Zoho People Runs Your HR.
You Only Need Attendance.
Zoho People's Free and Essential HR tiers don't include attendance at all. You need Professional (₹1,152/employee/year) to get web, mobile, facial recognition, and GPS check-in. AttendFirst gives you the same verification on the free plan, and ₹299/employee/year after 10. If onboarding, performance reviews, and the rest of the HRMS are not the problem you're solving, you're paying for a suite you don't use.
Free forever for up to 10 employees. GPS, selfie, QR, unlimited leave types, manager approval, reports, Excel export. No add-ons, no usage caps.
The short answer
Zoho People is a full HR suite. Performance reviews, onboarding, case management, timesheets, org charts, and attendance. AttendFirst is an attendance and leave tool. They're different products.
- Choose Zoho People if: You already run Zoho One, Zoho CRM, or Zoho Books, and want HR in the same suite. You need performance reviews, onboarding workflows, and 360 feedback.
- Choose AttendFirst if: You only need attendance tracking and leave management. Your CA handles payroll separately. You want GPS + selfie + QR on the free plan and a single-purpose tool your team actually uses.
The Real Cost for 25 Employees
Zoho People has four paid tiers. The Free and Essential HR plans have no attendance check-in, so if you're buying for attendance you're starting at Professional (₹96/user/month). Premium adds performance reviews and compensation on top. Here's the honest math.
| Line item (25 employees) | Zoho People Essential | Zoho People Professional | AttendFirst |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly subscription | ₹48/user | ₹96/user | ₹0/month |
| Annual cost | ₹14,400/year | ₹28,800/year | ₹4,485/year |
| Web / mobile check-in | Not included | Included | Included |
| GPS location tracking | Not included | Included | Included |
| Selfie / facial recognition | Not included | Included (People Kiosk) | Included (selfie) |
| QR code check-in | No | No | Included |
| Shift scheduling | Included | Included (+ rotation, patterns) | Included |
| Year 1 total (for real attendance) | No attendance check-in | ₹28,800 | ₹4,485 |
Zoho People pricing verified 2026-04-24: Free (max 5 users, no attendance), Essential HR ₹48/user/month, Professional ₹96/user/month, Premium ₹144/user/month, Enterprise ₹192/user/month (all billed annually, minimum 5 users on paid plans). People Plus (HCM suite with Zoho Payroll) starts at ₹192/user/month Premium, ₹350/user/month Enterprise. Source: zoho.com/people/zohopeople-pricing.html.
You save ₹24,315 in year one.
Free for the first 10 employees. No payment, no contract, and no HR modules you'll never open.
What Zoho People Has That You Don't Need
Zoho People is a well-built HR platform. The trouble is that 90% of its features are not attendance. If you're on it only for attendance and leave, you're paying for eight modules you don't open.
Performance reviews + 360 feedback
Goal setting, appraisal cycles, self-reviews, peer reviews. Useful at 100+ employees. Not the problem a 20-person team is solving.
Onboarding workflows
Offer letters, document uploads, task assignments for new hires. Most Indian SMBs handle this on WhatsApp and email in 10 minutes.
HR helpdesk (Enterprise tier)
Case categories, agents, SLA tracking. Gated behind the ₹192/user/month Enterprise plan. You don't have an HR team, so nobody is routing tickets.
Timesheets + project time tracking
For professional services firms billing hours to clients. If you don't bill time, the feature sits unused.
Zia AI assistant + analytics dashboards
Natural-language queries over HR data. Only useful at enough scale for the queries to matter.
Workflow automations + blueprints
Configurable approval chains, conditional logic, multi-step processes. Fantastic engineering. Overkill for approving Priya's CL on Friday.
Feature-by-Feature on Attendance
Attendance Tracking
Zoho People
Free and Essential HR tiers do not include any attendance check-in. Attendance starts at Professional (₹96/user/month): web, mobile, facial recognition (People Kiosk), GPS location tracking, biometric integration, IP + geo-restrictions, and overtime management all on the same tier. No QR check-in at any tier.
- ✗ No attendance on Free or Essential HR
- ✓ Web + mobile + facial recognition (Professional and up)
- ✓ GPS + biometric + geo-restrictions (Professional and up)
- ✗ No QR code check-in at any tier
AttendFirst
Mobile browser check-in with GPS, selfie, and QR on the free plan. Static and rotating QR for a ₹0-hardware kiosk. Works on any phone as a PWA, no app install.
- ✓ GPS check-in (free)
- ✓ Selfie verification (free)
- ✓ Static + rotating QR check-in (free)
- ✓ No app download, works on any phone
Leave Management
Zoho People
Full leave module available on every plan including Free: customizable leave types, holidays, compensatory off, leave grants, and attendance-based accrual. Bradford score (absence pattern tracking) is Enterprise-only.
