9 Best Payroll Software in India (2026)

#1

RazorpayX Payroll

Best for: Companies already running payments through Razorpay that want payroll with built-in salary disbursement

Visit razorpay.com

RazorpayX Payroll comes from a company most Indian finance teams already know, and it shows in where the product is strongest. Rather than treating payouts as an afterthought, the platform deposits salaries directly into employee, freelancer and contractor bank accounts. The vendor states that it fully automates payment of TDS, PF, PT and ESIC along with tax filing, which takes a heavy monthly burden off founders and HR admins.

The product plugs into 45+ integration partners across HRMS, attendance, flexible benefits and insurance, so it fits into an existing HR stack rather than forcing a replacement. Extras such as earned salary access, salary benchmarking and background checks, delivered through partners, widen it beyond basic salary runs. The trade-off is transparency: the payroll page publishes no pricing, so you will need to talk to sales before you can compare costs against greytHR or Keka.

#2

Keka

Best for: Growing Indian companies that want a payroll-first platform with strong employee self-service

Visit keka.com

Keka has built its name almost entirely on Indian payroll, and that focus is its clearest asset. The vendor's site confirms payroll handling for Indian requirements including TDS, PF, ESI and professional tax at current rates, which is exactly the shortlist test most buyers apply first. Employee self-service gets serious attention too, so payslips, tax declarations and reimbursements stop landing on the HR manager's desk.

Because Keka is a full HR suite built around the payroll core, it scales with headcount from a small startup to a multi-hundred-person company without a platform switch. The honest catch is that none of the pricing appears on the homepage, so budget planning starts with a sales conversation or a trial request. If you want a payroll specialist that lives and breathes Indian compliance rather than a generic global HR tool, it deserves a place at the top of your shortlist.

#3

greytHR

Best for: SMEs that want published INR pricing and proven Indian statutory coverage

Visit greythr.com

Published pricing is rare in Indian HR software, which is one reason greytHR stands out. The vendor site states a starting price of ₹2,495 per month for up to 50 employees, with payroll, compliance, leave, attendance, ESS and its AI assistant included. That lets a small business do real budget math before talking to anyone, a genuine advantage in a market where most competitors hide their numbers.

On the compliance side, greytHR auto-computes PF, ESI, PT, LWF and TDS across all 28 states and applies statutory updates automatically, with a one-click payroll close and direct government portal filing. Attendance from biometric, GPS or face-recognition devices flows straight into payroll, removing the reconciliation spreadsheets that eat up month-end. The platform is a full hire-to-retire HRMS rather than a payroll-only tool, which is a plus if you also need attendance and leave, but worth weighing if all you want is a lean salary run.

#4

Darwinbox

Best for: Large enterprises that want a mobile-first HCM suite with payroll built in

Visit darwinbox.com

If your headcount runs into the thousands and payroll is one piece of a much bigger HR picture, Darwinbox is built for that reality. It is a unified, AI-powered human capital management suite covering the full employee lifecycle, from recruitment and onboarding through payroll, performance and analytics, with a mobile-first experience designed for employees to actually use. Industry analysts have recognized it in the cloud HCM space, and it serves large organizations across many countries.

For payroll specifically, the attraction is having salary processing sit inside the same system as attendance, performance and core HR data, which removes the reconciliation work that comes with stitched-together tools. The honest trade-off is that Darwinbox does not publish pricing, and its depth is overkill for a 30-person startup. Companies choosing it should expect an enterprise buying process with demos and implementation scoping, not a sign-up-and-run-payroll afternoon.

#5

Zoho Payroll

Best for: Teams already in the Zoho ecosystem who want payroll connected to Books, People and Expense

Visit zoho.com

Zoho Payroll's biggest selling point is context: if your accounting lives in Zoho Books and your people data in Zoho People, payroll plugs into both. The India edition handles PF, ESI, LWF, PT and income tax compliance across 28 states, generates bank advice so salaries go out online through partner banks, and processes contractor payments with automatic TDS. Payslips, revision letters and settlement documents can be shared with employees over WhatsApp, which matches how Indian teams actually communicate.

