WhosOff is a cloud-based leave management platform used by 2,500+ active companies across 65+ countries. This WhosOff review covers WhosOff pricing at different team sizes, key features, where the tool falls short, and how it compares with actiPLANS — a leave management alternative with a permanent free plan, location scheduling, and transparent per-user pricing.
What is WhosOff?
WhosOff is a cloud-based leave management platform built and operated by X:drive Computing Ltd, based in Canterbury, Kent, UK. The company was founded in 2005 by Philip Cross and Reg Groombridge and has been running continuously since. It describes itself as the UK’s leading online leave planner.
The product replaces paper leave forms, shared wall planners, and spreadsheets with an online system where employees submit requests via web or mobile app and managers approve with a single click. Beyond that core loop, WhosOff extends into overtime and TOIL tracking, Bradford Factor absence analytics, a Staff Hub for employment records and documents, and a REST API for custom integrations.
It claims 2,500+ active companies and 3,000+ companies across 65+ countries. It is a Crown Commercial Service supplier, which means UK public sector organisations can procure it without running a full tender process. It is also Cyber Essentials certified and GDPR compliant.
The product sits between lightweight leave trackers (which do requests and approvals only) and full HR suites (which include payroll, performance management, and recruiting). WhosOff does leave management in more depth than most tools in its price range, while deliberately leaving payroll and performance out of scope.
Full feature breakdown
Leave requests and approvals
Employees submit requests from any device via web or the free iOS/Android app. The request goes to their assigned approver, who sees the full team calendar, remaining allowances, and any policy restrictions before deciding. Approvals happen in one click. Both parties get email notifications.
Beyond the basics: WhosOff supports unlimited custom leave types (holiday, sick, WFH, training, bereavement, maternity, ‘duvet day’, whatever your business needs). Managers can set certain leave types to auto-approve, so low-friction bookings like WFH days or medical appointments don’t create an approval queue. Up to two additional notifiers per staff member can be added to keep HR or a second manager in the loop without making them the primary approver.
Every request, decision, and change is timestamped and logged in a full audit trail. Super Users can send reminders to managers with outstanding approval queues, and expired pending requests get flagged automatically.
- Works well for: teams with mixed leave policies, where some types need approval and others don’t
Leave policies and restrictions
This is where WhosOff separates from lighter tools. You can set minimum department staffing levels so the system blocks bookings that would leave a team under-resourced. You can create staff-to-staff restrictions so specific pairs of employees can never be off simultaneously. Carryover limits, notice period requirements, and restricted dates (public holidays, peak trading periods) all enforce automatically.
Overtime and TOIL management
WhosOff handles overtime through the same request flow as leave. Staff submit extra hours, managers approve, and TOIL balances update immediately and show separately from holiday allowances. You can create unlimited overtime types (standard time, double time, weekend cover, on-call callouts) and configure conversion rates, so weekend overtime can earn 1.5x TOIL rather than 1:1.
Payroll-ready overtime reports export to CSV/XLSX. Managers can also log overtime on behalf of staff from the admin area.
This feature is genuinely unusual at this price point. Most leave management tools don’t touch overtime and TOIL at all. The fact that WhosOff includes it without an additional charge is worth noting.
Bradford Factor reporting
Bradford Factor is a scoring method used in UK HR to identify patterns of short-term absence, which tend to cause more disruption than longer, planned absences. The formula: B = S squared x D, where S is the number of separate absence instances and D is total days absent.
A high Bradford score triggers a conversation; the threshold is set per company policy. WhosOff calculates Bradford Factor scores automatically across the team and surfaces them in reporting. This saves HR teams from running spreadsheet calculations. It is a UK HR convention that most non-UK tools do not include.
- Works well for: UK HR teams managing absence performance and using Bradford Factor as part of their disciplinary framework
- Less relevant for: teams outside the UK where Bradford Factor is not part of HR practice
Staff hub
Staff Hub is WhosOff’s HR records module. It stores employment history, salary and pay rate changes with effective-from dates, training certificates with expiry reminders, company documents with read-and-confirm receipts, emergency contacts, and a searchable staff directory.
