Comparison

Ghugi vs Datagraphic: enterprise portal
or SMB email?

Datagraphic is a 30+ year UK document-automation bureau — print, mail, security printing, and three software products (Epay employee portal, SSLPost encrypted email, ELMhub employee-lifecycle hub). They sell into HR teams and payroll bureaus at companies like ITV, Vodafone, and Sky. Ghugi sits at the other end: a focused email-first tool for small UK businesses. Here's the honest comparison so you can pick what fits.

Pick Datagraphic if…

You need an employee portal employees log in to — Epay and ELMhub are portal products — staff sign in to view payslips, P60s, contracts, and HR documents. If your workforce already logs into an intranet, the portal model fits.
You want print, email, and portal under one supplier — Datagraphic also runs a print/mail bureau, security printing (cheques, paying-in books), and payroll stationery. For organisations still printing some payslips alongside emailing others, the bundle is genuinely useful.
Your procurement requires ISO 27001 / B Corp — Datagraphic holds ISO 27001, ISO 22301, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 50001, plus Cyber Essentials Plus, and is B Corp certified. Useful for public-sector tenders and large-enterprise supplier assessments.
You want a full Employee Lifecycle Management hub — ELMhub goes beyond payslips — offer letters, employment contracts, P45s, benefits, e-signature, and a mobile app (MyWorksApp). If you want one place for all employee documents, not just pay, Datagraphic covers that ground.

Pick Ghugi if…

You have fewer than 200 employees and don't need a portal — Most small UK businesses don't need an enterprise portal procurement cycle to send 25 payslips a month. Ghugi gets you sending in 10 minutes for £15/month, with no "contact sales" call.
You want the payslip to land in the employee's inbox — Ghugi emails the payslip as an encrypted PDF — employees open the email and unlock with their date of birth. No portal account to create, no password to remember, no extra login.
You want public, flat pricing — SSLPost publishes a small-business tier from £24/month + VAT but Epay and ELMhub enterprise pricing is contact-sales only. Ghugi's three tiers (£15 / £39 / £89) are public, flat, and cap by employee count.
You drag in PDFs from any payroll source — BrightPay, Moneysoft, Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, your accountant's exports — Ghugi auto-matches each one to the right employee. No lock-in to a specific payroll engine.

Plot twist: most small UK businesses don't need an enterprise portal to send 25 payslips a month. Open the email, unlock with DOB, done.

At a glance

Feature-by-feature comparison. We’ve tried to be fair — call us out on hello@ghugi.com if anything’s wrong.

Feature	Ghugi	Datagraphic
Email payslips direct to employee inbox	✓ Built-in	SSLPost (encrypted email)
Employee self-service portal	—	✓ Epay + ELMhub
DOB-encrypted PDF delivery (AES-256)	✓ Default on every send	Portal access controls + SSLPost encryption
Drag-in PDFs from any payroll source	✓	Epay reads PDFs; portal-led workflow
Email From: your own domain	Your Google / Microsoft / custom domain / SMTP	SSLPost branded email (their infrastructure)
Full audit trail of every send	✓	✓ (portal-side activity log)
Print + mail bureau service	—	✓ Aceni Mail
Security printing (cheques, payroll stationery)	—	✓
E-signature on employment docs	—	✓ ELMhub
ISO 27001 / Cyber Essentials Plus / B Corp	UK-built; not yet ISO 27001 certified	✓
Mobile app for employees	Email opens in any mail app	MyWorksApp (ELMhub)
Published pricing	£15 / £39 / £89 per month, flat	SSLPost SMB from £24/mo + VAT · Epay / ELMhub contact sales
30-day free trial, no credit card	✓	Sales-led trial / demo
UK-built and UK-hosted	✓	✓

When Datagraphic is the right choice

Established UK document-automation bureau (print, secure email, employee portals); software products Epay, SSLPost, and ELMhub, plus payroll stationery and security printing.

You run payroll at enterprise scale

If you're paying 500+ employees, manage multiple sites, or need a procurement-grade supplier (with ISO 27001 + Cyber Essentials Plus + B Corp certifications), Datagraphic is the right shape. Ghugi is built for small businesses and doesn't compete at that scale.

You still print some payslips and email others

Datagraphic's print/mail bureau (Aceni Mail) lets you post payslips to employees without email and email everyone else, under one supplier. Ghugi only sends email — there is no printed-payslip fallback.

You want a full Employee Lifecycle Management hub

ELMhub covers offer letters, employment contracts, P45s, benefits enrolment, e-signature, and a mobile app. If you want one portal for the whole employment journey, not just pay, Datagraphic is the right choice — Ghugi is intentionally just the payslip-email step.

When Ghugi is the right choice

Ghugi isn’t trying to be Datagraphic. We do one thing: get your payslip PDFs from “produced” to “in the employee’s inbox” without any portal, login, or manual forwarding.

