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HR software for the United States

Capstan is an all-in-one HR platform for US teams. It gives you the complete core HRIS in one place, free for up to twenty people, with all fourteen modules on every plan and monthly billing that never asks for an annual contract.

A conceptual map for US and North American buyers, not a rate card. Prices sit on the pricing page and nowhere else, because they belong in one place.

Is Capstan HR software, an HRMS, or an HRIS?

It is all three names for the same all-in-one platform, and US teams use each label. Whether you searched for HR software, an HRMS, or an HRIS, Capstan is one system of record for every US employee and contractor: a single directory, records and documents, self-service, and reporting, without a second tool stitched to the side.

  • The complete core HRIS: people, roles, documents, leave, attendance and reporting in one workspace.
  • All fourteen modules, from onboarding and leave to workflows and alumni access, included on every plan with nothing sold separately.
  • The same feature set on the free plan and a paid plan. A paid plan lifts one thing, the twenty-active-employee cap, and nothing else about the software.

Where is US employee data stored?

Your data is served from a single EU region today: data in Frankfurt and compute in Amsterdam. It is worth saying plainly that this is not US-local storage. Capstan is GDPR-grade and EU-hosted, so if your US procurement or a client contract requires data held inside the United States, you should know that before you choose us.

  • One region, the EU, with residency that cannot be quietly changed later, because the app you sign into is your region.
  • A single national data-protection standard, GDPR, applied uniformly, where the US itself has no single federal law over employee data and rules differ state by state.
  • Employee data kept in one controlled place rather than scattered across drives and inboxes. The practices worth insisting on are in our note on HR data security and compliance.

Is it good HR software for US startups and remote teams?

Yes. Capstan is built for lean, distributed teams, which describes most US startups and any company with people spread across states or across borders. The whole platform is free up to twenty active people, so an early team runs on the full product rather than a trimmed free tier, and a chargeable seat only appears once you grow past that line.

  • Free for teams of up to twenty people, with no time limit and no feature withheld.
  • One directory for a remote team hiring across many states, with self-service so people maintain their own records wherever they work.
  • The reasoning behind charging for seats and never for a feature is in the manifesto, and the full tour is on the product page.

Can it manage US contractors and global hiring?

Yes. Contractors live in the same workspace as your employees, and the contractor module, included on every plan, adds their portal, invoices and payout register on top. That fits a US company hiring across states and countries, where misclassifying an employee as an independent contractor is the most common and most expensive mistake.

  • Employees and contractors in one system of record, not two disconnected tools.
  • Contractor tax content is a country pack you configure per jurisdiction, so you update a rate yourself rather than waiting on a software release.
  • The full picture, from federal and state withholding to the contractor line, is in our guide to hiring employees in the US.

Does Capstan run US payroll?

No. Capstan is in partner-integration mode: it holds no tax tables, computes no gross-to-net, and files no returns. It compiles the inputs to payroll into a documented export for your US payroll provider, who performs the statutory calculation and filings, and their computed results come back onto the employee record.

  • Capstan is the system of inputs around the calculation, so your record and their filings stay in agreement.
  • The export is the same shape everywhere, carrying day counts and pay components rather than any state or federal logic.
  • Federal and state income tax, Social Security and Medicare, and unemployment insurance belong with your US payroll provider, who keeps up with them.

How much does it cost in the US?

The price lives on the pricing page, and only there, because it belongs in one honest place. It is billed monthly, per chargeable seat above the first twenty free, with no annual contract and no lock-in.

  • Published as flat figures in two currencies, US dollars and Indian rupees, with the one you are billed in following your billing country.
  • A US buyer is billed in US dollars, and the price you start at is the price you keep, because the price book is append-only.
  • How Capstan compares to the tools you are probably weighing is on the comparison pages.

Capstan across North America and beyond

Capstan is one global product, region-served from the EU today, and it is written for teams across many markets. If you hire across North America, the same platform covers people in Canada as easily as in the US, and the market pages below take it from another angle.

The country guides behind this page are hiring employees in the US and hiring employees in Canada. See the whole platform on the product page and the numbers on pricing.

Start free for up to twenty people, then pay monthly for the seats you use.

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