Sage Payroll Review UK 2026: Pricing, Features & Plans Quick answer
Sage offers two main UK payroll options:
Sage Payroll Sage 50 Payroll
Sage Payroll currently has three plans :
Essentials – £12 + VAT/month Standard – £23 + VAT/month Premium – £34 + VAT/month
All three include the first 5 employees.
Additional employees can be added up to a maximum of 150, with the per-employee price falling as headcount increases.
Sage Payroll includes PAYE + RTI + pensions + payslips + employee self-service + HR features + Sage Copilot.
Standard adds functionality including timesheets and clocking and premium adds more advanced workforce functionality including shift scheduling.
Our view: Sage is one of the payroll products we’d compare first for a small UK business, particularly if it already uses Sage Accounting and their biggest advantage isn’t one unusual payroll feature.
It’s the combination of recognisable UK payroll + transparent pricing + accounting integration + HR functionality + room to grow.
However, we’d choose the product carefully.
A straightforward small business may only need Sage Payroll Essentials but a company with shifts or time-based payroll may benefit from Standard or Premium.
And a more advanced payroll team should compare Sage 50 Payroll rather than automatically choosing the highest Sage Payroll tier.
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Key Takeaways
Sage offers both cloud-based Sage Payroll and the more advanced Sage 50 Payroll.
Sage Payroll supports up to 150 employees.
Essentials currently costs £12 + VAT/month.
Standard currently costs £23 + VAT/month.
Premium currently costs £34 + VAT/month.
The first five employees are included in each Sage Payroll plan.
Additional employee pricing falls as headcount increases.
All Sage Payroll plans include HMRC-recognised payroll, pension auto-enrolment and employee self-service.
Standard adds timesheets and clocking functionality.
Premium adds features including interactive shift scheduling.
Sage Copilot is included across the current Sage Payroll plans.
Sage Payroll can connect with Sage Accounting.
Sage 50 Payroll is better suited to more advanced payroll requirements.
We think Sage is particularly strong for UK SMEs that want payroll and accounting within the same wider software ecosystem.
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How do we work?
Our comparisons are researched and reviewed by the Compare Your Business Costs editorial team using provider information, official UK guidance and business buying criteria. See how Compare Your Business Costs works .
Authored by: Ally Cox – Business Technology & B2B Services Specialist, 10+ years’ experience
Last updated: October 2026
Contents
What Is Sage Payroll? Sage is one of the UK’s best-known business software providers, offering products across accounting + payroll + HR + payments + ERP.
For UK payroll buyers, the important distinction is between Sage Payroll and Sage 50 Payroll.
Sage Payroll is its cloud-based product aimed primarily at start-ups and small/growing businesses.
It can support up to 150 employees.
Sage 50 Payroll provides more advanced payroll functionality for businesses and payroll professionals with more complicated requirements.
Our take: don’t treat Sage as one universal payroll product.
The first buying decision should be “Do we need straightforward cloud payroll or more advanced payroll software?”
Only then should you compare the individual features and price.
How Much Does Sage Payroll Cost? Sage Payroll currently starts from:
Essentials – £12 + VAT/month Standard – £23 + VAT/month Premium – £34 + VAT/month
Each plan includes up to 5 employees.
You can then add employees up to a maximum of 150.
For employees 6-10, current additional monthly pricing is:
Essentials – £2.40 per employee Standard – £4.40 per employee Premium – £6.40 per employee
For employees 11–25, this falls to £1.70 + £3.70 + £5.70 respectively.
For employees 26–150, it falls again to £1.40 + £3.40 + £5.40 per additional employee.
All prices exclude VAT.
Our view: this decreasing employee price is worth noticing and it means you shouldn’t estimate Sage’s cost simply by multiplying the 6–10 employee rate across a larger workforce.
Calculate the price at your actual headcount, also ignore introductory discounts when comparing long-term cost.
Sage currently advertises promotional pricing, but we’d compare providers using the normal ongoing subscription price.
That gives you a much cleaner comparison.
Sage Payroll Essentials vs Standard vs Premium Sage Payroll Essentials
Current price £12 + VAT/month for up to 5 employees and includes:
HMRC-recognised payroll
PAYE processing
Four-step pay runs
Workflows and automation
Pension auto-enrolment
Employee self-service
HR Essentials
Time-off balances
Sage Copilot
Our take: Essentials is where we’d start for a straightforward small business.
Don’t pay for workforce-management functionality if your employees are simply on fixed salaries with predictable hours.
Sage Payroll Standard
Current price £23 + VAT/month for up to 5 employees.
Standard includes the Essentials functionality and adds features including:
Timesheets
Employee clocking in and out
Project timesheets
Enhanced payroll functionality
Our take: Standard becomes more interesting when the information determining pay comes from hours worked.
If your payroll team is currently taking time information from another system or spreadsheet and manually entering it into payroll, this is where the additional cost may make sense.
