Free QHSE Tools from Regulators and Public Bodies

Before a small employer pays for software, it is worth knowing what regulators and public research bodies already give away. Several of them publish risk assessment builders, exposure calculators and mobile apps at no charge. We opened the official page of each tool below on 21 October 2026 and recorded what it produces, who it is written for, where the work is kept and what the free version does not do. It is general information, not legal advice.

In short

A sole trader or a small single-site business can cover a good part of its paperwork with public tools: a sector risk assessment in OiRA or BeSMART.ie, a manual handling score from HSE's free online assessments, a noise or vibration sum in an HSE spreadsheet, and a stress survey with HSE's Indicator Tool. What these tools do not give you is a shared system of record. None of the free tools' pages describes reminders on assigned actions or a change history, and only OiRA describes giving other users access to your assessments. Where a public body sells the multi-user version itself, as HSE does for its musculoskeletal assessments, the line between the free and the paid version is drawn exactly there.

How we chose the tools

A tool is listed only when three conditions hold: a regulator or public body publishes it, its official page opened on 21 October 2026, and that page says it is free or offers it without payment. Tools are grouped by publisher and are listed in no order of merit. The list is not exhaustive: the same publishers offer other free tools, for example CCOHS's AirAssess indoor air quality app, which we found on 21 October 2026 but did not review for this list. We did not register for any account, install any app or complete any assessment, so everything below is what the publishers' own pages say. Where a page is silent, we say so rather than guess.

The 19 tools at a glance

The Heat Safety Tool is a joint OSHA and NIOSH app, and the two apps from CCOHS were built with the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW). Seven public bodies publish the 19 tools in all.

European Union and Ireland

OiRA (EU-OSHA). OiRA is EU-OSHA's platform for sectoral risk assessment tools. National authorities and social partners build the tools; EU-OSHA develops and maintains the platform, offers the tool generator to partners free of charge and describes the tools themselves as free. The tools page listed 376 entries when we read it, counted across countries, sectors and languages, and EU-OSHA notes that not every sector is covered in every country. A tool walks you through four stages: preparation, identifying hazards with yes or no statements, evaluating the risks you flagged, and an action plan, from which a report is produced. Starting an assessment asks you to register, so that you can return to it later; a test session is offered for a first look. The data protection notice says EU-OSHA keeps the data on servers in EU territory until you delete your account or sessions, and that you can give other OiRA users access to your assessments, action plans and reports. It suits micro and small enterprises in a covered sector. We did not register, so we cannot confirm the report's file format.

BeSMART.ie (HSA). The Irish Health and Safety Authority's tool produces a safety statement that contains your risk assessments, at no cost. It covers more than 300 business types and more than 500 risk assessments, and registered users can build a custom business type from the hazard list. The end product downloads as RTF, which you can edit, or PDF. The FAQ sets several limits: a guest cannot save and must finish in one sitting; no more than two risk assessments can be in progress at once; and changes you make to the downloaded document are not saved on the site. It also advises registering with a shared business address, not a personal one, so the records stay reachable when someone leaves. In other words, the records belong to a login rather than to the business. The HSA itself says the tool may not suit every business.

Simple Safety (HSA). A series of short data sheets for small businesses, written in particular for retail and food and drink businesses with up to ten staff. The general toolkit has seven sheets, on subjects such as employers' and employees' duties, incident follow-up, the safety statement and stress. The HSA suggests having staff sign and date each sheet to keep a central record of who took part.

Great Britain (HSE)

Free MAC, ART and RAPP assessments. HSE's Manual Handling Assessment Charts score lifting, carrying and team handling tasks with colour bands. ART covers repetitive upper-limb work and RAPP covers pushing and pulling. Each has a guidance leaflet in PDF on HSE's site (INDG383, INDG438 and INDG478). HSE also runs a free online version of the MAC, ART and RAPP assessments: you complete one assessment, get suggested controls from the score and receive a copy by email, and it works in a mobile browser. The comparison table on HSE Books is plain about what the free service lacks: storing and managing assessments, linked user accounts, an offline app, downloading the assessment data and organisational reports. Those belong to HSE's paid service, which on 21 October 2026 started at £400 a year excluding VAT for up to 50 assessments. HSE also notes that a MAC score may not be a complete risk assessment on its own. Our MSD prevention guide covers the methods behind these scores.

Noise and vibration calculators. HSE's noise page offers a daily and weekly exposure calculator as an Excel file, hearing protection calculators, and ready-reckoners in PDF to fill in by hand. The hand-arm vibration calculator is also an Excel file: you enter a vibration magnitude and a duration for up to six tools or processes, and it returns each partial exposure and the daily total in m/s² A(8) and in exposure points, with the time each tool takes to reach the action value and the limit value. Both live on your own computer, so the record is whatever file you save. Our noise and HAV guide works through the arithmetic.

