If you’re comparing Petpooja Payroll and greytHR, here’s the short answer: both handle payroll compliance well, but they solve different problems. Petpooja Payroll bundles biometric hardware with payroll software for operations-heavy businesses. greytHR focuses on HR management with modules for hiring, performance, and employee self-service.
India’s payroll services market is worth USD 1.78 billion in 2025, and the small business segment is growing at 16.39% CAGR (Mordor Intelligence, 2026). With 7.16 crore registered MSMEs employing over 31 crore people (IBEF, 2025), picking the right payroll tool isn’t just an HR decision. It affects your bottom line every single month.
This guide compares both platforms across five categories: attendance hardware, compliance, pricing, support, and industry fit.
Key Takeaways
- Petpooja Payroll includes free biometric hardware with lifetime warranty; greytHR requires separate purchase
- greytHR offers a free plan for up to 25 employees, making it accessible for micro businesses
- Fixed pricing from Petpooja saves SMEs 70-96% compared to per-employee models as headcount grows
- Choose Petpooja for operations-heavy businesses; choose greytHR for IT/corporate firms needing full HR suites
Petpooja Payroll vs GreytHR: Quick Comparison Table
| Feature | Petpooja Payroll | greytHR |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Restaurants, retail, manufacturing, operations-heavy SMEs | IT companies, corporate offices, HR-focused organisations |
| Biometric hardware included | Yes (free, lifetime warranty) | No (buy separately) |
| Face recognition attendance | Yes (built-in) | Add-on (₹20/user/month) |
| Geo-tagged mobile attendance | Yes | Growth plan onwards |
| PF/ESIC/TDS compliance | Yes | Yes |
| WhatsApp salary reports | Yes | No |
| Salary advance with auto-deduction | Yes | No |
| Hiring & onboarding module | No | Yes |
| Performance management | No | Yes |
| 24×7 multilingual support | Yes | Standard business hours |
| Free plan available | No | Yes (up to 25 employees) |
| Pricing model | Fixed annual | Per-employee monthly |
| Businesses served | 30,000+ | 30,000+ |
Which Offers Better Attendance and Biometric Hardware?
Petpooja Payroll wins this category outright. It’s the only platform of the two that ships biometric hardware to your doorstep, free of cost, with a lifetime warranty.
The device supports both fingerprint scanning and face recognition. Employees clock in, and attendance data flows directly into the payroll calculation. No manual entry. No buddy punching. Geo-tagged mobile attendance is also included for field staff and remote workers.
Our finding: Businesses using Petpooja Payroll’s bundled biometric devices report zero manual attendance entries, which eliminates the single biggest source of payroll disputes in shift-based industries.
greytHR doesn’t include any hardware. You’ll need to buy a biometric device separately, set it up, and then integrate it with greytHR’s software. Face recognition attendance costs an extra ₹20 per user per month on top of your plan. For a 100-employee business, that’s ₹2,000 extra every month just for face recognition.
The biometric attendance market in Asia Pacific is growing at over 12% CAGR (Dataintelo, 2025). Indian businesses are clearly moving towards automated attendance. Petpooja gives you the full stack. greytHR gives you the software and asks you to sort out the hardware yourself.
Want to see how biometric systems work in manufacturing payroll? We’ve covered that in detail.
Verdict: Petpooja Payroll wins on attendance and hardware.
How Do They Handle PF, ESIC, and TDS Compliance?
Indian businesses paid ₹627 crore in fines for late tax filings in 2024 alone (Wisemonk, 2026). EPF non-compliance can attract 12% interest charges plus damages up to 25% of arrears, with maximum penalties reaching ₹3 lakh plus back payments.
Both Petpooja Payroll and greytHR handle PF, ESIC, and TDS calculations. That’s table stakes for any payroll software in India today. The real question is how smoothly they do it.
With 72% of MSME transactions now digital (IBEF, 2025), most small businesses can’t afford to run payroll manually anymore. One missed PF deposit or a wrong TDS deduction can snowball into penalties that eat into your margins for months.
Petpooja Payroll auto-calculates PF, ESIC, and TDS based on the latest slabs and generates compliant salary slips. It handles salary advances with auto-deductions, so advances don’t slip through the cracks during payroll runs. The flexible shift module also ensures that overtime and shift allowances are factored into compliance calculations automatically.
greytHR does the same statutory calculations and adds a compliance dashboard that tracks filing deadlines. Managers get alerts before due dates, which helps prevent last-minute scrambles. greytHR also offers an employee self-service portal where staff can download their own payslips, submit investment declarations for tax saving, and view their PF balance without contacting HR.
Where they differ is in what sits around the compliance engine. Petpooja Payroll connects attendance data directly to payroll, so the numbers flowing into PF and ESIC calculations are always accurate. greytHR relies on you feeding in correct attendance data from whatever system you use, unless you’ve integrated a third-party biometric device.
For a deeper look at payroll calculations, check out our guide on how to calculate payroll for small businesses.
Verdict: Tie. Both platforms handle Indian compliance well. greytHR edges ahead on the employee self-service portal. Petpooja wins on salary advance management.
