Best Cloud Payroll Software

The shift to cloud payroll in the UK is no longer a preference.

For many businesses, it is now the only option. BrightPay, which built the most loyal following in the UK accountant market on a desktop model, is discontinuing its desktop product at the start of the 2026/27 tax year. Every remaining BrightPay desktop user must migrate to the cloud version.

That migration, happening across thousands of accountancy practices simultaneously, puts a fine point on a question that should have been asked earlier: what does browser-based payroll actually give you that desktop cannot, and which platform is right for your business once you stop defaulting to the one you already know?

We evaluated six cloud payroll platforms against four criteria that desktop software structurally cannot match: automatic HMRC updates pushed by the vendor, simultaneous multi-user access, employee self-service without admin intermediation, and genuine mobile access.

The results are not uniform. Two platforms have no mobile app. One has a hard employee ceiling that creates a migration risk for growing teams.

One is free and unlimited.

The differences matter more than the vendor marketing suggests.

Best Cloud Payroll Software for UK Businesses at a Glance

The six platforms we reviewed cover the full spectrum from free-to-use to mid-market enterprise pricing.

The right choice depends less on features in isolation and more on the combination of your employee count, existing accounting tools, and how much admin time you want employees to be able to resolve themselves without contacting payroll.

Source: Whichapp research, April 2026. Prices exclude VAT where applicable. Mobile app = dedicated iOS/Android app for employees, not mobile-responsive web.

Four of the six platforms we reviewed have no dedicated mobile app for employees. That is the most common misconception in this category: “cloud payroll” and “mobile payroll” are not the same thing.

A browser-based tool is accessible on any device, but that is not the same as a purpose-built app with push notifications, offline viewing, and a mobile-optimised interface.

If your employees need to check payslips on a phone without logging into a browser session, that distinction decides your shortlist immediately.

Which Cloud Payroll Platforms Made Our Shortlist?

We included only HMRC-recognised, browser-based payroll platforms that handle UK statutory requirements natively: RTI submissions, pension auto-enrolment, statutory pay calculations, and P60/P45 generation.

We excluded desktop-only software and any product where UK compliance is a localisation add-on rather than a native build.

Sage 50 Payroll and BrightPay desktop do not appear because they require local installation.

We assessed each platform specifically on cloud-native criteria: multi-user simultaneous access, automatic compliance updates, employee-facing self-service, and mobile capability.

1. Employment Hero Payroll: best cloud payroll software for free, compliant payroll

Employment Hero Payroll is the only platform that starts at £0 and includes a native mobile app in the free tier.

That combination is unusual enough to warrant scrutiny, which is exactly what we applied.

Why Employment Hero Payroll works as cloud-first payroll

The free tier is genuinely free: no employee ceiling, no trial expiry, no compliance features withheld. RTI, auto-enrolment via PensionSync, P11D, statutory pay, and employee self-service are all included at £0.

Employment Hero is explicit about this: “£0 cost for payroll, forever.”

The self-service layer is stronger than most competitors. Employees access payslips, P60s, leave requests, and HR documents through the same app used for onboarding.

On a 30-person team where the payroll admin doubles as the office manager, the reduction in admin requests is measurable within the first pay cycle.

Multi-user access with approval workflows is included.

Pay run approval routing lets a second user review gross-to-net calculations before submission, a control that matters where no single person should have unreviewed access to payroll output.

Where Employment Hero Payroll falls short

Pricing opacity is the most legitimate frustration. Core Payroll (the paid upgrade) does not show a flat per-employee rate on the pricing page.

You need a demo call or quote to get a number, which creates a real barrier in any Finance approval process.

CIS support is limited. If your business operates substantially within construction, verify CIS depth before committing.

The platform handles standard PAYE reliably but is not built around subcontractor verification workflows.

Best for: UK businesses of any size that want genuinely free, HMRC-compliant cloud payroll with employee mobile access included.

Particularly strong for 1-100 employees where a combined HR and payroll system has value.

Not for: Businesses that need a payroll-only tool with no HR overlay, or teams with extensive CIS requirements. Also less suited to businesses that need phone support as the primary resolution channel.

2. Xero Payroll: best cloud payroll software for accounting integration

Xero Payroll earns its place on this shortlist through one specific strength: if your business runs Xero Accounting, the payroll integration removes a step that every competing tool requires. Payroll journals post automatically.