Management Standards Indicator Tool. HSE's stress tools page says its tools are free to use and share. The Indicator Tool is a questionnaire in PDF, with a user manual and versions in other languages. The Analysis Tool is a spreadsheet (.xls) that can import results gathered with an online survey tool. HSE warns that some items are scored in reverse, which matters if you analyse the answers in other software. Our psychosocial risk guide explains the Management Standards behind the questionnaire.

Risk assessment template and COSHH essentials. HSE's template comes as Word or OpenDocument, with six worked examples in PDF for settings from an office to a warehouse. HSE cautions that a copied example under your own name would not satisfy the law. Our step-by-step risk assessment guide covers what the template records. COSHH essentials, on the page we read, is a set of control guidance sheets: direct advice for named industries, such as motor vehicle repair, welding and woodworking, and generic sheets. We found no interactive tool on that page. See COSHH.

United States (NIOSH and OSHA)

NIOSH's mobile apps page, dated 11 August 2026, says its apps are free on iOS and Android. Two of those apps have stopped receiving updates for now, according to their own pages.

NLE Calc. An app for the Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation. You enter the load weight, hand positions, travel distance, asymmetry angle, frequency, duration and grip quality, and it returns the lifting index for one task or the composite lifting index for several, with the recommended weight limit. NIOSH recommends keeping the index at or below 1.0.

Sound Level Meter app. Free, but its own page says it runs on iOS only, because NIOSH cannot verify accuracy across Android hardware. The page states accuracy within ±2 dBA, the Type 2 requirements of IEC 61672:3 (as NIOSH cites it) when used with a calibrated external microphone, and metrics including LAeq, TWA, maximum and peak levels, and noise dose. It also lists reporting and sharing data. The Type 2 claim rests on that external microphone, so note which device and microphone took each reading.

Ladder Safety app. Tools to set an extension ladder at about 75 degrees, choose a duty rating, run an inspection checklist and follow rules for use, in English and Spanish. Its page, dated 26 November 2024, carries a notice that the app gets no updates for now.

Heat Safety Tool (OSHA and NIOSH). A heat index for your location with an hourly forecast and precautions for each risk level. Its page, dated 3 March 2026, carries the same kind of notice: no updates for the time being. NIOSH adds that the heat index suits outdoor work without extra radiant heat, such as fires or hot machinery, and cannot be relied on alone to prevent heat stress. Our heat stress guide covers the WBGT alternative.

Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards app. A database of exposure limits, chemical properties, protective equipment, respirators and first aid that you can search by chemical name, synonym, CAS or DOT number, with saved favourites. Its page was last reviewed on 30 June 2020.

OSHA eTools and Expert Advisors. Illustrated web-based training on topics from machine guarding to scaffolding; some eTools ask questions and advise how OSHA rules apply to a worksite, and the Expert Advisors cover topics such as recordkeeping and emergency action plans. The 23 eTools carry dates from October 1998 to September 2021, so check each against the current standard before you rely on it.

Canada and New Zealand

CCOHS Safe Work app. Free in English and French on iOS and Android, with more than 750 OSH Answers fact sheets, saved favourites, sharing, and offline use once content has downloaded. It is a reference library, not a place to keep records.

PainPoint and Measure Workplace Stress (CCOHS with OHCOW). Both are free apps built with the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers. PainPoint takes a worker through questions about discomfort and exposures and shows the result on a body map with suggested fixes; CCOHS calls it a very basic assessment and a first step before a professional one. Measure Workplace Stress uses the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire, about 40 questions, and scores one person's answers against a reference population. CCOHS points out that the original questionnaire was designed to be completed and analysed as a group.

Hazardous Substances Calculator (WorkSafe New Zealand). You enter the substances you use and store, and it builds the inventory the regulations require and lists key controls, such as certified handlers, signage and secondary containment. The page says the information is private and that nobody, WorkSafe included, can see it; each inventory gets a PIN so you can update it later. It does not cover every control in the regulations, nor council rules.

What a free public tool does not do

The pattern across the pages is consistent. Public tools are strong on content written by the regulator for its own jurisdiction, and weak on the parts that make records hold up over time.

The missing history matters more than it first appears. A spreadsheet or a downloaded document shows the current version, not who changed what and when. Our study of audit trail and document control explains why that question decides many software choices, and the guide to leaving a QHSE system covers keeping records readable for years.

What the vendor profiles record about free plans

The directory covers 212 researched software profiles across QHSE, EHS and ESG. We applied one counting rule to every pricing record on 21 October 2026 and checked each match against its record: 19 profiles out of 212 record a plan, tier or edition offered at no charge. A free trial with an end date does not count, and neither do free seats for requesters or guests on a paid account, or free access for a vendor's suppliers. Most of the recorded free plans limit users, forms, monthly submissions or how much history is kept, and several cover a single task.

