Relentify HR vs BrightHR: Which Does More for Small Businesses?
BrightHR is one of the UK's most recognised HR platforms. It's well-marketed, it works, and thousands of small businesses use it daily. Relentify HR does similar things—handling absence management, shift scheduling, document storage, and employee records—but bundles more features into every plan and charges less to do it. Here's what that actually means for your business.
If you're deciding between the two, this comparison covers pricing, features, and practical value. Relentify HR is built to replace your spreadsheets without surprise add-on fees. BrightHR is built to integrate with Peninsula Group's other services. Both are valid choices—but only one is right for you.
Pricing: The Real Cost of "Competitive"
BrightHR's headline pricing looks reasonable: starting from £5 per employee per month. What's less visible is what happens after you sign. Health and safety compliance? That's BrightSafe—separate add-on. Access to an HR advisor for tricky situations? That's BrightAdvice—another add-on. Want better reporting tools? Custom features? You're paying per add-on.
We've watched small businesses build a BrightHR invoice that started at £150/month and grew to £350/month as they added features they thought were included. (It's not unique to BrightHR—it's the SaaS playbook. Vendor charges low per-seat, sells you the depth later.)
Relentify HR runs on a different model. The free tier covers up to 5 employees. Paid plans start at £3 per employee per month. More importantly: every feature in the plan is included. No health and safety add-on. No performance reviews upgrade. No reporting surcharge. When you see the price, that's the price.
| Aspect | Relentify HR | BrightHR |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes (up to 5 employees) | No |
| Starter plan | From £3/employee/month | From £5/employee/month |
| Professional plan | From £5/employee/month | From £8/employee/month |
| Add-on charges | None | Health & safety, HR advice, other features |
| Contract | Monthly, cancel anytime | Annual contract typical |
For a 10-person business, Relentify HR Starter costs £30/month, Professional costs £50/month. Equivalent BrightHR plan, plus BrightSafe, plus BrightAdvice, could easily run £120–150/month.
Core Absence & Scheduling Features
Both platforms handle the basics competently—which is why absence management is the feature that typically convinces small businesses to buy HR software in the first place.
Absence management is identical in spirit: self-service holiday requests, manager approval workflows, sickness recording, Bradford Factor tracking (the UK standard for spotting patterns in absence). Both auto-populate UK public holidays. Both handle carry-over rules and return-to-work procedures.
Where Relentify HR edges ahead: TOIL tracking (time off in lieu) is unlimited and configurable, whereas BrightHR's is basic. Custom leave types are unlimited in Relentify, limited in BrightHR. If your business has varied absence policies—sabbaticals, unpaid leave, flexible time off—Relentify HR requires less workaround.
Shift scheduling is where the difference widens. Both allow managers to create shifts, assign staff, and send notifications. BrightHR's interface is clean; it does the job for small teams.
Relentify HR includes scheduling but integrates it directly with timesheets. When a worker is scheduled for 9am–5pm, their actual clock-in time is automatically compared to the schedule—late arrivals, early departures, no-shows, and overtime are flagged instantly. You get labour cost visibility too. BrightHR's scheduling exists separately; if you want to see whether scheduled shifts match actual hours, you're managing that integration yourself or buying additional tools.
Beyond the Basics: Onboarding, Performance, and E-Signatures
Here's where the feature gap widens noticeably.
Onboarding workflows in BrightHR require the BrightConnect add-on. Without it, onboarding is manual: send documents, set up the employee record, follow up. Relentify HR includes automated onboarding as standard—pre-start checklists, document auto-sending, new-starter information collection, first-day task lists, and manager progress tracking. It's the difference between a checklist you manage and a system that manages it for you.
Performance management is missing from BrightHR entirely (unless you bolt on another tool). Relentify HR includes structured review scheduling, goal setting, review forms and templates, and a performance timeline per employee. For small businesses that want some structure around performance conversations without buying a dedicated platform, this is useful.
E-signatures matter more than you'd think when you're signing off employment contracts, policy acknowledgements, and confidentiality agreements digitally. BrightHR doesn't include this. Relentify HR integrates with Relentify eSign—so your employment contracts and policy documents are signed digitally, stored securely, and never lost in an email thread again.
Document management is solid in both. Secure storage is essential—employee records contain sensitive data and must comply with GDPR. Relentify HR adds version control and automatic expiry reminders (useful when employee training certs or DBS checks expire). BrightHR offers basic version control.
If you're evaluating based on "which includes more without paying extra," Relentify HR already looks cheaper. But if you're comparing comparable add-on costs, the gap widens further.
