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Keka vs GreytHR
Keka vs GreytHR: Which is Right for Your Business?
Choosing between Keka and GreytHR? Don’t make an expensive mistake.
If you're managing HR for a 20-person startup, a 200-person growth-stage company, or a 500-member scaleup, chances are you're drowning in spreadsheets, payroll complexities, and compliance overhead. That’s when HR tools like Keka and GreytHR come into play.
Both are well-known and promise end-to-end HR automation. But when you dig deeper, they come with limitations that growing Indian companies cannot afford to overlook. These include rigid pricing, feature gating, patchy support, and integration hiccups.
In this blog, we break down Keka vs GreytHR for companies with up to 500 employees. We compare features, pricing, compliance, and scalability. And if neither fits your pace of growth, we’ll show you an alternative designed to move as fast as you do.
TL;DR
Keka and GreytHR are two HR and payroll management solutions compliant with Indian legislation
GreytHR is more compatible with more operating systems than Keka and integrates with digital lending apps, while Keka doesn’t
From a pricing point of view, both tools are expensive for startups and have restrictions in terms of the number of users and features
Current users of Keka and GreytHR find this tool user-friendly but also report their cross-application synchronizing issues
Craze is a good alternative to both Keka and GreytHR as it is simple, has an empathetic support team, and follows per-user/per-month pricing
Introducing the Two Players in the GreytHR vs Keka Faceoff
Before diving deeper into an in-depth comparison between Keka and GreytHR, here’s a quick background on both tools:
Keka at a Quick Glance
Keka is a human resource automation tool that helps your HR team manage, organise, and streamline employee data on a unified platform. Its built-in HR, payroll, leave management, and attendance systems ensure timely, accurate payroll processing and help businesses stay compliant with Indian tax legislation.
Read Keka's review to know more.
GreytHR at a Quick Glance
GreytHR automates repetitive HR functions to improve your HR team’s efficiency. With its HR workflows, employee databases, and on-demand employee helpdesk, GreytHR manages your employee lifecycle end-to-end. It also has built-in payroll, leave, and attendance management support to ease your HR team’s job.
Compare Keka vs GreytHR: The Ultimate Faceoff
Check out the essentials of both GreytHR and Keka in the table below before we start the Keka vs. GreytHR comparison.
Keka
G2 Reviews - 4.5/5 (1500+ Reviews)
Google Trends (Last 12 months)
GreytHR
G2 Reviews - 4.4/5 (1050+ Reviews)
Google Trends (Last 12 months)
Coming back to the Keka vs GreytHR discussion, we are centring our comparison around four significant factors:
Core HR features
Payroll processing and compliance
Attendance and leave management
Affordability for startups and SMEs
Below are the details:
Keka vs GreytHR: Which tool is better at core HR features?
Both Keka and GreytHR offer core HR features such as an employee self-service portal, a centralised employee database, a document management portal, automated workflows to speed up repetitive HR tasks, and a dedicated helpdesk.
However, generating payslips on Keka is a long process compared to GreytHR. Both tools are accessible on mobile devices, iPads, and laptops. However, you cannot operate Keka with a Windows phone.
Winner: GreytHR
Keka vs. GreytHR: Which tool is better at attendance and leave tracking?
Keka and GreytHR offer several leave and attendance management features. These include custom leave policies, compliance with location-specific leave laws, custom leave approval workflows, and HR and payroll software integration. Additionally, these tools integrate with workspace solutions like Slack to automate attendance recording.
GreytHR and Keka allow employees to mark attendance using mobile devices and manage shifts and overtime.
Winner: Draw
Keka vs GreytHR: Which tool is more affordable for Indian Startups and SMEs?
Here is a breakdown of the pricing plans offered by Keka and GreytHR:
Item | Keka | GreytHR |
Free plan available? | Yes | Yes |
Plan name | Growth | Growth |
price/month | ₹15,999 for up to 100 employees | ₹5,495 for up to 50 employees |
Cost per additional employee | ₹150 per employee | ₹65 per employee |
Feature limitations across plans? | Yes | Yes |
Key features missing in entry plan | Employee onboarding, custom roles, GPS attendance, single sign-on, etc. | Limited workflow automation, attendance management, self-onboarding and offboarding, etc. Support features are add-ons. |
Keka’s foundational plan is costly and unsuitable for startups like most. Startups generally have smaller teams, and paying a minimum of ₹9,999/month for a team size of 25 or less is not cost-effective. This is especially true because you will not have access to critical features such as employee onboarding role-based user access. To avail of the advanced features, you must invest in Strength or Growth Plans, costing ₹12,999/month and ₹15,999/month, respectively.
GreytHR’s free plan is limited to 25 employees and doesn’t allow you to add new team members. Plus, it provides limited access to core HR, payroll, leave and attendance management tools. This leaves you no choice but to invest in the Essential plan for ₹3495/month. While this plan allows you to add more than 50 employees, there is an additional ₹35 per new employee.
Plus, you don't get access to attendance management, employee self-onboarding and exit management features. These may force you to invest in either Growth or Enterprise plans costing ₹5495/month and ₹7495/month, respectively.
Winner: Neither Keka nor GreytHR is affordable for Indian startups and SMEs.
GreytHR vs Keka: Which is Suitable for Startups in India?
Before we tell you our final verdict on the Keka vs GreytHR comparison, here is a quick comparison of both tools. We are also listing the pros and cons of both tools based on users’ feedback posted in G2 and Capterra.
