Breathe HR Review: Pricing, Features, Pros and Cons

Breathe is one of those rare HR tools that knows exactly what it is and who it’s for. Built exclusively for UK small and medium-sized businesses, it handles core HR administration (leave tracking, absence management, document storage, performance reviews) at a price point that starts at just £24 per month for the entire organisation. Not per user. Per business.

That pricing model alone sets Breathe apart in a crowded HR software market where per-employee fees can quickly spiral. But affordability only matters if the software actually works. After evaluating Breathe’s feature set, pricing structure, real-world feedback, and competitive positioning, we found a product that excels at simplifying day-to-day HR admin for companies with up to 250 people, while falling short for businesses that need deep customization, advanced analytics, or multi-country support.

If your company is still managing employee records in spreadsheets and filing cabinets, Breathe is likely the most cost-effective way to modernize. If you need enterprise-grade HR capabilities, look elsewhere.

What Is Breathe?

Breathe is a cloud-based HR management platform founded in 2012 and headquartered in the United Kingdom. Since 2020, it has been part of the ELMO Group, which also operates ELMO Software, Pivot, HROnboard, PeoplePulse, Webexpenses, and Vocam. The platform was purpose-built for UK SMEs, and that focus shows in everything from its UK-specific leave calculations to its GDPR compliance and ISO 27001 accreditation.

Today, over 17,000 SMEs and more than 1,000 HR consultancies across the UK use Breathe to manage approximately 500,000 employees. Notable clients include AgeUK, Huel, RocketMill, Big Issue, and The Wildlife Trust. The platform releases weekly updates and offers a modular design where businesses pay for a core HR package and add capabilities like recruitment, expenses, scheduling, and e-learning as needed.

Breathe Key Features

Leave and Absence Management

This is where Breathe genuinely stands out. The leave management system handles holiday requests with single-click approvals, provides a visual overview of upcoming leave across the team, and tracks sickness absence trends over time. Critically for UK businesses, it includes Bradford Factor scoring, statutory holiday calculations, and TOIL (Time Off In Lieu) tracking. These are UK-specific features that many competing platforms either lack entirely or charge extra for.

The system lets employees request time off in seconds through a self-service portal or mobile app, and managers can approve or decline from the same interface. For companies transitioning from email chains and shared calendars, this alone justifies the subscription.

Centralised Employee Database

Breathe provides a single, GDPR-compliant repository for all employee data. Personal details, emergency contacts, employment history, and documents live in one place. The employee self-service portal lets staff update their own information, reducing the admin burden on HR teams. Data is stored in a UK-based data centre, encrypted to high standards, and the platform maintains 99.99% uptime.

Document Management

The platform includes unlimited document storage across all plans, which is notably generous. You can store contracts, policies, certifications, and any other employee-related documents. E-signature functionality and policy acknowledgement tracking mean you can distribute a new company handbook and confirm every employee has read it, all within the platform. For small businesses drowning in paper files, this is a significant time saver.

Performance Management

Breathe covers the fundamentals of performance management: appraisal cycles, goal setting, objectives tracking, and structured one-to-one meeting agendas. The Kudos feature lets colleagues and managers recognise achievements publicly, which helps foster a positive culture. However, this is where Breathe’s SME focus becomes a limitation. There is no 360-degree feedback, no calibration tools, and no performance analytics beyond basic reporting. For companies that need more sophisticated talent management, a dedicated performance platform or a more feature-rich HRMS will be necessary.

Harriet AI Assistant

A relatively recent addition, Harriet is Breathe’s AI assistant designed to automate repetitive HR tasks, answer everyday HR questions from employees, and capture data on question trends. This is a smart feature for small businesses where the “HR department” might be one person (or nobody at all). It can reduce the volume of routine queries that land in a manager’s inbox. The trend data is useful for identifying recurring issues or knowledge gaps across the workforce.

Recruitment (Add-on)

Breathe Recruitment is a purpose-built applicant tracking system available as a paid add-on (£20/month for Recruitment Pro with unlimited vacancies). It lets you create and share job vacancies, collect applications, send interview invitations, and make job offers from within the platform. It is not as powerful as dedicated ATS tools, but for small companies posting a handful of roles per year, having recruitment integrated with your HR database avoids double-entry and keeps candidate data in one place.

Rota Scheduling and Time & Attendance (Add-on)

The Breathe Rota module provides drag-and-drop shift scheduling with templates that can be saved and reused. You can share schedules directly with your team. The Time & Attendance add-on pairs with this to track actual hours worked. For businesses with shift workers, retail staff, or hybrid arrangements, these modules add meaningful functionality. They are sold as separate add-ons and are not included in the core subscription price.

