Xero Ignite vs Grow UK: invoice limits and the real monthly cost

The choice is more than £18 versus £39

The UK Xero plan page checked on 20 October 2026 lists regular base prices of £18/month for Ignite and £39/month for Grow, excluding VAT. Ignite lists 20 invoices and 10 bills; Grow removes those listed entry caps and includes payroll for one person.

Choose the retained plan around the work that must fit. A low-volume consultancy and a business sending many small invoices can have similar revenue but very different invoice counts. Start by counting the documents, not by guessing the plan from annual turnover.

Build a normal-month and busy-month document count

For a fictional consultancy, suppose a normal month has 12 customer invoices and six supplier bills, while a busy month has 24 invoices and eight bills. The busy-month invoice requirement exceeds Ignite’s listed cap. That is a scope failure before any promotional arithmetic matters.

Check recurring invoices, connected sales applications and the transactions your accountant enters. Record how each route counts against the actual subscription. A manual workaround belongs in the decision brief with its owner and effort, rather than being silently assumed to make the smaller plan fit.

Compare regular costs separately from a promotion

The difference is £252 across twelve unchanged regular-price months. This is arithmetic, not a quoted first-year invoice. The checked page also advertises an eligible introductory offer; record its duration and exclusions separately before calculating a real purchase.

Check the costs that the base fee does not settle

Xero distinguishes payroll, bill-payment and other feature allowances from ordinary user access. Payments and usage beyond included allowances can add charges. Keep the people paid, expenses users, payment volume and any required add-ons in the same brief.

For the consultancy, ask whether the owner needs a supplier-payment workflow or merely to record a bill. Those are different operations. Do not add a payment charge to every recorded expense or assume an accounting subscription includes unlimited payroll for the whole team.

Choose with the accountant and retain the assumptions

Review a representative invoice, supplier bill and month-end report in an authorised trial. Confirm the intended workflow and the plan that remains after introductory terms end. Record the decision date, document counts, exceptions and recurring extras.

Use the Xero Payroll cost guide for the people-paid calculation, the accountant access guide for practice arrangements and the Xero profile for the wider product. This comparison concerns the UK plans and the stated assumptions.

Frequently asked questions