Payroll
Sage 300 People vs Sage HR
Sage 300 People and Sage HR compared on what a South African buyer has to live with: what each one costs, what it is good at and where it gives ground.
Sage 300 People
Payroll
8.4out of 10
Medium and large employers with complex pay structures and HR needs
Read the review
Sage HR
Payroll
7.8out of 10
Growing teams that need leave and HR records out of spreadsheets
Read the reviewThe short answer
What the record adds up to
- Sage 300 People scores higher overall, 8.4 against 7.8. The reason behind a point of difference matters more than the point itself.
- Sage 300 People is ahead on depth of features, support and skills and south african fit.
- Sage HR is ahead on everyday use and value for money.
- Sage 300 People and Sage HR are not published on a basis that can be set beside the other price, so the two cannot be subtracted honestly. Read the plan notes instead.
- On South African fit Sage 300 People is the stronger of the two. Employment equity and council rules are core, not an add on.
Scored side by side
Where the difference actually sits
| Dimension | Sage 300 People | Sage HR | Our view |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 8.4 | 7.8 | Sage 300 People |
| Everyday useSage HR: Self service that staff actually open, which is the point of an HR tool. | 7.4 | 8.6 | Sage HR |
| Depth of featuresSage 300 People: Bargaining councils, shifts, equity reporting and workflow in one place. | 9.4 | 7.8 | Sage 300 People |
| Value for moneySage HR: Per employee, per module. Switching several on multiplies the bill. | 7.2 | 7.4 | Sage HR |
| Support and skillsSage 300 People: Established consultant network, though good ones are booked out. | 8.5 | 8.0 | Sage 300 People |
| South African fitSage 300 People: Employment equity and council rules are core, not an add on. | 9.6 | 7.2 | Sage 300 People |
Every score is our editorial judgement and the reasoning sits in the full review. A gap under two tenths is called line ball, because it is not a difference worth acting on.
Checked facts
What each vendor commits to
| Attribute | Sage 300 People | Sage HR |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | On premise or hosted | Cloud |
| Ideal team | Medium and large employers | Growing small and medium business |
| Pricing | On request, scoped by module and headcount | On request, priced per employee by module |
| Support | Partner and Sage professional services | Online support |
What it costs
Price, on the same basis or not at all
| Attribute | Sage 300 People | Sage HR |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | On requestscoped by module and headcount | On requestpriced per employee, per module |
| What that buys | Licence plus implementation; quoted per project | Leave, performance and scheduling are licensed separately |
| Billed in | Rand | Rand |
| Free tier | None | None |
| Free trial | No free trial | Free trial, length not published |
| Demonstration | On request | On request |
| Named AI feature | None advertised | None advertised |
Sage 300 People and Sage HR are not published on a basis that can be set beside the other price, so the two cannot be subtracted honestly. Read the plan notes instead.
Sage 300 People
Quoted per project. The licence is scoped by module and headcount, and the implementation is quoted separately. The licence is rarely the expensive part. Insist on a written statement of work that names the consultant, lists the modules, states the data migration approach and gives a go live date. Ask what the annual support cost will be in year two, because that is the number you will pay for a long time.
Sage HR
Priced per employee per month, with leave, performance and scheduling licensed as separate modules. A free trial is offered but the length is not published. Two things drive the real cost. Switching on several modules multiplies the per employee rate, and the per employee model means the bill grows with hiring. Price the module combination you will run in a year, and confirm exactly how leave balances reach your payroll before you buy.
Capability
What each one actually does
The capabilities we tested in each review, written out rather than reduced to ticks in a grid. A tick tells you a feature exists. It does not tell you whether it is any good.
Sage 300 People
- Complex earnings and deductions
- Handles shift differentials, bargaining council contributions, allowances and the layered deduction rules that defeat simpler payrolls.
- Employment equity reporting
- Produces the reporting South African employers are obliged to file, built into the employee record rather than assembled from exports each year.
- Employee self service
- Staff manage leave, payslips and personal details themselves, with proper approval routing rather than email requests to the payroll office.
