Salarium suspended operations indefinitely on 31 December 2023, after months of clients reporting frozen accounts and salaries they could not disburse. If you are researching Salarium alternatives in the Philippines, you are probably either rebuilding payroll after that disruption or comparing vendors with a sharper eye for continuity than you once had. Both are reasonable, and this guide is written for both.
It covers what happened, how to close the loop on the affected period, the one vendor question Salarium made unavoidable, and how Sprout, PayrollHero, GreatDay HR, SAP SuccessFactors, and Akrivia HCM compare as Philippine payroll software replacements.
What happened to Salarium
Salarium was a Philippine payroll platform founded in 2013, known for payroll automation, attendance, and salary disbursement through its SALPay wallet, including for employees without bank accounts. The trouble became public in August 2023, when clients began reporting frozen accounts and an inability to access or disburse funds. Salarium told Philippine media it had frozen the funds under its management as a precaution, and reporting at the time put the affected amount at no less than ₱15 million. On 31 December 2023, it told clients it was suspending operations indefinitely, citing issues that had hurt its ability to operate and an unspecified incident on 18 December. We found no evidence of a relaunch, so treat Salarium as unavailable and verify directly if you see anything to the contrary.
Also read: Best HR software in the Philippines
At a glance: Salarium alternatives in the Philippines
| Platform | Philippine statutory compliance | Attendance | Full HR suite | Multi-country | Pricing model | Best fit |
| Akrivia HCM | Native, unified | Biometric, GPS, mobile, integrated | Yes, full hire-to-retire | Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, India, GCC | Custom, billing from go-live | 100 to 2,000, regional growth |
| Salarium (reference) | Native, historically | Standard | Payroll and core HR | Philippines only | Not applicable | Operations suspended 31 December 2023 |
| Sprout | Native, deepest local track record | Strong | Yes, partly through add-ons and partners | Philippines and Thailand | Custom, quote-based | Philippines-only, compliance-first |
| PayrollHero | Native | Best-in-class, facial recognition and GPS | No, payroll and attendance only | Philippines and Singapore | Custom, quote-based | Shift-based teams |
| GreatDay HR | Native | Best-in-class, mobile selfie with liveness detection | Partial | Southeast Asia (PH, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam) | Custom, quote-based | Frontline-heavy, standard workflows |
| SAP SuccessFactors | Via local SI partner | Configurable | Yes, extensive | Yes, global | Enterprise-tier | 2,000+ employees with an IT team |
Akrivia HCM: payroll first, then the rest of the lifecycle
Akrivia HCM is a unified hire-to-retire platform: recruitment, onboarding, core HR, payroll, attendance, performance management, a native LMS, and AI-powered analytics through Akrivia CoPilot, all on one data model.
- Native SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG compliance, and BIR payroll, with 13th-month pay computed ahead of the December 24 deadline and statutory tables updating directly rather than through a partner.
- Biometric, GPS, and mobile attendance feeds straight into payroll, covering the time and attendance side of what Salarium offered.
- Salary disbursement runs through bank and e-wallet channels, so confirm the exact flow, including how unbanked employees are paid, in a demo using the custody questions above.
- The same platform runs Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, India, and the GCC, so growth does not force a second vendor.
Sprout
Sprout is the biggest homegrown HR and payroll vendor in the Philippines, with more than $2 billion in payroll processed on a platform built around Philippine labor rules. If your Salarium use was mostly payroll and statutory filing, its SSS PhilHealth Pag-IBIG compliance depth makes it the closest like-for-like replacement.
- G2 reviewers have flagged recurring technical issues, including downtime during payroll runs.
- Performance management runs through a partner platform rather than natively, and recruitment and L&D are thinner or sold as add-ons.
- Coverage ends at the Philippines and Thailand.
PayrollHero
PayrollHero connects facial recognition and GPS clock-ins to payroll for shift-based teams across multiple sites, which mirrors the time and attendance side of what Salarium offered.
- There is no recruitment, performance, or learning module.
- Payroll coverage is limited to the Philippines and Singapore.
GreatDay HR
GreatDay HR was named Best HR Management App at APAC Insider’s 2025 South East Asia Business Awards, and its selfie attendance with liveness detection and GPS geotagging suits distributed frontline teams.
- Its G2 review base is small and mixed, including a Philippine SME that found the standard configuration too rigid for its processes.
- Performance management and structured recruitment are not core strengths, and payroll coverage spans Southeast Asia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, but not India or the GCC.
SAP SuccessFactors
SAP SuccessFactors offers genuine global HR breadth, but Philippine statutory compliance is delivered through a local systems integrator rather than a native engine, and full-module pricing sits far above what a Salarium-sized payroll team budgeted. Annual support adds roughly 22% of licensing on top.
- Mid-sized implementations run months, and enterprise rollouts can pass a year.
- It needs a dedicated IT team to manage configuration and updates.
Conclusion
Salarium’s story is a reminder that Philippine payroll software is infrastructure, and infrastructure should be chosen for how it fails as well as how it works. The practical path from here is to close the loop on the affected period, name the gap you are filling, and put the custody questions to every vendor on your shortlist.
Sprout is the like-for-like choice for Philippines-only payroll. PayrollHero and GreatDay HR cover shift-based and mobile-first attendance. SAP SuccessFactors serves true enterprises. Akrivia HCM is built for businesses that want native SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG compliance inside a full HR suite, along with a platform that can support regional expansion. This makes it one of the strongest Salarium alternatives in the Philippines for growing companies.
FAQs
When is BIR Form 2316 due to employees?
Employers must issue Form 2316 to each employee by January 31 after the tax year ends. Corrected or replacement forms should follow as soon as the underlying figures are verified.
What does Philippine payroll software cost?
Mid-tier platforms such as Sprout are estimated at roughly PHP 200 to 300 per employee per month, while enterprise suites like SAP SuccessFactors run PHP 600 to 1,200 or more. Modules, headcount, and add-ons decide the final figure.
How long does switching payroll vendors take?
Most Philippine mid-market migrations complete within 8 to 12 weeks, including a parallel payroll run to validate SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG accuracy. Rebuilding missing history can add time.
Where can I verify posted contributions?
Each agency’s employer and member portals show posted contributions, so you can match them against your payroll records. Employees can also check their own member accounts.