Payroll Software in India: Compare Plans and Prove the Pay Run

Choose for your employees and the monthly pay run#

The best payroll software for an Indian company depends on how employees work, who approves pay and how statutory liabilities reach the books. A ten-person office with fixed salaries has different needs from a company with shifts, variable attendance or several state locations. Start with those differences, then compare the plan that actually includes the required controls.

This shortlist covers Zoho Payroll, greytHR, RazorpayX Payroll and Keka for employers paying employees in India. Prices were checked on 3 October 2026. Foreign client collections and export documentation belong in the revenue workflow; they are not prerequisites for comparing employee payroll. A foreign business without an Indian employing entity needs an employment-structure decision before buying local software.

Four useful paths to shortlist#

These are selection paths, not a claim that all plans are interchangeable. Subscription costs exclude applicable taxes and any separately quoted services. Ask each vendor to price the same headcount, employing entity, required attendance rules, integrations and approval requirements. A cheaper plan that omits your pay-run approval cannot win that comparison on price alone.

Zoho Payroll: select the tier before comparing the price#

Zoho’s India pricing comparison separates monthly and annual billing. Standard is ₹1,250 monthly for 25 employees plus ₹50 each above 25; annual billing averages ₹1,000 monthly plus ₹40 each additional employee. Professional is ₹3,750 monthly for 50 plus ₹75 each extra, or ₹3,000 plus ₹60 on annual billing. Do not describe the annual rate as a cancellable monthly price.

The plan descriptions put pay-run and salary-revision approvals in Professional, while Premium includes built-in leave and attendance and advanced approvals. That makes Professional a candidate when a second person must approve salary changes. If attendance is already managed in another system, demonstrate the import or integration instead of paying twice for a feature you will not use.

For an existing Zoho Books or People user, check how employee identifiers, pay components and accounting entries move between products. An integration name does not prove that your custom deductions or cost-centre splits will map correctly. Confirm bank-partner eligibility for online salary payments and keep a bank-advice export path available. One legal entity with branches has a different licensing question from several employing entities.

greytHR: price attendance and add-ons explicitly#

greytHR’s pricing lists Essential at ₹2,495 monthly for the first 50 employees, with ₹45 for each additional employee. Growth is ₹4,495 for 50, with ₹85 each above 50. The page includes payroll, leave and employee self-service in its plans and describes advanced attendance and shift management in Growth.

Shortlist Essential for a payroll-and-leave requirement; compare Growth when shift or attendance administration is central. API and SSO appear as add-ons in the published plan details. Specify your integration and access needs in the offer so the payroll subscription does not become only one part of the eventual bill. Custom implementation or multi-entity requirements deserve their own line items.

RazorpayX Payroll: inspect payment and filing responsibilities#

RazorpayX’s current pricing page displays Prime at ₹3,499 monthly for up to 20 employees and Elite at ₹6,499 monthly for 50, with ₹150 per additional employee. Its page also presents annual and semiannual choices and an Elite headcount limit. Confirm the applicable term and headcount offer rather than using an older ₹2,499 or ₹5,499 figure from a comparison elsewhere.

Direct salary payment can reduce the work between approving payroll and sending employee transfers. Still inspect funding deadlines, authorization, failure statuses and downloadable payment references. Razorpay’s TDS documentation explains enabled filing automation and retrieving acknowledgments and challans. It explicitly says the system does not file nil TDS returns. “Automated compliance” therefore needs a defined service scope and an owner for exceptions.

Keka: ask for the package and implementation scope#

Keka’s India package page describes HRMS and payroll tiers, while its payroll product page presents attendance, payroll and multi-state administration. Use it as a candidate when the broader employee workflow matters. Obtain a written India quote rather than importing a US package or a third-party starting price.

Request the precise employee allowance, payroll and attendance modules, approval permissions, accounting export, support and setup charges. Keka’s public pricing FAQ mentions an onboarding setup fee; confirm its amount and deliverables. For every vendor, demonstrate a change to an employee’s bank account and salary, including who can make it, who approves it and what history remains.

Compare a 30-employee cost scenario#

Suppose one Indian company has 30 salaried employees. It needs payroll and leave, already has usable attendance inputs, and compares published subscription charges before taxes, payment charges, implementation and add-ons. This is a cost exercise; it does not prove feature equivalence or substitute for a quote.

Zoho Standard on monthly billing costs ₹1,250 + 5 × ₹50 = ₹1,500 per month, or ₹18,000 over twelve months at unchanged headcount. The annual-billing rate is ₹1,000 + 5 × ₹40 = ₹1,200 monthly equivalent, or ₹14,400 for the year. That is a ₹3,600 difference tied to the annual billing commitment. If the company needs pay-run approvals, compare Professional instead: ₹3,750 monthly for this headcount, or ₹3,000 monthly equivalent billed annually.

greytHR Essential’s first-50 allowance covers 30 employees at ₹2,495 monthly, or ₹29,940 over twelve months. Growth would be ₹4,495 monthly, or ₹53,940, if its attendance/shift features are required. RazorpayX’s published Elite 50-employee basis covers this headcount at the displayed ₹6,499 monthly charge, or ₹77,988 for twelve monthly equivalents; obtain the actual annual/semiannual invoice terms. Keka remains quote-based in this scenario, so no invented amount enters the comparison.

