WorkSmarter vs. ZEP Comparison Chart

Breathe (also known as Breathe HR/BreatheHR) is a UK HR platform, founded in 2012, for small and medium-sized businesses. It brings people records, leave, documents, performance, reporting and compliance into one place, replacing scattered spreadsheets and disconnected tools. What's included Core HR: secure central employee records and documents, holiday and leave requests, sickness and absence tracking, self-service, e-signatures, performance management (goals, feedback, one-to-ones, reviews), reporting and analytics. Optional modules: - e-Learning: training management, UK-specific courses, completion tracking - Health and Safety: risk assessments, incident reports, certifications, compliance evidence - Recruitment: hiring workflows, job ads, candidate tracking - Expenses: claims, receipts, manager approval, spend tracking - Rota, Time and Attendance: shifts, availability, hours, attendance In development: an AI Assistant answering HR and policy questions from company information. Payroll planned for late 2026. Problems solved - Scattered data → one accurate central record - Chasing approvals → self-service, e-signatures, shared workflows - Lean HR teams → start with Core HR, add modules as needs grow Result: less duplicate entry and chasing, clearer visibility, more manager and employee involvement. Who it's for Best fit: UK SMEs with up to 200 employees moving HR off spreadsheets, e.g. start-ups, charities, healthcare, retail, education and professional services, especially with lean or shared HR roles. Evaluate carefully: 200+ employees, or needs for multinational payroll, complex global compliance, extensive custom workflows or enterprise workforce planning. Not a global enterprise HCM suite. Why Breathe - 17,000+ businesses; 1,000+ UK HR consultancies - From £24/month per organisation, no long-term contracts or hidden fees - Free 14-day trial, no obligation - UK-based support from setup onwards - ISO 27001 and ISO 42001 accredited; GDPR-conscious; UK data centres, encryption, access controls Bottom line: a flexible, self-service way for UK SMEs to organise HR and cut admin, with room to grow into recruitment, learning, safety, expenses, rotas and payroll (late 2026).

Connecteam is an award-winning all-in-one employee management solution for daily operations, communications, and human resource management. With Connecteam you can manage every aspect of your business on the go, no workstation needed. Easily engage and manage non-desk employees with Connecteam’s mobile-first platform that helps improve communication, enhance daily processes and increase productivity with custom checklists, forms, and reports. Schedule shifts and track accurate work hours with Connecteam’s automated GPS time clock and easily export approved timesheets to payroll. Connecteam helps you keep your employees sharp thanks to knowledge base centers and advanced training courses. Raise morale with employee recognition rewards and keep the entire company updated through the main news feed. Simplify employee communication, enhance professional skills, manage daily tasks and so much more, all in one app and for an affordable price.

Folks is a Canadian-owned HR platform built for SMBs, combining three seamlessly integrated products to help you hire, manage, and pay your team — all in one place. Trusted by 1,200+ Canadian organizations managing over 125,000 employee records. With Folks HRIS, centralize employee records, onboarding, time tracking, absence management, and compliance — configured for Canadian employment standards across all provinces. Folks ATS streamlines recruitment with AI-powered candidate matching, job board integrations (Indeed, LinkedIn, Jobillico, Talent.com), and applicant tracking — built on the Glow Talents acquisition (2024). Folks Payroll handles CRA remittances, T4/RL-1 generation, ROE filing, CPP/QPP/CPP2, EI, multi-province tax calculations, WSIB/WCB, and direct deposit — no third-party payroll provider needed. SOC 2 Type 2 certified. All data hosted in Canada. Fully bilingual (English/French). Plans start at $6/employee/month.

Hubstaff is a time tracking software that helps teams log hours, monitor productivity, and automate payments — whether remote, hybrid, in-office, or field-based. Available on desktop, web, and mobile, Hubstaff enables employees to track time against specific tasks and projects from anywhere. Managers get built-in visibility through app and URL usage data, activity rates, and optional screenshots — all configurable by user role. Designed for global, growing and distributed teams, Hubstaff includes built-in productivity monitoring and workforce analytics to help businesses analyze how time is spent, identify inefficiencies, and improve performance — without micromanagement.

