Key takeaways
- A permanent free plan and a free trial are different. A trial ends. A free plan stays at £0 while you stay inside its limits.
- On 21 October 2026, permanent free offers we could read on the vendor’s own site were our Free plan (up to 5 active employees), HollyHR (up to 10), Zoho People (up to 5 users on the global edition) and Connecteam (up to 10 users, priced in US dollars).
- Breathe, CharlieHR, PeopleHR, Factorial and Timetastic publish trials or a starting price, not a permanent free HR plan. BrightHR’s pricing page leads with a demo.
- Free plans usually cap the number of people and leave out some of rotas, time tracking, onboarding workflows, visa reminders or payroll. Read the exclusions before you move your records.
- Our Free plan is £0 for up to 5 active employees. Pro is £3 per employee per month for every employee, with a 14-day trial and no card. We do not run payroll.
What counts as free HR software?
Free HR software, in this guide, means a hosted people system you can keep using at no charge after any introductory period. A free trial is a timed look at a paid product, and it is listed separately so the two are not mixed up.
For a small UK team, HR software usually means the everyday record: who works here, who is on holiday or off sick, and where the contract is. It is not automatically payroll. If a page promises “free HR” and the small print is a 14-day clock, that is a deadline, not a free plan.
A spreadsheet will not show two people off on the same Friday, and it is a poor place for the only copy of a right-to-work check. The HR software guide for UK SMEs lists the jobs worth moving out of one.
What do free plans usually include, and what do they leave out?
The free plans checked for this article include an employee record, time off, and somewhere to put documents. They differ on sickness, onboarding, rotas, time tracking and how many people you can add before the price changes.
What they commonly leave out is shift rotas, a visa end date, or payroll. An HR record can hold a salary and an export for your accountant. That is not calculating PAYE or sending Real Time Information to HMRC. The UK payroll compliance guide for 2026/27 covers that job. This article is about the HR record.
Also ask whether you can export if you leave. HollyHR includes organisation export on Free. Our pricing page says to email support for a copy of your data.
Which free plans and trials can a UK employer actually use?
Four products published a plan you can keep at no charge, and several better-known UK systems published a trial or a paid starting price instead. The table uses each vendor’s own page on 21 October 2026. Offers change, so open the link before you rely on a figure.
Prices are monthly unless the cell says otherwise. Where a vendor says the price excludes VAT or tax, that is noted. Our Pro price is £3 per employee per month, the same wording as our pricing page.
| Provider | Free plan or trial | Price if you continue |
|---|---|---|
| CitoHR | Permanent Free plan for up to 5 active employees. Separate 14-day Pro trial, no card. | £0 on Free. Pro is £3 per employee per month, charged for every employee, including the first five. |
| HollyHR | Permanent Free plan for up to 10 active employees. No card. One 30-day Standard trial for eligible Free organisations. | £0 on Free. Standard is £2 per active employee per month, or £20 a year, including the first 10. Prices before tax. Plus is listed as coming soon and is not for sale. |
| Zoho People | Forever-free edition. Global page text says up to 5 users; a US-only markup on the same page says 3. A 30-day paid trial then moves the account to Free. | £0 inside that cap. Paid edition prices are on the same page and are not copied here. |
| Connecteam | Small Business Plan at $0, described as free for life, for up to 10 users. The page also mentions a 14-day trial of paid plans. | $0 up to 10 users. Paid hub prices on that page are in US dollars, not pounds. |
| Breathe | 14-day trial of core features and add-ons. No card until you subscribe. No permanent free plan on the pricing page. | Per business, excluding VAT: £24 a month for 1–10 people, £44 for 11–20, £99 for 21–50, £175 for 51–100. Larger bands are on the page. Add-ons are extra. |
| CharlieHR | 7-day trial, no card. Charlie Grow and Charlie Recruit are not included in the trial. No permanent free plan. | Excluding VAT: £21 a month for 1–4 people, £47 for 5–14, £108 for 15–29. AskCharlie AI is part of Charlie Grow, which is a separate add-on. |
| PeopleHR | 14-day trial. The page says you do not need a credit card or a sales call. No permanent free plan found. | Per employee per month: Starter £4, Core £6.25, Pro £9.25, Elite £11. No minimum headcount was stated in the pricing text checked. |
| Factorial | The UK pricing page offers a demo and a “start for free” button. No permanent free headcount was stated on that page. | Published starting price of £5.40 per user per month. |
| Timetastic | 30-day trial, no card. This is leave and rota software, not a full staff record. No permanent free plan. | From $1.50 per user per month. The pricing page shows US dollars. |
| BrightHR | No free plan and no free trial were stated on the pricing page. The route offered is a demo. | FAQ says from £3.00 per person, depending on size, and that a real quote needs a demo. Fixed terms of 24, 36 and 60 months; 36 months can be bought online. Calculator totals are not quoted here. |
A lower number is not the same product. Breathe’s £24 is the whole business in the 1–10 band, excluding VAT, and add-ons are extra: on Micro, rota starts from £11 a month, with learning, recruitment, expenses and health and safety also priced separately and higher on larger bands. CharlieHR’s £21 is only the 1–4 band. Five people move to £47 a month before VAT, and AskCharlie AI is in the Grow add-on.
Connecteam’s $0 plan says “all features” with a footnote, and the price is in dollars. Zoho People’s global free edition is an employee database, leave and documents. HollyHR’s free cap is 10, and its rota package was marked coming soon. Charities can apply for 50% off HollyHR Standard. Links are in the sources below.
What does a team of five, or ten, actually pay?
