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Comparison

Ghugi vs IRIS ePayslips: do employees
log in, or just open an email?

IRIS ePayslips is a portal — employees log in via desktop or mobile to view their payslip. Ghugi sends the payslip by email — employees just open the message. Both are UK-built, both are GDPR-compliant, both work with PDF payroll output. The question is whether your team wants another login or would rather get it in their inbox.

Pick IRIS ePayslips if…

  • You already run IRIS payroll — Staffology Payroll, Staffology Bureau, and IRIS Cascade integrate natively with IRIS ePayslips. If you're already in the IRIS ecosystem, ePayslips is the path of least resistance.
  • You're an accountant or bureau and want a white-label portal — IRIS ePayslips offers a white-label option so accountants can put their own branding on the portal their clients' employees use. Ghugi sends from your own domain but doesn't currently offer a white-label portal product.
  • Your workforce wants a self-service hub, not just payslips — IRIS ePayslips includes a "digital filing cabinet" for storing employment contracts, handbooks, memos, and P60s — not just payslips. Useful if you want one portal for all employment documents.
  • You're in regulated sector that expects a portal model — IRIS markets ePayslips into hospitality, education, healthcare, and public sector — where audit teams often expect a login-gated portal with explicit access logs. If your sector's compliance lead has a strong portal-only preference, IRIS fits that shape.

Pick Ghugi if…

  • Your employees would rather not log into a portal — Asking 25 employees to remember another password, install another app, and log in once a month is real friction. Ghugi sends the payslip as an encrypted PDF straight to their inbox — they unlock with their date of birth, done.
  • You don't already use IRIS payroll — If you're on BrightPay, Moneysoft, Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, or your accountant runs payroll for you, the IRIS-family integration doesn't apply. Ghugi works with any payroll source's PDF output.
  • You want public, flat pricing — IRIS does not publish ePayslips pricing — you book a demo and get a quote. Ghugi's three tiers (£15 / £39 / £89 per month) are public, flat, and cap by employee count.
  • You want default DOB encryption on every payslip — IRIS protects payslips through portal access controls — employees must log in. Ghugi locks every PDF with the employee's date of birth, so even if the email is forwarded or hits the wrong inbox, the attachment is unreadable without the DOB.

Plot twist: many employees would rather just get the payslip than remember another portal login. Ghugi lands it in the inbox they already check every day.

At a glance

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

FeatureGhugiIRIS ePayslips
Email payslips direct to employee inbox✓ Built-inPortal-first (login required)
Employee self-service portal—✓
Mobile app / mobile web for employeesEmail opens in any mail app✓ Mobile-first portal design
DOB-encrypted PDF delivery (AES-256)✓ Default on every sendPortal access controls instead
Drag-in PDFs from any payroll source✓Works with PDFs; native integrations are IRIS-owned (Staffology, Cascade)
Email From: your own domainYour Google / Microsoft / custom domain / SMTPPortal — no email-sender concept
White-label option for accountants / bureausSends from your own domain (not a white-label portal)✓
Digital filing cabinet for HR docs (contracts, P60s)—✓
Full audit trail of every send✓Portal activity log (views, downloads)
Published pricing£15 / £39 / £89 per month, flatContact sales — not published
30-day free trial, no credit card✓Sales-led demo
GDPR / HMRC compliant✓✓
UK-built and UK-hosted✓✓

When IRIS ePayslips is the right choice

Portal product in IRIS's UK payroll family (Staffology Payroll, IRIS Cascade); employees log in via desktop / mobile to view payslips. White-label option for accountants and bureaus.

You're already on IRIS payroll

IRIS ePayslips integrates natively with Staffology Payroll, Staffology Bureau, and IRIS Cascade. If you're inside the IRIS ecosystem, ePayslips is the obvious choice — same supplier, shared login, shared support. Ghugi is the right alternative only if you're not in that ecosystem.

You're a bureau wanting white-labelled employee portals

IRIS ePayslips lets accountants put their own brand on the portal each client's employees use. Useful for accountancy practices selling "employee self-service" as part of their payroll package. Ghugi sends from your client's own domain but doesn't currently offer a white-label portal product.

