Is Airbyte or Breathe HR better?

Neither clearly leads. Airbyte starts at Free and Breathe HR at £13/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Airbyte or Breathe HR?

Airbyte has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Airbyte and £13/month for Breathe HR.

Does Airbyte or Breathe HR run on more platforms?

Airbyte runs on Web, Self-hosted. Breathe HR runs on Web, Ios, Android.

Can I use Airbyte for free?

Yes. Airbyte has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Breathe HR starts at £13/month.

What is Airbyte best used for?

Airbyte is most often used for replicating data from saas applications into a warehouse, self-hosting an open source elt pipeline, managed data replication without running infrastructure, building connectors for sources without an off-the-shelf integration. Of those, replicating data from saas applications into a warehouse and self-hosting an open source elt pipeline are not what Breathe HR is typically brought in for.

What can Airbyte do that Breathe HR cannot?

Airbyte covers Data replication, Schema detection, ELT pipelines, Real-time sync. Breathe HR covers Employee Database, Absence Management, Document Storage, HR Reporting. Both handle Web support.

Automation & Integration · head to head

Airbyte vs Breathe HR

Airbyte

Automation & Integration

The open-source ELT platform

From: Free
Rated: -

Full review Website

Breathe HR

HR & Recruiting

Simple HR software for SMEs

From: £13/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Only Airbyte has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
Each has a real cost: Airbyte the self-managed open source Core edition has no SSO or RBAC, no multiple workspaces, no row filtering or encryption, and no monitoring integrations; Breathe HR pricing is banded by headcount, starting at £24 per month for 1 to 10 people, £44 per month for 11 to 20 and £99 per month for 21 to 50
They diverge on capability: Airbyte covers Data replication, Breathe HR covers Employee Database.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Airbyte and Breathe HR actually diverge.

Attributes where Airbyte and Breathe HR differ
Attribute	Airbyte	Breathe HR
Starting price	Free	£13/month
Pricing model	open-source	subscription
Free tier	Yes	No
Platforms	Web, Self-hosted	Web, Ios, Android
Category	Automation & Integration	HR & Recruiting
Founded	2020	2012

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Airbyte

Data replication
Schema detection
ELT pipelines
Real-time sync
Data transformation
Monitoring
Custom connectors
300+ connectors

Only in Breathe HR

Employee Database
Absence Management
Document Storage
HR Reporting
Performance Management
Training
Slack
Google Workspace

Both cover

Web support

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Airbyte

Replicating data from SaaS applications into a warehousenot Breathe HR
Self-hosting an open source ELT pipelinenot Breathe HR
Managed data replication without running infrastructurenot Breathe HR
Building connectors for sources without an off-the-shelf integrationnot Breathe HR

Breathe HR

Holiday, absence and sickness tracking for a UK small businessnot Airbyte
Storing HR documents, contracts and e-signaturesnot Airbyte
Performance reviews and onboarding workflows for small teamsnot Airbyte

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Airbyte

The self-managed open source Core edition has no SSO or RBAC, no multiple workspaces, no row filtering or encryption, and no monitoring integrations
Sync frequency on Core is limited compared with the managed tiers, which offer 15 minute syncs
Support on the free tier is community and AI only; premium support requires Pro or Enterprise
The free Agents plan stops at 1,000 agent operations a month and pauses capacity until the next month once hit
Agent overages are billed per operation at $0.004 to $0.005 once past the plan allowance

Breathe HR

Pricing is banded by headcount, starting at £24 per month for 1 to 10 people, £44 per month for 11 to 20 and £99 per month for 21 to 50
Plans are capped by band up to 151 to 200 people, so it is not sold to organisations above that range on the published ladder
The free trial is 14 days
Health and safety, e-learning and other modules are sold as add-ons on top of the core HR plan
Pricing is quoted in pounds and the product is marketed to UK SMEs

Pricing, plan by plan

Airbyte

Free

Open SourceFree
- Self-hosted
- Community support
- Full features
Cloud$50/month
- Cloud hosted
- Email support
Enterprise$500/month
- Dedicated support
- Advanced features

Breathe HR

£13/month

Core$13/month
- Employee Database
- Absence Management
- Documents
People Management$18/month
- All Core features
- Performance
- Goals

Which should you pick?

Choose Airbyte if

You need data replication.
You want to start without paying.
You work on Web, Self-hosted.
You also want schema detection.

Airbyte review

Choose Breathe HR if

You need employee database.
You work on Web, Ios, Android.
You also want absence management.

Breathe HR review

Questions people ask

Is Airbyte or Breathe HR better?: Neither clearly leads. Airbyte starts at Free and Breathe HR at £13/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Airbyte or Breathe HR?: Airbyte has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Airbyte and £13/month for Breathe HR.
Does Airbyte or Breathe HR run on more platforms?: Airbyte runs on Web, Self-hosted. Breathe HR runs on Web, Ios, Android.
Can I use Airbyte for free?: Yes. Airbyte has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Breathe HR starts at £13/month.
What is Airbyte best used for?: Airbyte is most often used for replicating data from saas applications into a warehouse, self-hosting an open source elt pipeline, managed data replication without running infrastructure, building connectors for sources without an off-the-shelf integration. Of those, replicating data from saas applications into a warehouse and self-hosting an open source elt pipeline are not what Breathe HR is typically brought in for.
What can Airbyte do that Breathe HR cannot?: Airbyte covers Data replication, Schema detection, ELT pipelines, Real-time sync. Breathe HR covers Employee Database, Absence Management, Document Storage, HR Reporting. Both handle Web support.

Airbyte vs Breathe HR

Airbyte

Breathe HR

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Airbyte

Only in Breathe HR

Both cover

What people use each for

Airbyte

Breathe HR

Where each one falls short

Airbyte

Breathe HR

Pricing, plan by plan

Airbyte

Breathe HR

Which should you pick?

Choose Airbyte if

Choose Breathe HR if

Questions people ask

Related pages

More on Airbyte

More on Breathe HR

Keep looking

Other head to heads