UK HR software typically costs between £4 and £10 per user per month at SME scale (1 to 50 employees), rising to £8 to £15 per user at mid-market (50 to 250) and quote-only enterprise pricing above that. The exact figure depends on your primary need: basic record-keeping costs less, bundled HR + UK payroll costs more, and global contractor management sits in a separate pricing band post the April 2026 IR35 threshold change.
This calculator matches your team size, primary need, payroll requirement, and budget against 11 UK-relevant providers and returns the three closest fits with realistic monthly cost estimates and direct links to our full reviews.
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How to Use This Calculator
Select your team size in the four bands offered (1–10, 11–50, 51–250, 250+). The calculator uses the midpoint of each band to estimate monthly cost, so a 30-employee team is modelled at 25 staff.
Pick your primary need from the five use cases. This is the single most important input: it determines which providers score highest. “Basic HR” weights toward UK-built SME tools like BrightHR, Breathe HR and Sage HR. “HR + legal advice” weights heavily toward BrightHR (via Peninsula Group’s employment-law line). “HR + UK payroll” surfaces Sage HR, People HR, Employment Hero and Moorepay. “HR + recruitment / ATS” surfaces BambooHR and Workable-adjacent platforms. “Global contractor / IR35” surfaces Rippling and Deel.
Confirm whether you need built-in UK payroll (RTI). UK HR software splits into two camps here. Sage HR, People HR, Employment Hero, Moorepay and Rippling submit RTI directly. Most others (BrightHR, Breathe HR, HiBob, BambooHR, CharlieHR) integrate with a separate RTI-compliant payroll engine.
Set your budget per user per month. The slider runs from £3 (entry-tier per-user pricing like Sage HR Core or People HR Starter) to £40 (enterprise HCM). Most UK SMEs find £6 to £10 a realistic per-user budget once they include the full feature set they actually need.
Review the top three matches ranked by team-size fit, primary-use match, payroll requirement, and budget alignment. Each match shows the estimated monthly cost, per-user breakdown, and a one-line summary of why it fits your inputs. Click through to the full ExpertSure review for verified pricing tiers, feature lists, pros and cons, and AppWiki affiliate quotes where available.
What Factors Affect HR Software Cost in the UK
HR software pricing in the UK varies more than headline rates suggest. Five factors drive the actual bill: per-user vs flat-team pricing, native payroll inclusion, setup fees, feature tier, and contract length.
Per-User vs Flat-Team Pricing Models
Most UK HR software charges per user per month. Sage HR (£4.40), People HR (£3 to £9.50), HiBob (~£10), Rippling (£7) and Deel (£4 HRIS) all use this model. The advantage: predictable scaling. The disadvantage: small teams pay disproportionately for any platform that has a minimum-seat requirement.
Two UK providers use flat per-team monthly pricing instead. Breathe HR charges flat fees by team-size band (£22 for 1 to 10 staff, £39 for 11 to 20, £89 for 21 to 50, up to £525 for 151 to 200). BrightHR charges from £16.67 per month based on a five-employee minimum, working out to roughly £3.33 per user at the smallest band. Both flat models favour very small teams; per-user models become competitive above ~25 employees.
Native Payroll vs Integrated Payroll
If you need RTI payroll inside the HR platform, you narrow the field to roughly five UK-relevant options: Sage HR (via Sage Payroll), People HR (with managed payroll add-on), Employment Hero, Moorepay, and Rippling. Bundled pricing typically adds £2 to £4 per user per month versus the HR-only tier. The trade-off: fewer moving parts, one vendor relationship, but generally less choice if you later want a specialist payroll engine like BrightPay or Staffology.
For UK businesses already running a strong accounting stack (Xero, QuickBooks, Sage Accounting), pairing a separate HR platform with the matching payroll engine via API often gives more flexibility at slightly higher administrative overhead. See our RTI compliance guide for the full integration matrix.
Setup and Implementation Fees
Setup fees vary from zero (BrightHR, Breathe HR, CharlieHR) to £1,000+ for BambooHR’s UK onboarding and similar for HiBob mid-market deployments. Implementation typically includes data migration from your previous system, configuration of UK statutory leave types, employee data import, and admin training. For SMEs under 50 staff, the zero-fee UK-built tools are usually the right pick. For mid-market firms, the higher setup fee buys deeper configuration that pays back over the contract.
Feature Tier Selection
Most providers structure pricing in three or four tiers from “core HR records only” to “core plus performance plus recruitment plus advanced analytics”. Tier-jumping typically adds £2 to £5 per user per month. The honest reality: most UK SMEs use 60-70% of the features they pay for. Start at the core tier and upgrade only when a specific workflow forces it.
Annual vs Monthly Contracts
Annual contracts typically discount 10 to 20 per cent versus monthly. The trade-off: you lock in for 12 months. For new HR platforms where you are not yet sure the fit is right, paying the monthly premium for the first 3 to 6 months is usually worth the flexibility. After that, the annual discount becomes more compelling.
Per-Employee Pricing Bands by Team Size
Pricing changes shape as team size grows. The bands below show typical per-user monthly cost ranges across the most popular UK options at each team size.
| Team size | Typical per-user / month | Strongest UK picks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 10 staff | £3 to £8 | BrightHR Core, Breathe HR Micro, CharlieHR (free up to 10) |
| 11 to 50 staff | £4 to £10 | Sage HR, Breathe HR Starter / Regular, BrightHR Connect |
| 51 to 250 staff | £6 to £15 | HiBob, Sage HR, People HR Pro, Employment Hero |
| 250+ staff | £10 to £25+ (quote-only) | HiBob, Rippling, BambooHR, enterprise HCM |
Above 1,000 staff, the choice usually narrows to enterprise HCM platforms (Workday, SAP SuccessFactors, Oracle) where pricing is fully bespoke and the per-user economics no longer apply in the same way. Globally distributed teams of any size add a separate decision around contractor and EOR coverage, where Rippling and Deel are the strongest options.
How We Built This Calculator
The provider data behind this calculator is sourced from each vendor’s publicly verified pricing page, captured to our internal fact files (verified February to April 2026). Where pricing is quote-only (BambooHR, HiBob, Moorepay), we use industry-standard approximate ranges rather than guessing exact figures. The scoring algorithm weights team-size fit at 30 points, primary-use match at 25 points, payroll requirement at 20 points, budget alignment at 15 points, and a UK-built preference for small teams at 8 points. Providers that hard-fail your team size (e.g. HiBob’s 50+ employee minimum for a 5-person team) are excluded entirely.
For deeper context on which UK HR software handles statutory absence scoring (Bradford Factor), April 2026 IR35 contractor rules, GDPR Subject Access Requests, and HMRC RTI payroll integration, see our four UK-moat guides on each topic. For a broader market overview, see the best HR software for UK businesses roundup.