You do not export, import, or reconcile.

Why Xero Payroll works as cloud-first payroll

RTI submissions are automatic.

Xero submits Full Payment Submissions (FPS) to HMRC on or before payment date, and Employer Payment Summaries (EPS) for relevant periods, without requiring you to log into a separate HMRC portal.

Auto-enrolment contribution files go directly to NEST, Smart Pension, and The People’s Pension without a manual export step.

That is a genuine advantage over tools that require you to download and re-upload a contribution file.

The Xero Me app gives employees access to their own payslips and P60s on mobile. In a business where the payroll admin is shared across Finance and HR, that self-service layer reduces inbound admin requests without requiring you to build a separate employee portal.

Accountants running client payrolls through Xero can access all clients from one login, which is the practice-management use case Xero has built towards.

Where Xero Payroll falls short

The 200-employee ceiling is the most consequential risk on this list. Xero’s documentation is unambiguous: 200 is the maximum across all plans, with no enterprise tier and no negotiated extension.

If your headcount trajectory approaches that limit within three years, you are building a migration project into your current procurement decision.

Xero Payroll is not sold standalone: it is a £1.50/employee/month add-on layered on a Xero Accounting plan (Grow at £28/month, Comprehensive at £47/month). The pricing only makes sense if you use Xero Accounting as well.

If your books are elsewhere, the integration premium you are paying is not being used.

Best for: UK businesses already running Xero Accounting with up to 200 employees. The accounting integration justifies the platform cost; nothing else matches it for that specific use case.

Not for: Businesses not using Xero Accounting, any business with a credible path to 200+ employees, or teams that need complex payroll configurations (multiple rates per employee, irregular schedules) where BrightPay’s specialist engine performs better.

3. BrightPay Cloud: best cloud payroll software for accountancy practices

BrightPay built its market position on accountant trust: deep UK compliance, bureau-grade multi-client tools, and a price that made it the default recommendation for practices managing payroll across dozens of employer clients.

The 2026 transition to cloud-only is not a rebrand.

It is a structural change to the pricing model and the architecture. What you are buying today is different from what most BrightPay users bought before.

Why BrightPay Cloud works as cloud-first payroll

The compliance depth that made BrightPay the accountant’s default carries into the cloud product.

• RTI
• auto-enrolment
• CIS (verify current status: see below)
• statutory pay
• P11D
• and payroll journal exports are all present

The bureau structure, where one login manages multiple employer clients with separate payroll environments, is the most important structural feature for practices. No other platform on this list matches it.

The employee self-service portal (previously BrightPay Connect, now absorbed into the cloud product) lets employees access payslips, P60s, personal tax documents, and absence requests without calling the payroll admin.

That portal is browser-accessible on any device, though there is no dedicated mobile app.

Where BrightPay Cloud falls short

Pricing transparency is genuinely poor. BrightPay does not publish a simple tier table for cloud pricing.

You must use an interactive calculator on their website. That creates a real problem when you are trying to benchmark costs in a Finance approval process or a procurement comparison.

The old desktop model, a flat annual licence with a known cost from April, is gone.

The billing model charges based on your highest recorded employer and employee count within any billing period. A temporary headcount spike (a seasonal hire, a short-term transfer, an error in the employee register) can lift your billing tier for that period.

Finance teams who relied on a fixed annual payroll software cost will need to track this differently under the cloud model.

CIS users should verify feature parity directly with BrightPay before committing. Early cloud adopters were required to maintain a parallel desktop licence to handle CIS filings while the feature was built into the cloud product.

Confirm the current status before your desktop licence expires.

Best for: UK accountancy practices and payroll bureaus managing multiple client payrolls. The bureau architecture and HMRC compliance depth are unmatched at equivalent price points.

Not for: Businesses that need integrated HR, benefits, or expenses management. BrightPay is payroll only. Also not for teams that need a dedicated mobile app for employee payslip access.

4. Sage Business Cloud Payroll: best cloud payroll software for Sage ecosystem users

Sage Business Cloud Payroll is not the same product as Sage 50 Payroll. That distinction matters for this comparison.

Sage 50 is desktop-installed. Sage Business Cloud Payroll is browser-based, hosted by Sage, and receives automatic compliance updates without local installation.

If you are currently on Sage 50 and considering cloud migration, you are looking at a different product, different hosting model.

