Payroll
Sage Payroll vs Sage Pastel Payroll
Sage Payroll and Sage Pastel Payroll 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 Payroll
Payroll
8.6out of 10
Small South African employers who want statutory updates handled for them
Read the review
Sage Pastel Payroll
Payroll
8.4out of 10
Payroll administrators who want proven local compliance on their own server
Read the reviewThe short answer
What the record adds up to
- Sage Payroll scores 8.6 and Sage Pastel Payroll scores 8.4. That is close enough to be a tie, so the decision rests on the detail below rather than the headline.
- Sage Payroll is ahead on everyday use and value for money.
- Sage Pastel Payroll is ahead on depth of features and support and skills.
- Sage Pastel Payroll is 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.
Scored side by side
Where the difference actually sits
| Dimension | Sage Payroll | Sage Pastel Payroll | Our view |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 8.6 | 8.4 | Line ball |
| Everyday useSage Payroll: Simple enough that an owner can run payroll without a payroll background. | 8.6 | 7.6 | Sage Payroll |
| Depth of featuresSage Pastel Payroll: Statutory depth with optional HR and self service modules. | 7.6 | 8.4 | Sage Pastel Payroll |
| Value for moneySage Payroll: Unlimited companies and users on every band is unusually generous. | 8.8 | 7.5 | Sage Payroll |
| Support and skillsSage Pastel Payroll: A very large pool of trained South African payroll administrators. | 8.4 | 9.0 | Sage Pastel Payroll |
| South African fitSage Payroll: UIF declaration and ACB payment file are native, not adapted. | 9.4 | 9.5 | Line ball |
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 Payroll | Sage Pastel Payroll |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Cloud | Desktop with optional online modules |
| Ideal team | 1 to 200 employees | Small and medium employers |
| Pricing | From R97 per month incl. VAT for 1 to 2 employees | On request through a Sage business partner |
| Support | Online and telephonic | First year support usually bundled |
What it costs
Price, on the same basis or not at all
| Attribute | Sage Payroll | Sage Pastel Payroll |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | R97per month | On requestquoted by a Sage business partner |
| What that buys | 1 to 2 employees, incl. VAT; banded up to 200 plus | Annual licence banded by employee count; no public rate card |
| Billed in | Rand | Rand |
| Free tier | None | None |
| Free trial | 30 day free trial | No free trial |
| Demonstration | On request | On request |
| Named AI feature | None advertised | None advertised |
Sage Pastel Payroll is 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 Payroll
From R97 a month including VAT for one to two employees, banded upwards through roughly fifteen steps to two hundred plus employees. A thirty day free trial with a demonstration company is offered and no card is required. The thing to model is the band step. Hiring one person can move you into the next band and raise the monthly fee, so check where the thresholds fall relative to your hiring plan rather than only looking at the entry price.
Sage Pastel Payroll
No public price. It is sold through Sage business partners as an annual licence banded by employee count, usually with the first year of telephone and email support included. The questions that matter are what the renewal costs in year two, whether the annual tax update is part of the renewal or a separate charge, and what happens to your licence if you skip a year of cover. Get those answers before you buy, not at renewal.
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 Payroll
- PAYE, UIF and SDL calculations
- Statutory deductions maintained against the current tax year, including the changes that arrive mid year and break spreadsheet payrolls.
- Email payslips
- Payslips sent directly to employees rather than printed and handed out, which removes the most tedious hour of a payroll month.
- Leave management
- Leave tracked against South African statutory minimums with balances visible to employees, so the annual leave argument happens less often.
- ACB payment files
- Produces the bank payment file South African banks expect, so the salary run is a file upload rather than manual capture of every account.
- Sage Accounting integration
- Posts the payroll journal straight into Sage Accounting, removing the monthly manual journal and the mistakes that come with re keying it.
Sage Pastel Payroll
- Statutory PAYE, UIF and SDL
- Calculations maintained through the annual update cycle, with mid year adjustments handled rather than left for the administrator to work out.
- IRP5 and IT3(a) generation
- Produces the certificates in the format required for reconciliation season, which is the single busiest week in a payroll administrator year.
- Bulk payslip email
- Sends payslips to the whole payroll in one action with password protection, replacing the printing and folding that used to consume a full day.
- Leave and loan tracking
- Employee loans, garnishee orders and leave balances tracked against the payroll rather than in a side spreadsheet that nobody reconciles.
- Sage Pastel Partner integration
- Posts the payroll journal into Pastel accounting directly, keeping the ledger and the payroll in agreement without manual capture.
| Attribute | Sage Payroll | Sage Pastel Payroll |
|---|---|---|
| Covers |
|
|
Getting it running
Setup, and who answers when it breaks
Sage Payroll
What it takes to start
Straightforward. Capture the company, the employees and their year to date figures, and the statutory calculations follow. A small payroll is live in an afternoon. Run one cycle in parallel with whatever you are leaving, because opening leave balances and loan balances are where migrations go wrong.
When something breaks
Online and telephone support from Sage, plus the partner network. Because the product is aimed at small employers, the support questions tend to be routine and the documentation covers most of them. Statutory updates arrive without you doing anything, which is the support that matters most in payroll.
Sage Pastel Payroll
What it takes to start
Desktop installation with an annual update cycle that has to be planned around the tax year. Migration is normally done by a partner and includes employee masterfile, year to date figures and leave. The critical scheduling point is that you do not want to migrate mid tax year unless you have to.
When something breaks
First year support is typically bundled, then it follows the renewal. The deeper safety net is the size of the trained administrator pool, which means cover during leave and a replacement who already knows the product if your payroll person resigns. That is a real operational benefit.
Strengths and limits
Where each one gives ground
Sage Payroll
- Priced in clear headcount bands, so the monthly figure is easy to predict
- PAYE, UIF and SDL calculations and the statutory updates are handled for you
- Unlimited companies and unlimited users on every band
- Crossing a headcount band raises the monthly fee in a step, not gradually
- HR depth is thin next to a full people system
- Very large or complex payrolls will outgrow it and land on Sage 300 People
Sage Pastel Payroll
- Long track record with SARS submissions and annual tax year changes
- Optional modules for employee self service and human resources
- Skills are widely available in the local job market
- No public price, so budgeting means getting a quote first
- Desktop deployment adds backup and remote access work for you
- Annual update cycle has to be planned around the tax year
Local view
How each one behaves in South Africa
Sage Payroll
This is built for South African statutory reality rather than adapted to it, which shows in the UIF declaration and the ACB payment file. The band pricing is honest but watch the step when you hire past a threshold. If you run several small companies the unlimited company allowance makes it very good value for a bookkeeping practice.
Sage Pastel Payroll
The reason this product persists is the annual tax year change. Sage ships the update, the payroll administrator applies it and the submission season works. That reliability is worth a lot in a country where the rules move every year. Ask your partner in writing what the yearly renewal covers and whether the tax update is included or billed separately.
Closing judgement
What we said about each one
Sage Payroll
A straightforward and fairly priced payroll for a small South African employer, and unusually good value for a bookkeeping practice thanks to the unlimited company allowance.
Read the full Sage Payroll reviewSage Pastel Payroll
A dependable compliance tool for employers who want payroll on their own server and value a product their administrator already knows. New employers with no Pastel history should look at cloud payroll first.
Read the full Sage Pastel Payroll 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
Keep comparing
