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Freedom251 › Blog › HR Software

How much does HR software cost for a UK small business?

By Freedom251 Team · · 8 min read

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For a UK small business, HR software commonly costs about £3–£11 per employee per month on per-person plans. Other suppliers charge by business or headcount band, with entry prices around £21–£24 per month. A 10-person company should therefore budget roughly £24–£50 per month before VAT and optional modules for basic HR, using current published prices. Payroll is often a separate subscription.

The headline price is only a starting point. Your actual bill depends on whether the supplier counts employees individually, uses a team band, adds VAT, charges separately for payroll and recruitment, and prices features such as timesheets, expenses or shift scheduling as modules.

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What sets the price of UK HR software?

HR systems are sold using two main pricing units. A per-employee plan multiplies a monthly rate by your headcount. A business-level plan charges one amount for a defined employee range, while a headcount-band plan gives you one price for everyone in a band such as five to 14 employees.

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  • Per employee: the bill rises as people are added or removed. This can be economical for very small teams, but check whether casual workers, contractors or archived users count.
  • Per business: one monthly price covers the employee range specified by the supplier. Add-ons may still be charged separately.
  • Headcount bands: the price jumps when you cross a threshold, so a 10-person company may pay the same base fee as a 14-person company.

Displayed prices frequently exclude UK VAT. A £50 pre-VAT subscription is £60 after 20% VAT, although a VAT-registered business may be able to reclaim that VAT through its normal accounting process. Compare prices on the same VAT basis.

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Current published UK prices

The following figures are list prices on suppliers’ UK pages. They are benchmarks rather than an independent market average; no authoritative cross-vendor UK average or total-cost-of-ownership study is available.

Supplier and pricing page Pricing method Published entry price What to note
PeopleHR Per employee per month; fixed monthly pricing is stated for teams of up to 10 Starter £4; Core £6.25; Pro £9.25; Elite+ £11 No long-term contracts and a free 14-day trial are stated on the UK small-business page.
Sage HR Per employee per month, with optional modules £5 per employee per month Performance, timesheets and shift scheduling are each +£2.50 per employee; expenses is +£1.25 per employee. Recruitment is +£184.45 per month.
Breathe Based on total employees, not a per-user fee From £24 per business per month Add-ons change the total. Cancellation is stated to be possible at any time without cancellation fees.
CharlieHR Monthly headcount bands £21 for 1–4; £47 for 5–14; £108 for 15–29; £185 for 30–49 employees Prices exclude UK VAT, which the supplier states is charged at +20%.
BrightHR Employee-number-based fixed pricing From £3 per person HR-only, health-and-safety-only and combined packages are offered; the final rate depends on business size.

PeopleHR

PeopleHR publishes four per-employee tiers: Starter at £4, Core at £6.25, Pro at £9.25 and Elite+ at £11 per employee per month. For a 10-person team, simple multiplication gives £40, £62.50, £92.50 or £110 per month respectively before VAT, but the supplier also describes fixed monthly pricing for teams of up to 10, so confirm the exact quote for your headcount. Its page states that there is no long-term contract and that a 14-day free trial is available.

Sage HR

Sage HR starts at £5 per employee per month. Ten employees would make the base £50 per month before VAT. Modules are priced on top: Performance, Timesheets and Shift scheduling each add £2.50 per employee per month, while Expenses adds £1.25. Recruitment is listed as a separate £184.45 monthly charge rather than a per-employee fee.

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Breathe

Breathe starts at £24 per business per month and bases pricing on total employees rather than a per-user fee. That makes the starting figure easy to understand for a small team, but the page says add-ons affect the total price. It also states that you can cancel at any time without cancellation fees.

CharlieHR

CharlieHR’s published monthly bands are £21 for one to four employees, £47 for five to 14, £108 for 15 to 29 and £185 for 30 to 49. A 10-person business falls in the £47 band before VAT. Because the same fee covers five through 14 employees, the effective pre-VAT cost at 10 people is £4.70 per employee; the effective cost changes as your headcount changes within the band.

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BrightHR

BrightHR says prices start at £3 per person and depend on business size. If that starting rate applied to 10 employees, the arithmetic would be £30 per month before VAT, but the supplier does not present that as a guaranteed 10-person quote. Check whether you need the HR-only, health-and-safety-only or combined package.

What would HR software cost for 10 employees?

A 10-person team is a useful comparison point because it sits inside several small-business pricing bands. The examples below use only published starting prices and show the position before VAT unless stated otherwise.

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Option Calculation for 10 employees Monthly price before VAT Important qualification
PeopleHR Starter 10 × £4 £40 Confirm how its stated fixed pricing for teams up to 10 is applied.
Sage HR base 10 × £5 £50 Modules and payroll are separate.
Breathe entry price Business starting price £24 Add-ons affect the total.
CharlieHR Five-to-14 employee band £47 £56.40 including the stated 20% VAT.
BrightHR starting arithmetic 10 × £3 At least £30 if the starting rate applies Actual price depends on business size and package.

These figures explain the practical range of roughly £24–£50 for a basic 10-person subscription. A higher tier, extra modules or a different package can move the total well above that range.

How optional modules change the bill

Core HR usually covers employee records, holiday and absence workflows, documents and basic reporting. Features that require more scheduling, financial or compliance functionality are commonly sold as add-ons.

Sage HR example

For 10 employees, Sage HR’s listed module arithmetic is:

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  • Base HR: £50 per month.
  • Performance: +£25 per month.
  • Timesheets: +£25 per month.
  • Shift scheduling: +£25 per month.
  • Expenses: +£12.50 per month.
  • Recruitment: +£184.45 per month.