We do not name the products here. The free-tier section of the small-business guide lists the products on its rule-based list whose record documents a free plan, each with a link to its pricing record and the date it was checked, and the pricing guide explains how to compare a free tier with a paid quote. Our own calculators are free and run in the browser without signup; only the PDF report asks for an email address.

A free vendor plan and a free public tool answer different questions. The public tool gives you the regulator's content; the vendor plan gives you a small version of a system of record. On a free plan, take one real event from report to corrective action and export before you rely on it.

Disclosure. One of the 212 profiles belongs to a vendor that pays for sponsored placement on this site, and the editor works at that vendor. Its record was read by the same rule as every other; it shows no free plan, so it is one of the 212 but not one of the 19. It is not named in this article.

When to move beyond the free tools

Signs that the free route has run its course:

• More than one person needs to edit the same assessments, or a manager needs to see them all.
• Actions keep slipping because nothing reminds the owner or shows what is overdue.
• A client, auditor or insurer asks who changed an assessment and when.
• You run more than one site and compare them by hand.
• Your records sit in one person's login or laptop.

At that point, read what a vendor documents about free trials before booking demonstrations, and see the small-business guide or the guide for solo practitioners and consultants. Our free templates cover records such as a risk assessment matrix for the period in between.

What we could not verify (21 October 2026)

• Safe Work Australia. Its home page loaded, but every tool page we tried, including the page for its interactive safe work method statement tool, returned a server error, and a second attempt timed out. We list none of its tools.
• WorkSafe New Zealand's SafePlus self-assessment resources are listed on its tools page, but the page itself did not render for us, so they are not in the table.
• Formats and outputs we did not see. We did not register for OiRA or BeSMART.ie or complete an HSE online assessment, so OiRA's report format and the HSE result screen are as the publishers describe them.
• Where app data lives. We installed no app. Except where noted, the app pages do not say whether results stay on the phone or can be exported.
• Platforms. NIOSH's apps page says all its apps run on iOS and Android; the Sound Level Meter page says iOS only. We report the app's own page.
• Maintenance. Two apps on NIOSH's list say they get no updates at present. For the other tools, the pages give a date but not a support commitment.

FAQ

Is there a free risk assessment tool from a regulator?

Yes, in several countries. EU-OSHA's OiRA hosts sector tools built by national partners, Ireland's HSA runs BeSMART.ie, and HSE in Great Britain publishes a template with worked examples. Check that a tool exists for your country and sector, since coverage varies.

Where are my records kept when I use a free public tool?

It depends on the tool. OiRA keeps your work on EU-OSHA servers until you delete it, BeSMART.ie keeps it in your account if you register, and HSE's spreadsheets and templates keep it wherever you save the file. HSE's free online assessments email you a copy and store nothing for you to manage.

Does a free public tool meet the legal duty to assess risks?

The tool helps, but the duty stays with the employer. The HSA says BeSMART.ie may not suit every business, HSE says a MAC score may not be a complete assessment, and its template guidance warns against copying an example. Adapt the output to your workplace and keep it under review.

Is there free QHSE software from vendors?

Some, with limits. When the pricing records were checked on 21 October 2026, 19 profiles out of 212 had a plan, tier or edition at no charge. Most limit the number of users, forms, submissions or stored history, and some handle a single task only. The small-business guide links the pricing record of each product on its list that has a free plan.

Sources

Read on 21 October 2026.

• EU-OSHA: OiRA, About OiRA, OiRA for micro and small enterprises, OiRA tools, OiRA data protection notice, start page of the EU office tool (the four stages and the test session)
• Health and Safety Authority: BeSMART.ie, BeSMART.ie FAQ, Simple Safety, General Simple Safety
• HSE: MAC tool, MAC interactive score sheet, RAPP tool (INDG478), ART tool (INDG438), noise exposure calculators, hand-arm vibration exposure calculator, stress tools and templates, notes on the Indicator Tool, risk assessment template and examples, COSHH essentials
• HSE Books: MAC tool, MSD online assessment tool, free and premium
• NIOSH: mobile applications, Revised NIOSH Lifting Equation and NLE Calc, Sound Level Meter app, Ladder Safety app, Heat Safety Tool app, Pocket Guide mobile app
• OSHA: Apps, eTools, eMatrix, Expert Advisors and v-Tools
• CCOHS: products and services, Safe Work app, PainPoint, Measure Workplace Stress
• WorkSafe New Zealand: tools, Hazardous Substances Toolbox, Hazardous Substances Calculator
• Safe Work Australia: home page (tool pages could not be retrieved)
• The QHSE Standard: pricing records of the 212 researched profiles, checked against the counting rule on 21 October 2026