HRMS Software Pricing India 2026: Plans From ₹2,495/Month

HRMS software pricing in India: the short answer

HRMS software in India costs about ₹45–₹120 per employee per month on published 2026 plans, with minimum monthly bills of ₹2,495–₹9,999 because most vendors charge a base fee for the first 50–100 staff. Small teams pay more per head. One-time licences also exist, including ours at ₹34,999.

This is a budget guide for HR heads, founders and finance managers at 25–500 person companies. For tool-by-tool reviews, see our best HRMS software in India list.

Disclosure: Codingclave sells an HRMS and a payroll product, and both appear below on the same terms as other vendors. I checked each price on 30 September 2026 against the vendor's own pages. Keka's and Zoho Payroll's figures come from their official pages as shown in search results (the pricing pages would not load directly) and HROne's from its own blog, so confirm those. Prices exclude GST.

Quick answer:

• 25 employees: ₹2,495–₹9,999 a month on published HRMS plans, which is ₹100–₹400 per employee. Some include payroll, some don't.
• 100 employees: ₹4,745–₹11,900 a month on the vendor HRMS plans verified (greytHR, Pocket HRMS, Keka, sumHR), or ₹47–₹119 per employee.
• 500 employees: ₹22,745–₹59,500 a month on per-employee plans (₹45–₹119 per head). Flat and one-time prices need a quote here.
• 3-year cost at 100 staff: ₹1,70,820 (greytHR Essential) to ₹4,28,400 (sumHR) at list price.
• Watch for: payroll sold separately, implementation fees, annual prepayment and GST.

The HRMS pricing models you'll be quoted

Per-employee-per-month (PEPM)

You pay a fixed rate for every billable employee. sumHR, for example, publishes ₹1,428 per employee per year (about ₹119 a month) on annual billing. PEPM scales down well for small teams, but the bill rises with every hire.

Base fee plus a per-employee charge

Most Indian vendors, including greytHR, Pocket HRMS, Keka and Zoho Payroll, use this. A base fee covers a band (usually 50 employees, or 100 for Keka), and each extra person adds a fixed amount. Small teams pay for seats they don't use.

Single flat price or one-time self-hosted licence

A single flat price has no per-employee charge. Our Codingclave HRMS is ₹3,499 a month as SaaS with unlimited employees, or ₹34,999 one-time for up to 200 employees by default (upgradeable). Our product FAQ allows per-user pricing for large organisations, so at several hundred staff, ask for a quote.

With a one-time licence you still pay for hosting, backups, someone to apply updates, and support. Our product page does not publish the support period, any annual maintenance charge or a hosting price, so ask us for those in writing, as you would any vendor. If nobody in your company can look after a server, choose SaaS.

None of the HRMS plans verified here has a free tier (greytHR shows a 7-day trial; Zoho Payroll is free up to 10 employees but payroll only), and premium tiers are quote-only.

Published HRMS prices in India (verified September 2026)

Last verified: September 2026. List prices from each vendor, excluding GST. Links are in the Sources section.

Vendor and plan	Price	Included	Per extra	Payroll?
greytHR Essential	₹2,495/month	50 staff	₹45	Yes
greytHR Growth	₹4,495/month	50 staff	₹85	Yes
Pocket HRMS Standard ¹	₹2,995/month	50 staff	₹60	Yes, plus compliance
Pocket HRMS Professional ¹	₹4,495/month	50 staff	₹90	Yes, plus compliance
Keka Foundation ²	₹9,999/month	Up to 100	₹90	Check plan
sumHR	₹1,428/employee/year	Not shown	About ₹119/month	Ask
Zoho Payroll Standard	₹1,000/month	25 staff	₹40	Payroll only
HROne ³	₹85–₹600 per employee/month	Aimed at 100–5,000 staff	n/a	Ask
Codingclave HRMS (ours)	₹34,999 once or ₹3,499/month	200 once / unlimited SaaS	None	Separate ⁴

1. Pocket HRMS plans are billed annually, and a one-time implementation fee applies (amount not published).
2. As listed on keka.com pages. Keka also markets a starting price of ₹6,999 a month and says there are no setup fees, so confirm which plan you are quoted.
3. From HROne's own pricing guide, not a price list. HROne says billing starts at go-live, not purchase order date.
4. Our Payroll Management Software is ₹19,999 one-time or ₹1,999 a month.

greytHR bills monthly; sumHR's figure is annual; Zoho Payroll's billing basis was not confirmed. Darwinbox and Zoho People had no verified INR list price, so treat them as quote-only.

