UK · Payroll & compliance
Pento Pricing
Pento does not publish its UK pricing. You will not find a rate card on their website. You will find a demo booking form. That is not a criticism; it is a feature of how Pento sells.
But it matters to you because it creates evaluation asymmetry: Pento learns your requirements before you know what you will pay.
This page gives you the best available benchmarks before you enter that conversation.
Independent SaaS review sites and UK comparison summaries consistently report indicative pricing of £4–£6 per active employee per month, with a one-off implementation fee typically in the £1,500–£3,500 range for the 50–250 employee bracket.
These are not published figures from Pento; they are third-party benchmarks. Treat them as orientation, not quotes.
We reviewed Pento’s product documentation, customer feedback, and competitive pricing context to give you the most complete picture available without a live quote.
For the full product assessment (features, compliance, integrations, and editorial verdict), see our Pento UK payroll review.
What you actually pay for Pento
Pento publishes no UK price card. The figure that comes back from sales sits in a known indicative band, plus an implementation fee. Here's what surfaces at contract stage and what's actually moveable.
| Published | Pento does not publish UK pricing. Indicative band from G2, Capterra, SoftwarePundit and PeoplePro 2025: £4 to £6 per active employee per month. Implementation fee typically £1,500 to £3,500 for a 50 to 250 employee onboarding. Billing is per active employee per month: leavers are charged in the month they leave, new starters from start date. No tiered plans; cost scales linearly with headcount. |
|---|---|
| Common extras | Implementation is the largest non-PEPM line and runs £1,500 to £3,500 depending on company size and integration scope. Annual contract commitment is standard; mid-term exit incurs early-exit costs that are not prominently disclosed in sales materials. Standard tier has no phone support (chat and email only); a dedicated Customer Success Manager is allocated above a threshold typically reserved for larger enterprise accounts. |
| Pass-through | HMRC RTI submissions for PAYE are statutory and pass through at no markup. Auto-enrolment pension submissions across Nest, Smart Pension, Aviva, Legal & General, Scottish Widows, Royal London and Standard Life carry no Pento uplift. Bank BACS payment files generated by Pento remain a third-party bank charge. P60, P45, P11D, P11D(b), SMP, SPP, SAP, ShPP, SSP, IR35 and gender pay gap reporting are bundled in PEPM with no per-event uplift. |
| Negotiable | The PEPM band itself is the primary lever because no rate is published. Volume above 250 employees, multi-year commitment, and implementation-fee waivers are the documented patterns in customer reports. Annual prepay and bundled CSM allocation for mid-market accounts open further room at contract stage. There is no published plan to fall back on, so every term is genuinely negotiable. |
What does Pento payroll cost in the UK?
Pento operates a single pricing model: per active employee per month, with no plan tiers and no annual licence. The bill scales linearly with your headcount.
Every active employee in a given month counts, including leavers in their final month and new starters from their start date. There is no cap, no volume discount tier published, and no self-service checkout.
Does Pento publish its pricing?
No. Pento’s UK website directs all pricing enquiries to a sales conversation.
As of April 2026, there is no public pricing page, no published rate band, and no trial available without contacting the team.
This is consistent with how enterprise and mid-market payroll platforms typically sell (Moorepay and ADP operate the same way), but it sits in contrast to Xero Payroll and BrightPay, which publish rates directly.
For a Finance team that requires a published rate card before a business case can be tabled internally, this creates a practical constraint: you need to start the sales process before you can complete the approval process.
Factor that into your evaluation timeline.
What Pento pricing buyers can expect
Based on multiple independent SaaS review sites (G2, Capterra) and UK comparison summaries (SoftwarePundit 2025, PeoplePro 2025), the indicative range for Pento sits at £4–£6 per active employee per month.
That range is wide because quotes vary by headcount, contract length, and support configuration.
