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SITE SAMURAI VS PAYAPPS FOR UK CONTRACTORS

The problem: Payapps is a well-built specialist for one workflow — progress claims between a main contractor and its subcontractors. If that is the only gap you have, it fits. But most UK SME subcontractors have four gaps, not one: the application, the CIS deduction on the money going out, the retention still owed, and the site records that justify the valuation. The fix: decide whether you are buying a claims exchange or an operating system. Site Samurai covers applications for payment inside a platform that also runs CIS, purchase orders, RAMS and site records, at £99/£199/£699 per month with unlimited users.

TL;DR

Payapps is an Autodesk company specialising in applications for payment — submission, assessment, certification, variations and retention — for main contractors and subcontractors across the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. If your only problem is standardising progress claims with your supply chain, it is a credible specialist. Site Samurai covers applications for payment with Construction Act 1996 s.111 pay less notices and a no-login client portal, but inside a broader platform that also handles CIS deductions, purchase orders with three-way matching, RAMS and CDM 2015 plans, and site records. Site Samurai publishes its prices: £99 Starter, £199 Professional, £699 Enterprise per month, unlimited users on every plan, 14-day free trial. Payapps does not publish UK pricing — main contractor pricing is quote-only.

Last reviewed: 19 August 2026 (2026). Payapps claims verified against payapps.com/uk on 19 August 2026. Payapps publishes no GBP pricing: main contractor pricing is quote-only, and the UK pricing page renders subcontractor plans in Australian dollars, so no £ figure is quoted here. Integration mechanics are not published by Payapps and are therefore not characterised. CIS is recorded as "not named on their public UK site", not as an absence of capability. Competitor source.

Where Payapps is strong

  • • Genuine specialist focus on the applications-for-payment and certification cycle, rather than treating it as one module among many.
  • • Backed by Autodesk, with the roadmap stability and integration reach that ownership implies.
  • • Serves both sides of the transaction — main contractors assessing claims and subcontractors submitting them — on the same platform.
  • • Published integration partnerships with UK construction ERPs: Eque2, COINS, RedSky and 4PS, plus Xero.
  • • Multi-market coverage across the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand for groups operating in more than one of them.
  • • Payment notice deadline reminders aimed squarely at Construction Act compliance.

Where Site Samurai is stronger

  • • Applications for payment with Construction Act 1996 s.111 pay less notice tracking, certification, and a no-login client portal.
  • • CIS handled on the same platform: verification number and 0%, 20% or 30% rate recorded per subcontractor and applied to every payment, with a re-verification cascade.
  • • Published pricing — £99 / £199 / £699 per month — with unlimited users on every plan and no per-seat charge.
  • • Purchase orders, goods received notes and three-way matching, so the cost side is controlled as well as the claim side.
  • • RAMS builder, CDM 2015 Construction Phase Plans, toolbox talks and RIDDOR incident reporting included.
  • • Site records — progress photos, site diary, timesheets — that evidence the valuation being claimed.
  • • Live OAuth accounting connection to Xero or Sage Business Cloud, pushing approved invoices and CIS payments straight to the ledger.
  • • 14-day free trial you can start without talking to sales.

Pricing side by side

Item
Site Samurai
Payapps

Headline price

£99 Starter, £199 Professional, £699 Enterprise per month (or 17% off annually). Published publicly.

No UK pricing published. Main contractor pricing is quote-only: "We'll work with you to create a pricing structure that suits your business" (payapps.com/uk/pricing).

What the price scales with

A flat plan price. It does not scale with projects, claims, or headcount.

Main contractor pricing is "based on the number of projects and payment claims you assess and approve on a monthly basis", as a fixed annual fee (payapps.com/uk/pricing).

User / seat model

Unlimited users on every plan.

Users included — "you can add users at no extra cost" for main contractors; subcontractor plans state unlimited users (payapps.com/uk/pricing).

Subcontractor pricing

Same published plans regardless of which side of the contract you sit on.

Published but metered by number of contracts per month, from a pay-as-you-go per-claim option upward. The UK pricing page displays these in Australian dollars ("Amount shown is in Australian Dollars"), so no GBP figure is quoted here.

Free trial

14-day free trial. Cancel anytime before you are charged.

No free trial published on the UK site — pricing is request-led.

