Choosing the right HR software for India can feel like navigating a maze. From managing employee records and tracking leave to ensuring compliance with Indian labor laws, the right software can save your HR team hours of manual work. But with so many tools available, how do you decide which one truly meets your business needs?
Whether you’re a mid-sized firm expanding across states or a large enterprise dealing with complex payroll structures, your HR tech stack must scale with your organization. Especially in India, where compliance rules change frequently and labor laws vary by state, your HRMS needs to be more than just user-friendly.
Below are nine tools that every Indian business should know, starting with one of the most powerful emerging platforms in the market today.
9 Tools Every Indian Business Should Know About
These are 9 HR software tools that you should know about:
Craze
Craze is the best HR software in India that is redefining how businesses approach HR. Designed from the ground up for the Indian ecosystem, Craze is a cloud-based HRMS that handles everything from payroll processing and compliance to employee onboarding and performance tracking.
What sets Craze apart is its India-first approach. Whether you’re running payroll for employees in Maharashtra or managing labor law changes in Karnataka, Craze adapts automatically. It supports localized statutory components like EPF, ESI, and professional tax, ensuring you stay compliant without needing a separate legal team.
The platform’s interface is incredibly easy to use. Even non-HR professionals can manage basic tasks like attendance tracking and leave approvals.
In regulated areas like IT-based startups, SMEs, scaleups, and enterprises, Craze’s built-in compliance monitoring tools ensure you never miss a deadline or violate a statutory requirement. Craze provides effective modules like core hr, payroll, leave & attendance management, performance management, employee engagement, and IT asset management.
Craze is designed to seamlessly support businesses with anywhere between 20 to 500+ employees. Whether you’re a startup, scale-up, or a growing business, Craze provides a reliable, easy-to-use, and compliance-ready HR software solution, making it the ideal choice for Indian companies of all sizes.
Keka
Keka is another popular option for businesses in India. Known for its clean UI and employee-friendly design, it combines HR, payroll, and performance management into a single tool.
Keka’s strength lies in its modularity. It offers various tiers of pricing plans that hold modules combined into each plan. It also has native integrations for biometric devices, making it useful for industries where employee attendance needs close monitoring.
The payroll engine is particularly strong in handling salary revisions, bonuses, and taxation. Its payslip module provides deep customization, which is important for businesses with unique compensation structures. Keka also includes an employee self-service portal, reducing the burden on your HR team.
For US-based firms managing Indian subsidiaries or outsourcing teams, Keka offers easy localization with English and Indian language support.
Darwinbox
Darwinbox is an enterprise-grade HR software for India that offers deep functionality across all HR processes. It’s built for large and distributed workforces, particularly useful for companies operating in multiple Indian cities or managing shift-based workforces.
Darwinbox supports every core HR function, from hiring and onboarding to exit and alumni management. But what sets it apart is its performance and analytics capabilities. You get AI-based dashboards that give HR and business leaders insights into attrition trends, performance gaps, and workforce planning.
Darwinbox enables data-driven HR practices with ready-to-use analytics models to boost productivity levels.
With native support for mobile apps and WhatsApp-based communication, Darwinbox is well-suited for companies with field-based or mobile-first teams.
Zoho People
Zoho People is part of the larger Zoho ecosystem, making it ideal for small to mid-sized businesses that already use Zoho for CRM or finance. It’s cloud-based and mobile-friendly, making it a great choice for remote teams and startups.
Zoho People offers time tracking, leave management, attendance, and basic payroll integration. Its strength is its affordability and ease of use. You can set it up quickly, and your team doesn’t need intensive training to start using it.
Zoho is capitalizing on the trend of a growing HR software market with continuous updates and automation features like workflow approvals and document digitization.
While it may not be the best fit for complex enterprise needs, Zoho People works well for startups and SMEs looking for a cost-effective, reliable HR solution.
greytHR
One of the oldest players in the Indian HR tech space, greytHR has built a reputation for reliability and compliance readiness. Its core modules include payroll processing, statutory reporting, leave and attendance, and employee data management.
greytHR is particularly popular among companies with under 500 employees, but it can also be scaled for mid-sized enterprises. It has built-in compliance libraries that cover several labor laws, including PF, ESI, PT, and Income Tax. It also auto-generates Form 16, challans, and other tax documents, which is a huge time-saver during year-end filings.
