Top 7 Payroll Companies in the UK and London 2023

Payroll is about more than just paying your employees on time – there are also taxes, compliance, and HMRC reporting deadlines to contend with. It can feel overwhelming but, fortunately, handling all of this for you is what payroll companies do. Plus, when your payroll service is based in the UK, you get the additional reassurance that they're up to date with the country's payroll legislation, data laws, and HMRC compliance, making mistakes even less likely.

According to our extensive independent research, Moorepay is the best payroll company in the UK. Giving you access to UK-based consultants as well as customisable reporting, it offers beneficial expertise and insights. However, that doesn't mean Moorepay is definitely the company that will best suit your payroll needs. Here are all the payroll companies that impressed us during our latest round of testing:

Our analysis of these top providers examined them on customer-centric criteria, including reporting, integrations, and support facilities. Read on to learn all about them, or head straight to our payroll cost comparison tool to be matched with the best payroll companies for you. They'll be in touch with personalised, no-obligation quotes. It's a quick and easy way to compare accurate prices from the right options for your business.

What is a payroll service provider?

Using a payroll service provider means you're outsourcing your payroll to a third-party company, which can be responsible for part of your payroll (a part-managed service) or all of your payroll (a fully managed service). For example, to save on costs and security concerns, you might choose to outsource much of your payroll process while opting to have in-house oversight of your employee data and statutory requirements.

Payroll providers can be used to carry out a number of functions, including:

• Calculating monthly pay
• Deducting tax
• Filing with HMRC
• Paying employees
• Keeping accurate records

Failing to report payroll information with HMRC on time could lead to a monthly penalty of £100-£400. So, despite the costs associated with a payroll provider, you might actually end up spending less money.

Payroll providers help ensure your employees are paid on time, which is important as paying them late can affect your business's reputation and your ability to hire and retain talent.

The 7 Best Payroll Companies in London and the UK

Prices correct as of September 2023

Looking for payroll software instead of a payroll service?

The payroll companies we review on this page all offer payroll services. However, payroll software is another option, enabling you to manage your payroll in-house using a simple software tool that will automate processes like tax deductions and HMRC reporting. The benefit of using software instead is that it gives you more control over your payroll, and, importantly, paying for software is cheaper than outsourcing to a payroll service.

While many of the companies on this page provide software as well as services, which we'll discuss in our reviews, we also strongly recommend looking into Rippling if you're interested in payroll software. Starting at £7 per user, per month, our software researchers rated its highly customisable features, bespoke reporting, and compliance assistance in our latest round of testing.

1. Moorepay – Best overall payroll company in the UK

Moorepay quick facts

• Services available: Fully-managed payroll, DIY software, HR software
• Contracts available: Bespoke
• UK office location: Greater Manchester
• CIPP PAS-accredited: Yes

What our experts think of Moorepay:

Moorepay earns the top spot in our ranking largely due to its expert advice. The provider gives you access to UK-based payroll specialists who can answer your queries and give you guidance on HR, payroll, and tax matters. This helpful feature offers incredible support to companies, especially small businesses and those without an accounting team.

We really like the holiday calculators you can use free of charge on Moorepay's website. Within a matter of seconds, the calculators work out the number of holidays your part-time or zero-hour contract workers are entitled to. This is a super handy tool for businesses that might struggle to make sense of legislation and want to ensure employees are receiving their legally entitled holiday.

Unlike Payescape and Advanced, Moorepay lacks a London office; Moorepay's headquarters are located in Swinton, in the Greater Manchester area.

Moorepay's onboarding process impressed our researchers: if you're switching payroll companies and moving over to Moorepay, it will handle any legislative or policy changes that your business might need.

Like is competitor MHR, Moorepay offers a native HR platform that fully integrates with its payroll system. However, Moorepay has an interface that's easier to grasp than MHR's. This is why it features highly in our ranking of the best payroll solutions for small businesses.

On the flip side, for all its easy onboarding, Moorepay doesn't offer live training sessions – a crucial feature if you'd like your company to get to grips with the system fast. In comparison, ADP offers this.

2. Payescape – Best for transparent pricing

Payescape quick facts

• Services available: Fully managed payroll, HR software
• Contracts available: Weekly and monthly
• UK office location: London
• CIPP PAS-accredited: Yes

What our experts think of Payescape:

Shortlisted at the CIPP Annual Excellence Awards 2022 (befitting the CIPP-accredited advice it offers), Payescape boasts two key assets that are hard to come by in the payroll industry: transparent pricing and a London-based office.