Larger headcounts typically attract lower per-unit rates; shorter contract terms cost more.
| Headcount | Low estimate (£4 PEPM) | Mid estimate (£5 PEPM) | High estimate (£6 PEPM) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 employees | £200/month | £250/month | £300/month |
| 100 employees | £400/month | £500/month | £600/month |
| 200 employees | £800/month | £1,000/month | £1,200/month |
| 300 employees | £1,200/month | £1,500/month | £1,800/month |
Indicative estimates only, based on third-party benchmarks. Not Pento’s confirmed rates. Verify all figures with Pento before making any purchasing decision. Implementation fee not included.
What affects your Pento quote
Four factors most directly influence the final PEPM rate you are offered: headcount (larger is cheaper per unit), contract length (annual is standard
Multi-year terms may attract lower rates), support tier (dedicated Customer Success Manager access is reserved for larger accounts), and timing within Pento’s sales cycle (quarter-end deals may be more negotiable).
Pento’s billing model also means your monthly cost fluctuates with actual headcount: high hiring months cost more, and any month with leavers still charges for those employees at their standard rate.
What is included in Pento’s pricing?
Pento’s platform fee covers a materially broader feature set than most entry-level payroll software.
Understanding what is included, and what is not, is essential to making a fair comparison with alternatives that charge for features as add-ons.
Core compliance and payroll processing
- The platform fee includes RTI submission to HMRC
- BACS payment file generation
- P60 and P45 production
- P11D and P11D(b) submission for benefits in kind
- and payslip generation with employee self-service access
SMP, SPP, SAP, ShPP, SSP, parental bereavement pay, and other statutory payment calculations are automated within the standard fee.
IR35 off-payroll working calculations for contractor scenarios where you are the fee-payer are also included. These are confirmed at pento.io/uk/features as of April 2026 and are not charged as separate modules.
Pension auto-enrolment
Pento handles auto-enrolment administration natively with direct integrations to Nest, Smart Pension, Aviva, Legal and General, Scottish Widows, Royal London, and Standard Life.
Contribution calculations, enrolment and opt-out processing, and pension provider data exchange are part of the standard platform.
If your workforce includes employees across multiple pension schemes, Pento manages this within the monthly fee rather than charging per scheme.
Implementation and onboarding costs
The implementation fee sits outside the monthly platform fee and is a one-off charge for migrating your payroll data, configuring integrations, and onboarding your team.
Independent reports and customer accounts consistently place this in the £1,500–£3,500 range for the 50–250 employee bracket.
For larger or more complex configurations (multiple pay groups, international elements, complex benefit structures), implementation costs may be higher. Pento will quote this separately during the sales process.
Whatever the figure, it should not arrive as a surprise on the bill. Pento’s own terms state that any set-up fees are itemised on the Order Form and added to your first invoice, so insist on seeing that line before you sign rather than after the work begins. Details last checked: 2026-06-30; primary source: Pento terms and conditions.
If you are switching mid-year, factor implementation cost alongside any early-exit fees from your existing provider. Switching payroll mid-contract can mean paying both providers simultaneously during a transition period.
Ask Pento about the minimum transition timeline during the sales conversation.
Support and account management
Pento’s standard support tier is chat and email only. There is no phone number for day-to-day payroll queries.
A dedicated Customer Success Manager is allocated above certain account sizes, but the threshold is not publicly stated and appears to be reserved for larger enterprise accounts.
For a team used to calling a named payroll bureau contact when something goes wrong on pay day, this is a material operational difference.
Price the support gap correctly: it may require internal capacity that does not currently exist.
Integrations
Pento’s HR and finance integrations are native API connections, not file exports.
HR platforms (HiBob, Personio, BambooHR, Charlie, Factorial, Humaans) and finance systems (Xero, QuickBooks, Sage Accounting, NetSuite) sync data directly.
The BambooHR and HiBob integrations are two-way: employee changes flow from HRIS into Pento automatically, and pay data flows back. These integrations are included in the platform fee.
If you are not running a compatible HR or accounting system, you capture less of the value proposition, and likely less justification for the price premium over alternatives.
