CharlieHR
HR software built to be your first HR hire
By Charlie OS Limited · HQ London, UK · 4.0/5 Value-Position score (estimate)
Positioning guardrails
Best for
- UK small businesses and startups (roughly 5-250 staff) that need HR admin automated without a dedicated HR hire
- Founders, MDs and ops managers handling onboarding, time off, reviews and perks in one place
- Teams that want self-serve HR software plus UK policy guidance and fast human support
Ideal size: 5-150 people · UK small business or startup with no dedicated HR team
Not for
- Enterprises with multi-country HR, works councils or complex multi-entity structures
- Companies needing deep HRIS customisation, custom workflows or on-premise deployment
- Buyers who need payroll run natively - payroll is handled by partners such as Xero or PayCaptain
- Teams outside the UK needing local compliance content
Value metrics scorecard
Time-to-Value
About 1 week, self-serve
~7 days to first production value
Total Cost of Ownership
$2,800/yr
Starts at $320 · Headcount-banded monthly subscription (1-4 up to 250+ team members); Charlie Recruit and Charlie Grow add-ons priced separately. Prices quoted in GBP, excluding UK VAT (+20%).
Implementation Friction
2/5
Engineering + admin effort required
Value-Position score
out of 5 · model estimate
Full cost breakdown
Mandatory implementation fee
None
Seat tiers
Bands: 1-4, 5-9, 10-14, 15-29, 30-49, 50-99, 100-149, 150-199, 200-249, 250+; per-team-member price falls as headcount grows.
Add-on costs
- Charlie Recruit (ATS): from GBP 55/month at 1-4 team members, up to GBP 150/month at 250+
- Charlie Grow (dedicated CIPD-qualified HR advisors plus AskCharlie AI): from GBP 200/month at 1-4 team members, up to GBP 1,253/month at 250+
Company & support
Who is behind CharlieHR, and how your team gets help once it is live.
Company
- Founded
- 2016 · 10 yrs in business
- Headquarters
- London, UK
How you get support
- PhonePlan not stated
- EmailPlan not stated
- Live chatAll plans
- Support portal / ticketsNot listed
- Community forumNot listed
- Help centre / docsAll plans
- Dedicated account managerNot listed
- In person / on-siteNot listed
- Hours
- Not recorded
- Response time
- Support questions answered within 30 minutes via live chat; average response of about 7 minutes to support queries
Homepage names phone, email and live chat for HR questions, plus a public help centre. The pricing FAQ says live-chat help costs nothing extra on any plan and no VIP package is needed. No 24/7 coverage is stated.
“Not listed” means the vendor’s public pages don’t mention that channel, not that it is unavailable. Ask about it during evaluation.
Market position
Where CharlieHR sits against its closest alternatives. Pick any two of cost, speed, friction and buyer score, and up to 9 companies to compare.
Quadrant view
Typical annual cost × Time-to-value
The lines cross at the median of the solutions shown, so about half sit on each side of each line. A dashed ring marks an outlier pinned to the edge; hover for its value.
Companies on the chart 6 / 10
- CharlieHR
- Loomly
- Paymo
- Fillout
- Procare
- Snipe-IT
Add or change companies
Up to 10 companies including CharlieHR. Listed closest first.
Stack fit signal
Compatibility with standard B2B ecosystems.
No supported MCP path today, so it cannot be driven from an AI client.
AI & MCP readiness
What CharlieHR ships in AI, and what it asks of your ecosystem.
AI features shipped
AskCharlie AI is listed as part of the paid Charlie Grow add-on alongside CIPD-qualified HR advisors; the homepage contrasts its human HR advice with generic ChatGPT answers. The vendor pages reviewed do not document model choice, AI audit logging or training-data practices.
Your data & models
- Trains on your data
- Not recorded — ask the vendor
- Runs on
- Not recorded
- AI pricing
- Paid add-on
In your ecosystem
- AI connection
- Not supported
- Model key
- Not recorded
- AI usage audit
- Not recorded
Compliance attestations
* IAPP AIGP certifies individuals, not products. It means named staff hold the credential — not that the platform does.
Bottom line
CharlieHR is UK HR software for small businesses, positioned as a 'first HR hire'. Core features cover onboarding, time off, employee records and e-signature, performance reviews, engagement surveys and a perks marketplace. Pricing is banded by headcount (from about GBP 21 per month for 1-4 people, up to GBP 754 per month at 250+), with Charlie Recruit (ATS) and Charlie Grow (dedicated CIPD advisors plus AskCharlie AI) sold as paid add-ons. It is ISO 27001:2022 certified, GDPR-compliant, and claims 3,000+ small-business customers.
Frequently asked questions
How much does CharlieHR cost for a small team?
Pricing is banded by headcount. The Charlie core plan is GBP 21 per month for 1-4 team members (GBP 5 for the first six months under a current promotion), GBP 47 per month for 5-9 and 10-14, GBP 108 for 15-29, GBP 185 for 30-49, rising to GBP 754 per month at 250+. Add-ons are extra: Charlie Recruit from GBP 55 per month and Charlie Grow from GBP 200 per month. All prices exclude UK VAT, which is charged at +20%.
How long does it take to get CharlieHR up and running?
Charlie is self-serve SaaS: you can start a free trial (7 days per the pricing FAQ, 14 days on the homepage) without a credit card, and onboarding is designed to be quick, with one-click new-starter collection and perks rolled out in seconds. Most small teams should see value within about a week of signing up; there is no stated mandatory implementation fee.
Does CharlieHR run payroll?
No. Charlie covers HR administration - records, onboarding, time off, reviews, engagement and perks - and connects to payroll providers through integrations. The integrations directory lists PayCaptain and Xero Payroll, and unified-API partners such as Finch, Merge, Kombo, Knit, Apideck and Truto. Payroll itself is run in those systems.
What security and compliance certifications does CharlieHR hold?
The security page states that Charlie is Cyber Essentials certified and ISO 27001:2022 certified, with security-vetted staff and layered access controls to customer data. The vendor also states the platform is fully GDPR-compliant, and the site carries a dedicated GDPR page. No SOC 2, HIPAA, FedRAMP, ISO 42001 or CMMC claims appear on the pages reviewed.
Does CharlieHR include AI, and what does it cost?
AskCharlie AI is listed as part of the Charlie Grow add-on, alongside unlimited access to a dedicated team of CIPD-qualified advisors. Charlie Grow starts at GBP 200 per month for 1-4 team members and rises by headcount band, so AI assistance is not part of the core plan price. The vendor pages reviewed do not describe which AI models are used or how customer data is handled for model training.