What that works out to per employee

Effective monthly cost per employee at list price.

Plan	25 staff	100 staff	500 staff
greytHR Essential	₹100	₹47	₹45
greytHR Growth	₹180	₹87	₹85
Pocket HRMS Standard	₹120	₹60	₹60
Keka Foundation	₹400	₹100	₹92
sumHR	₹119	₹119	₹119
Zoho Payroll Standard (payroll only)	₹40	₹40	₹40
Codingclave HRMS SaaS, ours (no payroll)	₹140	₹35	Quote
Codingclave HRMS + Payroll SaaS, ours	₹220	₹55	Quote

Base fees make a 25-person company pay two to four times more per head than a 500-person company on the same plan. Our HRMS + Payroll plan (about ₹220 per head at 25 staff) costs more per head than every option here except Keka at that size, and is among the cheapest at 100.

Headcount growing, or staff spread across several states? WhatsApp Ashish on +91 92771 84741 with your numbers, and I'll price the options above for your team, ours included, so you can see where each one lands.

Is payroll included? What usually costs extra

Payroll and statutory compliance (PF, ESI, PT, TDS, LWF, Form 16)

Many budgets compare an HR-only price with an HR-plus-payroll price. greytHR says complete payroll is on all plans; Pocket HRMS includes payroll and automated statutory compliance. Zoho Payroll is payroll only. Our HRMS covers core HR, and payroll is our separate Payroll Management Software.

Ask each vendor to confirm, for the tier you are quoted: PF and ESI calculation and return files, professional tax for each state you pay staff in, TDS with Form 16 and 24Q data, and LWF.

Held to the same checklist, our payroll product page lists automatic PF and ESI calculation, PF ECR files and ESI returns, professional tax, TDS with Form 16, and bank transfer files. LWF and 24Q are not listed on the page, so ask us to show them on your data in the demo.

A pattern I see often when companies bring us their HR budget: they priced an HR-only tier, then found PF and ESI challans sat one tier up, or in a separate product.

Statutory updates after the Labour Codes

The four Labour Codes were made effective from 21 November 2025, rationalising 29 labour laws (PIB release). As rules and forms are notified, payroll software must follow. Ask whether those updates are in the plan price or billed as change requests. For a self-hosted licence, also ask who installs the update on your server and whether that is covered after the first year.

Implementation, data migration and a parallel payroll run

Pocket HRMS says a nominal one-time implementation fee applies but doesn't publish it; greytHR's pricing page doesn't mention one. Ask for the figure in writing and what it covers: data import, leave balances, salary structures and year-to-date tax data.

The bigger cost is usually your own team's time: several weeks of HR effort for clean-up and training, plus one parallel payroll month where old and new systems process the same salaries and you compare payslips.

Biometric devices and attendance integration

If you already own attendance devices, give the vendor the make and model before the demo and ask to see a live punch flow into attendance. New hardware, installation and any integration fee are separate from the software price.

Other extras to ask about

• Accounting and bank integrations: Tally or ERP journal export and bank payout files can be priced separately. Ask for them in the quote.
• Add-on modules: recruitment, performance, expense and training modules are sometimes gated to higher tiers or sold as add-ons.
• Support and training: check whether phone support, an account manager or extra admin training costs more.
• Who is billable: ask whether exited staff in their full-and-final month, contractors, interns and inactive records count as billable employees.

GST, annual prepayment, minimums and renewals

• GST: assume list prices are plus GST as applicable until the quote says otherwise. If you are GST-registered, ask your CA whether you can claim input tax credit.
• Annual prepay: Pocket HRMS Standard at 25 staff means ₹35,940 up front for the year, plus GST and the implementation fee. Finance teams should budget that cash in month one.
• Minimums: the 50- or 100-employee base is your minimum bill, even with 20 staff.
• Billing start: HROne says its subscription starts at go-live. Ask every vendor which date applies.
• Renewals: get any renewal increase cap written into the contract.

3-year HRMS cost at 25, 100 and 500 employees

Use this formula for your own headcount:

3-year cost = (base fee + (employees − included employees) × per-extra rate) × 36 + implementation + hardware + GST

Assumptions for the table: published list prices, 36 months, headcount flat, GST excluded. Implementation, hardware and hosting are not included and are marked where they apply. Zoho Payroll assumes the Standard rate holds at every headcount; confirm on zoho.com.

