Overview

Applicant tracking sits alongside employee records, onboarding, document management, leave, holiday, attendance, rota and payroll management. That range can consolidate hiring and ongoing HR administration, particularly for a growing business that would otherwise coordinate several systems. English and Arabic support, multi-company management and cross-border payroll also give the platform a wider remit than a single-company UK setup.

Founded in 2023 and headquartered in London, SovoHR describes itself as cloud-native and AI-powered. The AI positioning has practical expression in hiring tools, though AI interviews are limited to the higher paid tiers.

Key features

Hiring and employee management

Applicant tracking, candidate scoring and recorded video interviews cover different stages of recruitment. AI-generated interview questions and offer letters and contracts can reduce drafting work for busy hiring teams. Employee records, digital onboarding, document management, leave, attendance, rota and payroll management carry the workflow into staff administration. Retention automation and employee self-service add ongoing employee processes, while the role-based permission model lets organisations control access by role.

UK compliance and security

Right to Work checks support passport, Identity Service Provider and online share code routes, with evidence storage and visa-expiry tracking. SovoHR also says it supports visa sponsorship tracking and sponsor licence compliance management, making it relevant to employers managing those obligations. Role-based access, encrypted storage and audit trails support controlled recordkeeping; the product's feature pages state GDPR and SOC 2 compliance.

Integrations and service

SMTP email configuration and Azure Blob Storage integration appear in the pricing comparison, while the Custom plan adds an integrated CRM system and attendance-device integration. The document-management page advertises 24/7 expert support and 99.9% guaranteed availability. Those commitments may matter to teams relying on HR records and workflows, although the broader integrations are reserved for Custom.

Pricing

SovoHR has a free Starter plan and four priced monthly tiers, with a hard employee ceiling at each level. The caps are the key buying constraint: a growing organisation should compare its current headcount with the next tier's limit, not just the monthly fee.

Plan	Price and limit	What it includes
Starter	0.00 GBP per free; up to 1 employee	Recruitment & ATS, Organization, Policies and System Settings
Micro	19.99 GBP per month; up to 5 employees	Access Control, Recruitment & ATS, Attendance Tracking, Document Management, Employee Management, Payroll Management and Right to Work Check
Essential	29.99 GBP per month; up to 10 employees	Micro's listed features plus Interview with AI
Professional	59.99 GBP per month; up to 30 employees	The listed Essential feature set, up to 30 employees
Enterprise	99.99 GBP per month; up to 60 employees	The listed Essential feature set, up to 60 employees
Custom	Custom pricing	All Enterprise features, custom AI models, on-premise or hybrid deployment options, dedicated onboarding, white-labeling options and premium add-ons

Starter is a narrow entry point for a solo user: its one-employee cap and shorter feature list omit the broader staff-management functions in paid tiers. Micro is the lowest-cost route to attendance, documents, payroll and Right to Work checks, but it stops at five employees and does not list Interview with AI. Essential adds that feature for teams up to ten; Professional and Enterprise primarily raise the cap to 30 and 60 employees while retaining the listed feature set. Custom is the route beyond those limits or for deployment and onboarding options not offered in the standard tiers.

The pricing model is freemium and a free trial is offered. The paid prices are billed monthly; the Starter plan is free. For a business likely to outgrow 60 employees, the need for custom pricing is an important consideration before adopting the platform.

Platforms

SovoHR runs on the web.

Who it's for

SovoHR is a strong match for UK SMEs and growing businesses that want hiring, payroll and staff administration together, especially where Right to Work checks or visa sponsorship duties are part of the workload. Recruitment-focused teams can benefit from applicant tracking and interview tools, while multi-site businesses may value the broad operational feature set. It is less suitable for larger workforces that need predictable per-seat scaling, or for buyers seeking a mobile app.

Pros and cons

Broad HR and hiring coverage: Recruitment, employee management, onboarding, payroll and attendance share one platform, which can reduce tool-switching for smaller organisations.
UK compliance workflows: Multiple Right to Work check routes, stored evidence and visa-expiry tracking address practical compliance tasks; sponsorship tracking adds relevance for sponsor employers.
Low-cost paid entry: Micro starts at 19.99 GBP per month and includes payroll, attendance, document management and Right to Work checks, but only for up to five employees.
Strict employee ceilings: Even Enterprise tops out at 60 employees, so a larger or fast-growing business must consider custom pricing.
AI access varies by tier: Interview with AI begins at Essential, leaving Micro without that recruitment capability despite its ATS inclusion.
Web-only platform: The platform is web-based, which may not suit organisations seeking a native mobile app for staff or managers.

Alternatives

Consider IceHrm if you want a free-plan HR option spanning web, mobile, API and self-hosted platforms, with employee profiles, attendance, payroll, documents, projects and timesheets. Zoho People is another freemium choice, with a free plan for five users and web, iOS and Android access; consider it if that user cap and mobile availability fit better than SovoHR's one-employee Starter. For broader deployment options, Efalia HR ECM supports web, mobile, desktop and self-hosted platforms, with pricing by company size, storage, users and features.

DutyDuke is a free, open-source option that can be used, extended and contributed to on GitHub. Employment Hero is a paid web and mobile alternative with Pro plans organised around AI video interview quotas. MHR iTrent is a paid web and mobile HR option. Sesame HR is a paid alternative with a free trial and web and mobile access. Dapplon Policy Distribution is a paid option focused on policy distribution.

For a focused comparison of document tools, browse HR Document Management Software.

Verdict

Choose SovoHR if you run a small or growing UK organisation and want recruitment, payroll and compliance workflows under one roof, especially when Right to Work or sponsorship administration matters. Its main drawback is the rigid scale boundary: the priced plans stop at 60 employees, and custom pricing is required beyond that. Businesses expecting to grow past the Enterprise cap should weigh that commitment against alternatives before moving their HR operations.

	oneDox	SovoHR
Free plan	No	Yes
Free trial	No	Yes
Paid from	—	£19.99/mo
Open source	No	No
Platforms	self-hosted, Web	Web
Audit log	Yes	Yes
Employee self-service	Yes	Yes
Permission model	role-based	role-based
Free plan	—	Yes
Retention automation	—	Yes

oneDox vs SovoHR

oneDox

SovoHR