Ciphr review (2026): is it worth £5 a month?
UK HR and payroll suite for organisations of 200 to 2,000 staff
Black Friday: is there a Ciphr sale?
Ciphr report card
Weak · out of 4.0 · graded Nov 12, 2026
Best for UK organisations of 200 or more staff
Ciphr is a UK HR suite covering central HR, payroll, recruitment, learning and benefits. The only figure on record is 'from £5' per employee a month, which assumes 125 employees on a three-year term. It is built for UK rules and for organisations of 200 or more, so small teams are outside its stated range.
Who Ciphr is for
- Fits if you are a UK organisation of 200 or more that wants HR and payroll together
- Works for HR teams that also want learning and benefits in the same suite
Who Ciphr is not for
- Skip it if you have a small team, as it is built for 200 or more
- Tight if you can't commit: the £5 figure assumes a three-year minimum term
- Skip it if you are outside the UK, as it is built for UK compliance
- Skip it if you want a free plan or trial, as none is listed
Why Ciphr gets a 1.8
Five grades, each with its reason. The GPA is their average: an A is 4 points, an F is none.
- CValue for moneyFrom £5 per employee a month, about $6.50, but only for 125 employees on a three-year minimum term. No plan prices are published.
- FFree plan and trialNo free plan and no trial is on record in the listing or on its pricing page.
- BFeaturesCentral HR, UK payroll, recruitment, learning, benefits and analytics. The listing names no gap in the core HR work.
- CEase of useNo store rating on record. A suite this size is bought by quote and set up with implementation scoped inside it.
- CPlatforms and integrationsWeb only, with no integrations list or apps on record.
What these grades rest on. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Ciphr's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. How we review and grade.
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<a href="https://toolgpa.com/tools/ciphr#review"><img src="https://toolgpa.com/badge/ciphr.svg" alt="Ciphr: 1.8 GPA on ToolGPA" width="196" height="56"></a>Where Ciphr stands among HR software
Ciphr's GPA of 1.8 is higher than 13 of the 63 other HR software we grade, and level with 16.
It stands best on features (B, above 41 of 63) and worst on free plan and trial (F, above 0).
Its paid plans start at about $6.70 a month for each person, against a middle price of $5.36 for the category: 20 of the 36 others that charge start lower.
On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 2 tools score higher and cost less.
Each grade against the category
Every bar is all 64 HR software we grade, cut by the letter each got. Ciphr’s own letter is outlined.
- CValue for moneyAbove 5 of 63, level with 50
- FFree plan and trialAbove 0 of 63, level with 37
- BFeaturesAbove 41 of 63, level with 22
- CEase of useAbove 1 of 63, level with 61
- CPlatforms and integrationsAbove 0 of 63, level with 21
Price against what you get
Each dot is one of 38 HR software. Further left costs less, and higher up scores better on features, ease of use and platforms. Point at a dot to see which tool it is.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Keep Ciphr, or make your own?
Keep it
To replace Ciphr you would be making payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one.
That makes this kind of software worth paying for, not this one in particular: 34 of the 63 other HR software grade higher. It costs $80.39 a year.
What you could make
- Employee records, applicant tracking, time off and reports: an app builder makes these well.
What you could not
- Payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you.
- It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team.
- AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.
What this rests on. Ciphr’s listing: what it does, where it runs, what it plugs into and what it costs. It is a judgement about the kind of software this is. We have not built a replacement for it, and making your own means looking after it too. How we decide, and every tool’s verdict.
What is Ciphr?
Ciphr sells cloud HR software, UK payroll, recruitment, learning and an employee benefits platform that can be bought separately or as one connected suite. It is built for UK organisations with roughly 200 to 2,000 employees and is priced by quote, not by published plan.
Worth knowing
- No plan prices are published; the vendor quotes by modules, headcount and support level.
- The 'from £5' figure assumes 125 employees on a three-year minimum term.
- It is built for UK compliance and for organisations of 200 or more staff, so small teams are outside its stated range.
- Implementation is scoped inside the quote, so setup is not a separate published price.
Key features
- Central HR
- Cloud HR with absence, performance, documents, employee self-service and reporting, plus an AI assistant.
- UK payroll
- Payroll built around HMRC rules, including RTI and auto-enrolment, with UK-based expert support.
- Recruitment
- Hiring from vacancy to offer, connected to Ciphr HR so a new hire flows into onboarding without re-keying.
- Learning management
- An LMS and eLearning courses, off the shelf or bespoke, that update the learner's record on completion.
- Benefits platform
- An employee benefits platform that shows take-home pay impact and connects to payroll.
- HR analytics
- Dashboards and reports across HR, payroll, learning and recruitment data.
Ciphr pricing
As of Nov 12, 2026, Ciphr is a paid product, starting at £5 per employee / month and up (125 employees, three-year term).
- Starts at
- £5 per employee / month and up (125 employees, three-year term)
- Free plan
- None
- Free trial
- None listed
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Quote-based suite | £5per employee / month and up, three-year term | Standard HR software for 125 employees on a three-year minimum term. Final price depends on modules, headcount and support. |
Read from ciphr.com on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Ciphr before you buy.
Ciphr alternatives
- Ciphr vs BrightHR
From £16.67/mo
- Ciphr vs Breathe
Free trial · from £24/mo
- Ciphr vs BambooHR
Free trial · from $250/mo
Common questions
Does Ciphr have an Android app?
No Android app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Ciphr is listed for Web.
Does Ciphr have an iPhone app?
No iPhone app was listed when its pages were read on Nov 12, 2026. Ciphr is listed for Web.
Is Ciphr open source?
Ciphr is not described as open source on its own site, as read on Nov 12, 2026.
Sources for this page
The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026.