The best CIS payroll software for UK contractors in 2026: an honest comparison

If you are a contractor in the Construction Industry Scheme, you have two parallel compliance jobs every month: running payroll for your employees (FPS and EPS submissions under RTI) and running CIS for your subcontractors (verification, deductions, the CIS300 monthly return, and payment and deduction statements). Surprisingly few products do both well in one place — most payroll software ignores CIS entirely, and most CIS-capable options live either on the desktop or inside an accounting suite you may not want.

This guide compares the realistic options in 2026, honestly: what each product is, what its CIS capability actually covers, roughly what it costs where pricing is published, and where it falls short. That includes our own product — Taxriva is on this list because it is built for exactly this problem, but it is a newer entrant, and we say so.

1. Taxriva — payroll and CIS300 in one cloud product

What it is: Taxriva is cloud payroll software for UK small businesses and contractors that treats CIS as a first-class feature rather than an add-on. Payroll runs (FPS and EPS), employee management, subcontractor verification, CIS deduction calculations with materials splits, direct CIS300 filing including nil returns, and payment and deduction statements all live in one product with one login.

CIS capability: Full contractor-side CIS — verification, the correct deduction rate applied to the labour element automatically, monthly CIS300 filing to HMRC, statements generated for every subcontractor, and EPS offset for limited company subcontractors who suffer deductions.

Who it suits: Construction firms that employ staff and pay subcontractors, and want both compliance streams handled in one modern cloud product rather than two systems or a suite subscription.

Honest limitations: Taxriva is a newer product still building its track record and review base. Long-established competitors have years of accountant word-of-mouth and large support communities behind them; we do not yet. If a decade of market history is your primary buying criterion, some of the options below have it and we don’t — what we offer instead is a product designed from the start around the payroll-plus-CIS workflow. See how it works at payroll.taxriva.com.

2. Moneysoft Payroll Manager — the desktop value benchmark

What it is: A long-standing Windows desktop payroll program with a devoted following among accountants and small contractors.

CIS capability: Full and mature, included in the price: online verification, CIS300 filing including nil returns, deduction statements, and materials tracking. Moneysoft explicitly targets CIS contractors, and its CIS features are among the most complete on the market.

Pricing: As of July 2026, £95/year for one employer (up to 20 employees and subcontractors), or £190/year for unlimited employers — which is why so many small practices run their client payrolls on it. That works out around £8/month for a typical small firm, the cheapest full-featured paid option in the market.

Who it suits: Cost-conscious contractors and small accountancy practices who are comfortable with desktop software.

Honest limitations: Windows desktop only — no cloud version, no announced cloud roadmap, no API, no employee portal, and email-only support. The product itself is capable; the platform is ageing, and as the market moves to cloud its users face an eventual migration with no in-house destination.

3. BrightPay and BrightCIS — a strong product mid-transition

What it is: BrightPay earned an excellent reputation as desktop payroll software — historically among the best-reviewed products in UK payroll, with a Capterra rating of 4.9/5. It is now in a forced transition: the vendor has confirmed that from the 2026/27 tax year BrightPay is exclusively cloud-based, with the desktop product no longer updated or supported.

CIS capability: This is the catch for contractors. The desktop product handled CIS; BrightPay cloud has no CIS module. CIS has been split into a separate paid product, BrightCIS (batch CIS300 filing, verification, support for up to 1,000 subcontractors), whose pricing is not published. BrightPay’s interim advice to CIS customers was to keep a desktop licence running for CIS only.

Pricing: The final-year desktop licence was £119/year for up to 10 employees as of July 2026. Cloud pricing is unpublished — it is quoted per customer via a calculator, and users have reported significantly higher costs than desktop, though those reports are anecdotal.

Who it suits: Existing BrightPay users without CIS needs, and firms happy to run payroll and CIS as two separate Bright products.

