6 products reviewed

The best payroll software in South Africa

EMP201, EMP501, IRP5 and UIF handled properly, with ACB payment files your bank will actually accept.

Payroll Software ranked

Ranked by weighted average, so a product with 358 reviews is not outranked by one with eleven.

SimplePay

Featured

SimplePay is a South African built cloud payroll that handles EMP201, EMP501, IRP5 and UIF properly, charged per employee with no minimum.

4.4
358 reviewsPayroll Software

R26

per month, from, excl VAT

Free trial

PaySpace

Featured

PaySpace is a South African built enterprise payroll and HR platform covering more than forty African countries, with deep statutory coverage and a corresponding price.

4.3
287 reviewsPayroll Software

Custom pricing

quoted on request

Sage Business Cloud Payroll

Sage Business Cloud Payroll brings the Pastel Payroll compliance engine to a cloud product with per employee pricing and no local installation.

4.1
231 reviewsPayroll Software

R30

per month, from, excl VAT

Free trial

PaySoft

PaySoft is a long standing South African payroll used heavily in manufacturing, agriculture and security, with strong shift and wage handling.

4.0
143 reviewsPayroll Software

R22

per month, from, excl VAT

Free trial

Payroll Online

Payroll Online is a lightweight South African cloud payroll aimed at businesses under fifty staff who want statutory compliance without complexity.

3.9
104 reviewsPayroll Software

R19

per month, from, excl VAT

Free trial

Sage Pastel Payroll

Sage Pastel Payroll is a mature desktop payroll with complete South African statutory coverage and the largest base of trained operators in the country.

3.9
342 reviewsPayroll Software

R410

per month, from, excl VAT

Free trial

Buying guide

What South African buyers should look for

How we assess payroll software, and what actually separates the products above.

Payroll is where compliance risk concentrates. Get accounting wrong and you restate a figure. Get payroll wrong and you are late on an EMP201, short on a UIF declaration, or handing employees IRP5 certificates that will not validate in e@syFile.

Every payroll product on this list is judged against the same checklist. Monthly EMP201 declarations and the biannual EMP501 reconciliation. IRP5 and IT3(a) certificate generation with a clean e@syFile export. UIF declarations to the Department of Employment and Labour. SDL where the payroll crosses the threshold, and ETI calculated correctly for qualifying employees, including the sliding scale. BCEA leave accruals, which is where imported systems quietly fail because they model annual leave the American way. And an ACB payment file in the format your bank imports without a support call.

We also check what happens in March. A payroll system is only as good as its tax year end, and that is the month it either saves you or costs you a weekend.