UK · Payroll & compliance
Brightpay Pricing
BrightPay runs on two pricing models in 2026, and which one applies to you depends entirely on when you are reading this.
The desktop version, sold as an annual licence with tiers by employee count, is available for the last time in the 2025/26 tax year.
The cloud version, which replaces it from April 2026, uses a subscription model that bills on your highest recorded employee count in any given billing period. These are not cosmetically different.
They change how you budget, how you forecast, and what you pay when headcount fluctuates.
For small employers and accountancy practices, BrightPay has been among the cheapest HMRC-recognised payroll options in the UK market. That value position is unlikely to disappear in the cloud era, but the pricing is no longer as simple to verify.
This page puts the numbers in one place.
Pricing verdict
Best value for: SMB employers with 1-25 employees who want the lowest annual payroll software cost in the HMRC-recognised market; accountancy practices where the bureau licence covers unlimited clients at a flat rate.
When to pay for cloud over desktop (2025/26 final year): If you are migrating now or starting from scratch, the cloud product is the only viable path from April 2026.
The desktop licence cannot be renewed for 2026/27 and will not receive HMRC compliance updates.
Key pricing risk: Cloud billing on highest recorded count means a short-term headcount spike lifts your tier. Under the old desktop model, you paid once per year regardless.
Finance teams who built payroll software into fixed annual budgets will need to adapt their modelling.
What you actually pay for BrightPay
BrightPay's bill depends on which model you sign for. Desktop is a predictable annual licence in its final year. Cloud is calculator-driven and bills on your highest recorded headcount. Here's what surfaces at contract stage under each.
| Published | Two pricing models run side by side in 2025/26. Desktop is annual licence: free up to 3 employees, £139/year up to 10, £209/year up to 25, £289/year unlimited (all ex-VAT). 2025/26 is the final year for desktop licences. The cloud product is a subscription priced via the BrightPay calculator at brightsg.com, billed on the highest recorded employee count in each billing period. |
|---|---|
| Common extras | On desktop, BrightPay Connect adds employee self-service at £0.60/mo for 1 employee, £4.67/mo at 10 and £10.52/mo at 25. Connect ends as a separate add-on from 2026/27 and folds into the cloud product. On cloud, the headline risk is tier creep: a one-month seasonal headcount spike permanently lifts the billed tier for that billing period, a forecasting risk the flat desktop model never carried. |
| Pass-through | HMRC RTI submissions for PAYE are statutory and pass through at no markup. Pension regulator submissions for auto-enrolment carry no BrightPay uplift. Bank-payment fees (BACS Bureau or equivalent) remain a third-party charge billed by your bank, not by BrightPay. |
| Negotiable | The bureau licence (unlimited employers, unlimited employees, flat rate) is unmatched by Sage (per-employer) or Xero (per-employee within accounting bundles) and is the strongest negotiation lever for UK accountancy practices. Annual prepay on the cloud product is typically 10 to 15% cheaper than monthly billing. Because the cloud quote is calculator-driven rather than a fixed published tier, the contract-stage conversation opens room on tier banding and committed-term discounts. |
What Does BrightPay Cost in the UK?
BrightPay’s headline cost has always been low relative to comparable HMRC-recognised payroll tools. At the most common SMB size (10-25 employees), the desktop licence ran between £139 and £209 per year: less than most competitors charge per month.
The cloud product continues in the same value bracket, though without a published tier table, the exact figure requires running the interactive calculator on their pricing page.
BrightPay Desktop Pricing: Annual Licence by Employee Band
The 2025/26 tax year is the last in which BrightPay desktop licences are available for purchase. Prices are per employer, per tax year, and exclude VAT:
| Employee band | Annual licence (ex. VAT) | Monthly equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 3 employees | Free | £0 |
| Up to 10 employees | £139 | £11.58 |
| Up to 25 employees | £209 | £17.42 |
| Unlimited employees | £289 | £24.08 |
| Bureau licence (unlimited employers + employees) | Calculator pricing | Flat rate |
Source: BrightPay.co.uk pricing page, verified April 2026. 2025/26 tax year only. Prices exclude VAT. No 2026/27 desktop licence will be issued.
