HR software for a company of two, five or fifty.

The best fit is the one whose attendance and leave feed payroll directly, works out PF and ESI on Code wages and PT and TDS on each payslip, and bills only the people you have. Check four things before you choose: the monthly bill at your headcount (not the rate on a 50-person example), whether PF follows the EPF wage ceiling of ₹25,000 from 17 Sep 2026, whether an office manager can run attendance without seeing salaries, and whether an exit's F&F is worked out and tracked against the 2 working days the Code on Wages allows. LekhaHR is built for all four, from two people upward.

No. At 5 employees neither is compulsory. ESI becomes compulsory at 10 employees in areas where the scheme is implemented, for employees on Code wages up to ₹21,000 a month. EPF becomes compulsory at 20 employees; below that you can join voluntarily. What can apply from the first employee is professional tax and Shops and Establishments registration, depending on your state, plus a wage slip every pay period.

When a leave balance needs explaining, a correction must keep the original, or approvals live in chat. A sheet still works while a few people share one office, salaries are fixed and one person keeps it.

The one with the lowest monthly bill at your headcount, which is not always the lowest per-employee rate. A plan with a flat monthly fee or a minimum headcount charges a five-person team for seats it has not filled, and a free tier may leave out attendance or payroll. Compare bills on the same billing cadence, with GST as each vendor publishes it. LekhaHR has no minimum: five people cost ₹495 a month on Operations, billed monthly, before GST.

On Operations, billed monthly, 2 people cost ₹198 a month, 5 cost ₹495, 10 cost ₹990 and 20 cost ₹1,980; 50 people cost ₹4,450. There is no base fee and no minimum headcount, and GST at 18% is added and shown separately.

Operations, unless you run performance reviews, expense claims or timesheets. Operations covers employee records, attendance, leave, payroll, onboarding and exits, approvals and reports. Business adds performance, expenses, timesheets, multi-step approval chains and the API, at ₹139 instead of ₹99 a person for the first 25, billed monthly.

Yes, several free editions exist, and each one leaves something out. As reviewed on 19 Oct 2026: Zoho People is free for up to 5 users, without attendance; Zoho Payroll is free for up to 10 employees, payroll only; Kredily's free plan allows one leave and attendance rule and one salary structure; and factoHR is free for up to 20 employees for records, letters and payslips. For two or three people on fixed salaries, with an accountant running payroll, a free edition or a monthly attendance sheet and leave tracker is often enough. It stops being enough when balances need explaining, corrections must keep the original, approvals happen in chat, or attendance is re-typed into the salary sheet.

There is no free plan, but every team starts with a 30-day free trial, with no card needed. After it, each team is billed per active employee a month, with GST shown separately.

The founder or an office manager keeps records, policies and approvals, and the founder approves payroll. LekhaHR works out PF, ESI, PT and TDS line by line, makes payslips, the salary register and the bank file, and gives the salary figures for Form 130 (earlier Form 16), which you download from TRACES. The accountant, or you, files returns and pays the dues; LekhaHR does not file or deposit.

From the first employee: Shops and Establishments registration and professional tax where your state requires them, a wage slip every pay period, and final wages within 2 working days of an exit under the Code on Wages (in force 21 Nov 2025). At 10: ESI where implemented, gratuity, maternity benefit, a PoSH Internal Committee and appointment letters. At 20: EPF and statutory bonus. At 50: a crèche.

Yes, at a small size. A founder or an operations lead can run records, attendance, leave and payroll in LekhaHR, and hand parts of it to others with a role that reaches only those modules: attendance and leave to the office manager, payroll reports to the accountant. Once someone has to own HR policy full time, they inherit one record per person with every change and its reason.

No. Leave never approves itself; it waits for a person. Reminders go by email and in-app. If a manager is away, you can delegate their approvals or reroute a request, and the change is recorded.

Yes. In solo mode you lock the month yourself, after you sign in again to confirm it. Reopening a locked month creates a numbered revision, so the first version is kept.

LekhaHR freezes their attendance and leave as of the last working day and builds one F&F statement: salary to that date, leave encashment, notice pay or recovery, gratuity where due, and TDS. It tracks the 2-working-day deadline. Relieving and experience letters are never held back for clearance.

When you need biometric or face-recognition devices wired into attendance, when staff work offline for days before they reconnect, or when you want a provider to file returns and deposit PF and ESI for you. In those cases a tool built around devices, offline use or managed payroll will suit you better.