What is the best HRMS for SMEs in India in 2026?

Indian HRM is purpose-built for Indian SMEs managing 10 to 500 employees. From ₹49 per employee per month, with no minimum employee count, no setup fees, everything included.

Is Indian HRM affordable enough for a 20-person team?

Yes. No minimum employee count. A team of 20 pays ₹980 per month on the Foundation plan.

How quickly can an SME go live on Indian HRM?

Most SMEs are live in 3 to 5 business days. Free implementation support included.

Can we switch from greytHR, Keka, or Zoho People?

Yes. Data migration is free. Most migrations complete in under a week with zero payroll disruption.

Does it scale as our SME grows from 50 to 500 employees?

Yes. Cloud-native architecture scales without re-platforming, migrations, or additional fees.

What Indian labour laws does it support out of the box?

PF, ESI, TDS (old and new regimes), Professional Tax (state-wise), Gratuity, Bonus Act, Shops & Establishments, Maternity Benefit Act, Minimum Wages, Labour Welfare Fund.

Best HRMS for SMEs in India in 2026, From ₹49 per Employee per Month

Indian HRM is the HRMS Indian SMEs pick when Excel and Tally have stopped scaling and an enterprise quote feels like overkill. Payroll, attendance, leave, hiring, compliance, and a mobile app in one product. Three months free, no credit card, no setup fee.

We run HR for 150+ companies and 12,000+ employees. Sweet spot: 30 to 300 employees with a 1 to 3 person HR team. Most came over from spreadsheets, Tally, greytHR, Keka, or Zoho People. Migration takes 3 to 5 business days, on us.

The Stage Where Excel Quietly Breaks

Around 30 employees, the cracks show. Two HR people lose four days a month to payroll prep. PF challans go in late once a quarter. The leave tracker has merged cells nobody dares touch. A Pune branch means a separate PT slab, and your salary template now has four versions. This is who Indian HRM is for. Not a founder running solo, not a 5,000-person enterprise.

Compliance As You Cross the Statutory Thresholds

PF becomes mandatory at 20 employees. ESI applies from 10 in most states once an employee earns under the wage ceiling. Cross those numbers and the regulatory load jumps overnight. Indian HRM ships with PF (12% + 12%), ESI (3.25% + 0.75%), TDS for old and new regimes, state-wise PT, gratuity, and bonus already wired in.

What HR teams stop doing manually

One-click ECR for EPFO, ESI challans, monthly TDS workings, Form 16, Form 24Q, and bank NEFT or RTGS files for HDFC, ICICI, SBI, Axis, and Kotak. If your auditor asks for proof, it's already in the right format.

Multi-Branch, Multi-State, Multi-Shift Without the Sprawl

Open a Bangalore office and suddenly you need a Karnataka PT slab, a separate holiday calendar, and a different shift pattern for support. Indian HRM handles this in configuration. Each branch gets its own work hours, leave policy, holiday list, and approval chain. Shifts cover fixed, rotational, split, night allowance, and overtime rules per state's labour code.

Hiring Acceleration Without a Recruiter Bottleneck

SMEs in growth mode often double headcount in 12 months. The ATS gives you a Kanban pipeline, AI resume screening with a 0 to 100 fit score and written reasons, interview scheduling, and e-signed offer letters. Post once and the role goes live on Naukri, LinkedIn, Indeed, and your careers page together. When a candidate accepts, onboarding fires off: document checklist, IT setup, day-one schedule.

A Mobile App for Field, Factory, and Branch Staff

Native Android and iOS apps, not a wrapped website. GPS check-in with selfie verification stops buddy-punching at branches you don't visit weekly. Biometric login keeps it quick. Offline mode queues punches when 4G drops on a delivery route or factory floor and syncs when the network is back. Leave, payslips, and expense claims live in the same app, so HR stops being the inbox for "can you resend my March payslip".

Audit-Ready and Investor-Ready

Audits, Series B diligence, and MSME loan applications ask for things spreadsheets can't produce: a salary register tied to payouts, an attendance audit log, a permission matrix, and proof that statutory deductions match filings. Indian HRM has 132+ granular permissions, a full audit trail, and an immutable payslip archive. Data sits in India-region centres. SSO, REST API, Slack, and WhatsApp are included.

Switching From Excel, Tally, Keka, greytHR, or Zoho People

Send your employee sheet and last payroll run. We map the fields, import the data, replicate your salary structure, and run a parallel payroll cycle so you can match every paisa before going live. Most SME teams are live in under a week. Foundation is ₹49 per employee per month. Growth is ₹99 with AI features and priority support. Migration is free on every plan.