During our deep-dive research into payroll companies, we discovered that a large number of the providers do not advertise their pricing. However, Payescape's advertises its pricing, which is a major plus. Having this information upfront will speed up your sign up as you will know whether or not it fits into your budget.

As for the office, Payescape has a North London location, with easy access via Underground and Thameslink stations, which means London-based businesses can easily count on the company for in-person support. Considering that Payescape only offers a fully managed service, the ability to meet the team handling your payroll process offers much-needed peace of mind to business owners.

However, our researchers did find issues with some of the provider's data standards. For starters, it's the only payroll company we researched that doesn't store its data in the UK (its servers are in the US). Because of this, it's subject to a different data protection jurisdiction and legislation (GDPR, for instance, isn't applicable there). Payescape is also the only provider on this list that lacks the ISO 27001 accreditation, an international information security standard, which means the other providers do show better evidence of data security compliance.

3. MHR – Best for reporting

MHR quick facts

• Services available: Fully managed payroll,  DIY software, HR software
• Contracts available: Bespoke
• UK office locations: Nottingham, Glasgow
• CIPP PAS-accredited: Yes

What our experts think of MHR:

MHR is best poised to help business owners and C-suite executives that really want to make the most out of the employee data at their disposal. Our researchers were impressed by its data crunching when using its native iTrent program to run highly-detailed tasks, from pinpointing costs to analysing employee performance.

Like Moorepay, it already comes with an integrated HR platform, allowing you to save money on this front. It also has an incredibly high standard when it comes to data compliance, attested by its ISO:27001 accreditation (something Payescape doesn't have).

For accounting teams that need to present their performance data to key stakeholders, MHR's powerful visualisation tools allow your data to be organised in compelling graphs. For its sheer scope, we'd recommend MHR to larger organisations because they'll benefit from the provider's analytic prowess.

Like Frontier, MHR doesn't have a London location, but it does have two UK-based offices: one in Nottingham, and another in Glasgow. If these locations are far from you, MHR is available via phone and chatbot, but not via email – a contact channel that ADP also lacks.

MHR doesn't offer live training sessions to ease your onboarding process. This puts it on par with TopSource, but behind Advanced and Payescape, which do offer live training. This could pose an issue if you need your team to operate this software to its full potential.

You're nearly halfway through our list of the seven best payroll service providers in the UK. Time to start comparing quotes?

Simply hit one of the buttons below to start our quick questionnaire. It only takes 30 seconds to complete and, by telling us more about your business’ specific requirements, you'll receive the best personalised managed payroll services rates and recommendations.

4. Frontier – Best for international businesses

Frontier quick facts

• Services available: Fully managed payroll, DIY software, HR software
• Contracts available: Bespoke
• UK office locations: Surrey, Warrington, Nottingham, Gloucester
• CIPP PAS-accredited: Yes

What our experts think of Frontier:

Frontier's ability to pay international employees makes it ideal to help businesses that operate in multiple countries organise their payroll. Like Moorepay, it doesn't have a London office, but it does have four UK locations: its headquarters are in Lightwater, there is a helpdesk in Warrington, plus offices in Nottingham and Gloucester.

Like ADP, Frontier  has a mobile app, allowing employees and managers to easily check and edit their payroll data on the go. With it, timesheets can be submitted on mobile devices and payslips can be sent.

Similarly to MHR, Frontier comes with an integrated HR platform, which is a money-saving feature considering you won't have to purchase a separate system to handle these tasks.

However, Frontier's lack of an open API is the Achilles' heel of the provider because it prevents you from integrating it with other platforms. Among the providers we tested, it shares this trait with Advanced. Our researchers also highlighted the fact that it doesn't come with ready-made accounting software integrations, which means tracking labour expenses is difficult with Frontier. Overall, if third-party integrations are key to your business, ADP is a better choice.

Frontier doesn't provide guidance on how to stay compliant to business, which isn't great to those in need of this extra information.

5. Advanced – Best for training

Advanced quick facts

• Services available: Fully managed payroll, DIY software, HR software
• Contracts available: Bespoke
• UK office locations: London, Docklands, Birmingham, Newcastle, York, Mansfield, Knutsford, Ashford
• CIPP PAS-accredited: No

What our experts think of Advanced:

Advanced's offering puts a lot of agency in the hands of accounting teams. Its training sessions are great for professionals keen on learning the ins and outs of the system quickly, but it also allows them to pick this knowledge up at their own pace.

It works both as a software and as an outsourced payroll service, so it's best suited to serve businesses that want more agency over their payroll process than they'd get with Payescape, which only offers a fully managed service.