The free tier for up to 3 employees is genuinely full-functionality: HMRC RTI submissions, auto-enrolment, payslips, and full PAYE compliance are all included. There is no feature stripping.
The only limit is the employee count, and that limit is hard: a fourth employee requires the £139 tier.
BrightPay Cloud Pricing: Monthly Subscription
From the 2026/27 tax year, BrightPay operates exclusively on cloud pricing. BrightPay does not publish a flat tier table for the cloud product.
Pricing is generated through an interactive calculator at brightsg.com/en-gb/brightpay-in-the-cloud-calculator, which quotes based on your employer count and employee count.
What is confirmed and published: the cloud model bills on your highest recorded employer and employee count within each billing period. Both monthly and annual payment options are available, with annual billing attracting a discount.
The cloud product includes all functionality that was previously in BrightPay Connect (the employee self-service portal), with no separate add-on charge for that capability.
If you are migrating from desktop and need to compare cloud costs accurately, run the calculator with your actual employee count before the April 2026 renewal date.
BrightPay’s historical pricing position has been significantly below Sage Payroll at comparable headcounts, and early cloud pricing signals suggest that position has been maintained.
What Is Free on BrightPay Desktop?
The free tier covers employers with up to 3 employees. It is not a trial or a stripped-down version. You get full HMRC RTI integration, PAYE calculations, payslip generation, auto-enrolment pension setup, and CIS capability where applicable. The software is fully HMRC-recognised.
The only constraint is the 3-employee ceiling.
For a sole trader with 1-2 employees or a household employer paying a nanny, this is a complete payroll solution at zero cost.
BrightPay cloud also offers a free trial period, though the terms should be verified directly with BrightPay before committing.
Does BrightPay Connect Have Separate Pricing?
BrightPay Connect was the employee self-service and cloud backup add-on for the desktop product. It was priced separately, with costs scaling by employee count. That pricing model no longer applies from 2026/27.
Legacy Connect pricing (for reference and for desktop users currently comparing costs):
| Employees | BrightPay Connect monthly cost | Annual total |
|---|---|---|
| 1 employee | £0.60 | £7.20 |
| 10 employees | £4.67 | £56.04 |
| 25 employees | £10.52 | £126.24 |
Source: BrightPay.co.uk Connect pricing, verified April 2026. For reference only: Connect is discontinued as a standalone product from the 2026/27 tax year.
From 2026/27, BrightPay Connect functionality (cloud backup, employee self-service dashboard, leave request approvals, payslip access) is included in the cloud subscription. If your budget modelling previously assumed low Connect costs on top of a flat desktop licence, you need to recalculate.
The cloud subscription absorbs both the desktop licence cost and the Connect add-on cost into a single bill.
For most users, that bill will be higher in absolute terms but lower per feature.
Annual Licence vs Monthly Subscription: Which BrightPay Option Costs Less?
For the 2025/26 tax year, desktop users who also use Connect can calculate their total cost precisely.
Cloud costs require the calculator, but the comparison below uses the Connect pricing data to illustrate the structural change:
| Employees | Desktop licence (2025/26) | Connect add-on (annual) | Desktop + Connect total | Cloud (use calculator) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 or fewer | Free | ~£7/year | ~£7/year | Verify via calculator |
| 10 | £139 | £56 | £195/year | Verify via calculator |
| 25 | £209 | £126 | £335/year | Verify via calculator |
| Unlimited | £289 | Variable | £289+ /year | Verify via calculator |
All prices ex. VAT. Desktop pricing is 2025/26 final year. Cloud pricing must be verified at brightsg.com/en-gb/brightpay-in-the-cloud-calculator; no published tier table exists.
Whichapp view
The shift from annual desktop licence to cloud subscription is platform change. It is a budgeting architecture change.
Under the desktop model, a 25-employee employer paid £209 once in April, knew the year’s total, and moved on. Under the cloud model, the same employer’s bill is calculated month by month on highest recorded count.
A seasonal hire in August or a data entry error that briefly inflates the employee register can lift the tier for that period.
Finance teams who have treated payroll software as a fixed annual cost line will need to reclassify it as a variable recurring expense. Not a large variable: BrightPay’s absolute costs remain low, but variable in a way the old model was not.