Your sector expects a login-gated portal model

Public sector, healthcare, and education often have audit policies that explicitly require login-gated access to pay data with per-view activity logs. IRIS's portal model fits that requirement. Ghugi's email-first model can also be audit-compliant (every send is logged with timestamps) but doesn't have the per-view log a portal naturally produces.

When Ghugi is the right choice

Ghugi isn’t trying to be IRIS ePayslips. 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 would rather get a payslip than another login

Most employees in small UK businesses already check email every day. Asking them to set a portal password, remember it, install an app, and log in once a month is friction that delivers them the same PDF they'd get by email. Ghugi removes the friction — open the email, enter DOB, done.

You're not on IRIS payroll

If your payroll runs on BrightPay, Moneysoft, Sage, Xero, QuickBooks, or your accountant's preferred tool, IRIS ePayslips's in-family integration doesn't help you. Ghugi works with any payroll source's PDF output — drag the file in and Ghugi auto-matches each payslip to the right employee.

You want public, flat pricing

IRIS doesn't publish ePayslips pricing. Ghugi does: £15/mo for 25 employees, £39/mo for 100, £89/mo for 200. Flat, capped, no per-employee creep, no sales call to find out the number.

You want every payslip encrypted by default

Portals protect data through login. Ghugi protects each payslip individually — every PDF is AES-256 encrypted with the recipient's date of birth, so a forwarded or misdelivered email is unreadable without that DOB. Belt-and-braces beyond email-transport security.

Pricing, honestly compared

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

IRIS ePayslips — portal subscription

Contact sales

IRIS ePayslips pricing is not published — you book a demo and get a quote. Contact IRIS for current pricing.

  • Employee self-service portal (desktop + mobile)
  • Digital filing cabinet for HR documents
  • White-label option for accountants / bureaus
  • Native IRIS payroll integrations

Ghugi Starter — 25 employees

£15/mo

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

  • Bulk email payslips with DOB encryption
  • Works with any payroll source (PDFs)
  • Sends from your own Google / Microsoft / custom domain / SMTP
  • Full audit trail of every send
Start free trial — no card required

Common questions

Quick answers to what most IRIS ePayslips users ask before switching.

Is it legal to email payslips in the UK?
Yes. HMRC permits payslips to be issued electronically. The Employment Rights Act 1996 requires payslips to be itemised and timely — it does not require paper or a portal. 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.
How do I send a payslip via email to an employee?
Drag the payslip PDFs from your payroll software into Ghugi, review the auto-matched employee assignments, then click send. Each payslip is AES-256 encrypted with the recipient's date of birth and delivered from your own Google / Microsoft / custom domain. The whole flow takes about two minutes for a 25-employee batch.
Will my IRIS payroll software still work if I use Ghugi for delivery?
Yes. Ghugi only handles the email-out step. IRIS (Staffology Payroll, Staffology Bureau, or IRIS Cascade) keeps calculating the payroll, submitting RTI to HMRC, and producing payslip PDFs. You then drag those PDFs into Ghugi instead of into the ePayslips portal. The payroll calculation side of IRIS is untouched.
Do my employees need to create an account or install an app?
No. Ghugi sends the payslip as an attachment to the employee's existing email address. They open the email in whatever client they already use (Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail), enter their date of birth to unlock the PDF, and view the payslip. No portal account, no password, no app to install.
Can I move from IRIS ePayslips to Ghugi without losing audit history?
Export your existing audit from IRIS first — the portal lets you download historical activity. Ghugi starts a fresh send log from your first send, with full timestamps for every payslip — plus delivery and bounce status on Ghugi-managed email. HMRC requires payroll records to be kept for at least 3 years (often 6 in practice) — keeping the IRIS export alongside Ghugi's new log satisfies that.

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Already on IRIS payroll and want a portal? IRIS ePayslips. Want payslips to arrive in your team's inbox? Ghugi.