Every payroll error your company has ever made started the same way: two systems holding two versions of the same salary. This guide compares tools on how tightly HR and payroll are stitched together, not on the length of their feature lists.
Vendors use the phrase loosely. In practice it covers two different promises, and knowing which one you need decides your shortlist.
One salary structure feeds everything. The CTC agreed in the offer letter becomes the payslip's earnings lines, EPF and ESI deduct at the statutory rates, attendance shapes the month's payable days, and the full and final settlement reads from the same heads when someone leaves. Nothing gets retyped, so nothing drifts.
The software goes one step further and submits your statutory returns: PF to EPFO, ESI contributions, professional tax to state portals, TDS. Only some products do this, and it changes both the price and who carries responsibility when a deadline slips. Most SMEs leave filing with their CA and only need computation done right.
Ask a vendor which of the two they mean before the demo starts. The answer sorts this market cleanly, and it is why the ranking below looks the way it does.
Ranked for Indian companies with up to 250 employees. Pricing is what each vendor published as of 12 October 2026, before GST.
| # | Tool | Payroll integration | Entry pricing (October 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Offrd | Computation across the whole document lifecycle, attendance bundled via Atndnz, EPF export ready files for your CA | Credit packs from ₹99 for 10 credits (an offer letter uses 10), or ₹50 per active employee a month, 50 free credits |
| 2 | RazorpayX Payroll | Computation plus automated filing and salary payout on banking rails | Prime ₹3,499 a month for up to 20 employees, then ₹150 per employee a month, plus GST (checked 12 October 2026) |
| 3 | greytHR | Subscription payroll that generates ECR, PF and ESI files, add on modules around it | Essential ₹2,495 a month for up to 50 employees, then ₹45 per extra employee |
| 4 | Keka | Payroll inside a mid market suite with performance and ATS modules | Not published; quoted on a sales call with a setup fee |
| 5 | sumHR | Payroll with attendance and leave, biometric device support | ₹49, ₹69 or ₹119 per user a month, billed annually |
Compiled from vendor pricing pages, checked on 12 October 2026. Keka does not publish plan figures; it quotes on a sales call. GST and setup fees apply with several vendors. Verify with each vendor before purchase.
Offrd treats payroll as the middle of a lifecycle, not a silo. The salary structure auto balances to total CTC. From there, EPF at 12% both sides, ESI at 0.75% and 3.25%, state wise professional tax and gratuity all compute inside the payslip. When an employee exits, the settlement pulls from the same salary heads, so the last document agrees with the first.
Attendance is not an integration project either. The Atndnz app comes free with Offrd, with QR check in, GPS and geofencing, and feeds the payroll cycle directly. A payslip uses 2 credits and each employee's first payslip is free, so the 50 free credits cover at least 25 payslips before you pay a rupee.
The demarcation is deliberate: Offrd owns computation and documents, your CA owns the portal submissions, working from the EPF export ready files Offrd hands over. Offrd does not file anything itself. For a company with a CA on retainer, that split is exactly how the work already divides. Moving off Excel or a desktop tool first? Read cloud payroll software.
RazorpayX Payroll is the filing specialist. TDS, PF, ESI and professional tax payments and returns are automated, and salaries disburse straight from the platform on Razorpay's banking rails. For a founder who wants to never see a government portal, it is a credible route, which is why it places second despite a thinner HR document side.
That thinness is real, though. The offer letter tooling is narrower than a document platform's, and there is no policy generator or settlement letter depth. Companies that need both often run RazorpayX for filing and Offrd for the paperwork.
greytHR computes payroll on subscription and generates the ECR, PF and ESI files that filing requires. Around it sits a spread of modules: leave, attendance, onboarding, exit management on higher plans. The catch is that the spread is how the invoice grows, and the integration you came for arrives only after an implementation cycle measured in days. It suits buyers who want one vendor for many modules and can wait for setup.
Recruitment is ₹2,500 per recruiter per month and several modules bill per user beyond the base plan. Against that, Offrd's subscription at ₹50 per active employee a month includes documents, payroll and attendance.
Keka integrates payroll with attendance, performance and a built in ATS, and the interface is the most modern on this list. Pricing comes from a sales call, and implementation runs weeks. Past 100 staff with formal review cycles, it is a fine choice. Below that, the integration you are paying for extends across modules you may never open.
sumHR connects payroll to attendance and leave with solid biometric device support, priced per user. The payroll depth is serviceable rather than standout. A fair shortlist entry for hardware driven attendance setups.
Skip the feature matrices. Answer this and the market sorts itself.
If someone you trust already files your returns, a CA, an accountant, a compliance consultant, then what you need from software is computation you never have to double check. That is Offrd's lane, at ₹50 per active employee a month or credit packs from ₹99 for 10 credits (an offer letter uses 10). Your CA gets EPF export ready files and keeps doing what they were doing.
If nobody files today and nobody wants to learn, buy filing. RazorpayX Payroll files and pays TDS, PF, PT and ESIC for you. If your CA will still press the final button, greytHR generates the return files for upload. Paying for filing you do not need is the most common overspend in this category, and vendors are in no hurry to point that out.
Either way, run the statutory numbers yourself once. Our CTC to in hand salary calculator shows how EPF, ESI and professional tax move a salary from offer to bank credit, and it is a brisk way to sanity check any vendor's demo. For the wider market beyond payroll, see the guides on HR automation for small businesses and labour law compliance platforms.
It means the salary structure lives in one place and every downstream output reads from it. The offer letter, the monthly payslip, the increment letter and the final settlement all pull from the same salary heads, and attendance data feeds the payroll run. Without integration, each of those is a separate spreadsheet that can drift out of sync.
Offrd, if your need is documents, payslips, attendance and exits computed correctly on one salary master, priced at Rs 50 per active employee a month or credit packs from Rs 99 for 10 credits (an offer letter uses 10). RazorpayX Payroll, if you also want returns filed and salaries paid out automatically. greytHR, if you want many HR modules on one subscription.
Offrd computes EPF, ESI, professional tax and gratuity inside every payslip and settlement, then hands your CA EPF export ready files. Your CA submits to EPFO, ESIC and the state portals from there, the same division of work most SMEs already run.
Yes. Offrd includes the Atndnz attendance app free, with QR check in, GPS and geofencing, and attendance feeds the payroll cycle. greytHR, Keka and sumHR also connect attendance to payroll.
Offrd costs Rs 50 per active employee a month, or credit packs from Rs 99 for 10 credits (an offer letter uses 10), with 50 free credits at signup. As of July 2026, greytHR Essential was Rs 2,495 a month for up to 50 employees, then Rs 45 per extra employee. Keka does not publish prices and quotes on a sales call. RazorpayX Payroll Prime is Rs 3,499 a month for up to 20 employees, then Rs 150 per employee a month, plus GST, checked 12 October 2026.
50 free credits cover at least 25 payslips. EPF, ESI, professional tax and gratuity computed on your real salary structures.
This guide is published by Offrd. We include our own platform and rank it first for the segment stated above, on the criteria stated above. The ranking is qualitative and reflects our reading of the Indian market as of July 2026.
Competitor information comes from each vendor's published pricing and product pages, reviewed in July 2026 and the prices checked again on 12 October 2026. Public sources change and can contain errors. Offrd has not audited every claim made by other vendors and accepts no liability for buying decisions made on this page. Verify current pricing and capabilities directly with each vendor. All product names belong to their respective owners and are referenced for comparison under nominative fair use. Corrections: service@offrd.co.
More buyer guides: HR automation for small businesses · onboarding automation · labour law compliance platforms