Estimark and BrightHR, compared for UK contractors

UK small and medium businesses in any sector, buying staff records, health and safety and an employment law advice line as one bundle.

• It is general SME HR rather than a construction product, and it reaches trades as generic HR through outbound sales and trade bodies.
• For most buyers the advice line and the cover behind it are the reason to sign, rather than the record keeping.

NoteEstimark describes its own product here. For the other product’s current price and what it covers, read that vendor’s own site.

BrightHR publishes three tiers, all shown on a basis of five employees, and no figure at all for a ten-person firm.

• Core HR software: from £16.67 per employee per month, shown on the same page as £83.35 a month exc. tax. That total is five employees, not ten.
• Enhanced HR Support: from £21.20 per employee per month, £106.00 a month on the same basis. The 24/7 advice line, the employment law updates, the HR document templates and the option of indemnity insurance sit on this tier.
• Full HR, Health & Safety Support & EAP: from £31.30 per employee per month, £156.50 a month on that basis.
• Nothing is published for ten people. Their own FAQ on the same page says prices start from £3.00 per person depending on business size, so a ten-person rate sits below the headline and BrightHR does not print where.
• Terms are 24, 36 or 60 months, with 36 months the one sold online, and there is no rolling monthly option.
• The page states that online pricing does not include insurance.

NoteBrightHR's published UK prices, read on 15 September 2026. Check their own site for today's.

Employee records, contracts, Right to Work evidence, leave and absence, training and certification expiry, and toolbox talks with a signed attendance register, held against the same people who are booked on the jobs.

• Employee records with employment type, status, pay type, pay frequency, department and reporting line, so PAYE lads, self-employed lads and subcontractors stay separate.
• Contracts issued as a versioned document and signed on screen, capturing the signer’s name, signature, IP address, user agent and timestamp.
• Right to Work, passport, DBS and driving licence held per person with an expiry date on each, so a re-check can be diarised before the permission runs out.
• Leave policies with annual days, sick days and carry-over, per-person balances by year and leave type, and requests routed for approval with the reviewer and their notes on the record.
• Training and certification expiry with a warning 30 days out, covering CSCS cards, tickets and gas competence per category and fuel.
• Toolbox talks with an attendance register, signed by each operative who was there.
• Appraisals and disciplinary records, from verbal warning through to dismissal and grievance.

NoteHR Management is included from Pro up, and is £29 a month +VAT on its own below that.

No employment law advice line, no tribunal indemnity insurance, no maintained HR document template library, no payroll filing and no recruitment.

• There is no 24-hour advice line and no HR consultant to ring. That is a staffed service and Estimark does not sell one.
• There is no tribunal or employment indemnity insurance of any kind. If you carry cover today, keep it.
• There is one contract template. There is no maintained library of policies, handbooks and letters kept current with UK employment law, and that is the gap a customer notices in week two.
• Payroll is exported, not filed. Estimark produces Sage 50, P32, CIS and HMRC RTI-layout files marked as estimates. It does not submit anything to HMRC and does not issue payslips.
• There is no recruitment or applicant tracking, no employee assistance programme, no wellbeing portal and no shift-pattern rota. Resource scheduling puts people on jobs by date range, not on shifts.

NoteEstimark holds no security certification: no ISO 27001, no SOC 2, no Cyber Essentials. It records the CIS300 and does not file it to HMRC, and it takes no card payment on a customer’s behalf.

It handles the four obligations a UK contractor is judged on: CIS deduction, the VAT domestic reverse charge, Construction Act payment timing, and the safety records that go with them.

• CIS deducted on labour only, excluding materials, VAT and plant hire, on 6th-to-5th tax months, with HMRC verification when connected and the CIS300 recorded with both statutory declarations.
• VAT domestic reverse charge under section 55A: the statutory wording on the invoice, nil VAT, controlled per client.
• Payment applications with Construction Act dates, the pay less deadline calculated, and retention tracked to release.
• RAMS with operative sign-off, inductions, permits and a live muster roll, plus EIC, EICR, Minor Works, PAT and CP12 certificates with typed test results.

NoteEstimark records the CIS300 and locks it to its tax period. It does not file the return to HMRC on your behalf.

When the advice line and the insurance are the thing being bought, or when you are mid-term on a fixed contract.

• A firm with no HR person facing a grievance, a disciplinary or a tribunal claim needs an adviser on the phone. Estimark holds the records and gives no advice.
• A firm that wants policies, handbooks and letters kept current with employment law is buying a publishing service, and Estimark has one contract template.
• A firm two years into a 36-month term cannot move on price. Put it on the renewal date, and drop only the software overlap when you get there.

NoteEstimark describes its own product here. For the other product’s current price and what it covers, read that vendor’s own site.