Free payroll software UK: what HMRC actually recognises

The list is public, and it has ten products on it

gov.uk's Find payroll software that is recognised by HMRC page carries two tables: free and paid-for. The free table names ten products, and the sentence above it reads: 'This free payroll software is recognised by HMRC for businesses with fewer than 10 employees.' That is the whole basis of the free category. Anything else calling itself free is describing its own pricing, not an HMRC status.

What the ten free products actually are

• Basic PAYE Tools (HMRC). A free download for Windows, macOS and Linux. gov.uk says it performs most payroll tasks and is not designed for agents or bookkeepers.
• Collegia FreePayroll (Collegia Partners Ltd). Cloud payroll, free with the supplier stating no employee limit, with its own auto-enrolment pension attached.
• Employment Hero Free Payroll (Employment Hero UK Ltd). Cloud payroll at £0 a month, with unlimited employees stated by the supplier.
• Primo Payroll (Accentra Technologies Ltd). An Essentials Free Plus tier at £0 for 10 employees, with paid tiers that mainly buy support.
• Enrolpay - Small Payroll (Enrolpay Ltd). Described by the supplier as free payroll software for companies with less than 10 employees.
• RTI Lite (Hartigan Software Design Ltd). Not a full payroll: a Windows submission tool, free for 1 to 9 employees, that files FPS and EPS from an existing payroll package or an Excel template.
• 1 A Simple Payroll (IT Contractors Ltd). Cloud RTI filing and payslips with a tips and tronc focus, price shown as free.
• IRIS Payroll Basics (IRIS Software Ltd). HMRC's link now redirects to IRIS Staffology Payroll, a paid product from £43 a month plus VAT.
• Stansoft Linux (Stansoft). Accounting and payroll for Linux, covering UK PAYE RTI.
• 1st FREE+ Payroll & HR (1st Money GB Ltd). HMRC's link redirects to the supplier's home page, where the payroll product is described in United States terms.

All ten entries and the fewer-than-10-employees wording were read on gov.uk on 15 August 2026, and each supplier note came from the page gov.uk links for that supplier on the same day. Suppliers change their pricing and their pages without notice.

What 'fewer than 10 employees' does and does not mean

It is HMRC's own framing of the free category, not a licence condition set by every supplier. Two suppliers on that list, Collegia and Employment Hero, state on their own sites that there is no employee limit on their free product. Both statements can be true at once: HMRC describes the category it recognises for small employers, the supplier describes what it will let you do. If your headcount is near or above ten, read the supplier's terms rather than assuming either one.

Where free usually stops

• Support. On Primo Payroll, the paid Essentials tiers at £24.99 and £49.99 a year buy email and then phone support, not extra employees.
• Scope. RTI Lite is free for 1 to 9 employees but only files submissions: you still need something that calculates the payroll.
• Pensions. Auto-enrolment is a separate duty from PAYE. Some free products handle assessment and provider submissions, others say nothing about it. Check that specifically.
• Agents. gov.uk says Basic PAYE Tools is not designed for agents or bookkeepers, so a bureau running client payrolls should look at the paid-for table instead.

Free is a genuinely reasonable answer

For an employer with a handful of staff, a recognised free product files exactly the same Full Payment Submission as a paid one. The reasons to pay are support, auto-enrolment handling, CIS, multiple companies, and integration with your bookkeeping. If none of those apply to you, the free list is where to start.