Comparison
Looking for a greytHR alternative? An honest comparison for 10–50-person companies
greytHR is one of India's most established HR products, and for payroll-led buying it is genuinely hard to beat. So this page is specific rather than sweeping: we make HR-VEND, and the honest case for it against greytHR lives in two places — companies well under 50 staff, and companies whose daily pain is hiring rather than payroll. Prices below are from the vendors' own pages, with the date we read them.
The short version
- greytHR's entry plan covers up to 50 employees for one price (₹2,495/month when we checked). Great at 45 staff; expensive at 12, where HR-VEND costs ₹588.
- Recruitment is a ₹2,500/recruiter/month add-on at greytHR; in HR-VEND the pipeline and careers page are in every plan.
- Pick greytHR for payroll and statutory depth, its academy and resources, or GPS field-staff tracking if you want that.
- Pick HR-VEND under ~25 staff, for hiring-led teams, monthly billing on a 10-employee minimum, a separate database per company, and a no-location-tracking employee app.
- Prices read on the vendors' pages on 5 October 2026, ex-GST; check current pages before deciding.
What each product is
greytHR is a full-suite HRMS from one of India's payroll pioneers: hire-to-retire records, leave, attendance, and a payroll engine that advertises auto-computed PF, ESI, PT, LWF and TDS across States. Around the product sit an academy with free certification, a resource library, a community and a large customer base — the company states 33,000+ businesses on its site.
HR-VEND is a single workspace for Indian SMBs of 10–200 people: hiring pipeline and careers page included in every plan, employee records, leave, attendance and payroll, at your company's own address with a separate database per company. It is newer, narrower, and built around the assumption that your bottleneck is hiring and organising people, not filing depth.
The prices, as published
Read on the vendors' own public pages on 5 October 2026; all prices exclude 18% GST and change often. Confirm on the vendor's current page before you decide anything.
| greytHR | HR-VEND | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Essential: ₹2,495/month, covers up to 50 employees, then ₹45/employee beyond | Starter: ₹49/employee/month, minimum 10 employees (₹490), up to 25 |
| Next tier | Growth: ₹4,495/month plus ₹85/employee beyond 50 | Growth: ₹99/employee/month, up to 200, with payroll, KPI and approvals |
| Recruitment | greytHR Recruit add-on: ₹2,500/recruiter/month | Included in every plan |
| Field-staff GPS tracking | Offered as an add-on (₹140/user when checked) | Deliberately not offered; no location tracking |
| Trial | 7 days, full features | 7 days, no card, all modules on |
The arithmetic at three sizes
| Monthly cost (ex-GST) | greytHR | HR-VEND |
|---|---|---|
| 12 staff, HR + hiring | ₹2,495 + ₹2,500 Recruit = ₹4,995 | Starter 12 × ₹49 = ₹588 |
| 25 staff, HR + hiring | ₹2,495 + ₹2,500 = ₹4,995 | Starter 25 × ₹49 = ₹1,225 |
| 50 staff, HR + payroll + hiring | ₹2,495 + ₹2,500 = ₹4,995 | Growth 50 × ₹99 = ₹4,950 |
Read the last row honestly: at 50 staff the totals converge, and if you want payroll only, with no recruitment module, greytHR Essential at ₹2,495 beats HR-VEND Growth at ₹4,950 — with a deeper statutory engine behind it. The per-employee model wins small and hiring-led; the flat-block model wins at the top of its block for payroll-led buyers. That is the whole price story, and it is why this page recommends greytHR for some readers.
Where greytHR is the better choice
- Payroll and statutory depth is the purchase. greytHR advertises auto-computed PF, ESI, PT, LWF and TDS across all States and has run Indian payroll for decades. HR-VEND's India statutory pack is under professional review and we do not claim that depth today. A compliance-led buyer should weight this heavily.
- You are near 50 staff and payroll-only. The Essential block price is excellent value at the top of its range.
- You value the ecosystem. The greytHR academy, policy-template library, webinars and community are real, free, and useful to a first-time HR manager.
- You want field-staff GPS tracking. greytHR sells it; HR-VEND has chosen not to build it.
- You want the crowd. Tens of thousands of companies and a long track record mean your CA has probably seen its reports before.
Where HR-VEND is the better choice
- You are 10–25 people. Per-employee billing from a 10-employee minimum means ₹490–₹1,225 a month instead of a 50-person block price.
- Hiring is the daily pain. Careers page, pipeline, interview scheduling, offers, one-click close-outs and cost per hire by channel are included in every plan — not ₹2,500 per recruiter per month. If hiring is why you are shopping, start with our hiring tour.
- You don't want employees tracked. HR-VEND's attendance runs on imports, corrections and approvals, and its Android employee app has no background location tracking — a deliberate design, explained in our attendance-without-GPS guide. For employee trust, especially in clinics, offices and shops, "we don't track you" is a benefit, not a gap.
- A separate database per company. Most multi-tenant HR SaaS keeps all customers in shared tables; HR-VEND provisions each company its own database at its own address (
yourcompany.hrvend.com). Verifiable in the trial. - Monthly billing, cancel anytime. No annual commitment to reach the advertised price.
What we won't claim
HR-VEND does not advertise guaranteed statutory compliance — the India payroll pack is awaiting consultant and CA sign-off, and until then greytHR's compliance claims are ones we simply cannot match. We also have no customer-count badge or testimonial wall, because inventing one is worse than lacking one. What we can offer is a trial where every claim on this page is checkable in an afternoon.
If you decide to switch (either direction)
- Export the employee master and year-to-date payroll figures before anything else.
- Set up the new system's leave types, holidays and pay structures, then run one payroll cycle in parallel and compare payslips line by line.
- Move hiring first if hiring is the pain: the pipeline and careers page can run in HR-VEND while payroll finishes the year where it is.
- Check both vendors' data-export and deletion terms before signing anything annual. Our buyer's checklist lists the questions.
Frequently asked questions
Is HR-VEND cheaper than greytHR?
When is greytHR the better choice?
Does greytHR include recruitment?
Does either product track employee GPS location?
Can I try both before deciding?
greytHR is a trademark of Greytip Software Pvt Ltd; HR-VEND is not affiliated with Greytip. All third-party prices and plan details were read on the vendor's public pages on 5 October 2026, exclude GST, and may have changed — confirm on the vendor's site. This comparison was written by the HR-VEND team.