← Back to home
Comparison · HR

Kombo vs Tanda

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Kombo and Tanda — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Kombo vs Tanda: at a glance

FeatureKomboTanda
SectorHRHR
Velocity score6.37.5
Sparks · 30d10
Top themesunified-api, hr-integrations, ats, hrisworkforce-management, payroll, award-compliance, rostering
Last editorial update1d ago1d ago
WebsiteVisit →

What is Kombo?

Kombo stops being a fixed-schema pipe and starts running its customers' code.

Kombo publishes a weekly digest per API family — ATS, HRIS, Platform, and occasionally LMS and Assessment — and the cadence is dense. The August run added two unified read models (Scorecards for structured interview feedback, Notes for recruiter commentary), a managed skills-catalog write API, five or more new provider integrations including Talent360, Emply People, Skello and Zellis, and steady expansion of the write actions that create employees and applications in downstream systems. Underneath, the sync architecture is being rebuilt around Sync Units, which split large syncs into independent parts and unlock per-model webhooks, alongside a shared access-token cache and a new Issues system that surfaces integration failures to customers with a webhook.

Read the full Kombo trajectory →

What is Tanda?

Tanda is moving from telling Australian payroll what to pay to actually moving the money

Tanda is a workforce management platform for Australian employers, shipping several times a week across three lanes: award compliance templates the vendor maintains, rostering and timesheet UI, and payroll output. The compliance lane is the steadiest — managed templates keep arriving for individual modern awards, each encoding that award's specific overtime, break and shiftwork clauses, and Fair Work rate decisions are propagated into existing templates. Rostering is mid-redesign, with the roster splitting out of Time & Attendance into its own planning page.

Read the full Tanda trajectory →

Kombo vs Tanda: editorial side-by-side

K6.3

Kombo stops being a fixed-schema pipe and starts running its customers' code.

◆ Current state

Kombo publishes a weekly digest per API family — ATS, HRIS, Platform, and occasionally LMS and Assessment — and the cadence is dense. The August run added two unified read models (Scorecards for structured interview feedback, Notes for recruiter commentary), a managed skills-catalog write API, five or more new provider integrations including Talent360, Emply People, Skello and Zellis, and steady expansion of the write actions that create employees and applications in downstream systems. Underneath, the sync architecture is being rebuilt around Sync Units, which split large syncs into independent parts and unlock per-model webhooks, alongside a shared access-token cache and a new Issues system that surfaces integration failures to customers with a webhook.

◆ Where it's heading

The important move this month is Advanced Mappings, which puts customer-written TypeScript in the delivery path. Everything Kombo had built before it widened what data could be reached — custom fields, more providers, more models — while leaving the shape of that data fixed by Kombo's schema. Advanced Mappings changes the shape, and it went from launch on 24 August to enabled-by-default in every development environment six days later, which is not the pace of an experiment. Read together with Sync Units and per-model webhooks, the platform is being rearranged so customers can intervene in the pipeline rather than only consume its output.

◆ Prediction

Advanced Mappings is dev-only by default today, so the next step to watch is promotion to production environments and whatever execution limits, versioning or review that requires. The near-weekly rhythm of new integrations and model extensions is likely to continue regardless, since it is the pattern every digest in this feed shows.

T7.5

Tanda is moving from telling Australian payroll what to pay to actually moving the money

◆ Current state

Tanda is a workforce management platform for Australian employers, shipping several times a week across three lanes: award compliance templates the vendor maintains, rostering and timesheet UI, and payroll output. The compliance lane is the steadiest — managed templates keep arriving for individual modern awards, each encoding that award's specific overtime, break and shiftwork clauses, and Fair Work rate decisions are propagated into existing templates. Rostering is mid-redesign, with the roster splitting out of Time & Attendance into its own planning page.

◆ Where it's heading

The significant move is at the payroll edge. Tanda has historically ended its pay run by producing a file for someone else to bank; PayTo disbursements over the New Payments Platform, currently with a very small group, make Tanda the thing that pays the staff. Around that, bulk operations are spreading through HR admin — terminations now join the other bulk actions — and journal exports keep adding accounting destinations. The award template library is the moat being widened one award at a time.

◆ Prediction

Expect PayTo to widen from its small pilot toward general AU Payroll availability, with the approval workflow as the gate employers ask for, and the managed template library to keep absorbing awards at roughly the current pace.

Alternatives to Kombo and Tanda

Other HR products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Kombo or Tanda.

See all Kombo alternatives → · See all Tanda alternatives →

Recent activity from Kombo and Tanda

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 1d agoTandaBulk Terminations
  2. 1d agoTandaNEW: Textile, Clothing, Footwear and Associated Industries Award Managed Template
  3. 1d agoTandaNew Roster View: Wider Release
  4. 2d agoKomboEmply People writes, Greenhouse scorecards, faster Lever syncs
  5. 2d agoKomboSkello and Zellis join HRIS; HRworks adds salary sync
  6. 2d agoKomboAdvanced Mappings on by default in dev environments
  7. 2d agoTandaNew: Educational Services (Teachers) Award Managed Template
  8. 2d agoTandaUpdates to the Vehicle Allowance in the SCHADS and Aged Care Managed Templates
  9. 5d agoTandaSympac Payroll Journal Export
  10. 9d agoKomboAdvanced Mappings: Transform your data with TypeScript formulas
  11. 9d agoKomboScorecards model lands for Lever and Ashby
  12. 16d agoKomboTalent360 integration; AI Apply reaches d.vinci and eArcu

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Kombo and Tanda?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Tanda is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 6.3), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Kombo better than Tanda?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Tanda is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 7.5 vs 6.3), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 1. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other HR products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Kombo?

Top Kombo alternatives in HR are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Kombo alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/kombo for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to Tanda?

Top Tanda alternatives in HR are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Tanda alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/tanda for the full list with editorial commentary on each.