Why Sage Business Cloud Payroll works as cloud-first payroll

The compliance core is reliable. RTI, auto-enrolment, P60s, P45s, CIS deductions, and statutory pay are all handled without drama.

For businesses already using Sage Accounting, the integration reduces the reconciliation step that eats time at month-end.

Sage’s HMRC relationship is long-established; the compliance update process works on the vendor’s schedule, not yours.

The Essentials tier (from £10/month for up to 5 employees, ex-VAT) makes Sage Business Cloud Payroll accessible to micro-businesses. An employee self-service portal is included across all tiers.

Multi-user access is supported, which matters for businesses where payroll is shared between an external bookkeeper and an internal HR contact.

Where Sage Business Cloud Payroll falls short

Renewal pricing has caught users out in documented cases. One Trustpilot reviewer documented a 64.3% price increase on annual renewal with no prior notice.

Sage’s current promotional pricing (90% off for six months) makes the entry cost attractive, but the post-promotional rate is what you will be paying within the year.

Build the full cost into your comparison from the start, not the introductory rate.

There is no dedicated mobile app for employees. The employee self-service portal is browser-accessible but not a native app experience.

If mobile payslip access is important to your workforce, Sage Business Cloud Payroll does not deliver that in the same way Employment Hero or Xero does.

The interface is functional rather than modern. Compared to Employment Hero or Pento, the workflow feels a generation behind.

That matters less if your payroll team is experienced; it matters more if you are onboarding a new HR hire who has not used Sage before.

Best for: UK businesses already using Sage Accounting who want payroll in the same ecosystem. The integration removes a reconciliation step that is otherwise manual. Best for 5-50 employees.

Not for: Businesses choosing payroll software for the first time without an existing Sage relationship, teams that need a modern UX, or anyone who needs transparent renewal pricing before committing.

5. Pento: best cloud payroll software for mid-market HRIS integration

Pento is the platform UK People Ops leads name when they have lost patience with Sage 50, outgrown their bureau, and do not want to inherit the payroll module embedded in their HRIS.

It is payroll-only, HMRC-recognised, and built around a real-time data model rather than the traditional monthly pay run cut-off.

Why Pento works as cloud-first payroll

The real-time model is the most substantive differentiator on this list. Pento does not wait for a monthly cut-off to update payroll data.

When a new starter is added in HiBob or Personio, that data flows to Pento via API. When a salary changes, it updates without a manual export.

For businesses running frequent off-cycle payments, managing a growing headcount, or dealing with multi-entity structures, the reduction in reconciliation work is material.

UK compliance is built in natively. HMRC-recognised for RTI. Native API integration with all eight major UK pension providers.

P11D and P11D(b) supported natively. Full statutory payments, IR35 payroll, gender pay gap reporting, and CSOP handling are present.

The compliance build reflects years of UK-specific development, not a US platform localised for the UK market.

Where Pento falls short

The minimum viable account size is around 50 employees. Below that, the implementation fee (typically £1,500-3,500, verified April 2026) destroys the unit economics against BrightPay or Employment Hero.

Pento does not publish pricing at all; you must request a quote.

At typical rates of £4-6 per active employee per month plus implementation, the full first-year cost at 50 employees is £2,400-3,600 in subscription fees plus implementation. That cost is defensible when it replaces a bureau relationship and significant reconciliation time.

It is not defensible for a 30-person business already running on BrightPay.

There is no dedicated mobile app. Employees access their payslips and documents through a browser-based portal. For a 200-employee business where most staff are office-based with laptop access, that is acceptable.

For a business with significant field-based or frontline workforce, the absence of a native app creates friction.

Best for: UK businesses with 50-500 employees already running HiBob, Personio, or BambooHR, who want payroll to integrate by API rather than CSV export, and are prepared to pay for an implementation that removes ongoing reconciliation friction.

Not for: Businesses under 50 employees, teams without an existing HRIS investment, anyone who needs accounting-plus-payroll in a single platform, or those requiring phone-based support as the primary contact model.

6. Payfit: best cloud payroll software for combined payroll and HR

Payfit’s core pitch is consolidation: payroll, HR, onboarding, leave, and expenses in one browser-based platform.

For a growing UK business that has outgrown spreadsheets and does not yet run a dedicated HRIS, the bundle removes the decision about which HR tool to bolt onto Whichapp engine.

