Quick picks
The best employee management software is the one your staff will actually use every day. These picks are by need; the full comparison follows. Prices are from each vendor's pricing page on 27 October 2026, before GST. Attend Mitra is our own product and is labelled; we don't take payment for placement.
- Staff at sites, shops or in the field, priced per employee: Attend Mitra (ours)
- Payroll-first HR suite for 50+ employees: greytHR or Keka
- Teams already on Zoho: Zoho People
- Zero budget with payroll calculations: Kredily
- Free time clock for any team size: Jibble
- Small shop owners who want a simple staff app: PagarBook or SalaryBox
- Shift-based hourly teams, outside India or global: Connecteam or Deputy
How we compared them
We looked at how employees clock in (phone, kiosk or web, and which checks run), whether leave, shifts and payroll are in the same product, the price of the plan that includes attendance, free plans and trials, and who each tool is built for. Every fact comes from the vendor's own site. For HR suites with deeper payroll compliance, see the best HRMS software in India.
1. Attend Mitra (our product): for staff who clock in away from a desk
Attend Mitra is built for Indian teams across offices, sites, shops and the field. Staff clock in from Android or iPhone with face verification, a GPS geofence or office Wi-Fi checks, and attendance records offline when there's no signal. Leave, shifts, payroll, documents, ID cards and performance are modules you add as you grow.
- Price: Attendance ₹29 per employee a month; Attendance, Leave and Payroll ₹64.40 after the bundle discount; 14-day free trial; see module prices
- Best for: security, facility, retail, manufacturing and field teams of 10 to a few hundred
- Not for: companies that need performance-heavy HR or enterprise talent management
2. greytHR: payroll-first HR for Indian SMEs
greytHR includes full Indian payroll compliance in every plan and adds attendance from its Growth plan, with sign-in by app, selfie, geofence and GPS. See our greytHR review.
- Price: Essential ₹2,495 a month for 50 employees (no attendance); Growth ₹4,495 a month for 50
- Best for: 50 to a few hundred employees with payroll run in-house
- Not for: teams of 10 to 20, who still pay for a 50-employee slab
3. Keka: modern HR with performance tools
Keka covers employee records, attendance, leave, payroll and performance with a polished employee app; selfie clock-in and geofencing start on its Strength plan.
- Price: from ₹90 per employee a month per its small-companies page; the main pricing page is on request
- Best for: growing companies that care about reviews and engagement as much as attendance
4. Zoho People: configurable HR in the Zoho suite
Zoho People handles records, attendance, leave, shifts and performance, and connects with other Zoho apps. Payroll is a separate product (Zoho Payroll).
- Price: ₹48 to ₹192 per user a month on annual billing; attendance checks from Premium (₹144); free plan for a few users without attendance
- Best for: businesses already using Zoho
5. Kredily: free employee management with payroll calculations
Kredily's free plan covers payroll calculations, web clock-in, leave and an employee app for unlimited employees, with limits on storage, rules and salary structures.
- Price: free; paid plans from ₹1,249 a month for 25 employees
- Best for: small offices with simple salaries and no budget
6. SalaryBox: attendance and salary for small businesses
SalaryBox is a mobile-first app for owners of small businesses: staff punch in on the app, and salary is calculated from attendance. Statutory compliance (PF, ESI, PT, LWF) is on the Business plan.
- Price: Starter ₹1,350 a month plus ₹27 per user on quarterly billing; Business ₹2,700 plus ₹67.50 per user
- Best for: shops, restaurants and small businesses with hourly or daily staff
7. Jibble: free time clock for any team size
Jibble's free plan gives unlimited users mobile and web clock-in, basic timesheets and integrations; paid tiers add advanced features. It doesn't run Indian payroll, so pair it with payroll elsewhere. Our article on whether Jibble is really free covers the limits.
- Price: free for unlimited users
- Best for: teams that need attendance now and payroll somewhere else
8. PagarBook: the staff book for small shops
PagarBook lets owners mark staff attendance free and pay per staff member for salary, PF, ESI and tracking features. It's simple enough for owners who have never used HR software. See how PagarBook's plans work.
- Price: attendance free; paid features charged per staff member
- Best for: very small businesses run by the owner
9. Connecteam: an all-in-one app for deskless teams
Connecteam combines scheduling, a time clock, tasks and team communication in one app for frontline teams, and is free for up to 10 users.
- Price: free for up to 10 users; paid plans from US$29 a month for the first 30 users, billed yearly
- Best for: small hourly teams, mostly outside India; no Indian payroll. See what workforce management software does for how scheduling tools differ
10. Deputy: shift scheduling for hourly workforces
Deputy, from Sydney, focuses on rosters, shift swaps, timesheets and labour cost for hourly teams in retail, hospitality and healthcare.
- Price: from US$5 per user a month, excluding taxes, priced in US dollars
- Best for: shift-heavy businesses with many part-time staff; no Indian payroll. More scheduling vendors are in our list of workforce management software companies
How to choose between them
Decide on three things before the demos: how staff will clock in (and what proof you need), whether payroll runs in the same product, and your real headcount in a year. Then trial two tools with your actual team, not a sample company, and price a full year including GST and add-ons. For teams under 50, the small business guide shows the cost at 10, 25 and 50 employees; if budget is zero, start with free employee management software.