Expense Management (Add-on)

Breathe Expenses lets employees submit expense claims digitally, attach receipts, and route them through an approval workflow. Again, this is a paid add-on, but it eliminates a common pain point for small businesses still processing expenses through email or paper forms.

Breathe Pricing and Plans

Breathe uses a per-organisation pricing model based on the total number of employees, not the number of users. This is one of its most attractive selling points. The vendor’s current website lists the starting price at £24/month, though some third-party sources still reference a £22/month entry point (which may reflect a legacy or promotional rate). All prices below exclude VAT.

At these rates, the effective per-employee cost works out to roughly £1-3 per employee per month, depending on your company size. That is remarkably affordable compared to per-user HR platforms that typically charge £5-15 per employee.

All core HR features (employee database, leave management, absence tracking, document storage, performance management, payroll export reporting) are included in every plan. Add-on modules carry additional monthly fees: Recruitment Pro is £20/month for unlimited vacancies, and Additional HR Users costs £5/month for three extra admin seats. Breathe Learn, Rota/Time & Attendance, and Expenses are also separate paid modules; exact pricing for these is not published publicly.

UK-registered charities receive a 50% lifetime discount on all plans. There are no long-term contracts, no cancellation fees, and you can pay by credit card, debit card, or Direct Debit. Custom pricing is available for organisations with more than 250 employees. A 14-day free trial provides access to all features, including add-on modules, with no credit card required.

Integrations

Breathe offers a marketplace of integrations, though the ecosystem is more limited than what you would find with larger HR platforms. Confirmed native integrations include Xero Payroll, Hireful ATS, and Microsoft Outlook. An open-source API is available for custom connections, which gives technically capable teams the ability to build their own integrations.

The integration library is a known weak point. There is no native Power Automate integration (a common request), and the range of pre-built connections is relatively narrow. If your business relies heavily on specific payroll providers, CRMs, or project management tools, verify that Breathe connects to them before committing. The Breathe Marketplace is the best place to check current integration availability.

It is worth highlighting that Breathe does not include a payroll module. It offers payroll export reporting so you can move data to your payroll provider, but if you need integrated payroll processing, you will need either a separate payroll system or a different HR platform that includes payroll natively.

Customer Support

Breathe offers three support channels: email, online chat, and telephone support. Telephone support is relatively unusual for a SaaS product at this price point and is a genuine differentiator for small businesses that prefer speaking to a real person. The support team is UK-based, which matters for a product designed specifically for UK employment practices.

Self-service resources include a knowledge base with articles and guides. Support is available during the free trial period as well, not just for paying customers. Onboarding assistance is provided, though the specifics of implementation support beyond the trial are not extensively documented.

Support quality receives mixed feedback. Many find the team responsive, helpful, and friendly. However, some negative experiences have surfaced since the 2020 ELMO acquisition, with a subset of long-time customers reporting a decline in service quality. Comments like “zero support, zero customer service” appear alongside glowing reviews praising the support team’s responsiveness. The reality likely depends on the complexity of your issue and timing; straightforward questions seem to get quick answers, while more complex problems may test your patience.

Pros and Cons

Breathe’s strengths and weaknesses are closely tied to its deliberate focus on simplicity and the UK SME market. Here is what we found stands out on both sides.

Who Should Use Breathe?

Breathe is an excellent fit for UK-based businesses with 10 to 200 employees that need to move beyond spreadsheets and manual HR processes. It is particularly well suited to companies where nobody has “HR” in their job title; the interface is simple enough that an office manager or operations lead can handle day-to-day HR admin without training.

Industries with straightforward employment structures (professional services, marketing agencies, charities, nonprofits, tech startups, and retail businesses) will get the most value. The charity discount makes it especially attractive for nonprofit organisations. HR consultancies serving multiple small business clients also represent a core user base, with over 1,000 consultancies currently using the platform.

Breathe is not the right choice for several types of buyer. Companies with employees outside the UK will find it lacks multi-country support entirely. Businesses that need integrated payroll should look at platforms like Personio or Sage HR instead. Organisations with more than 250 employees, or those needing advanced reporting, deep customization, or sophisticated performance management (360 feedback, calibration, succession planning), will outgrow Breathe quickly. And if you are a US-based or international company looking at Breathe because of the price, stop; the platform is built around UK employment law and practices and will not serve you well elsewhere.

