BrightPay
£12/mo est.
- Per employee
- £0 (banded)
- Base fee
- £12/mo (up to 10 emp)
- CIS
- Yes (free)
- Global hiring
- No
- RTI filing
- Yes
- Est. monthly cost
- £12/mo
BrightPay
Top-rated UK payroll software with a banded annual licence, free CIS module and pension auto-enrolment included, and a free tier for up to three employees.
- Per employee
- £0 (banded)
- Base fee
- £12/mo (up to 10 emp)
- CIS
- Yes (free)
- Global hiring
- No
Best for
Small UK businesses and payroll bureaus wanting top-rated, great-value payroll with CIS and auto-enrolment built in.
Pricing breakdown
All prices in GBPLast verified 17 June 2026Every fee we track, grouped by where it applies.
Strengths and trade-offs
Pros
- Top-rated UK payroll software (Capterra 4.9)
- Banded licence is excellent value for small teams
- CIS module and auto-enrolment included free
- Free for up to three employees
Cons
- Self-service and cloud backup need the paid Connect add-on
- Moving to cloud-only subscription pricing from 2026/27
- Desktop-first heritage (cloud is newer)
- No deep native HR suite
About BrightPay
BrightPay is consistently the highest-rated UK payroll software, used by small businesses and bureaus alike. It is priced as a banded annual per-employer licence (free for up to three employees, then a flat fee by employee band) rather than per employee, which makes it excellent value for small teams. It is HMRC-recognised, files RTI directly, handles pension auto-enrolment with one-click submissions to NEST, The People's Pension, Smart Pension and others, and includes a CIS module and statutory pay at no extra cost. The optional BrightPay Connect add-on adds cloud backup and an employer and employee self-service app. From the 2026/27 tax year BrightPay is moving to a cloud subscription model.
BrightPay was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Duleek, Ireland.
How BrightPay compares
Side-by-side with the closest alternatives by estimated cost.
Base fee plus per-employee costs, based on 4 employees. Quote-only providers are excluded.
Sage
£10/mo est.
- Per employee
- £2/emp/mo
- Base fee
- £10/mo (Essentials, 5 emp)
- CIS
- Yes (Standard)
- Global hiring
- No
- RTI filing
- Yes
- Est. monthly cost
- £10/mo
Pento
£25/mo est.
- Per employee
- £5/emp/mo
- Base fee
- £0
- CIS
- No
- Global hiring
- No
- RTI filing
- Yes
- Est. monthly cost
- £25/mo
FreeAgent
£33/mo est.
- Per employee
- £0 (included)
- Base fee
- £33/mo (or free w/ NatWest)
- CIS
- Yes
- Global hiring
- No
- RTI filing
- Yes
- Est. monthly cost
- £33/mo
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