Option (36 months)	25 staff	100 staff	500 staff
Includes payroll
greytHR Essential	₹89,820	₹1,70,820	₹8,18,820
Pocket HRMS Standard (+ implementation fee)	₹1,07,820	₹2,15,820	₹10,79,820
Codingclave HRMS + Payroll SaaS (ours)	₹1,97,928	₹1,97,928	Quote
Codingclave HRMS + Payroll one-time (ours, + hosting)	₹54,998	₹54,998	Upgrade quote above 200
Payroll not confirmed
sumHR	₹1,07,100	₹4,28,400	₹21,42,000
Keka Foundation	₹3,59,964	₹3,59,964	₹16,55,964
Payroll only
Zoho Payroll Standard	₹36,000	₹1,44,000	₹7,20,000

Our HRMS-only SaaS (₹1,25,964) is left out because it has no payroll.

What the 3-year numbers mean

• At 25 employees, greytHR Essential is the cheapest HRMS-with-payroll subscription here, and our HRMS + Payroll SaaS costs more than double. Our one-time licence is ₹34,822 lower on paper, but after hosting and upkeep that saving is thin for a team this small.
• Keka at 25 staff: the table uses the ₹9,999 Foundation plan. If Keka's ₹6,999 starting plan applies to your size, the 3-year figure falls to ₹2,51,964. Confirm with Keka.
• At 100 employees, greytHR Essential still edges out our HRMS + Payroll SaaS on list price (₹4,745 against ₹5,498 a month). The crossover is about 117 employees for greytHR Essential and about 92 for Pocket HRMS Standard; above that, a single flat price costs less every month.
• At 500 employees, per-employee plans range from ₹8.2 lakh (greytHR Essential) to ₹21.4 lakh (sumHR) over three years. This is where flat and one-time pricing save the most, and also where you must get written quotes, including ours.

A growing company: 100 staff today, 250 by year three

Say you have 100 staff in year one, 175 in year two and 250 in year three.

Option	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	3-year total
greytHR Essential	₹56,940	₹97,440	₹1,37,940	₹2,92,320
Pocket HRMS Standard	₹71,940	₹1,25,940	₹1,79,940	₹3,77,820
Codingclave HRMS + Payroll SaaS (ours)	₹65,976	₹65,976	₹65,976	₹1,97,928

Our row assumes the flat price holds at 250 staff; confirm that in your quote. The one-time licence would need an upgrade past 200 employees. For any vendor, price year three's headcount, not today's.

If you're weighing a one-time licence against a subscription more broadly, or your workflows are unusual enough that no product fits, our HRMS development cost guide covers fully custom builds, which start in the lakhs.

How to run a useful HRMS demo

A vendor-led demo runs on prepared data that always works. Ask to see your own awkward cases instead.

Send this before the demo

• Your salary structure (CTC components) and one real, anonymised payslip.
• Every state you pay staff in, so the vendor sets up PT and LWF. Whether you are in Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand or a Tier-2 city, demos, migration and training can be done remotely; ask them to show where your state's rule is configured and who updates it.
• A mid-month joiner, a loss-of-pay case and a backdated increment (arrears).
• One full-and-final settlement.
• Your leave policy and your biometric device make and model.

If you were looking for a state government's employee HRMS portal, use your department's official link; this guide is for businesses buying HRMS software.

Ten things to click yourself

1. Regularise a missed punch and see it reach payroll.
2. Apply leave and check accrual and carry-forward.
3. Run the test month's payroll end to end.
4. Generate PF and ESI output files.
5. Open a payslip in your format.
6. Produce Form 16 and 24Q data.
7. Use employee self-service on a phone.
8. Export the salary register and bank transfer file.
9. Check whether a line manager can see salaries.
10. Export all employee data to Excel or CSV, so you know you can leave.

Price questions to ask during the demo

• What are the minimum employee count and minimum monthly bill?
• Who counts as a billable employee?
• Does billing start at purchase order or go-live?
• Is the price plus GST, and is annual prepayment required?
• What does implementation include, and what does it cost?
• Are statutory updates, including Labour Code changes, in the plan price?
• Is there a renewal cap, and what will the bill be at our next headcount band?

Levers worth negotiating

• A price lock for two or three years, written into the contract.
• Billing from go-live rather than signature.
• Implementation fee waived, or credited against the first year.
• A discount for annual prepayment, if you have the cash.

