Zoho People vs Offrd: what the ₹48 headline leaves out
Zoho People Essential HR is ₹48 per user a month, which reads as the cheapest option on any shortlist. Attendance starts one tier up at ₹96, and payroll is not in any tier because Zoho Payroll is a separate product. For a 20 person team wanting both, the real figure is about ₹3,170 a month against ₹1,000 on Offrd.
Last updated 24 August 2026. Zoho rates read from the Zoho People and Zoho Payroll pricing pages on 23 August 2026.
Read the tier ladder before the headline rate
Zoho publishes its Indian rupee pricing behind a currency toggle, and the annual figures are the ones most buyers see first. Essential HR is ₹48 per user a month, Professional is ₹96, Premium is ₹144 and Enterprise is ₹192, all billed annually with a five seat minimum and a 30 day trial. There is also a free edition for up to five users.
The ladder matters more than the rate. Essential HR covers onboarding and offboarding, the employee database, document management, time off and HR reports, plus the Zia assistant. That is a competent HRIS. It has no attendance.
Attendance management, timesheets and roster management arrive at Professional, which doubles the per user rate. Performance management, compensation and advanced analytics come at Premium. The help desk and learning system are Enterprise. So the feature that sent you looking for HR software often sits a tier or two above the price you first read, and that pattern is not unique to Zoho.
Payroll is the sharper point. It is in none of the four tiers. Zoho Payroll is a different product with its own price: free up to 10 employees, and ₹1,250 a month for 25 employees on Standard. Two products, two subscriptions, two admin surfaces.
What does a 20 person company actually pay?
Take a settled team of 20 that wants documents, attendance and payroll, which is the ordinary requirement rather than an ambitious one.
| What you need | Offrd | Zoho |
|---|---|---|
| HRIS, documents, leave | Included | Zoho People Essential HR, ₹48 x 20 = ₹960 |
| Attendance and shifts | Included, with geofencing and GPS | Needs Professional, ₹96 x 20 = ₹1,920 |
| Payroll | Included, EPF, ESI, PT and gratuity calculated | Zoho Payroll Standard, ₹1,250 for 25 employees |
| Billing cycle | Monthly, cancel any time | Annual on Zoho People |
| Seat minimum | None | Five seats on paid plans |
| Monthly total | ₹1,000 | About ₹3,170 |
If your hiring is irregular, the pay per document plan usually lands lower still. An offer letter is 10 credits, an onboarding is 15, a payslip is 2 per employee, and packs fall to about ₹8 a credit. A hiring month for a 20 person team is roughly ₹520 to ₹650. Work it against your own numbers in the HR software cost comparison.
When Zoho People is the right answer
One case, and it is a strong one. If your company already runs Zoho One for mail, CRM and books, Zoho People fits into a stack you have already bought and administered. Bundle pricing changes the arithmetic entirely, employee data sits beside customer data, and your team learns one interface rather than two. No per document argument beats that.
Zoho also wins on ecosystem depth if you expect to grow into performance management, a help desk and a learning system. Those are real modules at Premium and Enterprise, and having them on the same platform later is worth something now.
And the free edition for up to five users is a genuinely useful starting point for a company at the very beginning, covering the employee database, time off and document storage without a card.
Where Offrd is built differently
Offrd is a document platform first. Written appointment letters became compulsory under the Labour Codes that took effect on 21 November 2025, payslips were never optional, and a settlement at exit has to reconcile against what those payslips said. Offrd generates offer letters with confidentiality and compensation annexures, probation confirmations, increments, bond letters, experience letters, relieving letters and a full and final settlement with 19 standard deduction heads and 13 exit specific payouts, all drawing on one salary structure.
The statutory engine runs at document level rather than only inside payroll. A PIN code resolves city, district and state, the professional tax slab follows from the state, EPF runs at 12 percent employer plus 12 percent employee against the ₹15,000 wage ceiling, ESI at 3.25 percent plus 0.75 percent, and the salary structure balances to total CTC on its own. The payroll software page shows the calculation, and the statutory compliance page is candid about where Offrd stops.
Attendance is bundled rather than tiered. QR check in at office entrances, GPS check in for field staff at a 500 metre radius, geofencing, biometric device sync, named shifts with grace periods, break splits, holiday calendars and a roster with CSV import, all inside the subscription through the Atndnz app.
And there is a policy generator, which is rarer than it should be at this price. A questionnaire walks you through POSH, leave, maternity, conduct and intellectual property and produces the document. An Indian employer with 10 or more employees carries POSH obligations, and storing a policy someone else wrote is not the same as having one built to your organisation.
What Offrd does not do is worth stating plainly: no performance reviews, no OKRs, no 360 feedback, no engagement surveys, no expense claims, no help desk, no asset register, no multi level approval chains, no API access. Zoho has several of those at Premium and Enterprise. If they are on your list, that is a point for Zoho.