At 60 employees, headcount charging becomes visible: Zoho Standard monthly is ₹1,250 + 35 × ₹50 = ₹3,000; greytHR Essential is ₹2,495 + 10 × ₹45 = ₹2,945. Their ranking changes even before features are considered. Forecast headcount and compare the right package at that future size, then add the actual commercial and service charges once.

Set statutory rules by location, employee and effective date#

Payroll needs configured salary TDS, EPF, ESI, professional tax and labour welfare fund rules where applicable, plus the employer’s wage, leave and attendance policies. PT and LWF vary by state; employee location and establishment coverage matter. Do not use one nationwide deduction amount or assume every worker has the same eligibility. Keep employee identifiers, joining history, declarations and statutory registrations current.

For October 2026, an old template is especially risky. The Income Tax Department’s transition FAQ identifies salary withholding under section 392 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 for the new framework from 1 April 2026. Historical periods and corrections need the rules that applied to them; do not blindly relabel every old record.

The Labour Ministry’s September announcement states that the EPFO mandatory-coverage wage ceiling increased from ₹15,000 to ₹25,000 effective 17 September 2026. Ask the vendor to demonstrate the effective-dated coverage change for your affected employees, using the applicable notification and contribution rules. A coverage ceiling is not a direction to deduct a uniform amount from everyone.

Government guidance on the Labour Codes records their implementation from 21 November 2025. Test the applicable wage definitions and treatment in your salary configuration rather than assuming an old basic-pay split remains valid. Your payroll adviser should approve the statutory setup; the software must show which version of each rule it applies and preserve historical results.

Trace gross pay, net pay and employer cost separately#

Use a sample employee to prove reconciliation. Assume a payroll adviser has already approved this employee’s hypothetical month: gross earnings ₹50,000, employee PF deduction ₹3,000, salary TDS ₹2,000 and applicable PT ₹200. These are scenario inputs, not universal legal rates. Net salary is ₹50,000 − ₹3,000 − ₹2,000 − ₹200 = ₹44,800.

Now assume employer PF for this case is ₹3,000. The employer’s illustrated cost is ₹53,000 before any other employer charges or accruals. Pay ₹44,800 to the employee and recognize ₹8,200 of statutory liabilities: employee deductions ₹5,200 plus employer PF ₹3,000. Together they reconcile to ₹53,000. Do not deduct the employer’s contribution again from the employee’s already calculated net salary.

An approved ₹2,000 expense reimbursement would be tracked separately from this gross-salary example and increase the employee transfer to ₹46,800 if paid together. Its tax treatment depends on the actual expense and evidence; labelling a salary component “reimbursement” does not make it exempt. Keep reimbursement liabilities and salary deductions distinguishable in the ledger and payslip.

Use the demo to expose exceptions before switching#

Give each shortlisted vendor the same representative cases: a mid-month joiner, unpaid leave, a salary revision with arrears, an employee with a prior employer’s tax details and a final settlement. Ask for the calculation inputs, approval history, payslip, bank advice and statutory output. The useful result is a traceable explanation of each amount, including an exception the software cannot complete automatically.

Freeze approved attendance and variable-pay inputs before the pay run. Have the preparer reconcile gross earnings and deductions, then have the authorized approver inspect changes and the funding requirement. Calculation approval, bank submission, successful employee payment and statutory remittance are separate events. A generated challan or report is not proof that the liability was paid or the return accepted.

If a salary transfer has an unknown outcome, recover its original bank/provider status before sending a replacement. A failed employee payment should remain payable until successfully settled; retry only the affected obligation after confirming failure. Preserve the link to the same approved salary rather than rerunning the whole payroll and creating duplicate liabilities.

During migration, reconcile year-to-date earnings, tax deductions, statutory identifiers, leave balances, advances and unpaid salaries. Compare one parallel calculation cycle, but authorize payment from only one system. Keep historical payslips, reports and acknowledgments accessible after cancellation. Employee bank and tax details should be limited to appropriate roles, with an audit history of changes.

Keep employment, contractor and owner payments distinct#

A local payroll product administers an existing employer’s pay obligations. Deel’s EOR documentation describes a different service: an employer of record employs staff locally when the client has no local entity. Confirm the actual employing entity, contract and India coverage; a global dashboard alone does not create an employment arrangement.

Contractor invoices need their own classification and withholding treatment. A proprietor’s personal drawings are separate from employee wages, while a company director’s remuneration depends on the actual arrangement. Route payments by their correct treatment before configuring a payroll record. The software comparison should remain focused on your employees, with these other obligations kept visible in the wider books.