- ✓ Leave policies + holidays (Free and up)
- ✓ Compensatory off + leave grants (Free and up)
- ✓ Attendance-based accrual (Free and up, but Free has no attendance)
- △ Bradford score (Enterprise only)
AttendFirst
Unlimited leave types (PL, SL, CL, custom) on the free plan. Half-day leaves, pro-rated quotas for mid-year joiners, manager approval routed by reporting relationship, auto-computed balance, working-day calculation.
- ✓ Unlimited leave types (free)
- ✓ Half-day leaves (free)
- ✓ Pro-rated for mid-year joiners (free)
- ✓ Manager approval by reporting chain (free)
Shifts, Working Hours, Indian Holidays
Zoho People
Shift creation and scheduling start at Essential HR. Shift rotation and shift patterns (advanced) start at Professional. Holiday management and Indian regional holidays are available across plans.
- ✓ Shift creation + scheduling (Essential and up)
- ✓ Shift rotation + patterns (Professional and up)
- ✓ Indian holidays + regional calendars
- △ No attendance to pair with shifts until Professional
AttendFirst
Unlimited shifts on the free plan. Per-shift late-after and half-day-after thresholds. Night-shift aware. 20+ Indian gazetted holidays pre-loaded as a one-click bulk import, including Diwali, Holi, Eid, and regional holidays you add as custom.
- ✓ Unlimited shifts (free)
- ✓ Per-shift late + half-day thresholds (free)
- ✓ 20+ Indian holidays preloaded (free)
- ✓ Configurable week-off (free)
The Rest of the HR Suite
Zoho People
Performance reviews, 360 feedback, onboarding, timesheets, Zia AI queries, compensation, engagement surveys, learning management, and HR helpdesk. A genuinely deep HRMS, delivered across tiers.
- ✓ Onboarding + offboarding (Essential and up)
- ✓ Timesheets (Professional and up)
- ✓ Performance reviews + compensation (Premium and up)
- ✓ LMS + HR helpdesk + sandbox (Enterprise only)
AttendFirst
None of this. By design. AttendFirst is attendance and leave. If you need performance reviews, onboarding, or helpdesk, use Zoho People or Keka. We will not build those features.
- ✗ No performance reviews
- ✗ No onboarding workflows
- ✗ No case management
- — That's the whole trade
Ecosystem & Integrations
Zoho People
Native integration with Zoho Payroll, Zoho Books, Zoho CRM, Zoho One. If you live in the Zoho ecosystem, this is a real advantage: single sign-on, shared user list, unified billing.
- ✓ Zoho Payroll integration
- ✓ Zoho Books + CRM
- ✓ Zoho One bundle
- ✓ SSO across Zoho apps
AttendFirst
CSV/Excel export with one click: days present, late, absent, leave taken, per employee. Import into Zoho Payroll, Keka Payroll, or any tool your CA uses. No direct API integrations today.
- ✓ One-click Excel export
- ✓ Clean data for any payroll tool
- △ No direct Zoho integration yet
- ✓ Works with your CA's workflow
Which One Is Right for You
Choose Zoho People if:
- → You already run Zoho One, Zoho CRM, or Zoho Books, and want HR in the same account
- → You need onboarding, timesheets, performance reviews, or an HR helpdesk in one place
- → You have a dedicated HR person who will actually use the HR modules
- → You bill clients for time and need timesheet functionality (Professional and up)
Zoho People Professional (the first tier with attendance) is ₹1,152/user/year. For 25 employees, that's ₹28,800/year. Premium with performance reviews is ₹43,200/year.
Choose AttendFirst if:
- → Attendance and leave are the actual problems you're solving
- → Your CA handles payroll separately or you use a standalone payroll tool
- → You have field workers, retail staff, or a factory with shifts
- → You want every attendance feature on the free plan, not the ₹96/user/month plan
AttendFirst is ₹299/employee/year. First 10 employees free forever. For 25 employees, that's ₹4,485/year.
Common Scenarios
"I have 20 employees, my CA runs payroll monthly"
Use AttendFirst. ₹2,990/year for attendance + leave with GPS and selfie. Export a CSV at month-end, send it to the CA. Zoho People Professional for the same attendance features is ₹23,040/year.
"We already use Zoho CRM and Zoho Books"
Zoho People makes more sense. Single login, shared user list, easier roll-out. The ecosystem advantage is real. AttendFirst still works if attendance is a high-volume pain point, but the integration value wins for most Zoho shops.
"We have 30 factory workers + a 10-person office"
Use AttendFirst. Print a QR at the factory gate, set shift hours with late-after thresholds, and office staff use GPS or selfie from their phones. ₹5,985/year vs ₹34,560/year on Zoho People Professional (attendance tier).
