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Employment Hero

All-in-one HR and payroll platform (the former KeyPay engine) with strong employee self-service, priced per employee per month for UK businesses.

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Per employee
£3/emp/mo
Base fee
£0
CIS
Yes
Global hiring
No

Best for

Growing UK teams wanting HR, rostering, and payroll in one platform with employee self-service.

Pricing breakdown

All prices in GBPLast verified 5 August 2026

Every fee we track, grouped by where it applies.

Strengths and trade-offs

Pros

  • All-in-one HR plus payroll
  • Strong employee self-service app
  • Rostering and timesheets included
  • Built on the proven KeyPay payroll engine

Cons

  • Per-employee pricing is largely quote-led
  • More than payroll-only businesses need
  • Effective cost rises with modules and add-ons
  • Support quality criticised in some reviews

About Employment Hero

Employment Hero is an all-in-one HR and payroll platform now live in the UK, built on the KeyPay payroll engine it acquired and rebranded. It combines payroll, onboarding, rostering, leave, and a strong employee self-service app. It is HMRC-recognised, files RTI, handles pension auto-enrolment, supports statutory pay and CIS, and integrates with Xero, QuickBooks and Sage. UK pricing is per employee per month and largely quote-led, scaling with headcount, modules and add-ons, so it suits growing teams that want HR and payroll in one system rather than payroll-only buyers.

Employment Hero was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.

How Employment Hero 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.

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Common questions about Employment Hero

The same questions UK merchants ask before signing up.

  • Employment Hero charges £3/emp/mo on Core Payroll, with no monthly base fee (£0). It enforces a 10-user minimum rather than a pound floor, so any team of 10 or fewer pays the same £30 and the bill only starts rising once you pass 10 employees. Managed Payroll, the fully outsourced tier, is charged at a higher per-employee rate. Employment Hero also publishes a genuinely free UK payroll tier with no employee limit, though it drops features such as the pay conditions engine, single sign-on, multiple PAYE schemes and third-party integrations, so most businesses running real payroll land on Core.

  • Yes. Employment Hero is on HMRC's recognised payroll software list and submits RTI Full Payment Submissions for every pay run. It also handles workplace pension auto-enrolment, integrating with NEST and other major pension providers so contributions are calculated and submitted alongside each pay cycle.

  • Yes. Employment Hero includes CIS support for businesses that need to deduct and report Construction Industry Scheme payments to subcontractors alongside standard PAYE payroll, which makes it usable for construction firms that employ staff directly while also engaging subcontractors.

  • Employment Hero includes Hero AI, a native suite covering features such as SmartMatch. Beyond the native tools, it connects to broader AI and automation platforms via third-party Zapier integrations rather than an official first-party MCP server, so deeper AI-agent connections rely on that middle layer.

  • Employment Hero is built for growing SMBs that want HR and payroll combined rather than payroll alone. Rated 4.4 out of 5 on Capterra from 239 reviews, it integrates with Xero, QuickBooks, and Sage for accounting sync, suiting UK businesses that are scaling headcount and want onboarding, leave, and payroll in one online platform.

  • Yes. Employment Hero calculates statutory sick pay, maternity and paternity pay, and other statutory leave entitlements automatically within each pay run, and produces P60s at year end and P45s when employees leave. These are included as standard rather than requiring a higher-tier plan.

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