Comparison

A factoHR alternative when attendance is the job, not one module of it

factoHR is a serious full-suite HRMS — onboarding, core HR, attendance, leave, payroll with statutory filing, expenses, performance — and for many companies that breadth is exactly the purchase. This page is for the buyer whose problem is narrower and harder: biometric terminals at several gates, mixed brands, and a wage bill that rides on the punch. Every factoHR fact below is from factohr.com as published in September 2026, quoted so you can check it.

Get started Talk to sales

factoHR is a full HRMS in which attendance is one module; its published Core plan (September 2026) is ₹4,999 per month for up to 50 employees plus ₹69 per month for each additional employee, billed quarterly, and it connects biometric hardware — eSSL, ZKTeco, Realtime, Matrix and others — "via database, IP, or SDK", meaning connectivity from your side to the device. AionHRMS is attendance-first: eSSL, ZKTeco and Realtime terminals push punches straight to the cloud with nothing installed at your site, one employee record is enrolled once and synced to every terminal across brands and locations, and the same punches compute shift-wise salary. Pricing is a flat annual band — free up to 10 employees, then ₹25,000 a year up to 100 employees and ₹50,000 a year up to 500, exclusive of GST, invoiced only after the devices are live. factoHR is the better buy when you want statutory payroll, expense claims, performance reviews and an employee self-service suite from one vendor; AionHRMS is the better buy when the terminal integration, multi-site register and punch-to-salary depth are what you are actually paying for.

Push, not pull

terminals report to the cloud themselves — no database, IP or SDK link from your side

Flat annual

₹25,000 a year to 100 staff, versus ₹4,999 a month for 50 plus ₹69 per extra head

Paid after go-live

invoiced when the devices are live; no implementation fee

3 brands, 1 register

eSSL, ZKTeco and Realtime terminals enrolled once, synced everywhere

What factoHR is, fairly

factoHR (factohr.com) describes itself as "HRMS Software Built for Growing Businesses" scaling "from 50 to 5,000+ employees", and claims "4000+ Businesses" and "2.7 million active users". It is a broad, mature suite with genuine credentials, and the attendance module inside it is competent.

  • Full suite in every paid plan: onboarding, core HR, attendance and leave, payroll, helpdesk, mobile ESS, multi-entity management
  • Statutory payroll that files: PF ECR generation, ESI, professional tax and LWF reports, TDS, Form 16 and 24Q — published on their payroll page
  • Geofencing (Premium plan and above), selfie punch and mobile face recognition (paid add-ons) — capabilities AionHRMS does not ship today
  • Published, transparent pricing and "no cancellation fee or lock-in period" — credited plainly
  • If you want all of that from one vendor and a 50-employee block price suits your headcount, factoHR is a sound choice and this page will not talk you out of it

How the biometric terminal connects — the structural difference

factoHR's attendance page states it integrates with hardware "like ESSL, ZKTeco, Time Office, Real Time, Secureye, Matrix, BioMax, and many more via database, IP, or SDK." Read that phrase carefully: database, IP or SDK means something on your side reaches into the device or its local database and forwards the punches. That works, and it is how most HR suites do it — but it puts a PC, a static IP or a middleware install between the gate and the cloud.

  • AionHRMS implements the terminal's own push protocol — iClock/ADMS for eSSL and ZKTeco, Realtime's native protocol — so the device dials out to our server itself; nothing is installed or reachable at your site
  • No attendance PC to keep on, back up, or explain to the next administrator; the terminal buffers punches offline and pushes them when the network returns
  • Enrolment is cloud-first: create the employee in the browser, push to every terminal; fingerprint and face templates are stored centrally and re-pushed across brands, so a dead unit is a swap, not a re-enrolment drive
  • Lock or unlock a person on every terminal from the dashboard; denied attempts are logged — access control and attendance are one register
  • factoHR's method is not wrong; it is the difference between software that reads devices and software the devices report to

Pricing: a 50-employee monthly block versus a flat annual band

factoHR's published Core plan (September 2026) is ₹4,999 per month for up to 50 employees, with ₹69 per month per additional employee, billed quarterly; Premium is ₹5,999 and Ultimate ₹6,999 on the same basis. AionHRMS is free up to 10 employees, then ₹25,000 a year up to 100 employees and ₹50,000 a year up to 500, exclusive of GST, invoiced only after the devices are live. Both sets of numbers are public, so here is the arithmetic at list price, before taxes, add-ons or negotiated discounts — redo it with your own headcount.

  • 100 employees on factoHR Core: ₹4,999 + 50 × ₹69 = ₹8,449 per month, about ₹1,01,000 a year. AionHRMS: ₹25,000 a year.
  • 500 employees on factoHR Core: ₹4,999 + 450 × ₹69 = ₹36,049 per month, about ₹4,33,000 a year. AionHRMS: ₹50,000 a year.
  • Selfie punch and mobile face recognition are additional per-user charges on factoHR (published in USD); geofencing needs Premium. AionHRMS has no per-user add-ons — and, stated plainly, no geofencing yet either
  • AionHRMS is invoiced only after your devices are live and syncing, with no setup or implementation charge; the integration risk is ours
  • Where factoHR's price is fair: you are buying payroll filing, expenses and performance too, so the comparison is suite-to-suite, not attendance-to-attendance

After the punch: two different payroll bets

factoHR's payroll files your statutory returns; ours does not, and we say so on every page. What AionHRMS does instead is compute the salary from the punch with the specific rules of an Indian shift floor, so the number that reaches whoever files is right the first time.

