Comparison

A greytHR alternative when attendance is the reason you are buying

greytHR is the most widely used payroll-and-HR platform for Indian SMEs — "34,000+ Companies", "3.5 million+ Employees" by its own count — with transparent pricing, ISO 27001 and SOC 2, and hosting in AWS India. It earns its place on every shortlist. This page is for the buyer who noticed one line on greytHR's pricing page: attendance is not in the entry plan. Every greytHR fact below is from greythr.com as published in September 2026.

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greytHR is a payroll-first HR suite with published pricing (September 2026): Essential at ₹2,495 per month for 50 employees plus ₹45 per additional employee covers "Payroll + Leave + CoreHR Basic" — attendance is not included; the Growth plan at ₹4,495 per month plus ₹85 per additional employee adds "Attendance + Advanced HR", and GPS live tracking is a ₹140-per-user-per-month add-on. Biometric swipes reach greytHR through "the Greytip Astra application", installed at your site, which "captures swipes from your biometric machines". AionHRMS is attendance-first: eSSL, ZKTeco and Realtime terminals push to the cloud themselves with nothing installed at your site, one enrolment syncs templates across every terminal and location, and the same punches compute shift-wise salary — for a flat 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. greytHR is the better buy when statutory payroll filing, leave workflows and an employee self-service portal are the purchase; AionHRMS is the better buy when the terminals, the multi-site register and punch-to-salary depth are.

No Astra PC

terminals push to the cloud directly — no sync application at your site

₹25,000 a year

to 100 employees, versus ₹4,495 a month for 50 + ₹85 per head on the plan with attendance

No minimum

versus a 50-employee base fee

Paid after go-live

no implementation charge; the integration risk is ours

What greytHR is, fairly

greytHR (greythr.com) is a mature Indian payroll and HR platform: "Full-suite HR + payroll + AI. Starting at ₹2,495/month." Its statutory engine is the product — "Auto-computed PF, ESI, PT, LWF, and TDS across all 28 states" — and its credentials are real and itemised.

  • Complete payroll in every plan: PF with ECR generation, ESI challans, state-wise professional tax, TDS with eTDS returns, LWF, digitally signed Form 16
  • Leave management and employee self-service in the cheapest plan; a 7-day free trial; "pay per use" — credited plainly
  • GPS geofencing, geo tracking, selfie attendance with liveness detection, a face-recognition kiosk (Visage) and IP-based restriction — phone and kiosk capabilities AionHRMS does not ship today
  • "ISO 27001 certified and SOC 2 compliant, hosted on AWS India data centres" — an itemised posture with stated residency, ahead of our SOC 2 readiness
  • If payroll filing and leave workflows are your purchase and you have 50-plus staff, greytHR is a sound choice and this page will not talk you out of it

Read the pricing page carefully: attendance starts at Growth

greytHR's published plans (September 2026): Essential ₹2,495 per month, 50 employees included, ₹45 per additional — "Payroll + Leave + CoreHR Basic". Growth ₹4,495 per month, 50 included, ₹85 per additional — "Everything in Essential + Attendance + Advanced HR". Premium is custom. GPS Live Tracking is ₹140 per user per month; GeoMark+ and Visage are add-ons. 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. At list price, before taxes and add-ons:

  • 100 employees on Growth (the plan with attendance): ₹4,495 + 50 × ₹85 = ₹8,745 per month, about ₹1,05,000 a year. AionHRMS: ₹25,000 a year.
  • 500 employees on Growth: ₹4,495 + 450 × ₹85 = ₹42,745 per month, about ₹5,13,000 a year. AionHRMS: ₹50,000 a year.
  • The ₹2,495 headline is real but it buys payroll, not attendance; if attendance is why you are shopping, the Growth number is your number
  • AionHRMS has no per-user add-ons and no minimum headcount; a 20-person firm pays the same ₹25,000 band as a 100-person one — and, stated plainly, gets no GPS tracking either
  • Where greytHR's price is fair: Growth includes a payroll that files and leave workflows; ours computes salary and stops there

How the swipes get to the cloud

greytHR's own admin documentation explains the biometric path: "The Greytip Astra application captures swipes from your biometric machines to the greytHR application", with an Astra health-status page and a resync procedure for when "the swipes don't get captured automatically." Astra is software installed at your site, between the machine and the cloud. greytHR's blogs also argue for retiring hardware altogether — "Farewell to reliance on biometrics or any other attendance hardware."