UK CIS included

Yes — verification number and 0%/20%/30% rate per subcontractor, applied to every payment, re-verification cascade. Included from Starter.

CIS is not named anywhere on the public Payapps UK site.

Payapps pricing claims sourced from public documentation.

See how it works

Start a free 14-day trial

Capability comparison

Depends on your operating model

A specialist does one workflow properly. A platform does several adequately and removes the joins between them. Which is right depends entirely on how many gaps you actually have.

Best fit by contractor profile

UK SME subcontractor paying CIS labour, running applications, POs and RAMS across several live schemes

Best fit: Site Samurai

Four obligations arrive together and one platform covers all of them, including the CIS deduction Payapps does not publish support for.

Subcontractor whose main contractor already mandates Payapps for claim submission

Best fit: Competitor

You submit where your client tells you to submit. Site Samurai may still run everything behind it, but the claim goes through their platform.

Main contractor standardising progress claims across a large subcontractor supply chain

Best fit: Competitor

Payapps is purpose-built for both sides of that exchange and is the stronger answer when supply-chain adoption is the whole problem.

UK SME contractor replacing spreadsheets across commercial, CIS and safety at once

Best fit: Site Samurai

Published flat pricing with unlimited users and one platform covering the whole operating rhythm, rather than a specialist plus three other purchases.

Migration checklist (30/60/90)

1

0-30 days

Foundation and one live application

  • • Import active projects, contract values, clients and subcontractors.
  • • Record each subcontractor's HMRC verification number and current deduction rate.
  • • Run the next application for payment end to end, including the s.111 pay less notice window.
  • • Share one application with a client through the no-login portal.
2

31-60 days

Cost side and compliance

  • • Move retention and variations tracking off spreadsheets onto the contract record.
  • • Turn on purchase orders with approval thresholds and start matching GRNs to invoices.
  • • Connect Xero or Sage Business Cloud so approved invoices and CIS payments post to the ledger.
  • • Issue CDM 2015 Construction Phase Plans and build RAMS templates by trade.
3

61-90 days

Standardisation and measurement

  • • Retire the spreadsheet application tracker and any parallel CIS workings.
  • • Lock the monthly cycle: application date, due date, payment notice, s.111 window.
  • • Bring site records — progress photos, diary, timesheets — under the valuation they evidence.
  • • Review on-time application rate, CIS accuracy, and retention still outstanding.

Choose Site Samurai when

  • • You pay CIS subcontractors and want the deduction applied on the same platform that raises the application.
  • • Retention, variations and the s.111 pay less notice window are all live commercial risks for you.
  • • You want purchase orders, GRNs and three-way matching controlling the cost side too.
  • • RAMS, CDM 2015 Construction Phase Plans and toolbox talks would otherwise be a separate purchase.
  • • You want a published price and a 14-day free trial without a sales call.
  • • Your accounting stack is Xero or Sage Business Cloud.
  • • You want clients to certify applications without adopting new software.

Choose Payapps when

  • • Your main contractor has already rolled Payapps out across its supply chain.
  • • Applications for payment are genuinely your only gap.
  • • You are a main contractor standardising claims across a large subcontractor base.
  • • Your finance system is Eque2, COINS, RedSky or 4PS.
  • • You operate across the UK, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand.
  • • Procurement weights vendor scale heavily and Autodesk ownership matters to the decision.

Feature comparison with sources

Applications for payment and certification

"Cloud-based construction software that helps bring contractors and subcontractors together to simplify and expedite applications for payment and certifications, including retention and variations."

source

Native applications for payment with certification and reversal, variations, retention, and a no-login client portal.

Genuine overlap — this is the workflow both products are built to run.

Construction Act compliance

"Reduce risk and improve UK Construction Act compliance. Receive reminders to meet payment notice deadlines."

source

Construction Act 1996 s.111 pay less notice tracking with generated payment, pay less and payee notices as PDFs.

Retention tracking

"Track retention" and "automatic retention tracking".

source

Retention tracked per application against the contract, including release stages.

Variations

"Manage variations and resolve them with ease."

source

Variations tracked against the contract value and carried into the valuation.

CIS deductions

CIS is not named on the Payapps UK homepage, subcontractor page, partners page or pricing page.

source

HMRC verification number and 0%/20%/30% deduction rate recorded per subcontractor and applied to every payment, with a re-verification cascade. UTR and NI encrypted at rest.

