Best payroll software for
Australian businesses
Pricing compared
The four main Australian payroll platforms price payroll in four genuinely different ways. Headline price tells you very little — the pricing model is what decides which one suits your business as you hire.
Prices read from each provider's own Australian pricing page on 25 August 2026. Standard prices shown, not promotional rates.
At a glance
Xero Payroll
Payroll built into the accounting ledger, capped by plan tier
Best for: Small Australian businesses already using Xero for accounting, with a stable headcount
How payroll is charged: Included in the plan, but capped at a set number of employees per tier. Growing past the cap means moving up a plan.
RosterElf → Xero integrationMYOB
Per-employee payroll pricing on top of a base plan
Best for: Established businesses with variable headcount that want to pay only for who they employ
How payroll is charged: Base plan plus $3 per employee per month. Pro and above carry no employee cap, so headcount growth is linear rather than stepped.
RosterElf → MYOB integrationQuickBooks
Priced by user seats rather than employees paid
Best for: Sole traders and micro-businesses where the constraint is how many people need logins
How payroll is charged: Plans are tiered by the number of user seats, not the number of employees paid. Check current payroll inclusions against the plan before committing.
Employment Hero
HR platform where payroll sits in the top, custom-priced tier
Best for: Businesses that want HR, payroll and rostering from one vendor and can run a sales process
How payroll is charged: Per-employee per-month pricing across HR tiers, with payroll only included in the top "Employment Unlimited" plan, which is custom priced.
How payroll is priced — the part that matters
Comparing monthly prices across these four is close to meaningless, because they are not charging for the same unit. One caps how many people you can pay, one charges per person paid, one charges per person logging in, and one only includes payroll at its top tier. The right question is not "which is cheapest today" but "which stays sensible when I hire three more people".
| Provider | Charging unit | What happens when you hire |
|---|---|---|
| Xero Payroll | Employees, capped per plan | Cost is flat until you hit the cap, then steps up a whole plan tier |
| MYOB | Per employee paid, on top of a base plan | Cost rises smoothly and predictably with headcount |
| QuickBooks | User seats, not employees paid | Hiring shift staff need not change the price; hiring admins does |
| Employment Hero | Per employee, payroll in the top tier only | Cost rises per head, and payroll access requires a sales conversation |
Review methodology
Our review methodology
Learn how we evaluate workforce management platforms through hands-on testing and verified user feedback.
Feature comparisons are checked against each vendor's public documentation at the time of writing. Assessments of usability, fit and value are our reviewers' opinions, not statements of fact, and products change often. We'd encourage you to trial both platforms and judge for yourself. Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll correct it .
How we sourced these figures. Every price and plan name was read directly from the provider's own Australian pricing page on 25 August 2026. We quote standard prices, not the introductory discounts most providers were running at the time — promotions change far faster than list prices and make comparison misleading. Where a provider does not publish a figure, we say so rather than estimate it.
Our interest, stated plainly. RosterElf is not a payroll product and does not compete with any platform on this page. We build rostering, award interpretation and time and attendance, and we integrate with two of the four. That is the bias to read this guide against.
Pricing comparison
Standard published pricing. Introductory discounts are noted separately under each provider.
| Provider | Plan | Price | Payroll included |
|---|---|---|---|
| Xero Payroll | Grow | $78/month | Payroll for 2 people |
| Comprehensive | $107/month | Payroll for 5 people | |
| Ultimate 10 | $143/month | Payroll for 10 people | |
| MYOB | Business Lite | $315/year | Up to 2 employees, +$3/employee/month |
| Business Pro | $70/month | Unlimited employees, +$3/employee/month | |
| AccountRight Plus | $165/month | Unlimited employees, +$3/employee/month | |
| QuickBooks | Simple Start | $33/month | Not published |
| Essentials | $60/month | Not published | |
| Plus | $84/month | Not published | |
| Advanced | $125/month | Not published | |
| Employment Hero | HR Essentials | $10/month per employee | Not included |
| HR Engage | $14/month per employee | Not included | |
| HR Elite | Custom | Not included | |
| Employment Unlimited | Custom | Payroll included |
Xero Payroll
Included in the plan, but capped at a set number of employees per tier. Growing past the cap means moving up a plan.
Strengths
- Payroll and accounting share one ledger — no export step
- STP reporting handled natively
- Largest accountant and bookkeeper network in Australia
- Ultimate tiers scale to 20, 50 and 100 employees
Trade-offs
- Employee caps mean cost steps up sharply as you hire
- Award interpretation is limited compared with dedicated workforce tools
- No native rostering — shift data has to come from elsewhere
80% off the first 3 months was advertised at the time of writing. Pricing read from the provider's pricing page on 25 August 2026.
MYOB
Base plan plus $3 per employee per month. Pro and above carry no employee cap, so headcount growth is linear rather than stepped.
