Every product we have reviewed

Sage Accounting is the most widely used cloud ledger in South Africa, built around SARS compliance and supported by the largest pool of trained bookkeepers in the country.

Xero is the cleanest cloud accounting product on the market and has built a serious South African base, though its VAT201 workflow still needs a manual step at submission.

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

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

Pastel remains a deep, fast desktop accounting package with cloud backup, and it is still the sensible choice for businesses with poor connectivity or heavy inventory.

HubSpot has the best free CRM tier and the smoothest onboarding in the category, but the step from free to properly useful is a large one in rand.

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.

Sage 200 Evolution is the most widely implemented mid market ERP in South Africa, with local statutory reporting built in and partners in every major centre.

monday.com is a highly visual work platform that teams adopt quickly, with pricing bands that punish teams whose headcount sits just above a boundary.

QuickBooks Online is a strong general ledger at a competitive rand price, but South African VAT and bank feed coverage lag behind the local incumbents.