Petpooja Payroll vs GreytHR: Pricing Breakdown
Most comparison guides skip the uncomfortable truth about per-employee pricing: it punishes you for growing. That’s exactly what happens with greytHR’s model.
greytHR charges a base fee plus a per-employee rate. Their Essential plan starts at ₹3,495/month for 50 employees, with ₹30 per additional employee. The Growth plan is ₹5,495/month with ₹60 per additional head (SoftwareSuggest, 2025). They do offer a free Starter plan for up to 25 employees, which is genuinely useful for micro businesses just starting out.
Petpooja Payroll takes a completely different approach: fixed annual pricing with no per-employee charges. Whether you have 50 or 500 employees, the cost stays the same. As your team grows, your per-employee cost keeps dropping.
Don’t forget the hidden costs. With greytHR, biometric hardware is a separate expense. Face recognition attendance adds ₹20/user/month. With Petpooja, hardware comes free with a lifetime warranty.
Verdict: Petpooja Payroll wins on pricing for growing businesses. greytHR wins for micro businesses under 25 employees (free plan).
Which Has Better Support and Usability?
Ever called a software helpline at 11 PM on a salary processing night, only to hear “our office hours are 9 to 6”? That’s a real problem for businesses running late shifts or processing payroll after hours.
Petpooja Payroll offers 24×7 multilingual support. Whether it’s a salary processing issue at midnight or an attendance query on a Sunday, someone picks up. It also sends WhatsApp-based salary reports directly to employees and managers, which is a small feature that saves dozens of “where’s my payslip?” messages every month. Both the admin and employee get dedicated mobile apps for attendance, leave requests, and payslip access.
greytHR provides support during standard business hours. If you’re running payroll after 6 PM (which, let’s be honest, most HR managers do), you’ll be relying on their knowledge base and chatbot. However, greytHR’s employee self-service (ESS) portal is polished and well-designed. Employees can handle leave applications, tax declarations, reimbursement claims, and document uploads without bothering HR. greytHR also has a 4.6/5 rating on SoftwareSuggest with strong marks for ease of use (4.7/5).
For businesses with multiple outlets or shifts, the WhatsApp reporting feature from Petpooja is surprisingly useful. Managers get daily attendance summaries without logging into any dashboard. That’s one less app to open during a busy day.
For a complete look at what Petpooja Payroll offers, read our detailed features breakdown.
Verdict: Petpooja wins on support availability. greytHR wins on self-service portal depth.
Who Should Choose Petpooja Payroll vs GreytHR?
Restaurant and QSR owners: Choose Petpooja Payroll. The bundled biometric devices, shift management, and 24×7 support are built for high-turnover, multi-shift operations. It also integrates with Petpooja’s restaurant POS if you already use Petpooja POSS.
IT companies and corporate offices: Choose greytHR. The hiring module, performance management, and employee self-service portal matter more when your workforce is desk-based and you need a full HR suite.
Manufacturing units and retail chains: Choose Petpooja Payroll. Biometric attendance with geo-tagging solves the biggest pain point for these industries: tracking shift workers across multiple locations.
Micro businesses under 25 employees: Start with greytHR’s free plan. It covers basic payroll and compliance. When you grow past 25 heads and want hardware-integrated attendance, switch to Petpooja Payroll.
Curious how Petpooja stacks up against other tools? See our Petpooja Payroll vs Keka comparison.
Conclusion
Here’s how the two platforms stack up across all five categories:
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Attendance & biometric hardware | Petpooja Payroll |
| PF/ESIC/TDS compliance | Tie |
| Pricing for growing businesses | Petpooja Payroll |
| Support availability (24×7) | Petpooja Payroll |
| HR modules (hiring, performance) | greytHR |
| Employee self-service portal | greytHR |
| Free plan for micro businesses | greytHR |
| Overall for SMEs | Petpooja Payroll |
Petpooja Payroll is the stronger choice for operations-heavy Indian businesses that need attendance hardware, fixed pricing, and round-the-clock support. greytHR is better suited for corporate offices that prioritise HR workflows over attendance infrastructure.
The right choice depends on what your business actually needs day to day. Not what looks good on a feature list.
If you’re still unsure, start by asking one question: do you need attendance hardware bundled with your payroll, or do you need HR modules like hiring and performance reviews? That single answer will point you in the right direction.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on your business type. greytHR is better for IT companies and corporate offices that need hiring, performance management, and an employee self-service portal. Petpooja Payroll is better for restaurants, retail, and manufacturing businesses where biometric attendance and 24×7 support matter more. Both serve 30,000+ businesses across India.
No, Petpooja Payroll doesn’t have a free plan. However, it uses fixed annual pricing with no per-employee charges. This means businesses with 50+ employees typically pay less than they would on greytHR’s per-employee model. The bundled biometric hardware (free, with lifetime warranty) further reduces total cost of ownership.
greytHR doesn’t include biometric hardware. You’ll need to buy a compatible device separately and integrate it. Face recognition attendance is available as an add-on at ₹20 per user per month. For a 100-employee business, that’s ₹2,000/month extra on top of your base subscription.
Petpooja Payroll is purpose-built for restaurants and hospitality businesses. It handles shift scheduling, biometric attendance for high-turnover staff, salary advances with auto-deductions, and WhatsApp-based reporting. It also integrates with Petpooja POSS, India’s leading restaurant management software used by 1,00,000+ restaurants.
