£1 to £2 per user per month is the fair-market range for a dedicated UK leave-tracking tool in 2026. Book Time Off is the cheapest at £1 per user per month flat; Timetastic is £1.20 to £2; Leave Dates is from £0.75 per user per month on annual billing; WhosOff starts at £1.75. HR suites with leave bundled (BrightHR, BreatheHR, CharlieHR) cost £3 to £10+ per user per month · only worth it if you use the rest of the suite.
The TL;DR pricing benchmark
If you only read one section of this article, this is it.
For UK SMEs in 2026, leave management software splits cleanly into two camps:
- Dedicated leave tools at £1 to £2 per user per month. Just leave tracking, no HR suite features. Book Time Off, Leave Dates, Timetastic, WhosOff. The right choice if leave is the only thing you need.
- HR suites with leave bundled at £3 to £10+ per user per month. Includes onboarding, document storage, performance reviews, often payroll integration. BrightHR, BreatheHR, CharlieHR, Sage HR, BambooHR. The right choice if you actively use those other modules.
Anything you pay above the £2 mark per user per month is paying for HR-suite features · not better leave tracking. The leave modules in HR suites and dedicated tools do roughly the same job.
Our recommendation up front
Book Time Off · £1 per user per month, flat
The cheapest dedicated leave tool with no upgrade tier and no VAT surprises. One plan, one price. 30-day free trial, no card required, no contract minimum, monthly billing. If leave tracking is what you need, this is the price floor.
Why we recommend this: the four other dedicated leave tools (Timetastic, Leave Dates, WhosOff, smaller players) all do roughly the same job, but most either charge a premium for an upgrade tier (Timetastic Pro at £2), gate the cheapest rate behind team-size minimums (WhosOff is £1.75 from 10 users), or use tiered pricing that creates jumps (Leave Dates uses tiered pricing from £0.75 per user per month). Book Time Off is the only one that's £1 flat from your first user up.
The other dedicated tools are still good options · we cover them in our three-way comparison, the broader best leave management software guide, and our Timetastic alternatives piece. If you're currently on an HR suite, our BreatheHR alternatives and CharlieHR alternatives guides cover the migration case specifically.
The four pricing models in the UK market
Most providers use one of four pricing structures. The model matters because it affects what you actually pay as your team grows, and how predictable the bill is.
1. Per-user flat
A single per-user rate from your first user up. No tiers, no minimums, no upgrade plan to think about. The cost scales linearly · predictable and easy to budget for.
Examples: Book Time Off (£1)
2. Per-user tiered
A per-user rate with a Standard and Pro plan. Pro typically adds wellbeing analytics or advanced reporting. Predictable per user, but you have to decide whether the upgrade earns its keep.
Examples: Timetastic (£1.20 / £2), Leave Dates (£0.75 to £2.50 tiers)
3. Team-size tiered
Flat monthly rate that jumps at certain team-size brackets. Cheap effective per-user rate at the top of each bracket; expensive at the bottom. Awkward when you cross a tier boundary.
Examples: CharlieHR (£20 to £735+), BreatheHR (similar)
4. "Contact sales"
No published prices. You fill in a form, get a sales call, then receive a quote · usually on a 12-60 month annual contract. The pricing model is itself a sign you're being price-discriminated.
Examples: BambooHR, some BrightHR enterprise tiers
Real prices for major UK tools
Effective per-user cost for a 15-person UK SME team, including VAT where the provider quotes ex-VAT. Sources are linked at the bottom.
| Tool | Type | Effective per-user / month | 15-person team / month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Book Time Off Cheapest | Leave only | £1.00 | £15 |
| Leave Dates (paid) | Leave only | ~£1.00 to £1.20 | ~£15 to £18 |
| Timetastic (Standard) | Leave only | £1.20 | £18 |
| WhosOff | Leave only | From £1.75 (10+ users) | ~£26 |
| Timetastic (Pro) | Leave only + analytics | £2.00 | £30 |
| BreatheHR (Starter) | HR suite | ~£2.20 effective | ~£33 |
| Sage HR (HR Plan) | HR suite | From £4.20 + tiers | ~£63+ |
| BrightHR (Connect) | HR suite | From £4.50 + tiers | ~£67+ |
| CharlieHR (15-29 tier) | HR suite | ~£8.40 inc. VAT | £126 inc. VAT |
| BambooHR | HR suite | Contact sales | Varies (typically £6+) |
Two patterns jump out. Within the leave-only camp, prices are tightly clustered between £1 and £2 per user · the differences are mostly about pricing model (flat vs tiered vs minimum) rather than feature quality. Within the HR-suite camp, prices vary much more wildly because they bundle different things and price discriminate by team size.
The 15-person comparison: at £15 a month with Book Time Off you save £111 a month vs CharlieHR (£1,332/year), £52 a month vs BrightHR (£624/year), and even £15 a month vs Timetastic Pro (£180/year). For the same leave-tracking outcome.
Hidden costs to watch out for
The headline rate is rarely the full bill. Five categories of hidden cost are common in this market · check each before signing.
CharlieHR and several HR suites quote prices ex-VAT, which means a 20% surcharge in the UK. CharlieHR's £105/month tier becomes £126/month. Always check whether the headline price includes VAT.
Team-size-tiered providers have sharp jumps at certain thresholds. CharlieHR jumps from £45 to £105 the moment you hit 15 users · a 133% increase for adding one person. Plan around the boundaries.
Per-user tiered providers gate the most-marketed features behind a Pro plan. Timetastic Pro is 67% more than Standard. The headline rate is technically accurate but the features you actually want are above it.
BrightHR offers 12, 36 and 60 month contracts. The longer terms come with discounts but lock you in if the tool stops working for you. Monthly rolling is much safer for first-time buyers.
