# Calamari review (2026): is it worth $2 a month, billed yearly?

> Modular HR system for time off, attendance, core HR and reviews

Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA.

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.

- **Category:** HR Software
- **Made by:** Calamari
- **Website:** https://www.calamari.io
- **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android
- **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you want one bundled price, as each module is priced separately.
- **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026

## 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.

- **Pricing model:** Free trial
- **Free plan:** None.
- **Free trial:** 14-day free trial, no credit card required.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Time Off | $2 per 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 | $2 per employee / month, billed yearly ($2.50 billed monthly) | Central HR database, documents, permissions, approval processes, custom fields and employee requests. |
| Time & Attendance | $2.50 per employee / month, billed yearly ($3 billed monthly) | Timesheets and time tracking with seven tracking methods. |
| Performance Review | $2.50 per employee / month, billed yearly ($3 billed monthly) | Review cycles (self, peer, top-down and external), questionnaires, goals and manager summaries. |
| Scheduling | $2.50 per 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 https://www.calamari.io/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Calamari before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **About 20% off with yearly billing** (Annual discount): 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). Source: https://www.calamari.io/pricing

## 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.

## Good for

- Companies that want to buy only the HR modules they need and add others later
- Teams with staff in several countries that need multi-country absence policies

## 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.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. 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.

- **Value for money: B.** Time 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.
- **Free plan and trial: C.** 14-day free trial with no card needed, and no free plan.
- **Features: C.** Time off, attendance, core HR, reviews and scheduling. SAML is a paid add-on, and the AI review help is marked coming soon. No payroll.
- **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. Policies, approval flows and schedules need setting up per module.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web plus iOS and Android apps, with 7 integrations on record. No desktop app.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. 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.

## Where it stands among HR software

- Calamari's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 85 of the 101 other HR software we grade, and level with 10.
- It stands best on value for money (B, above 91 of 101) and worst on features (C, above 1).
- Its paid plans start at $2 a month for each person, against a middle price of $5 for the category: 5 of the 40 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.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/hr-software

## Keep it, 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 85 of the 101 other HR software we grade. It costs $24 a year.

- You could make: Time off, time tracking, employee records and goals: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: A rota the whole staff sees on their phones, with swaps and alerts.
- You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page.
- You could not: It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, Slack, Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 among them.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Jira, Asana, Basecamp, Microsoft Teams

**Tags:** Time off, Time tracking, Employee records, Goals, Shift scheduling

## Alternatives

- [Timetastic](https://toolgpa.com/tools/timetastic): Staff leave planner, with an added rota and time clock product. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/calamari-vs-timetastic)
- [absence.io](https://toolgpa.com/tools/absence-io): Time off, time tracking and employee files for small teams. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/absence-io-vs-calamari)
- [Vacation Tracker](https://toolgpa.com/tools/vacation-tracker): Leave and PTO tracking inside Slack, Teams or Google Workspace. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/calamari-vs-vacation-tracker)
- [Kenjo](https://toolgpa.com/tools/kenjo): HR and workforce management software for small and mid-sized firms. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/calamari-vs-kenjo)
- [Factorial](https://toolgpa.com/tools/factorial): HR, time, shifts, expenses and IT for small firms, quoted by module. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/calamari-vs-factorial)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026:

- https://www.calamari.io/pricing
- https://www.calamari.io/

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/calamari
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).