Compare Payroll Software in the United Kingdom

How we compare payroll software

We list 13 ways to run UK payroll, spanning software you operate yourself and bureaus that run it for you. A published rate card exists for 10 providers, and every figure comes from the vendor's own pricing page. Where a vendor quotes instead, the table says so.

The calculator takes your headcount. Each rate card is costed at that number, with any included allowance or monthly minimum applied, and the table sorts by the result. Commission does not change the order.

RTI, auto-enrolment and CIS: what payroll software has to file

Two statutory jobs sit underneath every product here. Every pay run has to reach HMRC as a Full Payment Submission on or before the day you pay people, and late submissions attract penalties. Separately, you must assess every worker in every pay period, enrol those who qualify into a workplace pension, and re-declare compliance to The Pensions Regulator. The software side of that is assessment plus a contribution file your scheme will accept, so read which schemes a product talks to directly. If yours is not listed, you are uploading a file by hand each period.

If you pay subcontractors under the Construction Industry Scheme, a plan gate or add-on charge on CIS changes the real price for a construction business.

HMRC publishes a register of recognised payroll software, and the HMRC-recognised row records it. Papaya Global's reads No, which says what it is built for, and Payoneer Workforce Management's reads Via EOR, meaning the filing is done by the entity that legally employs the person.

Base fee plus per-employee: how payroll software rate cards work

Most priced rows are built from the same two parts: a monthly base fee, which is zero on some, plus a fee for each employee on a payslip that month. Where there is a base fee, at a handful of people it is most of the bill. At a couple of hundred it is a rounding error and the per-head figure is effectively the whole price.

Some vendors fold an allowance of employees into the base fee and charge per head beyond that. Where payroll is a module on an accounting subscription, the base fee is really the ledger, and the plan a ledger needs for payroll is not always its entry plan. FreeAgent's free tier reads Yes (with NatWest/RBS), which is a genuine consideration for a small limited company banking with those brands. Employment Hero applies a monthly minimum under its per-employee rate, and the calculator applies that floor rather than pretending the headline scales all the way down.

Quote-only pricing applies to 3 providers here. It is a different sales model rather than evasiveness: managed services and mid-market platforms are scoped before they are priced.

Managed payroll bureaus and payroll software you run yourself

A licence fee and a bureau quote are different purchases. With software, you enter starters and leavers, check the assessment, press submit, and you are the person HMRC corresponds with. With a bureau, a payroll professional runs the cycle from data you send. Moorepay's RTI row reads Yes (managed), which is the distinction in one cell.

A bad month on a monthly subscription costs you a month. A bad month on an annual managed contract costs you the year. When you collect bureau quotes, ask for the cost per payslip at your headcount and pay frequency, because a bureau bills the payslip. Ask what an off-cycle run costs, whether year-end work sits inside the fee, and what the notice period is, because leaving mid-tax-year means migrating year-to-date figures.

A business paying a handful of people on a stable monthly cycle rarely needs a bureau. The case for one is complexity you cannot staff for: high turnover, variable hours, or a finance function of one person.

Paying someone abroad is not a job for UK payroll software

UK payroll software operates a PAYE scheme for people employed in the UK. If someone lives and works in another country, they are subject to that country's employment law, payroll taxes and social security, and adding them to a UK payroll does not change that.

You have three routes. Set up a legal entity there and run local payroll. Use an Employer of Record, where a provider that holds an entity in that country employs the person on your behalf for a fee per person per month. Or engage them as a genuine contractor, which puts the classification risk on you.

The gap between those two columns is the price of somebody else carrying the employment risk, which is why the Misclassification protection row matters for this group. If everyone you pay sits on a UK PAYE scheme, ignore this half of the table. The global platforms are priced for a problem you do not have.

Payroll software at larger headcounts

As you grow, features you assumed were included can sit above the cheapest plan, so price the tier that carries what you need. Employee self-service stops being a nicety. And if a meaningful share of your people are hourly, someone is keying timesheets unless the system collects them.

The journal has to land in the ledger without being retyped. An export is workable at fifteen people and a monthly chore at a few hundred. At this size a failed submission is a lot of people not being paid, and the Customer support column above says whether there is a UK phone line to ring.