Annual billing (rather than monthly) reduces this risk, and BrightPay offers an annual discount, which makes it worth taking if you have reasonable headcount certainty.
How Does BrightPay Pricing Compare Against Alternatives?
The comparison below uses post-promotional rates for Sage and the full accounting plan cost for Xero. Both figures represent what a buyer actually pays after any introductory discount period ends.
BrightPay vs Xero Payroll on Price
Xero Payroll cannot be purchased as a standalone product. You pay for a Xero accounting plan, then add payroll employees on top.
On the Grow plan (£37/month), each additional employee beyond the first costs £1.50/month.
| Employees | BrightPay desktop 2025/26 (ex. VAT) | Xero Grow + payroll (per year) | BrightPay saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | £139 | £606 (£50.50/mo) | £467/year |
| 25 | £209 | £876 (£73/mo) | £667/year |
| 50 | £289 | £1,326 (£110.50/mo) | £1,037/year |
Xero Grow plan: £37/month base + £1.50/employee/month beyond 1. BrightPay: 2025/26 desktop licence.
Comparison is payroll cost only. Xero Grow includes accounting features that BrightPay does not. Verified April 2026.
The Xero comparison only makes sense if you are already using Xero for accounting and the payroll add-on is effectively a marginal cost. If you are evaluating Xero purely as a payroll tool with no interest in the accounting features, BrightPay wins on price at every headcount.
The accounting integration is real value for Xero users; it is not relevant for payroll-only buyers.
BrightPay vs Sage Payroll on Price
Sage Business Cloud Payroll Essentials charges a base rate plus a per-employee fee beyond the base. The introductory 90% discount applies for the first 6 months only.
The figures below show the ongoing post-promotional rate:
| Employees | BrightPay desktop 2025/26 | Sage Essentials (post-promo) | BrightPay saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | £139/year | £240/year (~£20/mo) | £101/year |
| 25 | £209/year | £600/year (~£50/mo) | £391/year |
| 50 | £289/year | £1,200/year (~£100/mo) | £911/year |
| 100 | £289/year | £2,400/year (~£200/mo) | £2,111/year |
Sage Essentials: £10/month base (5 employees) + £2/employee/month above base. Post-promotional rate applies from month 7.
BrightPay: 2025/26 desktop licence, final year. Both ex-VAT. Verified April 2026.
At 100 employees, BrightPay is approximately 88% cheaper than Sage on an annual licence comparison.
Even accounting for BrightPay’s cloud transition, which will increase absolute costs from 2026/27, the gap will remain substantial.
The tradeoff is that Sage Payroll includes a larger UK support team, a richer HR integration path, and a product that has undergone a major platform migration.
The price gap is real but not the only variable.
Is BrightPay Worth the Cost?
BrightPay’s cost structure makes sense for specific use cases and becomes questionable in others. The answer depends less on the absolute price and more on how the pricing model fits your operational context.
For employers with 1-25 employees running straightforward PAYE payroll: BrightPay is the value choice in the HMRC-recognised market. The free tier (up to 3 employees) and the low annual licence cost at higher bands leave almost no financial argument for choosing Sage or Xero on price grounds alone.
If HMRC compliance, RTI submissions, and auto-enrolment integration are your core requirements, BrightPay covers them at a fraction of the cost.
For accountancy practices and payroll bureaus: The bureau licence pricing model is uniquely favourable. You pay a flat rate for unlimited employers and unlimited employees.
Sage and Xero charge per employer, per seat, or per subscription tier per client, a cost structure that scales unfavourably as client count grows.
For a bureau managing 20 to 50 payrolls, the economics of BrightPay’s flat bureau licence versus per-client alternatives can represent a saving of thousands of pounds per year.
See the BrightPay payroll review for a fuller bureau licence analysis.
Where the value case weakens: If you need integrated HR features alongside payroll (absence management, performance reviews, expenses workflows), BrightPay is a payroll-only tool. You will need a separate HR system, which adds cost that erodes the payroll software saving.
At that point, an integrated HR and payroll platform (such as Employment Hero or Moorepay) may offer a better total cost of ownership despite the higher headline payroll cost.