Your team is small and the portal model is overkill

Most small UK businesses have a handful of employees who already know how to open an email. Asking them to set a portal password, remember it, and log in once a month adds friction that Ghugi's design removes. Open the email, unlock with DOB, done.

You already produce payslip PDFs and want to send them

Ghugi takes the PDFs your existing payroll (BrightPay, Moneysoft, Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, your accountant) produces, auto-matches each to the right employee, and emails the batch with DOB encryption. No portal migration, no procurement cycle.

You want public, flat pricing

Ghugi's three tiers (£15 / £39 / £89 per month) cap by employee count. SSLPost's small-business tier is £24/mo + VAT for encrypted email, but Epay and ELMhub enterprise pricing is contact-sales — you can't compare without a call.

About Datagraphic's "8 reasons not to email payslips" article

Datagraphic publishes a well-reasoned article arguing for portals over email. The concerns they raise (employees losing emails, weak shared passwords, employees without an email address, lost documents) are real — Ghugi's design addresses them: every payslip is AES-256 encrypted with the employee's individual date of birth (no shared password), the send-history log lets you re-send a single payslip in one click (no "can you resend last March?" admin), and our managed-email feature reduces deliverability issues. Where Ghugi can't help is the employee-with-no-email case — if you have staff without a personal email address, Datagraphic's portal or printed-payslip route is the right tool. For everyone else, email-first is faster and simpler.

Pricing, honestly compared

Here’s what the equivalent setup actually costs each way. They’re not apples-to-apples — Datagraphic calculates the payroll, Ghugi delivers it — but the totals are real.

Datagraphic SSLPost — small business / SMB

From £24/mo + VAT

SSLPost small-business tier (encrypted email, branded, tracking dashboard); Epay and ELMhub enterprise pricing not published — contact sales

Encrypted email + portal access
Branded sender + tracking dashboard
ISO 27001 / B Corp / Cyber Essentials Plus
Print + mail + security-printing add-ons available

Ghugi Starter — 25 employees

£15/mo

or £150/yr · flat fee, three tiers (25 / 100 / 200 employees)

Bulk email payslips with DOB encryption
Sends from your own Google / Microsoft / custom domain / SMTP
Works with any payroll source (PDFs)
Full audit trail of every send

Start free trial — no card required

Common questions

Quick answers to what most Datagraphic users ask before switching.

Is it legal to email payslips in the UK?

Yes. HMRC permits payslips to be issued electronically as long as employees can access them and the data is delivered securely. The Employment Rights Act 1996 requires payslips to be itemised and timely — it does not require paper. Ghugi delivers each payslip as an AES-256 encrypted PDF unlockable with the employee's date of birth, which satisfies the ICO's "appropriate technical measures" expectation under UK GDPR.

Can I send payslips by email instead of using a portal?

Yes — both options are valid. A portal (like Datagraphic Epay or ELMhub) asks employees to log in to view their payslip. Email-first (like Ghugi) sends the payslip as an attachment they open directly in their inbox. Email is simpler for small teams; portals scale better at enterprise scale with hundreds of employees and other HR documents. Pick whichever shape fits how your staff already work.

How is Ghugi different from Datagraphic Epay?

Epay is a portal — employees log in to view payslips. Ghugi is an email-delivery tool — payslips arrive in the employee's inbox as a DOB-encrypted PDF. Epay is built for enterprise teams who want a self-service hub for all employee documents; Ghugi is built for small UK businesses who just need the payslip step automated. Different shape, different fit.

Do my employees have to create a Ghugi account?

No. Employees do nothing — they just receive an email with their payslip attached. The PDF is locked with their date of birth, which they enter once to open it. No portal account, no password to reset, no app to install. They view it in Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail, or whatever email client they already use.

Will I lose audit history if I switch from Datagraphic to Ghugi?

Export your existing audit from Datagraphic first — most portal products let you download a CSV of historical activity. Ghugi starts a new audit log from your first send, with full timestamps for every email you send — plus delivery and bounce status on Ghugi-managed email. The data is searchable and exportable, which satisfies HMRC's payroll-records retention requirements.

Datagraphic's blog argues against emailing payslips — what's Ghugi's view?

Datagraphic publishes a thoughtful article ("8 reasons why you shouldn't email payslips") that raises legitimate concerns: shared passwords are weak, employees lose emails, employees on leave can't access work email, and lost documents generate copy-document requests. Ghugi's design addresses each of those: every payslip uses the employee's individual DOB as the password (no shared passwords), the send-history log lets you re-send any payslip in one click (no resend admin), and our managed-email feature reduces deliverability issues. Where their argument holds: if you have employees with no personal email address at all, a portal or printed payslip is the right tool. For everyone else, email-first is simpler.

Stop emailing payslips like it’s 2005.

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Need an enterprise portal? Datagraphic. Need to email payslips from £15/mo with no procurement cycle? Ghugi.

Ghugi vs Datagraphic: enterprise portal or SMB email?