BrightHR combines HR software with rota, time, expenses and optional advice and safety services. HollyHR is designed for teams of roughly 5 to 100 employees that want a focused HR core with public pricing.
No card, no sales call and no trial clock.
The short answer
Choose HollyHR if your team needs people records, leave, sickness, documents and onboarding, with Free for up to 10 active employees or one public per-person price. Choose BrightHR when rota, clocking, expenses, performance, native apps, custom reports, advice, safety or payroll services need to be available now.
BrightHR's public online journey uses a 36-month fixed term, and it also offers 24 and 60 months. Compare the signed term, renewal, notice, package and service scope as carefully as the monthly price.
Monthly prices before tax. Volunteer-only profiles do not count towards HollyHR billing under the published policy. BrightHR examples use Core on its public 36-month online journey. Enhanced and Full cost more and add advice, safety and wellbeing services. Confirm the package, term, renewal and implementation charges in your agreement.
HollyHR prices the current HR core by active employee. BrightHR prices a broader package by employee band and fixed term.
HollyHR
Free up to 10 active employees
No card and no trial clock.
BrightHR
Lite rota and safety tools
BrightHR does not present Lite as an ongoing free Core HR package.
HollyHR
£2 per active employee
One Standard price without employee bands.
BrightHR
£83.35 to £330
Published Core prices at 5 to 100 employees on the online journey.
HollyHR
Plus is coming soon
Coming soonPlus is not available to buy yet.
BrightHR
Enhanced and Full
Advice, safety and wellbeing support increase the monthly total.
HollyHR
Monthly or annual billing
BrightHR
Fixed term with renewal rules
BrightHR publishes 24, 36 and 60-month terms. Check notice, renewal and price-change clauses in the signed agreement.
Both cover core records and absence. BrightHR already includes more of the operational work around them.
HollyHR
Included
BrightHR
Included in Core
HollyHR
Dedicated cases and evidence
Restricted evidence access and return-to-work follow-up are included.
BrightHR
Absence tracking
HollyHR
Not included today
BrightHR
Included in Core
HollyHR
Fixed reports today
Coming soonPerformance arrives with Plus, which is not available to buy yet.
BrightHR
Performance and custom reports
BrightHR can replace more than software. Decide whether those services belong in the same purchase.
HollyHR
Not offered
BrightHR
24/7 on Enhanced
HollyHR
Not offered
BrightHR
Software and advice on Full
HollyHR
Not offered
BrightHR
EAP support on Full
HollyHR
Payroll hand-off only
BrightHR
Separate payroll choices
Software, advice and managed payroll have separate prices and setup fees.
The two products expose different developer surfaces and come with very different supplier histories.
HollyHR
Reads on every plan
Standard adds governed writes with explicit scopes.
BrightHR
Employee, absence and clock-in APIs
HollyHR
MCP and bounded signed events
Events cover documented public API-origin changes, not every product action.
BrightHR
No parity claim made
No general public webhook or MCP catalogue is documented.
HollyHR
Organisation export
Supported records and eligible files within published limits.
BrightHR
Reports and document downloads
Plan how reports and files will be collected before the term ends.
HollyHR
New in 2026
BrightHR
100,000+ businesses
BrightHR publishes this figure on its pricing page.
Start with the signed BrightHR agreement. Record the term, renewal date, notice route and owner before planning a move, then list every operational tool and advice service your team uses.
Export the records and documents you need to keep, then test a small HollyHR import. Reconcile leave, sickness, permissions, rota, time, expenses, performance, payroll and connected systems before ending the old service.
See more BrightHR alternativesPublic prices and product details were checked on 29 August 2026. Packages can change, so confirm the terms of any quote.
At the published prices shown here, yes for the focused HR core. HollyHR Free covers up to 10 active employees. Standard costs £2 per active employee per month across the whole active team. BrightHR Core is £83.35 for five employees, £107 for 10, £225 for 25 and £330 for 100 on its public 36-month online journey. BrightHR includes substantially more operational software.
BrightHR offers a demo and separate Lite rota and safety tools, but its public pricing does not present an ongoing free Core HR package. HollyHR Free is ongoing for up to 10 active employees, with no card and no trial clock.
BrightHR publishes fixed terms of 24, 36 and 60 months, with 36 months available through the online purchase journey. Its public terms also contain notice, renewal and price-change provisions. Read the agreement you are signing and record the renewal date rather than relying only on the monthly figure.
BrightHR Core includes rotas, clocking, overtime, expenses, performance, perks and custom reports. Enhanced adds HR and employment-law advice, while Full adds health and safety and wellbeing support. HollyHR does not offer those services, and its broader Plus modules are not available to buy yet.
BrightHR publishes customer APIs for employee, approved absence and Blip clock-in data, plus Zapier and named integrations. HollyHR includes API and MCP reads on every plan, governed writes on Standard and signed events for documented public API-origin changes. Compare the exact records and events your workflow needs.
BrightHR sells payroll software, payroll with advice and a managed payroll service alongside its HR packages. Those choices have separate per-person prices and implementation fees. HollyHR does not run payroll; it supports a payroll hand-off, so the payroll system and process remain separate.
You can move the records HollyHR supports, but there is no one-click BrightHR migration. Collect the available reports and documents, test a small HollyHR import and reconcile balances and permissions. Rota, time, expenses, performance, payroll, advice cases, safety records and integrations need a separate retention or replacement plan.
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.
