Your people, anywhere
HR software for startups and global teams, free up to 20 people
Capstan is the all-in-one HR platform for lean, global teams: one system of record for the whole employee lifecycle, people and org, time off, onboarding and documents. The complete platform, every module included, is free for up to twenty people, and the one paid plan above that only lifts the cap. Nothing is held back to make you upgrade, and no algorithm judges your people.
The core is identical on every plan, from the free one up. Capstan is region-served: your workspace runs in a self-contained region, the EU today, with the same stack built to open in more.
The mess Capstan is built to end
Not the problems you will have in three years, the ones you have this week. If any of these is your Monday, this is the job Capstan does.
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Everything lives in spreadsheets
People, contractors and their records are scattered across sheets, shared docs and inboxes, and no version is the one everyone trusts. Capstan is one system of record: every person in one directory, changes effective-dated, so the history can be read as it stood on any date.
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Onboarding is improvised every time
A joiner’s first day gets reconstructed from memory, and something is always missed. Checklists start from the joining date and assign themselves to the right owners, so onboarding finishes, and an exit closes access and collects assets before it closes the record.
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Nobody can answer a simple question
Who is off next week, what someone earned two years ago, where a signed letter is. Leave, documents and approvals all read from the one record, and self-service means most of those questions never reach you, because the person can see the answer themselves.
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The team is split across time zones
Leave and working days are impossible to read across borders, and pay lands in three currencies. Work locations carry their own time zones and holiday calendars, and compensation carries its own currency, so a distributed team is one clean record rather than three.
A startup on its first HR hire, a team spread across borders: this is the job. See how Capstan fits a lean startup or a distributed global team.
See the actual product, not a promise
Real screens from the shipped product. One directory every other screen reads from, the view an employee gets of their own record, and the inbox an approver lives in.
The whole lifecycle, in one system your people carry in their pocket
Every plan runs people and org, time off, attendance, onboarding and exits, documents and letters, workflows, self-service and reports, plus all fourteen modules on top, from advanced time and attendance and payroll compiled for your partner to contractor invoicing, compensation and equity, reviews, analytics and alumni access. Every module is included on every plan, the free one included, and every one publishes what it does not do.
Every question you have, with the page that answers it
Buying HR software is a trust decision. Here is the short answer to each thing you are about to ask, and the page that carries the long one.
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What does it do?
The whole employee lifecycle in one system: people and org, time off, attendance, onboarding and exits, documents, workflows and reports, plus fourteen modules on top, all included on every plan, the free one included.
See the product -
What does it cost?
Free for up to twenty people, with every one of the fourteen modules included. Above that, one per-seat plan for the same platform, with no add-ons and nothing bought a piece at a time. The number is adjusted by country and lives on the pricing page.
See the pricing -
Can I trust it with our people?
No algorithm scores, ranks or screens anyone. The entity behind Capstan holds ISO 27001 with the scope stated in full, your data sits in one self-contained EU region, and there is no surveillance: no keystrokes, no screenshots, no covert tracking.
Read the security page -
Can I leave if it is wrong?
A full export in open formats is one click, at any time, and it sits outside the billing check on purpose, so an unpaid invoice can never hold your data hostage. The switching guides cover what to pull from your current vendor.
How migration works -
Is there real support?
Documentation you can read without an account, and a real person on the other end of an email rather than a ticket maze that answers in a week. The core is built to run itself for a small team without an HR department behind it.
Talk to us -
Can I try the thinking first?
A set of free HR calculators and generators, with no sign-up, no email wall and no clock. They compute in your own browser, so nothing you type ever leaves the page you are on.
Open the free tools
Start with the free tools and guides
The thinking is public before you ever sign up. The calculators run in your browser and the guides answer the questions behind a hire, with no email wall and no clock.
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What an employee really costs
The loaded cost of a hire, salary plus the on-costs around it, worked in your browser before you commit to the number.
Open the estimator -
Full-time equivalents, counted cleanly
Turn a mix of full-time and part-time people into a single full-time-equivalent figure, against the full-time week you set.
Open the calculator -
Employer of record, explained
What an EOR does and does not cover, how it differs from your own entity and from a contractor, and when each one wins.
Read the guide -
Startup equity and ESOPs
Grants, vesting and exercise, explained for founders and the people they hire, without the jargon that usually surrounds it.
Read the guide -
Contractor or employee?
The line between the two, why misclassifying it is expensive, and how to tell which one a role actually is before you hire.
Read the guide -
Switching HR software
What a move off your current system really costs and the order to run it in, so nothing and nobody falls through the gap.
Read the guide
Where payroll stops, and your partner starts
Capstan is the system of inputs and the system of record. Your payroll partner is the system of computation. That boundary is deliberate, and it is why you can change payroll provider without changing where your people live.
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Capstan holds
Attendance, leave, overtime, comp changes and expenses, already on the record.
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Capstan compiles
One documented export, every line traceable to where the number came from.
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Your partner computes
Gross to net, statutory deductions and the filings, in their system.
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Capstan files it back
Payslips and results land on each person, reconciled against what was sent.
And the things we will not build, on purpose
- We hold no tax rate, slab or formula, in any country, so we can never be quietly wrong about your statutory position.
- We move no money, you pay out of band and Capstan records the reference, and no client funds ever sit here.
- We employ nobody on your behalf, this is not an employer of record and will not become one.
- We run no surveillance, no keystrokes, no screenshots, no covert tracking of anyone.
- We say what is not built, on the page that covers it, rather than leaving you to find out.
Questions, answered before you ask
Is Capstan really free, or is it a trial?
The complete platform, all fourteen modules included, is free for up to twenty active employees, with no clock and no expiry. It is not a trial and there is no subscription behind it, so it cannot lapse. Someone serving notice or already gone does not use up one of the twenty. The free plan is the whole product, not a stripped core; the only limit is the twenty active employees, which a paid plan lifts.
What does a paid plan cost, and what do I get?
A single per-seat plan, priced per country, that charges only on the employees past the first twenty. Every one of the 14 modules is included on every plan, the free one included, at no extra charge, so a paid plan only lifts the twenty-person cap. There are no add-ons and nothing is bought module by module. The figure is on the pricing page, because it is adjusted by country and belongs in one place.
Does any AI screen candidates or score employees?
No. Nothing in Capstan uses AI to evaluate people: no attrition scoring, no sentiment analysis and no algorithmic candidate screening. There is one optional assistant a workspace can turn on, and it answers only from aggregate figures a caller could already see, sent to OpenAI, which does not train on the data. Nothing scores, ranks or screens a person.
Is Capstan GDPR compliant?
We do not claim GDPR compliance, and we would rather say so than imply a certification we do not hold. What we can show is concrete: the entity behind Capstan holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 with the scope stated on the security page, your data sits in one self-contained EU region (Frankfurt storage, Amsterdam compute), and a full export is always available.
Does Capstan run payroll?
No. Capstan is partner-integration mode: it compiles every payroll input it already holds, attendance, leave, overtime, compensation and expenses, into a documented export for your payroll partner, and files the partner’s computed results back into the record. It holds no statutory rate, slab or formula and computes no gross-to-net anywhere.
Can I get my data out if I leave?
Yes, in one click and at any time. A full tenant export is a single archive in open formats, and the export endpoints sit outside the billing check on purpose, so an unpaid invoice cannot stop you taking your data, including on your way out.
Start with the complete core, free for up to twenty. See every price before you decide.