Zoho Payroll is a capable product and, for a small team already living inside Zoho, it is often the right answer. Most companies that go looking for an alternative are not doing so because payroll broke. They are doing so for one of three reasons: they discovered Zoho People does not include payroll on its own, they hit a policy the system will not bend to, or their headcount grew to where the pricing stopped being the cheapest.
This guide covers seven alternatives, where each one wins, and where Zoho Payroll is still the better choice. Prices were checked on each vendor’s own pricing page on 26 September 2026. HivePayroll and Zoho Payroll prices exclude GST; for other vendors we say what their page states.
| Software | Published starting price (per month) | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| HivePayroll | Free for up to 10 employees; every feature from ₹500 (billed yearly) | Teams that want payroll, attendance and leave in one product at one flat price |
| greytHR | Essential ₹2,495, including 50 employees | Companies that want a long-established Indian vendor |
| RazorpayX Payroll | ₹3,499 for up to 20 employees | Companies that want payroll run from their RazorpayX business account |
| Keka | Not published | 100–2,000 staff with complex shifts and arrears |
| Pocket HRMS | ₹2,995 for up to 50 employees (billed annually) | Teams that need a strong mobile experience |
| HROne | ₹4,950 for up to 50 users | Mid-market companies wanting HR breadth |
| Darwinbox | Quote only | Large enterprises with dedicated HR ops |
Nothing beats it if you already run Zoho Books. Salary journals flowing into your accounts without a CSV export is a real, daily saving. If your finance team lives in Zoho, that integration outweighs most feature comparisons on this page.
It is very cheap for small teams. Zoho Payroll is free for up to 10 employees. Its Standard plan is ₹1,000 a month billed annually for up to 25 employees, which matches HivePayroll’s 11–25 band. Below 10 employees HivePayroll is free too, so at that size compare what each free plan includes rather than the price.
The statutory coverage is solid. EPF, ESI, Professional Tax, TDS and Form 16 are handled properly, with direct bank disbursals.
This causes more confusion than anything else in the Zoho line-up. Zoho People is the HR module; Indian payroll is Zoho Payroll, a separate product. Zoho People’s own plans do not include payroll processing; the Zoho People Plus bundle does. Teams that budgeted for Zoho People as a payroll system can discover the gap during implementation rather than during the demo.
Standard is the cheapest paid plan. Professional is ₹3,000 a month for 50 employees, then ₹60 each, and Premium ₹4,000 for 50, then ₹80 each (annual billing). Each legal entity needs its own licence, so a group with two or three registered companies pays for two or three subscriptions.
A consistent theme in public reviews on Techjockey, Tekpon and SelectSoftware Reviews is rigidity: difficulty configuring payroll policies and exit processes that fall outside the standard flow. These are user reports, not our claims. If your company has an unusual leave encashment rule or a non-standard notice-period settlement, test it in the demo.
Delayed responses come up repeatedly in the same reviews. Zoho is a very large company with a very large product catalogue, and payroll support reflects that scale.
Zoho Payroll Standard charges a base fee that covers 25 employees, then ₹40 for each extra employee. HivePayroll charges a flat price per team-size band, with every feature in every band.
| Headcount | Zoho Payroll Standard (billed annually) | HivePayroll (billed yearly) | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | Free | Free (₹500 with every feature) | Both free |
| 20 | ₹1,000 | ₹1,000 | Same |
| 30 | ₹1,200 | ₹1,500 | Zoho |
| 40 | ₹1,600 | ₹1,500 | HivePayroll |
| 50 | ₹2,000 | ₹1,500 | HivePayroll |
| 60 | ₹2,400 | ₹2,500 | Zoho |
| 75 | ₹3,000 | ₹2,500 | HivePayroll |
| 100 | ₹4,000 | ₹2,500 | HivePayroll |
| 150 | ₹6,000 | ₹3,750 | HivePayroll |
Honestly, below about 65 employees it is close. Up to 10 employees both are free. Zoho Standard is cheaper between 26 and 37, and between 51 and 62. HivePayroll is cheaper between 38 and 50 and at every headcount from 63 up, and above 100 the gap passes ₹1,500 a month and keeps widening, because Zoho’s cost grows by ₹40 per person and HivePayroll’s by ₹25.
Two things usually matter more than those small differences. First, if you need a feature that sits in Zoho’s Professional plan, compare against ₹3,000 for 50 employees, not ₹1,000. Second, if you also want leave and attendance managed in the same product, price Zoho People or Zoho People Plus alongside Zoho Payroll; in HivePayroll they are part of every plan, including Free.
Best for: Indian companies that want payroll, attendance and leave as one product, starting free and moving to one flat price by team size, especially past about 60 employees.
Free for up to 10 employees, with no time limit and no credit card: payroll with PF, ESI, PT, LWF and TDS, payslips and Form 16, leave, the employee self-service app, loans, expenses and reimbursements, flexible benefits, letters and statutory reports — one product, not several subscriptions. On Free you mark attendance yourself or upload it from Excel.
