# Factorial vs Humaans

> Factorial scores 66.3 (B) on agent readiness against Humaans's 54.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Humaans leads on security & auth. Both do hr employees. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-humaans
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-humaans.md (~2,050 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-humaans.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/factorial-vs-humaans.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 Humaans's 54.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Humaans leads on security & auth. 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
- Humaans: grade C, 54.4/100, rank #529 of 722. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/humaans.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/humaans.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 70
- Schema & documentation, 77 against 44
- Payments & pricing, 10 against 0
- Maintenance & community, 84 against 56
- Transparency & trust, 78 against 73

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

### Humaans (C)

Good for: An agent working for a company that already runs Humaans and needs to read and update profiles, job roles and compensation, book and approve time away, and attach documents with a token narrowed by scope.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 70 against 65

Watch for: No OpenAPI file or Markdown docs. The reference is one HTML page of about 2 MB


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Factorial | Humaans | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 88 | 70 | Factorial +18 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 44 | Factorial +33 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 58 | 60 | Humaans +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 65 | 70 | Humaans +5 |
| 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 | 56 | Factorial +28 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 78 | 73 | Factorial +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.3 · B** | **54.4 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Factorial | Humaans |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Everyday Software, S.L. | Humaans Software UK Ltd |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.factorialhr.com` | `https://app.humaans.io/api` |
| 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 Humaans' Terms of Service |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-09-10 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-10-06 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-01-01 | 2026-10-06 |
| 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 | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| 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.

**Humaans.** API tokens are limited by eight scopes and the creator's role, can expire and can be rotated with a seven-day overlap, and rate limits are published with Retry-After on 429. No OpenAPI file, API changelog, official SDK or idempotency keys were found, and prices are by quote, so an agent needs a paying customer's token.

## 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

### Humaans

1. Send `Authorization: Bearer <token>` to https://app.humaans.io/api. Call `GET /api/token-info` first to read the token's scopes and expiry
2. Expect a role limit as well as scopes. A token made by a user with the User role reads only public company data and that person's own profile
3. Page with `$limit` (maximum 250) and `$skip`, and pass `-g` to curl because parameters use `$` and `[]`
4. On 429 wait the seconds in `Retry-After`. The bucket holds 40 requests and refills at 7 a second per token
5. Check state before retrying a POST. No idempotency key exists, and `DELETE /api/people/:id` cannot be undone

## Questions

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

Factorial scores 66.3 (B) on agent readiness against Humaans's 54.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Humaans leads on security & auth.

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

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

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

Yes. Factorial has a hosted endpoint at https://api.factorialhr.com and Humaans at https://app.humaans.io/api.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Factorial or Humaans

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