Calamari review (2026): is it worth $2 a month, billed yearly?
Modular HR system for time off, attendance, core HR and reviews
Black Friday: is there a Calamari sale?
Calamari report card
Fair · out of 4.0 · graded Nov 12, 2026
Best for picking only the HR modules you need
Calamari sells time off, core HR, time and attendance, performance reviews and scheduling as separate modules at $2 to $2.50 a user each. One module is cheap, but all five together come to $11.50, and there is a $20 monthly minimum. The AI help for reviews is still labelled coming soon.
Who Calamari is for
- Fits if you only need one or two HR modules and want to pay for just those
- Works for small teams comfortable with a $20 monthly minimum
Who Calamari is not for
- Skip it if you want one bundled price, as each module is priced separately
- Tight if you add up modules: all five come to $11.50 a person a month
- Watch out: there is a $20 a month minimum in the pricing calculator
- Watch out: SAML login is a paid add-on, and the page doesn't state its unit
- Not for you if you need payroll, as there is none
Why Calamari gets a 2.4
Five grades, each with its reason. The GPA is their average: an A is 4 points, an F is none.
- BValue for moneyTime Off and Core HR are $2 per employee a month billed yearly, inside the cheapest quarter. All five modules add up to $11.50, above the category middle.
- CFree plan and trial14-day free trial with no card needed, and no free plan.
- CFeaturesTime off, attendance, core HR, reviews and scheduling. SAML is a paid add-on, and the AI review help is marked coming soon. No payroll.
- CEase of useNo store rating on record. Policies, approval flows and schedules need setting up per module.
- BPlatforms and integrationsWeb plus iOS and Android apps, with 7 integrations on record. No desktop app.
What these grades rest on. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Calamari's own pages on 12 November 2026. Its pricing page fills in the figures by script, so we could not re-read them. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. How we review and grade.
Make Calamari? Put this grade on your site
Paste this where you want the badge. It links here and follows the grade if it changes. About badges
<a href="https://toolgpa.com/tools/calamari#review"><img src="https://toolgpa.com/badge/calamari.svg" alt="Calamari: 2.4 GPA on ToolGPA" width="196" height="56"></a>Where Calamari stands among HR software
Calamari's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 50 of the 63 other HR software we grade, and level with 9.
It stands best on value for money (B, above 56 of 63) and worst on features (C, above 1).
Its paid plans start at $2 a month for each person, against a middle price of $5.36 for the category: 4 of the 36 others that charge start lower.
On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. Nothing scores higher for less, though at least one tool matches that score at a lower price.
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 64 HR software we grade, cut by the letter each got. Calamari’s own letter is outlined.
- BValue for moneyAbove 56 of 63, level with 5
- CFree plan and trialAbove 40 of 63, level with 18
- CFeaturesAbove 1 of 63, level with 39
- CEase of useAbove 1 of 63, level with 61
- BPlatforms and integrationsAbove 22 of 63, level with 41
Price against what you get
Each dot is one of 38 HR software. Further left costs less, and higher up scores better on features, ease of use and platforms. Point at a dot to see which tool it is.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Keep Calamari, or make your own?
Keep it
The plain part of Calamari you could make: time off, time tracking, employee records and goals. What surrounds it you could not. The 4 things listed below take a company, not a weekend.
It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.4 is higher than 50 of the 63 other HR software we grade. It costs $24 a year.
What you could make
- Time off, time tracking, employee records and goals: an app builder makes these well.
What you could not
- A rota the whole staff sees on their phones, with swaps and alerts.
- A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team.
- It plugs into other products, Slack, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 among them.
What this rests on. Calamari’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
What is Calamari?
Calamari is an HR system sold as separate modules: time off, time and attendance, core HR, performance reviews and scheduling. Each module is priced per employee, with a $20 monthly minimum, and a 14-day trial needs no credit card. Mobile apps for iOS and Android are listed in its page data.
Worth knowing
- Each module is priced separately per employee; combining all five costs the sum of their rates.
- The pricing calculator applies a minimum total of $20 per month for the selected modules.
- SAML integration is a paid add-on, shown at $1 billed yearly or $2 billed monthly; the page does not state the unit.
- The page labels its AI support for performance reviews as coming soon.
Key features
- Time off management
- Policies with unlimited absence types, multi-country rules, automatic carry-over and entitlement calculated from accrual rules.
- Time and attendance
- Seven tracking methods, listed in the page data as mobile, web, Slack, QR, NFC, GPS and kiosk.
- Core HR
- A central employee database with documents, permission settings, approval flows and notifications for important dates.
- Performance reviews
- 90 to 360 degree review cycles with questionnaires, goals, reviewer assignment and manager summaries.
- Scheduling
- Schedules for shift-based or mixed workforces that sync with the leave and time-tracking modules.
Calamari pricing
As of Nov 12, 2026, Calamari is a paid product with a free trial, starting at $2 per employee / month per module, billed yearly.
- Starts at
- $2 per employee / month per module, billed yearly
- Free plan
- None
- Free trial
- 14-day free trial, no credit card required
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Time Off | $2per employee / month, billed yearly ($2.50 billed monthly) | Online time-off requests, absence calendar, unlimited absence types, automatic carry-over and balance calculations. |
| Core HR | $2per employee / month, billed yearly ($2.50 billed monthly) | Central HR database, documents, permissions, approval processes, custom fields and employee requests. |
| Time & Attendance | $2.50per employee / month, billed yearly ($3 billed monthly) | Timesheets and time tracking with seven tracking methods. |
| Performance Review | $2.50per employee / month, billed yearly ($3 billed monthly) | Review cycles (self, peer, top-down and external), questionnaires, goals and manager summaries. |
| Scheduling | $2.50per employee / month, billed yearly ($3 billed monthly) | Weekly or monthly schedules planned per employee or role, with drafts, published versions and sync to leave and time tracking. |
Read from calamari.io on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Calamari before you buy.
Ways to pay less
- Annual discountAbout 20% off with yearly billing
The pricing calculator shows each module cheaper per employee when billed yearly than when billed monthly (for example $2 against $2.50 for Time Off).
Stated on calamari.io
Works with
Calamari alternatives
- Calamari vs Timetastic
Free trial · from $1.50/mo
- Calamari vs absence.io
Free trial · from €2.69/mo
- Calamari vs Vacation Tracker
Free trial · from $2/mo
- Calamari vs Kenjo
Free trial · from €5.40/mo
- Calamari vs Factorial
From $8/mo
Common questions
Does Calamari have a Windows app?
No Windows app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Calamari is listed for Web, iOS and Android.
Does Calamari have a macOS app?
No macOS app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Calamari is listed for Web, iOS and Android.
Is Calamari open source?
Calamari is not described as open source on its own site, as read on Nov 12, 2026.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026.