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SOURCE-LED Breathe alternatives · facts checked 16 July 2026
Five Breathe alternatives, chosen by the job you need done.
HollyHR published this shortlist, so the trade-offs stay visible. Compare the current product, the price shape and the exit—not a pile of identical green ticks.
Competitor facts checked 16 July 2026. Spotted a change?
Shortlist builderFACTS CHECKED
START WITH THE MISMATCHWhat needs to be better than Breathe HR?
PriceBreadthSupportExit
01
HollyHRFocused core
BEST MATCH02
CharlieHRCulture + advice
COMPARE03
Sage HRSage ecosystem
COMPARE04
Sense HRAutomation + attendance
COMPAREPublished by HollyHR. Incumbent strengths and our own gaps stay visible.
The short answer
What are the best Breathe alternatives in the UK?
There is no single best Breathe alternative. HollyHR fits a small team that wants focused core HR, current early-access pricing of Free for up to 10 active employees or Standard at £2 per active employee per month before tax, and a broad self-serve exit. CharlieHR suits culture, perks and optional HR advice; Sage HR suits the Sage ecosystem and mobile-first modular HR; Sense HR suits teams buying automation, recruitment or attendance depth; BrightHR suits employers who want software bundled with advice and health-and-safety support.
Breathe may still be the right answer. It is an established UK-SME product used by more than 17,000 organisations, with an employee app, mobile-optimised HR, performance tools, integrations and paid workforce add-ons. Replace it only when another product fixes the mismatch you actually have.
HollyHR is on this list and publishes it. That conflict is a reason for more evidence, not less disclosure.
Shortlist method
Four questions before the feature grid.
These decide whether a product difference will matter after the demo.
Name the missing job
Core HR, rota, recruitment, advice and payroll adjacency lead to different shortlists.
Choose the support model
Self-serve software, implementation help and employment advice are different things to buy.
Test the way out
Ask for a sample people export, document process and cancellation path before signing.
Five credible options
The shortlist, with the awkward bit included.
“Best for” is a fit statement. Every card also names the price shape, the trade-off and the first-party source.
Focused core
HollyHR
Best for A small UK team prioritising price clarity, effective-dated core HR and an inspectable exit.
People records, leave, sickness records, contracted working patterns, documents, onboarding, fixed reports and a broad organisation export in a deliberately compact product.
Price shape
Current early-access pricing: Free for up to 10 active employees; Standard is £2 per active employee per month before tax.
- No time-limited trial on the current Free plan
- 14-area organisation ZIP with eligible uploaded files and explicit manifests
- Documented organisation-scoped beta API and hosted MCP reads
Watch for
Young track record; no native mobile app, rota/time, expenses, recruitment, performance, learning or employment-advice service. API writes are Standard+, approved and controlled.
Culture + advice
CharlieHR
Best for A startup that wants polished core HR, engagement and perks, with advice or recruitment available alongside it.
Core Charlie includes onboarding, time off, employee records, engagement, performance reviews, perks and key integrations; Advice and Recruit are paid additions.
Price shape
Headcount bands. The current calculator lists £20 a month for 1–4 people after its six-month offer, and £45 for 5–14; Advice and Recruit cost extra.
- Founder-friendly core HR and onboarding
- Engagement, performance reviews and perks included
- Optional one-to-one HR advice and recruitment products
Watch for
Free access is a seven-day trial; price changes at team-size thresholds, and Advice or Recruit materially changes the monthly total.
Sage ecosystem
Sage HR
Best for A team that values a recognised vendor, native mobile access and modular workforce features.
Core HR and leave sit beside optional performance, timesheets, shift scheduling, expenses and recruitment modules.
Price shape
Core HR plus Leave Management is currently £5 per employee per month; per-person modules and fixed-price Recruitment are extra.
- Native employee and manager mobile app
- Performance, timesheet, shift and expense modules
- Natural evaluation path for an existing Sage customer
Watch for
The price rises with every employee and selected module; the broadest setup is a different budget and operating model from focused core HR.
Automation + attendance
Sense HR
Best for A growing UK team that wants AI-assisted HR, recruitment, automation or time-and-attendance depth.
Sense Team covers core HR with its assistant and data loader; Elite adds ATS, workflow automation, the wider agent stack and attendance options.
Price shape
Team uses size bands from £2 per employee per month; Elite lists from £8 per employee per month on an annual contract.
