Keka is genuinely a well-built software. The UI is clean, the payroll is reliable, and its performance management tools are among the better options in the Indian market. If you have 100 employees and the budget for it, Keka can make a lot of sense.
But if you have a team of 20 and you’re looking at a ₹6,999/month invoice before add-ons or implementation fees, the numbers start to look different. That works out to around ₹350 per employee per month just for payroll and leave management. For a small business in India, that can be difficult to justify when several other tools cover the same core requirements for much less, and some even offer them for free.
This guide is specifically for small businesses with fewer than 50 employees looking for a Keka alternative that can handle payroll, attendance, and compliance without the enterprise-level price tag.
We’ve shortlisted six options and looked at the practical differences between them, including what each one does well, where it falls short, and who it makes the most sense for.
| Why small businesses find Keka difficult: Starting price ₹6,999/month covers up to 100 employees you pay for capacity you don’t use. Performance management, recruitment, and advanced analytics are add-ons on top of that. Implementation costs ₹25,000–₹75,000 one-time, and billing starts from day one before setup is complete. No free plan, no way to test before committing. |
1. greytHR Best for Compliance-First Small Teams
Price: Free for up to 25 employees. Paid plans from ₹3,495/month (50 employees). Best for: 5–200 employees where payroll accuracy and statutory compliance are the priority.
greytHR has been processing Indian payroll longer than most alternatives on this list have existed. Thirty thousand companies use it. The statutory compliance engine PF, ESI, TDS, PT across multiple states is deep and well-tested. The free plan for up to 25 employees is genuinely functional, not a stripped trial with artificial limits.
The interface isn’t as polished as Keka’s, and the mobile app lags behind. Performance management is basic. But for a 20-person company that needs payroll to run correctly every month without paying ₹7,000 for the privilege, greytHR is the default recommendation and has been for years.
Pick it over Keka if: you’re under 25 employees and compliance accuracy is the main need. Stick with Keka if: you need strong performance management and OKRs alongside payroll.
✓ What works
| ✗ Where it falls short
|
2. Waggex Best for Small Teams Who Need Attendance and Payroll Connected
Price: Free for up to 10 employees. ₹699/month (10 emp) → ₹1,499 (25 emp) → ₹2,499 (50 emp). Best for: 5–100 employees, field teams, companies doing payroll for the first time.
The specific problem Waggex solves for small teams is the gap between attendance and payroll. In many small companies, attendance is tracked in one place—WhatsApp, paper registers, spreadsheets, or a separate app—while payroll is calculated somewhere else. Someone then has to reconcile the two manually before salary day. That process takes time and leaves room for errors.
Waggex connects the two. Employees can check in using GPS or FaceLens face recognition, and the attendance data stays in the same system as payroll. At the end of the month, LOP and OT are calculated directly from verified attendance. There’s no need to export data, copy it into another system, or manually figure out who was present, absent, late, or eligible for overtime.
For a 20-person company paying ₹6,999/month for Keka, switching to Waggex could save roughly ₹5,500–₹6,300 per month, or around ₹66,000–₹75,000 a year. For a small business, that’s not an insignificant amount—it could stay in the business or go towards another useful expense, including an additional hire.
Two things are worth knowing about Waggex. The free plan for up to 10 employees includes all the core features: GPS attendance, FaceLens, shifts, leave management, full payroll, PF/ESI/TDS/PT automation, and compliance reminders. It’s not a stripped-down trial where the useful features are locked behind a paid plan. For companies setting up payroll software for the first time, a dedicated account manager also helps with the first month’s setup and payroll run while the team gets familiar with the system.
Pick Waggex over Keka if: you have fewer than 50 employees, need attendance connected directly to payroll, and can’t justify ₹6,999/month for your current requirements.
Stick with Keka if: performance management, OKRs, and structured appraisal cycles are important operational requirements for your company.
✓ What works
| ✗ Where it falls short
|
3. Zoho People + Zoho Payroll Best If You’re in the Zoho Ecosystem
Price: ₹48/user/month for Zoho People (Essential). Zoho Payroll free for up to 10 employees. Best for: 10–200 employees using Zoho CRM, Zoho Books, or other Zoho products.
The honest truth about Zoho People for small businesses: the per-user pricing looks attractive at ₹48/month, but Zoho People alone doesn’t include payroll. You need Zoho Payroll separately. Once you add that, and possibly Zoho Recruit if you’re hiring, the total cost climbs. At 30 employees on a mid-tier plan, all-in cost can hit ₹4,000–₹6,000/month still less than Keka, but not as cheap as it appears on the pricing page.
Where Zoho genuinely wins: if your company already runs on Zoho CRM and Zoho Books, adding People means employee data, expense reports, and payroll talk to each other natively. That integration value is real and hard to replicate with other tools.
Pick it over Keka if: you’re in the Zoho ecosystem and per-user pricing works out cheaper for your headcount. Stick with Keka if: you’re not in the Zoho world the integration advantage disappears and you’re paying for modular pieces that Keka bundles natively.
