Is Zoho People free?
Yes, for very small teams. Zoho People has a free plan for up to 5 users that covers the employee database, leave (time off) and document management, but not attendance, timesheets or shifts. Paid editions come with a 30-day free trial; Zoho lists them at about ₹48 to ₹192 per user per month on annual billing, before 18% GST.
So the honest answer depends on what you need. If you only want a leave tracker for five people, the free plan works. If you need employees to check in, you'll be on a paid edition.
Attend Mitra isn't affiliated with Zoho; we make a competing attendance app, and the plan details below come from Zoho People's own pricing and comparison pages, checked in October 2026.
What the Zoho People free plan includes, and what it doesn't
Zoho's pricing page lists the Free plan with employee database management, time off management, time off and vacation planning, and document management. The comparison page also ticks comp off and holidays for every edition, Free included.
- Included: employee records, leave requests and balances, holiday list, comp off, documents.
- Not included: attendance tracking on web or mobile, People Kiosk face recognition, geo and IP restrictions, regularization, timesheets, full shift rostering.
- User cap: 5 users. A sixth employee means moving to a paid edition.
- Who it fits: a founder-led team that wants leave in one place and tracks attendance some other way.
How the Zoho People free trial works
The trial runs 30 days and includes all the features of the plan you pick, so it's the time to test attendance on real phones. According to Zoho's pricing page, accounts move to the Free plan when the trial ends, so only the free edition's features stay available.
To use the trial well, set up one real location with your actual shift timings, ask a few employees to check in from the field and from the office, and run a month-end attendance report before day 30. Our checklist for choosing attendance software in India lists what to test.
Zoho People paid plans and prices in India
Zoho People's editions build on each other. As listed on its pricing and comparison pages in October 2026:
- Essential HR: onboarding and offboarding, employee database, documents, leave and HR reports. No attendance.
- Professional: adds attendance management (web, mobile and facial recognition), People Kiosk, biometric integrations, regularization, IP and geo restrictions, timesheets and roster management.
- Premium: adds performance, compensation, employee engagement and advanced HR analytics.
- Enterprise: adds an HR help desk, a learning management system and a sandbox.
- Price range: about ₹48 (Essential HR) to ₹192 (Enterprise) per user per month, billed annually, before 18% GST. Premium is ₹144, so 50 employees on Premium cost ₹7,200 a month. Monthly billing costs more; Zoho says yearly billing saves more than 20%. Above 500 users, Zoho asks you to request a quote.
Zoho People vs Zoho Payroll
They are separate products. Zoho People is HR: records, leave, attendance, performance. Zoho Payroll is the separate product that runs salaries and payslips. Buying People doesn't give you payroll.
They can be connected. Zoho's help pages describe a one-way sync from People to Payroll: employee details, work locations and LOP flow from People, but changes made in Payroll are not sent back. The pay period in People must match the pay schedule in Payroll, the LOP report cut-off must fall on or before payday, and Zoho Payroll's own leave and attendance module can't be on, because People supplies that data. The integration is offered in India and the GCC countries.
Zoho People Plus and Zoho One: is Zoho People part of a bundle?
Zoho People is sold on its own, but it also comes inside two bundles. Zoho People Plus is an HR suite that combines People with Recruit, Expense, Connect, Cliq, Sign and Vault, with editions named Essential HR, Workforce, Talent and Enterprise. Zoho's payroll help says the India edition of Zoho Payroll is available within People Plus for organisations located in India, licensed for the whole suite rather than per app.
Zoho One, Zoho's all-apps bundle, also lists People in its HR group. If your company already pays for Zoho One, check with your admin before buying People separately; it may already be switched off rather than missing.
Is Zoho People a CRM or an HRMS? And where's the app?
Zoho People is HR software (an HRMS), not a CRM; Zoho's CRM is a different product called Zoho CRM. The Zoho People app is available for Android and iPhone. Zoho's mobile help guide doesn't list a Windows app, so on a PC or laptop employees use Zoho People in a web browser, including for check-in. Step-by-step instructions are in our guides to Zoho People attendance and applying leave in Zoho People.
If you need free attendance, or a lower per-employee cost
Attend Mitra doesn't have a free-forever plan either. It offers a 14-day free trial and per-module pricing before 18% GST: Attendance ₹29, Verified Attendance (face, GPS and Wi-Fi checks) ₹16, Leave ₹9 and Payroll ₹32 per employee per month, with a bundle discount of 8% on two or more modules. Attendance with verified clock-in comes to ₹41.40 per employee, and the Payroll module calculates PF, ESI, TDS and PT, while filing returns stays with you or your CA.
It fits teams that want verified mobile attendance and payroll without paying for HR suite features they won't use. Zoho People fits better if you live in Zoho apps or need performance and learning modules. See Attend Mitra plans, or our roundup of free attendance software in India if your budget is zero.