greytHR Alternative 2026: Why Indian Companies Switch

If you're searching "greytHR alternative" in 2026, you're probably not unhappy. greytHR runs payroll for a serious chunk of Indian SMEs, and most people moving away still speak well of it. The reasons for shopping around are usually narrow: AI features feel thin, the mobile app does the basics but admin still lives on a laptop, modules stack up as add-ons, and the release cadence is slower than newer SaaS HRMSs. None are dealbreakers alone. Together they're enough to make a buying committee look around.

This guide covers when greytHR is still the right answer, when it isn't, the credible alternatives, and what a switch looks like over two weeks. The full side-by-side feature grid lives on Indian HRM vs greytHR.

When greytHR is still the right call

Credit where it's due. greytHR has been doing Indian payroll since around 2009, and its compliance engine has been refined for over fifteen years. PF, ESI, TDS, multi-state Professional Tax, gratuity, bonus, and Form 16 outputs are recognised on sight by most Indian CAs and auditors. That kind of muscle memory in your finance partner's office is a real moat.

Stay on greytHR if your CA already pulls reports out of it without back-and-forth, your payroll is statutorily complex (multi-state PT, retroactive arrears, mid-year LWF changes), and your team values stability over a UI refresh.

When it's worth looking around

The buyer profile that tends to outgrow greytHR isn't the enterprise. It's the SME or smaller mid-market team where the footprint starts to feel mismatched. A few patterns repeat.

  • Mobile-heavy headcount: 40 to 60 percent of your team works in retail outlets, factory floors, or client sites.
  • Hiring is a monthly activity, not a quarterly one. greytHR's ATS is lighter than dedicated tools and AI inside the product is limited as of 2026.
  • Your bill keeps growing as you turn on modules. Add-on SKUs make the per-employee math hard to predict.
  • You want a faster release cadence and the feel of a 2020s SaaS UI.

Indian HRMS alternatives worth shortlisting

Four products show up most often when companies move off greytHR. Rough pricing where we know it as of 2026, hedged where we don't.

Indian HRM. Foundation at ₹49 per employee per month, Growth at ₹99, with payroll, attendance, leave, hiring, and statutory compliance all inside the plan. Native iOS and Android app with GPS punch, selfie verification, biometric login, and offline queueing. AI resume screening returns a 0 to 100 score with reasons. Best fit: 20 to 500 employee SMEs that want one all-in price.

Keka. Around since 2015, strongest performance management module in this group, polished UI. Pricing typically starts around ₹6,499 per month for 100 employees on the entry plan, roughly ₹65 per seat at cap. Best fit: 100 to 1,000 employee firms where annual reviews are the centre of gravity.

Zoho People. The HR product in the broader Zoho stack. Standard tier lands around ₹83 per employee per month as of 2026. India statutory depth is lighter than Keka or Indian HRM. Best fit: companies already on Zoho.

Darwinbox. Enterprise pick. Custom pricing, multi-month rollouts, deep analytics. Rarely the right call below 500 employees. Best fit: 1,000+ headcount with a CHRO and CIO on the buying committee.

Why companies switch from greytHR to Indian HRM

The reasons aren't dramatic. People list four things, in roughly this order.

  • One bundled price. Foundation at ₹49 and Growth at ₹99 include payroll, attendance, leave, hiring, ESS, and statutory compliance. No module SKUs, no surprise line items at renewal.
  • A mobile app that does real work. Selfie verification at punch (capture, not face-match), GPS plus geofence, biometric login, offline queueing, payslip download, and field-visit logging.
  • AI on routine HR work. Resume screening ranks candidates against a JD with a readable explanation. Leave requests can auto-approve based on team coverage rules.
  • A faster product team. Shorter release cadence on routine improvements, and a UI that reflects a product built in this decade.

For the narrower side-by-side, head to Indian HRM vs greytHR.

The 2-week migration plan from greytHR

greytHR exports are usually clean, which makes this faster than migrations from Excel. Free migration is included and typically wraps in 3 to 5 business days of focused work.

  • Day 1 to 2: Pull greytHR exports. Employee master (PAN, UAN, bank, family, address), salary structures, leave balances by type, attendance and shift definitions, opening PF and PT figures for the financial year, holiday calendars, and the last three months of payslips for reference.
  • Day 3 to 5: Map exports into Indian HRM. We import employee master, rebuild salary templates, load leave openings, and recreate approval workflows. HR validates a 10-employee sample against the source.
  • Day 6 to 8: Parallel-run last month's payroll in Indian HRM with greytHR's output as reference. Reconcile gross, deductions, net, and statutory totals to the rupee. Fix anything that drifts.
  • Day 9 to 11: Configure roles, switch on AI resume screening if hiring is active, set up the mobile app rollout, and brief HR.
  • Day 12 to 14: Soft launch the employee app, one department first then the rest. First live payroll runs on Indian HRM at month-end, with greytHR kept read-only as reference.

Common switching concerns, answered honestly

Form 16 continuity. If you switch mid-year, Form 16 for the part on greytHR comes from greytHR and the part on Indian HRM comes from us. Most companies pick April or October as the cutover.

Prior PF transfer. PF transfer happens between EPFO accounts using UAN, not between HR vendors. As long as UANs are seeded correctly, monthly ECR uploads continue from your establishment code.

Mid-cycle switching. Possible but more work. You'll want a longer parallel-run window and finance sign-off on the bridge month. We usually recommend cutting over at the start of a payroll cycle.

CA workflow continuity. Your CA still gets the same statutory outputs: PF ECR, ESI challans, TDS returns, PT challans by state, Form 16, Form 12BA.

Try before you switch

Indian HRM is ₹49 per employee per month on Foundation and ₹99 on Growth, with everything bundled. The 3-month free trial doesn't ask for a credit card. Free migration runs in 3 to 5 business days. The honest test is to import real data, parallel-run one month against your greytHR output, and compare the rupee totals before deciding.

For the comparison grid, head to Indian HRM vs greytHR. To scope your switch, contact us and we'll plan the migration the same week.