Charlie HR vs. Breathe

Say goodbye to chaotic spreadsheets and uncomfortable email exchanges. Charlie streamlines your daily tasks, allowing you to focus on what truly matters. To ensure your business operates efficiently, gather and manage essential People data seamlessly. Additionally, whether your teams are office-based, remote, or operating in a hybrid model, Charlie unites everyone effectively. It’s crucial to foster a sense of appreciation among all employees while cultivating an environment that promotes growth. Charlie is dedicated to helping you establish a positive company culture. For optimal security, Charlie adheres to the highest data protection standards. With full compliance to GDPR and ISO 27001 accreditation, you can trust that your information is safe. Moreover, our real customer support team is known for its quick response times, averaging just 7 minutes for inquiries. Tailored for startups and small enterprises, Charlie was thoughtfully crafted with the needs of UK-based small businesses in mind. Our compact team of 30 operates from an office in London, but we also embrace remote work across the UK, ensuring flexibility for all our staff. Embracing innovation and support, Charlie is here to empower your business for success.

If your employee details are spread across spreadsheets, emails and disconnected apps, Breathe brings them together. It's a UK HR platform launched in 2012 for small and medium-sized businesses. More than 17,000 of them use it, along with over 1,000 UK HR consultancies. Three everyday HR problems Breathe fixes Information everywhere: one central, accurate record for every employee. Endless chasing: staff book leave, sign documents electronically and follow shared workflows. A small HR team: start with the essentials and add more as you grow. The essentials: Core HR Store records and documents securely, manage holiday and leave, track sickness and absence, and let staff update their own details. Collect e-signatures, set goals, run one-to-ones and reviews, and spot trends with built-in reports. Optional extras Rota, Time and Attendance: plan shifts and track hours Expenses: claims, receipts and manager sign-off Recruitment: advertise roles and follow each candidate Health and Safety: risk assessments, incidents and compliance evidence e-Learning: assign UK-specific courses and see who's completed what Breathe is also building an AI Assistant to answer HR and policy questions, and plans to launch payroll in late 2026. Who gets the most from it UK organisations with up to 200 people, particularly charities, schools, healthcare, retail, start-ups and professional services firms with lean HR. If you need multinational payroll, global compliance or enterprise workforce planning, weigh it up first. Pricing, support and security Plans start from £24 a month for your whole organisation, with no long-term contracts or hidden fees. Try it free for 14 days, with UK-based support from setup onwards. Breathe holds ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 accreditation and keeps your data in UK data centres, protected by encryption and access controls.