European Payroll Software

#1 Employes

Amsterdam, Netherlands Per employee per month, published Free trial

Best for: Dutch employers under about fifty people who want to run payroll themselves

Employes is the smallest vendor in this category and the easiest to actually start with, which is why it leads it. Shine Employes B.V. in Amsterdam sells directly to employers rather than through accountants, publishes a per-employee price instead of quoting one, and covers the full Dutch cycle: gross to net, payslips, the wage tax return and the payment file. For a company of ten or twenty people that has outgrown a spreadsheet and does not want a sales process, that combination is rarer than it should be.

The limits follow from the same choices. It is a Dutch product for Dutch payroll — if you employ anyone outside the Netherlands, this is not the system for them, and there is no pretence otherwise. It is also a small company, which is worth weighing for a system that has to work correctly every single month and that regulators fine you for getting wrong. Ask what happens to your data and your filings if the company changes hands, the same question you would ask any vendor holding your payroll.

Standout feature. A price on the website: in a category where almost everything is quoted, being able to work out what payroll costs before speaking to anyone is the whole product.

#2 HRworks

Freiburg, Germany Founded 1998 Per employee per month, modular Demo on request

Best for: German mid-sized companies wanting HR, time and expenses in one place with payroll prepared for the accountant

HRworks GmbH has been building German HR software from Freiburg since 1998, and the scope reflects a company that grew with its customers rather than around a single feature: personnel files, time tracking, absence, travel expenses and payroll preparation in one modular system, priced per employee per month.

The word that matters there is preparation. HRworks assembles the payroll and hands it over; the statutory filing is typically done by the accountant or a payroll bureau, usually in DATEV. For a German mid-sized company that already works that way, this is exactly the right shape and removes the double entry between HR and payroll. If you were hoping to bring filing in-house and drop the accountant, it is the wrong product, and no amount of module configuration changes that.

Standout feature. Travel expenses taken seriously: a module most HR suites treat as an afterthought, in a market where it is a monthly reality.

#3 Nmbrs

Amsterdam, Netherlands Founded 2010 Per payslip per month Demo on request

Best for: Dutch accountants and the employers they serve, at any size

Nmbrs is the product a large share of Dutch accountancy firms run their payroll on, and its per-payslip pricing tells you who it was designed for: a bureau processing many employers rather than one employer processing itself. Employers use it directly too, usually alongside their accountant, and the split of responsibilities between the two is a genuine strength rather than a compromise.

One fact belongs in any shortlist. Nmbrs Payroll B.V. is registered in Amsterdam and has been part of the Norwegian Visma group since 2020. Both sit inside the EEA, so nothing about jurisdiction changes, but it is no longer an independent Dutch company and the roadmap now belongs to a group with many payroll products in it. Whether that is reassuring or not depends on what you value; either way you should know it before signing rather than after.

Standout feature. Built for the accountant and the employer at once, which is how Dutch payroll actually works rather than how software usually assumes it does.

#4 Papershift

Karlsruhe, Germany Founded 2014 Per employee per month, published plans Free trial

Best for: Shift-based businesses where the payroll problem starts with the rota

Papershift GmbH in Karlsruhe approaches payroll from an unusual end: rostering. For hospitality, retail, care and logistics, the hard part is not the gross-to-net calculation but knowing who actually worked which hours, at what surcharge, with which breaks. Papershift builds the schedule, records the time against it, applies the rules, and produces the numbers payroll needs.

That makes it a different purchase from the rest of this list, and comparing it on payroll features alone will mislead you. It prepares payroll rather than filing it, and a salaried office team with predictable hours will find most of it unused. For a company running shifts, the alternative is not another payroll product but a spreadsheet plus a monthly argument, and that comparison is far more favourable.

Standout feature. It starts at the rota: for shift work, the payroll error is almost always made weeks before payroll runs.

#5 PayFit

Paris, France Founded 2015 Per employee per month, quoted Demo on request

Best for: Companies employing people in more than one European country

PayFit SAS in Paris is the closest thing in this category to a multi-country answer, running statutory payroll in France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom rather than holding data for partners to process. For a company with people in two or three of those, that is the difference between one system and three, and it is the main reason to look past a purely national vendor.

