# Factorial vs HiBob

> Factorial scores 66.3 (B) on agent readiness against HiBob's 57 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do hr employees. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-hibob
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-hibob.md (~2,000 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-hibob.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-hibob.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Factorial scores 66.3 (B) on agent readiness against HiBob's 57 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do hr employees.

- Factorial: grade B, 66.3/100, rank #239 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/factorial.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/factorial.json
- HiBob: grade C, 57/100, rank #484 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hibob.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hibob.json

## Which one, for what

### Factorial (B)

Good for: An agent working for a company that already runs Factorial and needs employee records, leave requests with approval, attendance clock-ins, recruiting or expenses through one API.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 88 against 67
- Agent ergonomics, 58 against 47
- Payments & pricing, 10 against 0
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 59
- Transparency & trust, 78 against 71

Watch for: An API key grants every scope, cannot be narrowed and does not expire

### HiBob (C)

Good for: An agent working inside a company that already runs Bob and needs field-level control over employee data, time off requests, documents and tasks.

Watch for: No public price, free tier or trial. The sandbox is a purchased module


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Factorial | HiBob | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 88 | 67 | Factorial +21 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 78 | HiBob +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 58 | 47 | Factorial +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 68 | HiBob +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 0 | Factorial +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 59 | Factorial +25 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 78 | 71 | Factorial +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.3 · B** | **57 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Factorial | HiBob |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Everyday Software, S.L. | Hi Bob Ltd. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.factorialhr.com` | `https://api.hibob.com/v1` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under Factorial's terms and conditions. The TypeScript and Python SDKs are MIT | Proprietary service under HiBob's customer subscription terms and API Terms of Use |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-01-01 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 7 stars, 1.4k npm/wk, 1.1k PyPI/wk | none |

## Verdicts

**Factorial.** A public OpenAPI 3.1 definition covers 615 operations, including leave approval and employee termination, and OAuth apps can be limited to 33 scopes. API keys always grant every scope and never expire. No idempotency keys exist, and a request to an expired API version is answered in an older schema with no error.

**HiBob.** Service users start with no permissions and gain view or edit rights per field, and the docs are served as Markdown with an OpenAPI definition on each endpoint page. There is no public price, trial or free sandbox, so an agent needs a paying customer's admin to issue credentials. No idempotency keys or official SDKs were found.

## Before you call either

### Factorial

1. Send an API key in `x-api-key` and an OAuth token in `Authorization: Bearer`. The key is JWT-formatted but is rejected as a bearer token
2. Pin the version in the path, such as `/api/2026-10-01/resources/...`, and migrate within a year. Expired versions answer in an older schema without an error
3. Treat a 200 with an empty body as a credential from the other environment. Production is `api.factorialhr.com` and demo is `api.eu2.demo.factorial.dev`
4. Page with `limit=100` and pass `meta.end_cursor` as `after_id`. A larger limit is capped at 100
5. Check whether a record exists before retrying a create. Retry only 429 and 5xx with backoff, and branch on `code` for 422 because messages are localised

### HiBob

1. Send `Authorization: Basic base64(SERVICE-USER-ID:TOKEN)` to https://api.hibob.com/v1. Ask the Bob admin to put the service user in a permission group first, because it starts with none
2. Request only the fields needed in `fields` on POST /people/search (maximum 400). The call returns all matching employees at once, so batch by `root.id` in large companies
3. Compare returned fields with requested ones. Missing permission or a wrong field ID yields 200 with the field omitted
4. Stop on 401 or 403. More than 50 in 10 seconds blocks the IP for 5 minutes
5. Back off on 429 using Retry-After. Writes such as update, create and terminate employee allow 10 calls a minute, and no idempotency key exists, so check state before retrying a write

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Factorial or HiBob?

Factorial scores 66.3 (B) on agent readiness against HiBob's 57 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

### Do Factorial and HiBob need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call Factorial and HiBob without installing anything?

Yes. Factorial has a hosted endpoint at https://api.factorialhr.com and HiBob at https://api.hibob.com/v1.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-hibob.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-hibob.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "factorial", "b": "hibob"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare factorial hibob`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/factorial.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/hibob.json

## Other comparisons with Factorial or HiBob

- [BambooHR vs Factorial](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bamboohr-vs-factorial.md)
- [BambooHR vs HiBob](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bamboohr-vs-hibob.md)
- [Deel vs Factorial](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deel-vs-factorial.md)
- [Deel vs HiBob](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deel-vs-hibob.md)
- [Factorial vs Humaans](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-humaans.md)
- [Factorial vs Rippling](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-rippling.md)
- [Factorial vs Zoho People](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-zoho-people.md)
- [HiBob vs Humaans](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hibob-vs-humaans.md)
- [HiBob vs Rippling](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hibob-vs-rippling.md)
- [HiBob vs Zoho People](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hibob-vs-zoho-people.md)