Sage 50 Payroll
Sage Payroll
Comparison
Sage 50 Payroll vs Sage Payroll
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
£12/mo
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
Sage Payroll
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%
Sage PayrollPositive sentiment
- Positive86%
- Neutral9%
- Negative5%
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
Sage Payroll
Free trialUK cloud payroll with a four step pay run, automatic tax and NI calculations, RTI submissions to HMRC, pension auto enrolment, payslips, HR essentials and Sage Copilot on every plan.
- HMRC recognised RTI submissions
- Pension auto enrolment
- Sage Copilot anomaly detection
Features
Full feature comparison
Every data point we track for Sage 50 Payroll and Sage Payroll, side by side.
Head to head
Verified data & user ratings
- HMRC recognised RTI submissions
- Pension auto enrolment
- Detailed payroll reporting
- HMRC recognised RTI submissions
- Pension auto enrolment
- Sage Copilot anomaly detection
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.”
Sage PayrollKrishnan Iyer
Practice Owner, 2-10 employees
“Never once had an RTI submission fail or go missing in three years, which I cannot say for every product I have used. Auto enrolment assessments are right every time. The price per company is sensible for bureau style use.”
Barry Huckerby
Owner, 11-50 employees
“Entering variable hours for twenty drivers weekly is tedious. Import template is strict and rejects files for formatting quibbles. Support twice suggested things I had already told them I tried. Considering whether a driver focused system suits us better.”
Our verdict
Sage Payroll leads 4/5Which should you choose?
On the data we track, Sage Payroll leads in 4 of 5 categories. Weigh that against your budget and the features that matter most to your team.