Built-in leave and attendance means small teams can run the whole monthly cycle without a separate tracker, and multi-level approvals keep each pay run under control. Zoho's assistant Zia answers employee payroll questions inside the portal, cutting the usual back-and-forth with HR. Like most names on this list, Zoho does not show pricing on the India page, so expect a quote request. The natural buyer is a Zoho shop; if your books run on Tally instead, weigh the integration story of alternatives like RazorpayX.

#6

Spine HR

Best for: Mid-sized Indian companies that want a long-established domestic HRMS with payroll

Visit spinetechnologies.com

Spine HR comes from Spine Technologies, an Indian HR software vendor with roots going back to 2001, and that longevity matters to buyers who have been burned by startup shutdowns. It is a full HRMS with payroll, attendance, leave, performance and recruitment modules, aimed at companies that want one domestic system of record for people operations rather than a patchwork of tools.

The product's strength is breadth: attendance feeds payroll, and the usual Indian statutory requirements sit inside the same platform. The limitation is transparency, since the vendor site publishes no pricing and less detailed product information than newer competitors, so you cannot shortlist it on paper alone. Book the demo, ask specifically about payroll automation depth and how statutory updates are handled, and compare the quote against greytHR's published ₹2,495 starting point.

#7

sumHR

Best for: Startups that want to start on a free HRMS and pay only as needs grow

Visit sumhr.com

sumHR takes the opposite approach to the enterprise suites: it advertises a free HRMS tier and invites startups to start there. The platform bundles payroll with attendance, leave, performance reviews, OKRs, onboarding and an HR drive for documents, all in one cloud system. For a young company where erupee is watched, getting payroll plus core HR at zero entry cost is a genuine draw.

The vendor describes its model as pay as you go, using only what you need, which keeps the upgrade path honest as the team grows. Features like unlimited salary structures, flexible benefit plans and IT declarations suggest the payroll engine is not a toy. That said, the homepage does not spell out exactly what the free tier caps, so confirm employee limits and payroll features before building your process on it. It is the budget pick of this list, not the compliance heavyweight.

#8

Zimyo

Best for: SMBs that want payroll plus engagement and performance tools in one modern interface

Visit zimyo.com

Zimyo pitches payroll as something that should take five clicks, and the rest of the product follows the same philosophy of keeping HR work light. Beyond payroll processing it offers core HR, attendance with geo-tagging, performance management with OKRs, recruitment and learning modules, wrapped in a modern interface with a capable mobile app. Employee self-service is central: people manage their own data, leaves and documents instead of routing everything through HR.

For an SMB, the appeal is consolidating several HR chores into one subscription instead of juggling spreadsheets and single-purpose tools. The vendor does not publish pricing, so the real comparison happens after a quote, and with this many modules you should confirm exactly which ones your plan includes. Zimyo suits companies that want payroll plus a fuller employee experience, not buyers hunting for the leanest possible salary run.

#9

Pocket HRMS

Best for: Indian mid-market companies that want AI-assisted payroll with published INR pricing

Visit pockethrms.com

Pocket HRMS is one of the few Indian payroll vendors that puts real numbers on the table. Its FAQ states pricing starts at ₹2,995 for the Standard plan covering up to 50 employees, with additional employees at ₹60 each, and a Professional plan at ₹4,495 for up to 50 with ₹90 per extra employee. That transparency makes it easy to model costs as headcount grows. The platform centers on AI-powered payroll calculations, with an assistant chatbot that answers employee queries around the clock.

Statutory compliance is the core promise: the vendor describes 100% statutory-compliant payroll processing and cloud updates that track changes in Indian payroll law. Core HR, attendance with geo-location and biometrics, flexible leave, exit management with full-and-final settlement, and expense management round out the suite. Implementation typically takes 2 to 8 weeks per the vendor's FAQ, so plan the switch between payroll cycles. It is a natural fit for mid-market teams that want a domestic vendor with clear pricing and a modern feature set.