If your business needs in-person support with your payroll, Advanced has the highest number of UK offices among the companies we analysed. It has a London office within walking distance from City Airport, as well as eight others across the country.

You can tailor the software to the specific needs of your business, allowing users to set up payroll for multiple sites as well as for employees with complex salaries and bonuses. Its reporting, while powerful, isn't as comprehensive as MHR's – but Advanced beats this competitor by offering live training, which MHR doesn't.

However, the provider doesn't come with a mobile app, which is offered by Moorepay. It also lacks an open API, which could prove to be problematic if your company hopes to integrate software you're already using. While the provider packs a native suite of programs that's likely to cover your needs when it comes to HR and accounting, this will force you to migrate your data from your current platforms to these new ones, which can be time-consuming.

6. ADP – Best for security

ADP quick facts

• Services available: Fully managed payroll, DIY software, HR software
• Contracts available: Bespoke
• UK office locations: Staines-upon-Thames, Cheadle
• CIPP PAS-accredited: No

What our experts think of ADP:

ADP's ISO 27001 certification attests its efficient data encrypting. On that front, it beats Payescape by having that certification and trumps Advanced by not suffering any data breaches in the last two years.

ADP maintains two locations in the UK, both of which are on the outskirts of major cities: its headquarters is at Staines-upon-Thames (27km from London) and its northern office is in Cheadle (13km from Manchester).

The provider is flexible and you can choose the add-on features and services your business needs. It also offers guidance around payroll issues, services, legislation, and more.

Like MHR, it offers a mobile app. Conveniently, it can be used as a clock-in system, which helps employees with rotating shift patterns to ensure their hours are being recorded correctly.

However, its pricing isn't transparent, which can be a problem if you run a small business and need to find out whether ADP fits your budget. For the most part, this is standard practice in this industry, but some competitors (such as Payescape and Iris Staffology) do advertise their prices and are worth considering.

7. TopSource – Best for native integrations

TopSource quick facts

• Services available: Fully managed payroll, HR software
• Contracts available: Bespoke
• UK office location: Birmingham
• CIPP PAS-accredited: Yes

What our experts think of TopSource:

TopSource offers worldwide services, but it can tackle UK-specific payroll procedures and its office is in Birmingham. Unlike Advanced, it lacks a London office. However, it can be contacted via phone and email if Birmingham is too far from your venture. The providers gives you direct access to CIPP-accredited experts for assistance.

TopSource's native suite is quite comprehensive, packing HR, recruitment, and employee benefits platforms. Our researchers noted that there is no employee development software – something ADP does offer.

The provider has ISO 27001 certification (like Moorepay) and suffered no data breaches in the last two years (unlike Advanced). On the features side, TopSource was let down by the fact that it doesn't allow for custom report building, which makes its reporting less flexible and customisable than MHR's.

Also, as with most providers we looked at, its pricing is bespoke, making it difficult to gauge whether this is the right provider for you. If you own a small business and are in a hurry to choose your next payroll provider, Iris Staffology and Payescape may be better choices because they advertise their prices.

Our methodology: How did we find the best payroll services?

Five researchers carried out in-depth research into payroll services according to a comparison framework designed by our research team leader. For each provider we've asked these questions:

• What accreditations and industry recognition do they have?
• How easily can your employees engage with and access the payroll process?
• How compliant are they with data security and privacy?
• Are they a scalable service that includes other HR functions should you grow to need them?

We've factored all these questions into our rating system and come out with a ranking of the best payroll services.

Why should I invest in a payroll provider?

Outsourcing your payroll can save you time and money and you can rely on expert information to ensure your payroll is accurate.

Changes in law and regulations are difficult to keep on top of, so outsourcing this responsibility to experts will ensure your business remains compliant.

Outsourcing will help you avoid monetary penalties, which can be around £100-£400 per month.

Important payroll dates recap

Your documentation needs to be submitted correctly and timeously. With important payroll deadlines on the horizon, we've created a recap of the dates below:

Next steps

According to our latest round of independent testing, Moorepay is the best payroll company in the UK. Its local, consultant-backed advice and customisable reporting in particular impressed our researchers.

If you'd like a more personalised recommendation, try our free quote comparison tool. Answer a few questions about your payroll needs, and we'll match you up with the providers that can cater to your business, who'll be in touch with no-obligation quotes that have been tailored to you. In an industry where accurate prices often aren't publicly shared by companies, this is an easy way to get your hands on personalised quotes without having to contact multiple companies' sales departments.