Compare Payroll Software in the United Kingdom

For a small business, UK payroll software typically runs £8 to £40 a month for a few employees. Specialist tools are cheapest: BrightPay works out around £12 a month for up to 10 employees, KashFlow Payroll is £8.12 a month for up to 5, and Sage Payroll starts at £10 a month (5 employees) plus £2 per extra. Add-ons to accounting software cost more because you also pay for the accounting plan: Xero Payroll needs the £37 Grow plan plus £1.50 per employee, and QuickBooks Payroll adds £9 a month plus £4 per employee on top of a QuickBooks subscription. Modern per-employee tools like Pento start around £5 per employee. Use the calculator above to compare your exact team size.

There are genuine free routes. HMRC Basic PAYE Tools is the government's free option, but it is bare-bones (no payslips, no auto-enrolment assessment, awkward beyond a couple of employees). Among real products, BrightPay is free for up to 3 employees, and FreeAgent includes PAYE and RTI payroll free (and FreeAgent itself is free for life if you bank with NatWest, RBS or Ulster Bank). Free tools are fine for a director-only or micro payroll; once you need robust auto-enrolment, statutory pay and employee self-service, a paid plan is worth it.

RTI (Real Time Information) is the system every UK employer must use to report pay, tax and National Insurance to HMRC on or before each payday under PAYE. The main submission is the FPS (Full Payment Submission), which tells HMRC what you paid each employee and the tax and NI deducted. You may also send an EPS (Employer Payment Summary) to claim reductions, such as statutory pay recovery, or to report a nil payment. All HMRC-recognised payroll software files the FPS and EPS for you automatically.

Auto-enrolment is the legal duty to automatically enrol eligible staff (aged 22 to State Pension age earning over £10,000) into a workplace pension and contribute. Good payroll software assesses each employee every pay run, enrols them, calculates contributions, and sends data to the pension provider. NEST, The People's Pension and Smart Pension are the common schemes. BrightPay, Sage Payroll, Xero, QuickBooks, FreeAgent, Pento, Staffology and the global providers all handle auto-enrolment.

HMRC-recognised means the software has been tested by HMRC and confirmed to file RTI submissions (FPS and EPS) correctly, and it appears on the GOV.UK Find payroll software list. It is not an endorsement of quality, but it does mean the tool can legally report PAYE to HMRC. Every product in our comparison is HMRC-recognised. Avoid any payroll tool that cannot file RTI to HMRC.

If you pay yourself a salary through your own limited company, you are an employer and must run PAYE and file RTI, even for a single director. You can use HMRC Basic PAYE Tools for free, but most directors prefer simple software (FreeAgent includes it free; BrightPay is free up to 3 employees) because it produces payslips, handles your auto-enrolment assessment correctly, and generates your P60. For a one-director, one-salary setup, a free or sub-£12 a month tool is plenty.

CIS applies if you are a contractor or subcontractor in construction: you must deduct and report CIS amounts alongside payroll. BrightPay (CIS module free), Sage Payroll, Xero, QuickBooks, KashFlow, FreeAgent and Staffology all support CIS. Modern per-employee tools like Pento and most global EOR providers (Deel, Remote, Payoneer) do not focus on CIS, so if you run construction payroll, choose a UK specialist with explicit CIS support.

It depends on size and setup. Director-only or micro: FreeAgent (free) or BrightPay (free up to 3). Small UK team under 10: BrightPay, KashFlow, Sage Payroll, or Xero/QuickBooks Payroll if you already use that accounting software. Construction: a CIS-capable specialist such as BrightPay, Sage or KashFlow. Scale-ups wanting automation and self-service: Pento or Employment Hero. Hiring abroad or paying contractors: Deel or Remote for global payroll and EOR. 50 or more employees wanting it fully outsourced: a managed bureau such as Moorepay.

You can run payroll yourself with HMRC-recognised software, and most small employers do. The software calculates tax, National Insurance, pension and statutory pay, files RTI, and produces payslips and P60s. You may want an accountant or bureau when payroll gets complex (high headcount, CIS, frequent leavers and joiners, employment-law questions) or when you would rather outsource it entirely, for example to Moorepay or to an EOR provider like Deel or Remote for overseas staff.

BrightPay uses a banded annual licence (free up to 3 employees, around £139 a year up to 10) with the CIS module and auto-enrolment included free, and it is consistently the top-rated UK payroll tool (Capterra 4.9 out of 5), though it is moving cloud-only from the 2026/27 tax year. Sage Payroll is a monthly subscription (£10 a month for 5 employees plus £2 per extra on Essentials) with core HR, leave and timesheets bundled, deep Sage Accounting integration, and strong UK phone support, but it scores lower on reviews (around 4.1) and costs more as you add employees. BrightPay wins on price and satisfaction; Sage wins if you want the Sage ecosystem and live phone support.

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP), Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP), Statutory Adoption Pay and Shared Parental Pay. HMRC-recognised software checks eligibility and amounts, applies them in the pay run, and lets you reclaim recoverable amounts through the EPS. All the UK specialists in our comparison handle SSP, SMP and SPP.

Yes. Deel and Remote both run UK payroll. If you have your own UK entity, Deel Global Payroll runs native UK PAYE and RTI from around $29 per employee a month, and Remote is officially HMRC-recognised. If you do not have a UK entity, they employ staff for you through Employer of Record (EOR), at around $599 per employee a month plus salary and employer National Insurance. EOR is the fast way to hire in the UK or abroad without setting up a company; native payroll is cheaper once you have your own entity.