FAQ
Mellow, answered.
Honest answers about what Mellow is, what it costs, how the AI agents work and how your data is kept safe.
What Mellow is
- What is Mellow?
- Mellow is an AI-native HR and payroll platform that runs across six countries — the United Kingdom, Ireland, the USA, the UAE, India and Australia — from a single platform. It includes 19 HR modules and AI assistants that graduate by tier, from an Employee Assistant up to a People Coach. Mellow computes the numbers from your data and the legislation; the AI explains them and never invents a figure.
- Which countries does Mellow support?
- Six countries today: the UK, Ireland, the USA, the UAE, India and Australia. Each one has native payroll — not a third-party integration — with the right tax authority, tax year and statutory rules. Other countries are added by configuration.
- Who is Mellow built for?
- Businesses with their own legal entities running HR and payroll across one or more of the supported countries — typically 10 to 500 employees. Mellow does not provide Employer of Record; if you need to employ people in countries where you have no entity, a dedicated EOR provider is the right tool.
Pricing & plans
- How much does Mellow cost for HR teams?
- From £4 per employee per month, all inclusive. Four tiers — Essentials (£4, AI Employee Assistant), Professional (£12, includes payroll + payroll/law/pensions assistants), Enterprise (£20, ERA automation + tribunal-risk + IR35/right-to-work assistants) and Intelligence (£30, the People Coach and every AI assistant). Local pricing is shown at checkout in EUR, USD, AED, INR and AUD.
- Is there separate pricing for payroll bureaus and accountants?
- Yes. Mellow Practice is flat per-practice pricing — you pay one monthly fee regardless of how many clients you run payroll for. Starter is £99/month (up to 5 clients, 100 employees), Professional is £249/month (up to 25 clients, 500 employees), and Enterprise is £499/month (unlimited clients and employees).
- Is payroll included or an add-on?
- Included. Mellow Professional (£12 per employee per month) includes native payroll for all six supported countries — there is no separate payroll module or per-country fee. Bureau plans also include full payroll across all six countries for every client.
- Is there a free trial?
- Yes — 14 days, all features, no credit card required. Applies to both per-employee (HR team) plans and per-practice (bureau) plans.
- How does Mellow compare to Deel for pricing?
- Mellow Professional includes native payroll at £12 per employee per month, and even the full Intelligence tier at £30 is cheaper than Deel's managed payroll add-on at roughly $29 per employee per month (EOR is roughly $599). If you employ people through your own entities, Mellow is typically much cheaper; if you genuinely need EOR breadth across 150+ countries, Deel is the right tool.
Payroll & tax authorities
- Does Mellow handle RTI for HMRC?
- Yes — for UK organisations, Mellow generates the Full Payment Submission and Employer Payment Summary on every pay run, calculated and formatted ready to file. You submit them to HMRC through PAYE Online — Mellow does the number-crunching, you stay in control of the filing.
- Can Mellow file payroll directly with non-UK tax authorities?
- Mellow calculates payroll natively in every supported country and prepares the right return for each (Form 941 in the US, ROS in Ireland, the WPS file in the UAE, TRACES/EPFO/ESIC in India, STP-format data for Australia). For non-UK countries you submit through the relevant government portal — direct integration is on the roadmap per country.
- Do I need a local entity in each country?
- Yes — Mellow assumes you employ people through your own legal entity in each country. Mellow does not act as Employer of Record. For countries where you do not have an entity, an EOR provider is needed.
- Which US states does Mellow handle?
- Eight launch states: California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Washington, Massachusetts and New Jersey. Federal tax, FICA, FUTA and W-4 driven withholding apply across all states. New York City's additional resident tax is built in.
AI agents
- Does Mellow have AI agents?
- Yes — 12 specialised AI agents. Seven face the workforce: an Employee Assistant for employee experience, a Payroll Assistant for payroll, an Employment Law Advisor, a Contractor & Status Advisor for contractor classification, a Pensions & Benefits Assistant, a Right to Work & Immigration Advisor, and a People Coach that helps managers with conflict and team issues. Five work operationally behind the scenes (predictive compliance, dispute-risk scoring, workload analysis, data integrity, onboarding orchestration).
- Are the AI agents country-aware?
- Yes. Each agent detects the organisation's country and answers using that country's law, tax rules and terminology. A US organisation asking about leave gets a US answer; a UK organisation gets a UK answer. Cross-country advice is explicitly blocked.
- What makes the AI assistants different?
- Each agent is grounded in a domain knowledge base (RAG) for the country it is serving — it is not improvising. Agents cite their reasoning, hand off to other agents for off-domain questions, and operate under strict boundaries (e.g. payroll calculations are always done by the deterministic engine, never by the AI itself).
Security & data
- Is my data secure?
- Yes. Employee data is encrypted at rest and in transit, access is role-based with step-up multi-factor authentication on sensitive actions, and every action is audit-logged. Mellow is built to UK and EU GDPR standards — we can share a detailed security overview with prospective customers under NDA.
- Where is my data stored?
- Your data is hosted within the UK/EEA and is never transferred outside it without appropriate safeguards.
- Is Mellow GDPR compliant?
- Yes. UK GDPR / EU GDPR principles are built into the platform — encryption at rest, auditability, right to erasure with the appropriate retention exemptions for payroll records (HMRC: 6 years + current).
Still have questions?
Try Mellow free for 14 days — no credit card required.