Top 5 BreatheHR Alternatives – is Breathe really worth it?

Written by:

Joe Hodges

BreatheHR or…? If you’ve landed on this page, it’s probable that you’ve gone back and forth between BreatheHR’s homepage and search engines, feeling like something is missing – but what exactly?

That’s what I’ll try to help you with today. After all, BreatheHR is not the only HR software on the market, and it's got tons of alternatives, including CharlieHR, the company I work for.

Of course, looking for HR software can be difficult. Do you really have time to go from website to website looking among their pages and their offerings? Not really.

That’s why I’ve made it my mission to introduce you to the best BreatheHR alternatives on the market.

If you don’t have time for it, just download our guide so you can come back to it later, or jump straight to the alternatives you’re interested in. 

Why and how did I research Breathe alternatives? 

Well, first of all, my name is Joe. I’m a Product Manager at Charlie, which means I spend most of my time researching how to make our software the best for small businesses and startups.

That includes interviewing customers, understanding their needs as well as monitoring the market with competitive analysis – which brings me to the research I have in my hands today: alternatives to BreatheHR.

To make sure I got a thorough picture of the market, I put Breathe up against a few competitors: CharlieHR (of course I had to include our own product), BambooHR, Bob, CezanneHR,SageHR and more.

I then simply looked at different aspects of each software: 

• Features 
• Reviews
• Pricing
• Customer base

These four elements helped me understand a bit better where we, as an alternative to Breathe, are better and where we lack some features. This was essential to improving our own software in the future.

The reason why I’m explaining this is that it’s important to outline that this research was not done to show you that we’re the best alternative to BreatheHR – simply that we did the research in good faith, and according to our needs, but only as a way to analyse the market.

We’re not going to lie, though. We would rather you choose CharlieHR, but only if it’s the right solution for your business.

But enough of me talking. Let’s have a look at the research I did a few months ago. 

So what about Breathe… Is it a good choice for your business? 

Choosing BreatheHR over an alternative – why you should do it 

BreatheHR has a lot of pros, and perhaps it won’t be the best fit for your business after being presented with the alternatives above, but it can be a good choice for some.

Here’s why I think Breathe could help you and your business scale.

3 top reasons why you should pick BreatheHR

In-depth HR reporting and analytics

One aspect that stands out to me is the way BreatheHR can help you report on a lot of aspects of your business.

Small businesses and startups often need basic reporting (so it may not be relevant if you’re under 250 employees), but once they scale, they do need to take it up a notch and that’s where BreatheHR can help after that initial phase.

Here’s, in brief, what you can do with Breathe: 

• Get an HR dashboard for total visibility 
• Importing data into Breathe to avoid copy-pasting 
• Release reports to analyse data thoroughly such as with sickness, finance and time logs 

Added possibilities through rota scheduling and time tracking 

Unless you’re a business that needs rota scheduling and time tracking, this may seem redundant to you. 

‍Rota scheduling and time tracking is, however, crucial for businesses in the hospitality industry businesses, customer service platforms, etc. 

It can also be super useful for agencies to keep track of how much time they spend on a project to bill their client. 

With BreatheHR, you’ll therefore be able to: 

• Create a rota through drag and drop to make it easier to move shifts around 
• Save rota templates to avoid having to do it all from scratch 
• Get a punch clock software so you get accurate times 
• Store timesheets within the software 
• Give your team access to their rota anywhere on Breathe’s mobile app 

Note, however, that this functionality is charged at an extra £19 per month. 

Build upon your team’s existing skills with training management software 

BreatheHR released a module that also allows you to automate some of your training. This is especially useful for larger businesses that need training done for all their employees – such as health and safety, money laundering, etc. 

Here’s what you can achieve with Breathe:

• Stay up to date with the legislation with compliance training 
• Get training on soft skills such as emotional intelligence or leadership 
• Assign courses to your team and simply track progress online 

This will also be an extra £19 per month for your business. 

Choosing an alternative over Breathe – why it may be better 

Like any software, Breathe doesn’t just have good sides. It also has some shortcomings that you may want to know about and consider before going for it. 

Here’s what I’ve identified as some of the issues you may find difficult to overcome when it comes to software like Breathe. 

A platform that’s difficult to use 

Many complaints coming from our customers who have switched from Breathe to Charlie are about the usability of Breathe’s platform. 

Whilst it’s got some good features, it’s simply not easy to get your head around, especially when you need to get around it quickly. 

It then becomes difficult for HR professionals to deal with it as they need to both take care of their daily work and respond to questions about the software – it definitely doesn’t remove the hand-holding part of HR. 

Onboarding with too much admin 

Another aspect you may want to think about before choosing Breathe over an alternative is how difficult it is to onboard team members. 

From the feedback we got, it can take a lot of admin to set up onboarding on the software, which is not ideal if you need it quickly or if you want to onboard new team members. 

You don’t want to make them wait and then have to set up their onboarding when they’ve already started at your company. 

‍There’s also no self-service feature when it comes to onboarding, which leaves a lot of admin still to the people responsible for HR. 

Finally, the last point we wanted to cover is how many people reported that you have to get in touch with customer service to set up onboarding and it is difficult to set it up yourself. 

So what to decide when it comes to Breathe alternatives? 

Simply take into account the alternatives we presented on this page and make sure you choose what’s best for your business. 

At Charlie, we like to simply frame it with a few questions: 

• What features are so crucial that you can’t do without? 
• How many employees do you have? 
• How much can you afford? 
• Do you need a quick set up with no training? 
• Can you afford to train your employees on how to use the software? 

Once you’ve answered these basic questions, you can already remove some options from your list. 

You then have to trim it down to choose what the best alternative to Breathe (or Breathe itself) is going to be! 

And perhaps if you’re not sure about where to go from there, simply take a free trial with Charlie where you can try all of our features. No credit card required.