CharlieHR and Humaans both offer HR administration for growing companies but target different scales and buying motions: CharlieHR is a self-serve,…
Best for CharlieHR: CharlieHR fits small UK businesses that want transparent, low-commitment pricing starting at £20/month, a 7-day free trial, and an included perks/discounts marketplace, without needing a sales conversation to get started.
Best for Humaans: Humaans fits growing or global companies that need a central employee database across 300+ locations, AI-driven self-service (AI Companion) and agentic automation (Athena) for admin work, compensation/headcount planning tools, and enterprise features like SSO -- accepting that pricing requires contacting sales.
At a Glance
CharlieHR
Humaans
Primary category
HR
HR
Rating
Not documented
Not documented
Pricing model
Subscription
Subscription
Starting price
£20/month
Custom pricing
Free plan
Not documented
Yes
Free trial
Yes
Yes
Platforms
Web
Web
Team collaboration
Not documented
Not documented
AI features
Not documented
Yes
Public API
Not documented
Yes
Key Differences
Pricing transparency and buying motion
CharlieHR: Publishes tiered self-serve pricing from £20/month (1-4 employees) to £735/month (250+ employees).
Humaans: No public pricing; Growth, Enterprise, and Athena plan costs require contacting sales.
Self-serve pricing suits small teams wanting to buy without a sales cycle; custom pricing suits larger deployments needing negotiated enterprise terms.
Geographic/organizational scale
CharlieHR: Explicitly designed for UK businesses from 1-4 employees up to 250+.
Humaans: Central employee database supports 300+ global locations.
Multi-location global scale requires different data-model and compliance capabilities than a single-country small-business tool.
AI-driven features
CharlieHR: No AI features are documented.
Humaans: Includes an AI Companion giving employees instant self-service answers to policy/document questions, plus an 'Agentic AI Workforce' (Athena) that handles admin work end-to-end.
AI-driven self-service can reduce HR team workload on repetitive employee questions and admin tasks.
Compensation and headcount planning
CharlieHR: Not documented as offering compensation or headcount planning tools.
Humaans: Includes tools for managing pay and planning team growth (Compensation & Headcount Planning).
Formal compensation/headcount planning tools matter more once a company is managing pay bands and growth across many roles/locations.
Security certifications
CharlieHR: ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant.
Humaans: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001:2022, and GDPR compliant, with an Enterprise plan adding SSO and audit log exports.
SOC 2 Type II and SSO are frequently required by enterprise security-review processes that small-business tools aren't always asked to meet.
Feature-by-Feature
Core HR Features
Feature
CharlieHR
Humaans
Onboarding
Available
Available
Time off / absence management
Available
Available
Performance reviews
Available
Available
Global multi-location employee database
Not documented
Available
Compensation & headcount planning
Not documented
Available
Perks & discounts marketplace
Available
Not documented
AI Capabilities
Feature
CharlieHR
Humaans
AI employee self-service assistant
Not documented
Available
Agentic AI for end-to-end admin tasks
Not documented
Available
Pricing & Compliance
Feature
CharlieHR
Humaans
Published self-serve pricing
Available
Unavailable
Free trial
Available
Not documented
SOC 2 certification
Not documented
Available
ISO 27001 certification
Available
Available
SSO (Enterprise tier)
Not documented
Available
Pricing Compared
Starting price reflects the lowest paid tier, not the full cost for every team size or usage level.
CharlieHR
Core HR — From £20/month (1-4 employees, scaling to £735/month for 250+) monthly
Recruit (add-on) — From £55/month monthly
Advice (add-on) — From £179/month monthly
Humaans
Starting Up — From $7/seat/month monthly or annual
Growth — Custom pricing annual, custom quote
Enterprise — Custom pricing annual, custom quote
Pros & Cons
CharlieHR
Pros
Pricing scaled to small-company headcount rather than flat enterprise fees
Strong onboarding and absence-management tools purpose-built for small teams
Optional Recruit add-on avoids need for separate applicant tracking software
UK-specific GDPR and employment law focus
Cons
Pricing increases with headcount, so cost grows as the company scales
Recruit and Advice add-ons require an active Core subscription and can't be purchased standalone
Primarily UK-oriented, less suited to non-UK companies
No full payroll processing built into the platform
Humaans
Pros
Modern, consumer-grade interface compared to legacy HR software
Highly configurable custom fields, roles, and workflows without code
Strong API and integration ecosystem for connecting to other HR/IT tools
Automated onboarding/offboarding workflows reduce manual admin work
New Athena AI layer adds automation on top of core HR data
Cons
Growth and Enterprise pricing is custom-quoted and not transparent upfront
Smaller company than incumbents like BambooHR or Workday, so support scale may vary
Not a full payroll or ATS replacement; often used alongside other HR point solutions
Advanced permissioning and SSO are locked behind Enterprise tier
Best suited to companies already comfortable configuring workflows themselves
Use Cases
Choose CharlieHR: CharlieHR fits small UK businesses that want transparent, low-commitment pricing starting at £20/month, a 7-day free trial, and an included perks/discounts marketplace, without needing a sales conversation to get started.
Choose Humaans: Humaans fits growing or global companies that need a central employee database across 300+ locations, AI-driven self-service (AI Companion) and agentic automation (Athena) for admin work, compensation/headcount planning tools, and enterprise features like SSO -- accepting that pricing requires contacting sales.
Need both: The facts don't suggest a scenario needing both; a company would more likely graduate from a CharlieHR-style self-serve tool to a Humaans-style enterprise HRIS as it scales past small-UK-team HR admin, rather than running both concurrently.
CharlieHR
Small business HR administration — UK small businesses use CharlieHR to replace spreadsheets for onboarding, absence tracking, and employee records.
Startup hiring without a dedicated ATS — Startups use the Charlie Recruit add-on to manage hiring pipelines directly alongside their core HR data.
Expert HR guidance for non-specialist teams — Businesses without an in-house HR expert use Charlie Advice for 1-to-1 employment law and HR decision support.
Humaans
Employee data centralization — People teams replace spreadsheets with a single, structured system of record for employee data and documents.
Onboarding and offboarding automation — Automated workflows ensure new hires and departing employees move through consistent, trackable processes.
Headcount and compensation reporting — Leadership tracks real-time headcount, org structure, and compensation trends through built-in analytics.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does pricing differ between CharlieHR and Humaans?
CharlieHR publishes tiered pricing starting at £20/month for 1-4 employees. Humaans doesn't publish pricing -- Growth, Enterprise, and Athena plan costs require contacting sales.
Does either platform include AI features?
Humaans includes an AI Companion for instant employee self-service and an 'Agentic AI Workforce' called Athena for end-to-end admin work. CharlieHR does not document AI features.
How many locations does Humaans support?
Humaans supports a central employee database across 300+ global locations.
Is there a free trial?
CharlieHR offers a 7-day free trial with no credit card required. A free trial isn't documented for Humaans.
What security certifications does each hold?
CharlieHR is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant. Humaans is SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001:2022, and GDPR compliant, with Enterprise-tier SSO.
Where is Humaans based?
Humaans lists offices in London, New York City, and San Francisco.