The short version: PayHero, Smartly and Employment Hero all run compliant NZ payroll, but they charge for it in three different shapes. PayHero bills a flat rate per employee plus a small base fee, from $4 plus $24 a month. Smartly bills per pay run, $2.60 DIY or $6.20 Managed, plus a platform fee or a $365 monthly floor. Employment Hero bills per user with a 10-user minimum on every tier, $7 a month for payroll alone. None of the three is a rostering tool; that's what Deputy is for.
Three different billing shapes
PayHero stacks a per-employee rate on top of a flat monthly base fee, so the base fee dominates for a very small team and the per-employee rate dominates as headcount climbs. Smartly bills per pay run per employee rather than a flat seat rate, so a weekly pay cycle costs more across a month than a monthly one at the same headcount. Employment Hero bills per user with a hard 10-user minimum on every HR and Payroll tier, billing on whichever is higher, the contract number or the active user count.
Only PayHero includes full payroll, payday filing and Xero sync, from its cheapest tier; the other two separate the payroll product itself from any HR layer sitting around it.
The numbers side by side
| Provider | Payroll price | Minimum |
|---|---|---|
| PayHero | $4 to $7 a employee, plus $24 to $59 a month base fee | None stated; Origin caps at 10 employees |
| Smartly | $2.60 (DIY) to $6.20 (Managed) a pay run per employee | $51.50 a month platform fee (DIY); $365 a month floor (Managed) |
| Employment Hero | $7 a user standalone, or a $20 a month per employee Managed add-on | 10 users on every HR and Payroll tier; $400 a month floor on Managed |
Employment Hero's 10-user minimum applies even to a firm with five staff, source: employmenthero.com/nz/pricing, checked 22 September 2026, which is the single clearest reason it rarely wins on price for a business under 20 people.
Which one to pick
- Pick PayHero if you want full payroll, payday filing and Xero sync from the cheapest entry tier, and you're happy to buy rostering separately through Droppah if you need it.
- Pick Smartly if you want the choice between running payroll yourself on DIY or handing the data entry to their team on Managed, on an identical feature set either way.
- Pick Employment Hero if payroll needs to sit inside a broader HR system, onboarding, compliance, performance, and your headcount already clears the 10-user minimum.
None of the three runs rostering and shift planning the way a dedicated tool does. If that's the actual gap, Deputy is the rostering specialist worth pairing with whichever payroll tool you land on here, not a fourth payroll option.
Or build the roster on what you already pay for
For a firm already on Microsoft 365, a roster, timesheet and leave register can be built directly on the licence already paid for: on Dataverse at NZ$32.40 a user a month, or on SharePoint lists and Teams Shifts where the licence already includes them, with Power BI Pro at NZ$22.60 for the two or three people who need the report. A build like that runs $8,000 to $18,000, with no 10-user minimum to clear before the price makes sense. It does not run payroll: PAYE, KiwiSaver, holiday pay under the Holidays Act and payday filing stay in a compliant payroll product like the three above. What it covers is the roster, the time capture, leave requests and approvals, and the reporting that feeds whichever payroll product handles that part.
Common questions
Which is cheapest for a small NZ payroll run?
It depends on headcount and pay-cycle frequency more than sticker price. PayHero's Origin tier, $4 a employee plus a $24 monthly base fee, is the cheapest for a team under 10 people. Smartly's DIY Payroll, $2.60 a pay run per employee plus $51.50 a month, can undercut PayHero on a low headcount but scales differently since it bills per pay run. Employment Hero's standalone Payroll, $7 a user a month, carries a 10-user minimum regardless of actual headcount, so it rarely wins for a firm under 20 staff.
Do any of these three handle rostering as well as payroll?
Not fully, and that's the gap Deputy fills for some firms. PayHero has no built-in rostering, it's sold separately through Droppah, a companion product from the same team. Employment Hero sells rostering as a separate $3 a employee add-on, not bundled into payroll. Deputy itself is the opposite: it's a rostering and time-and-attendance tool, not payroll, so it's usually paired with one of these three rather than compared against them directly.
What's the real difference between DIY and managed payroll across these three?
The feature set is often close to identical; the difference is who enters and checks the data. Smartly states this most plainly: DIY and Managed Payroll share the same feature list, and Managed costs more than double the per-pay-run rate because Smartly's own team does the data entry. Employment Hero's Managed Payroll add-on works the same way, $20 a month per employee with a $400 minimum, on top of an HR plan. PayHero doesn't offer a managed tier at all; every plan is self-service.
Get a number for your own crew
Book a free 30-minute call. Bring your headcount and pay cycle and I'll tell you which of the three fits, and whether the roster around it is worth building.