  • Per-employee duty times; single or double shift, each shift carrying its own salary — the trainer, the cook, the guard on a double
  • Grace periods and late-count thresholds you set; penalties as a flat fine or a fraction of a shift; nothing deducted below the threshold
  • Paid leave capped at the month's working days, so full attendance pays exactly the configured salary in February and March alike
  • Advances recorded, tracked and settled; one monthly payroll report; per-employee attendance calendar
  • Not included, plainly: PF, ESI and TDS filing; leave request and approval workflows. If you need those inside the same product, factoHR has them

Security: credit where it is due, and what we publish

factoHR's privacy policy states the company is "certified for industry standards such as ISO27001:2013 and SOC 2 Type II", and its homepage adds DPDP Act compliance and AES-256 encryption on Azure. Those are real, itemised credentials and they exceed our own SOC 2 posture, which is readiness rather than an issued attestation. Two things we publish that we could not find on factohr.com in September 2026:

  • Data residency: AionHRMS states attendance data is hosted on infrastructure in India. We could not find a hosting-region statement on factoHR's site — "not published", not "not true"; ask them
  • Template handling: biometric templates stored as mathematical features, never displayed, exported or available through the API; deleted with the employee
  • AIONDATA is ISO 9001:2015 certified (quality management — a different standard from ISO 27001, and we do not present it as equivalent), CMMI Level 3 appraised, and SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and HIPAA ready
  • Role-scoped human access; scoped API keys stored as SHA-256 hashes with rate limits and full request logs
  • Put the same questions to both vendors in writing; this page holds either way

factoHR versus AionHRMS, line by line

factoHR rows are from factohr.com as published in September 2026. Price arithmetic is ours at list price, before taxes, add-ons and discounts — check it.

AionHRMSfactoHR (published, Sept 2026)
What it isAttendance-first: terminals, cloud register, shift-wise payroll.Full HRMS suite; attendance is one module.
Biometric connectionDevice pushes to the cloud over its own protocol; nothing at your site."via database, IP, or SDK" — connectivity from your side; "200+ biometric devices" claimed.
Pricing modelFlat annual by headcount band; unlimited terminals and sites.₹4,999/month for 50 employees + ₹69/month per additional (Core); billed quarterly.
100 employees, list price₹25,000 a year.≈ ₹1,01,000 a year (Core).
500 employees, list price₹50,000 a year.≈ ₹4,33,000 a year (Core).
When you payAfter the devices are live; no implementation fee.Quarterly billing; "no cancellation fee or lock-in period".
Geofencing / mobile faceIn development — not shipped.Geofencing in Premium+; selfie punch and face recognition as paid add-ons.
Statutory payrollSalary computed; filing not included.PF ECR, ESI, PT, LWF, TDS, Form 16/24Q.
CertificationsISO 9001:2015 certified; SOC 2 Type II/GDPR/HIPAA ready; India residency stated.ISO 27001:2013 and SOC 2 Type II stated; DPDP compliant; hosting region not stated.
Right choice whenGates, mixed brands, multi-site, wage bill on the punch.You want the whole HR suite, filing included, from one vendor.

Frequently asked questions

Is AionHRMS a good factoHR alternative?
For attendance specifically, yes — and for a full HR suite, no. AionHRMS does the biometric terminal integration, multi-site register and punch-to-salary computation deeper and for a flat annual price; factoHR does onboarding, statutory payroll filing, expenses, performance and geofencing that AionHRMS does not. Decide which of those two lists is your actual purchase.
How does factoHR pricing compare with AionHRMS?
factoHR publishes ₹4,999 per month for up to 50 employees plus ₹69 per month per additional employee on its Core plan (September 2026), billed quarterly — about ₹1,01,000 a year for 100 employees at list price. AionHRMS is ₹25,000 a year for up to 100 employees and ₹50,000 for up to 500, invoiced only after go-live. The gap is real, and so is the difference in scope: factoHR's price includes a payroll that files.
Does factoHR work with eSSL and ZKTeco machines?
factoHR's site says it integrates with eSSL, ZKTeco, Realtime, Matrix, BioMax and others "via database, IP, or SDK". AionHRMS also runs those brands, but over the terminal's own push protocol, so the device reports to the cloud directly with nothing installed at your site. Both work; the difference is what sits between the gate and the register.
Can we use AionHRMS for attendance and factoHR for payroll?
Yes, and it is a sensible split for a company that needs statutory filing. AionHRMS exposes attendance by person or organisation over date ranges through its partner API, and the monthly payroll report is exportable. Ask us for the export format in writing before you commit; ask factoHR the same about import.
Why is AionHRMS so much cheaper — what is missing?
Scope, stated plainly: no statutory filing, no leave request and approval workflow, no geofenced mobile marking yet, no recruitment or performance modules. What you get for the price is the part HR suites treat as a module — device push, cross-brand template sync, access control, and shift-wise salary — done as the whole product, with support by phone from Noida and on-site visits where needed.

Related

Attendance done as the whole job, not a module

Send us your terminal models and headcount; we will confirm compatibility and quote in writing before anything changes.

Get started Talk to sales