Core HR features (Winner: GreytHR)
Feature | Keka | GreytHR |
Employee self-service portal | Yes | Yes |
Centralised employee database | Yes | Yes |
Document management | Yes | Yes |
Workflow automation | Yes | Yes |
Accessibility (all devices and operating systems) | Not compatible with Windows Phone | Yes |
Payroll features (Winner: GreytHR)
Feature | Keka | GreytHR |
Instant payroll processing | Yes | Yes |
Compliance with Indian legislation | Yes | Yes |
Customisable salary components | Yes | Yes |
Reimbursements and benefit management | Yes | Yes |
Integrations with accounting, personal finance and digital lending tools | Not available | Yes |
Attendance and leave management (Result: Draw)
Feature | Keka | GreytHR |
Custom leave policies | Yes | Yes |
Geo-fencing and self-attendance | Yes | Yes |
Compliance with location-specific leave regulations | Yes | Yes |
Integration with workspace tools like Slack | Yes | Yes |
Pricing and affordability (Result: None)
Item | Keka | GreytHR |
Free plan available? | Yes | Yes |
Entry plan name | Foundation | Essential |
Base price / month | ₹9,999 for up to 100 employees | ₹3,495 for up to 50 employees |
Cost per additional employee | ₹90 per employee | ₹35 per employee |
Pros & Cons of Keka & GreytHR
Keka | GreytHR | |
Pros | - Simple, user-friendly HRMS | - Clean, intuitive interface with a shallow learning curve |
Cons | - Frequent backend errors in attendance calculation | - Sync issues between payroll, leave, and attendance modules |
Keka vs. GreytHR: Final Verdict
While both Keka and GreytHR have their fair share of benefits and disadvantages, it ultimately depends on your specific requirements from an HRMS software.
Select GreytHR if:
You are a startup of fewer than 25 team members and want to manage a lean team with basic HR, payroll and leave management features and are not looking for attendance management.
Select Keka if:
You are a growing team looking for simple HR and payroll software that offers basic and advanced HR features based on add-on pricing / no budget issues
However, from a startup or SME perspective, both of these tools have critical issues, such as:
Unresponsive or slow support and query resolution
Integration issues among applications
Expensive plans and feature gating
Therefore, if neither Keka nor GreytHR works well for you, we would suggest a great alternative to both of these tools in the next section.
Craze: A Better Alternative to Keka and GreytHR for Indian Startups
Craze is a startup-friendly platform that single-handedly manages your HR, Finance, and IT operations to create a top-notch employee experience. It is a real-time, integrated suite that replaces spreadsheets, back-and-forth Slack threads, and emails with an automated HRMS platform.
Craze key features
HR software: Craze’s HR software offers features such as a centralised employee hub, built-in templates for offer letters, agreements, and onboarding documents, along with automated workflows for document management and approval processes. It streamlines administrative tasks by automating document flow and ensuring efficient and accurate approvals.
Payroll software: Craze’s payroll software offers features such as one-click payroll processing, out-of-the-box tax compliance, multiple salary structures, flexi-benefits & reimbursements with custom salary registers and other HR and finance reports.
Leave management software: Craze’s leave management software offers features such as configurable leave policies, custom hierarchical-based leave approval workflow, employee-friendly benefits and an intuitive leave tracking dashboard
Attendance management software: Craze’s attendance management software offers features such as automated timesheets, clock-in and out and geotagging, attendance regularisation, biometric device integration and attendance reports.
Other available modules include: Employee Engagement, Goals & OKR, Performance management, IT Asset management and Identity & Access Management (IAM).
Craze pricing: simple, modular, no surprises
Craze charges per user per month and unlocks every feature from day one. No minimum headcount, no “upgrade to access this” alerts. Whether you are a 10-person startup or a 500-person scaleup, you get the full suite you need immediately.
You only pay for the modules you use. If you want Core HR, Payroll, Leave, Attendance, Employee Engagement today, you pay for just those. Add Performance Management, IT Asset Management or other modules later, and everything is already in sync. All modules share the same real-time database, so when you switch a module on, the employee records, leave balances, goals, and payroll data are already there. No backfilling, no re-imports, no broken integrations.
How the pricing works?
Craze is built on one mandatory base: Core HR starts at ₹60 per employee per month. Every other module sits on top of that, so you only add and pay for what you need.
Start with Core HR (₹60/user/month). This unlocks the unified employee hub, documents, workflows, and the real-time database that everything else plugs into.
Layer on any combination of: Payroll, Leave, Attendance, Employee Engagement, Performance Management, IT Asset Management, Identity & Access, etc.
Turn a module on, and it works instantly because all data (employees, balances, goals, payroll inputs) is already in sync. No re-imports or patchwork integrations.
Result: predictable spend, zero feature gating, and a platform that scales from 10 people to 500 without forcing plan upgrades or minimum commitments. That makes Craze more affordable and startup-proof than Keka or GreytHR.
Here’s what current users of Craze say about their experience 👇
Who is Craze for?
Craze is perfect for you if:
You are building people operations from scratch and are looking for a single source of truth to manage HR, Finance and IT activities
You are frustrated with the expensive HRMS platforms that restrict feature access
You need support from an empathetic team that genuinely cares about your concerns
Do you want to explore how Craze can be a better fit than Keka and GreytHR for your startup?