8am™ is business management software for professional service firms designed to help law firms, accounting firms, and other professional services organizations run more efficiently from client intake to payment. Bringing together trusted products like LawPay, MyCase, CasePeer, DocketWise, CPACharge, and ClientPay, the platform delivers a unified solution for practice management, case management, document management, billing and invoicing, payment processing, accounting, and financial reporting. With enterprise-grade security, seamless integrations, and award-winning support, the platform empowers professional service firms to work smarter—not harder. Over 260,000 professionals and 175+ associations trust 8am technology to power their practices, simplify operations, and drive sustainable growth.

Calling made modern. Your business number. Your employees' phones. Our amazing features. A dial menu spoken by our voice actors. Callers press numbers to make purchases, hear MP3s, connect to specific staff, and more. Make and answer calls using your number on multiple phones without the caller ever knowing. Employees hear secret in-house menus, transfer calls, and send voicemails to their email, all from their dialpad. These business features require no new software or hardware. Your dialpad come to life. Porting your business or personal number at the press of a button. Select from our menu of modern voice features for your business or personal line. We'll activate these features on your current phone for you. No work (or learning) required from you. We'll be here to transform your number whenever your desires change.

NinjaOne unifies IT to simplify work for 35,000+ customers in 140+ countries. The NinjaOne Unified IT Operations Platform delivers endpoint management, autonomous patching, backup, and remote access in a single console to improve efficiency, increase resilience, and reduce spend. By automating IT and managing all endpoints, organizations give employees a great technology experience to work faster, smarter, and easier while IT teams modernize and improve efficiency. NinjaOne is a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Management Tools. The company is obsessed with customer success and has retained a 98% customer satisfaction score for more than 5 years.

Designed for compliance-heavy industries, Fax.Cloud delivers encrypted, point-to-point faxing with guaranteed delivery and built-in audit trails for just 2¢ CAD per page. It meets PIPEDA, HIPAA, and SOC2 requirements, while avoiding the risks of spam filters, misdirected emails, and silent failures associated with email. Send and receive faxes anywhere using a web portal, email, desktop, or mobile device. There’s no need for phone lines, hardware, or maintenance, and all transmissions and stored documents are securely encrypted. Set up your team of Users, assign permissions and send documents in just a few clicks. Get email notifications when documents are received and keep everything organized in one place. With local and toll-free numbers and easy scalability, Fax.Cloud grows as your business grows. Upgrade to smarter, safer faxing today. Get started with Fax.Cloud.

Get ready for AI! Ensure your field data is healthy, accurate, and ready to go. ALMobile helps streamline and consolidate your field data tracking and payroll processes to connect everyone on your project. Start tracking employee time, attendance, and project information accurately and efficiently in the field or the home office. Cut through the noise of unorganized information and scattered data, and start analyzing what’s most important with ALMobile’s unique reporting capabilities integrated with your primary accounting system. Pull real-time project and employee data that are accurate, customizable, and easy to analyze. ALMobile helps companies work smarter and faster together. Say goodbye to paper, worksheets, and relying on legacy systems to track your data.

Forethought delivers the world’s most advanced AI Agents built to think, act, and get smarter with every interaction. No matter the question, “Where’s my refund?”, “How do I update my plan?” or “Why isn’t this working?” - there’s a purpose-built AI Agent ready to help. From chat to voice to SMS, every conversation gets a smart, personalized response powered by your policies, tone, and data. This isn’t just plug-and-play automation. It’s AI with a strategic plan. Forethought helps businesses roll out a multi-agent system across the entire customer experience. With Forethought, your teams can stop piecing together tools and start running a smarter, faster operation. One that delights customers every step of the way.