- Broader AI-assistant and workflow proposition
- Recruitment and attendance depth on Elite
- UK implementation support and migration tooling
Watch for
The Team and Elite products differ materially: open API, webhooks, ATS, advanced automation and attendance depth sit on Elite rather than the entry plan.
Software + advice
BrightHR
Best for An employer that wants rotas, time, expenses and performance alongside optional HR, safety and wellbeing advice.
BrightHR combines operational HR software with larger service packages for employment advice, health and safety and employee wellbeing.
Price shape
Package and headcount pricing with fixed-term agreements. BrightHR currently offers 24-, 36- and 60-month terms; obtain the exact quote and renewal basis.
- Rota, time, expense and performance tools in the software
- Optional 24/7 HR and employment-law advice
- Health-and-safety software, advice and wellbeing services
Watch for
A broader service purchase with a fixed-term commitment, not a like-for-like substitute for a lightweight rolling core-HR subscription.
Match the reason
Choose by need, not by logo recognition.
Keeping Breathe is included because staying can be the most rational decision.
The needBest-fit shapeWhy
Lowest ongoing price for 10 or fewer active peopleHollyHR
The current Free plan is £0 and is not a time-limited trial.
Established UK-SME core, employee app and add-on libraryKeep Breathe
Changing supplier does not improve a fit that already works.
Culture, perks or optional one-to-one HR adviceCharlieHR
Those jobs sit visibly alongside its core product.
Sage adjacency, mobile HR or modular workforce toolsSage HR
Its mobile app and priced modules are already shipped.
Recruitment, automation, AI agents or attendance hardwareSense HR
Elite is designed for that broader operating model.
Rotas plus employment advice or health-and-safety supportBrightHR
It sells software and managed support as one proposition.
The honest incumbent check
Where Breathe may still be the right answer.
An alternatives page should be capable of recommending no change.
The current fit is doing its job.
- You value an established supplier used by more than 17,000 UK organisations
- Its employee app, mobile-optimised HR, performance tools and integration library fit your team
- You need Breathe's paid rota/time, Learn, Recruitment, Expenses or Health and Safety add-ons
- Its headcount band and support model are predictable for your expected growth
A measured mismatch keeps recurring.
- A £0 current plan for a micro-team materially changes the buying decision
- Headcount-band jumps or separate add-ons make your three-year cost awkward
- You need one self-serve organisation archive with eligible uploaded files and explicit manifests
- You need a broader documented beta API, signed webhooks or controlled hosted MCP access
A fair practical test
Give every supplier the same 60-minute exam.
Ask for evidence you can keep. Score roadmap answers separately from shipped behaviour.
SMALL-TEAM SOFTWARE TEST5 jobs · same data · written evidence
Price the real team
Use today's headcount, the next threshold, required add-ons, tax and contract term.
A 12- and 36-month total you can explainRun the awkward record
Use a part-timer, mid-year change, sickness entry, expiring file and leave clash.
Saved outputs—not a salesperson's answerCheck who can see it
Test employee, manager, HR and admin views with pay, health and document data.
A permission map for your actual rolesTake the exit
Generate the people export and retrieve document files before you sign.
A sample archive plus known exclusionsTry support
Ask one setup question and one edge-case question through the route you will actually buy.
Response time, ownership and escalation pathIf HollyHR makes the shortlist
Switch from Breathe without pretending it is one click.
The current importer is a focused people-data start, not a complete Breathe migration.
1. Inventory before cancelling
List active and former people, leave balances and history, documents, working patterns, pay data, approvers, custom fields and Breathe-specific workflows.
2. Export people and files separately
Breathe provides data/report exports, while its help centre says company and employee documents are downloaded individually. Keep the source files until reconciliation is complete.
Do not assume a people CSV contains document bytes or specialist configuration.3. Import the supported people fields
HollyHR's current importer maps a focused 12-field people shape and accepts up to 500 rows. Reconcile every accepted, changed and skipped row.
Managers, leave history and balances, documents, pay and bank data, working-pattern history and workflow state need separate handling.4. Parallel-run the core
Check roles, working days, balances, pending leave, sensitive visibility and document placement before making HollyHR authoritative.
There is no one-click Breathe round trip; the time depends on data quality and the gaps you must rebuild.HOLLYHR · CURRENT BOUNDARY
What you would not be buying.
A shortlist is only useful if the disqualifiers are as easy to find as the headline price.