Honest limitations: For a construction firm, the combination of retiring desktop software, unpublished cloud pricing and CIS de-bundled into a second product makes 2026 an awkward year to commit. The underlying products are well built; the packaging currently works against CIS contractors.

4. IRIS Staffology — full CIS in the cloud, at a price

What it is: A modern, API-first cloud payroll product from IRIS, aimed at growing businesses, bureaus and software companies embedding payroll.

CIS capability: Genuinely full: HMRC verification, automatic CIS300 generation when a pay run is finalised, direct filing including nil returns, and deduction statements. Until recently this was essentially the only way to get complete contractor-side CIS in a modern cloud payroll product.

Pricing: As of July 2026, £43/month flat for 1–19 payslips, then £43 plus £2.15 per payslip from 20 to 50. That flat floor means a five-person firm pays £516/year.

Who it suits: Firms from roughly 15–20 employees upwards, bureaus, and anyone who needs a payroll API. At that scale the per-payslip economics work and the product is strong.

Honest limitations: The £43/month floor makes it hard to justify for micro businesses — a three-person contractor pays the same as a nineteen-person one. Below about 15 employees you are paying mid-market prices for a micro-business workload.

5. Xero — CIS via an accounting-suite add-on

What it is: The dominant cloud accounting platform for UK small businesses, with payroll available as an add-on to its accounting plans.

CIS capability: Yes — Xero offers a CIS add-on at £5/month (as of July 2026) with direct HMRC CIS300 filing and subcontractor verification. Note that CIS lives in the accounting side of Xero (bills and invoices), not in the payroll module, and requires a Xero accounting subscription.

Pricing: As of July 2026, the Ignite plan is £16/month with payroll at £1.50 per person per month — roughly £23.50/month for a five-employee firm, or about £28.50 with the CIS add-on.

Who it suits: Firms that already run their books on Xero, or whose accountant does. If your invoicing, bank feeds and VAT are already there, adding CIS for £5/month is the path of least resistance.

Honest limitations: You are buying an accounting suite to reach CIS filing. If you do not need Xero for bookkeeping, it is an expensive route to a CIS300 — and CIS and payroll remain two separate workflows inside the product.

6. QuickBooks — CIS included in the accounting plans

What it is: Intuit’s cloud accounting platform, with payroll as an add-on, aggressively priced and promoted at the small-business end.

CIS capability: CIS300 filing is included in QuickBooks’ accounting plans (from Simple Start upwards) at no extra charge, with direct submission to HMRC and automated subcontractor verification. There are documented limits: CIS cannot be switched off once enabled, backdated returns are not supported, and CIS works on a cash basis only. As with Xero, CIS sits in the accounting product, not the payroll add-on.

Pricing: Payroll requires a QuickBooks accounting subscription, with payroll priced per employee on top; Intuit’s UK pricing is heavily promo-driven, so check current figures directly rather than relying on quoted numbers.

Who it suits: Firms already on QuickBooks for bookkeeping — for them, CIS filing at no extra cost is genuinely good value.

Honest limitations: The same suite-tax problem as Xero, plus the documented CIS constraints above. Widely reported long support wait times are worth factoring in if CIS filing deadlines depend on getting help quickly.

7. Sage Payroll — no CIS in the payroll product

What it is: The mass-market incumbent’s cloud payroll product, familiar to almost every UK accountant.

CIS capability: None in Sage Payroll itself. CIS — including CIS300 filing — lives in Sage Accounting and in the Sage 50 CIS module, so a construction firm needs two Sage products to cover payroll and CIS.

Pricing: As of July 2026, Sage Payroll’s entry tier is around £12/month including five employees.

Who it suits: Firms deep in the Sage ecosystem, particularly where their accountant manages everything through Sage for Accountants.

Honest limitations: For a CIS contractor, payroll and CIS in separate paid products is exactly the fragmentation this article is about. Reliable RTI pedigree, but not a one-product answer for construction.

