IRIS Payroll Basics review

Payroll Basics is an option for smaller companies with fewer than 10 employees – over 40,000 businesses use the platform, and over 600,000 UK businesses use IRIS’s payroll products on the whole.

It delivers essential functionality for micro-businesses without the cost or complexity found in larger platforms, and yet still maintains HMRC recognition and full compliance with PAYE, National Insurance, statutory payments and Real Time Information (RTI) submissions.

This free product is designed for business owners and managers who may not have a dedicated payroll team but still need to run accurate payroll each month – if you’re a small business owner with a handful of workers and no dedicated teams or HR leaders, then this is quite possibly the most cost-effective way of getting the job done.

Because it’s backed by the broader company that is IRIS, you get access to the same underlying infrastructure but for free. IRIS claims to be the largest third-party online filer with the UK Government, with one in eight UK employees paid through its various payroll solutions.

As soon as your company grows beyond these basic needs, though, IRIS Payroll Basics will no longer be suitable, so think of it as a stopgap solution for the short term.

Still, its low barrier to entry and solid compliance tools make it a logical choice as a stepping stone for smaller employers navigating payroll for the first time.

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IRIS Payroll Basics: Plans and pricing

Being a so-called ‘Basics’ product, there’s one huge benefit to IRIS Payroll Basics, and that’s that it’s free.

IRIS describes the platform as a free payroll option recognised by HMRC, but it’s on its last legs as IRIS sets out plans to bolster profitability looking ahead. IRIS Payroll Basics will only be compliant for the 2025/26 tax year, because it’s set to be discontinued from there on.

Longer-term customers and those needing more than the free platform can provide should consider IRIS’s Staffology Payroll, which costs from £39 per month for one to 19 payslips.

IRIS Payroll Basics: Features

First thing’s first, IRIS Payroll Basics is exactly that – basic. It covers the essentials that you need, but there are no additional features that make it an all-encompassing payroll and HR solution like others in this space.

Payroll Basics automatically calculates PAYE, National Insurance, pension auto-enrolment and statutory payments, and because it’s fully HMRC-recognised, it enables direct submissions to HMRC to cut out some admin work.

The reporting system also generates mandatory forms, month-end summaries, pension reports and employee payslips.

IRIS notes that all business-critical software and legislative updates are provided free of charge, however with the platform losing support at the end of the 2025/26 tax year, that’s about to change.

IRIS Payroll Basics: Ease of use

Because it’s such a basic system, IRIS Payroll Basics is already a pretty simple system to get your head around. If there are fewer features to begin with, then it’s a reasonable expectation that there shouldn’t be a huge learning curve.

That being said, with the platform on its last legs, it does feel a bit more dated or basic than other solutions in this space. With a deprecation date in mind, IRIS hasn’t committed to updating the user interface as it has with other Payroll solutions under the IRIS brand.

Still, key calculations and submissions are automated to take away human error, so it’s a worthwhile consideration for micro-businesses without specialist payroll staff.

IRIS Payroll Basics: Support

IRIS Payroll Basics doesn’t have its own dedicated support, but being a free product, we wouldn’t usually expect support to be great anyway. Thankfully, because IRIS offers paid options too, Payroll Basics users can speak to the company this way.

A support page shows the phone number without being hidden behind too many clicks, so IRIS is clearly prepared to pick up the phone, but you can also shoot off a message on the live chat if you have a more complex query that may need a written response.

There’s no email support.

IRIS also has various articles in its knowledge base, but nothing seems specifically geared towards Payroll Basics.

IRIS Payroll Basics: Final verdict

IRIS Payroll Basics is a practical, no-frills payroll solution for UK-based micro-businesses with up to 10 employees who are seeking a compliant, cost-effective way to manage payroll.

Organisations that fall within this scope can get superb value from this free product, with core functionalities like PAYE, National Insurance calculations, RTI submissions and pension enrolment built-in.

With previous updates to keep the platform up-to-date with changing legislations and HMRC recognition, you get peace of mind for full compliance, however there’s a huge caveat and that’s that IRIS Payroll Basics is set to lose compliance after tax year 2025/26.

Its biggest limitation is its April 2026 discontinuation, and from this point users will need to shift to other solutions, be it something like Staffology Payroll from IRIS or another provider altogether.

Support generally seems responsive and you get the backing of IRIS as a whole, which offers other payroll solutions, however it seems lacking in specific knowledge base articles or guidance on Payroll Basics.