A startup needs HR and payroll that works on day one and still fits at 500 people. This 2026 guide ranks the ten HR software options Indian startups shortlist, and 247HRM leads. It gives you one complete suite, one employee record, affordable per head and scaling 10 to 5,000+ with no re-implementation.
What an Indian startup gets when Core HR, payroll, attendance and statutory all live in one affordable suite.
Start in days, run payroll right, keep one employee record, turn on modules as you grow, and stay affordable per head. 247HRM does all five from a single platform, in production today.
Guided implementation gets a small team onto Core HR, payroll and self service quickly, with no long project or in-house IT.
Full-cycle payroll with PF, ESI, PT and TDS is built in, so a founder is never running salaries in a spreadsheet.
Core HR, attendance, leave, payroll and performance share one employee record, so data is entered once and reused everywhere.
Performance, recruitment and engagement modules turn on as you scale, so you never outgrow the tool and migrate at the worst time.
Per-employee pricing means a small team pays for a small team, and cost grows with headcount instead of an enterprise contract.
Click through to see how 247HRM handles onboarding and Core HR, attendance and leave, payroll and statutory, and the performance and hiring tools that switch on as a startup grows, all from one record.
A new employee completes their own profile, documents and bank details from self service, and HR approves from a single queue. Every figure then lives on one employee record that Core HR, attendance and payroll all read from, so nothing is entered twice.
Employees mark attendance from web or mobile, apply for leave from self service, and managers approve in a tap. Balances update automatically and carry into payroll, so a growing team never reconciles a leave sheet by hand.
Full-cycle payroll runs from the same attendance and leave data, with PF, ESI, PT and TDS computed automatically. Payslips publish to self service and Form 16 and Form 24Q are produced at year close, so a startup is compliant without a payroll specialist on staff.
When the team grows, goals, reviews, 360-degree feedback, applicant tracking and engagement turn on inside the same account. There is no new tool to buy and no migration, because they read from the employee record already in place.
247HRM is one complete suite, so a startup turns on modules instead of switching tools. The same account that ran payroll for your first eight hires runs it for five thousand, with Core HR, attendance, payroll, performance and hiring all reading one employee record.
When attendance is one app, payroll a second, leave a spreadsheet and reviews a third, the same employee is entered again and again. Tools are outgrown and migrated mid-growth. Here is the difference 247HRM makes.
What startup founders report when HR is several disconnected tools.
A complete suite from day one.
Three connections do the work: people in, attendance in, payroll and growth out.
Onboarding data, attendance and leave feed a single payroll calculation. As part of Complete HRMS, the startup setup shares one employee record, so headcount, pay and performance never drift apart as you hire.
As the team scales, performance, recruitment and engagement modules switch on inside the same account. Employees use one self-service app across web and mobile, and the platform you chose at ten people is still the right one at five hundred.
Drag the sliders to your team. Numbers update live, using benchmarks from Indian payroll teams.
Tell us how your team looks today. Numbers update live.
Want a costed plan for your company?
Verified themes from startup teams running HR and payroll on 247HRM.
We started 247HRM at twelve people and never had to switch. Payroll, leave and onboarding all sit on one record, and a co-founder stopped running salaries in a sheet.
PF, ESI, PT and TDS used to scare us. Now payroll runs in minutes with statutory built in, and we did not need a payroll specialist on the team.
When we hit Series A we just switched on performance and hiring inside the same account. No new tool, no migration, nothing re-keyed.
Ranked on breadth, ease of setup, value and how well each tool scales with a growing startup. Ratings are indicative.
| Rank | Software | Best for | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| ✓ 1 | 247HRM | Best all-in-one for Indian startups: complete suite, scales 10 to 5,000+, affordable, guided setup | 4.9 |
| 2 | Keka | Startups wanting a polished, design-led HR and payroll experience | 4.5 |
| 3 | greytHR | Small teams focused on payroll and core compliance | 4.4 |
| 4 | Zoho People | Teams already inside the Zoho ecosystem | 4.4 |
| 5 | Darwinbox | Fast-scaling, later-stage startups moving toward enterprise | 4.4 |
| 6 | Pocket HRMS | Lean teams wanting a mobile-first, simple HRMS | 4.3 |
| 7 | Kredily | Very early startups starting on a free HR and payroll tier | 4.2 |
| 8 | sumHR | Small teams wanting straightforward attendance and payroll | 4.2 |
| 9 | factoHR | Startups prioritising mobile attendance and payroll | 4.2 |
| 10 | HROne | Growing teams wanting a configurable HRMS | 4.1 |
References used across this startup HR buyer guide:
Quick reference for the terms used across this buyer guide and the 247HRM platform.
A product specialist sets up Core HR, payroll and self service for your headcount and walks your founders through a full cycle, from onboarding to payslip.