Sage Payroll Premium
Current price £34 + VAT/month for up to 5 employees.
Premium includes the lower-tier functionality and adds features including:
Interactive shift scheduling
Shift templates
Goals and OKRs
Employee surveys
Our take: Premium shouldn’t be considered simply because it is the “best” Sage plan and its value depends on whether you actually need shift + workforce + wider people-management functionality.
For a five-person office business, we’d probably spend the difference elsewhere.
For a hospitality, retail or other shift-based business, the calculation changes.
Sage Payroll vs Sage 50 Payroll This is an important comparison missing from many Sage payroll reviews.
Sage Payroll
Best suited to start-ups + small businesses + growing businesses wanting cloud payroll – i t supports up to 150 employees and can be used from PC + Mac + smartphone + tablet.
Sage 50 Payroll
Best suited to payroll professionals and businesses with more advanced payroll requirements.
Sage 50 Payroll currently starts at £41 + VAT/month on Sage’s main product page.
Features include:
HMRC-recognised payroll
Advanced reporting
Batch processing
Departments and cost centres
Pay variances and alerts
Multiple payroll frequencies
Salary sacrifice deductions
Employee records
RTI health checks
Sage 50 Accounts integration
Optional modules are also available for areas such as pensions and NHS pensions.
Our view: this means a growing business shouldn’t automatically move Essentials → Standard → Premium forever.
At some point, the better comparison may be Sage Payroll Premium vs Sage 50 Payroll vs another advanced payroll provider.
Choose based on payroll requirements, not simply product hierarchy.
Sage Payroll Features Across its payroll products, Sage supports core UK payroll processes including PAYE + National Insurance + RTI + statutory payments + pensions + payslips + P60s.
Sage Payroll is HMRC recognised and automatically assesses employees for workplace pension auto-enrolment.
Employees can access their payslips and P60s online.
The cloud product also supports real-time collaboration with accountants.
What we like: Sage’s payroll proposition is relatively easy to understand.
For many small businesses, the requirement isn’t an enormous HCM transformation, rather, it’s pay people correctly + submit to HMRC + handle pensions + give employees their documents.
Sage does that while leaving room to add more HR and workforce functionality if required.
Sage Copilot & Payroll Sage Copilot is now included in Sage’s current Payroll Essentials, Standard and Premium plans.
Sage describes Copilot as an AI productivity assistant designed to help automate work and provide proactive recommendations.
Our take: we wouldn’t choose payroll software because it has “AI”. For payroll, the test should be much more practical:
Which tasks does it remove?
During a trial or demonstration, ask Sage to show exactly how Copilot helps with your recurring payroll workload.
If it saves real administrative time, useful but if it simply produces another conversational interface, it shouldn’t influence the buying decision much.
Sage Payroll & Sage Accounting This is arguably Sage’s biggest competitive advantage and Sage already has a substantial UK accounting-software presence.
Using payroll within the same broader ecosystem can reduce the amount of movement between unrelated systems and Sage Payroll can work alongside Sage Accounting, while Sage 50 Payroll integrates with Sage 50 Accounts.
Our view: if you already use Sage Accounting, Sage Payroll deserves a stronger shortlist position – not because buying everything from one provider is automatically better.
But because every additional integration creates another potential setup + reconciliation + support + data problem.
The important question is “What manual finance work disappears if payroll and accounting are connected?”
If the answer is very little, don’t overvalue the integration, but if it removes recurring payroll journals and reconciliation, it becomes much more useful.
Can Sage Handle Workplace Pensions? Yes. Sage Payroll includes pension auto-enrolment functionality and it can automatically assess employees and support workplace pension processes.
Sage 50 Payroll also supports pension calculations, with optional pension modules available for more specialised requirements.
An NHS Pensions module is available for Sage 50 Payroll.
Our take: the specialist Sage 50 options are another reason not to assume cloud Sage Payroll is the correct product for every employer.
Businesses with more complicated pension requirements should compare the relevant Sage 50 configuration.
Who Is Sage Payroll Best For? We’d particularly compare Sage for Small UK businesses
Essentials gives straightforward businesses an accessible entry point.
Businesses already using Sage Accounting
The connected ecosystem is one of Sage’s strongest arguments.
Growing businesses
Cloud Sage Payroll can support up to 150 employees.
Businesses with time-based employees
Standard and Premium add timesheet, clocking and shift functionality.
Businesses with advanced payroll requirements
Sage 50 Payroll provides a different route when the cloud product becomes too simple.
Who might prefer something else?
Businesses that want someone else to actually run payroll should compare:
managed + outsourced payroll services.
Highly complex enterprise employers should compare platforms such as Zellis, MHR and Dayforce.
Businesses with employees across many countries should compare dedicated global payroll providers.
