CharlieHR suits small teams that want one published price list, but people look elsewhere once the headcount band jumps, once recruiting or advice has to be bought on top, or once pay runs are needed in the same system, since Charlie Payroll is still marked as coming soon. The options below range from free tiers and self-hosting to modular suites.
Short answer: The first three places are kept for challengers when the category has enough of them; the best-known brands come after that, in ranked order. For CharlieHR users, the top three picks from our HRIS software ranking are Kenjo, Factorial and Zelt. Pick Kenjo if you want per-employee pricing from a Berlin vendor instead of headcount bands. All 10 alternatives below are ranked products from Best HRIS Software in 2026, and each says where it differs from CharlieHR.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
Pricing: Published monthly price by headcount band; add-ons priced separately; 7-day trial without a card
Established in: United Kingdom
Built for: Small UK companies that want a printed price and a quick start
Not for: Groups needing payroll in the same tool or multi-country entities
01
Why buyers look past CharlieHR
01
Price steps with every band
The pricing page lists Charlie at 21 pounds a month for 1 to 4 people, 47 for 5 to 14, 108 for 15 to 29 and 185 for 30 to 49, rising to 754 for 250 and over, all before 20% UK VAT. A company crossing a band boundary by one hire sees the whole monthly figure move.
02
Recruiting and advice cost extra
Charlie Recruit starts at 55 pounds a month and can only be bought with a Charlie subscription. Charlie Grow, with a dedicated HR adviser, is priced by band and begins at 200 pounds for the smallest. The Grow section also repeats a 21 pound figure that disagrees with the table, so confirm it with sales.
03
Payroll and integrations live outside
Charlie Payroll is shown as coming soon with a register-interest form. The integrations page lists PayCaptain and Xero under payroll, and points developers to the unified APIs Merge and Finch instead of describing a direct API. Teams needing pay runs or custom data feeds assemble them from partners.
you are a large organisation and run a procurement process
#11
03
What each one does differently
1
Kenjo
Germany · Published
Kenjo GmbH in Berlin sells three plans, with Starter and Growth priced per head and Connect on request. E-signature, onboarding workflows and BI reports start on Growth, while APIs, integrations and hands-on implementation sit in Connect. Recruiting is a paid add-on in every plan. Annual billing takes 10% off.
Switch from CharlieHR if you want per-employee pricing from a Berlin vendor instead of headcount bands.
Factorial, a Barcelona company, starts from a published per-user figure and tailors the quote by module. Its Core part comes with every plan and covers a directory, onboarding, payslip distribution, bulk documents and e-signature. Time, talent, payroll, IT and finance products are added on top. The pricing page mentions a demo and says nothing of a trial.
Switch from CharlieHR if payslip handling and payroll should grow out of the same platform.
Zelt Ltd, headquartered in the UK, splits its product into People, Money, Tech, Growth, Attendance and Talent modules, with Core giving basic access to all of them. Core limits absence policies, onboarding workflows and document templates to three each, and Pro lifts limits module by module. Each module needs twenty seats, which suits growing firms better than start-ups.
Switch from CharlieHR if you have twenty people or more and want payroll and device management as modules.
TalentHR is made by Epignosis, a US company with a San Francisco contact office. A free plan covers core HR for up to ten users with no time limit, and Premium comes with a 14-day trial. Paid tiers begin at fifteen users and rise in steps of five, which leaves eleven-person firms in a gap.
Switch from CharlieHR if you have ten people or fewer and want to pay nothing yet.
Cezanne HR Limited, with a London address on its about page, says its platform is built in the UK and hosted on AWS. The vendor states that implementation costs nothing extra and that updates arrive monthly. Prices are given on request only, so a comparison with the published Charlie bands starts with a quote and a demo.
Switch from CharlieHR if you want implementation covered by the licence and have a quote budget.
Frappe HR comes from Frappe Technologies in Mumbai, under AGPL-3.0, and covers HR and payroll. You can run it on your own server or on Frappe Cloud, where hosting is charged per site and not per person. The vendor splits cost into hosting and implementation, and the payroll tax regimes named on the page are Indian.
Switch from CharlieHR if you have technical staff and want the software and its data on your own server.
OrangeHRM publishes an open source Starter edition on GitHub under GPL-3.0 and sells an Advanced edition by personalised quote after a 30-day trial. Its stated headquarters is Secaucus, New Jersey. The pricing page shows no figure for Advanced, so the cost of modules that most firms eventually want appears only once sales are involved.
Switch from CharlieHR if you want source code access to start with, accepting a sales talk later.
