Digital Logbook Cost for UK Small Businesses in 2026

A digital logbook for workplace safety checks can cost anything from a few pounds a month to well over £100 a month, depending on what it does and how it is priced. For a small UK business that simply needs to record fire alarm tests, first-aid kit checks and similar routines, the sensible range is the low end. Ours, Gribit, costs £49 per site for a year. That works out at about £4.08 a month for one site.

This guide is about safety and compliance logbooks for shops, pubs, offices, salons and village halls. It is not about pilot logbooks, mileage logs or tax software, which dominate the search results for the same words. Below we cover what drives the price, what you actually have to keep by law, and how to judge whether a quote is fair.

TL;DR

• Safety logbook pricing falls into three models: a flat annual fee per site, a monthly subscription by users or modules, and a full compliance suite with consultancy-style extras.
• Gribit’s Site Logbook Annual Plan is £49 per year per site, covering scheduled checks, results, follow-up actions, certificate storage, staff access, reminders and exports.
• UK government guidance says a logbook or an electronic record of testing and maintenance is the expected form. It does not require expensive software for small, simple premises.
• Judge any price against the number of sites, the number of people who need access, and whether you can export an inspector-ready record.
• The real cost of paper is staff time and gaps in the record, not the price of the folder.

Table of Contents

• What counts as a digital logbook
• How digital logbooks are priced in the UK
• What UK law expects you to keep
• Where the real cost of a logbook sits
• Questions to ask before you pay
• Do you need to pay at all?
• Our perspective
• Gribit’s annual plan
• A worked example: a pub with one site
• Choosing on value, not just price
• FAQ
• Sources

What counts as a digital logbook

In this context, a digital logbook replaces the clipboard or ring binder by the back door. Someone checks the fire alarm call point, the emergency lights or the first-aid kit, records the result, and notes anything that needs fixing. The software keeps the date, the person and the outcome, and stores the certificates from your engineer or assessor next to the record.

The better tools also do the remembering. They schedule the weekly, monthly and annual checks, send reminders, and keep a list of open follow-up actions until somebody closes them.

That is a narrower thing than the broad compliance platforms that cover training, contractor management, audits and risk assessments. The difference matters because it is the main reason prices vary so widely.

How digital logbooks are priced in the UK

When you compare quotes, you will meet three models. Each suits a different kind of business.

A monthly subscription is not worse in principle. It can be flexible. But it is harder to compare, because a headline monthly figure rarely tells you what a second site, a tenth staff member or an extra module will cost. A flat annual price per site is the easiest to budget for, because the number on the page is the number on the invoice.

What our price covers

Gribit’s Site Logbook Annual Plan is £49 per year per site. It lets you schedule, record and manage recurring safety checks, track follow-up actions, store supporting certificates and documents, assign staff access, automate reminders, export records, and organise checks by site, item or location.

That is the whole list. There is no tier ladder to climb, so there is no point at which a busy week of check-ins pushes you into a dearer plan.

What it adds up to across sites

Because the price is per site, the maths is simple:

A pub with a single building pays £49 a year. A small group with three shops pays £147. If you open a new site, you add a site, and nothing else about your arrangement changes.

What UK law expects you to keep

Before you pay for anything, it helps to know what the law actually asks for. Most small premises fall under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 in England and Wales, and the person in charge is the Responsible Person.

From 1 October 2023, responsible persons must record the fire risk assessment in full, including all findings, and record their fire safety arrangements. The same rules are set out for Wales in the Welsh Government’s guidance. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own fire safety legislation, so check the rules that apply where your premises are.

For day-to-day checks, the government’s guide for small premises says a suitable record of testing and maintenance should be kept in the form of a logbook or an electronic record. The same guide says a record of staff training and fire drills should be kept in that way too. Separate guidance for offices and shops says you will find it of benefit to keep a log book of all maintenance and testing, and includes an example maintenance checklist.

The point for your budget is this. The law cares that the record exists, is accurate and can be shown to an inspector. It does not insist on a particular product. For a small, simple premises, a clear electronic record is enough, and you do not need enterprise software to satisfy it.

If your premises are larger, have sleeping accommodation, or involve higher-risk activity, ask your fire risk assessor what your record needs to contain. They know your building. We do not.

Where the real cost of a logbook sits

The licence fee is the visible part. The rest is quieter.

Staff time

Paper logbooks cost time at both ends. Someone has to find the right sheet, fill it in, and later hunt for it when a question comes up. Recurring checks are easy to do and easy to forget. Reminders that arrive without anyone having to remember them are where a digital tool earns its money.

Gaps in the record

The most expensive problem is not a missing page. It is a check that was due and never done, which you discover only when an inspector, an insurer or a landlord asks. A digital schedule shows what is overdue at a glance. A binder does not.

Handover when people leave

In a pub or salon, the person who always did the weekly alarm test may leave. With a paper log, their habits leave with them. With a shared digital record, a new starter can see what is checked, where, how often and what is outstanding. Staff access that you can assign and change is worth more than it sounds.

Digital hoarding

Going digital can create a new problem: lots of stored records and no way to pull out a clear report. A logbook is only as good as what you can produce when asked. Before you buy, check that you can export records for a date range, a site or a specific item, and that certificates are filed where you can find them.

Questions to ask before you pay

Use these to compare any quote, ours included.

