PeopleHR vs Personio: which one fits your team?

How do PeopleHR and Personio really differ?

On paper they overlap: employee records, absence, an AI assistant, reports. The difference is how you buy and how much arrives in the box. PeopleHR is built as a menu. Personio is built as a platform that a salesperson sizes for you.

PeopleHR: priced in public, modular

PeopleHR prints four prices per employee a month on its pricing page: from £3 on Starter, £5.50 on Core, £8 on Pro and £9.50 on Elite+. The word "from" matters, because the final number depends on the tier and what you add. There's a free 14-day trial on Starter and Core with no credit card, and you can pay monthly or yearly.

The base HR plans cover the records side: employee data, documents, absence tracking and a mobile app. Payroll and recruitment are separate add-ons, and the payroll product shows its own starting price of £3. Timesheets are an optional add-on on Starter and Core and come included from Pro. For a team that wants to start light and bolt things on later, that's an honest way to buy. For a team that knows it needs hours and hiring from day one, price the add-ons, or the Pro tier, before you compare totals.

Personio: one platform, sold by quote

Personio calls itself a platform for European organisations and says data is stored in Europe. Its pricing page shows "starts from €7.60 per month/employee", but the real price comes from a demo and a custom quote, and there's a one-time setup fee that depends on company size. Extra apps raise the monthly figure, and its yearly subscription has a minimum run of 12 months.

Personio says it suits companies with 10 to 10,000 employees. Core includes preliminary payroll: your salary, absence and time data bundled into one file for the payroll accountant. Recruiting and performance come as extra apps, and a full Personio Payroll is an add-on. That structure favours a company that wants one vendor to grow into.

So which one?

• Choose PeopleHR if you want public prices, a trial you can start today, and the freedom to add payroll, recruitment or, on the lower tiers, timesheets only if you need them.
• Choose Personio if you have 10 or more people in Europe and want preliminary payroll in the base plan and one platform to grow into, and you're fine with a demo and a quote.
• Try HR FLARE first if you're under about 30 people and a sales call feels like a lot for leave requests and timesheets. More options in our Personio alternatives guide.

PeopleHR vs Personio for a small UK team

For a UK company the deciding question is usually payroll. You'll probably keep running PAYE through a bureau, your accountant or a payroll app, so what you want from an HR tool is clean records and an easy handover, not a second payroll engine.

PeopleHR's pricing page is in pounds and lists payroll as its own product. Personio prices in euros and includes preliminary payroll in Core, with the full payroll as an add-on. The PeopleHR page we read states no minimum headcount, so ask before you rely on a small-team price.

Here's the arithmetic for a 12-person team, using only each vendor's published starting prices. PeopleHR Core from £5.50 a month is from £66 a month before add-ons. Personio from €7.60 is from €91.20 a month before the setup fee and any apps. HR FLARE costs $79 a month on the plan for up to 30 people. Treat the first two as floors, not quotes: your real figure depends on the tier, the add-ons and, for Personio, the quote.

Where does HR FLARE fit?

HR FLARE is the smaller option, with flat published prices, for teams of roughly 5 to 75 people. It covers the daily HR jobs: employee profiles and documents, clock in and out from the browser, the Mac app or the phone, timesheets with manager approval, leave with balances and carry-over, expenses with receipt scanning, job postings, e-signatures and performance reviews.

Its AI assistant answers questions about your own HR data, and you can connect it to ChatGPT or Claude. Payroll is kept as records and payslips (gross, deductions, net), so your accountant still calculates the tax, and there's no manager-built shift rota. Prices are flat by headcount: free for up to 5 employees, $29 a month for up to 10, $79 for up to 30, $149 for up to 75.