Employment Hero
$100/mo est.
- Per employee
- $10/emp/mo (Payroll)
- Base fee
- $100/mo min
- Award interpretation
- Yes (100+ awards)
- Global hiring
- No
- Payday Super
- Yes
- Est. monthly cost
- $100/mo
All-in-one Australian HR and payroll platform with award interpretation, onboarding, and employee self-service. Runs the payroll engine formerly sold as KeyPay.
Best for
Growing teams wanting all-in-one HR and payroll with award interpretation, onboarding, and employee self-service.
Every fee we track, grouped by where it applies.
Side-by-side with the closest alternatives by estimated cost.
Base fee plus per-employee costs, based on 4 employees. Quote-only providers are excluded.
Employment Hero
$100/mo est.
Xero
$107/mo est.
QuickBooks Online
$57/mo est.
Deel
$161.68/mo est.
The same questions Australian merchants ask before signing up.
Employment Hero Payroll charges $10/emp/mo (Payroll) per active employee. There is no monthly base fee, but a minimum monthly charge of 100 applies, meaning smaller teams pay that minimum regardless of headcount. This minimum makes Employment Hero better value as teams grow toward and beyond the threshold where the per-employee rate exceeds the floor.
Yes. Employment Hero Payroll is fully STP Phase 2 compliant and submits itemised payroll data, including wages, tax, super, and leave components, to the ATO each pay cycle. It supports the Payday Super changes from 1 July 2026 through its HeroClear clearing house, which processes super contributions alongside each pay run.
Employment Hero Payroll (formerly KeyPay, rebranded in March 2023) runs the same award interpretation engine that built its market-leading reputation for automated award compliance in Australia, covering more than 100 Modern Awards with pre-built pay condition rules for penalty rates, overtime, shift loadings, and annual award reconciliations. It is particularly well regarded for hospitality, retail, and healthcare businesses where award complexity is high.
Yes. Employment Hero is a full HR and payroll platform that includes onboarding and offboarding, employee self-service, leave management, performance reviews, and a benefits marketplace alongside the payroll engine. This makes it an all-in-one option for growing teams that want HR and payroll in a single system rather than two separate products.
Employment Hero suits Australian growing businesses, typically from about five to a few hundred employees, that want integrated HR and payroll with strong award compliance in a single platform. It is a natural upgrade path for businesses that have outgrown the payroll features in Xero or MYOB and need structured onboarding, self-service, and richer compliance tools.
Yes. Employment Hero integrates with Xero, MYOB, and QuickBooks Online, pushing payroll journals and employee cost data into your accounting system after each pay run. This avoids manual data entry between systems and keeps financial records accurate without duplication.
Every fee we track, grouped by where it applies.
Side-by-side with the closest alternatives by estimated cost.
Base fee plus per-employee costs, based on 2 employees. Quote-only providers are excluded.
Employment Hero
$100/mo est.
Deel
$13.94/mo est.
Connecteam
$0/mo est.
BambooHR
$348.43/mo est.
See how Employment Hero compares to others like Deel on price, contract terms and features, side by side.
The same questions Australian merchants ask before signing up.
Employment Hero charges $10/emp/mo (HR Essentials) per employee on the HR Essentials plan, with a $100/mo. Higher plans unlock additional features including performance reviews and an applicant tracking system. The pricing model scales predictably as headcount grows, and no long-term contract is required.
Yes. Employment Hero includes native payroll built on the engine it originally sold as KeyPay, which is STP Phase 2 compliant. Pay runs report wages, tax, and superannuation directly to the ATO. The platform also supports the Payday Super requirements scheduled for July 2026, aligning super payments with each pay cycle.
Employment Hero provides built-in Modern Award interpretation through its native payroll engine, covering 100+ Modern Awards. Award rules, penalty rates, and allowances are maintained in the platform and applied automatically at payroll calculation time. This is one of the key advantages of using an AU-built platform over a global HRIS that requires manual award configuration.
Yes. Employment Hero is specifically designed for the Australian market and serves businesses from sole traders upward. The HR Essentials plan covers leave management, employee self-service, onboarding, and document management. The monthly minimum means the effective per-employee rate is higher for very small teams, but the all-in-one AU payroll and HR combination compares favourably against running two separate tools.
Employment Hero integrates natively with Xero, MYOB, and QuickBooks for accounting, and includes native Employment Hero payroll. It also connects with Slack and other productivity tools. For businesses that need BambooHR or HiBob as their HRIS layer, Employment Hero Payroll is a commonly used integration target for those platforms.
Yes. The Employment Hero Work app is available on iOS and Android and allows employees to view payslips, submit leave requests, complete onboarding tasks, and access company documents from their phone. This is included across all plans.
Employment Hero is an Australian-built all-in-one HR and payroll platform combining award interpretation, employee onboarding, leave management, and a self-service app. Its payroll engine is the one it built and sold as KeyPay, which it rebranded to Employment Hero Payroll in 2023, and which also powers QuickBooks Payroll in Australia. Standalone payroll is priced per employee per month with a ten-user minimum, so it carries a floor of around $100 a month regardless of headcount. It covers STP Phase 2, super payments, and Payday Super readiness. It suits growing teams that want HR and payroll in one system, though some reviewers report support and Xero-integration friction.
Employment Hero was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.
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