Is SalaryBox free? The short answer
No, SalaryBox is a paid app. It's free to download from Google Play and the App Store and comes with a 7-day free trial, but there's no free plan. As listed on its pricing page in October 2026, the Starter plan costs ₹1,350 a month plus ₹27 per staff member, and Business costs ₹2,700 a month plus ₹67.50 per staff member, billed quarterly and before 18% GST.
Attend Mitra isn't affiliated with SalaryBox; we make a competing attendance app, and the prices and plan details below come from SalaryBox's own pricing page and help centre, checked on 22 October 2026.
SalaryBox app pricing: Starter, Business and Enterprise
SalaryBox prices each plan as a fixed monthly base fee plus a fee for every staff member. The page shows these as discounted from list prices of ₹1,500 and ₹30 (Starter) and ₹3,000 and ₹75 (Business), and it says taxes apply on top.
- Starter, ₹1,350 a month + ₹27 per user: GPS punch-in and punch-out, geofencing, selfie and QR attendance on the phone, and leave requests with holiday lists. No payroll.
- Business, ₹2,700 a month + ₹67.50 per user: everything in Starter plus AI face recognition, the attendance kiosk, payroll calculation, statutory items (EPF, ESI, PT, LWF), leave accrual and approval flows, and the fraud-prevention settings.
- Enterprise, custom price through sales: adds bank-ready salary transfer files and multiple currencies.
- Billing: quarterly by default. The page shows a 33% discount for annual billing but doesn't list the annual price, and the help centre says annual plans can only be bought on the web.
What SalaryBox costs for 10, 20, 50 and 200 staff
Because of the base fee, the per-person cost falls as your team grows. Here's the monthly bill at October 2026 list prices, before 18% GST:
- 10 staff: Starter ₹1,620, Business ₹3,375.
- 20 staff: Starter ₹1,890, Business ₹4,050.
- 50 staff: Starter ₹2,700, Business ₹6,075.
- 200 staff: Starter ₹6,750, Business ₹16,200.
- Since billing is quarterly, 50 staff on Starter means paying ₹8,100 every three months, or ₹9,558 once 18% GST is added.
SalaryBox add-ons and extra costs
Some features cost extra on any plan, so budget for them if you need them:
- Live location tracking: ₹100 per user per month. It shows staff GPS location during work hours and alerts you if someone turns off GPS or internet.
- Biometric attendance machine: an add-on you buy inside the app. The pricing page doesn't show its price, so ask SalaryBox for a quote before you order.
- Bank account verification: ₹10 per verification, on Business and Enterprise only.
- Verified staff addition (pulling details from official records during onboarding) is charged from the SalaryBox Wallet.
How the SalaryBox free trial works
The trial gives 7 days of access to Starter or Business. SalaryBox's homepage says no credit card is needed, while its billing help article says the quarterly-plan trial starts with a refundable ₹1 charge, so expect a small verification step when you sign up.
When you start a plan you choose the number of staff, and you can raise that count, add features or add-ons later. You can cancel from the Subscriptions and Billing section at any time; SalaryBox says no further charges are made after the current billed period ends. Use the trial on a real working week, with your actual staff phones and branch radius, rather than a demo account, so you see the punch-in errors before you pay.
Starter or Business: which SalaryBox plan do you need?
Starter is enough if you only need attendance from phones (selfie, QR or GPS within a geofence) and your accountant already runs salary. You need Business if you want salary slips and PF and ESI calculated in the same app, face recognition or a shared kiosk, leave accrual, or the anti-proxy settings like Device Verification and Block Fake GPS Attendance. If staff struggle with any of those steps, our guide on how to use the SalaryBox app walks through setup and common errors, and our overview of attendance steps across HR apps covers other tools.
Do employees pay for the SalaryBox staff app?
No. Employees download the same SalaryBox app for free and log in with the mobile number the employer registered. The employer's subscription covers them, which is why the bill is counted per user. If you add seasonal or contract workers, remember each one adds ₹27 (Starter) or ₹67.50 (Business) a month while they're on the plan.
How SalaryBox pricing compares with Attend Mitra
Attend Mitra is also paid, with no free-forever plan and a 14-day free trial. It has no base fee: Attendance is ₹29 and Verified Attendance (face, GPS geofence and office Wi-Fi checks) is ₹16 per employee per month, so the two together come to ₹41.40 per employee after the 8% bundle discount, before 18% GST. Adding the Payroll module, which calculates PF, ESI, TDS and PT and creates payslips, brings 50 employees to ₹3,542 a month.
In practice that's cheaper than SalaryBox Starter for small teams (₹828 against ₹1,890 for 20 staff) and more expensive at around 200 staff (₹8,280 against ₹6,750). You can check the per-module prices and bundle discounts, see how payroll works on the Attend Mitra payroll page, or compare ten tools at once in our side-by-side table of attendance software in India. The cost guide for 20, 50 and 200 employees does the same maths for every vendor.