CharlieHR alternative

A CharlieHR alternative for a small UK team

CharlieHR charges the business £21 a month for 1–4 people and £47 for 5–14, excluding VAT. We are £0 up to 5 people, then £3 per employee. Prices checked November 2026.

Start free Compare features with CharlieHR

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

CharlieHR prices the business, not the person. One to four people is £21 a month, five to fourteen is £47, and fifteen to twenty-nine is £108, all excluding VAT. Hiring the fifth person moves you from £21 to £47. Hiring the fifteenth moves you to £108. AskCharlie, the AI assistant, is not in that core price. It is part of Charlie Grow, £226 a month for 5–9 people and £346 for 10–14. Charlie Recruit, the hiring add-on, starts from £55 a month and cannot be bought on its own.

Core CharlieHR, on their own description, covers employee records, onboarding, time off, performance reviews, engagement surveys and perks. That is a full small-business HR tool, and the feature comparison is the right page if you want the line-by-line list. We are a different shape: Free for up to 5 active employees, then £3 per employee per month for every employee, with a 14-day Pro trial and no card to start.

Prices at 5 and 10 employees

CharlieHR 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. CharlieHR’s pricing page is the source for their price and for the features named above.

Questions about a CharlieHR alternative

Is CitoHR cheaper than CharlieHR?

For 1–4 people CharlieHR is £21 a month excluding VAT, and we are £0 on Free or £3 per employee on Pro. For 5–14 people CharlieHR is £47 a month excluding VAT. Five people on our Pro plan is £15, and 10 is £30. Grow and Recruit are extra on CharlieHR and are not in that £47.

Does CharlieHR have a free plan?

CharlieHR publishes a 7-day trial, and the trial does not include Charlie Grow or Charlie Recruit unless you ask sales. There is no permanent free plan on the pricing page. Our Free plan stays at £0 for up to 5 active employees.

Where does AskCharlie sit?

CharlieHR’s pricing page puts AskCharlie in Charlie Grow, which is £226 a month for 5–9 people and £346 for 10–14, excluding VAT. Our AI assistant is included in Pro, and it uses your organisation’s own Google Gemini API key.

Do either of you run payroll?

We do not. CharlieHR’s pricing page describes payroll as coming soon, run by their specialists, rather than as part of the core subscription. If you need pay calculated and sent to HMRC, that is a separate product.

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.

Practical reading on the topics UK teams search for when they are choosing HR software.