At five people, our Free plan, HollyHR’s Free plan and Zoho People’s free edition are still £0, and Connecteam’s Small Business Plan is still $0. The paid UK systems are not: Breathe’s Micro band is £24 a month plus VAT, CharlieHR’s 5–9 band is £47 a month plus VAT, and PeopleHR Starter at the published £4 per employee would be £20 a month if there is no minimum we did not see.
Factorial’s £5.40 starting rate would be £27 for five users only if it applies to every user, and the page stated no minimum, so that is arithmetic rather than a quote. BrightHR’s “from £3.00 per person” still needs a demo, and the page sells fixed terms.
At ten people, HollyHR Free and Connecteam’s $0 plan still cover the team. Zoho People’s free edition and our Free plan do not: both caps are 5. Our Pro plan for those 10 people is £30 a month, because we charge every employee. Breathe is still Micro at £24 a month plus VAT, before add-ons. CharlieHR’s 10–14 band is still £47 a month plus VAT. PeopleHR Starter at £4 would be £40. Factorial’s starting rate would be £54, with the same caveat.
Breathe’s annual discount is about 15% on Micro through Pro and about 10% on Premium and Plus, excluding add-ons. VAT is extra where the vendor says so.
When is it worth leaving a free plan?
Leave a free plan when the cap blocks a hire, or when a job you do every month is missing. A trial countdown is not a reason to pay if a permanent free plan already covers the record.
Stay if the free plan already shows who is off, stores the signed contract, and keeps the right-to-work check out of a personal inbox. Leave it when rotas and clock-in need a second app, or when a visa date has no reminder. With us, that reminder is on Pro, not Free.
Upgrade for payroll only if the product actually runs it. We do not. Paying for HR software and still sending a file to a bureau is normal. Paying twice because a page said “payroll” and the product only stores a salary is not. RTI and statutory pay are covered in the HMRC payroll compliance guide.
Where does our free plan for five people fit?
Our Free plan is £0 for up to 5 active employees: records, holiday, sickness, documents, policies, expenses, training and equipment, with no trial clock. Rotas and visa reminders are not on Free.
On the pricing page, Free includes employee management, leave and holiday, sickness tracking, 1GB of document storage, policy management, expense tracking, training and certifications, equipment tracking, custom fields and email support. Free does not include custom onboarding workflows, shift scheduling, timesheets and geo-fenced clock-in, custom forms, advanced reporting, HMRC compliance reports, payroll templates, immigration expiry reminders, the Slack connector, or the AI assistant and MCP connection. Those are on Pro.
Pro is £3 per employee per month, billed monthly, with no long-term contract on that page. A team of 3 pays £9. A team of 10 pays £30. The first five are not free inside Pro: every seat is charged. The 14-day trial is of Pro, with no card. When it ends you choose Pro or, with 5 or fewer active employees, Free.
We do not run payroll, file RTI, or calculate tax codes. On Pro you can hold payroll data and export it. That is a file for an accountant or bureau, not a payroll run. If you are comparing us with Breathe on features rather than on the free tier, the BreatheHR alternative page is the product comparison, and the UK HR software comparison sits beside it.
What should you check before moving your staff records?
Check three things before you move the records: who counts towards the cap, whether you can export if you leave, and whether a paid plan adds VAT or locks you into a term.
- HollyHR bills active employment, and volunteers under a published policy do not count. The 11th active employee needs Standard, at £22 a month. Our cap is 5 active employees. Connecteam counts users.
- Breathe and CharlieHR add VAT. BrightHR describes 24, 36 and 60 month terms.
- If you need payroll calculated, that is a separate decision. Our export options are a file for an accountant, not a payroll run.
Holiday and sickness are the modules most five-person teams touch in the first month. The leave and sickness page shows how a request and a sick day sit on the same person. If your next problem is a visa date rather than a holiday chart, read the immigration and visa tracking page and treat the reminder as a diary, not a Home Office decision.
Sources
Vendor pages were opened on 21 October 2026. If a price on the live page disagrees with this article, the live page is the one to follow.
Frequently asked questions
Is there genuinely free HR software for a UK small business?
Yes, but only a few products publish a plan you can keep at no charge. On 21 October 2026, our Free plan covered up to 5 active employees, HollyHR’s Free plan covered up to 10, Zoho People’s global free edition covered up to 5 users, and Connecteam’s Small Business Plan was $0 for up to 10 users. Most other well-known UK HR systems offer a short trial, then a paid plan.
Is a free trial the same as a free plan?
No. A free trial stops on a date, often after 7, 14 or 30 days. A free plan stays at £0 for as long as you remain inside its limits, usually a cap on the number of people. Breathe and CharlieHR publish trials. They do not publish a permanent free plan.
Does free HR software run payroll?
Do not assume it does. We do not run payroll. In CitoHR you can store payroll data and export it for an accountant or bureau, and those export tools are on our paid Pro plan, not Free. If you need RTI, tax codes and statutory pay calculated and sent to HMRC, that is payroll software or your accountant, which is a different product from an HR record system.
What happens when a team grows past the free limit?
You either move to a paid plan or stop adding people. On our Free plan you stop at 5 active employees, and Pro then charges £3 a month for every employee, including the first five. On HollyHR, Free stops at 10 active employees, and Standard is £2 per active employee per month, again including the people who were free. Check the vendor’s own rule before you hire the next person.
Is your free plan free forever?
Our pricing page describes Free as a permanent £0 plan for up to 5 active employees, separate from the 14-day Pro trial. The plan stays free only while you remain on it and inside that headcount. Pro is a different plan at £3 per employee per month, charged for every employee.