Breathe vs Leave Dates (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Breathe and Leave Dates share a 2.6 GPA, neither has a free plan and their prices can't be set side by side, so the choice depends on whether you care more about features, where Breathe grades higher, or value for money, where Leave Dates does.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
They get the same grade on the free plan, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Breathe
UK HR software for small firms, priced per business, not per person
Leave Dates
Annual leave planner and absence tracker for small teams
Which one is for you
Pick Breathe if
- Fits if you're a UK small business that wants one fixed monthly fee
- Works for teams whose main job is knowing who's off and when
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if your company is outside the UK, as it's built for UK businesses
- Skip it if you want payroll built in, since it hands that to Xero
- Pricey if you take every add-on, at £11 to £16 a month each
- Watch out: add-ons stay on after the 14-day trial and are charged unless you switch them off
- Too light for companies over 200 staff, where the plans stop, or anyone needing links beyond Xero
Pick Leave Dates if
- Fits if you run a small team and only need to track who is off when
- Works for teams that want Outlook or Google Calendar showing leave
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want payroll, performance or hiring, as it is leave only
- Tight if you want calendar sync or time off in lieu, which need the £1.50 Essential plan
- Tight if you need SSO, the API or webhooks, which need Plus at £1.88
- Watch out: prices are in pounds, excluding VAT, and the USD and EUR switch could not be read
How we grade them
| 2.6GPABreatheGood | 2.6GPALeave DatesGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BMicro is £245 a year paid yearly, about £20 a month, in pounds before VAT, for up to 10 staff. That buys records, holiday and absence, documents and reviews. It's in the cheaper quarter of this category, though rotas and recruitment cost extra. | A£0.75 per user a month billed yearly, about $1, under 60% of the category's cheaper quarter. Calendar sync needs Essential at £1.50, still under $2. |
| Free plan and trial | CNo free plan, but a 14-day trial of every feature and add-on with no card. Turn the add-ons off before it ends, or they're billed. | C30-day free trial of every feature with no card needed, and no free plan. |
| Features | BHoliday and absence, records and documents with e-signatures, reviews, onboarding and reports, with rotas, recruitment, expenses, courses and health and safety as add-ons. The whole job, with payroll left to Xero. | CWall and year charts, requests and approval, allowances, time off in lieu and reports. It does that one job fully, and it is a small job: no payroll, performance or hiring. |
| Ease of use | CNo App Store rating on record, and you'll load staff records and set holiday rules before it's any use. | CNo store rating on record. Allowances, leave years and approvers need setting up for each team. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, iPhone and Android, linked to Xero Payroll. That's thin on integrations, and there's no desktop app. | BWeb plus iOS and Android apps, with Outlook, Google Calendar, Slack and Zapier. No desktop app. |
| Best for | UK small businesses on a fixed monthly price | a shared leave calendar for small UK teams |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Breathe and Leave Dates. How we grade
Price against what you get
Breathe starts at about $32.16 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Leave Dates starts at about $1 a month for each person and scores 2.3.
Breathe scores higher, and starts $31.16 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other HR software on the chart, 1 scores higher than Breathe for less, and none scores higher than Leave Dates for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Breathe also covers expense tracking, shift scheduling, time clock, applicant tracking and employee records.
- Leave Dates also covers calendar.
At a glance
| Breathe | Leave Dates | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | £24 per month for up to 10 employees, billed monthly (pounds, excluding VAT) | £0.75 per user / month, billed yearly |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of every feature and add-on, no credit card required | 30-day free trial of every feature, no credit card needed |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Centurion | Leave Dates |
| Price read from | breathehr.com | leavedates.com |
| Checked | Oct 18, 2026 | Nov 12, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Breathe
- Built for UK businesses: prices are in pounds excluding VAT, data sits in a UK data centre, and plans stop at 200 employees.
- Add-ons cost extra each month: rotas and attendance from £11, health and safety £12, expenses £14, learning £15 and recruitment £16.
- Add-ons stay switched on after the trial and are charged unless you turn them off.
- There is no payroll of its own; it connects to Xero Payroll.
