3. How's it free

Yes, any software marked with FREE really is free:

• We don't plan to EVER charge you for all the free software features.
• The free software features have no premium plan.
• It's the same free plan for all.

Also:

• We won't spam you.
• We won't sell your private info.
• We'll keep building great software.

We believe business software can be free.

We believe the world can be better when:

• Employers have better tools to look after their people.
• Admin tasks melt away.
• And paperwork gets automated.

Our mission is:

        "Build a world where everyone gets better pay."

We believe that it starts by making high quality free software for employers.

Read more: 2015-03-31 Why business software is going to be free

Originally, we needed a payroll and HR service for ourselves, to help us run a call centre we were operating a few years ago. Then we thought, why not give it away for free so others could benefit too.

We hope that by making it free, it attracts more interest and resources to make it even better, over time.

Read more: 2015-03-31 Why business software is going to be free

There's no limits to using our free software.

• 1st FREE Onboarding
  • Sign, send, and track all the onboarding docs you want!
  • Track onboarding completion like you've always wanted!
• 1st FREE Time Off
  • Have all the time off requests you want!
  • Have all the time off storage you want!
  • Have all the time off reporting you want!
• 1st FREE Expenses
  • Have all the expense approvals you want!
  • Have all the expense reporting you want!
• 1st FREE Timesheets
  • Have all the timesheet storage you need!
  • Have all the attendance clock-ins you want!
• 1st FREE HR Docs
  • Have all the free templates you want!
  • Have all the doc sending you want!
  • Have all the doc storage you need!
• 1st FREE Leave
  • Have all the leave requests you want!
  • Have all the leave storage you want!
• 1st FREE Offboarding
  • All the disciplinary action verbal warnings and written warnings you want!
  • All the compliance automation you've always wanted!

Much of the software that we provide is free.

There's two parts to making a free business service sustainable:

1. We keep our costs low:
   • We're frugal in how we run our business.
   • We use free software ourselves, including open source software.
   • We use first class help and documentation so our users can look up answers themselves.
2. However, we also make money by:
   • Charging a fee for services like pension filing and CIS.
   • Building complementary business services.

We're here to stay because:

• We're 100% boot-strapped (self-funded).
• We haven't taken any outside investment (yet).
• We've got savings in the bank.
• We're a team of passionate individuals who really care about building something great.

We're here for the long-term, until we achieve our mission.

Our mission is:

        "Build a world where everyone gets better pay."

Published: 31 Mar 2026

List of PRO features

To help you know why you're on PRO, you'll see tiles based on your usage. Here's the master list:

4    You've grown beyond the three-person FREE+ limit.

P    You've used a paid pension feature (see below).

C    You've paid a person who's a CIS subcontractor.

W    You've paid people with weekly paydays.

F    You've paid people with fortnightly paydays.

H    You've paid people with hourly pay rates.

S    You've paid people with student loans.

D    You've paid directors.

R    You've filed a payday.

We're lowering the PRO minimum for all customers

Previously the PRO minimum was: £14.90/mth

Included no base fee, plus 10 payrolled people at £1.49/mth each.

Now the PRO minimum is: £14.75/mth

Includes £9.99 base fee, plus 4 payrolled people (which now also counts the payday filer) at £1.19/mth each.

What's changing with FREE+?

Previously the FREE+ plan covered 1-9 payrolled people. Now it covers 1-3 payrolled people.

Once your company grows to 4 or more payrolled people, you'll automatically be moved to the PRO plan.

What's changing with student loans?

Previously student loan processing was part of the FREE+ plan. Now it's being moved to the PRO plan.

What's changing with payday filing?

Previously payday filers (the person who taps the "Pay now" button) weren't counted as a payrolled person. Now payday filers are considered a payrolled person (even if they don't get a payslip themselves).

What's changing with director pricing?

Previously directorship processing was part of the FREE+ plan. Now it's being moved to the PRO plan, but with a discount.

If your org has one director (and you're not using any PRO features), it's discounted to a flat: £4.99/mth

If your org has 2-3 directors, it's £4.99/mth per director.

Once you grow to 4+ directors, or you use PRO features, standard PRO pricing applies (all PRO features are included).

Who's affected by these changes?

The majority of our customers are unaffected by all these pricing changes. In fact, over 60% of our customers continue to receive either completely FREE payroll, or are paying similar to before.

When does the pricing change take effect?

• For new customers:
  • The pricing change takes effect from today (31 Mar 2026). See it on our public pricing page, at: 1st.money/pricing
• For existing customers:
  • These pricing changes won't take effect until 30 days from today (today is 31 Mar 2026, takes effect on 30 Apr 2026).

How does your pricing compare?

Everyone still gets free features like: timesheets, expense claims, time off tracking, HR docs, and accounting integrations.

Even with the pricing changes above, we still believe that 1st Money is, by far, the best value payroll in the UK.

As always, if you still have questions, send us a message. 1st Money's free support ... We're here Mon to Fri, 12 noon to 4 pm, UK time 

Copies of the email we sent out on Mar 31, 2026:

For customers using student loans or directorships:

For customers with 4 or more payrolled people (which now also counts the payday filer).

For customers with an estimated decrease in pricing.

For customers with an estimated in increase in pricing that didn't fit the other email categories.