Softwr

Software · head to head

Breathe HR vs ClickHouse

Breathe HR logo

Breathe HR

Software

Simple HR software for SMEs

From
£13/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
ClickHouse logo

ClickHouse

Software

Fast open-source column-oriented database for real-time analytics

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only ClickHouse has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: 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; ClickHouse limited multi-row atomic transactions and expensive UPDATE/DELETE operations unsuitable for transactional systems
  • They diverge on capability: Breathe HR covers Employee Database, ClickHouse covers Column-oriented Storage.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Breathe HR and ClickHouse differ
AttributeBreathe HRClickHouse
Starting price£13/monthFree
Pricing modelsubscriptionUnknown
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidLinux, macOS, Windows (via Docker)
Founded20122021

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

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 Breathe HR

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

Only in ClickHouse

  • Column-oriented Storage
  • Real-time Analytics
  • SQL Support
  • Linear Scalability
  • Data Compression
  • Vectorized Query Execution
  • Approximate Calculations
  • Kafka

Both cover

  • Web support

What people use each for

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

Breathe HR

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

ClickHouse

  • Business intelligencenot Breathe HR
  • Data warehousingnot Breathe HR
  • Real-time analyticsnot Breathe HR
  • Reportingnot Breathe HR
  • Machine learningnot Breathe HR

Where each one falls short

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

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

ClickHouse

  • Limited multi-row atomic transactions and expensive UPDATE/DELETE operations unsuitable for transactional systems
  • Requires upfront schema design discipline with MergeTree engine choices and sort/partition keys
  • Experimental vector search support, not production-ready for vector operations
  • Different query syntax from standard SQL requiring migration planning
  • Limited JOIN capabilities compared to traditional relational databases
  • Migration complexity with 2-4 weeks estimated for data type mapping and query translation

Pricing, plan by plan

Breathe HR

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

ClickHouse

Free

No published plan breakdown. See the ClickHouse review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Breathe HR if

  • You need employee database.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want absence management.
Breathe HR review

Choose ClickHouse if

  • You need column-oriented storage.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows (via Docker).
  • You also want real-time analytics.
ClickHouse review

Questions people ask

Is Breathe HR or ClickHouse better?
Neither clearly leads. Breathe HR starts at £13/month and ClickHouse at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Breathe HR or ClickHouse?
ClickHouse has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at £13/month for Breathe HR and Free for ClickHouse.
Does Breathe HR or ClickHouse run on more platforms?
Breathe HR runs on Web, Ios, Android. ClickHouse runs on Linux, macOS, Windows (via Docker).
Can I use ClickHouse for free?
Yes. ClickHouse has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Breathe HR starts at £13/month.
What is Breathe HR best used for?
Breathe HR is most often used for holiday, absence and sickness tracking for a uk small business, storing hr documents, contracts and e-signatures, performance reviews and onboarding workflows for small teams. Of those, holiday, absence and sickness tracking for a uk small business and storing hr documents, contracts and e-signatures are not what ClickHouse is typically brought in for.
What can Breathe HR do that ClickHouse cannot?
Breathe HR covers Employee Database, Absence Management, Document Storage, HR Reporting. ClickHouse covers Column-oriented Storage, Real-time Analytics, SQL Support, Linear Scalability. Both handle Web support.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

ClickHouse: What is ClickHouse best used for?

ClickHouse is optimized for analytical workloads on large datasets. It excels at fast aggregations and queries, being 10-100x faster than PostgreSQL on large aggregations.

Source
ClickHouse: Does ClickHouse support transactions?

ClickHouse has limited transaction support and expensive UPDATE/DELETE operations. It is not suitable for transactional workloads requiring strict ACID guarantees.

Source
ClickHouse: How does ClickHouse compare to PostgreSQL?

ClickHouse is 10-100x faster for analytics but PostgreSQL is better for transactional workloads. Many teams use both: PostgreSQL for writes via MaterializedPostgreSQL replication to ClickHouse for analytics.

Source
ShareXLinkedInRedditWhatsAppEmail

Related pages

More on Breathe HR

More on ClickHouse

Keep looking

Other head to heads