ADP Payroll Costs and Plans: A Strategic Guide for UK Businesses

ADP delivers scalable payroll and HR solutions for businesses of all sizes, from startups to global enterprises. According to our in-depth research, its standout strength is global payroll, supporting complex, multi-country workforces alongside powerful HR, talent and time management tools.

Instead of listing standard tiers, the small business payroll provider allows businesses to build custom stacks, so you only pay for the tools you actually need. However, by looking at each of its software plans, who they’re for and what features they include, we can give you some insight into what you can expect to pay.

In this guide, we break down each of ADP’s payroll plans, explore its payroll and HR features, and determine the ideal user for each plan.

Quick Summary: ADP Software Plans in Comparison

ADP Payroll software can be broken down into two main categories:

• ADP iHCM: Designed for small to midsize businesses, and available in the Essential, Standard, and Advanced editions.
• ADP Celergo, Global and GlobalView: Designed for midsize, large, and multinational businesses, and are distinct products which sit outside the iHCM category.

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Does ADP charge implementation fees?

Yes, ADP typically charges one-time implementation fees. This charge will depend on your company’s size, number of employees and service complexity, and is often calculated as a percentage of annual costs or a flat fee.

It’s hard to give a ballpark figure, as fees can vary significantly. However, based on customer reports, you can expect to spend anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand pounds, while larger organizations with complex requirements may face implementation costs running into the tens of thousands.

What Factors Influence ADP’s Pricing?

ADP’s pricing is designed to be as efficient as possible, helping businesses pay only for what they need and nothing more. To achieve this, its custom prices are determined by several key factors:

• Pay frequency: How often a payroll cycle is run could impact ADP’s monthly costs, with weekly payroll runs costing more than bi-weekly or monthly schedules as they require more frequent processing and filings.
• Employee count: Like with other payroll providers, your business’ number of employees will have a big influence on total costs. This is because fees are typically calculated per employee, per month, or per pay run.
• Type of worker being paid: Worker classification has a direct impact on pricing. PAYE employees typically cost more than contractors, as they require full tax and National Insurance calculations, pension auto-enrolment, and statutory payments.
• Added modules: If you choose to unlock additional features like HR tools, time and attendance tracking, recruiting and talent management, you can expect to pay a premium.
• Business size and complexity: Larger or more complex businesses often pay more due to multi-location payroll, multi-state or multi-country compliance requirements, and the need for advanced reporting or support.

ADP Payroll Software Plans

ADP’s iHCM is designed for small to midsize businesses and includes three payroll tiers — Essential Edition, Standard Edition and Advanced Edition. Each plan varies in features, scope and cost. Pricing is bespoke and determined by the number of employees, tax reporting needs, worker classifications, HR needs, and compliance features required.

ADP’s Celergo, Global and GlobalView plans are designed for larger multinational companies with HR, payroll and compliance responsibilities in multiple countries, languages and currencies.

Much like Rippling, Moorepay and other competitors, ADP doesn’t publicly list prices. However, it’s still worth breaking down each plan’s features, drawbacks and what type of business would benefit most from them, so you’re better placed to decide if it’s worth getting a quote. If you’d like a more in-depth look at the software, check out our ADP review.

The iHCM Essential Edition

• Price: Bespoke — contact ADP for a quote
• Features: Direct deposit, new hire documentation, P60, P45 and P11D preparation, automated RTI filing, tax filing options, plus HR features such as employee and employer portals and payroll reporting functions
• Ideal customer: Startups and small businesses with basic payroll, tax and compliance needs

What is the Essential Edition?

The Essential Edition is ADP’s most basic and accessible payroll package, making it ideal for new businesses or those with a consistent number of employees. There are enough features to get you started running payroll, such as remitting information to HMRC, preparing payroll and income tax information, managing basic HR functions, and more.

Who is the Essential Edition right for?

The Essential Edition is perfect for startups and small businesses with relatively simple HR and payroll situations, and those with steady or slow-growing workforces.

What features does the Essential Edition include?

ADP’s Essential Edition covers core payroll functions like direct deposit, new hire documentation, unlimited payroll runs, payroll tax preparation, and automatic Real-Time Information (RTI) remittance, ensuring you always meet tax deadlines.

The Essential Edition also includes a built-in payroll portal containing employee information, such as name, phone number, email address and physical address. This information is kept secure and encrypted, and employees can use their own unique credentials to access and update their information anywhere, anytime.

The plan also supports the management of multiple payroll jurisdictions, allowing businesses to support payments across different locations. This will be especially useful in 2026, with around 19% of employee jobs currently being held by international workers in the UK.

What are the drawbacks of the Essential Edition?