✓ What works
| ✗ Where it falls short
|
4. RazorpayX Payroll Best If You Just Need Payroll, Nothing Else
Price: Free bundled with a RazorpayX business account (conditions apply). Paid plan available. Best for: 5–100 employees where payroll disbursement and basic compliance is all you need.
RazorpayX Payroll is not a full HRMS it’s a payroll and disbursement tool. There’s no real performance management, no GPS attendance, no leave approval workflows. What it does: salary calculation, PF/ESI/TDS compliance, payslip generation, and direct bank transfer. If you’re already banking with RazorpayX, it’s bundled in and the cost is effectively zero.
The right use case: a 15-person startup that processes payroll manually every month and wants to automate that one thing without buying an HRMS they don’t need yet. Wrong use case: a company that also needs attendance tracking, leave management, and shift configuration you’d need a separate tool for those, and at that point a proper HRMS makes more sense.
Pick it over Keka if: you just need payroll automated and already use RazorpayX for business banking. Stick with Keka if: you need HR features alongside payroll.
✓ What works
| ✗ Where it falls short
|
5. Pocket HRMS Best If HR Query Volume Is the Problem
Price: ₹2,999/month for 50 employees (Standard). ₹4,495/month (Professional). Best for: 50–300 employees where repetitive HR queries eat into HR team time.
Pocket HRMS has an AI chatbot called smHRty that handles routine employee questions leave balance, payslip download, attendance queries automatically. For a company where HR spends two hours a day answering questions that could be self-served, this feature is genuinely worth paying for. The chatbot is on the Professional plan, not Standard, so factor that into the pricing.
As a Keka alternative for small businesses specifically, Pocket HRMS starts making sense around 50 employees below that, the ₹2,999/month base price per 50 employees is comparable to Keka’s flat fee, and the AI features aren’t on the cheaper tier. For under 30 people, greytHR or Waggex are more cost-effective.
Pick it over Keka if: you’re 50–100 employees and self-service reducing HR queries is a real priority. Stick with Keka if: performance management depth matters more than chatbot-based query handling.
✓ What works
| ✗ Where it falls short
|
6. Kredily Best for Very Small Teams on Zero Budget
Price: Free plan available. Paid from ₹1,499/month. Best for: 5–50 employees, very early stage, cost is the only criterion.
Kredily is built for micro-businesses and very early-stage companies where any cost above zero is hard to justify. The free plan covers basic payroll, leave management, and attendance enough for a founder running a 10-person team who needs payroll to happen correctly without paying for it.
It doesn’t have the depth of greytHR’s compliance engine, the attendance integration of Waggex, or the polish of Keka. But for a company where the choice is ‘use this or do it in Excel,’ Kredily is a real option. As headcount grows past 30–40, you’ll likely outgrow it and need to switch.
Pick it over Keka if: you’re under 20 employees, budget is zero, and basic payroll is all you need. Stick with Keka if: you’ve outgrown basic tools and need something that scales.
✓ What works
| ✗ Where it falls short
|
All Six at a Glance
| Tool | Price (small team) | Free Plan? | Payroll Native? | Best For | Pick Over Keka If… |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| greytHR | ₹0 (up to 25 emp) | Yes genuinely full | Yes | 5–200 emp | Compliance is priority, budget is tight |
| Waggex | ₹0–₹699/mo | Yes all features | Yes | 5–100 emp | Attendance + payroll in one place, first-time user |
| Zoho People | ₹48/user/mo | Zoho Payroll free (10 emp) | Add-on only | 10–200 emp | Already using Zoho products |
| RazorpayX Payroll | Free w/ RazorpayX account | Yes (with conditions) | Yes | 5–100 emp | Just payroll, no HR complexity needed |
| Pocket HRMS | ₹2,999/mo (50 emp) | No | Yes | 50–300 emp | AI chatbot to cut HR inbox volume |
| Kredily | ₹0–₹1,499/mo | Yes core features | Yes | 5–50 emp | Zero cost, basic payroll, very small team |
Pricing from public sources, July 2026. Confirm with vendors before purchase pricing changes.
The Decision, Simply
Under 10 employees, first time using payroll software: Waggex free plan or greytHR free plan. Both are full-featured. Waggex if you have field staff or need GPS attendance. greytHR if compliance depth is the first priority.
10–25 employees, compliance is priority, no performance management needed: greytHR free plan. Unbeatable value at this size.
10–50 employees, attendance and payroll need to be connected: Waggex. The attendance-to-payroll connection is the specific thing small companies lose the most time on manually.
Already using Zoho CRM or Books: Zoho People + Zoho Payroll. Don’t switch platforms unnecessarily.
Just need payroll, already on RazorpayX: RazorpayX Payroll. Take the free option.
Under 50 employees but growing fast, want to stay on one platform: greytHR paid or Waggex. Both scale reasonably. Keka is worth revisiting at 80–100 employees when the flat-fee pricing becomes more competitive per person.