Paid plans add phone check-in with selfie and location, biometric machine integration, shifts and attendance corrections, priced by team size and billed yearly: ₹500 a month for up to 10 employees, ₹1,000 for 11–25, ₹1,500 for 26–50 and ₹2,500 for 51–100. Above 100 it is ₹30,000 a year plus ₹25 per extra employee per month. Monthly billing is available at about 20% more, and there is no setup fee. See full pricing.
Where we are honestly weaker: between 26 and about 60 employees Zoho Standard is close to or below our price depending on your exact headcount. If you run Zoho Books, our accounting integration will not match theirs. On Free, attendance is marked by you rather than captured by phone or biometric check-in, and live GPS tracking is a paid add-on. And we are a smaller vendor than Zoho, which is a legitimate consideration if your procurement process weights company size.
Best for: Companies that want a long-established Indian payroll vendor.
Essential is ₹2,495 a month and Growth ₹4,495, each including 50 employees; extra employees cost ₹45 a month on Essential and ₹85 on Growth. The pricing page does not say whether GST is included. Because 50 employees are included from the start, smaller companies pay for seats they do not use. greytHR’s blog describes a free Starter plan for small companies, but it no longer appears on the pricing page, so check whether it is open to new sign-ups. Deep India compliance heritage.
Best for: Companies that already bank with RazorpayX and want salary payouts and compliance payments in the same place.
Prime is ₹3,499 a month for up to 20 employees. Elite is ₹6,499 a month for 50 employees and supports up to 100. Extra employees are ₹150 each per month, and 18% GST is added. Plans cover payroll calculation, payslips, direct salary payment and compliance calculation, payments and filings.
Watch out: some modules, such as expense management, are limited on these plans.
Best for: 100–2,000 employees with genuinely complex payroll.
Keka does not publish prices; its Foundation, Strength and Growth plans are quoted on request. It is widely used for unpaid leave, overtime, shift differentials and arrears, and has a modern interface and mobile app.
Watch out: this is usually a capability upgrade, not a cost saving. Get a quote at your headcount.
Best for: Distributed teams where employees live in the app.
Standard is ₹2,995 a month billed annually for up to 50 employees, then ₹60 per extra employee. Professional is ₹4,495 for 50, then ₹90 each. Premium is quote-based for 100+ employees, and there is a one-time implementation fee.
Best for: Mid-market companies needing HR breadth beyond payroll.
Basic starts at ₹4,950 a month for 50 users and Professional at ₹6,500. Payroll with PF, ESI, TDS and Professional Tax alongside wider HR workflows — a sensible step if you are outgrowing Zoho on process rather than price.
Best for: Large enterprises with a dedicated HR operations team.
Quote only. Full employee lifecycle depth, with the implementation effort to match. Overkill below a few hundred employees.
Count your headcount honestly, including the next twelve months. If you are 8 people and staying there, both Zoho Payroll and HivePayroll are free, so compare what each free plan includes. If you are 45 and hiring, run the table above at your projected year-end number, not today’s.
Work out whether you are buying one product or several. If your Zoho quote includes Zoho People plus Zoho Payroll, or a higher Payroll plan, compare that total against single-product alternatives. This is where the real price difference usually hides.
Take your hardest policy to the demo. Not your standard monthly run — every vendor handles that. Bring the mid-year joiner with pro-rated leave accrual, or the notice-period settlement your HR lead dreads. Rigidity only shows up under an awkward case.
Time the switch. April is the clean cut-over. Mid-year means carrying year-to-date figures so Form 16 and Form 24Q reconcile, which is doable but adds work. If you must move mid-year, do it at a quarter boundary.
Not on its own. Zoho People is the HR module and its plans do not include payroll processing. Indian payroll is Zoho Payroll, a separate product; the Zoho People Plus bundle includes both.
Yes, for up to 10 employees. Beyond that, the Standard plan is ₹1,000 a month billed annually for up to 25 employees, then ₹40 per extra employee, excluding GST.
Zoho Payroll has separate editions for several countries, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the US and Canada. The prices in this guide are for the India edition.
Up to 10 employees both are free. Against HivePayroll’s paid plans, Zoho Standard is cheaper in some ranges up to about 62 employees; from 63 up, HivePayroll is cheaper at every headcount, and the gap widens with every hire.
Under 25 employees and happy with Zoho, stay. The integration with Zoho Books is worth more than the small differences elsewhere on this page.
If you are growing past 60 employees, running more than one Zoho subscription to get payroll, leave and attendance, or fighting the system over a policy it will not accept, it is worth comparing. See HivePayroll pricing or book a free demo and bring your most awkward payroll rule to the call.
Prices were checked on each vendor’s own pricing page on 26 September 2026. Vendors change pricing often; confirm current figures directly before deciding.
Getting this right across a whole team is where spreadsheets start to break down. HivePayroll’s payroll software calculates it for every employee, every cycle.
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