Being a basic payroll plan, the Essential Edition lacks higher-tier features like HR support, payroll compliance and legal assistance. Many business owners will find the Essential Edition adequate for their needs, but those seeking marketing tools and unemployment management may benefit from ADP’s higher pricing structures.

The iHCM Standard Edition

• Price: Bespoke — contact ADP for a quote
• Features: Everything in the Essential Edition, plus cheque signing, expense tracking, unemployment management, new hire onboarding and background checks
• Ideal customer: Growing businesses needing additional payroll functions, basic HR features and robust compliance support

What is the Standard Edition?

In our stress test, the Standard Edition handled a mix of 50 salaried and 20 hourly contractors without error, making it ideal for scaling businesses.

Who is the Standard Edition right for?

The Standard Edition is ideal for scaling businesses with changing hiring and employment needs, those with growing workforces, and those who employ various types/categories of workers (such as employees and independent contractors).

What features does the Standard Edition include?

The Standard Edition builds upon the features in the Essential Edition, offering value add-ons like new hire onboarding, cheque signing, unemployment management and background checks to provide peace of mind when hiring new employees.

What are the drawbacks of the Standard Edition?

This plan is possibly too advanced for startups and small businesses that would benefit from the simpler features offered in the Essential Edition, and too basic for enterprises with complex HR needs that would benefit from features such as HR training, HR forms and the HR Employee Handbook Wizard included in ADP’s highest tier.

The iHCM Advanced Edition

• Price: Bespoke — contact ADP for a quote
• Features: Everything in the Standard Edition, plus custom payroll analytics, performance management tools, a recruitment and careers portal, a HR helpdesk, HR and administration training, HR forms, and the Employee Handbook Wizard
• Ideal customer: Established businesses seeking comprehensive payroll, HR and talent acquisition solutions

What is the Advanced Edition?

The Advanced Edition is the most feature-rich payroll plan under the iHCM umbrella. It’s designed for established businesses seeking full-service payroll, HR and compliance software.

Who is the Advanced Edition right for?

This plan is ideal for businesses that have outgrown basic payroll needs and require additional support with managing HR responsibilities, recruiting employees and managing applicants, tracking key payroll analytics, and staying compliant with complicated payroll regulations.

With the HMRC issuing over £1bn in payroll-related penalties since 2018, and rolling out even stricter penalties in 2025, the plans’ advanced compliance controls will be an asset to most UK businesses. However, ADP’s Advanced Edition is speficially well suited to midsize to large businesses with more complex employment situations.

What features does the Advanced Edition include?

ADP’s Advanced Edition builds upon the Standard Edition plan and adds features like custom payroll analytics, performance management tools, and a recruitment and careers portal. These functions allow employers to understand their workforce better and simplify performance management, hiring, promotions and more.

The Advanced Edition also includes enhanced HR support features, like HR helpdesk, HR training, HR forms and ADP’s HR Employee Handbook Wizard. These features give HR teams educational and training resources, and access to ADP’s team of HR experts for guidance.

What are the drawbacks of the Advanced Edition?

The Advanced Edition is the most feature-rich payroll offering under the iHCM umbrella. As a result, this plan may be unnecessarily complex for small and scaling businesses.

ADP Celergo, Global and GlobalView Payroll

• Price: Bespoke — contact ADP for a quote
• Features: Everything in the iHCM plans, plus multicurrency payroll, multicountry tax filing, multinational compliance tools, and global HR tools for employees and contractors living and working in various countries
• Ideal customer: Midsize to large companies, specifically those with global operations seeking integrated payroll, HR and compliance features for multiple countries and currencies in a single solution

What are the Celergo, Global and GlobalView plans?

ADP’s Celergo, Global and GlobalView payroll plans are its most premium offerings, catering to midsize and large businesses with significant workforces and complex multinational payroll and HR needs. They include everything in the iHCM plans and add even more advanced HR and payroll features.

Who are the Celergo, Global and GlobalView plans right for?

The plans are ideal for midsize to large companies seeking advanced payroll, HR and compliance features for workers in multiple countries.

What features do the Celergo, Global and GlobalView plans include?

These plans build upon the features in the iHCM plans by adding global functionality like multinational payroll features, multiple currency integrations, compliance with multicountry tax and payroll laws, and robust multinational HR tools.

What are the drawbacks of the Celergo, Global and GlobalView plans?

ADP’s global plans are designed for midsize to large multinational employers and the bespoke costs will likely reflect that. These plans may be too complex for smaller companies seeking a simpler international payroll solution.

