Payroll software in the United Kingdom that AI assistants recommend
We asked ChatGPT and Claude the four questions a buyer asks when looking for payroll software in the United Kingdom, three times each, in English, and counted who they named. These are the businesses named in two or more of the 24 answers.
Names are printed as the assistants wrote them. We have not checked that any of them is good, open, or real.
- Answers
- 24
- Businesses named
- 23
- Named only once
- 11
- Named by 2+ assistants
- 11 of 12
- Named again on a rerun
- 61%
Edition September 2026. Download the data
Asked for payroll software in the United Kingdom, ChatGPT and Claude most often named Xero Payroll (92% of answers), BrightPay (79%) and Sage Payroll (79%). Across 24 answers they named 23 different businesses, 11 of them only once. Each of four buyer questions was asked three times, in English, in September 2026.
The ranking
Share is the fraction of the 24 answers that named a business. The range under it is a 95% confidence interval: where two ranges overlap, the gap between those businesses could be chance.
| # | Business | Share | ChatGPT | Claude | Questions | Avg. position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xero Payroll | 95%: 74 to 98% | 83% | 100% | 4 of 4 | 2.7 |
| 2 | BrightPay | 95%: 60 to 91% | 67% | 92% | 4 of 4 | 1.1 |
| 3 | Sage Payroll | 95%: 60 to 91% | 75% | 83% | 4 of 4 | 3.2 |
| 4 | QuickBooks Payroll | 95%: 39 to 76% | 50% | 67% | 3 of 4 | 4.1 |
| 5 | Moneysoft Payroll Manager | 95%: 12 to 45% | 33% | 17% | 2 of 4 | 2.5 |
| 6 | Breathe HR | 95%: 9 to 41% | 25% | 17% | 1 of 4 | 3.4 |
| 7 | Sage 50 Payroll | 95%: 7 to 36% | 25% | 8% | 1 of 4 | 2.8 |
| 8 | BrightHR | 95%: 4 to 31% | 17% | 8% | 1 of 4 | 1 |
| 9 | Employment Hero | 95%: 4 to 31% | 17% | 8% | 1 of 4 | 3 |
| 10 | QuickBooks Online Payroll | 95%: 2 to 26% | 17% | 0% | 2 of 4 | 3.5 |
| 11 | CharlieHR | 95%: 2 to 26% | 8% | 8% | 1 of 4 | 4.5 |
| 12 | FreeAgent Payroll | 95%: 2 to 26% | 8% | 8% | 1 of 4 | 5 |
Each assistant column is the share of that assistant's own answers. Questions counts how many of the four produced the name at least once; position is where it came in the answer's list, 1 being first. 11 more names came up in a single answer and are counted above but not listed.
What each assistant said
The same questions, the same number of times, and often different names. Each column is one assistant's top five from the ranking above, with the share of its own answers that named them.
| # | ChatGPT | Claude |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xero Payroll83% | Xero Payroll100% |
| 2 | Sage Payroll75% | BrightPay92% |
| 3 | BrightPay67% | Sage Payroll83% |
| 4 | QuickBooks Payroll50% | QuickBooks Payroll67% |
| 5 | Moneysoft Payroll Manager33% | Moneysoft Payroll Manager17% |
Named here? Put it on your site
Every business in the ranking was named in two or more answers. The badge says that and nothing more: no position, because the ranges above do not support one. It links back to this page, so anyone can check.
<a href="https://aigrow.gg/index/payroll-software/united-kingdom"><img src="https://aigrow.gg/badges/index/2026-09/payroll-software/united-kingdom.svg" width="312" height="100" alt="Named by AI assistants: Payroll software in the United Kingdom, AIGROW AI Visibility Index, September 2026"></a>The questions
Asked word for word, three times each, to every assistant through its API. The prompt is the one the free scan uses. No web search, no location and no chat history, so every answer starts from the same place.
- 1What is the best payroll software for a small business in the UK?
- 2I'm hiring my first employees in the UK. Which payroll software should I use?
- 3Which payroll and HR software would you recommend to a company of 20 people in the UK?
- 4Which payroll service is easiest for a small business in the UK?
How to read this page
- What it measures
- Which names these models produce when asked cold, from what they learned in training. It is not a review, a rating or our recommendation, and a business missing here may simply be one the models were never shown.
- Why the ranges matter
- 24 answers is a sample. Asked again next month, most shares will move by a few points; the ranges say how far they could move by chance alone.
- One business, several spellings
- Branches, legal suffixes and spellings of one business are merged, and the other spellings are printed under its name. Names that might be two businesses are kept apart.
- A name is wrong
- If a business here is closed, misnamed or yours and you want it removed, tell us. We correct or remove it when the page is next published.
Elsewhere in the Index
- Payroll software elsewhere
- AustraliaCanadaIrelandUnited States
Is your business on this list?
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Edition September 2026 · data under CC BY 4.0