The permissions layer is granular: each data type can be controlled independently, so a manager might see someone’s leave history and emergency contacts but not their salary. Staff manage their own emergency contacts and personal details via the mobile app.
Practically, Staff Hub replaces a basic HRIS for small and medium businesses. For large companies with existing HR systems, it would be redundant. For a 20-to-100 person company that doesn’t have a full HR platform, it removes the need for one.
- Works well for: growing teams that need HR records management but can’t justify the cost of a full HR suite
- Limitation: no performance reviews, no recruitment, no payroll calculation. Staff Hub is a records store, not a full HR system
Reporting and analytics
WhosOff ships with a reporting suite covering: leave overview by type/date/staff member, Bradford Factor scores, allowance summaries for current and next year, per-employee yearly calendars (useful for appraisals), limit-based reports showing who is approaching or has hit their leave caps, overtime and TOIL reports, and staff contact directory exports. Every report exports to .CSV or .XLSX for use in Excel, Power BI, or Looker Studio.
- Works well for: HR and finance teams who need payroll-ready absence data without building it from scratch
- Limitation: no native business intelligence dashboard or real-time analytics; you get the raw exports and build the analysis yourself
Mobile apps (iOS and Android)
Free for all users. The apps cover leave submission, approval/decline of requests, overtime recording, Staff Hub access, document acknowledgements, and emergency contact management. They support Multi-Factor Authentication and SAML Single Sign-On. Custom branding applies to the app at no extra cost.
Integrations
WhosOff connects to: Slack (notifications), Microsoft Teams (notifications), Google Calendar (calendar feed), Microsoft Outlook (calendar feed), Google Workspace SSO, Microsoft Azure AD SSO, Okta SSO, Auth0 SSO, OneLogin SSO, JumpCloud SSO, Zapier, AirOps (via webhook), REST API, and CSV/XLSX export.
The SSO coverage is notably broad. Most leave management tools in this price range offer one or two SSO providers; WhosOff covers six. Calendar feeds can be scoped by department, leave type, and access level, so staff only see leave data relevant to them.
- Works well for: companies using Azure AD, Okta, or Google Workspace for identity management and wanting SSO to extend to their leave system
- Limitation: Slack and Teams integrations are notifications only; there is no Slack-native approval flow
Bulk tools and onboarding
Onboard a team via spreadsheet import: download the template, fill in staff details, upload, and optionally send welcome emails automatically. Bulk leave booking (one action to block a company-wide closure), bulk allowance adjustments (year-end rollover in one step), and bulk approver reassignment (for team restructures) all operate at scale. Custom branding is free on every account.
- Works well for: HR teams bringing a large team onto the system, or handling year-end admin tasks that would otherwise require individual record edits
Security and compliance
WhosOff is Cyber Essentials certified, GDPR compliant, and a Crown Commercial Service supplier. It supports SAML 2.0 SSO, company-wide MFA enforcement, role-based permissions, and a full audit trail of every action. Data is held in the UK and EU.
- Works well for: UK public sector teams and any company with strict security or procurement requirements
What WhosOff does better than most tools in its category
- Overtime and TOIL management included at standard pricing: most dedicated leave tools do not touch overtime. WhosOff handles it natively in the same request workflow, with separate TOIL balances, custom conversion rates, and payroll-ready exports.
- Bradford Factor reporting built in: automated, not calculated in a spreadsheet. Rare at this price point and largely absent from US-developed tools.
- Eight-week free trial: the industry standard is 7-14 days. Eight weeks gives you enough time to test through a full leave cycle, including edge cases in your specific policy configuration.
- SSO with six identity providers at standard pricing: Azure AD, Okta, Auth0, OneLogin, Google Workspace, and JumpCloud. Many tools reserve SSO for enterprise tiers. WhosOff includes it at the base price.
- Staff Hub (employment records and document compliance) included: most leave tools stop at leave. WhosOff adds employment history, salary tracking, training certificate management, and document compliance at no extra tier cost.
