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Software · head to head

Breathe HR vs Spendesk

Breathe HR logo

Breathe HR

Software

Simple HR software for SMEs

From
£13/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Spendesk logo

Spendesk

Software

Smart spend management for modern teams

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • 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; Spendesk no publicly available pricing, requires custom quote
  • They diverge on capability: Breathe HR covers Employee Database, Spendesk covers Company cards.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Breathe HR and Spendesk differ
AttributeBreathe HRSpendesk
Starting price£13/month$29/month
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWeb, Mobile iOS, Mobile Android
Founded20122016

Identical on both: pricing model (subscription), free tier (No), 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 Spendesk

  • Company cards
  • Expense management
  • Invoice payments
  • Budget management
  • Spend analytics
  • Sage
  • NetSuite
  • SOC 2

Both cover

  • Xero
  • Web support
  • Ios support
  • Android 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 Spendesk
  • Storing HR documents, contracts and e-signaturesnot Spendesk
  • Performance reviews and onboarding workflows for small teamsnot Spendesk

Spendesk

  • Expense managementnot Breathe HR
  • Spend controlnot Breathe HR
  • Finance automationnot 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

Spendesk

  • No publicly available pricing, requires custom quote
  • Strong European presence but limited in some non-EU markets
  • High implementation costs due to extensive integration requirements

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

Spendesk

$29/month
  • EssentialsFree
    • Virtual cards
    • Expense tracking
    • Approvals

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 Spendesk if

  • You need company cards.
  • You work on Web, Mobile iOS, Mobile Android.
  • You also want expense management.
Spendesk review

Questions people ask

Is Breathe HR or Spendesk better?
Neither clearly leads. Breathe HR starts at £13/month and Spendesk at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Breathe HR or Spendesk?
Breathe HR starts at £13/month and Spendesk at $29/month.
Does Breathe HR or Spendesk run on more platforms?
Breathe HR runs on Web, Ios, Android. Spendesk runs on Web, Mobile iOS, Mobile Android.
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 Spendesk is typically brought in for.
What can Breathe HR do that Spendesk cannot?
Breathe HR covers Employee Database, Absence Management, Document Storage, HR Reporting. Spendesk covers Company cards, Expense management, Invoice payments, Budget management. Both handle Xero, Web support, Ios support, Android support.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Spendesk: What is included in Spendesk's platform?

Spendesk combines corporate cards, a mobile receipts app, approval workflows, automated reconciliation, accounts payable, procurement, and spend controls into one platform.

Source
Spendesk: How does Spendesk handle expense receipts?

Spendesk captures receipts via mobile photo upload with OCR technology, automatically matching receipts to transactions and generating automated expense reports with 98% of expense receipts collected on time.

Source
Spendesk: What integrations does Spendesk offer?

Spendesk integrates with accounting software including Sage, Xero, NetSuite, and SAP, plus HR systems and tools like Slack for comprehensive spend management.

Source
Spendesk: Is Spendesk profitable?

Yes. Spendesk became the first spend management platform to reach profitability in 2025, processing over £10 billion in spend across 35+ countries.

Source
Spendesk: What is Spendesk's valuation?

Spendesk is a unicorn company with a valuation of $1.5 billion, with 2025 revenue of $52 million ARR.

Source
Spendesk: How much time can Spendesk save on bookkeeping?

Organizations using Spendesk save an average of 4 days per month on bookkeeping, equivalent to over 380 hours per year returned to the business.

Source
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Related pages

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