The cloud migration also introduces a one-time evaluation cost.
If you are renewing in April 2026 for the first time as a cloud customer, run the calculator before assuming the bill will match historical desktop costs.
The pricing model has changed structurally, and the impact varies by headcount volatility. The UK payroll software guide has a broader comparison if you are still shortlisting.
Frequently Asked Questions About BrightPay Pricing in the UK
Is BrightPay free?
BrightPay desktop is free for employers with up to 3 employees. This is the full product: no features are stripped, and HMRC RTI, auto-enrolment, and payslip generation are all included.
The free tier is only available for the 2025/26 tax year as the desktop product is being discontinued. BrightPay Cloud offers a free trial; terms should be confirmed directly with BrightPay.
How much does BrightPay cost per employee per month?
BrightPay desktop does not charge per employee per month. It charges a flat annual licence by employee band. At 10 employees, the effective monthly cost is £11.58. At 25 employees, it is £17.42.
For the cloud product, per-employee pricing is generated by the interactive calculator. BrightPay Cloud bills on highest recorded employee count per period rather than a flat monthly per-employee rate.
Will BrightPay pricing increase when moving to cloud?
It depends on your use case.
For desktop users who did not use BrightPay Connect, cloud pricing may represent a cost increase because the subscription includes self-service portal features you were previously not paying for.
For users who had both desktop and Connect, the combined cost is similar or lower. Run the cloud calculator with your specific employee count to get a direct comparison.
Annual billing attracts a discount over monthly and reduces billing spike risk from headcount fluctuations.
Can I still buy a BrightPay desktop licence for 2026/27?
No. The 2025/26 tax year is the last year BrightPay desktop licences are available. From April 2026 (the start of the 2026/27 tax year), BrightPay operates exclusively as a cloud product.
The desktop version will not receive HMRC compliance updates, which means it cannot be used to run legally compliant UK payroll from that date.
How does BrightPay Connect pricing work?
BrightPay Connect was an add-on to the desktop product providing cloud backup and an employee self-service portal.
It was priced per employee per month: £0.60/month for 1 employee, £4.67/month for 10, and £10.52/month for 25.
From the 2026/27 tax year, Connect is discontinued as a standalone product. The cloud subscription absorbs all Connect functionality. There is no separate Connect charge on the cloud product.
Is BrightPay cheaper than Sage Payroll?
Yes, significantly. At 25 employees, BrightPay desktop costs £209/year. Sage Business Cloud Payroll Essentials costs approximately £600/year post-promotional.
At 100 employees, BrightPay desktop costs £289/year; Sage is approximately £2,400/year. The gap narrows with BrightPay’s cloud transition, but BrightPay is expected to remain materially cheaper at equivalent headcounts based on its pricing history.
Sage carries additional value in HR integration and UK support coverage that partly justifies the premium for some buyers.
What does BrightPay’s bureau licence cost?
The bureau licence is priced via BrightPay’s pricing calculator rather than a published flat figure.
It covers unlimited employers and unlimited employees at a flat rate per tax year, making it uniquely cost-efficient for accountancy practices managing multiple client payrolls.
BrightPay’s bureau pricing has historically been significantly cheaper than Sage or Xero on a per-client basis.
Contact BrightPay directly or use the pricing calculator at brightpay.co.uk/pricing/ for a current quote.
Methodology and Disclosure
All pricing data on this page was sourced from BrightPay’s published pricing page at brightpay.co.uk/pricing/ and the cloud pricing calculator at brightsg.com/en-gb/brightpay-in-the-cloud-calculator, verified April 2026.
Competitor pricing (Sage, Xero) was sourced from the respective providers’ UK pricing pages, also verified April 2026.
Desktop tiers are confirmed as 2025/26 tax year pricing. BrightPay has not published a flat cloud pricing tier table; cloud figures represent the billing model structure, not specific tier prices.
Run the calculator for your specific headcount before any purchasing decision.
Whichapp is an independent comparison site. We do not receive commission from BrightPay, Sage, or Xero. Prices may change; verify before purchase. This page covers pricing only.
For a full product evaluation, see the BrightPay payroll review.