The decision, stated plainly
- You are not already on Zoho One
- Documents and payslips are the problem, not analytics
- You want attendance and payroll in the price you were quoted
- Annual commitment before testing is a non starter
- You want a POSH or leave policy built rather than filed
- One HR person is doing this alongside another job
- Zoho One is already on your software invoices
- You want employee data beside CRM and books
- Performance, help desk or a learning system is coming next year
- Under five users, where the free edition covers you
- Your team already knows the Zoho interface
- Two subscriptions for People and Payroll is acceptable
If Zoho is one of several names on your list, the twelve vendor study of HR automation software for Indian small businesses puts it beside greytHR, Keka, sumHR, Kredily, factoHR and others with every price read on the same day. If the question is whether you need a full suite at all, start with the HRMS sizing page.
Looking for a Zoho People alternative?
Searches for a Zoho People alternative usually start after someone has climbed the tier ladder. The ₹48 headline covers Essential HR, attendance starts at ₹96, and payroll is a separate product altogether. For a 20 person team that wants all three, the page above works that out at about ₹3,170 a month. Offrd is ₹1,000 a month for the same team, with attendance and payroll inside the one price, or ₹99 a document with no subscription.
The caveat is fair to both sides. Zoho People sits inside a much larger suite, and if your company already runs on Zoho, that pull is real. Offrd is narrower and does the document, payroll and attendance work with nothing to bolt on. The comparison hub lists every Offrd comparison guide, by vendor and by question, if you are still shortlisting.
Questions people ask before switching
- How much does Zoho People cost in India?
- Zoho People paid plans are ₹48 per user per month for Essential HR, 96 for Professional, 144 for Premium and 192 for Enterprise, all billed annually with a five seat minimum. A free edition covers up to five users. Figures read from the Zoho People pricing page on 23 August 2026.
- Is attendance included in Zoho People Essential HR?
- No. Attendance management, timesheets and roster management start at the Professional tier at ₹96 per user per month. Essential HR covers onboarding and offboarding, the employee database, document management, time off, HR reports and the Zia assistant. Attendance doubles the rate.
- Does Zoho People include payroll?
- No. Payroll is not in any Zoho People tier. Zoho Payroll is a separate product, free up to 10 employees and ₹1,250 a month for 25 on the Standard plan. A 20 person company that wants attendance and payroll is looking at ₹1,920 for Zoho People Professional plus 1,250 for Zoho Payroll, so about ₹3,170 a month.
- What is the equivalent cost on Offrd?
- ₹1,000 a month at 20 active employees, with documents, payroll calculation, attendance, geofencing and leave all included and no seat minimum. That is roughly a third of the 3,170 rupee Zoho combination for the same coverage.
- When does Zoho People make more sense than Offrd?
- When you already run Zoho One. If mail, CRM and books are already on Zoho, the bundle pricing changes the whole calculation, the data sits in one place and administration is one login. That is a real advantage and no per document argument overturns it.
- Which handles Indian HR documents better?
- Offrd, by a wide margin, because that is what it was built for. Offer letters with confidentiality and compensation annexures, probation confirmations, increment letters, bond and experience letters, relieving letters and a full and final settlement with 19 deduction heads all draw from one salary structure. Zoho People has document management rather than document generation of that depth.
- Does either one file statutory returns for me?
- Neither files on your behalf in the way an accountant does. Offrd calculates EPF, ESI, professional tax and gratuity and exports payroll in EPF return format for your CA, and it does not file ECR to EPFO or 24Q to TRACES. Zoho Payroll handles more of the payroll workflow but sits outside Zoho People entirely.
- Is there a free way to test each one?
- Zoho People has a free edition for up to five users covering the employee database, time off and document management, plus a 30 day trial on paid tiers. Offrd gives 50 free credits on signup with no card, enough for one offer letter, one onboarding and about a dozen payslips.
- Is Offrd a Zoho People alternative that includes payroll?
- Yes. Offrd includes payroll and attendance at ₹50 per active employee a month, where Zoho People needs the ₹96 tier for attendance and a separate Zoho Payroll subscription for payroll. For a 20 person team that comes to about ₹1,000 a month on Offrd against roughly ₹3,170 across the Zoho products. Offrd does not carry the rest of the Zoho suite, so weigh that if you already use it.
Attendance and payroll in the price you were quoted
₹50 per active employee a month, everything included, billed monthly. Or pay per document from ₹99. Signup gives you 50 free credits with no card, enough to run a real hire end to end.
Disclosure: this page is published by Offrd and recommends Offrd. Zoho People and Zoho Payroll rupee rates were read from the Zoho People pricing page on 23 August 2026 with the yearly billing toggle selected. Monthly billing is higher and was not captured. Rates and tier contents change, and we have not had independent platform access to Zoho People. All figures exclude GST. Verify with Zoho directly before deciding. Statutory rates follow EPFO and ESIC rules and the Labour Codes notified by the Ministry of Labour and Employment. Questions to service@offrd.co.