HR and payroll for 100 staff: ₹8,745 to ₹9,900 a month; Keka prints no price
What payroll alone and payroll with attendance list at for a 100-person Indian company, and why the Labour Codes favour one system, as of September 2026.
For a 100-person Indian company, an HRMS that runs payroll and attendance in one system lists at ₹8,745 a month on greytHR Growth and ₹9,900 on HROne Basic. Payroll without attendance costs about half: ₹4,745 on greytHR Essential, ₹4,000 on Zoho Payroll Standard. Keka, the other name an Indian buyer shortlists, prints plan names and no prices.1234
Our 2024 version of this post listed seven benefits of putting HR on one platform. The question a buyer actually has is narrower: is the step from a payroll tool to a unified HRMS worth what it costs, which at greytHR is ₹40 an employee a month? We priced it from the vendors’ own pages.
₹40
an employee a month: the step from payroll to a unified HRMS at greytHR
₹4,745 on Essential against ₹8,745 on Growth for 100 staff, before GST.
01The unified tier costs about twice the payroll tier
Putting attendance in the payroll system roughly doubles the monthly list price for 100 staff
Monthly list price for 100 employees, entry payroll plan against the first plan with attendance, INR before GST, September 2026
Source: greytHR, HROne and Zoho Payroll India pricing pages; TechBag arithmetic · as of 30 September 2026 · Keka shows no prices and is not charted
02Why the Labour Codes make the case
India’s four Labour Codes took effect on 21 November 2025. The new definition of wages excludes items such as house rent allowance, conveyance, overtime and statutory bonus, but if those excluded payments exceed 50% of total remuneration, the excess is deemed to be wages.5 That test runs on each employee’s actual pay, and overtime, which comes from attendance, is one of the items in it.
03What it costs in India, and the rules that bite
Every price above is in rupees. Zoho states its prices exclude GST; greytHR and HROne do not say, so budget 18% on top. HROne’s page also quotes ₹85 a user in its FAQ against ₹99 on the plan card; ask which applies. Performance management is extra almost everywhere: an add-on on greytHR Growth and Enterprise-only on HROne.23 Beyond the Labour Codes, an HRMS is the largest store of personal data most companies hold. Employment is a legitimate use under section 7 of the DPDP Act, 2023,6 and the DPDP Rules, notified on 13 November 2025, bring their security and breach-notice duties into force on 13 May 2027.7 Ask where each vendor hosts the data before signing. If your books are in TallyPrime, its payroll runs inside the same licence, which is a third option.
Sources
- Zoho, Zoho Payroll India pricing (Free to 10 employees; Standard ₹1,000 a month for 25 on annual billing, ₹40 per extra employee; GST extra) — undated page
- greytHR, pricing (Essential ₹2,495 a month for 50 employees, ₹45 each above; Growth ₹4,495, ₹85 each above) — undated page
- HROne, pricing (Basic ₹4,950 a month for 50 users, ₹99 per additional user; FAQ quotes ₹85) — undated page
- Keka, pricing (Foundation, Strength and Growth plan names; no prices shown) — undated page
- AZB & Partners, India Implements New Labour Codes: An Overview Into The Changes — 24 November 2025
- Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, section 7(i) (employment as a legitimate use) — 11 August 2023
- Legismith Partners, DPDP Rules 2025 commencement timeline — Rules notified 13 November 2025
Disclosure. TechBag is a software reseller: it earns a margin when a reader buys through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view.
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