Site Samurai records the rate HMRC returned to you and applies it — it does not perform the HMRC verification itself, and does not file the CIS300.

Ownership and backing

"Payapps - An Autodesk Company."

source

Independent UK product operated by SKYLA'S CHOICE LTD (company number 16059710).

Autodesk ownership is a real advantage on roadmap stability. We are the smaller, newer vendor and say so.

Accounting and ERP integrations

Named partners include Eque2, COINS, RedSky and 4PS, alongside Xero.

source

Live OAuth connection to Xero or Sage Business Cloud Accounting, one active connection per organisation.

Payapps reaches more UK construction ERPs. Neither vendor publishes enough detail to compare sync mechanics, so we do not.

Purchase orders and three-way matching

Procurement, goods received notes and supplier invoice matching are not part of the published Payapps product.

source

Purchase orders with multi-level approval thresholds, GRNs with photo evidence, and three-way PO-GRN-invoice matching (Professional).

RAMS and CDM 2015

Health and safety documentation is not part of the published Payapps product.

source

RAMS builder with versioning and digital sign-off, CDM 2015 Construction Phase Plans, toolbox talks, RIDDOR.

Both sides of the claim

Dedicated main contractor and subcontractor products, with roles named for contract administrators, QSs and finance teams.

source

Built for the subcontractor and main contractor issuing the application; clients review through a no-login portal rather than adopting the platform.

If your main contractor has already standardised on Payapps, you will be submitting through it regardless.

Markets served

UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand regions published.

source

UK-focused. Not optimised for multi-country operation.

Published pricing

Main contractor pricing is quote-only; the UK subcontractor plans are shown in Australian dollars.

source

£99 / £199 / £699 per month published publicly, unlimited users on every plan.

What a UK SME subcontractor actually has to get right

The application is only the first of four obligations that arrive together. Applications for payment sit under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 as amended by LDEDCA 2009 — a pay less notice must be served at least 7 days before the final date for payment under s.111, or the notified sum falls due. The money going the other way sits under the Construction Industry Scheme in Finance Act 2004 Chapter 3, where HMRC returns 0% gross payment status, 20% verified, or 30% unmatched, and that rate must be applied to every payment. Construction services between VAT-registered businesses in the CIS chain fall under the domestic reverse charge, so the invoice carries no output VAT and says so. And CDM 2015 requires a Construction Phase Plan regardless of how the payment cycle is running. A claims specialist solves the first obligation well. Whether that is enough depends on where the other three currently live.

Construction Act 1996 s.111HGCRA 1996LDEDCA 2009JCT 2016NEC4CDM 2015HMRC CISFinance Act 2004 Ch 3Gross Payment StatusVAT domestic reverse chargeRIDDOR

Choose Payapps if

Your main contractor has already standardised on Payapps for its supply chain.

You will be submitting claims through their platform whichever tool you prefer. Fighting that is not a software decision you get to make.

Applications for payment are your only gap and everything else already works.

If CIS, procurement and safety documentation are genuinely handled elsewhere and handled well, a specialist is a cleaner fit than a platform you would only half use.

You run Eque2, COINS, RedSky or 4PS as your finance system.

Payapps publishes partnerships with all four. Site Samurai connects to Xero and Sage Business Cloud only, so the integration question would go against us.

You operate across the UK, Ireland, Australia or New Zealand.

Payapps publishes all four regions. Site Samurai is UK-focused and does not claim multi-market coverage.

Vendor size and roadmap stability are a procurement requirement.

Payapps is an Autodesk company. Site Samurai is an independent UK product with a shorter track record, and that is a legitimate thing to weigh.

Choose Site Samurai if

You pay CIS subcontractors and the deduction currently happens in a spreadsheet.

The rate HMRC returned is recorded per subcontractor and applied to every payment, with a re-verification cascade — on the same platform that raises the application.

You want the cost side controlled as well as the claim side.

Purchase orders, GRNs and three-way matching mean committed cost is visible before the invoice arrives, not after margin has already gone.

You are buying a second tool for RAMS, CDM Phase Plans or toolbox talks.

Those are included rather than bought separately, which usually changes the total-cost comparison more than the headline price does.