The trade-offs are the ones that come with breadth. Depth in any single market does not match the local specialist — a French accountant will know Silae better, a Dutch one Nmbrs — and pricing is quoted per employee rather than published, so comparison needs a conversation. It is also worth checking exactly which countries PayFit files in itself versus supports through a partner, because that list is shorter than the marketing list and it is the one that matters.

Standout feature. Actually multi-country: it files rather than forwards, which is the line most payroll vendors quietly do not cross.

#6 Loket

Tilburg, Netherlands Sold through accountants and payroll bureaus; pricing on request Demo on request

Best for: Dutch employers whose payroll runs through an accountant or a payroll bureau

Loket is the other engine underneath a large part of Dutch payroll, sitting alongside Nmbrs in the offices of accountants and payroll bureaus rather than being sold to employers directly. Employers do work in it, but usually as one half of an arrangement with their accountant, and the split of tasks between the two is the thing it is built around. It runs the full Dutch cycle, including the wage tax return and the pension reporting.

It is part of Van Spaendonck, a Dutch organisation based in Tilburg, and the same address appears on Loket's own contact page. Worth noting for a directory that checks these things: Loket does not publish its legal form or its Chamber of Commerce number anywhere on its site, so what we can confirm is the Dutch address and the Dutch parent rather than a registered entity. Pricing is not published either, which follows from selling through professionals rather than to employers.

Standout feature. The bureau half of Dutch payroll: if your accountant does not run Nmbrs, there is a fair chance this is what they run instead.

#7 Silae

France Founded 2007 Sold through accountants; pricing on request Demo on request

Best for: French employers whose payroll runs through an accounting firm

SILAEXPERT SAS built the engine that a very large share of French payroll runs on, and it reaches employers almost entirely through accounting firms rather than directly. French payroll is among the most complex in Europe — collective agreements, a dense set of contributions, the DSN filing — and Silae exists to make that tractable at bureau scale.

That distribution model is the thing to understand. You do not really buy Silae; your accountant does, and you work in it alongside them. If your firm already runs Silae, the practical decision is made and the product is a good one. If you want to bring payroll in-house and drop the intermediary, this is not the route, and pricing is not published because you are not the buyer. Outside France it is not the answer at all.

Standout feature. It speaks French payroll natively — collective agreements and DSN are the product, not a localisation layer.

#8 Factorial

Barcelona, Spain Founded 2016 Per employee per month, published plans Free trial

Best for: Growing companies in Spain and southern Europe wanting HR and payroll in one suite

Everyday Software, S.L. in Barcelona sells Factorial as a broad HR platform — people data, absence, time tracking, recruitment, documents and expenses — with payroll attached rather than at the centre. For a company that needs the HR layer first and the payroll second, that ordering is the right way round, and the published per-employee pricing and free trial make it easy to test.

Read the payroll part carefully for your own country, though. Coverage varies by market and in several countries Factorial prepares payroll for an accountant or a partner rather than filing it itself. That is not a flaw so much as the normal shape of this category, but it does mean that comparing Factorial with PayFit on price alone compares two different products. It is strongest in Spain, which is also where the company is.

Standout feature. HR first, payroll attached — the right order for a company whose problem is people admin rather than the wage calculation.

#9 DATEV

Nuremberg, Germany Founded 1966 Member cooperative; pricing per product Through your accountant

Best for: German companies whose tax adviser runs their payroll, which is most of them

DATEV eG is not a software company in the ordinary sense. It is a cooperative in Nuremberg, founded in 1966 and owned by German tax advisers, accountants and lawyers, and it is the infrastructure that a very large share of German payroll and bookkeeping actually runs on. If your Steuerberater files your payroll, there is a strong chance it happens in DATEV whether or not you have ever seen the interface.

That makes it the odd entry here and the one hardest to compare. There is no per-employee price to quote because the members are the owners and products are priced per module through the adviser. There is no signup, because you reach it through a professional. What it offers instead is a degree of continuity and regulatory alignment that no venture-funded vendor can match, from an organisation that is structurally German and answerable to its own members. If you want payroll in-house with a price on a website, look at the top of this list instead.

Standout feature. Owned by the profession that uses it: a cooperative structure means the roadmap answers to advisers rather than to investors.