A BrightHR alternative without a fixed term
BrightHR’s page, with 5 employees selected, shows Core at £83.35 a month excluding tax. We are £0 up to 5 people, then £3 per employee on a monthly plan. Prices checked November 2026.
Free for up to 5 active employees. Pro is a 14-day trial, with no card to start. We do not run payroll.
The price, then the scope
BrightHR’s pricing page is a calculator. With 5 employees selected it shows Core HR at £16.67 per employee, £83.35 a month excluding tax, and the buy link is a 36-month term. The page’s own tier list, which produces that £83.35, prices Core at £10.70 per employee for a headcount up to 10, which is £107.00 a month excluding tax. Enhanced and the full health-and-safety package are higher on the same screen. The FAQ still says prices start from £3.00 per person and that a real quote needs a demo. We report both, and we use the calculator numbers in the table.
Core, as BrightHR lists it, includes a holiday planner, rotas, absence, performance, overtime, a payroll navigator, time and expense apps, perks and custom reporting. The advice line, template library and wellbeing support are the higher packages. We do not sell employment-law advice or insurance. We also do not run payroll. What we do sell is monthly: £3 per employee on Pro, or £0 for up to 5 active employees, with no fixed term.
Prices at 5 and 10 employees
BrightHR is one row. The others are there so a switch is not only a two-product comparison. Checked November 2026.
Published prices checked in November 2026.
| Provider | 5 employees | 10 employees | What that price covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| CitoHR | £0 on Free. Pro, if you choose it, is £15 a month. | £30 a month on Pro. Free stops at 5 active employees. | Free is a permanent £0 plan for up to 5 active employees. Pro is £3 per employee per month, charged for every employee, with a 14-day trial and no card to start. We do not run payroll. |
| HollyHR | £0 on Free. | £0 on Free. Standard, if you choose it, is £20 a month. | Free covers up to 10 active employees. Standard is £2 per active employee per month, or £20 a year, including the first 10. Prices are before tax. Plus is listed as coming soon and is not for sale. |
| Zoho People | £0 if you are inside the free edition cap. | See their site. The free edition does not cover 10 users. | The global pricing page says the free edition is forever free for up to 5 users. A US-only line on the same page says 3. Paid edition prices are on that page and are not copied here. |
| BreatheHR | £24 a month, excluding VAT. | £24 a month, excluding VAT. | Per business, not per person. Micro is 1–10 people at £24 a month. The next band, 11–20, is £44. Add-ons are extra and start from £11 a month for rota, £15 for learning, £16 for recruitment, £14 for expenses and £12 for health and safety. 14-day trial, no card until you subscribe. |
| CharlieHR | £47 a month, excluding VAT. | £47 a month, excluding VAT. | Per business. 1–4 people is £21 a month, 5–9 and 10–14 are £47, and 15–29 is £108. Prices exclude VAT. AskCharlie is part of Charlie Grow, a separate add-on (£226 a month for 5–9 people, £346 for 10–14). Charlie Recruit starts from £55 a month. 7-day trial. No permanent free plan. |
| PeopleHR | £20 a month on Starter, if £4 applies to each employee. | £40 a month on Starter, on the same basis. | Starter £4, Core £6.25, Pro £9.25 and Elite+ £11, each per employee per month. The page does not state a minimum headcount or whether VAT is included, so the 5- and 10-person totals are £4 multiplied by headcount. 14-day trial, no card. Payroll is a separate package on the same page. |
| BrightHR | £83.35 a month excluding tax for Core, £16.67 per employee. | £107.00 a month excluding tax for Core, £10.70 per employee. | The page loads with 5 employees selected and shows those Core totals on the 36-month term sold online. The 10-person figure is that page’s Core tier for a headcount up to 10, the same tier list that matches the 5-person total on screen. The FAQ still says prices start from £3.00 per person and that an accurate quote needs a demo. Enhanced and full packages cost more. |
| Timetastic | £6.00 a month on Business, if £1.20 applies to each user. | £12.00 a month on Business, on the same basis. | For UK and Ireland visitors the page’s own script shows Business £1.20, Pro £2.00 and Rota & Time Clock £4.00 per user per month. Before that script, the markup shows $1.50, $2.50 and $5.50. The page does not say whether the pound figures include VAT. This is leave software, with rotas and a time clock on the top plan, not a full HR record. 30-day trial, no card. |
What we would not claim
We do not run payroll, submit RTI, or calculate statutory pay. We do not offer a 24-hour employment-law advice line. The feature ticks on our comparison pages are a product list, and where a cell says a capability was not compared, that is the accurate state. BrightHR’s pricing page is the source for their price and for the features named above.
Questions about a BrightHR alternative
Why does BrightHR also say from £3 per person?
The FAQ on BrightHR’s pricing page says prices start from £3.00 per person depending on business size, and that an accurate quote needs a demo. The same page’s calculator, loaded at 5 employees, shows Core at £16.67 per employee, £83.35 a month excluding tax. Both sentences are on the page. We quote the calculator figure for 5 people, and the tier behind it for 10.
What is the BrightHR price for 10 employees?
The pricing page’s Core tier for a headcount up to 10 is £10.70 per employee per month, £107.00 a month excluding tax, on the 36-month term sold online. That tier list is the one that reproduces the £83.35 total shown for 5 employees. Ten people on our Pro plan is £30.
Is there a free trial?
BrightHR offers a demo, and fixed terms of 24, 36 and 60 months. The page does not state a free trial of the HR software. It does point at a separate Rota Lite tool you can try. Our Pro trial is 14 days, with no card, and Pro has no long-term contract.
Does BrightHR include advice we do not?
Yes. BrightHR’s Enhanced and full packages add an HR advice line, document templates and, on the full package, health and safety advice and wellbeing support. Those are a different product from the HR record. We do not sell an employment-law advice line or insurance. We also do not run payroll.
Sources
Prices were read from each provider’s own pricing page in November 2026. If a live page disagrees with this one, follow the live page.
Guides for UK employers
Practical reading on the topics UK teams search for when they are choosing HR software.
- Will HR be replaced by AI? What an assistant can take on in a small company, and the conversations that still need a person.
- AI HR assistant for a UK team Policy questions, holiday balances, and the decisions that stay with a person.
- HR policy management Store policies, collect acknowledgements, and keep a record you can show in an audit.
- GDPR-compliant HR software What to expect from a system that holds employee data for a UK employer.
- Automate employee onboarding Right-to-work checks, contracts, and day-one access, in an order a small team can follow.
- UK HR compliance checklist A free checklist for holiday pay, sickness records, and right-to-work documents.
- BreatheHR alternative CitoHR from £3 per seat, with a free plan for teams of up to five.
- CitoHR vs BreatheHR Pricing, AI, holiday, sickness, and policy tools compared side by side.
- UK HR software Holiday, sickness, and employee records built for UK SMEs.
- HR software for 5 employees Free at this size, with other UK prices checked in November 2026.
- HR software for 10 employees Pro is £30 a month. HollyHR’s free plan still covers 10.
- Cheapest HR software UK An honest price table. We are not the cheapest at every headcount.
- HR software alternatives CharlieHR, BrightHR, PeopleHR, Timetastic and BreatheHR, with dated prices.
- HR software for startups How a founding team runs HR before it hires a dedicated HR person.
- UK salary calculator Take-home pay for the 2026/27 tax year, after PAYE and National Insurance.