This page sets out the differences clearly. Pricing, features, onboarding, and the kinds of businesses each is built for. We've kept it straight and factual rather than salesy, because we'd rather you make the right call for your business than pick us for the wrong reasons.

The short version

PaySauce is built for the smallest employers.

That's our focus and it shapes everything we build. We're a registered PAYE intermediary so we handle IRD payments for you. Our app runs the entire pay run from your phone in minutes. Our pricing is flat monthly (base monthly fee and number of employees paid in the month), so weekly and fortnightly payers don't get penalised. We onboard every customer for free, no matter how small, with no implementation fees ever.

Smartly is owned by Datacom and serves a wider mix of small to medium Kiwi businesses.

They're also a registered PAYE intermediary. Their pricing is per pay run, which suits monthly payers but adds up for businesses paying weekly or fortnightly.

If you're a small employer in farming, trades, hospitality, retail or similar industries paying staff weekly or fortnightly, PaySauce will likely cost you less and give you a more focused product. If you have a larger team or more complex needs, or want HR add ons, Smartly may have features that better suit you. 

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By a small(ish) business, for small businesses

PaySauce is independent. We're not part of a multinational corporation with a product portfolio competing for attention and investment. We're not splitting our focus across enterprise customers, mid-market, and small businesses all at the same time.

We do one thing: build great payroll for small employers. That's what every person in the company comes to work to do.

This focus matters when you're choosing payroll software. Our product development reflects what small employers actually need. The support team knows your kind of business because it's the only kind of business we serve.

It also means we move. We're currently modernising our entire technology stack to deliver an even greater experience tailored specifically for small employers. That's a major investment for us, and it's one we can make precisely because we're not pulled in five directions at once.

Smartly is owned by Datacom, NZ's largest IT company. Datacom is a serious organisation with deep payroll expertise. Datacom also runs dozens of other product lines across Australasia. Their attention is spread across many things. Ours isn't.

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Built for the smallest employers, by design

Most NZ payroll companies started small, then chased the larger customers as they grew. Their products got more complex, their pricing changed shape, and their attention shifted up-market.

We've taken the opposite path. We started with small employers and we've stayed with them. Every feature we build is tested against this question: does this make life easier for a Kiwi small business owner running their own payroll? 

Our view is that running payroll for a small business shouldn't need a stack of different tools talking to each other, and it shouldn't need to be outsourced. With the right tool, a small employer can run their own pay accurately, compliantly, and quickly - even on a Sunday night with the kids asleep, or in the car at school pick up on your phone. 

That focus shows up in three places:

• One tool, not many. Timesheets, leave requests, pay runs, payslips, IRD payments - your team uses one app and you don't need to integrate four different products to make payroll work.
• Mobile-first product. A small employer often is the business: running operations, working with customers, on a job site or a farm. The app has to work for them, not for a payroll administrator at a desk. Ours runs a full pay run from your phone in minutes.
• Pricing that works for small business. Our pricing is deliberately set up to work for small businesses. Our fees are all charged monthly, so there are no added extras every time you have to run a pay! We also don't pass on bank transaction fees like Smartly.
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Pricing comparison: real numbers

This is where the structural difference shows up most. Here are the actual monthly costs (excluding GST) across employee counts and pay frequencies that match how Kiwi small businesses actually pay people.

PaySauce Standard vs Smartly DIY

PaySauce Standard: $40 base + $5.50 per employee per month (flat, regardless of pay frequency) 

Smartly DIY: $51.50 base + $2.60 per employee per pay run, plus bank transaction fees passed on (36 cents on average, per transaction (employees, IRD payments, any deductions paid to third parties)

Bank transaction fees: PaySauce absorbs them at Standard. Smartly passes them on, which adds to the monthly total.

Why these numbers look the way they do

Smartly charges per pay run. If your team is on weekly pay, that charge applies four times a month. On fortnightly, twice a month. On monthly, once. We charge a flat monthly fee no matter how often you run the pay.

This means weekly payers see the biggest gap, fortnightly payers see a meaningful but smaller one, and monthly payers come out roughly even.

If your business pays weekly or fortnightly - which most of our customers do - you'll save money on PaySauce. If you pay monthly with 4-5 employees, the cost is similar.

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Do you need a managed payroll service?

Smartly offers a fully managed service (Managed Payroll) where their team enters your data and processes payroll for you. The minimum charge is $365 per month, which is steep for a small business.

Our view is different. We don't think the smallest Kiwi businesses need to outsource payroll to a third-party team. With software built specifically for small employers, you can run your own pay confidently in minutes. What you need is:

• A tool that handles the complex stuff:  leave calculations, PAYE, KiwiSaver, payday filing 
• PAYE intermediary services so your IRD payments happen on time without you needing to remember
• An easy way for your employees to submit their timesheets and leave information to you, so all you need to do is process and approve
• Direct support for the moments when something needs sorting

PaySauce Standard includes all of this for $45.50 to $67.50 per month for 1–5 employees. It's not a stripped-back version of payroll - it's a complete tool designed for the size of business you actually run.

If you're significantly larger and genuinely want to outsource payroll completely, Smartly's Managed service may be a good fit. For most small businesses, you don't need it.

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Feature comparison

What's in each product, side by side, across the things that matter most for small employers.

Compliance and filing

Where PaySauce is stronger: Our minimum wage top-up tool ensures salaried staff who work additional hours don't accidentally drop below the legal hourly minimum. This matters for dairy farm staff, trades apprentices, and salaried hospo workers. Smartly doesn't have a comparable tool.

Pay run and payments

Where PaySauce is stronger: Our app handles the entire pay run, not just timesheets and approvals. You can run pay between jobs, before service, or wherever you happen to be on payday. Smartly's app supports timesheets and self-service but the actual pay run still happens on desktop.

We have the widest range of payment connection options out of any payroll software provider in NZ. You can connect to ASB, ANZ, BNZ or Westpac accounts with a direct connection. You can also connect to KiwiBank, TSB or Rabobank accounts via our integration with Akahu, or you can set up a direct debit (2 day processing). 

Mobile and employee tools