CharlieHR's HR Advice add-on is £179-299/month on top of the platform fee. BreatheHR's Rota add-on is extra. Read the "starting at" carefully · the actual feature you want may sit outside the headline plan.
If a provider hides pricing behind a sales form, the price will probably depend on what you can be persuaded to pay. BambooHR is the most-cited example. For SMEs, transparent published pricing is almost always the better deal.
What you should actually pay
Honest benchmark for what a sensible UK SME should expect to pay in 2026, based on team size and feature need.
Pricing red flags
If you spot any of these on a provider's pricing page, treat them as warning signs · not necessarily deal-breakers, but reasons to look harder.
⚠ Six pricing red flags for UK SMEs
- "Contact sales for pricing" · the price will depend on what they think you can pay. For a leave tool this is excessive.
- Annual contract required. Monthly rolling is the buyer-friendly default. If you can't cancel month-by-month, you should be confident you'll use it for the full year.
- Discount only with a longer term. 36 and 60-month contracts are designed for vendor cash flow, not buyer flexibility.
- Different prices in different currencies. A UK provider that charges in USD has FX risk baked in. Your bill moves with the pound.
- Setup fees or implementation charges. For SME leave software in 2026, these should not exist. The product should onboard itself.
- Forced quotes for "customisation". If you need to talk to a person to find out what a feature costs, you're not their target customer · they're building enterprise sales pipelines.
How to cut your current bill
If your audit shows you're paying above the benchmark, here's the four-step path to cut it.
Calculate your effective per-user cost
Total monthly bill (including VAT) divided by team size. If it's above £2 per user and you only use the leave module, this is wasted spend. Note the annual figure (multiply by 12) so you have a concrete saving target.
Audit which features your team actually uses
Pull the last three months of usage data from your current platform. Most HR suites publish this in the admin dashboard. If 80%+ of clicks are on the leave module, you have a clear case to switch.
Trial a leave-only tool in parallel for two weeks
Book Time Off offers 30 days free with no card. Run it alongside your current platform with a small group, see if the team adopts it, then decide. If you don't cut over, you've lost nothing.
Cut over at the start of the next leave year
1 January or 1 April for most UK SMEs. Export users and allowances from the old tool as CSV, import into the new one, set starting balances. Cancel the old subscription once everyone's logged in. Most cutovers take under an hour of admin time.
For more on the migration mechanics specifically, our Excel vs leave management software comparison covers the related move from spreadsheets, and the comparison articles linked above cover specific migrations from each major HR suite.
FAQ
How much does leave management software cost in the UK?
Dedicated leave-only tools cost £1 to £2 per user per month. Book Time Off is the cheapest at £1 per user per month flat, Timetastic is £1.20 (Standard) or £2 (Pro), Leave Dates is from £0.75 per user per month on annual billing, WhosOff starts at £1.75. HR suites with leave bundled cost £3 to £10+ per user per month · BrightHR from £4.50, Sage HR from £4.20, CharlieHR effectively £3 to £7 with VAT depending on team size.
What is a fair price to pay per user for a leave-only tool?
£1 to £1.50 per user per month is the fair-market range for a dedicated UK leave-tracking tool in 2026. Anything cheaper than £1 is unusual unless you qualify for a charity discount or use a free tier. Anything above £2 per user is HR-suite territory and you should be using more than just the leave module to justify it. Flat-rate per-user pricing (no tiers) is the most predictable structure.
Why do some HR tools charge so much more than others?
HR suites bundle leave management with onboarding, document storage, performance reviews, payroll integration and HR advice. Those features have real value if you use them, but you pay for them whether you do or not. Dedicated leave tools strip out everything except leave tracking and price accordingly. The price gap is mostly about feature scope rather than the leave-tracking quality · the leave modules in HR suites and dedicated tools are roughly equivalent.
What hidden costs should I watch out for?
Five to watch: VAT (CharlieHR and others quote ex-VAT, adding 20%), tiered pricing jumps (CharlieHR jumps from £45 to £105 when you hit 15 users), upgrade-tier upsells (Timetastic Pro is 67% more than Standard), annual contracts that prevent cancellation mid-year (BrightHR offers 12, 36 and 60 month terms), and pricing that requires a sales call to see (a sign of price discrimination). Flat per-user pricing with no tiers and monthly billing is the safest structure.
Should I pay annually or monthly?
Monthly is usually better for SMEs unless the annual discount is at least 15-20%. Monthly preserves the option to cancel if the tool isn't working out, and the cost difference at small team sizes is trivial. Annual or multi-year terms tie you in and are mostly worth it only if you've been on the tool for a year already and know it's the right fit. Some providers (BrightHR offers up to 60-month contracts) push longer terms aggressively · that's a red flag for first-time buyers.
How can I cut my current leave software bill?
Three steps. First, audit which features your team actually uses (often only 1-2 of the 5+ a platform offers). Second, compare your effective per-user cost (total bill divided by team size) against the £1-2 per user benchmark for dedicated tools. Third, if you're paying more than £2 per user and only using leave tracking, switch to a leave-only tool. The cleanest cutover is at the start of a new leave year (1 January or 1 April for most UK SMEs) using CSV exports.
Sources
All pricing claims are taken from the providers' own published pricing pages and from independent review aggregators. Last verified May 2026.
| Source | Used for |
|---|---|
| Timetastic pricing page | Standard and Pro plan rates |
| Leave Dates product page | Free tier and paid plan structure |
| WhosOff pricing page | Per-user rate from 10 users upwards |
| CharlieHR Help Center pricing article | Tier-based pricing brackets and VAT note |
| BrightHR pricing page | Plan tiers and contract length options |
| Capterra UK BrightHR listing | BrightHR plan structure and review trends |
| GetApp UK BrightHR pricing | Per-user rate confirmation |