- Custom branding free on every account: your logo and colours apply to the web platform, mobile apps, and all emails. Usually a paid add-on at comparable products.
- Crown Commercial Service supplier: UK public sector teams can procure without a full tender. Very few leave management tools at this price point have this accreditation.
- Volume-based pricing with no tier jumps: per-user cost drops continuously as headcount grows rather than stepping up at arbitrary thresholds.
What WhosOff is missing
- No free plan: WhosOff offers an 8-week trial but no permanent free tier. If your team is under 5 people and you want a free tool long-term, look elsewhere.
- No payroll software integration: you get CSV/XLSX exports that you upload manually to your payroll provider. No direct connector to Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, ADP, or any other payroll system.
- No time tracking: WhosOff tracks absence and overtime requests, but not hours worked during a shift. Clock-in/clock-out and timesheet management require a separate tool.
- No location scheduling: no structured module to track who is in the office vs working from home vs in the field on a given day.
- English only: no multi-language interface.
- UI design is dated: the interface is functional but visually old. Multiple reviewers describe it as ‘clunky’, ‘basic’, ‘black and white’, or ‘like an application developed 10 years ago’. Aesthetic, not functional, but it matters for adoption.
- Can’t cancel approved leave without a manager: employees cannot withdraw an approved booking themselves. The manager has to do it.
- Can’t edit a booked leave: if dates change, users must cancel the original booking and create a new one.
WhosOff pricing
WhosOff pricing uses a single structure with no plan tiers. You pay per user per month, and the per-user rate drops as your team grows.
| Team size | Monthly total (USD) | Per user/month (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 10 users | $24.40 | $2.44 |
| 25 users | $58.25 | $2.33 |
| 50 users | $107.90 | $2.16 |
| 100 users | $199.40 | $1.99 |
| 200 users | $382.40 | $1.91 |
| 200+ users | Contact WhosOff | Volume discount applies |
What is included at all price levels:
- All core features: leave requests, approvals, policies, restrictions, unlimited custom leave types, bulk tools, reporting and analytics
- Overtime and TOIL management with custom types and conversion rates
- Staff Hub: employment records, salary history, training certificates, document compliance
- Bradford Factor absence reporting
- Free iOS and Android mobile apps for all users
- Custom branding at no extra cost
- SSO (SAML 2.0) with Azure AD, Okta, Auth0, OneLogin, Google Workspace, JumpCloud
- REST API and webhook access
- UK phone and email support at no extra cost
- No setup fees, no cancellation fees, rolling monthly contract, cancel anytime
- Optional document storage add-on: 250MB, 500MB, or 1GB at additional cost
Free trial:
- Up to 8 weeks — all features unlocked, no credit card required
- Does not auto-convert to a paid subscription at the end
- Trial can be extended on request if you need more time
- Data retention after trial expiry is not documented publicly; ask support before the trial ends
WhosOff vs actiPLANS: pricing and feature comparison
Both tools handle leave management for businesses moving off spreadsheets. WhosOff is UK-based and includes overtime/TOIL and Staff Hub features at its standard price. actiPLANS is a standalone WhosOff alternative with transparent USD pricing, a permanent free plan, a 30-day free trial, dedicated mobile apps, and location scheduling.
