Sage Accounting
The UK incumbent, listed in London, with payroll bundled into every plan, Sage Copilot on every plan and telephone support on every plan. Standard is £43 a month for three users once the 90 per cent introductory discount ends. What to know: Start is single-user, receipt capture is metered, multi-currency and stock need Plus at £59, there is no official MCP server, and Sage's pages block automated reading so several facts here rest on the pricing page alone.
How we testSage Group plc is the UK's own accounting software company, founded in Newcastle in 1981 and a member of the FTSE 100. Sage Accounting (the product that was Sage Business Cloud Accounting, and Sage One before that) is its cloud line for small businesses, and HMRC lists it as "Sage Business Cloud Accounting: Start/Standard/Plus" on the VAT list and "Accounting from Sage" on the Income Tax list, alongside a separate Sage Sole Trader and Landlord product with a free version.
Prices in pounds excluding VAT, read on 8 September 2026, monthly billing, 90 per cent off for six months or one month free. Start is £20 a month for one user, positioned for VAT-registered sole traders, with invoicing, VAT submissions, bank reconciliation and payroll for one employee, but no receipt capture. Standard, at £43, is the plan we score: three users, CIS, accrual accounting, quotes, purchase invoices, thirty receipt captures a month (then 20p each), cashflow forecasting and budgets. Plus at £59 gives unlimited users, multi-currency, stock and inventory, a hundred captures and payroll for five. Payroll is bundled rather than bolted on: one employee is included on Start and Standard and five on Plus, then £1.85 per employee a month, with RTI, pensions auto-enrolment and self-serve payslips. Sage Copilot, the AI assistant that drafts payment reminders and flags unusual pay, is on every plan, and so is telephone support.
That last point is the one Sage should shout about, because Xero has no inbound line and Sage's competitors at this price mostly do not. Sage runs a large accountant partner programme, an app marketplace and a developer API; we found no official MCP server, only community ones on GitHub. What we could not confirm is which payment processors sit behind "offer more ways to pay", or the security certifications and data location, because sage.com refuses automated reading and the pricing page does not say. Trustpilot is 4.0 on 20,065 invited reviews for the Sage group as a whole, 83 per cent five-star, with September 2026 one-star themes of repeated price rises (one reviewer quoted £62 to £76 to £86), being upgraded without permission and hold times on the phone line.
Against Xero's Grow at £39 with unlimited users, Standard at £43 for three users is a harder sell unless payroll and phone support are what you are buying, in which case the arithmetic changes.
Not yet tested by Saaskly: assessed on published pricing, HMRC's software lists, vendor documentation and third-party reviews.
Pros
- +Payroll with RTI and auto-enrolment bundled into every plan; Sage Copilot and telephone support on every plan
- +UK-owned, London-listed, on both HMRC lists; CIS on Standard; unlimited users, multi-currency and stock on Plus
- +Trustpilot 4.0 on 20,065 reviews
Cons
- −Start is single-user; Standard gives three users for £43, more than Xero's unlimited-user Grow at £39
- −Receipt capture is metered (30 then 20p each on Standard); multi-currency and stock need Plus at £59
- −No official MCP server; payment processors, certifications and data location not confirmed because Sage's site blocks automated reading; price-rise complaints on Trustpilot
Pricing
Minimum commitment: £20 (£20/mo × 1 seat × 1 months). The least you can spend before walking away; excludes numbers, minutes and add-ons.
Start
£20/mo · annual commitment
Month-to-month: not published
- ✓£20/mo ex VAT after 90% off for 6 months (£2). 1 user, VAT submissions, bank reconciliation, payroll for 1 employee (£1.85 each after), Sage Copilot, phone support. No receipt capture. Monthly billing.
Standard
£43/mo · annual commitment
Month-to-month: not published
- ✓£43/mo ex VAT after 90% off for 6 months (£4.30). 3 users, CIS, accruals, 30 receipt captures a month, cashflow and budgets, payroll for 1. Plus £59: unlimited users, multi-currency, stock, 100 captures, payroll for 5.
Specifications
| Rating | 3.8 |
| Scored plan* | £43/mo (Standard) |
| Entry plan | £20/mo (Start) |
| Intro offer | 90% off for 6 months, or one month free |
| Sole trader plan | None |
| Free tier | None |
| Users | 3 included |
| Entry invoice cap | No cap |
| MTD VAT | ✓ |
| MTD Income Tax | HMRC recognised |
| Self Assessment | ✓ |
| Corporation Tax | No |
| CIS | ✓ |
| Bank feeds | ✓ |
| Stripe | No |
| GoCardless | No |
| Multi-currency | Add-on / higher tier |
| Payroll | Built in |
| Receipt capture | Built in |
| Projects | No |
| Inventory | ✓ |
| Accountant console | ✓ |
| API | ✓ |
| MCP server | No |
| Owned in** | UK-owned |
| Phone support | ✓ |
| Trustpilot (reviews) | 4.0 (20,065) |
| Scored tier | Standard |
| VAT basis | Excluding VAT |
| Top plan | £59/mo (Plus) |
| Accountant seat free | No |
| Payroll pricing | 1 employee included (5 on Plus), then £1.85 per employee a month |
| Free trial (days) | 30 |
| Companies House filing | No |
| RTI payroll | ✓ |
| Pay Now on invoices | ✓ |
| Own payments product | Sage payments (processors not confirmed) |
| Expense claims | No |
| Purchase orders | No |
| Quotes and estimates | ✓ |
| Recurring invoices | ✓ |
| Cashflow forecasting | ✓ |
| Fixed assets | No |
| AI features | Sage Copilot on every plan: payment reminders, anomaly detection, insights |
| Accountant network | Sage for Accountants partner programme; no published UK count |
| Webhooks | No |
| Zapier / Make | No |
| Mobile apps | ✓ |
| HQ | UK |
| Owner | Sage Group plc |
| Listed on | LSE |
| Data location | Not stated on readable pages |
| SOC 2 | No |
| ISO 27001 | No |
| Cyber Essentials | No |
| 2FA mandatory | No |
| Live chat | No |
| UK support hours | Telephone support on every plan; hours not stated on the pricing page |
| Accountancy service bundled | No |
| Support channels | Phone, Community hub, Sage University |
*Scored plan: the limited-company tier the score is set on (the cheapest plan a VAT-registered company with a few staff can run on), per month at the renewal price once any introductory discount ends, in the currency the vendor shows a UK visitor on the research date; see each profile for the VAT basis, the introductory offer and what the tier above adds.
**Owned in: where the company that owns the provider answers to. A US-owned provider is subject to US law (including the CLOUD Act) wherever the data centre is; a UK data centre is not the same thing as UK jurisdiction. "Data location" records where the ledger is stored.
Researched and drafted with AI assistance; reviewed and approved by Tim Meredith. How we use AI
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