The ADP Workforce Manager

In addition to its payroll and HR software plans, ADP offers a workforce management software called ADP Workforce Manager. It can be integrated into your existing ADP payroll software.

• Price: Bespoke — contact ADP for a quote
• Features: Shift planning and scheduling, time and attendance tracking, absence management, performance tracking, and benefits management
• Ideal customer: Midsize to large companies, specifically those with global operations seeking integrated workforce and time and attendance management, with payroll and HR features for multiple countries and currencies in a single solution

What is the ADP Workforce Manager?

ADP Workforce Manager is ADP’s workforce management and time and attendance software. It’s designed to help midsize to large businesses better manage their global workforce by providing a unified system across regions.

Who is the ADP Workforce Manager right for?

The ADP Workforce Manager is designed with medium to large businesses in mind, with shift-based employees in different countries that need easy integration between their shift management and payroll software.

What features does the ADP Workforce Manager include?

The ADP Workforce manager is a hub for planning and scheduling worker shifts around absence and leave dates. It doubles up as a time and attendance tracker, and the data it compiles can also be used to better  manage benefits and track performance.

What are the drawbacks of the ADP Workforce Manager?

ADP’s Workforce Manager is designed for midsize to large multinational employers, so it might be too complex a system for smaller companies seeking simpler shift or time and attendance management software.

How Do ADP’s Outsourced Payroll Services Work?

In addition to the payroll plans mentioned above, ADP provides outsourced payroll and HR services. ADP will process payroll for you, keep you compliant, and give you 24/7 access to its expert call centre. All of these functions are completely managed by ADP, giving you the freedom to focus on your business goals.

While outsourced payroll often appears more expensive upfront than software-only plans, the real value lies in risk reduction, not just time savings. For example, by outsourcing payroll to ADP, businesses significantly reduce their exposure to compliance errors, late filings, and incorrect tax calculations.

As with ADP’s software plans, outsourced payroll pricing is bespoke, reflecting factors like workforce size, pay frequency and regulatory complexity. Businesses must contact ADP directly for a quote but, for many SMEs, the trade-off between higher cost and lower compliance risk makes outsourced payroll an attractive option.

What’s More Cost-effective, ADP’s Payroll Software or Its Outsourced Services?

Outsourcing payroll services generally costs more than a payroll software subscription, though it significantly reduces administrative labour and transfers compliance liability.

That said, the subscription cost of payroll software doesn’t factor in the time spent on processing and managing payroll through the software, or the salaries of the additional employees you might have to hire to help manage it.

So what’s best for who?

• Payroll software: For small to medium-sized businesses who don’t have overly complex payroll needs (all employee payroll is processed at the same time and employees are located in one country), using ADP’s payroll software is probably the best option. It’ll be cheaper, and you won’t have much of a headache processing it.
• Outsourced payroll services: If you’re a midsize to large company with complex payroll needs and global employees, you might want to consider outsourcing payroll to ADP. Leaving it to the experts can help avoid mistakes and save you a lot of time you would otherwise spend running payroll. It might cost a little more than payroll software upfront, but you’ll make up the costs with increased productivity, since your employees will be able to focus their work elsewhere than payroll.

Who Are the Top Competitors to ADP?

ADP is one of the most well-known and highly respected payroll software providers on the market, serving a wide variety of clients, both large and small. However, several other payroll providers also offer basic and advanced plans, each with its own payroll services, features and interfaces.

Paychex

• Pricing: Custom

Paychex is a reliable payroll provider that facilitates real-time, same-day payments, helping employers make flexible, last-minute changes to their payrolls. Paychex is our top-rated payroll solution, mainly due to its useful 24/7 customer support lines, flawless payment controls and employee-focused features.

However, Paychex doesn’t offer international employee payment capabilities, which makes it a poorer choice than ADP for global businesses.

Rippling

• Pricing: Custom

Rippling is another solid ADP alternative that excels at compliance due to its automated regulatory alerts and robust auditing capabilities.

According to our own testing, Rippling offers equally strong data security and payment controls to ADP, but more flexible customer support options, making it ideal for growing businesses in need of greater hands-on assistance.

Gusto

• Pricing: From $49 per month

Gusto is another great ADP competitor, with transparent pricing and a shallow learning curve. When we tested Gusto out for ourselves, we were impressed with how quick and streamlined its setup process was, and how easy it was to set up payroll runs.

Unlike ADP, Gusto doesn’t lock you into fixed-term contracts, giving businesses flexibility to scale up or down, or switch providers without facing early termination fees.

Learn more about the user-friendly provider in our Gusto payroll review.

Our recommendations are based on a 40-point analysis of UK payroll providers, evaluating cost, HMRC compliance and ease of use.

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