Comparison
Soteriaa vs Breathe (BreatheHR)
Soteriaa is not an alternative to Breathe. It is the sponsor-licence layer Breathe doesn't have. Breathe is a well-liked, low-cost HR system for small teams: employee records, absence, documents, onboarding, and passport and visa expiry reminders. What it doesn't do is sponsor-duty management: Certificates of Sponsorship, sponsored-worker records against your licence, reportable changes, and the audit pack a Home Office visit asks for. In fact Breathe partners with an immigration consultancy to supply that layer. Keep Breathe. Add Soteriaa for the one job it doesn't do. £25/month for up to 5 employees. Breathe facts verified 13 July 2026.
Last updated . Reviewed by Soteriaa team.
Short answer
Breathe and Soteriaa do different jobs. Breathe is a low-cost HR system for small teams: records, absence, documents, onboarding, and visa expiry reminders. Soteriaa is the sponsor-licence layer: CoS records, sponsored-worker tracking against the licence, reportable changes, and the audit pack. Breathe even partners with an immigration consultancy for that layer. Keep Breathe. Add the one thing it doesn't do.
Yes, Soteriaa costs more than Breathe — here's why that's the right call
Breathe Starter is £44/month for your whole 11–20-person business; Soteriaa Team is £79 for up to 20. You would pay nearly twice the HR system you are supplementing, and it is fair to notice that. The reason is consequence, not feature count: a messy holiday record is an inconvenience; a sponsor-duty failure can cost the licence and every sponsored worker with it. Between October and December 2025, 1,500+ employers lost their sponsor licence (up from 541 the previous quarter), and 2025 saw 3,100 revocations, the most since 2012, with poor record-keeping a common cause. That is the risk the £79 is against.
Two jobs, side by side
Where each product does its work.
Breathe owns HR admin. Soteriaa owns the sponsor-licence duties around your sponsored workers.
| What you need | Breathe | Soteriaa |
|---|---|---|
| HR admin (records, absence, documents, onboarding) | Its core job — simple HR for small teams. | Not an HR system — keep Breathe for this. |
| Passport / visa expiry reminders | Generic reminders and record storage. | Visa/BRP expiry tracked against the licence, with deadlines. |
| Right-to-work | Stores RTW records and gives expiry reminders. | RTW evidence and checks against the worker record. |
| Sponsored-worker records & CoS tracking | General employee records only. | Worker records and Certificate of Sponsorship records. |
| Reportable changes + one-click audit pack | Not offered. | Reportable-change log and a pack assembled from your records. |
| Sponsor-compliance approach | Partners with an immigration consultancy for this layer. | Built in, as software you run yourself. |
Breathe facts verified against breathehr.com on 13 July 2026. Breathe's right-to-work handling is record storage and reminders; a dedicated verification tool could not be confirmed, so none is asserted either way.
What Soteriaa adds
The sponsor-licence layer, and only that.
No legal advice, no compliance determinations: records and deadlines you keep yourself.
Sponsored worker & CoS records
One record per sponsored worker, with Certificate of Sponsorship references.
Visa & BRP expiry
Tracked against your licence so follow-ups surface before they lapse.
Reportable changes
A log of reportable changes and the actions you have taken.
One-click audit pack
A worker or licence pack assembled from your stored records on demand.
Deadlines & alerts
Upcoming and overdue sponsor items surfaced across the workforce.
Plain-English query
Ask “who is missing a right-to-work check” and get a straight answer. A deterministic resolver, not AI.
What Soteriaa does not do
Soteriaa is not an HR system and not a law firm. It gives no legal advice, makes no compliance determinations, never tells you that you are compliant, and never files to the Home Office Sponsor Management System. It does not extract or auto-fill data from documents, and it has no readiness score. Related: is the SMS enough? and Soteriaa vs a solicitor.
FAQ
Soteriaa and Breathe questions
Where Breathe ends and sponsor-licence software begins.
Is Soteriaa an alternative to Breathe?
No. Soteriaa is the sponsor-licence compliance layer Breathe doesn't have, not a replacement. Keep Breathe for HR admin; add Soteriaa for sponsor-duty tracking. No migration, no rip-and-replace.
Does Breathe handle sponsor licence compliance?
Breathe does HR record-keeping and gives passport and visa expiry reminders, but it does not track Certificates of Sponsorship, keep sponsored-worker records against your licence, log reportable changes, or generate an audit pack. Breathe itself partners with an immigration consultancy to supply the sponsor layer.
Breathe is £44/month for my whole team — why is Soteriaa Team £79 for 20?
It is a fair question to ask, and the honest answer is about consequence, not feature count. An HR-admin failure is inconvenient: messy holiday records. A sponsor-duty failure can mean a revoked licence and the loss of every sponsored worker. Price tracks the consequence. For context, 1,500+ employers were stripped of their sponsor licence between October and December 2025 (up from 541 the previous quarter), and 3,100 licences were revoked across 2025 (the highest since records began in 2012), with poor record-keeping a common cause.
Do I have to replace Breathe to use Soteriaa?
No. Soteriaa sits alongside Breathe. You keep Breathe for records, absence, documents, and reminders; you use Soteriaa for the sponsor-compliance records, deadlines, and audit pack Breathe doesn't provide.
Breathe partners with an immigration consultancy — isn't that enough?
It can be, and that partnership is a useful signal that the gap is real. It leaves a Breathe customer needing sponsor compliance with two options: a consultancy engagement, or software that keeps the records and deadlines in-house. Soteriaa is the second option, from £25/month.
Can Soteriaa tell me I'm compliant or report to the Home Office?
No. Soteriaa gives visibility of what is recorded and outstanding. It makes no compliance determinations, gives no legal advice, and never files to the Home Office Sponsor Management System.
Keep Breathe. Add the sponsor layer it outsources.
Sponsor-licence records, deadlines, and the audit pack — as software you run, from £25/month. Start free.