Leave Dates
- The pricing page shows prices in GBP by default, exclusive of VAT, with a currency switch for USD and EUR that could not be read here.
- Calendar sync, time off in lieu and overlap limits need Essential; SSO, API, webhooks and Zapier need Plus.
- The price scales with the number of users, and the page shows the per-user figure billed yearly.
- It covers leave and absence only; there is no payroll, performance or hiring module.
Key features
Breathe
- Holiday and absence
- Staff book leave and report sickness, managers approve it, and a staff holiday planner shows who is off across the business.
- Records, documents and e-signatures
- Employee files, policies and contracts in one place, with documents sent out for electronic signature.
- Performance, onboarding and reports
- Performance management, dashboards and reporting come with every plan, and onboarding workflows sit among its people tools.
- Rotas, time and attendance
- An add-on builds weekly rotas, records clock-ins and clock-outs, generates timesheets, tracks overtime and lets staff swap shifts.
- Recruitment, expenses and learning
- Add-ons track applicants from application to shortlist, collect expense claims, and run bite-size courses for training and onboarding.
- Health and safety
- A newer add-on keeps risk assessments, logs accidents and near misses, and tracks safety roles and certifications.
Leave Dates
- Wall chart and year chart
- A shared calendar view of who is away, so managers can plan around absences.
- Leave requests and approval
- Staff drag over dates to request time off, the approver is notified, and the requester is told the outcome.
- Allowances and carry over
- Allowances can be tracked in days or hours, pro-rated for starters and leavers, and carried over between years.
- Calendar sync
- Leave records can be synced to Outlook or Google Calendar, including a shared company calendar, on Essential and above.
- Time off in lieu
- Staff can log overtime and the balance is tracked as time off in lieu, on Essential and above.
- Reports
- Daily or weekly email summaries, downloadable reports, and a daily Slack summary on Essential and above.
Plans
Breathe
Micro£24
per month for up to 10 employees, billed monthly
Core HR: holiday and absence, dashboards and reports, documents and policies, and performance management. £245 a year if paid yearly.
Starter£44
per month for up to 20 employees, billed monthly
Core HR for 11 to 20 people, adding time logs. £449 a year if paid yearly.
Regular£99
per month for up to 50 employees, billed monthly
Core HR for 21 to 50 people, adding financial user permissions. £999 a year if paid yearly.
Pro£175
per month for up to 100 employees, billed monthly
Core HR for 51 to 100 people. £1,790 a year if paid yearly.
Premium£419
per month for up to 150 employees, billed monthly
Core HR for 101 to 150 people. £4,519 a year if paid yearly.
Plus£579
per month for up to 200 employees, billed monthly
Core HR for 151 to 200 people. £6,255 a year if paid yearly.
Leave Dates
Starter£0.75
per user / month, billed yearly (£9.00 per user a year)
Unlimited employees and leave, allowances in days or hours, bank holidays, wall and year charts, reports and email summaries, web and mobile apps.
Essential£1.50
per user / month, billed yearly (£18.00 per user a year)
Starter plus Outlook and Google Calendar sync, overlap and leave limits, multi-person requests, time off in lieu, a Slack daily summary and company-wide policies.
Plus£1.88
per user / month, billed yearly (£22.50 per user a year)
Essential plus personal leave-year start dates, unlimited allowances, SSO, API, webhooks and Zapier, and policies by leave type.
Ways to pay less
Breathe
- Annual discount
About 15% off core HR with yearly billing
Paying yearly saves about 15% on Micro, Starter, Regular and Pro plans and about 10% on Premium and Plus; add-ons are not discounted.
Leave Dates
- Annual discount
25% off with yearly billing
The pricing page's Monthly and Yearly toggle states a 25% saving for yearly billing.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Breathe or Leave Dates?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Breathe starts at £24 per month for up to 10 employees, billed monthly (pounds, excluding VAT), and Leave Dates starts at £0.75 per user / month, billed yearly. One is priced for each person and the other is not, so which costs less depends on how many of you use it.
Which has a free plan, Breathe or Leave Dates?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither Breathe nor Leave Dates has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.