Sentrifugo Review — Free, Self-Hosted, Open-Source HR and Workforce Visibility
Sentrifugo is a free, open-source HR tool built for teams that want a structured way to track time, activity, attendance, and workforce visibility in a self-hosted environment. Instead of a hosted subscription, you download the software and run it on your own infrastructure, which keeps your people data inside systems you control.
Sentrifugo bundles recruitment, onboarding, leave, time tracking, performance appraisal, expense, asset, and exit management into one GPLv3 codebase you install yourself. The trade-off is that you own deployment, maintenance, and support rather than leaning on a vendor. My review covers how those modules hold up in practice, where the unmaintained codebase creates friction, and which teams still get value from running it themselves.
The verdict
Sentrifugo is a free, self-hosted HR option for small and mid-sized teams that would rather run their own infrastructure than pay a per-user subscription, provided they have the engineering capacity to maintain it.
The appeal is straightforward: it gives small and mid-sized teams a structured way to track time, activity, and attendance without a per-user subscription, and it keeps data inside infrastructure you own.
The honest caveats are that no paid or supported version is published, and that the project looks unmaintained: the public GitHub repository has had no code commits since April 2017. This is a tool you adopt with engineering buy-in and a plan for patching it yourself, not a turnkey hosted product.
If open-source control and self-hosting are non-negotiable, Sentrifugo earns a place on the shortlist. If you want a managed, polished, fully supported platform out of the box, a hosted alternative will be a smoother fit.
Where Sentrifugo fits
Who it suits
Sentrifugo is best for small and mid-sized teams that want a free, self-hosted way to track time, activity, attendance, and workforce visibility while keeping people data inside infrastructure they control.
It fits organizations with the engineering capacity to deploy and maintain open-source software, and that value control and flexibility over a fully managed hosted experience.
Teams set on running their own PHP/MySQL server and owning the codebase outright should put Sentrifugo on the shortlist. Teams that want a vendor to patch, host, and support the product day to day will get a smoother experience from a hosted alternative.
What it does differently
Sentrifugo stands out because it pairs open-source flexibility with a self-hosted deployment model at no license cost — a combination that is uncommon among hosted workforce visibility tools.
Running the software on your own infrastructure keeps time, activity, and attendance data inside systems you control, which matters for teams with strict data-residency or oversight requirements.
The workflow coverage, approval and automation support, and operational reporting give teams a structured way to manage workforce visibility without committing to a per-user subscription.
For organizations that treat self-hosting and open-source control as requirements rather than preferences, that positioning is the differentiator.
How it gets bought
Commercially, Sentrifugo positions itself as a free, open-source, self-hosted option for teams that prioritize control and flexibility over packaged convenience.
The free open-source model makes it an easy pilot for budget-conscious SMBs that can self-host, since there is no per-user license cost to evaluate the software.
Where commercial fit gets less certain is long-term support: no paid plan is published and the project looks unmaintained since 2017, so the all-in cost depends on how much maintenance your own team can absorb.
Sentrifugo pricing: free open source, self-hosting costs, and no paid plan
Sentrifugo is positioned as free, open-source software under a self-hosted deployment model. The core appeal is that there is no per-user license fee — you download the software and run it on your own infrastructure. Because of that model, there is no free trial in the conventional sense; the software itself is free to obtain and host.
No paid or commercial plan is published on sentrifugo.com; the site offers only the free version 3.2 download. Budget for the real cost of self-hosting, which includes infrastructure, maintenance, security patching, and internal support, rather than assuming free software means a free deployment.
| Plan | Published price | Annual |
|---|---|---|
| Open Source | Free | Not stated |
Pricing last checked September 25, 2026. View source
What 'free and open source' actually means for Sentrifugo buyers
The open-source model means there is no recurring license fee to use Sentrifugo. You are free to download, deploy, and run it on your own servers, which is the headline advantage for teams that want control over cost and data location.
The cost that remains is operational. Self-hosting means you provision and maintain the infrastructure, apply updates, and handle support internally. For teams with engineering capacity this is a fair trade; for teams without it, the operational overhead is the real price.