8. HMRC Basic PAYE Tools — free, but no CIS at all

What it is: HMRC’s own free desktop payroll software for employers with fewer than ten employees.

CIS capability: None. Basic PAYE Tools has no CIS features — contractors using it must run CIS separately through HMRC’s free CIS online service (which covers verification and CIS300 filing, but leaves payment and deduction statements as a manual job every month).

Who it suits: Micro employers with the simplest possible payroll and no budget.

Honest limitations: Beyond the missing CIS: it is capped below ten employees, has no pension auto-enrolment support (no assessment, contributions or provider files), is not designed for agents or bookkeepers, and offers minimal reporting. Free is its feature; for a CIS contractor it solves half the problem at most.

Comparison at a glance

Product	Type	Native CIS300 filing	Rough cost, 5-employee firm (as of July 2026, ex VAT)	Best for
Taxriva	Cloud, payroll + CIS in one	Yes — with verification, statements, nil returns	See current pricing	Contractors wanting payroll and CIS in one product
Moneysoft Payroll Manager	Windows desktop	Yes — full, included	~£8/mo (£95/yr)	Value buyers happy with desktop
BrightPay cloud + BrightCIS	Cloud (desktop retiring)	No in cloud payroll — separate BrightCIS product	Unpublished (quoted per customer)	Existing BrightPay users
IRIS Staffology	Cloud, API-first	Yes — full	£43/mo flat floor	15+ employees, bureaus, embedded payroll
Xero + CIS add-on	Cloud accounting suite	Yes — £5/mo add-on, in accounting not payroll	~£28.50/mo incl. CIS	Firms already on Xero
QuickBooks	Cloud accounting suite	Yes — in accounting plans, not payroll	Promo-dependent; check current pricing	Firms already on QuickBooks
Sage Payroll	Cloud payroll	No — CIS requires a second Sage product	~£12/mo (payroll only)	Sage-ecosystem firms without CIS needs
HMRC Basic PAYE Tools	Free desktop	No — use HMRC’s separate CIS online service	£0	Micro employers with no CIS and no budget

How to choose: six buying criteria

1. Native CIS300 filing. The return should be generated from your payment records and submitted to HMRC from inside the product — including nil returns for quiet months. If the answer involves exporting figures into another system (or HMRC’s portal), you are still doing CIS manually.
2. Subcontractor verification. Electronic verification with HMRC, with the returned rate and reference stored against the subcontractor. This is what keeps 20%/30% errors — and the liability that follows them — out of your returns. Our guide to CIS deduction rates explains what rides on getting this right.
3. Payment and deduction statements. Generated automatically, every month, by the 19th. Subcontractors need them to recover their tax; chasing a contractor for missing statements is the fastest way to sour a working relationship.
4. Nil returns. A month with no subcontractor payments still requires telling HMRC, or a £100 penalty follows. Software should make this a two-minute job.
5. Price — and price transparency. The paid market clusters around £8–12/month for a five-employee firm, but reaching CIS filing in the cloud has typically meant paying much more, buying an accounting suite, or getting a quote-only price. Treat published, flat pricing as a feature in itself.
6. Cloud vs desktop. Desktop still offers the best raw value (Moneysoft), but the direction of travel is one way — BrightPay’s desktop retirement is the clearest signal yet. For a new purchase in 2026, weigh desktop savings against a migration you will eventually make anyway.

The bottom line

There is no single best answer — it depends on where you are starting from. Already on Xero or QuickBooks with your accountant happy? The suite route is pragmatic. Fifteen-plus employees? Staffology earns its price. Wedded to desktop and watching every pound? Moneysoft remains hard to beat. But if you want modern cloud software where payroll (FPS/EPS) and contractor-side CIS — verification, deductions, CIS300, statements — live in one product at small-business prices, that combination is exactly the gap Taxriva was built to fill.

See how Taxriva handles CIS payroll →