Taking the base plus all four per-employee modules would be £137.50 per month before VAT. Adding the listed recruitment charge would make £321.95 per month before VAT. This is an illustration of the pricing structure, not a recommendation that every business needs every module.

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Other suppliers

Breathe states that add-ons affect its £24 starting price, but the cited page does not state a single add-on schedule. PeopleHR’s four tiers package different capabilities into the plan levels rather than presenting the same published module prices. BrightHR separates HR and health-and-safety packages. Ask for a quote that lists each selected feature rather than comparing only the entry badge.

Does HR software include payroll?

Do not assume that an HR subscription includes payroll. The published HR prices above do not establish that payroll is bundled, and payroll may be sold as a separate product or module.

As a benchmark, Sage Payroll starts at £1.20 per month excluding 20% VAT. That starting plan includes five employees, with an additional charge for each employee above five. The cited pricing page does not state the extra-employee rate in the supplied information, so obtain the current figure before calculating a total.

When requesting a combined quote, ask whether it supports UK pay frequency, statutory payments, pension auto-enrolment, HMRC submissions, year-end reporting and an employee self-service link to the HR record. Treat each as a confirmation point, not as an assumed inclusion.

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VAT, contracts and trials

VAT

CharlieHR explicitly says its prices exclude UK VAT and that 20% is added. The other listed pages should be checked for their displayed-price treatment at checkout or in a written quote. To compare consistently, record both the pre-VAT subscription and the VAT-inclusive cash amount.

Contract flexibility

PeopleHR states no long-term contracts. Breathe states that cancellation is possible at any time without cancellation fees. Those terms can matter more than a small monthly difference if your headcount is seasonal or you are testing adoption. Do not generalise one supplier’s cancellation policy to another; request the notice period and renewal terms in writing.

Trials

PeopleHR states that it offers a free 14-day trial. A trial is useful only if you test a real process—such as approving leave, storing a policy acknowledgement and exporting an employee report—rather than merely creating an account. Confirm whether the trial includes the modules you expect to buy and whether payment starts automatically.

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How to compare plans on value, not headline price

  1. Fix the headcount definition. Give each supplier the number of employees, workers, contractors and planned hires, and ask who is billable. Record the price band you would enter at your current size and at your likely 12-month size.
  2. List must-have workflows. Separate essentials—employee records, leave, sickness, documents and approvals—from optional needs such as recruitment, performance reviews, expenses, rotas and health and safety.
  3. Price every module. Request a line-by-line monthly and annual total, including payroll, recruitment, scheduling, expenses, implementation and any additional administrator or employee charges.
  4. Normalise VAT. Put pre-VAT and VAT-inclusive totals in adjacent columns. This prevents a £47 band price excluding VAT from appearing cheaper than a VAT-inclusive quote.
  5. Check UK integrations. Verify connections to your payroll, accounting and pension processes, and ask whether data exports remain available if you leave. A low subscription can be poor value if staff must re-key payroll or holiday data.
  6. Test support and implementation. Ask who configures policies, imports existing records, trains managers and answers compliance questions. Get response times and any paid onboarding terms in writing.
  7. Use the trial or demo with real cases. Test a joiner, leaver, holiday correction, sickness record, document acknowledgement and manager approval. Check the audit trail and export format before committing.

Which pricing model suits a small business?

Choose per-employee pricing when headcount is very low or variable

A per-person rate is transparent and can avoid paying for unused capacity. It becomes less attractive if you expect rapid hiring, because every addition increases the bill and some providers apply different rates to different employee types.

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Choose a business or banded price when you are near the top of a band

A fixed business fee can deliver a lower effective cost per employee as your team grows within the allowance. Check the next threshold: adding one employee can trigger a higher band, and removing people may not reduce the fee until you cross the lower threshold.

Choose modules only when the workflow justifies them

Recruitment, scheduling and expenses can materially exceed the base HR subscription. If a feature is used monthly by one person, compare the module fee with a simpler existing process; if it removes repeated manual work for the whole team, quantify that saving before deciding.

Common cost traps and how to avoid them

  • Comparing different pricing units: put per-person, business and banded offers into an equivalent 10-person or 20-person scenario.
  • Ignoring VAT: label every figure as pre-VAT or including VAT.
  • Assuming payroll is included: obtain a separate payroll line and the additional-employee rate.
  • Missing minimums or thresholds: ask what happens when an employee leaves mid-month and whether billing uses peak, average or end-of-month headcount.
  • Adding modules late: price the likely two-year feature set, not only the launch configuration.
  • Overlooking exit terms: check notice periods, data export, retention and assistance with migration.
  • Using a starting rate as a quote: BrightHR’s £3 figure is a starting price dependent on business size, and Breathe’s £24 figure changes with add-ons.

A practical budgeting formula

Use this formula for a first-pass budget:

Monthly total before VAT = base HR fee + per-employee modules + fixed modules + payroll subscription + extra-employee charges.

Then calculate the VAT-inclusive cash amount and multiply by 12 for an annual budget. Keep one scenario for current headcount and another for expected headcount; for banded plans, show the month in which the next threshold could apply. This produces a more useful decision than quoting one entry price.

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Bottom line for a UK small business

Budget a few pounds per employee each month for basic HR, or around £21–£24 per month where a supplier uses a small-team or business-level entry plan. For 10 employees, current published starting prices cluster around £24–£50 before VAT and add-ons. The final choice should be based on the complete feature, payroll, VAT and contract total—not the cheapest number on the pricing page.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

HR SoftwarePayrollPricingsmall businessUK

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