BambooHR, with a Draper, Utah address, publishes Core, Pro and Elite per head, with rates falling as headcount grows and a flat monthly rate for companies of 25 or fewer. Benchmarks and compensation tools begin on Elite, which also adds implementation days. Payroll and benefits are separate products sold with a bundle discount.
Switch from CharlieHR if a per-head price with a small-company flat rate beats headcount bands.
HR Cloud Inc. of El Segundo, California, licenses by company headcount band each year rather than by seat. Onboard covers onboarding, offboarding and the HRIS, Growth adds recruiting, performance and time off, and Full Suite adds the Workmates engagement layer. Price and renewal terms arrive in a quote, so exit conditions are unseen beforehand.
Switch from CharlieHR if you want recruiting and performance bundled in one annual licence.
Workday, Inc. lists Pleasanton, California as its US headquarters and presents human capital management with AI agents for payroll and HR work. The HCM page routes buyers to a demo request and shows no figure, so the cost of a pilot is unknown before sales contact. Self-serve buying is not offered.
Switch from CharlieHR if you are a large organisation and run a procurement process.
You have ten people or fewer and want to pay nothing
TalentHR: The free plan covers core HR for up to ten users with no time limit, and paid tiers begin at fifteen users.
02
You want payslips and payroll to come from the same platform
Factorial: Core includes payslip distribution, with payroll as an add-on product, and pricing starts from a published per-user figure.
03
You want to host the software yourself
Frappe HR: It is AGPL-3.0 and runs on your server or on Frappe Cloud, though the payroll regimes named are Indian.
04
You want implementation included in the service
Cezanne HR: The vendor says implementation carries no charge and updates arrive monthly, with prices on request.
05
You want per-employee prices from a European vendor
Kenjo: Starter and Growth are priced per head, with 10% off annual billing and a trial offered.
04
When CharlieHR is still the right choice
CharlieHR stays the sensible choice for a small UK team that wants records, onboarding, leave, performance reviews, engagement surveys and employee perks from one published price list. Every plan includes those, the trial runs seven days without a card, and the add-ons are priced openly. If you employ fewer than 15 people and do not need pay runs inside the tool, a move would add effort for little gain.
05
What moving off CharlieHR involves
01
Employee records and leave balances
Export the people directory, contracts and leave balances before you cancel, and check that leave policies map onto the new tool's rules. Differences in accrual and carry-over settings are the usual cause of wrong balances after a move.
02
Reviews, surveys and perks history
Past performance reviews and survey results may not import anywhere. Download them as documents first, agree who may see them afterwards, and re-link the Xero or PayCaptain connection if payroll data currently flows out of Charlie.
06
Questions about replacing CharlieHR
6 answers
How much does CharlieHR cost?
The pricing page lists the core product from 21 pounds a month for 1 to 4 people and 47 for 5 to 14, up to 754 for 250 and over, before 20% UK VAT. Recruit starts at 55 pounds and Grow is priced by band.
Does CharlieHR include payroll?
Not yet. Charlie Payroll is shown as coming soon with a register-interest form. The integrations page lists PayCaptain and Xero as payroll connections.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, seven days without a credit card. Grow and Recruit are not included automatically, so ask for them separately if you want to test them.
Which alternative has a free plan?
TalentHR has a free plan for up to ten users with no time limit. Frappe HR and the OrangeHRM Starter edition are open source, but hosting, setup and any support are your own cost.
Which alternatives publish prices?
Kenjo shows two of its three plans per employee, BambooHR lists Core, Pro and Elite per head, and Factorial gives a starting figure per user. Cezanne HR, HR Cloud, OrangeHRM Advanced and Workday are quoted.
Which alternatives can I run on my own server?
Frappe HR can be hosted on your server or on Frappe Cloud, and the OrangeHRM Starter edition is open source code on GitHub.
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Sources
Checked 8 November 2026
CharlieHR pricing: Band prices from 21 to 754 pounds, Recruit from 55, Grow by band, payroll coming soon, 7-day trial, UK VAT at 20% on top.
CharlieHR integrations: PayCaptain and Xero under payroll, Merge and Finch unified APIs.
CharlieHR home: Charlie OS Limited, London; records, onboarding, leave, reviews and surveys.
Kenjo: Berlin vendor, three plans, per-head Starter and Growth, annual discount, recruiting add-on.
Factorial: Barcelona vendor, Core with payslips and e-signature, modules, starting per-user price.
Zelt: Modules, Core caps of three, twenty-seat minimum.
TalentHR: Free plan up to ten users, 14-day Premium trial, paid tiers from fifteen users.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Written, edited and fact-checked by Sebastiaan Smits. Last reviewed 9 November 2026. How we review.