Why Payfit works as cloud-first payroll

Payfit processes payroll inside its own engine, submits RTI data to HMRC automatically, and handles pension contributions through direct scheme submissions. Admins run payroll inside the browser console; payslips distribute to employees through the portal automatically after approval.

The workflow is guided and clear enough that non-specialist HR managers can run payroll without a dedicated payroll administrator.

The Payfit Light tier starts at £29/month as a base fee plus £5 per employee per month. For a 20-person business, that is £129/month. Standard (£59 + £6/employee) and Premium (£119 + £7/employee) add deeper HR tools, P11D automation, and analytics.

For businesses over 25 employees, Payfit moves to custom pricing on request.

Where Payfit falls short

There is no dedicated mobile app for employees. Payfit’s own verdict card describes this explicitly: the absence of a native app is listed as a key weakness. Employees access payslips via a browser-based portal.

If your workforce expects a mobile app experience comparable to Employment Hero or Xero Me, Payfit cannot deliver that today.

The price-to-payroll-only ratio is the highest. A 50-person business on Payfit Premium pays approximately £469/month (£5,600/year) for payroll and HR combined.

The same payroll compliance work costs a fraction of that on BrightPay or Employment Hero. Payfit’s fee is only defensible if you are extracting value from the HR modules, running payroll.

P11D automation is gated behind Standard or Premium tiers. If benefit-in-kind reporting is part of your payroll workflow, factor that into your tier selection rather than assuming it is available on Light.

Best for: UK SMBs with 10-100 employees who want combined payroll and HR administration in one browser-based system and have no existing HRIS investment to protect.

Not for: Businesses buying payroll only, any team whose workforce needs mobile app access to payslips, or companies at the micro end (under 10 employees) where the base fee is expensive relative to alternatives.

What Should Cloud Payroll Software Do That Desktop Cannot?

The term “cloud payroll” gets used loosely. Here is what it actually means in practice for a UK employer, and where the real advantages concentrate.

Automatic compliance updates. Every time HMRC changes tax codes, NI thresholds, or reporting requirements, a cloud payroll vendor pushes the update to all customers simultaneously.

With desktop software, you wait for a new release and install it. In the weeks between a legislative change and your desktop update, you are running payroll on the wrong rules.

Simultaneous multi-user access. Your Finance Director and HR Manager can log in at the same time from different locations. That is structurally impossible with a single-install desktop product.

For distributed teams or businesses with external accountants, this is the most operationally important difference.

Employee self-service without admin intermediation. An employee in Bristol can download their P60 or check their holiday balance without emailing the payroll admin in London.

The reduction in low-value admin queries scales with headcount: modest at 50 employees, material at 200.

Accountant access without data transfer. Your external accountant gets their own login, pulls reports, and submits to HMRC without you exporting files. The data never leaves the platform to move between parties.

What cloud payroll does not automatically provide: offline access (all six platforms require internet), a mobile app (four of six do not have one), or protection against vendor pricing changes. Cloud is the right architecture for UK payroll in 2026.

That does not make every cloud product right for every business.

How Did We Evaluate Cloud Payroll Software for UK Businesses?

We assessed each platform against five dimensions, weighted towards criteria that create real operational risk rather than feature counts.

UK compliance completeness. HMRC recognition, RTI automation, auto-enrolment, P11D, statutory pay, and year-end processing. Any platform requiring manual workarounds for core compliance was excluded.

Cloud-specific capability. Multi-user simultaneous access, automatic compliance updates, and genuine browser accessibility. We tested whether “cloud” meant accessible or merely hosted.

Employee self-service depth. What can an employee do without contacting the payroll admin?

We distinguished between a native mobile app and a mobile-responsive browser portal, which are meaningfully different experiences for frontline or field-based workforces.

Pricing transparency and total cost. We modelled the full first-year cost at 20 and 50 employees per platform, including implementation fees.

Platforms with opaque or calculator-only pricing were noted as a procurement risk.

Limitations and operational risk. Every platform has a ceiling or a gap.

The 200-employee cap on Xero, the headcount-spike billing risk on BrightPay, the implementation fee on Pento: these belong in the evaluation, not in footnotes.

Frequently Asked Questions About Cloud Payroll Software in the UK

Methodology and Disclosure