What buyers should validate before relying on Sentrifugo
Sentrifugo publishes no paid plan or price, so there is no commercial or supported arrangement to buy. The public GitHub repository (sapplica/sentrifugo, GPL-3.0) has had no code commits since April 2017, which means updates and fixes depend on your own team.
Before committing, confirm that the software runs on the server stack you plan to use, that you can apply security fixes yourself, and that the features you need work as expected in version 3.2.
Sentrifugo features: workflow coverage, approval automation, and operational reporting
Sentrifugo workflow coverage and approval automation
Sentrifugo includes workflow coverage with workflow and approval automation support, giving teams a structured way to route and manage routine people processes consistently.
The automation is oriented toward operational consistency — making approvals and workflows repeatable rather than handled ad hoc.
Sentrifugo workflow and approval support. The tool provides workflow coverage and approval support to standardize how routine people processes are routed and handled. This supports the operational consistency the product is designed around.
Sentrifugo automation for routine processes. Workflow and approval automation help reduce manual handling of recurring tasks, keeping processes consistent across the team. Exact configuration depth depends on your deployment; defer to the product documentation for specifics.
Sentrifugo reporting and people insights visibility
Sentrifugo reporting targets operational and people insights visibility, helping teams see workforce activity and attendance trends in a usable form.
The reporting covers dashboards and MIS-style summaries rather than a full analytics suite, which suits SMBs that just need a clear read on attendance and leave trends.
Sentrifugo operational reporting. Sentrifugo's dashboards and MIS-style reports track leave balances, attendance, and appraisal status, giving managers a plain view of headcount activity. Coverage stops at what ships in version 3.2; anything beyond that requires custom development.
Sentrifugo people insights visibility. The reporting layer is oriented toward people insights visibility, giving managers a view of activity and attendance. Specific dashboards and exports depend on your self-hosted configuration.
Sentrifugo self-hosted, open-source deployment
Sentrifugo uses a self-hosted, web-based deployment model and is offered as free, open-source software, so it runs on infrastructure you own and operate.
This deployment approach keeps time, activity, and attendance data inside systems you control, at the cost of owning provisioning, maintenance, and support yourself.
Sentrifugo self-hosted deployment model. Sentrifugo is deployed on your own infrastructure rather than a vendor cloud, accessed via the web. This gives you control over data location and access but makes setup and maintenance your responsibility.
Sentrifugo open-source licensing. The software is free and open source, with no per-user license fee. Operational costs are limited to infrastructure and the internal effort required to host and maintain the deployment.
Sentrifugo pros and cons: open-source flexibility, self-hosting, and what to validate
Strengths
Sentrifugo is free and open source with no per-user license cost
Sentrifugo is offered as free, open-source software, so there is no recurring per-user subscription to use it. Teams can download and deploy it without a license fee, which lowers the barrier to adoption for budget-conscious organizations.
For SMBs evaluating workforce visibility tools, this means the software cost is effectively zero, with operational costs limited to the infrastructure and effort required to host and maintain it.
This positioning makes Sentrifugo an accessible starting point for teams that want to trial a structured time, activity, and attendance approach without committing budget up front.
Self-hosted deployment keeps workforce data inside infrastructure you control
Sentrifugo uses a self-hosted deployment model, which means time, activity, and attendance data stays on infrastructure you own and operate rather than a third-party cloud.
For teams with data-residency requirements or a preference for keeping people data in-house, this control is a meaningful advantage over hosted-only alternatives.
Self-hosting also means you set the access, retention, and oversight rules directly, which suits organizations that treat data control as a requirement.
Useful workflow coverage with approval and automation support
Sentrifugo includes workflow coverage along with workflow and approval automation support, giving teams a structured way to route and manage routine people processes.
This coverage supports operational consistency, which is one of the tool's stated design goals — keeping processes repeatable rather than ad hoc.
For teams standardizing how time, activity, and attendance are tracked and approved, this workflow layer is a practical foundation.
Practical reporting depth for operational and people insights
Sentrifugo provides reporting aimed at operational and people insights visibility, helping teams see workforce activity and attendance trends.