"We have 80 people and need performance reviews"
Use Zoho People Premium. Performance reviews, goal tracking, and 360 feedback are real needs at this size and are included on Premium (₹144/user/month), and AttendFirst will never build them. The Zoho suite is the right tool for that job.
"We're 7 people, just starting out"
Use AttendFirst. Free forever for up to 10 employees, every attendance and leave feature included. Zoho People's free plan caps at 5 employees and does not include attendance check-in at all. Come back to Zoho People later if you need the full HR stack.
"We have retail staff at 4 city locations"
Use AttendFirst. A printed QR at each shop, GPS on every check-in, selfie to stop buddy punching. One dashboard, every location. ₹0 hardware, no machines to maintain.
Switching from Zoho People
No migration project. Half a day's work for the admin. Zero downtime for employees.
- 1
Export your employee list from Zoho People
Settings → Employees → Export. Pull name, email, department, designation, and manager mapping as CSV.
- 2
Sign up for AttendFirst
30 seconds at app.attendfirst.com/register. No card required. First 10 employees free forever.
- 3
Add employees (or let them self-join)
Either import manually from your Zoho CSV or turn on the self-join link, paste it in your company WhatsApp group, and approve requests in one tap. Most teams finish this in 20 minutes.
- 4
Configure shifts, holidays, and leave types
Bulk-import 20+ Indian gazetted holidays, add regional ones as custom, create your shifts with late-after thresholds, set PL/SL/CL quotas. 10 minutes end to end.
- 5
Share the check-in link. Cancel Zoho People at end of billing cycle
Team starts checking in from their phones the same afternoon. Keep Zoho People active for the last month if you have historical data to pull; cancel from the admin panel before renewal.
Average switchover time: half a day. No consultants, no data migration project, no downtime.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Zoho People better than AttendFirst? +
Different products for different needs. Zoho People is a full HRMS: onboarding, core HR, attendance, performance reviews, compensation, engagement surveys, and more. AttendFirst does attendance and leave. If you need the full HR stack and already pay for Zoho One or Zoho CRM, Zoho People makes sense. If you only need attendance tracking and leave management, AttendFirst is 6-10x cheaper and simpler.
What does Zoho People actually cost for an Indian SMB that needs attendance? +
Zoho People has five tiers: Free (₹0, max 5 users, no attendance), Essential HR (₹48/user/month, no attendance either), Professional (₹96/user/month, first tier with attendance + GPS + facial recognition), Premium (₹144/user/month, adds performance reviews), Enterprise (₹192/user/month, adds LMS and helpdesk). For attendance alone, Professional is the realistic tier. That's ₹28,800/year for 25 employees. AttendFirst is ₹4,485/year for 25 employees.
Does Zoho People have a free plan? +
Yes, up to 5 employees. But the free tier only includes employee database, leave management, standard reports, and the Zia AI bot. It does not include attendance tracking. AttendFirst's free plan covers 10 employees with every feature included: GPS, selfie, QR, unlimited leave types, manager approval, reports, Excel export.
Can I keep using Zoho Payroll if I switch attendance to AttendFirst? +
Yes. Export attendance data from AttendFirst as CSV at month end: days present, absent, late, leave taken per employee. Import that into Zoho Payroll or hand it to your CA. Most Indian SMBs already run payroll monthly on a separate schedule, so the separation is not a problem.
Does AttendFirst integrate with Zoho One or Zoho CRM? +
Not yet. AttendFirst exports clean Excel/CSV data that any tool, including Zoho Payroll and Zoho Books, can import. Direct API integration with Zoho One is on the roadmap. If a native tie-in with the rest of your Zoho suite is required today, Zoho People is the better fit.
Zoho People has performance reviews and onboarding. Does AttendFirst? +
No, and by design. AttendFirst will never build performance reviews, onboarding workflows, or HR helpdesk. Those belong in an HRMS. We do one thing: attendance and leave, at the lowest price in India.
How does Zoho People's attendance compare to AttendFirst's? +
Zoho People's Free and Essential HR tiers have no attendance check-in at all. Web, mobile, facial recognition, GPS location tracking, biometric integration, and geo-restrictions all start at Professional (₹96/user/month). AttendFirst gives GPS + selfie + QR on the free plan. For mobile-first teams and field workers, AttendFirst reaches the same verification coverage at a fraction of the cost.
Also comparing AttendFirst to:
Most teams look at a few tools before deciding. Here are the closest.
Ready to Stop Paying for the Whole Suite?
If you only need attendance and leave, pay a fraction of what Zoho People Professional costs. Free for 10 employees, forever.