CharlieHR vs HourSquare: which HR software fits your team?
Short version: CharlieHR is the better fit for a UK-only small business that wants HR admin plus optional access to qualified HR advisers, and is happy to run payroll in Xero or PayCaptain. HourSquare is the better fit for a team in any country that wants every module free, with payroll, time tracking and shift scheduling inside the same product, and for teams that need EU hosting stated in writing. CharlieHR publishes banded GBP prices from £5/month (promotional) with a 7-day trial. HourSquare is free for now. Neither has a hidden catch, but they solve different problems.
Who this is for: Teams outside the UK, teams that want payroll and timesheets in the same system as HR, and teams that would rather not pay a monthly band for core HR. Stay on CharlieHR if you need performance reviews, an ATS or HR advice hours, none of which HourSquare offers.
- Pricing
- Free for now, every module included
- Free tier
- Free for now, every module, no card to sign up, no trial expiry
- Team size
- Any size, from 1 employee up
- How you buy
- Self-serve signup
- Hosting
- EU-hosted
- Pricing
- £5/month for 1-4 team members (promotional, regular £21/month)
- Free tier
- Trial only
- Team size
- UK small businesses
- How you buy
- Self-serve signup
- Hosting
- Not published
Vendor facts as published on 2026-09-05. (source)
Choose HourSquare if…
Every module is free for now, with no card to sign up and no trial expiry If payroll should live in the HR tool, HourSquare runs pay natively with tax packs for 24+ countries; CharlieHR integrates with UK payroll products If you track hours or shifts, HourSquare has timesheets and shift patterns; CharlieHR does not list them If you need SSO, 2FA with passkeys and an audit log, HourSquare ships all three; CharlieHR lists 2FA only If you operate outside the UK, HourSquare is free for now, with no GBP price bands to choose from
Choose CharlieHR if…
You need performance reviews or 360 feedback; HourSquare has no performance module You hire often and want an ATS in the same product; HourSquare starts at the signed contract You have no HR person and want access to qualified HR advisers through Charlie Grow Your team is UK-only and you value published ISO/IEC 27001 and Cyber Essentials certifications
UK small businesses under roughly 50 people that want simple HR admin with optional outsourced HR advice.
Side by side
Every CharlieHR cell links to the page it was read from. HourSquare cells describe what ships today — nothing on our roadmap counts.
Pricing & buying
People & records
Time off & time
Payroll
Engagement & insight
Access & security
Platform
Vendor facts for CharlieHR were checked on 2026-09-05. If something has changed, email support@hoursquare.com and we will fix it within a day.
About CharlieHR
UK-focused HR admin platform for small businesses, sold in headcount-banded monthly plans with optional recruiting and HR-advice add-ons.
Where CharlieHR is genuinely strong
Fully published banded pricing with a £5/month entry band for 1-4 people 7-day trial with no credit card; self-serve signup Charlie Grow add-on gives access to CIPD-qualified HR advisers, policies and handbooks ISO/IEC 27001 and Cyber Essentials certifications published Perks marketplace with over 30,000 deals bundled into the core plan
Where it tends to fall short for our typical buyer
UK-only focus; GBP pricing and UK payroll integrations No native payroll; relies on Xero or PayCaptain integrations Add-ons cost far more than core (Grow from £200/month vs core £47/month at 5-14 people) No time tracking, shift scheduling, SSO, audit log or native mobile app listed on vendor site Public API not documented on vendor site; integration depth via third-party unified APIs
Public reviews: G2 4.6/5 · Capterra 4.7/5 (source)
Pricing: what each side publishes
CharlieHR prices in pounds by headcount band rather than per employee. The vendor pricing page lists £5/month for 1–4 team members as a promotional rate (regular £21/month), £47/month for 5–14 people, and bands up to £754/month for 250+, all excluding UK VAT. There is a 7-day trial with no card and no free plan. Add-ons sit on top: Charlie Recruit from £55/month and Charlie Grow (HR advice, policies, handbooks) from £200/month, which is more than four times the core plan at the 5–14 band. HourSquare is free for now, every module, no card to sign up and no trial expiry. There is no minimum seat count and no annual commitment.
Where CharlieHR is stronger
CharlieHR has three things HourSquare does not: a performance module with review templates and 360 feedback, an applicant tracking add-on with scorecards and blind hiring, and Charlie Grow, which gives a company without an HR person access to CIPD-qualified advisers. It also publishes ISO/IEC 27001 and Cyber Essentials certifications and includes a perks marketplace in the core plan. If your team is UK-based, already runs payroll in Xero or PayCaptain, and wants reviews and hiring in the same tool, CharlieHR covers more of that surface today.
Where HourSquare is stronger for a self-serve team
HourSquare runs payroll natively: pay runs, payslips, payment and accountant exports, with tax packs for 24+ countries, so you do not need a second tool for pay. It also ships timesheets with manager approval, shift patterns, offboarding templates with automatic login disable, recurring pulse surveys, an anonymous whistleblowing channel, per-company SSO (Okta, Microsoft Entra, Google), 2FA with passkeys and an audit log of sensitive-data reads and record changes. On CharlieHR, time tracking, shift scheduling, SSO, audit log and offboarding are not listed on the vendor site, so we mark them unknown rather than absent. HourSquare states EU hosting; CharlieHR states GDPR compliance but does not publish a hosting region.
Migration: CSV export, no connector
There is no direct connector between CharlieHR and HourSquare. Moving means exporting your employee records and leave data from CharlieHR as CSV, then setting up HourSquare from those files. HourSquare's public API covers time clocks, employees and time entries but does not import records, so nothing syncs automatically between the two. Plan for an afternoon on a team of 10, and keep CharlieHR read-only for one pay cycle if you use its integrations for payroll.
How to decide
- You need performance reviews, an ATS, or HR adviser hours: CharlieHR.
- You are UK-only and payroll already lives in Xero or PayCaptain: CharlieHR.
- You want payroll, timesheets and shifts inside the HR tool: HourSquare.
- You want the full product free for now: HourSquare.
- You need EU hosting written down, SSO and an audit log: HourSquare.
- You need a native mobile app today: neither vendor lists one; HourSquare is a responsive web app with a phone layout.
Frequently asked
Does CharlieHR publish its pricing?
Where is CharlieHR data hosted, and is it GDPR compliant?
How do I switch from CharlieHR to HourSquare?
Does CharlieHR run payroll?
Other comparisons
READY TO TRY IT YOURSELF
See how HourSquare actually feels in your workflow.
Free for now, every feature included, no card to sign up. We'll tell you before anything changes. If it does not fit, the migration cost back is about an afternoon.
Free for now · GDPR-native · EU-hosted