Breathe Alternatives

CharlieHR

CharlieHR is the most direct competitor, also targeting UK small businesses with a focus on simplicity. It offers a slightly more modern interface and includes onboarding workflows that Breathe lacks. However, CharlieHR uses per-employee pricing, which can make it more expensive as your headcount grows. Choose CharlieHR if onboarding automation and visual design matter to you; choose Breathe if cost predictability is the priority.

Personio

Personio is a European HR platform that includes payroll, recruitment, and multi-country support. It is significantly more capable than Breathe but also considerably more expensive, with pricing starting around £3.50-8 per employee per month. For UK businesses that are growing internationally or need integrated payroll, Personio is the natural step up from Breathe.

Sage HR

Sage HR benefits from integration with the broader Sage ecosystem, particularly Sage Payroll. If your business already uses Sage for accounting or payroll, the native connection makes Sage HR a compelling choice. Its feature set is comparable to Breathe’s but with a stronger integration story for Sage customers. Pricing is per-employee, which makes it less economical for smaller teams.

BambooHR

BambooHR is a well-established HR platform popular with small to mid-sized businesses, but it is primarily designed for the US market. Its reporting, applicant tracking, and employee experience features are more advanced than Breathe’s. However, it lacks UK-specific features like Bradford Factor scoring and statutory holiday calculations. Choose BambooHR if you are a US company or need more sophisticated HR analytics; stick with Breathe if UK compliance is a priority.

Factorial

Factorial is a European HR platform that includes time tracking, document management, and payroll for select countries. It offers a free tier for very small teams, which Breathe does not. The interface is modern and the feature set is broader, but Factorial’s UK-specific functionality is less mature than Breathe’s. It is a reasonable alternative for businesses that want more features and are willing to trade some UK-market specialisation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Breathe include payroll?

No. Breathe does not have a built-in payroll module. It provides payroll export reporting so you can transfer employee data to a separate payroll provider, but you will need a dedicated payroll system (such as Xero, Sage, or a specialist bureau) alongside Breathe.

Is Breathe only for UK businesses?

Yes. Breathe is designed specifically for the UK market. Its leave calculations, compliance features, and data storage are all built around UK employment law and GDPR requirements. It does not support multi-country employment or international payroll.

How does Breathe’s pricing work?

Breathe charges a flat monthly fee per organisation based on the total number of employees, not per user. Plans start at £24/month for up to 10 employees. This means every employee and manager can access the system without increasing your cost. Add-on modules like Recruitment, Expenses, and Learn carry additional monthly fees.

Is there a free trial?

Yes. Breathe offers a 14-day free trial that includes access to all features and add-on modules. No credit card is required to start the trial. Phone, email, and chat support are available during the trial period.

Can Breathe handle part-time employees?

Breathe can manage part-time employees, but scheduling holidays and leave for part-timers has been reported as somewhat cumbersome. Editing leave schedules for employees with non-standard hours can be time-consuming, so if your workforce is heavily part-time, test this workflow thoroughly during your trial.

What happened after ELMO acquired Breathe?

Breathe became part of the ELMO Group in 2020. The acquisition has been a mixed experience for existing customers. Some have noticed no change; others report a decline in customer service quality. The product continues to receive weekly updates and the pricing model has remained largely the same, though the entry-level price has increased slightly from £22 to £24/month.

Does Breathe have a mobile app?

Yes. Breathe offers a free mobile app for both iOS and Android. Employees and managers can access the platform from any device via a web browser as well. The mobile app supports leave requests, approvals, and other self-service functions.

The Bottom Line

Breathe does one thing very well: it makes basic HR administration affordable and accessible for UK small businesses. The per-organisation pricing model is a genuine advantage, the leave and absence management features are best-in-class for the UK market, and the 14-day free trial with full feature access is generous. For a company with 20-50 employees currently managing HR through spreadsheets, switching to Breathe is close to a no-brainer at £39-89 per month.

The limitations are real, though. Reporting is basic, customization options are narrow, the integration ecosystem is thin, and there is no payroll. The performance management module covers the basics but will frustrate anyone who has used a dedicated performance platform. And if your growth plans include international expansion, Breathe has no path for you.

We rate Breathe a 4.0 out of 5. It is an excellent choice for UK-based SMEs with up to 200 employees that need a simple, affordable way to digitise core HR processes. If that describes your business, start with the free trial and put the leave management system through its paces. You will likely have your answer within a week.