What makes greytHR appealing is its focus on reducing HR errors. Whether you’re doing monthly payroll or managing onboarding paperwork, it offers predefined templates and validation checks that lower the risk of human mistakes.
ZingHR
ZingHR positions itself as a full-suite enterprise HRMS with strong capabilities in compliance, audits, and workforce governance. It is particularly suited for industries where regulatory oversight is tight, such as BFSI, healthcare, and public sector units.
ZingHR supports multilingual environments and helps companies comply with regional labor laws through localized workflows. The system also offers document storage with audit logs and approval trails, making it easy to retrieve compliance records when needed.
It also includes a module for managing union labor and contract workers, something not commonly found in other platforms. For enterprises with complex HR scenarios, ZingHR offers both SaaS and private cloud deployment options.
SumHR
SumHR is the next name in the list of HR software. It combines modern UI with essential HR features. If you’re a VC-funded tech company or a fast-scaling SaaS business in India, SumHR gives you exactly what you need without overcomplicating things.
It includes employee onboarding, leave tracking, salary structuring, and document management. One standout feature is its real-time payslip engine, which lets employees see how changes in CTC or taxes affect take-home pay before payroll is run.
While it’s not ideal for highly regulated industries, it’s a good fit for new-age companies with flexible work cultures.
BambooHR
While not built specifically for India, BambooHR is still a powerful option for companies that operate globally but need some customization for Indian teams. It offers solid features for employee data, benefits administration, and performance reviews.
Its strength is usability. The interface is intuitive, and the mobile app works well across devices. For Indian teams, BambooHR can be customized with third-party integrations that handle Indian payroll and compliance.
If you’re a US-headquartered company with teams in India, BambooHR offers a unified view of your global workforce while still giving your Indian HR team the tools they need to operate locally.
HRMantra
HRMantra is designed for enterprises that need deep payroll customization and labor compliance. The platform is rich in features like recruitment tracking, training schedules, and employee lifecycle workflows.
What makes HRMantra unique is how granular its payroll engine can get. It supports hundreds of pay heads, arrear calculations, LOP scenarios, and even retroactive adjustments. This level of detail is useful for manufacturing, logistics, and large IT services firms where salary structures are highly variable.
It also has built-in support for compliance dashboards, letting CHROs and CFOs monitor compliance risks in real time. HRMantra is ideal for those who don’t mind a bit of a learning curve in exchange for powerful backend processing.
How to Choose the Right HR Software for India
The best HR software for India isn’t necessarily the one with the most features. It’s the one that aligns with your team’s daily needs and long-term goals. If you’re a mid-sized company, flexibility and affordability matter. If you’re a large enterprise, you need robust compliance support, scalable modules, advanced analytics, and seamless integration
with business conferencing software.
Also, consider your deployment preferences. Cloud-based HR tools like Craze, Keka, and Darwinbox are easier to update and access remotely. On the other hand, companies in sensitive sectors may opt for private cloud or hybrid deployments.
Finally, look at integration capabilities. Your HRMS should work well with accounting software, biometric systems, and communication tools already in place. A disconnected system will slow you down.
Final Thoughts
India’s workforce is evolving at a rapid pace. Hybrid work models, the expansion of gig employment, and continuous changes in labor laws are reshaping the HR landscape, making agility, security, and compliance more critical than ever.
As labor codes evolve and remote working norms become mainstream, modern HR platforms must adapt to support new ways of working while safeguarding organizational and legal responsibilities
The nine HR tools summarized here each bring unique strengths; some excel in meeting the needs of small to mid‑size firms, others offer enterprise-grade scalability and industry-specific compliance.
Whether your focus is on streamlined payroll, statutory filings, workforce flexibility, or robust reporting, there’s a solution tailored to your company’s size, sector, and strategic goals.