Strengths
- No employee cap on Pro and above — cost scales smoothly with headcount
- A payroll-only product line exists for businesses that do not need the ledger
- Long-established Australian compliance track record
Trade-offs
- The $3 per-employee charge is easy to overlook when comparing headline prices
- Interface is dated relative to newer entrants
- No native rostering or award interpretation
Discounts of 60–70% for an introductory period were advertised at the time of writing. Pricing read from the provider's pricing page on 25 August 2026.
QuickBooks
Plans are tiered by the number of user seats, not the number of employees paid. Check current payroll inclusions against the plan before committing.
Strengths
- Lowest entry price of the four
- Seat-based tiers suit businesses with few admin users but many staff
- Strong mobile app
Trade-offs
- Payroll inclusions are not stated per plan on the pricing page — confirm before buying
- Smaller Australian accountant network than Xero or MYOB
- No native rostering or award interpretation
70% off for 6 months was advertised at the time of writing. Pricing read from the provider's pricing page on 25 August 2026.
Employment Hero
Per-employee per-month pricing across HR tiers, with payroll only included in the top "Employment Unlimited" plan, which is custom priced.
Strengths
- HR, payroll and rostering from a single vendor
- Rostering and time & attendance available as add-ons
- Strong onboarding and employee-record tooling
Trade-offs
- Payroll requires the top tier, which is custom priced — no published figure to compare
- Add-ons (chat at $2/employee/month, rostering) accumulate on top of the per-employee base
- Lowest Xero App Store rating of the vendors we track
Pricing read from the provider's pricing page on 25 August 2026.
Best by use case
Already on Xero for accounting
Xero Payroll
One ledger, no export step — provided your headcount fits inside a plan tier.
Headcount moves up and down
MYOB
Per-employee pricing scales smoothly instead of stepping up at a cap.
Sole trader or very small team
QuickBooks
Lowest entry price, and seat-based tiers suit few admins with many staff.
Want HR and payroll from one vendor
Employment Hero
Single platform, but payroll sits in the custom-priced top tier.
Where rostering fits — and why it is a separate job
Payroll software applies the pay rate it is given. It does not work out what that rate should be. For a salaried office team that distinction barely matters. For a shift-based business it is most of the problem: the same employee can be owed four different rates in one week depending on the day, the hour and the award.
That work happens before payroll runs — deciding the roster, applying the correct modern award rate to each shift, recording what was actually worked rather than what was scheduled, and approving the difference. Get that wrong and payroll faithfully pays the wrong number.
RosterElf is the layer before payroll, not payroll itself. It builds the roster, interprets the award, records clock-ins against the shift, and exports approved timesheets. The pay run, PAYG and STP lodgement stay with your payroll platform.
How to choose
- Start with headcount trajectory, not price. If you expect to hire, a per-employee model is easier to forecast than a capped one that jumps a tier.
- Check what your accountant already uses. Migration friction and bookkeeping cost usually outweigh a small monthly difference.
- Separate payroll from award interpretation. If staff work shifts, budget for both — assuming payroll covers award rules is the most common and most expensive mistake.
- Price the add-ons, not the base plan. Per-employee charges, rostering modules and chat add-ons routinely exceed the headline figure.
- Confirm the price yourself before committing. Everything here was current on 25 August 2026; promotional pricing in particular moves constantly.
What is payroll software?
Payroll software calculates and records employee pay: gross wages, PAYG withholding, superannuation and net pay, then reports each pay run to the ATO under Single Touch Payroll. It produces pay slips, tracks year-to-date figures and keeps the records the Fair Work Act requires an employer to hold.
What it does not do is decide what someone should be paid. That comes from the employment instrument covering them — a modern award, an enterprise agreement or a contract — and from the hours they actually worked. Those two inputs are the responsibility of the employer, whatever payroll platform sits downstream.
Get the hours right before payroll runs
RosterElf applies award rates as you roster, records what was actually worked, and exports approved timesheets to Xero and MYOB.
Payroll software FAQs
Common questions about choosing payroll software in Australia
- There is no single best — the four main options price payroll in genuinely different ways, and that is what should decide it. Xero caps payroll by plan tier, MYOB charges roughly $3 per employee per month on top of a base plan, QuickBooks tiers by user seats rather than employees, and Employment Hero includes payroll only in its top custom-priced plan. Match the pricing model to how your headcount behaves.
- Standard published pricing at the time of writing ranged from $33/month for the cheapest entry plan up to $165/month for a mid-tier established-business plan, with Employment Hero's payroll tier quoted on application. Every provider was running an introductory discount, so compare standard prices rather than promotional ones.
- Generally not to the depth an Australian shift-based employer needs. Payroll platforms apply the pay rate they are given. Working out what that rate should be — base classification, weekend and public holiday penalties, overtime thresholds and allowances under a modern award — is a separate job. See our award rates guides for what the awards actually require.