Health, Safety, and HR Advice: Where BrightHR Leads
To be fair: BrightHR has real advantages too.
BrightSafe (the health and safety add-on) is genuinely well-built. Risk assessments, accident reporting, compliance documentation, audit trails—it's purpose-built for health and safety. The Health and Safety Executive publishes small business guidance; if you're subject to those requirements and BrightSafe helps you meet them, it justifies the cost. If you're in a high-risk industry (construction, warehousing, hospitality), health and safety compliance is a priority.
Relentify HR includes basic H&S record-keeping but doesn't match BrightSafe's depth. You can log accidents and store compliance documents; you can't run risk assessments the way BrightSafe does.
BrightAdvice is a 24/7 HR and employment law helpline. When you're dealing with a disciplinary issue you've never seen before, or a redundancy question, or an absence situation that's turned complicated, talking to an HR advisor beats reading an FAQ. ACAS, the government's advisory service, offers similar guidance free—but with wait times. BrightAdvice is instant and 24/7.
Relentify HR provides compliance guidance within the software and a knowledge base. It doesn't offer telephone access to HR advisors. If having an expert to call matters to you, BrightHR's this advantage—though it costs extra.
Integration and the Relentify Ecosystem
Most small businesses don't want a HR software. They want a system that talks to their payroll software, feeds data to their accounting tool, and doesn't require manual data-syncing.
Relentify HR integrates natively with Relentify's other products: timesheets (automatic clock-in/clock-out), accounting (payroll data export), and eSign (contract management). Employee data, timesheets, payroll, and HR records are connected without third-party integrations or manual transfers.
BrightHR integrates with some payroll and accounting vendors, but the integrations are standard—you're managing API keys and data mapping. If you've already chosen QuickBooks or FreeAgent or Sage, integration is possible but requires setup effort.
For small businesses tired of Zapier and "it'll sync overnight," native integration is worth a lot.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need add-ons to get value from Relentify HR? No. All core features—absence management, scheduling, onboarding, performance reviews, e-signatures, document management, and reporting—are included in the plan price. You're not forced to buy add-ons.
Is BrightHR's 24/7 helpline worth the cost? If you deal with complex employment law questions regularly (disciplinary issues, redundancies, disability accommodations), yes—expert advice saves time and legal costs. ACAS offers similar guidance free, but wait times can be weeks. For urgent issues at 9pm on a Friday, BrightAdvice's instant access has value.
Can I integrate Relentify HR with payroll software I already use? Yes, via API. But native integration is tightest with Relentify's own payroll product. If you're using QuickBooks, FreeAgent, or Sage, Relentify integrates with those too—just with a bit more setup than native.
Does Relentify HR include health and safety management? It includes basic H&S record-keeping (accident logging, compliance documents). If you need structured risk assessments and detailed compliance workflows, BrightHR's BrightSafe add-on is deeper—but costs more.
Which is better for a team of 5–10 people? At this size, the cost difference really matters. Relentify HR free tier covers up to 5, then £3/person/month. BrightHR starts at £5/person/month with limited free tier. For a 10-person business, Relentify is typically cheaper and includes more features—unless you need BrightAdvice or BrightSafe specifically.
Can I cancel Relentify HR whenever I want? Yes, month-to-month contract, cancel anytime. BrightHR typically requires annual contracts. If you're not sure about long-term commitment, Relentify's flexibility is valuable.
Will my data migrate cleanly from BrightHR to Relentify? Employee records (name, address, dates, salary) migrate easily via CSV import. Leave history and approval workflows can be migrated with some manual setup. We recommend running both systems in parallel for a month, then switching. It's straightforward, though not automatic.
What if I need advanced health & safety compliance? BrightHR's BrightSafe module is purpose-built for this and includes risk assessment workflows, accident investigation templates, and compliance checklists. Relentify HR covers basic logging and document storage. For regulated industries or complex H&S needs, BrightSafe is the deeper tool.
The Bottom Line
BrightHR is a solid platform. It's well-marketed, it has genuine value-adds (BrightSafe, BrightAdvice), and it works for thousands of small businesses.
But if you're choosing based on features per pound, Relentify HR offers more. Onboarding workflows, performance reviews, expense tracking, e-signatures—they're all included. Try Relentify HR free for up to 5 employees, and you'll see the difference. The 14-day trial includes all features at no cost.
For small businesses tired of paying extra for features they should have had included in the first place, Relentify is the switch that makes sense.