10 Best Payroll Software in the UK of 2026

BrightPay is a UK payroll specialist from Bright Software Group in Leamington Spa, and its cloud version is now the only one on sale: BrightPay for Windows was discontinued after 5 April 2026. The business plan sends RTI submissions to HMRC from every pay run and assesses auto-enrolment automatically, sending contributions straight to leading pension providers. Employees get payslips, P60s and leave balances in their own app and portal, which cuts down on payslip requests. Pricing is set by team size for payrolls of up to 300 employees, billed monthly or annually, and annual billing saves 15%; the pricing page shows figures from £7.00 per month billed annually, though it does not say which team size that covers, so use the calculator for a firm quote. A free trial gives full access. BrightPay is a good fit for small and mid-sized employers that want straightforward payroll with staff self-service. Firms with more than 300 employees need a larger system.

Sage Payroll is the easiest recommendation for a typical UK employer because the compliance basics are in every plan and the price is published. Sage's UK page lists HMRC recognised compliance, pension auto enrolment and payslips on Payroll Essentials, Standard and Premium, and says RTI information, including submissions to HMRC, is sent electronically each time you pay your employees. Essentials costs £12 per month excl. VAT with 5 employees included, Standard £23 and Premium £34, and you can add employees in-product up to 150, starting at £2.40 per month on Essentials. The per-employee rate falls as headcount rises. Higher plans add HR features such as HR analytics, custom policies and workflows. Sage Copilot is built in to automate parts of the pay run and flag anomalies. Sage runs on Mac or Windows in a browser and on phones and tablets. The main limits are the 150-employee ceiling and the fact that the launch discount replaces the free month rather than adding to it.

Staffology Payroll is IRIS's cloud payroll for UK businesses, and the old IRIS Payroll Business product page now redirects to it. Pricing is based on payslips processed each month: a flat fee of £43 per month covers 1 to 20 payslips, payslips 21 to 50 cost £2.15 each per month, and anything above 51 is quoted. All prices are subject to VAT. IRIS states that Staffology Payroll is HMRC recognised and has built-in checks to help you stay compliant, and that it handles specialist needs such as CIS and umbrella company payroll. Its API-first design and open API suit firms that want to connect payroll to an HR system or a data warehouse, and IRIS offers bespoke reporting on top of standard reports. The product holds ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials and ISO 9001 certifications. The £43 minimum makes it poor value for a tiny payroll, but the per-payslip model and quotes up to 10,000+ payslips mean it can grow with a business.

QuickBooks Payroll is the obvious choice if your books already live in QuickBooks Online, because payroll runs inside the same account. Intuit's UK pricing page lists three payroll add-ons, Core, Premium and Elite, and each one submits RTI to HMRC, handles pension auto-enrolment, creates and distributes payslips and includes an employee portal where staff can find payslips and P60s. The differences are in pensions and time: Core sends automatic pension submissions to NEST, while Premium and Elite add Smart Pensions and time tracking. Intuit describes QuickBooks Payroll as HMRC-recognised payroll software for online PAYE reporting. Each add-on is free for 30 days, and Intuit was advertising 90% off QuickBooks for six months when we checked, though taking the Buy Now offer means giving up the free trial. Prices load dynamically on the UK page, so check the current figure there. If you use Xero or Sage for accounting, their own payroll is usually the simpler match.

Xero does not sell payroll on its own in the UK: it comes inside the accounting plans. Grow costs £39 per month excl. VAT and includes payroll for one person, Comprehensive at £55 covers five people and Ultimate at £70 covers ten, with extra people at £1.50 each per month, or £1 on Ultimate. Xero was offering 10% of the price for the first 6 months when we checked. Xero states that it is HMRC-recognised payroll software that sends an FPS after every pay run and an EPS for each tax period, and it calculates PAYE and National Insurance from each employee's tax code, NI category and pension details, along with student loans, directors' NI, statutory pay and small employers' relief. CIS and off-payroll workers are covered too. Staff check payslips and P60s and request leave in the Xero Me app. For a sole director or a small team already on Xero this is the least effort. Payroll-only buyers will pay less elsewhere.

