HREvio vs Charlie HR: an honest 2026 comparison for SMBs

We build HREvio, so read this knowing who wrote it. Charlie HR and HREvio overlap on SMB core HR, so here is an honest split of where each one leads.

The short version: Charlie HR is a polished, UK-focused tool that bundles performance reviews, engagement surveys, and perks on top of core HR, priced by headcount bracket. HREvio is flat-priced, EU-hosted core HR that stays one price as you grow. If you want the wider people-experience toolkit and you are UK-based, Charlie leans that way; if you want core HR at a price that does not climb, HREvio does.

The pricing difference

Charlie HR prices its core plan by team-size bracket in GBP, so the bill steps up each time you cross a headcount band. It runs about GBP 45/month for a small team, GBP 105 at 15-29 people, GBP 315 at 50-99, GBP 420 at 100-149, and GBP 735 at 250+, all before UK VAT. There is a 7-day trial and an introductory discount on the smallest band, but no permanently free tier, and Recruit and Advice are paid add-ons on top.

HREvio is flat and in euros: EUR 29/month up to 25 employees, EUR 49 up to 100, EUR 99 up to 250. It does not step up by headcount band inside a plan, and the prices are on the page rather than a bracket lookup.

Charlie HR core-plan pricing by team-size bracket from charliehr.com/pricing as of July 2026 (GBP, excludes UK VAT +20%; Recruit and Advice add-ons cost extra). GBP and EUR are different currencies, shown as published. HREvio prices exclude VAT; annual billing saves ~17%.

The bands are the story. Charlie's price climbs each time you grow into the next bracket; HREvio holds one price up to 250 people, so the gap is widest exactly where you are adding headcount.

What Charlie HR has that HREvio doesn't

This list is real, so here it is without hedging.

• Performance reviews built into the core plan (ours is roadmap)
• Employee engagement and eNPS-style surveys
• A perks and benefits marketplace
• Recruit, an add-on applicant tracking system (ours is roadmap)
• Charlie Advice, an add-on HR-consultancy service for UK employment questions
• A UK-focused product built around UK employment workflows

If you are a UK team that wants performance, engagement, and perks in one tool, with HR advice on tap, Charlie covers more of that surface. This page is for teams that mostly need core HR at a flat price that does not step up as they grow.

What HREvio does, and does well

Core HR that a 5-100 person company actually uses every week:

• Employee directory with profiles, manager hierarchy, and an activity log of every change
• Vacation and sick leave: requests, approvals, balances, accrual, carryover, and a full per-employee ledger
• A team absence calendar plus public holidays for 48 countries, imported automatically
• Compensation history with effective dating; salary amounts encrypted at rest
• Roles and permissions (25 granular permissions), audit trail across the system
• Self-serve billing by card, upgrade or cancel in-app, no sales call at any point
• Interface in English, Ukrainian, Polish, and German

GDPR isn't a checkbox here. Hosting is on Hetzner in the EU, the data processing agreement is part of signup rather than a separate sales artifact, salary data is encrypted at rest, and the audit log masks encrypted fields automatically. We process EU employee data, so we built the product the way we'd want our own data handled.

Who should pick which

Pick Charlie HR if you are UK-based and want performance reviews, engagement surveys, and perks bundled with core HR, plus optional HR advice, and per-bracket pricing fits your budget.

Pick HREvio if you want core HR (people, leave, compensation, audit) at a flat euro price that stays put as you hire, with EU hosting and GDPR handled by default.

Switching from Charlie HR

Start a trial, bring your employee list, and set starting leave balances with the built-in onboarding workflow, so mid-year balances carry over correctly.

The trial is 30 days, full Standard features, no credit card. After it ends your data goes read-only, and we send reminders before anything changes state. Nothing is deleted without warning and time to act.

Frequently asked questions