# SimplePay review (2026): is it worth paying for? > South African online payroll with leave and self-service Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA. SimplePay is online payroll software for South African employers, with leave management, employee self-service and statutory filing for PAYE, UIF and SDL. One plan includes every feature, priced as a base fee plus a per-employee charge that falls as headcount grows. The company also runs sites for Singapore, Ireland and Hong Kong. - **Category:** Payroll - **Made by:** SimplePay - **Website:** https://www.simplepay.co.za - **Runs on:** Web, iOS, Android - **Who should skip it:** Not for you if you run payroll outside South Africa: it is built around SARS rules. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, SimplePay is a paid product with a free trial, starting at R70 per month plus R19.50 per employee, excluding VAT. - **Pricing model:** Free trial - **Free plan:** None. - **Free trial:** 30-day free trial with all features and full support. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | The One Plan | R70 per month, plus R19.50 per employee (first 5) | All features. Per-employee rate falls to R13.60 for employees 6 to 10, R11.00 for 11 to 300 and R8.75 from 301; 10 employees come to R235.50 a month, excluding VAT. | Read from https://www.simplepay.co.za/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with SimplePay before buying. ## Key features - **Payroll processing:** Calculates salaries, wages and tax from employee data and produces payment files to upload to your bank. - **Statutory calculations and filing:** Handles PAYE, UIF and SDL, with EMP201 and UIF declaration data, and tax certificate exports for eFiling or e@syFile. - **Leave management:** Custom annual leave policies, built-in sick and family responsibility leave, and approvals through self-service. - **Employee self-service:** Employees see payslips, request leave, log expense claims and submit banking and address changes through the website or the mobile app for iOS and Android. - **Flexible pay structures:** Supports variable pay rates, bonuses, commissions and unlimited custom income and deduction items. - **Accounting integrations and API:** Connects to Xero and QuickBooks and offers an API for other systems. ## Good for - Small South African employers that want to pay only for the headcount they have - Businesses that need SARS and Department of Labour compliance built in - Accountants and owners who use Xero or QuickBooks ## Worth knowing - Prices are in South African rand and exclude VAT. - Companies with more than 500 employees, and accounting firms or bureaus running payroll for clients, must request a quote. - Multiple companies are billed separately, each needing its own quote. - The site says its ISO 27001 certification is still in progress. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.8 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. SimplePay does South African payroll with PAYE, UIF and tax filing, leave and self-service, on one plan: R70 a month plus R19.50 an employee. That is cheap, but it is in rand, excludes VAT, and companies over 500 employees and bureaus must ask for a quote. - **Value for money: A.** R70 plus R19.50 an employee, about R170 a month for five people, which is well under what payroll tools cost elsewhere. - **Free plan and trial: C.** 30-day trial with all features, and no card is asked in the sign-up form. No free plan afterwards. - **Features: B.** PAYE, UIF and SDL, SARS filing, leave, self-service, accounting links and an API. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in South African payroll. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. You enter pay items and employees and connect an accounting package, so it is a C. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, iPhone and Android, with Xero, QuickBooks and an API. No desktop app. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from SimplePay's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among payroll services - SimplePay's GPA of 2.8 is higher than 39 of the 40 other payroll services we grade, and level with 1. - It stands best on value for money (A, above 36 of 40) and worst on ease of use (C, above 1). The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/payroll ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace SimplePay 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. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.8 is higher than 39 of the 40 other payroll services we grade. - You could make: Time off, employee records and expense tracking: an app builder makes these well. - You could not: Payroll taxes worked out and filed with the government for you. - You could not: A real app for iOS and Android. Something home-made would be a web page. - 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. ## Works with Xero, QuickBooks **Tags:** Payroll, Time off, Employee records, Expense tracking ## Alternatives - [BrightPay](https://toolgpa.com/tools/brightpay): UK cloud payroll with HMRC submissions and auto-enrolment. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/brightpay-vs-simplepay) - [Payfit](https://toolgpa.com/tools/payfit): Managed UK payroll and HR with an AI assistant. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/payfit-vs-simplepay) - [Employment Hero](https://toolgpa.com/tools/employment-hero): Payroll, HR and hiring for Australia, NZ, the UK and Asia. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/employment-hero-vs-simplepay) - [greytHR](https://toolgpa.com/tools/greythr): HR and payroll software for businesses in India. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/greythr-vs-simplepay) - [Talenox](https://toolgpa.com/tools/talenox): Multi-country HR, payroll, leave and claims for small teams. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/simplepay-vs-talenox) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://www.simplepay.co.za/pricing - https://www.simplepay.co.za/ - https://www.simplepay.co.za/features - https://www.simplepay.co.za/about Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/simplepay Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).