The published monthly bands rise at 11, 21, 51, 101 and 151 employees. Add-ons cost extra.
Breathe HR alternatives
Alternatives to Breathe for small UK teams.
Breathe is a credible UK HR product. Compare alternatives when its employee band, add-ons or wider feature set no longer match what your team needs.
What needs to change?
Keep Breathe
The current core, mobile experience and add-ons are earning their cost.
Choose HollyHR
People records, leave, sickness, documents and onboarding cover the job, and public pricing matters.
Choose another route
Advice, safety, recruitment, mobile or workforce depth is the reason for changing.
The short answer
What is a good alternative to Breathe?
HollyHR is a sensible alternative when people records, leave, sickness, documents and onboarding cover the job.
Free covers up to 10 active employees. Standard costs £2 per active employee per month. Plus is coming soon at £4 per active employee per month. Volunteer-only profiles do not count towards billing under the published policy.
Keep Breathe when its longer record, performance tools, mobile access or paid workforce add-ons are in regular use. Consider CharlieHR for culture and advice, BrightHR for bundled services, or Sage HR for mobile and modular workforce tools.
Price and commitment
Compare the total cost and the contract.
Use your current team, the next hire and the term you are actually signing.
There are no employee bands. Plus is coming soon at £4 per active employee and is not available to buy yet.
Monthly prices before applicable tax. Confirm the live supplier page and any quoted terms before buying.
Your routes
Four alternatives to Breathe, plus staying.
Compare the best fit, current price, strongest reason to choose it and the point at which it stops fitting.
Established UK-SME core
Breathe HR
Price
£24 per month for 1-10 employees, before VAT.
Best fit
Teams that value a longer operating record, mobile access and optional workforce add-ons.
Strong when
Core HR includes absence, documents, reporting and performance, with rota, learning, recruitment, expenses and safety sold separately.
Look elsewhere when
Price moves through employee bands, and the add-ons increase the monthly total.
Focused small-team HR
HollyHR
Price
£0 for up to 10 active employees. Standard is £2 per active employee each month.
Best fit
Teams of roughly 5 to 100 that need a clear HR core and public pricing.
Strong when
People records, leave, sickness, documents, onboarding, reports and export in one focused product.
Look elsewhere when
Not the right route when you need a native mobile app, a payroll engine, HR advice or broad workforce modules today.
Culture and support
CharlieHR
Price
£20 per month for 1-4 people after the current introductory offer.
Best fit
Employers that want performance reviews, engagement surveys, perks or optional HR advice alongside core HR.
Strong when
A small-team core with performance reviews, engagement surveys, perks, a REST API and optional support services.
Look elsewhere when
Recruitment and advice are separately priced, and their commitments differ from the core subscription.
Software with advice
BrightHR
Price
Core costs £83.35 per month for five employees, before tax.
Best fit
Employers that want rotas, clocking or HR, safety and wellbeing services in one package.
Strong when
Core software can be expanded with 24/7 advice, safety support, wellbeing and separately priced payroll routes.
Look elsewhere when
Packages use fixed 24, 36 or 60-month terms, so the service bundle and commitment need to earn their place.
Modular HR
Sage HR
Price
£5 per employee per month for Core HR and Leave on the dedicated UK product page.
Best fit
Teams that want mobile apps, e-signatures, modular workforce tools or Sage payroll adjacency.
Strong when
Core HR and leave can be extended with performance, timesheets, shifts, expenses and recruitment.
Look elsewhere when
The useful comparison is the full module total, not the Core price in isolation.
Inside HollyHR
See what HollyHR covers today.
HollyHR keeps the records and everyday jobs a small team returns to each week in one clear workspace.
- People records, employment details and documents
- Leave requests, sickness records and who's away
- Onboarding, reports, CSV import and organisation export
Before you choose
Give every route the same four tests.
Use your own records and roles. A prepared demo should not decide the shortlist.
Run one ordinary week
Add a starter, approve leave, record sickness and find the document a manager needs.
Try the awkward permission
Sign in as a manager and check what they can see about their team and everyone else.
Price the next headcount
Use today, your next hire and a realistic growth point. Include required modules and the signed term.
Take a usable export
Keep sample people, leave, sickness and document data, then list anything that needs a separate route.
If you decide to move
Plan the full move from Breathe.
Keep a copy of the source, check the new records and assign an owner to anything that needs a separate move.
List the Breathe jobs in use
Include core HR, performance, mobile, rota, learning, recruitment, expenses, safety, integrations and reports.
Export before giving notice
Breathe exports data by area and documents need separate attention. Keep a dated sample you can open and reconcile.
Move in controlled stages
Map people first, plan leave and specialist records separately, then keep Breathe available until the checks pass.
Primary sources
Prices and supplier capabilities can change. Check the live page before signing.
Questions
Questions about Breathe HR alternatives.
What is the best alternative to Breathe HR?
There is no single best alternative. HollyHR fits a focused small-team HR brief; CharlieHR adds performance, engagement and optional advice; BrightHR bundles software with services; Sage HR adds mobile and modular workforce tools. Keep Breathe when its mobile experience, performance tools or add-ons are already the right fit.
Is HollyHR cheaper than Breathe?
At the smallest published headcounts, yes. HollyHR Free covers up to 10 active employees. Standard costs £2 per active employee per month, and Plus is coming soon at £4 per active employee per month. Volunteer-only profiles do not count towards billing under the published policy. Breathe starts at £24 per business each month and moves through employee bands. The result can change at larger headcounts, so price the exact team and any add-ons.
Is HollyHR a complete replacement for Breathe?
Not for every team. HollyHR covers focused core HR, but Breathe already sells performance tools and paid rota, learning, recruitment, expenses and health and safety add-ons. Keep or replace those jobs deliberately.
Can we move from Breathe to HollyHR?
Yes, with a planned migration. Export people and each relevant data area, retain documents separately, map the supported HollyHR fields and reconcile the result. There is no one-click migration of every Breathe record and add-on.
Should we keep Breathe instead?
Keep Breathe when its longer operating record, employee app, performance tools, integrations or workforce add-ons are important in everyday work and justify the current band and extras.
What should we test before switching?
Run a starter, leave request, sickness record, manager-permission case and usable export. Price the same headcounts and record every add-on, integration and specialist record that would need another route.
Start free with up to 10 active employees.
Bring your team over from a spreadsheet. There is no card, no sales call and no lock-in. For up to 10 active employees, everyday HR is free.
Import your people data. Export your organisation's people records and uploaded files.