Xero

Xero payroll starts from £37/mo (Grow) and includes 1 employee at that tier. Additional employees are charged at £1.50/emp/mo each. Unlike Xero's pricing in some other markets, UK payroll is not bundled into every plan, so check which tier you need before assuming payroll is included.

Yes. Xero is on HMRC's recognised payroll software list and submits Full Payment Submissions under RTI for every pay run. It also handles auto-enrolment into a workplace pension, integrating with NEST and other major pension providers to calculate and submit contributions automatically as part of the standard pay run.

Yes, but only as an add-on rather than a built-in feature. UK construction businesses that need to deduct and report Construction Industry Scheme payments to subcontractors must activate the CIS add-on on top of their Xero payroll subscription, rather than it being included by default.

Xero includes JAX, its native AI assistant, built into the platform for payroll and accounting tasks. Xero also publishes an official MCP (Model Context Protocol) server, one of the few payroll providers in this comparison to do so, letting AI agents connect directly to Xero data rather than relying on third-party workarounds.

Xero payroll suits businesses already using Xero for accounting who want payroll in the same subscription rather than a separate system. Rated 4.4 out of 5 on Capterra from 3,299 reviews, it particularly suits small to mid-sized UK businesses that value accounting, invoicing, and payroll under one login with 24/7 online support.

Yes. Xero calculates statutory sick pay, maternity and paternity pay, and other statutory leave entitlements within each pay run, and generates P60s at the end of the tax year along with P45s when an employee leaves. These compliance documents are produced automatically as part of the standard payroll workflow.