Try our live HRMS and payroll demo

Our live HRMS demo and payroll demo let you click through the product yourself. Login details are shared on WhatsApp from the demo page. Send us the same test cases listed above and we'll run them live on a call.

Which HRMS pricing model fits your company?

Your situation	Model that usually fits	Why
Under 50 staff, no IT person	Base fee + per-employee SaaS with payroll	Lowest verified bill; vendor owns updates
50–120 staff, steady headcount	Compare per-employee and flat SaaS on your exact number	Crossover sits around 92–117 employees
120–500 staff, or growing towards it	Single flat SaaS price or one-time licence, on a written quote	Per-employee bills rise with every hire
Own IT team, data must stay in-house	One-time self-hosted licence	You control hosting and data
Unusual workflows or 500+ staff	Enterprise quote or custom build	Standard plans stop fitting

Who should not pick a one-time licence: a small company without IT support that wants someone else accountable for hosting and payroll compliance.

For how the modules work, read our HRMS software feature guide. If payroll is your main pain, our best payroll software in India comparison goes deeper.

Frequently asked questions

What is the price of HRMS software in India per employee?

On plans published in September 2026, HRMS software in India costs about ₹45–₹120 per employee per month past the base band. Base fees come first: greytHR Essential is ₹2,495 a month for 50 employees, Pocket HRMS Standard ₹2,995, and Keka lists ₹9,999 for up to 100 (confirm on keka.com). Teams of 25 pay ₹100–₹400 per head, plus GST.

Is payroll included in HRMS pricing, or is it charged separately?

It depends on the product. greytHR and Pocket HRMS include payroll on their published plans; Zoho Payroll is payroll-only, so you still need an HR tool. Codingclave's HRMS (our product) covers core HR, with payroll as a separate module at ₹19,999 one-time or ₹1,999 a month. For any vendor, confirm PF, ESI, PT, TDS, Form 16 and LWF are in the tier quoted.

Which HRMS is cheapest for a company with 25 to 50 employees?

Among the plans verified in September 2026, greytHR Essential is the lowest-priced HRMS with payroll at this size: ₹2,495 a month for up to 50 employees, or ₹89,820 over three years before GST. Zoho Payroll is cheaper (free up to 10 employees) but payroll-only. Small teams usually do better letting a SaaS vendor own hosting and statutory updates.

Is HRMS SaaS or a one-time licence cheaper over three years?

At 100 employees, greytHR Essential costs ₹1,70,820 over 36 months at list price and our HRMS plus Payroll SaaS ₹1,97,928; our one-time licences total ₹54,998 plus hosting and upkeep. A single flat price beats Pocket HRMS Standard from about 92 employees and greytHR Essential from about 117. Above 200 staff, get written quotes, including ours.

Are HRMS prices in India inclusive of GST, and do I have to pay annually?

Treat list prices as plus GST as applicable: greytHR's pricing page doesn't state GST treatment, and it wasn't confirmed for the other vendors. greytHR bills monthly, Pocket HRMS annually, and Keka ties discounts to headcount or term. If you are GST-registered, ask your CA about input tax credit. Also ask about minimum bills, billing start date and renewal caps.

Can I get a free HRMS demo, and what should I test in it?

Yes. greytHR shows a 7-day free trial, and every vendor here offers a live demo on request, including us. Skip the tour on sample data. Send your salary structure, the states you pay staff in, a mid-month joiner, a loss-of-pay case, a backdated increment and one full-and-final settlement, and have them processed live while you watch.

Your next step: price HRMS on your own payroll data

• Send your headcount, states and payroll setup on WhatsApp to Ashish for a written quote.
• See plans and modules on the Codingclave HRMS product page.
• Try the HRMS live demo; login details are shared on WhatsApp from the demo page.
• Prefer email or a scheduled call? Use our contact page.

About the author

Ashish Sharma founded Codingclave in Lucknow in 2017 and has led the delivery of 200+ software projects; the company holds a 4.9 Google rating from 76 reviews. The team builds and supports HRMS, payroll, clinic, society and hotel management software, and Ashish replies to HRMS enquiries personally.

Sources

• greytHR pricing
• Pocket HRMS pricing
• Keka plans for small companies
• Zoho Payroll India pricing
• sumHR pricing
• HROne HR software pricing guide
• PIB: Labour Codes made effective from 21 November 2025