See the full shipped-product map →- HollyHR is in controlled early access and has a younger operating and customer history than Breathe
- There is no native employee or admin mobile app
- Rota/time, expenses, recruitment, performance, learning, health and safety and employment advice are not shipped HollyHR modules
- Built-in reports are fixed views, not a custom or scheduled report builder
- Irregular-hours statutory entitlement, blended mid-year FTE allowance, retrospective sickness casework, fit-note, return-to-work and SSP workflows are not automated
- The people importer is not a complete Breathe migration and does not bring across specialist history or document bytes
- The organisation export is broad rather than a full specialist-state round trip; file and package limits apply
- Beta API reads are approved and organisation-scoped; write-capable API/MCP access is Standard+, approved and controlled
Method and sources
Check the source, then run the test yourself.
Product and price facts were checked on 16 July 2026. Offers and modules change; each card links to the provider rather than asking you to trust a copied table forever.
Breathe feature and price table
Core features, employee bands, current starting price and paid add-ons.
Open source Breathe export guidanceData/report exports and the separate individual document-download process.
Open source CharlieHR pricingCurrent core bands, trial, included product and Advice/Recruit add-ons.
Open source Sage HR product and pricingCore price, trial, mobile product and optional modules.
Open source Sense HR pricingTeam and Elite prices, commitments and tier-specific capabilities.
Open source BrightHR pricingSoftware/service packages, current capabilities and fixed contract terms.
Open source HollyHR pricingCurrent Free and Standard scope, active-person definition and early-access route.
Open source HollyHR export boundaryThe exact 14-area archive, file treatment, permissions, limits and exclusions.
Open sourceQuestions people ask
What is the best alternative to Breathe HR?
It depends on the job. HollyHR fits focused core HR, current early-access pricing of Free for up to 10 active employees or Standard at £2 per active employee per month before tax, and a broad self-serve exit; CharlieHR fits culture and optional advice; Sage HR fits Sage-oriented modular HR; Sense HR fits automation, ATS and attendance; BrightHR fits software bundled with HR and safety support. Breathe remains a sound choice when its maturity, employee app and add-ons fit.
Is HollyHR a direct replacement for Breathe HR?
Only for a team whose needs fit HollyHR's shipped core: people records, basic leave and sickness records, private employee files, contracted working patterns, onboarding and broad export. It is not equivalent for rota/time, irregular-hours statutory entitlement, retrospective sickness casework, mature reporting, native mobile apps, e-signature/reminders or Breathe's add-ons.
Which Breathe alternative is cheapest for up to 10 people?
HollyHR's current Free plan covers up to 10 active employees and is not a time-limited trial. Standard is £2 per active employee per month before tax. Compare scope, early-access status and support as well as the £0 price.
Is CharlieHR a good alternative to Breathe?
Yes when culture, engagement, perks, performance reviews or optional HR advice are important. Charlie uses headcount bands and charges separately for Advice and Recruit, so price the exact package rather than the core headline.
Is Sage HR a good alternative to Breathe?
Yes for teams that value Sage adjacency, native mobile access and optional performance, timesheet, shift, expense or recruitment modules. Core HR plus Leave Management is currently £5 per employee per month before optional modules.
Is Sense HR a good alternative to Breathe?
Yes when the reason for leaving is a need for AI-assisted workflows, recruitment, automation or time and attendance. Check the tier carefully: several of those broader capabilities, plus API and webhooks, sit on Elite rather than the entry Team plan.
How long does switching from Breathe to HollyHR take?
There is no honest universal time. HollyHR imports a focused 12-field people shape for up to 500 rows, not Breathe's full record. The work depends on data quality and how much leave history, document content, pay, working-pattern history, approvals and workflow state must be rebuilt and checked.
How should we compare HR software exports?
Ask each supplier to demonstrate people data, uploaded file retrieval, manifests or skipped-item evidence, permission checks, download expiry, audit behaviour and known exclusions. Breathe's help centre separates data/report exports from company and employee documents, which are downloaded individually.
Should we leave Breathe if it already works?
Not automatically. Staying avoids migration risk. Switch only when a measured mismatch—price shape, missing capability, support model, integration boundary or exit process—outweighs the cost of rebuilding and reconciling your records.
THE HOLLYHR OPTION
Try the awkward record before you move the real one.
Join early access, bring a realistic scenario and decide whether the focused core is enough. If it is not, the shortlist above should still help.