Sage 50 Payroll
SimplePay
Comparison
Sage 50 Payroll vs SimplePay
A data-driven, side-by-side comparison for UK businesses. Provider data is verified by our research team and every review is moderated before publishing.
Updated 5 July 2026
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Starting price
£10/mo
Starting price
£5/user/month
At a glance
Who wins, category by category
Category-by-category winners based on verified user ratings, each scored out of 5.
Sage 50 Payroll
SimplePay
Analytics
Ratings, visualised
The four dimensions every reviewer rates, shown two ways — bars for side-by-side magnitude, gauges for the head-to-head on each.
Rating by category
Head to head by category
Sentiment
How reviewers feel
Positive (4 to 5 stars), neutral (3 stars) and negative (1 to 2 stars) sentiment across all verified reviews.
Sage 50 PayrollPositive sentiment
- Positive76%
- Neutral6%
- Negative18%
SimplePayPositive sentiment
- Positive87%
- Neutral10%
- Negative3%
Pricing
Pricing compared
Entry price, free plans and trials at a glance. A lower starting price is not everything, but it is where most UK businesses begin.
Sage 50 Payroll
Free trialDesktop payroll software for UK businesses, HMRC recognised with RTI submissions, pension auto enrolment, statutory payments and detailed reporting, priced by number of employees. Pairs with Sage 50 Accounts.
- HMRC recognised RTI submissions
- Pension auto enrolment
- Detailed payroll reporting
SimplePay
Free trialStraightforward SA payroll with automatic tax calculations, HMRC filing season exports and a clean interface.
- Automatic tax calculations
- P60 generation
- Accounting integrations
Features
Full feature comparison
Every data point we track for Sage 50 Payroll and SimplePay, side by side.
Head to head
Verified data & user ratings
- HMRC recognised RTI submissions
- Pension auto enrolment
- Detailed payroll reporting
- Automatic tax calculations
- P60 generation
- Accounting integrations
Voices
What real users say
The strongest praise and the most common complaint, pulled from verified reviews of each product.
Sage 50 PayrollAngela R.
Office Manager, 201-500 employees
“Compliance has been rock solid for years.”
Imran Threlfall
Director, 201-500 employees
“Support was slow on the issues that mattered.”
SimplePayFatima Fourie
Financial Manager, 501-1000 employees
“It is genuinely simple to use. I am not a payroll person and I had our staff loaded and paid on day one.”
Priya D.
Office Manager, 501-1000 employees
“The reporting is a bit basic if you want to slice the numbers finely.”
Our verdict
SimplePay leads 4/5Which should you choose?
On the data we track, SimplePay leads in 4 of 5 categories. Weigh that against your budget and the features that matter most to your team.