You need to know the price without a sales call.

Site Samurai publishes £99 / £199 / £699 per month with unlimited users and a 14-day free trial. Payapps publishes no UK price for main contractors.

You want your client to review applications without adopting new software.

The client portal is no-login and token-based, so the person certifying your valuation does not need an account or a rollout.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Payapps is an Autodesk company selling cloud software for applications for payment. Its own description is "cloud-based construction software that helps bring contractors and subcontractors together to simplify and expedite applications for payment and certifications, including retention and variations". It serves main contractors and subcontractors across the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
Payapps does not publish a UK price for main contractors. Its pricing page says pricing is "based on the number of projects and payment claims you assess and approve on a monthly basis", charged as a fixed annual fee with users included at no extra cost, and directs you to request pricing. Subcontractor plans are published and metered by number of contracts per month, but the UK pricing page renders them in Australian dollars, so we do not quote a sterling figure. Site Samurai publishes £99 Starter, £199 Professional and £699 Enterprise per month, unlimited users on every plan.
CIS is not named anywhere on the public Payapps UK site — not on the homepage, the subcontractor page, the partners page or the pricing page. We are not going to claim it cannot do something on that basis; we are saying it is not published, and if CIS matters to you it is the first question to ask them. Site Samurai records the HMRC verification number and the 0%, 20% or 30% rate against each subcontractor and applies it to every payment, with a re-verification cascade when a status changes.
No to both, and we will not imply otherwise. Site Samurai records the verification number and rate that HMRC returned to you and applies that rate consistently to every payment. You still verify with HMRC and you still file the CIS300 through HMRC online services or your accounting package. What you get is clean line-level deduction data to reconcile the return against.
For a UK SME subcontractor with more than one gap, generally yes — applications for payment, s.111 pay less notices, certification, retention and variations are all native. For a main contractor whose whole problem is standardising claim submission across a large supply chain, Payapps is purpose-built for that and we would not pretend otherwise. And if your client already mandates Payapps, you will be submitting through it regardless of what you run internally.
Three places. Supply-chain adoption — if a main contractor has rolled it out, both sides transact on it. UK construction ERP reach — it publishes partnerships with Eque2, COINS, RedSky and 4PS, which is broader than our Xero and Sage Business Cloud connections. And vendor scale — it is an Autodesk company, and we are a smaller independent UK product with a shorter track record. Those are real advantages and worth weighing.
Yes, and some subcontractors do exactly that when a client mandates Payapps for submission. Site Samurai runs the valuation, CIS, purchase orders, retention and site records internally, and the claim itself is submitted through the client's platform. It is duplication, but it is duplication you may not control.
Yes. Invoices flagged as domestic reverse charge post with no output VAT and carry wording stating that the customer accounts for the VAT and that the amount payable excludes it. The correct tax treatment is also applied when the invoice is pushed to Xero or Sage Business Cloud, rather than falling through to standard-rated 20%.
Both track it. Payapps advertises "automatic retention tracking" for subcontractors. Site Samurai tracks retention per application against the contract, including release stages, alongside the variations and the certified value. If retention is the specific thing you keep losing track of, both are a step up from a spreadsheet.
No free trial is published on the Payapps UK site — the route in is to request pricing. Site Samurai has a 14-day free trial: you add a card at signup but are not charged until it ends, and you can cancel anytime.
Payapps publishes partnerships with Eque2, COINS, RedSky and 4PS alongside Xero, which is broader UK construction ERP reach than ours. Site Samurai has a live OAuth connection to Xero or Sage Business Cloud Accounting, with one active connection per organisation. Sage 50 desktop and Sage 200 are not supported. Neither vendor publishes enough technical detail for a fair comparison of sync mechanics, so we do not attempt one.
Take one live subcontract and run a full cycle in each. Raise the application against the contract value with variations and retention, serve or track the s.111 pay less notice window, get the client to review it, then pay one CIS subcontractor out of the money and see where the deduction is calculated. The second half of that test is where a claims specialist and a platform diverge — and it is the half most demos skip.

The application is only the first obligation.

Run the whole cycle in one place: the application with its s.111 pay less notice window, the CIS deduction on the money going back out, retention, and the site records that justify the valuation. £99/month, unlimited users, 14-day free trial, cancel anytime before you're charged.