Is PagarBook free? The short answer
PagarBook is partly free. Its pricing page says marking attendance is free, and you pay only when you want salary, PF and ESI, or tracking. Paid plans are priced per staff member per year: ₹499 for the PagarBook App, ₹699 for App + Web, and ₹1,398 for App + Web + Lens face attendance, as listed on its website in October 2026, before 18% GST.
Downloading the app costs nothing on Google Play or the App Store, and signing up needs no card. Below we break down what each plan adds, what the PagarBook iD attendance machine costs, and what a typical small business would pay in a year.
Attend Mitra isn’t affiliated with PagarBook; we make a competing attendance app, and every price here comes from PagarBook’s own website and app listings.
What you get free in PagarBook
The free part is attendance marking. That is enough for many very small shops that only want a digital register instead of a notebook: staff punch in, you see who came, and nobody argues about the date. The Play Store listing also describes salary, overtime and advance records and a cashbook for business cash flow.
What the pricing FAQ puts behind payment is the heavier work: salary processing, PF and ESI, and live tracking. If you mainly want a free register and do salary on paper or with your CA, the free use may be all you need. Our list of attendance tools with a genuinely free tier shows how other free options compare.
PagarBook price list: plans per staff per year
PagarBook bills per staff member, per year, with a choice of one-year or three-year billing on the pricing page. You pay only for the staff you add and can add or remove people any month. Prices below are as listed on pagarbook.com in October 2026, before 18% GST:
- PagarBook App: ₹499 per staff per year (about ₹42 a month per staff).
- PagarBook App + Web: ₹699 per staff per year (about ₹58 a month), adding the browser dashboard for bigger teams.
- PagarBook Classic Suite (App + Web + Lens): ₹1,398 per staff per year (about ₹117 a month), adding AI face attendance at the gate.
- PagarBook Geo Basic and Geo Plus: priced separately per staff per year and need an active App or Web plan; Geo Plus adds order management.
- Enterprise pricing: by callback request.
PagarBook attendance machine cost (PagarBook iD)
If you want a fixed device at the gate rather than a spare Android phone, PagarBook sells its own machine, PagarBook iD. The iD 8 was listed at ₹18,000 + GST as a one-time hardware fee (down from ₹27,000) in October 2026, with the stand included, unlimited face profiles, Wi-Fi, offline marking, access control for a door, and a 1-year manufacturing warranty. The iD 5 model is also listed, without a public price.
The machine is not a standalone purchase. PagarBook’s FAQ says iD runs on active PagarBook Lens and PagarBook Web subscriptions, and it offers combo plans that bundle the device with them. In practice, budget for the device plus the ₹1,398 per staff per year Classic Suite. Lens itself runs on any Android phone, so a phone you already own costs nothing extra. If you are torn between a wall device and phones, our comparison of a biometric machine versus a phone app lays out the trade-offs.
What PagarBook costs for a 10, 25 or 50-staff business
Because PagarBook charges per staff per year, multiply your headcount by the plan price, then add 18% GST. Using October 2026 list prices on one-year billing:
- 10 staff on App + Web: ₹6,990 a year before GST (₹8,248 with GST).
- 25 staff on App + Web: ₹17,475 a year before GST (₹20,621 with GST).
- 50 staff on Classic Suite with Lens: ₹69,900 a year before GST, plus ₹18,000 + GST for an iD 8 if you want one.
- Annual billing means the full year is paid up front, so check whether that suits your cash flow.
Is the PagarBook app free to download on Android, iPhone and Windows?
Yes. The PagarBook: Attendance & Payroll app is free to download on Google Play, and the iPhone app (listed as PagarBook – Manage Staff Khata, iOS 14 or later) is free with in-app purchases. There is no separate Windows download to hunt for: PagarBook’s web version runs in any browser, so on a Windows 10 laptop you sign in from the Login button on its website. PagarBook Lens is a separate free download, but its listing says a business subscription is needed to use it.
If you are setting it up for the first time, our PagarBook setup walkthrough covers adding staff and shifts, and if the app won’t open or punches don’t register, the PagarBook troubleshooting checklist goes through the usual causes.
How Attend Mitra pricing compares
Attend Mitra has no free-forever plan, so if free attendance marking is your only need, PagarBook costs less. Where it differs is the pricing model and the clock-in checks. Attend Mitra is priced per employee per month by module, before 18% GST: Attendance ₹29, Verified Attendance (face, GPS geofence, office Wi-Fi) ₹16, Leave ₹9 and Payroll ₹32, with 8% off for two or more modules. Attendance with Verified Attendance comes to ₹41.40 per employee per month.
For 25 staff that is ₹1,035 a month before GST, or about ₹12,420 over a year, for checked clock-ins, offline punches and the web dashboard. Add Payroll and it is ₹70.84 per employee per month. Every module is on the Attend Mitra plans page, there is a 14-day free trial, and the 10-tool attendance software comparison sets prices for eight other tools side by side. To see how the daily punch itself differs from app to app, read how attendance is marked in popular HR apps.