Updated August 2026
    Actively maintained
    Real momentum
    8.6k

    Frappe HR: Maintenance, Licence and Alternatives

    Complete HRMS solution with over 13 different modules right from employee management, onboarding, leaves, to payroll, taxation, and more.

    TL;DR • Frappe HR • as of August 2026

    Frappe HR is an open-source human resources management (hrm) project, with 8.6k GitHub stars and a health score of 100/100. It committed 2897 times in the last twelve months across 12 of those months, and its status is actively maintained. Licence: GPL-3.0. It has real momentum, so treat it as a live competitor rather than a stale repository.

    8.6k
    GitHub stars
    100/100
    Health score
    2897
    Commits (12 mo)
    12/12
    Active months

    Maintenance health

    Status Actively maintained — Committed within the last 45 days.
    Last commit 2026-08-14
    Days since last commit 3
    Commits, last 3 months 621
    Commits, last 12 months 2897
    Months with activity 12 of 12
    Last release 2026-08-07
    Archived No
    Licence GPL-3.0
    Category Human Resources Management (HRM)

    Health score combines commit recency, twelve-month commit volume, months with activity, release recency and archive state. Metadata refreshed August 2026.

    What the licence lets you do

    GPL-3.0

    Copyleft (GPL, AGPL, MPL): derivative work must stay open. AGPL also covers software offered over a network, which blocks most closed SaaS wrappers.

    This matters most when you plan to sell a hosted version. A permissive licence means anyone — including a competitor with more capital — can do the same, so your defensibility has to come from distribution, support or data, not from the code.

    What Frappe HR means for your idea

    Frappe HR is shipping code consistently, so a buyer comparing your product will find a maintained free option. Price and position against the total cost of self-hosting it, not against the paid incumbent's list price.

    The clearest opening in the dataset. Low open-source competition usually means either a genuinely underserved need or a market too small to attract volunteers — validate demand before assuming the former.

    Frappe HR: common questions

    Is Frappe HR still maintained in 2026?

    Actively maintained. Frappe HR recorded 2897 commits over the last twelve months, with activity in 12 of those months and 621 commits in the last quarter. Last commit: 2026-08-14. Last release: 2026-08-07. Committed within the last 45 days.

    Can I use Frappe HR commercially?

    Frappe HR is published under GPL-3.0. Copyleft (GPL, AGPL, MPL): derivative work must stay open. AGPL also covers software offered over a network, which blocks most closed SaaS wrappers.

    How crowded is the Human Resources Management (HRM) category?

    3 open-source implementations, 1 of them actively maintained, led by Frappe HR at 8.6k stars. Saturation score 31/100 — Open. Thin or poorly maintained open-source coverage.

    Frappe HR alternatives in Human Resources Management (HRM)

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    471

    User management system for websites of organizations and groups. The system has a flexible role model so that it’s possible to reflect the structure and permissions of your organization.

    Actively maintained
    GPL-2.0

    MintHCM

    Human Resources Management (HRM)

    425

    Tool for Human Capital Management based on two popular, well-known business applications SugarCRM Community Edition and SuiteCRM.

    Actively maintained
    AGPL-3.0

    Competing with free? Check the market first.

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