Sage Payroll
BrightPay
Comparison
Sage Payroll vs BrightPay
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
We may earn a commission if you buy via links on this page. It never affects how we rate software — how we make money.
Starting price
£12/mo
Starting price
£10/mo
At a glance
Who wins, category by category
Category-by-category winners based on verified user ratings, each scored out of 5.
Sage Payroll
BrightPay
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 PayrollPositive sentiment
- Positive86%
- Neutral9%
- Negative5%
BrightPayPositive 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 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
BrightPay
Free trialHMRC-recognised UK payroll with full RTI submissions, automatic enrolment and a cloud employee portal, trusted by thousands of employers and bureaus.
- RTI submissions to HMRC
- Automatic enrolment
- Employee self-service app
Features
Full feature comparison
Every data point we track for Sage Payroll and BrightPay, side by side.
Head to head
Verified data & user ratings
- HMRC recognised RTI submissions
- Pension auto enrolment
- Sage Copilot anomaly detection
- RTI submissions to HMRC
- Automatic enrolment
- Employee self-service app
Voices
What real users say
The strongest praise and the most common complaint, pulled from verified reviews of each product.
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.”
BrightPayCharlotte V.
Payroll Administrator, 501-1000 employees
“Excellent value compared with the bigger payroll names.”
Olivia M.
Managing Director, 2-10 employees
“The extras added up.”
Our verdict
BrightPay leads 4/5Which should you choose?
On the data we track, BrightPay leads in 4 of 5 categories. Weigh that against your budget and the features that matter most to your team.