If your real problem is tracking who is off, approving requests and keeping allowances tidy, a dedicated annual leave tracker is cheaper, simpler and faster to run than a full HR suite. A platform such as Breathe or CharlieHR earns its higher price only when leave is one of several HR jobs you are consolidating, alongside contracts, documents, onboarding and performance. For most UK small businesses whose only gap is leave, a tracker like Book Time Off at a flat £1 per user / month is the right tool; buy the HR suite when you will genuinely use the rest of it.
What a leave tracker does
A dedicated annual leave tracker does one job and does it well: it manages staff holiday from request to record. Using Book Time Off as the example, that means:
- Self-service leave requests and one-click approvals (by email, and in Slack or Teams).
- An annual allowance per person, with days used and days remaining calculated automatically.
- A shared calendar and team wallchart so everyone can see who is off.
- Half-day bookings, carry-forward with an optional expiry window, and group bookings.
- Departments with a manager and a maximum-absent limit to control clashes.
- UK bank holidays loaded automatically from the GOV.UK feed, never deducted from allowance.
- Microsoft 365 single sign-on, Outlook sync, iCal feeds, and admin reports with CSV export.
What it deliberately does not do is everything else an employer might track. That focus is the point: it keeps the tool simple and the price low.
What HR software adds
A full HR suite treats leave as one module inside a wider people system. On top of holiday booking, it typically adds:
- Employee records · a central directory of staff details, roles and history.
- Documents and contracts · storage, templates and sometimes e-signing.
- Onboarding · checklists and workflows for new starters.
- Performance · reviews, objectives and one-to-one records.
- Wider absence and sometimes payroll links · sickness records, return-to-work and integrations.
If you need several of those in one place, an HR suite is doing real work for the extra money. If you do not, you are paying for modules that sit unused.
The cost difference
The gap is significant for a small team. Prices below were checked against each provider's own site on 5 June 2026; figures move, so verify on the day.
- Dedicated leave trackers sit roughly between £0.75 and £2 per user / month. Book Time Off is a flat £1 with no minimum and a 30-day free trial.
- Full HR suites cost more because they do more. CharlieHR is priced per employee on tiered plans from around £4 per user / month, and Breathe is priced per business by employee band.
For a team of 20 that only needs leave, a tracker at £1 is £20 a month. An HR suite priced from around £4 per user is £80 a month or more, three to four times the cost, for features a leave-only team will not touch.
Book Time Off does holiday booking, approvals, allowances and UK bank holidays for a flat £1 per user / month. 30 days free, no card required.
When HR software is overkill
An HR suite is usually the wrong buy when:
- Your only real gap is holiday tracking, and the rest of your HR admin is already handled or genuinely light.
- You are a small team that wants something staff can use in minutes without training.
- You are cost-conscious and do not want to pay per user for modules you will not open.
- You are moving off a spreadsheet and just need approvals, balances and visibility. In that case, compare a tracker directly with your current file in our Book Time Off vs a staff holiday spreadsheet guide.
When HR software is worth it
An HR suite earns its price when:
- You need to store contracts and documents securely, with the right people able to access them.
- You are hiring regularly and want structured onboarding for new starters.
- You run performance reviews, objectives or one-to-ones and want them recorded in one place.
- You want a single employee record that ties leave, documents and performance together.
If two or more of those are real needs, consolidating into one HR platform can be worth more than the saving on a cheaper tracker. The BreatheHR alternatives and CharlieHR alternatives guides cover those suites in detail.
Side-by-side comparison
A focused leave tracker against a full HR suite, on the jobs each is built for.
| Job | Leave tracker (e.g. Book Time Off) | HR suite (e.g. Breathe, CharlieHR) |
|---|---|---|
| Holiday booking and approvals | Yes | Yes |
| Allowances, days used and remaining | Yes | Yes |
| UK bank holidays, automatic | Yes · GOV.UK feed | Varies |
| Shared team calendar and reports | Yes | Yes |
| Employee records directory | No | Yes |
| Documents and contracts | No | Yes |
| Onboarding workflows | No | Yes |
| Performance reviews | No | Yes |
| Payroll | No | Sometimes / via integration |
| Typical price | £0.75 to £2 / user / mo | From around £4 / user / mo, or per business |
| Setup and learning curve | Minutes | Longer, more to configure |
| Best for | Teams whose main need is leave | Teams consolidating several HR jobs |
We build Book Time Off, a leave tracker, so we have a stake in this. That is why the page is clear about what a tracker cannot do: Book Time Off has no contracts, documents, onboarding, performance or payroll, and no public API. If you need those, an HR suite is the right tool and we point you to one.
Frequently asked questions
If your main problem is tracking who is off, approving requests and keeping allowances tidy, a dedicated annual leave tracker is cheaper and faster to run. A full HR suite is worth the extra cost only when leave is one of several HR jobs you are consolidating, alongside employee records, documents, onboarding or performance. Most UK small businesses that only need leave are better served by a tracker.
A focused leave tracker tends to be simpler, cheaper and quicker to set up for the specific job of booking and approving holiday. Book Time Off, for example, loads UK bank holidays automatically, handles half-days, carry-forward, departments with maximum-absent limits, and includes Microsoft 365 sign-on, Slack and Teams and reporting in a flat £1 per user per month. HR suites can do leave too, but it is one module among many and usually costs more.
It is worth it when you need more than leave: storing contracts and documents, onboarding new starters, holding performance reviews, or keeping a full employee record in one place. If you are running those on paper or scattered files and want them consolidated, an HR suite such as Breathe or CharlieHR earns its higher price. If leave is the only real gap, it is usually overkill.
Dedicated trackers sit roughly between £0.75 and £2 per user per month; Book Time Off is a flat £1 with no minimum. Full HR suites cost more because they do more: CharlieHR is priced per employee on tiered plans from around £4 per user per month, and Breathe is priced per business by employee band. For a small team that only needs leave, a tracker can be three to four times cheaper.
Yes. Some businesses keep a simple, low-cost leave tracker for day-to-day holiday booking and use a separate system for payroll or documents. A tracker such as Book Time Off offers CSV exports and read-only iCal feeds that make it easy to share leave data with other tools, though it does not have a public API for two-way integration.
No, and we do not claim it does. Book Time Off is a focused annual leave tracker: holiday requests, approvals, allowances, UK bank holidays, team calendars and absence visibility. It does not handle payroll, contracts, document storage, onboarding or performance reviews. If you need those, a full HR suite is the right tool, and we say so.
Sources
Competitor pricing was checked against each provider's own site on 5 June 2026. Prices change, so verify on the day you decide.
| Provider | Checked | Source |
|---|---|---|
| CharlieHR (per employee, tiered; from around £4 per user / month) | 5 June 2026 | charliehr.com/pricing |
| Breathe (per business by employee band; 14-day trial) | 5 June 2026 | breathehr.com/pricing |
| Book Time Off (flat £1 pricing; leave-only scope, UK bank holidays, SSO, Slack, Teams, reports) | 16 June 2026 | Book Time Off live product |