# Ciphr review (2026): is it worth £5 a month? > UK HR and payroll suite for organisations of 200 to 2,000 staff Checked Nov 12, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. 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. - **Category:** HR Software - **Made by:** Ciphr - **Website:** https://www.ciphr.com - **Runs on:** Web - **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you have a small team, as it is built for 200 or more. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, Ciphr is a paid product, starting at £5 per employee / month and up (125 employees, three-year term). - **Pricing model:** Paid - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | Quote-based suite | £5 per 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 https://www.ciphr.com/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Ciphr before buying. ## 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. ## Good for - UK organisations with 200 to 2,000 employees - Teams that want HR and payroll from one provider - Employers that need UK payroll rules handled in the product ## 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 1.8 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. 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. - **Value for money: C.** From £5 per employee a month, about $6.50, but only for 125 employees on a three-year minimum term. No plan prices are published. - **Free plan and trial: F.** No free plan and no trial is on record in the listing or on its pricing page. - **Features: B.** Central HR, UK payroll, recruitment, learning, benefits and analytics. The listing names no gap in the core HR work. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. A suite this size is bought by quote and set up with implementation scoped inside it. - **Platforms and integrations: C.** Web only, with no integrations list or apps on record. These are ToolGPA's own grades. 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. ## Where it stands among HR software - Ciphr's GPA of 1.8 is higher than 22 of the 101 other HR software we grade, and level with 33. - It stands best on features (B, above 73 of 101) 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 for the category: 24 of the 40 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 3 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/hr-software ## Keep it, 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: 46 of the 101 other HR software grade higher. It costs $80.39 a year. - You could make: Employee records, applicant tracking, time off and reports: an app builder makes these well. - You could not: Payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you. - You could not: It is priced for each person, which means accounts and billing for a team. - You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself. - You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. **Tags:** Employee records, Payroll, Applicant tracking, Time off, Reports, AI features ## Alternatives - [Cezanne HR](https://toolgpa.com/tools/cezanne-hr): Modular HR system for mid-sized organisations, quoted by headcount. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/cezanne-hr-vs-ciphr) - [BrightHR](https://toolgpa.com/tools/brighthr): HR software with holiday, rota and absence tools and advice lines. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/brighthr-vs-ciphr) - [Breathe](https://toolgpa.com/tools/breathe): UK HR software for small firms, priced per business, not per person. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/breathe-vs-ciphr) - [Personio](https://toolgpa.com/tools/personio): European HR platform for records, absences, time and recruiting. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/ciphr-vs-personio) - [BambooHR](https://toolgpa.com/tools/bamboohr): HR records, hiring, time off and reviews, with US payroll as an add-on. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/bamboohr-vs-ciphr) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://www.ciphr.com/pricing - https://www.ciphr.com Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/ciphr Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).