The reporting depth covers dashboards and MIS-style summaries rather than a full analytics suite, which suits SMBs that just need a clear read on attendance and leave trends.
For SMBs that want clear, usable reporting without a heavyweight analytics layer, this is a sensible balance.
Limitations
Sentrifugo has no paid or supported plan
The open-source software is free, but no commercial or supported plan is published on sentrifugo.com, so there is no vendor contract that covers hosting, updates, or support.
Buyers who need a support agreement or guaranteed fixes cannot buy one, so those needs have to be met by an internal team or an outside contractor.
The project also looks unmaintained: its public GitHub repository has had no code commits since April 2017, so plan for security and compatibility work on your side.
Implementation depth varies by plan and self-hosting effort
Implementation depth varies depending on the plan and how much you self-host. A pure open-source deployment puts setup, configuration, and maintenance on your team.
This means the experience is not uniform: what you get depends on your infrastructure and internal capacity, since no paid support plan is published.
Teams without engineering capacity to deploy and maintain self-hosted software should weigh this operational overhead carefully before adopting.
No free trial and a self-hosted model means you own deployment and support
Because Sentrifugo is free open-source software, there is no hosted free trial — you evaluate it by downloading and running it yourself.
Self-hosting means deployment, updates, and ongoing support are your responsibility rather than a vendor's, which adds operational load.
For teams accustomed to managed SaaS, this shift in responsibility is the main adjustment to plan for before adopting.
Sentrifugo is free open-source software that you download and host yourself, so there is no per-user licence and no trial period. The trade-off is ownership: your team installs it, patches it and backs it up. A Standard commercial plan exists, but its price and contents are only available from the vendor.
Sentrifugo evaluation checklist: self-hosting capacity, pricing validation, and buying motion
Evaluating Sentrifugo means testing self-hosting effort first: how easily your team can stand up the PHP/MySQL stack, patch a codebase with no commits since April 2017, and cover the modules you actually need. Confirm these before committing.
- Confirm your team's capacity to deploy and maintain a self-hosted tool. Sentrifugo is self-hosted open-source software, so deployment, updates, and support are your responsibility. Before adopting, confirm you have the engineering capacity to provision the infrastructure and maintain it over time. This will tell you whether the free software translates into a sustainable deployment for your team.
- Confirm you can maintain the software without vendor support. Sentrifugo publishes no paid plan, and its public GitHub repository has had no code commits since April 2017. Confirm your team can apply security fixes and keep it running on current infrastructure without help from a vendor. This tells you whether a free but dormant project is a sustainable choice for your team.
- Validate which workflows, reporting, and automation you actually need. Sentrifugo covers workflows, approvals, automation, and operational reporting. Map these against your real requirements for time, activity, attendance, and workforce visibility before deploying. If a required feature is missing, there is no paid tier to upgrade to.
- Plan for data ownership and long-term maintenance from the start. Because the data lives on your infrastructure, you own backups, retention, and security. Confirm your backup and update process and how you will keep the deployment current. This is especially important for self-hosted tools, where losing internal maintenance capacity can put the deployment at risk.
How we evaluated Sentrifugo
Rajat worked through Sentrifugo directly. Every figure below was checked against Sentrifugo's published pricing on September 25, 2026. Follow the link and check it yourself — if the vendor has moved since, that date tells you how stale this page is.
Plans as published
| Plan | List price |
|---|---|
| Open Source | Free |
Trial: No free trial; free open-source software is self-hosted
What the list price doesn't cover
Self-hosting infrastructure, maintenance, and updates
The biggest unstated cost of free open-source software is running it. Under Sentrifugo's self-hosted model, you provision the infrastructure, apply updates, monitor uptime, and secure the deployment. None of this is a license fee, but it is a real recurring cost in infrastructure spend and engineering time. Teams should budget for this operational overhead explicitly rather than assuming free software means a free deployment, and confirm they have the capacity to keep the deployment current over time.
