Breathe vs Vacation Tracker (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Breathe grades higher than Vacation Tracker: 2.6 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 18, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Breathe grades higher on value for money and features. 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
Vacation Tracker
Leave and PTO tracking inside Slack, Teams or Google Workspace
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 Vacation Tracker if
- Fits if your team already lives in Slack or Microsoft Teams
- Works for small companies that want leave approvals without an HR system
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you are a team of one to five, since the minimum is $50 a month
- Skip it if you want to stay free, because there is no free plan
- Watch out: blackout periods, accruals, TOIL and hourly leave need Complete at $4
- Watch out: Core caps at 3 locations and 10 departments
- Too light for HR records or payroll
How we grade them
| 2.6GPABreatheGood | 2.2GPAVacation TrackerFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | C$2 a user a month, but a $50 monthly minimum for up to 25 users means a team of five pays $10 each, above the category's middle of $5. |
| 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. | CA 14-day trial of every feature with no credit card, 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. | CRequests, policies, calendars, reports and an AI assistant. It does the leave job fully, which is smaller than HR software, and Core caps locations and departments. |
| 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. Policies, locations and approvers have to be set up first. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, iPhone and Android, linked to Xero Payroll. That's thin on integrations, and there's no desktop app. | BWeb, iOS and Android, working inside Slack, Teams and Google Workspace, with ADP, Zapier and Outlook. No desktop app. |
| Best for | UK small businesses on a fixed monthly price | leave tracking inside Slack or 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 Vacation Tracker. 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. Vacation Tracker starts at $2 a month for each person and scores 2.3.
Breathe scores higher, and starts $30.16 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 Vacation Tracker 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.
At a glance
| Breathe | Vacation Tracker | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | £24 per month for up to 10 employees, billed monthly (pounds, excluding VAT) | $2 per user / month, billed monthly, with a $50 monthly minimum |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of every feature and add-on, no credit card required | 14-day free trial of every feature, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Centurion | Vacation Tracker |
| Price read from | breathehr.com | vacationtracker.io |
| 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.
Vacation Tracker
- There is no free plan; the minimum is $50 a month on Core and $100 on Complete, covering up to 25 users each.
- Yearly plans are priced in user tiers; the page shows a yearly price only for a team size typed into its calculator, so only the monthly rate is recorded here.
- Core caps at 3 locations and 10 departments; blackout periods, accruals and hourly leave need Complete.
- You pay only for active users, and there is no cap on admins or approvers.
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.
Vacation Tracker
- Leave requests and approvals
- Requests are routed to approvers automatically with reminders. Complete adds multi-level approvals and substitute approvers.
- Leave policies
- Custom leave types and allowances, public holidays per location, carryover and negative balances. Accruals, blackout periods and TOIL need Complete.
- Where it runs
- Manage leave inside Slack or Microsoft Teams, in Google Workspace, or on iOS and Android, with daily or weekly who-is-off updates.
- Reports and calendars
- A wallchart, calendar view and reports. Core shares calendars through an iCal link, and Complete adds direct Google and Outlook sync.
- AI and developer access
- The Vee AI assistant, an MCP server, an open API and webhooks are listed, with the integrations included on both plans.
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.
Vacation Tracker
Core$2
per user / month, billed monthly; $50 minimum, up to 25 users
Up to 3 locations and 10 departments, custom leave types, approvals, wallchart and reports, all integrations and the Vee AI assistant.
Complete$4
per user / month, billed monthly; $100 minimum, up to 25 users
Everything in Core plus unlimited locations and departments, blackout periods, multi-level approvals, hourly leave, accruals, TOIL and calendar sync.
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.
Vacation Tracker
- Annual discount
About 10% off with yearly billing
The pricing page marks yearly billing as saving about 10%, with prices set by user tier.
- Nonprofit
Non-profit discounts on request
The pricing FAQ says non-profits can contact support to set up a discount.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Breathe or Vacation Tracker?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Breathe starts at £24 per month for up to 10 employees, billed monthly (pounds, excluding VAT), and Vacation Tracker starts at $2 per user / month, billed monthly, with a $50 monthly minimum. 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 Vacation Tracker?
As of Nov 12, 2026, neither Breathe nor Vacation Tracker 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.