Xero

Xero starts at £18/mo (Ignite) in the UK, with unlimited bank feeds. The invoice cap on that entry plan is 20/mo (Ignite). The mid-tier plan is £39/mo (Grow) with unlimited invoicing, and the top plan is £70/mo (Ultimate). Multi-currency and project tracking are held back for the higher plans. Prices are excl. VAT and plans are month-to-month.

Built in, yes. Free, no. PAYE and RTI payroll is part of every Xero plan in the UK, but it is charged at £1.50/emp/mo (£1 Ultimate) from the first person paid. For that you get Real Time Information submissions to HMRC, pension auto-enrolment and leave management.

A Xero account in the UK can have Unlimited users on every plan. There is no per-seat charge, so your bookkeeper, your accountant and the rest of the team can each have a login without the monthly subscription going up.

Yes. Xero is HMRC-recognised for Making Tax Digital and supports direct VAT return filing. VAT is calculated automatically as you code transactions, and you can submit your return from within Xero without exporting to a separate system.

Xero's entry plan in the UK includes Unlimited bank feed connections, so you do not have to move up a plan to connect a second account or a credit card.

Whether Xero is more expensive than Sage or FreeAgent depends on the plan you need and the number of people you pay. Xero's entry plan is £18/mo (Ignite) and payroll is charged at £1.50/emp/mo (£1 Ultimate). Unlimited users are included on every plan with no per-seat fee. Put your own numbers into the table above to see all three costed side by side.

No. Xero is available on a rolling monthly subscription with no lock-in contract. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time.

Xero's subscription fee is the plan price, from £18/mo (Ignite), and it includes Unlimited users and Unlimited bank feeds. Payroll costs extra, at £1.50/emp/mo (£1 Ultimate), and CIS is a paid add-on. Xero does not file a Self Assessment tax return, though it does support Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. There is no contract.

Yes, with one cost to plan for. Payroll is built into every Xero plan and charged at £1.50/emp/mo (£1 Ultimate), so a startup paying one or two people adds only a few pounds a month to the plan price. Xero is HMRC-recognised, files RTI and handles pension auto-enrolment. The accounting plans run from £18/mo (Ignite) to £70/mo (Ultimate).

Xero's UK pricing tiers start at £18/mo (Ignite), and invoicing on that tier is capped at 20/mo (Ignite). The next tier, at £39/mo (Grow), lifts the cap. Comprehensive adds multi-currency, and the top tier is £70/mo (Ultimate). Every tier includes Unlimited users and Hubdoc receipt capture.

Every Xero price on this page is read from xero.com and checked again each month, and the date of the last check is shown under the pricing table. Prices are monthly in pounds with no contract.

Yes. Xero supports Making Tax Digital for VAT, with VAT returns filed directly to HMRC, and is HMRC-recognised for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax. That is a separate thing from filing a Self Assessment tax return, which our data lists as not included in Xero.

Xero payroll in the UK runs inside a Xero accounting plan, from £18/mo (Ignite), and each employee paid is charged at £1.50/emp/mo on top. Put your headcount into the payroll calculator to see the monthly total for your team.

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 and works with NEST and other major UK pension providers, so contributions are worked out in the pay run and not in a separate job.

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

Xero payroll has Xero's own AI assistant, JAX, built in for payroll and accounting tasks. If you want to connect an outside AI agent to your Xero data, Xero provides an official MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for that.

Xero payroll is for a business that already does its books in Xero and wants payroll on the same subscription and login. It runs inside the accounting plan, from £18/mo (Ignite), with £1.50/emp/mo on top for each person paid. Support is 24/7 online.

Yes. Xero calculates statutory sick pay, maternity and paternity pay, and other statutory leave entitlements within each pay run. It generates P60s at the end of the tax year and a P45 when an employee leaves.