Top 5 Payroll Service Providers in the UAE Compared (2027)

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Table of Contents

• The five UAE payroll providers for 2027 at a glance
• How we compared the providers
• 1. Payroll Middle East
• 2. TASC Outsourcing
• 3. Nathan HR
• 4. Mercans
• 5. Yomly
• Which UAE payroll rules should a provider handle for you?
• What stays with the employer?
• Questions to ask before you appoint a payroll provider
• Need a payroll provider in the UAE?
• FAQs on payroll service providers in the UAE

Short answer: the five payroll service providers most UAE businesses are shortlisting for 2027 are Payroll Middle East, TASC Outsourcing, Nathan HR, Mercans and Yomly. All five handle Wage Protection System (WPS) payroll and end-of-service calculations. The right one depends on your size and set-up. A local SME usually wants a hands-on team that also does HR and PRO work. A multinational usually wants a global platform that plugs into its HR system.

Choosing a provider matters more in 2027 than it used to. Since 1 June 2026, Ministerial Resolution No. 340 of 2026 has made private-sector salaries due on the first day of each month, with warnings, work permit suspensions and fines when they are late. A provider that misses a cut-off now costs you money, not just goodwill.

The five UAE payroll providers for 2027 at a glance

How we compared the providers

We looked at what matters when payroll goes wrong in the UAE: whether the provider prepares and submits WPS salary files, whether it calculates gratuity and final settlements under the Labour Law, how many countries and entities it can run, what technology it uses, and what else it can take off your plate, such as HR or visa work.

We did not score or weight these. A fixed score would suggest a precision that public information can’t support. Instead, each profile ends with the questions we’d ask that provider before signing.

One honest observation: the size of a provider and the quality of its service are not the same thing. If you only need WPS files and gratuity right every month, a platform built for 160 countries is probably more than you need. If you run payroll in eight countries on Workday, a local managed team will struggle to keep up.

1. Payroll Middle East

Payroll Middle East is the payroll, HR, and PRO brand of Farahat & Co, a UAE firm founded in 1985. Farahat & Co has served more than 30,000 clients. The payroll team works with mainland companies, free zone entities, branch offices, and groups with several entities.

The UAE payroll service covers the monthly payroll run: salary calculations, allowances, deductions, overtime and leave adjustments, payslips, salary registers and accrual reports. It prepares and reviews WPS salary files, and calculates end-of-service gratuity, leave salary and final settlements. Before salaries are released, your HR or finance team checks and approves the figures. The same team also runs payroll in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, and offers HR and PRO services.

Best for: SMEs, mid-sized and larger employers that want one team to handle payroll, labour-law calculations and government paperwork, rather than buying software and doing the work in-house.

Check before you sign: the payroll system or portal you and your employees will use, the monthly cut-off dates, and the service levels for corrections and final settlements.

2. TASC Outsourcing

TASC Outsourcing is headquartered in Dubai, with offices in Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Al Khobar. It says it has more than 18 years of experience  in payroll management in Dubai and serves the wider GCC.

Its payroll service includes WPS set-up, monthly payslips, salary certificates, bank transfer letters, leave management and end-of-service settlements. It also offers multi-currency payroll and connects its payroll with your accounting, HR, attendance and benefits systems. Reports export to PDF, CSV and Excel.

Best for: mid-sized and larger employers with several payroll groups, employees paid in more than one currency, or a need to keep payroll connected to existing HR and finance systems.

Check before you sign: which platform runs your payroll, what security certifications it holds, and how integrations with your systems are scoped and priced.

3. Nathan HR

Nathan HR, legally Nathan & Nathan, provides managed HR, payroll and staffing services across the UAE and the wider GCC. In January 2026 Gulf Times reported that it serves more than 1,000 companies and supports more than 35,000 employees, using its own HR technology for onboarding, documents and payroll.

Its payroll outsourcing covers salary processing, benefits and accruals reporting, payslips and end-of-service calculations. It holds Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) staffing licences in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, which lets it supply contract staff as well as run payroll.

Best for: businesses that want payroll and contract staffing from the same provider, or that want to outsource most of their HR administration.

Check before you sign: which services are included in the payroll fee and which are charged separately, and which ISO standards its management systems are certified to.

4. Mercans

Mercans is a global payroll company with a dedicated entity in Dubai. It runs UAE payroll on HR Blizz, its own payroll platform, which it says manages payroll in 160 countries.

For the UAE, Mercans handles WPS compliance and, where legally permitted, pension registration for UAE nationals. It integrates with Workday, Oracle HCM, SAP SuccessFactors, UKG, Darwinbox and Dayforce. On security, it says it has SOC 1 and SOC 2 reports and ISO 27017, 27018 and 27701 certification.

Best for: multinationals that want UAE payroll to run on the same platform and controls as their payroll in other countries.

Check before you sign: who handles day-to-day UAE queries locally, how labour-law calculations such as gratuity are reviewed, and the minimum headcount or contract size.

5. Yomly

Yomly is a Dubai-based HR and payroll software company. According to its own website, it was founded in 2018 as EmiratesHR, and alongside the software it now offers fully managed payroll outsourcing for the GCC and MENA.

Its managed service covers monthly payroll runs, WPS processing, end-of-service management, payroll for several entities, approval workflows, finance reporting and audit documentation.

Best for: companies that want their own HR and payroll software, with the option to hand the monthly payroll run to the provider’s team.

Check before you sign: whether the managed service has a minimum headcount, and what your team still has to do each month in the software.

Which UAE payroll rules should a provider handle for you?

Any provider you shortlist should be able to show you how it handles each of these:

Related guides: Final Settlement and End-of-Service Benefits in the UAE | Leave Salary Calculation in the UAE | Overtime Calculation in the UAE

What stays with the employer?

Outsourcing the work does not outsource the legal responsibility. MoHRE holds the employer, not the provider, responsible for paying salaries on time and in full. You still need to:

• Fund the salary account before the provider’s cut-off.
• Send accurate joiner, leaver, leave and overtime data each month.
• Approve the payroll before it is released.
• Keep employment contracts and salary changes up to date in MoHRE’s systems.

In our experience, most late or wrong salaries in the UAE start with late or incomplete data from the employer, not with the calculation itself. A good provider will tell you exactly what it needs and when.

Questions to ask before you appoint a payroll provider

1. What is your monthly cut-off, and what happens if our data arrives late?
2. Do you prepare and submit the WPS salary file, or only calculate the payroll?
3. Who checks gratuity and final settlement calculations, and how quickly can you turn them around?
4. Which system will we and our employees use, and can it connect to our HR and accounting software?
5. Where is our payroll data stored, and which security certifications do you hold?
6. Can you run payroll for our other entities or GCC countries now or later?
7. What is included in the monthly fee, and what is charged separately?
8. How do we leave, and in what format do we get our payroll history back?

Need a payroll provider in the UAE?

If you want WPS payroll, gratuity and final settlements handled by a team that also covers HR and PRO work across the GCC, see our payroll services in the UAE or ask us for a quote.

FAQs on payroll service providers in the UAE

Tareq Badarin

Research and Publications Department
Payroll Middle East
Tel: +971 4 2500251 | Email: sales@payrollmiddleeast.com