Internal support and the absence of a managed vendor environment
Because the software is self-hosted and no paid plan is published, day-to-day support is your team's responsibility. There is no hosted environment a vendor keeps running for you, and no free trial environment to fall back on. If internal maintenance capacity is lost, the deployment is at risk, so factor in the cost and continuity of internal support. With no code commits on the public repository since April 2017, expect to handle security fixes yourself as well.
What we'd confirm on a demo
Separate the free software cost from the cost of running it
The open-source software is free, but a deployment is not. Model your infrastructure, maintenance, and internal support costs explicitly so you have a true total-cost picture rather than assuming free software equals a free deployment.
Confirm your team's capacity to deploy and maintain a self-hosted tool
Sentrifugo is self-hosted, so provisioning, updates, and support are your responsibility. Confirm you have the engineering capacity to run it sustainably before adopting, since the maintenance burden is the real ongoing cost.
Confirm you can maintain a project with no code commits since 2017
Sentrifugo publishes no paid plan, and its public GitHub repository has had no code commits since April 2017. Before deploying, confirm your team can apply security fixes, keep it running on your server stack, and live without vendor support that cannot be bought.
Frequently asked questions about Sentrifugo open-source HR and pricing
Is Sentrifugo free?
Yes. Sentrifugo is offered as free, open-source software under a self-hosted deployment model, so there is no per-user license fee to use it. You download and run it on your own infrastructure. No paid plan or commercial price is published on sentrifugo.com, and the project looks unmaintained, with no code commits on its public GitHub repository since April 2017. Note that 'free software' still carries operational costs for hosting, maintenance, and support.
Is Sentrifugo self-hosted or cloud-based?
Sentrifugo uses a self-hosted deployment model and is accessed through the web. You run it on infrastructure you own and operate rather than a vendor-managed cloud. This keeps time, activity, and attendance data inside systems you control, but it also means provisioning, updates, and support are your team's responsibility. It is best suited to teams with the engineering capacity to deploy and maintain open-source software.
Does Sentrifugo offer a free trial?
No. Because Sentrifugo is free, open-source software, there is no hosted free trial. You evaluate it by downloading and running it yourself on your own infrastructure. This is different from a hosted SaaS trial — there is no vendor-managed environment to sign into for a time-limited test. The trade-off is that the software is freely available to obtain and host without a license fee.
What is Sentrifugo used for?
Sentrifugo is an open-source HRMS covering recruitment, onboarding, leave and attendance, performance appraisal, expense claims, asset tracking, and exit management, plus employee self-service and dashboard reporting. Sentrifugo markets it as HR software for small and medium enterprises that want to keep people data on their own servers rather than a vendor's cloud.
Who is Sentrifugo best for?
Sentrifugo is best for small and mid-sized teams that want a free, self-hosted way to manage time, activity, attendance, and workforce visibility while keeping people data inside infrastructure they control. It fits organizations with engineering capacity to deploy and maintain open-source software and that value control and flexibility over a fully managed hosted experience. Teams wanting a polished, fully supported, turnkey platform out of the box may prefer a hosted alternative.
Alternatives worth comparing
Sentrifugo suits teams that prioritize a free, self-hosted codebase over vendor support, but plenty of buyers need more than that. Below are three types of alternatives to weigh against it.
| Product | Pricing model | Free trial | Why buyers shortlist it |
|---|---|---|---|
| ActivityWatch | Free / open source | Not stated | ActivityWatch is a free, MPL-2.0 licensed automatic time [tracker](/software/tracker) for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android that logs the active app, window title and idle time, with browser extensions and editor plugins for more detail. |
| Kimai | Free / open source | Not stated | Kimai is a free, open-source time tracking tool built for teams that want a more structured way to track time, activity, attendance, or workforce visibility in self-hosted or open environments. |
| TimeTrex | Free / open source | Yes | TimeTrex is time and attendance software with a free self-hosted community edition and paid cloud or on-site editions. |
| OrangeHRM | Free / open source | Yes | OrangeHRM is open-source [HR software](/categories/hr-software) with a free Starter edition you can self-host and a paid Advanced edition with extra modules. |
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