How does Pento pricing compare to alternatives?
Pento does not sit neatly in one pricing tier. It is more expensive than self-service payroll software but cheaper than a fully managed bureau for larger headcounts.
Where you land on that spectrum depends almost entirely on your internal payroll capacity and how much of Pento’s integration ecosystem you can actually use.
| Provider | Model | Indicative cost (100 employees) | Pricing transparency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pento | Self-service platform, PEPM | ~£400–600/month | Quote only |
| Xero Payroll | PEPM add-on to Xero plan | ~£150/month payroll add-on | Published |
| BrightPay | Annual bureau licence | ~£17/month (£199/year) | Published |
| Moorepay Managed | Fully outsourced bureau | ~£500–800/month (estimated) | Quote only |
Sources: Xero published pricing (April 2026); BrightPay published pricing (April 2026); Pento and Moorepay third-party benchmark estimates. Not a direct like-for-like comparison; service scope differs materially between providers.
Verify all figures before making a purchasing decision.
Pento vs Xero Payroll on price
At 100 employees, Xero Payroll’s add-on runs approximately £150/month on top of your Xero accounting plan (itself £42–£75/month depending on tier). Pento at the same headcount runs £400–600/month. The gap is £250–450/month, equivalent to £3,000–5,400/year.
Whether that gap is justified depends on what you are buying with it.
Pento offers real-time payroll updates, richer HRIS integrations, dedicated pension provider connections, and a compliance layer that sits ahead of Xero’s for complex statutory payment scenarios.
If your business runs straightforward monthly payroll with no complex HR data flows, the premium is hard to justify.
If you are running HiBob or Personio and need two-way sync without manual exports, Pento closes a gap that Xero cannot.
Pento vs Moorepay on price
Moorepay’s managed bureau sits at broadly similar cost to Pento for mid-range headcounts, approximately £500–800/month for 100 employees on the managed service.
The service model is fundamentally different, though: Moorepay executes the payroll run for you, while Pento is a platform that your team operates.
For a People Ops team with no payroll specialist, Moorepay offloads execution risk. For a team with payroll capability who want automation rather than outsourcing, Pento is the better fit and comparable in cost.
The comparison shifts at larger headcounts: Pento’s linear PEPM model scales cleanly, while bureau pricing can become disproportionately high at 300+ employees.
Editorial View: Pento’s pricing position in the market
The UK mid-market payroll segment sits between two clear poles: published self-service software (Xero, BrightPay) and quote-only managed bureaux (Moorepay, ADP).
Pento occupies an interesting middle position: quote-only pricing aligned with bureau norms, but a self-service platform model. That combination creates a specific buyer friction. You are paying bureau-adjacent rates for a platform you still need to operate.
The value case is real: if you have the HRIS integrations and the internal payroll capability, Pento substantially reduces manual overhead.
But the pricing opacity means you are making that value judgement without a number on the table until you are already invested in the sales process. For Finance teams running multi-stakeholder approval, that sequencing matters.
We would recommend requesting an indicative budget figure at first contact, before committing to a full discovery session.
Is Pento worth the cost for your business?
The value case for Pento turns on a specific set of conditions. When those conditions are met, the premium over Xero is defensible.
When they are not, the cost is hard to justify against cheaper alternatives that cover the compliance basics without the integration overhead.
Pento makes financial sense when you are running 50–300 employees, already on a compatible HRIS (HiBob, Personio, BambooHR), and spending meaningful People Ops time on payroll data reconciliation and manual exports each month.
The real-time payroll model and two-way HRIS sync directly eliminate that overhead.
At 100 employees, the monthly cost difference versus Xero Payroll (roughly £350/month) translates to approximately 2–3 hours of senior People Ops time per week before it starts paying for itself.
If your current reconciliation overhead exceeds that, Pento is competitive. If it does not, it is not.
Pento makes less sense if you are below 50 employees (the implementation fee alone makes it uneconomic), if you run a simple monthly payroll with no complex statutory scenarios, or if your accounting stack is not Xero, QuickBooks, or Sage Accounting.