Sage Payroll Pros & Cons Advantages
HMRC-recognised payroll software
Transparent Sage Payroll pricing
First five employees included
Supports up to 150 employees
PAYE and RTI
Pension auto-enrolment
Employee self-service
Online payslips and P60s
HR functionality available
Timesheets and clocking on higher plans
Shift scheduling on Premium
Sage Copilot included
Strong Sage Accounting connection
Sage 50 Payroll available for more advanced needs
Potential Disadvantages
Costs increase as employees are added
Some workforce features require Standard or Premium
Cloud Sage Payroll is capped at 150 employees
Advanced requirements may require Sage 50 Payroll instead
Sage 50 Payroll has separate pricing and optional modules
Businesses wanting payroll fully managed should compare outsourced providers
Not designed as a specialist multi-country global payroll platform
What We’d Choose For a small UK company with fixed monthly salaries Sage Payroll Essentials.
For a business where timesheets and employee hours feed into payroll Sage Payroll Standard.
For a shift-based business that genuinely needs scheduling alongside payroll Sage Payroll Premium.
For more advanced UK payroll processing and reporting Sage 50 Payroll.
For a company that doesn’t want to run payroll internally compare managed payroll providers instead.
Our view: that last distinction matters – better payroll software doesn’t solve a payroll capacity problem.
If the issue is “Our finance manager spends two days every month running payroll” compare outsourcing as well as software.
Compare Managed Payroll Services →
Our View: Is Sage Payroll Worth It? For small and growing UK businesses yes, Sage deserves a shortlist position.
We particularly like the fact that the current product structure makes the trade-offs relatively clear.
You can start with basic cloud payroll
and pay more when you genuinely need time tracking + shift management + wider HR functionality.
There is also another route through Sage 50 Payroll when payroll requirements become more advanced.
But the strongest reason to choose Sage is probably still ecosystem.
If your accounts are already in Sage, adding Sage Payroll can make more sense than introducing another supplier purely because its payroll feature list is slightly longer.
We wouldn’t automatically choose Sage for every small business.
BrightPay, Employment Hero, Xero and other payroll platforms deserve comparison.
And if you want payroll taken off your team’s hands, we’d compare managed services instead.
Our key question would be “How much simpler does Sage make the journey from employee data → payroll → accounts?”
If it removes meaningful administration and reconciliation, Sage becomes a strong option.
Compare Sage & Other Payroll Providers →
Free quotes • No obligation • Compare UK payroll services
Sage Payroll FAQs How much is Sage Payroll?
Sage Payroll currently costs £12 + VAT/month for Essentials, £23 for Standard and £34 for Premium. The first five employees are included.
How much are additional employees?
For employees 6–10, current additional monthly prices are £2.40 per employee for Essentials, £4.40 for Standard and £6.40 for Premium. Per-employee prices fall at higher headcounts.
How many employees can Sage Payroll handle?
Cloud-based Sage Payroll supports up to 150 employees.
Is Sage Payroll HMRC recognised?
Yes. Sage Payroll and Sage 50 Payroll are HMRC-recognised payroll products.
Does Sage Payroll handle RTI?
Yes. Sage supports UK Real Time Information payroll submissions.
Does Sage Payroll handle pensions?
Yes. Sage Payroll includes workplace pension auto-enrolment functionality.
What’s the difference between Sage Payroll and Sage 50 Payroll?
Sage Payroll is a cloud product aimed primarily at start-ups and small/growing businesses with up to 150 employees. Sage 50 Payroll provides more advanced payroll processing, reporting and controls.
Does Sage Payroll include HR?
Sage Payroll plans include HR functionality, with more workforce-management features available on Standard and Premium.
Does Sage Payroll work on Mac?
The cloud Sage Payroll product can be accessed from PCs, Macs, smartphones and tablets.
Does Sage Payroll integrate with Sage Accounting?
Yes. Integration with the wider Sage accounting ecosystem is one of its major advantages.
Does Sage Payroll have AI?
Yes. Sage Copilot is included in the current Payroll Essentials, Standard and Premium plans.
Is Sage Payroll good for small businesses?
We think it is a strong option for small UK businesses, particularly those already using Sage Accounting.
Compare Sage With Other Payroll Providers When comparing Sage, look beyond the subscription price.
Compare Payroll + employee count + accounting integration + HR + timesheets + shifts + internal administration.
And decide whether your real requirement is better payroll software or someone else to run payroll.
Compare Payroll Providers →
Related Payroll Guides Hi, I’m Ally Cox , a senior copywriter and blogger at CompareYourBusinessCosts.co.uk, the UK’s trusted platform for comparing business services.over a decade of experience in the B2B sector, I specialise in simplifying complex topics like leased lines, VoIP, business energy, HR and payroll solutions, accounting software, and EPOS systems .HR, copywriting, and business operations- from clocking-in systems to card machines and office technology .informed, confident decisions when choosing products and services that improve efficiency and save money.
