The short answer for small businesses
A small business needs less software than vendors suggest. Up to about 10 employees, the job is attendance, leave and a salary calculation you trust; from 20 employees you need Provident Fund in payroll, and from around 25 to 50 you need approvals, multiple locations and reports. Buy for the size you will be in a year, not for the size a sales demo assumes.
Cost follows the same curve. For 10 employees, good options cost nothing to about ₹1,600 a month; at 50 employees the same products range from free to about ₹7,200 a month, before GST. The rest of this guide shows where those numbers come from.
What you need at each size
The legal triggers matter as much as headcount. Provident Fund applies once an establishment has 20 or more employees, and ESI generally applies from 10 employees in areas where the scheme is implemented, for staff earning up to ₹21,000 a month. That is when payroll software stops being optional.
- 1 to 10 employees: phone-based attendance, leave requests and approvals, and payable days for salary; a free plan or an Excel template can be enough
- 10 to 25 employees: add ESI if it applies to you, an employee app for leave and payslips, and a manager who can approve from their phone
- 20 to 50 employees: PF in payroll, professional tax if your state levies it, shift rosters, multiple sites or branches, and reports for the owner
- Any size with staff outside the office: GPS or face checks at clock-in, and attendance that records without network
Features that matter, and features you can skip
The features that save a small business time are the ones used every day by every employee. Performance reviews, learning modules and recruitment pipelines look good in a demo, but most small teams never set them up. Pay for them later, when you have someone to run them.
- Must have: mobile clock-in that fits how staff work (selfie, GPS geofence, office Wi-Fi or a kiosk)
- Must have: leave requests, balances and approvals in the app
- Must have: monthly attendance summary with payable days, overtime and leave without pay
- Must have: Excel export of everything
- Useful from 20 staff: payroll with PF, ESI, professional tax and payslips
- Can wait: performance reviews, recruitment, learning and engagement surveys
What employee management software costs at 10, 25 and 50 employees
Monthly cost before 18% GST, from each vendor's pricing page in October 2026, for the plan that includes attendance. Plans differ in what else they include, so treat this as a starting point for your own shortlist:
- Jibble: ₹0 at every size; the time clock is free for unlimited users, and payroll happens elsewhere
- Attend Mitra, Attendance + Leave + Payroll: ₹644 for 10, ₹1,610 for 25 and ₹3,220 for 50 (₹64.40 per employee after the 8% bundle discount); Attendance alone is ₹29 per employee
- SalaryBox Starter: about ₹1,620, ₹2,025 and ₹2,700 (₹1,350 a month plus ₹27 per user on quarterly billing); Starter has no PF or ESI, which start on Business at ₹2,700 plus ₹67.50 per user
- greytHR Growth, the first plan with attendance: ₹4,495 a month for up to 50 employees, the same at 10, 25 or 50
- Zoho People Premium, the first plan with attendance checks: ₹1,440, ₹3,600 and ₹7,200 (₹144 per user a month, billed annually)
- Kredily: a free plan with web clock-in, one salary structure and PF, ESI, PT and TDS calculations; paid plans from ₹1,249 a month for up to 25 employees (Payroll OS)
When a free plan is enough
A free plan or a spreadsheet is enough while everyone works in one place, the owner knows every employee, and salaries are simple. It stops being enough when you can't see who is actually at work, when leave disputes start, or when PF and ESI make the salary sheet a monthly risk. Our guide to free employee management software lists what free plans really include and has a free Excel template to download.
Mistakes small businesses make when buying
Most regrets come from the first purchase, not the software itself:
- Buying an enterprise HRMS with a setup fee and annual lock-in for a 15-person team
- Choosing the cheapest plan, then discovering attendance or payroll is on the next tier
- Forgetting GST and add-ons such as GPS tracking when comparing prices
- Buying biometric machines for staff who mostly work away from the office
- Never testing the app on employees' own phones before paying for a year
- Keeping the old register and the new app running forever, so neither is trusted
A one-week setup plan
Day 1: put every employee in one sheet (ID, name, phone, department, joining date, monthly salary) and import it. Day 2: set the office or site locations, shift timings, weekly offs and holidays. Day 3: write down your leave policy and enter it. Day 4: get everyone to install the app and do one test clock-in. Days 5 to 7: run the app beside your register and compare each evening. At month end, calculate salary both ways once, and switch when they match.
For a deeper comparison of products, see the best employee management software, and for the basics of what each module does, what employee management software is.
Attend Mitra for small businesses
Attend Mitra is priced per employee, so a 10-person shop pays for 10, not for a 50-employee slab. Staff clock in from Android or iPhone with face, GPS or Wi-Fi checks, the app works offline, and you add Leave and Payroll when you need them. There's a 14-day free trial; the module price builder shows your exact monthly cost, and the attendance app for small business page shows the setup.