Without the integration value, you are paying a significant premium for compliance features that less expensive platforms also provide.
Cost modelling: 120-employee business, year one
Platform fee at £5 PEPM: £600/month × 12 = £7,200/year. Implementation fee (mid-range): £2,500 one-off. Year-one total: £9,700. Year-two total (platform only): £7,200.
Over three years at flat headcount: approximately £21,900.
At 150 employees (headcount growth factored): approximately £27,000 over three years. These figures do not include employer NICs (pass-through, not part of Pento’s fee) or internal People Ops time.
Compare: Xero Payroll at £1.50 PEPM for 120 employees = £180/month, £2,160/year, plus Xero plan cost. Three-year Xero payroll add-on total: approximately £6,500–8,000 depending on plan.
The Pento premium over three years: approximately £13,000–19,000.
Whether that is justified depends entirely on what integration and automation value you extract.
Pento payroll pricing FAQs
Does Pento publish its UK pricing?+
No. Pento does not publish a pricing page for the UK market.
All pricing is available via a sales consultation and quote. The figures on this page are indicative benchmarks drawn from independent SaaS review sites and customer reports, not Pento’s own published documentation.
You will need to contact Pento directly to get confirmed pricing for your headcount and configuration.
How much does Pento charge per employee?+
Independent benchmarks consistently report £4–£6 per active employee per month. Your actual quote will depend on your headcount, contract length, and support requirements. Larger headcounts typically attract rates at the lower end of that range.
These figures are third-party estimates, not a confirmed rate from Pento.
Does Pento charge an implementation fee?+
Yes. Pento charges a one-off implementation fee separate from the monthly platform fee.
Based on customer reports and independent research, this typically falls in the £1,500–£3,500 range for businesses with 50–250 employees. More complex configurations may be higher.
Confirm the implementation fee explicitly during your sales conversation and request it in writing before signing.
Is Pento cheaper than Xero Payroll?+
No. Xero Payroll charges approximately £1.50 per employee per month as an add-on to an existing Xero accounting plan.
Pento’s indicative rate is £4–£6 PEPM, making it two to four times more expensive on a per-employee basis. Whether that premium is justified depends on integration requirements and payroll complexity.
If you are already on Xero and do not need Pento’s real-time model or HRIS integrations, Xero Payroll is materially cheaper.
What contract length does Pento require?+
Pento operates on annual contract terms. This is not month-to-month SaaS pricing.
Before signing, confirm the exact contract length, auto-renewal terms, and any early-exit clause. If you are switching from an existing payroll provider mid-contract, you may face overlapping costs during the transition period.
Always request contract terms in writing before committing.
Does Pento’s pricing include employer National Insurance?+
No. Employer National Insurance contributions are a pass-through cost borne by you as the employer and are not part of Pento’s service fee.
Pento calculates and reports employer NICs as part of its compliance output, but the contributions themselves are paid by you to HMRC, not by Pento. This is standard across all UK payroll platforms and bureaux.
How we researched Pento pricing
Pento does not publish a price list, so no pricing page exists to verify directly.
- We drew on independent SaaS review platforms (G2
- Capterra) and UK-focused comparison summaries (SoftwarePundit 2025
- PeoplePro 2025) for the PEPM benchmarks
- cross-referenced with our own Pento product research for the full Pento UK review
Feature inclusion data was verified against pento.io/uk/features as of April 2026. Implementation fee ranges are based on customer-reported costs from independent sources, not from Pento’s sales materials.
Competitor pricing was taken from published sources for Xero and BrightPay (April 2026) and third-party estimates for Moorepay.
Whichapp is an independent comparison site. We do not sell payroll software or services. All pricing figures on this page are indicative benchmarks, not Pento’s confirmed rates, and are subject to change.
Verify all costs with Pento directly before committing to a contract.
For a broader view of your options at this market tier, see our best UK payroll software guide.