- Workflow approvals
- Configurable approval chains for leave, changes and terminations, which is what turns payroll from a personal process into a controlled one.
- Multi company and multi currency payroll
- Several entities in one system with consolidated reporting, so a group sees the whole picture without combining spreadsheets.
Sage HR
- Leave management
- Requests, approvals and balances with a shared calendar, which ends the recurring argument about who is off and how many days remain.
- Employee database and documents
- Contracts, identity documents and qualifications stored against the employee record with expiry reminders, which helps considerably at audit time.
- Performance reviews
- Structured review cycles with goals and feedback, aimed at businesses running their first formal performance process rather than at large enterprises.
- Shift scheduling
- Rosters and shift planning for teams that are not desk based, with the schedule visible to staff on their phones.
- Expense claims
- Claims submitted with a photograph of the slip and routed for approval, replacing the envelope of receipts that arrives at month end.
| Attribute | Sage 300 People | Sage HR |
|---|---|---|
| Covers |
|
|
Getting it running
Setup, and who answers when it breaks
Sage 300 People
What it takes to start
A project with a consultant, a scope and a timeline measured in months for a large employer. Earning and deduction definitions, bargaining council rules, approval workflow and organisational structure are all configured to your business. Insist on a written statement of work, a named consultant and a parallel run before cutover.
When something breaks
Support comes through the implementation partner and Sage professional services. Because the configuration is specific to you, the person who built it is the person who can fix it, so continuity of consultant matters more here than with a packaged product. Get that continuity addressed in the contract.
Sage HR
What it takes to start
Quick for leave, longer for the rest. Importing employees and configuring leave policies takes a day. Performance cycles and shift scheduling take longer because they encode how you actually manage people, which usually needs a decision rather than a setting. The integration to your payroll should be tested before you rely on it.
When something breaks
Online support and documentation, at a global rather than local level. There is no South African payroll behind it, so questions about PAYE go to whichever payroll you run alongside. That split is worth understanding before you buy, because it decides who you call when leave and pay disagree.
Strengths and limits
Where each one gives ground
Sage 300 People
- Handles complex earnings, shift and bargaining council structures
- Human resources, self service and payroll sit in one database
- Reporting depth that finance and HR can both work from
- Implementation is a project with real consulting cost, not a signup
- Overkill for an employer under roughly fifty people
- Total cost depends heavily on which modules you licence
Sage HR
- Clean self service that employees actually use
- Modular, so you can start with leave and add performance later
- Mobile app suits teams that are not at a desk
- It is not a South African payroll engine, so you still need one
- Module pricing adds up once you switch several on
- Reporting is lighter than a full HR information system
Local view
How each one behaves in South Africa
Sage 300 People
This is the product local groups move to when bargaining councils, shift allowances, employment equity reporting and multiple entities stop fitting a small payroll. Budget for the implementation properly. The licence is rarely the expensive part. Insist on a scoped statement of work and a named consultant before you sign.
Sage HR
Treat this as the HR layer, not the payroll. It pairs sensibly with Sage Payroll or a local payroll bureau. Before buying, check how leave balances flow into your payroll run, because a manual re key every month removes most of the benefit you are paying for.
Closing judgement
What we said about each one
Sage 300 People
The right answer for a medium or large South African employer with genuinely complex pay structures. Substantial overkill for an employer under about fifty people, who should stay on cloud payroll.
Read the full Sage 300 People reviewSage HR
A tidy HR layer for a growing team that has outgrown leave spreadsheets. Only worth buying if the integration with your actual payroll is clean, so test that before committing.
Read the full Sage HR reviewWe may earn a commission if you subscribe through these links, at no extra cost to you. It never changes a score or a ranking. How we make money
How this page is put together
Where these figures come from
This page is assembled from our two reviews rather than written as a separate verdict. The scores, facts and prices are the ones published in each review, which is why they match. Where a figure has not been verified for both products we leave the row out instead of estimating it. Read the methodology
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