1. Is the price per site, per user, or per checklist? Work out your cost with the real number of staff and premises, not the entry-level example.
2. What happens when you add a second site? Some providers treat this as a new plan; others as a line on the same invoice.
3. Can you store certificates and documents alongside the checks? Fire alarm service certificates, emergency lighting reports and extinguisher service records belong with the log.
4. Can you export everything? You should be able to take your records with you if you leave.
5. Are reminders automatic? A tool that only records what you remember to do solves half the problem.
6. What does the minimum commitment look like? An annual plan is cheaper per month but ties you for a year. A monthly plan can be cancelled sooner but costs more over twelve months.
7. Who has access, and at what level? Staff who record checks do not need to see everything, and managers do.

Do you need to pay at all?

It is fair to ask. A spreadsheet or a well-kept folder can satisfy the law for a very small, simple premises, because government guidance on small premises accepts a logbook or an electronic record. If you have one site, a handful of checks and one person who never forgets, a free template may do.

It starts to fall apart when:

• more than one person does the checks;
• you have more than one site or area to cover;
• certificates live in different email inboxes and drawers;
• nobody can say at a glance what is overdue;
• staff change often, as in hospitality and retail.

At £49 a year, the question is less about whether the licence is affordable and more about whether you would rather spend that time chasing paperwork. A spreadsheet is free in cash and costly in attention. Whether the trade is worth it depends on how you run your premises.

Our perspective

We built Gribit around a simple observation: most small businesses do not fail at safety checks because they do not care. They fail because the checks are repetitive, the paperwork lives in too many places, and the person who knew the routine has moved on.

That is why we keep the product narrow. A site logbook should schedule the check, remind the right person, record the result, track what needs fixing and keep the certificate in the same place. Staff should spend their time resolving the issue, not managing the paperwork about the issue.

It is also why we charge a single price per site for a year. A pub manager or a village hall administrator should be able to look at the price, multiply it by the number of buildings, and know their cost. No user counting, no module upsell.

We would also tell a business that does not need us. If you have one tiny premises and a spotless paper routine that someone else can pick up tomorrow, keep it. The law is about the record, not the software. But if the routine depends on one person’s memory, a logbook that nags, stores and exports is cheap insurance against an awkward conversation later.

— Jon

Gribit’s annual plan

If you want a simple logbook for recurring safety checks, the Site Logbook Annual Plan is £49 per year per site. You set up the checks for your site, assign staff access, record results as they happen, track follow-up actions and keep your certificates and documents together. You can export your records when you need them, and organise checks by site, item or location.

It is built for shops, pubs, offices, salons and village halls, where the person responsible for compliance is usually also running the business. Sign up and payment activate the plan for your site.

A worked example: a pub with one site

Take a typical small pub. The manager needs a weekly fire alarm test, regular checks on emergency lighting and fire exits, and a monthly look at the first-aid kit. There is an annual service certificate for the alarm and another for the extinguishers.

On paper, that is a binder behind the bar, a pen that walks off, and certificates in a drawer upstairs. A change of manager means a walkthrough that gets half remembered.

With a digital logbook, each check has a schedule and an owner. The weekly alarm test is ticked on a phone, a missing first-aid item becomes a follow-up action, and the certificates are attached to the relevant item. At a cost of £49 a year, that is under £1 a week. The saving is not on the invoice. It is in the Monday morning you do not spend finding out what slipped.

Choosing on value, not just price

When you compare options, put them in the same frame:

• Total annual cost for your actual sites and users, not the starter price.
• What is included in that price: reminders, storage, exports and staff access should not be extras for a basic logbook.
• How easily a new member of staff can use it. If it takes training, it will not get used on a busy Friday.
• How you leave. Your records are your evidence. Make sure you can take them with you.

A cheap tool that nobody uses costs more than a modest one that becomes habit. A broad suite is wasteful if you only need the logbook part.

FAQ

How much does a digital logbook cost?

It depends on what it covers. Safety and compliance logbooks for small UK businesses are usually sold as a monthly or annual subscription, and prices rise quickly once you move to wider compliance suites. Gribit’s Site Logbook Annual Plan is £49 per year per site.

Is there a free digital logbook for safety checks?

You can keep a free spreadsheet or document, and government guidance accepts a logbook or an electronic record for small premises. The trade-off is that you must build the schedule, reminders and filing yourself. For a single site with one reliable person, that can work.

Do I legally need a digital logbook?

No. UK law requires you to keep the right records, including your fire risk assessment and arrangements, but it does not require a digital format. What matters is that the record is accurate, complete and available when an inspector asks for it.

Can I convert my paper logbooks to digital?

Yes. Start with the checks you do now, set them up with their frequency, and attach current certificates. You do not need to retype years of old sheets. Keep the paper archive safe for as long as your advisers or insurer tell you to.

Is a per-site price better than a monthly plan?

For a small business, usually it is easier to plan around. You know the yearly cost, and adding a site adds one line. A monthly plan can suit you if you want to cancel quickly, but compare the twelve-month total.

Sources

• Check your fire safety responsibilities under Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022 (GOV.UK)
• Fire safety responsibilities under Section 156 of the Building Safety Act 2022: guidance (GOV.WALES)
• A guide to making your small non-domestic premises safe from fire (GOV.UK)
• Fire safety risk assessment: offices and shops (GOV.UK)