Of the 10 payroll software providers we track in Australia, 7 publish a price you can look up and 3 quote on request. Among those that publish, the numbers below are what they charged as at 30 Sep 2026. Every figure is verified at the vendor's own pricing page and frozen at that date: this is a dated record, not a live table.
How many payroll software providers publish a price?
We track 10 payroll software providers in Australia. Of those, 7 publish a price you can look up without talking to a salesperson, and 3 quote on request. That split is the single most useful thing to know before you start comparing: 70% of this market will tell you what it costs up front.
- Publishes a price
- 770%
- Quotes on request
- 330%
Per-employee fee /mo
$10median
Published by 7 of 10 providers we track
Monthly base fee
$0median
Published by 7 of 10 providers we track
Employer of Record /mo
$765.15median
Published by 4 of 10 providers we track
The spread matters more than the middle. On every figure above, the gap between the cheapest and the dearest provider is what a comparison is for, and it is arithmetic on published rates rather than a negotiating position.
What does payroll software cost in Australia?
Estimated monthly cost at three merchant profiles, computed with the same cost engine that powers our comparison tables. Providers that quote on request are counted separately rather than treated as free.
| Merchant profile | Providers with a computable cost | Median | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sole operator | 7 | $40.42 | $15 to $100 |
| Small team | 7 | $107 | $15 to $161.68 |
| Growing business | 7 | $200 | $130 to $808.40 |
The range is the honest headline here. In a market where the median is $40.42, the gap between cheapest and dearest is what a comparison is actually for.
How we compiled this report
Every figure is read from the vendor's own published pricing page and frozen at 30 Sep 2026, so this is a dated record of that market rather than a live table, last reviewed on 2026-09-04. Full method, definitions and limitations: how we compile these reports.
Conclusion
Seven of the ten payroll software providers we track in Australia publish a price you can act on, more transparent than payment providers, where only a third publish (7 of 21), but the published per-employee rate still spans $2 to $40.42 a month, a twenty-fold gap for what is nominally the same job.
This quarter is also when Payday Super took effect. From 1 July 2026 every superannuation contribution must reach the employee's fund within seven business days of each payday rather than quarterly, so a platform that used to carry a business through four compliance deadlines a year now has to carry it through one every pay run. That raises the stakes of the rate comparison below without changing it: the per-employee fee still decides most of the bill.
The cost table shows the same spread holding at both ends of the size range we modelled. At one employee the gap between cheapest and dearest is $15 to $100, more than six and a half times; at twenty employees it is $130 to $808.40, just over six times, with the top of that range driven by the same $40.42 per-employee rate that tops the published range above. The gap does not close as a business grows, it just gets more expensive to be on the wrong side of it.
Four of the ten providers also publish a separate Employer of Record price, for hiring staff without a local entity, running $277.35 to $974.20 a month per person: a different product with a far higher per-head cost, worth keeping separate from the domestic payroll figures above.