| Feature | WhosOff | actiPLANS |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No (8-week free trial only) | Yes — permanent, teams up to 3 users |
| Starting price | $2.44/user/month | From $1.20/user/month |
| 200+ users | $1.91/user/month = $382.40/month | $270/month flat (Enterprise, annual) |
| Billing | Monthly only, cancel anytime | Monthly or annual; 20% discount for annual |
| Free trial | 8 weeks, all features, no card required | 30 days, full features, no card required |
| Custom leave types | Yes | Yes |
| PTO accrual automation | Yes | Yes |
| Per-person allowance policies | Yes | Yes |
| Approval workflows | Yes | Yes |
| Overtime / TOIL management | Yes | Basic |
| Bradford Factor reporting | Yes | No |
| Staff HR records (Staff Hub) | Yes | No |
| Location scheduling (office/remote) | No | Yes |
| Event scheduling | No | Yes |
| Leave analytics / reporting | Yes | Yes |
| Calendar sync | Yes | Yes |
| Slack / Teams notifications | Yes | No |
| Dedicated mobile app | Yes | Yes |
| Payroll export | CSV/XLSX — manual upload to payroll provider | CSV and PDF — manual upload |
| Time tracking | No | Yes, through actiTIME |
| Best for | Teams needing overtime/TOIL, Bradford Factor, Staff Hub, or 8-week trial | Teams wanting a free plan, location scheduling, lower per-user cost at scale, or annual billing discount |
On price alone at scale: actiPLANS is significantly cheaper for larger teams. At 100 users, WhosOff costs $199.40/month vs actiPLANS Growth at $120/month (annual billing). At 200 users, WhosOff is $382.40/month vs actiPLANS Enterprise at $270/month flat. For teams under 50, the prices are closer and the feature differences matter more than the cost gap.
Value call: if overtime/TOIL tracking and Bradford Factor are important to your business, WhosOff’s included features justify the higher per-user cost. If you don’t need those features, actiPLANS gives you more for less at scale.
WhosOff’s 8-week free trial: what you actually get
WhosOff does not have a permanent free plan. What it offers instead is the most generous free trial in the leave management category: up to 8 weeks with every feature unlocked, no credit card required, no auto-conversion to a paid subscription.
What the 8-week trial covers:
- Full leave request and approval workflow, including custom leave types and auto-approvals
- Complete policy configuration: staffing limits, staff-to-staff restrictions, carryover rules, notice periods
- Overtime and TOIL management
- Bradford Factor reporting
- Staff Hub: employment records, salary, document compliance
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android
- SSO setup with your identity provider
- Bulk onboarding of your team via spreadsheet import
- Calendar integration with Google Calendar or Outlook
- Full reporting suite with CSV/XLSX export
- UK phone and email support throughout the trial
Final verdict and scorecard
| Category | Score | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Core leave management | 8/10 | Requests, approvals, custom types, policies, restrictions — all solid |
| Overtime and TOIL | 9/10 | Unusually deep for the price; payroll-ready exports included |
| Bradford Factor | 9/10 | Automated, not calculated in a spreadsheet; rare at this price point |
| Staff Hub (HR records) | 7/10 | Good for SMBs; not a substitute for a full HRIS |
| Pricing transparency | 9/10 | USD/GBP/EUR calculator on the site; verified per-user rates at each team size |
| Free trial quality | 9/10 | 8 weeks, all features, no card — best trial length in the category |
| UI and design | 4/10 | Functional but visually dated; multiple reviewers flag it consistently |
| Customer support | 9/10 | Consistently exceptional; named team members; fast response claimed and confirmed |
| Integrations | 7/10 | Strong SSO coverage (6 providers); calendar feeds work; no payroll connectors |
| Scalability | 5/10 | Works well to ~150 users; multiple reviewers outgrew it beyond that |
| Mobile app | 7/10 | Free for all users; older iOS issues appear resolved in recent reviews |
| Location scheduling | 2/10 | Not a core feature; workarounds exist but it is not the product’s intent |
WhosOff is a well-built, mature product that does leave management properly and includes features (overtime/TOIL, Bradford Factor, Staff Hub) that most competing tools either don’t have or charge extra for. The 8-week trial removes the usual time pressure of software evaluation.
The real weakness is the interface. It is not a deal-breaker for users who prioritise functionality, but it is real and consistent across every review platform. If your company’s tool adoption depends on first impressions and visual design, you will have a harder time with WhosOff than with newer alternatives.
Who should use it: UK SMBs from 10 to 150 employees that need leave management with overtime/TOIL tracking, Bradford Factor reporting, and strong policy enforcement. Teams that want the longest free trial in the category. Companies that value accessible UK phone support.
Who should look elsewhere: teams that need a permanent free plan, location scheduling for hybrid work, direct payroll integrations, a modern UI, or Slack-native leave approvals — or teams where the cost difference at scale vs actiPLANS matters.