PayFit is different from the software on this list: it is a managed payroll service on top of its own platform. PayFit assigns a dedicated UK payroll expert to each account, and its team collects, enters and checks payroll inputs such as leave, absences, bonuses and expenses. PayFit says it calculates National Insurance contributions, generates payslips and submits RTI returns to HMRC, while you review and approve each pay run. The same platform covers HR tasks such as leave and absence, expenses and performance reviews, and it includes contract and amendment templates and help with HMRC notifications and final pay documents. A UK-based team sets the account up from start to finish, and a customer quoted on PayFit's site describes its Xero integration. The catch is cost visibility: PayFit does not publish UK prices, so you need a quote, and a managed service usually costs more than running Sage or BrightPay yourself. It suits firms without an in-house payroll person.

Moneysoft Payroll Manager is the cheapest way on this list to run a compliant UK payroll. Payroll Manager 20 costs £95 per year excl. VAT for one employer with up to 20 employees, Payroll Manager 100 costs £190 for unlimited employers with up to 100 employees each, and Payroll Manager 250 costs £285 for up to 250 employees per employer. Every licence runs for 12 months and includes all updates and email support. Moneysoft says the software is HMRC recognised for PAYE, calculates tax and National Insurance automatically and includes auto-enrolment of workplace pensions, working with NEST, NOW: Pensions, The People's Pension and other major providers. It also handles CIS subcontractors and offers multiple payslip designs for print or email. The trade-off is a more traditional product: there is no employee app, and the employee limits count leavers during the tax year, so a business with high staff turnover may need the larger licence sooner than expected.

Rippling is a combined HR, IT and payroll platform, and its UK payroll page says it handles RTI submissions to HMRC, PAYE calculations, National Insurance, student loan deductions and tax codes. Rippling calls itself a recognised payroll provider built to support HMRC requirements. Rippling keeps employee data and PAYE calculations in one system rather than separate tools, and current and past employees can view payslips and tax forms whenever they need. The bigger attraction is breadth: Global Payroll, employer of record, PEO, benefits administration and time and attendance live on the same platform, so a UK company with staff in other countries can run everyone from one place. Rippling's pricing page says plans start at $8 per employee per month with a monthly base fee, and the final price is quoted to your mix of products. For a UK-only small business that just needs RTI and auto-enrolment, Sage or BrightPay will be simpler and cheaper.

Remote is best known for employer of record services, but its Global Payroll product is for companies that already have their own entity in each country. Remote's pricing page lists Global Payroll from $19 per employee per month, with no setup or onboarding fees and the Remote Platform included. It calculates gross-to-net locally, remits tax filings and statutory contributions in each country, and syncs time off, timesheets and expenses. Remote says it runs payroll in 100+ countries, including the UK, and that it is a regulated payments institution in Canada, the UK and the EEA. Reports can be split by country, entity and cost center, and you can run payroll yourself or have a specialist manage it. For a business with UK staff only, the per-employee price is high next to Sage or Moneysoft and the payroll page does not spell out UK auto-enrolment handling, so ask for detail. For a group with UK and overseas entities, one provider for every country is the draw.

Papaya Global is an enterprise payroll and payments platform, and it is on this list for one kind of buyer: a large company that runs UK payroll as one of many countries. Its pricing page lists Payroll Plus, a fully managed global payroll service, from $29 per employee per month, with in-country experts in 160+ countries, centralized workforce data and standardized gross-to-net reports. Papaya says its platform covers 180+ countries and that it runs payroll and payments together, which removes a separate payments provider. Shadow payroll for cross-border tax, time and attendance, employer of record and contractor products sit on the same platform. For a UK small business it is the wrong tool: the price needs a quote, the setup is aimed at multinational teams, and the payroll page does not describe UK auto-enrolment, so confirm pension handling during the sales process. Enterprises consolidating many payroll vendors are the right audience.