and documents in natural language, with responses scoped to what each employee is authorized to see.
- Athena Agentic AI Platform: Runs pre-built agents that execute People Ops admin work end to end, plus a natural-language agent builder for custom workflows.
- First-Party MCP Server: Ships at no extra cost, letting MCP clients such as Claude, Claude Code, ChatGPT and Copilot Studio query and act on live Humaans data.
- Core HRIS System of Record: Keeps a single system of record for employee data, documents and absence tracking across distributed teams in multiple countries.
- Onboarding and Offboarding Automation: Automates the manual onboarding and offboarding steps HR teams previously tracked in spreadsheets.
- API-First Integrations: Exposes webhooks and pre-built integrations with Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Okta, Entra ID, DocuSign and Greenhouse.
- Analytics and Org Chart: Gives People leaders workforce analytics, an org chart and automated reports without exporting data to a separate BI tool.
Pros
- Rated 4.8/5 on G2 across 105 reviews, one of the higher-rated HR systems of record in its segment.
- Ships a first-party MCP server at no extra cost, unusual among HR SaaS platforms in 2026 and useful for teams already building agent workflows on Claude or Copilot Studio.
- Holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001:2022 certification plus a published GDPR data processing agreement, verified on the vendor's own security page.
Cons
- No published self-serve numeric pricing as of September 2026: both the Growth and Enterprise tiers require a sales call, and the previously advertised $7 per seat per month Starting Up tier is no longer listed on the live pricing page.
- No native iOS or Android app; access is web-only, so HR admins working from a phone use the responsive site rather than a dedicated app.
- User reviews flag limited advanced reporting and note that some integrations carry additional cost beyond the base subscription.
Data Handling
- Training-data policy
- AI features restrict data access via platform-permission context filtering to prevent prompt injection; no explicit model-training-data statement is published on the vendor's security page.
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II · ISO 27001:2022 · GDPR
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Humaans cost in 2026?
Humaans no longer publishes self-serve numeric pricing. The Growth and Enterprise tiers are both sales-quoted after a demo call, and the Athena agentic AI platform is priced separately on request. Third-party trackers still cite an older $7 per seat per month Starting Up tier, but that plan does not appear on the current pricing page.
Does Humaans have a free trial or free tier?
No. Humaans has no free tier and no self-serve free trial. Every plan requires booking a demo with sales before you can start using the product.
What are the best alternatives to Humaans?
Personio and HiBob are the closest direct HRIS competitors for growing European and multi-country teams, while Rippling adds payroll and IT device management in one platform. Teams that specifically need AI-driven recruiting rather than a system of record often look at tools like Juicebox or Mercor instead.
How does Humaans compare to Personio in 2026?
Personio bundles recruiting, payroll and performance management with deeper EU labor-law compliance features, while Humaans stays narrower as an API-first system of record plus its Athena agent layer and native MCP server. Choose Personio if you need payroll built in; choose Humaans if an existing payroll provider is fine and you want AI agents wired directly into HR data.
How do you get started with Humaans?
There is no self-serve signup. Book a demo through humaans.io, and the sales team scopes a Growth or Enterprise plan based on headcount and required integrations. Existing customers connect the MCP server from Settings to let Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot Studio query HR data directly.
Top Alternatives
- Juicebox: Pick Humaans if you need the core HR system of record and onboarding automation; choose Juicebox when the job is AI-driven candidate sourcing before someone becomes an employee.
- Mercor: Pick Humaans to run people data and HR workflows for an existing team; choose Mercor when you need AI-vetted contractor or specialist hiring at the top of the funnel.
- Asendia AI: Pick Humaans for post-hire HR administration and policy Q&A; choose Asendia AI when the priority is AI-automated recruiting and applicant screening.