  • AionHRMS has no Astra equivalent: the terminal pushes each punch to our server over its own protocol — iClock/ADMS for eSSL and ZKTeco, Realtime's native protocol — and the register is live in the browser
  • No PC at your site to keep on, back up, or resync; the terminal buffers offline and pushes when the network returns
  • Cloud enrolment pushed to every terminal; templates 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; denied attempts logged; remote door release — the door is in the same register as the punch
  • greytHR does not name supported device brands on the pages we could find; we do: eSSL, ZKTeco, Realtime and other standard ADMS terminals

After the punch: two different payroll bets

greytHR files. AionHRMS does not and says so. What AionHRMS does with the punch is narrower and deeper — the arithmetic of an Indian shift floor, computed and itemised, so what reaches whoever files is right.

  • Per-employee duty times; single or double shift with a separate salary per shift; night shifts on the right date
  • Grace period, late-count threshold, penalties as a flat fine or fraction of a shift; nothing deducted below threshold
  • Paid leave capped at working days; advances tracked and settled; monthly payroll report; per-employee attendance calendar
  • Not included: PF, ESI, TDS returns; leave request and approval workflows; geofenced mobile marking — all things greytHR sells
  • The common split: AionHRMS at the gates, attendance flowing through its partner API into greytHR's payroll

Security: both sides itemised

greytHR publishes ISO 27001 certification, SOC 2 compliance and AWS India hosting — precise, and credited. Our posture with equally precise qualifiers:

  • Attendance data on infrastructure in India — stated outright, as theirs is
  • Biometric templates stored as mathematical features; never displayed, exported or available through the API
  • AIONDATA is ISO 9001:2015 certified (quality management — not the same standard as ISO 27001), CMMI Level 3 appraised, and SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and HIPAA ready — readiness, not an issued attestation
  • One structural difference: in greytHR's design the Astra host at your site is part of the surface and your responsibility; in ours there is no host at your site
  • Ask both vendors the same written questions; this page holds either way

greytHR versus AionHRMS, line by line

greytHR rows are from greythr.com as published in September 2026. Price arithmetic is ours at list price, before taxes, add-ons and discounts.

AionHRMSgreytHR (published, Sept 2026)
What it isAttendance-first: terminals, cloud register, shift-wise payroll.Payroll-first HR suite; attendance from the Growth plan.
Biometric connectionDevice pushes to the cloud; nothing at your site."Greytip Astra application captures swipes from your biometric machines".
Entry plan includes attendance?Yes — attendance is the product.No: Essential is "Payroll + Leave + CoreHR Basic"; attendance needs Growth.
Pricing modelFlat annual by band; unlimited terminals and sites; no minimum.₹4,495/month for 50 + ₹85 per additional (Growth); 50-employee base.
100 employees, list price₹25,000 a year.≈ ₹1,05,000 a year (Growth).
500 employees, list price₹50,000 a year.≈ ₹5,13,000 a year (Growth).
Phone / kiosk captureGeofencing in development; not shipped.Geofence, geo tracking, selfie with liveness, Visage kiosk; GPS Live ₹140/user/month.
Statutory payrollSalary computed; filing not included.PF, ESI, PT, LWF, TDS, Form 16 — in every plan.
CertificationsISO 9001:2015; SOC 2/GDPR/HIPAA ready; India residency stated.ISO 27001, SOC 2 stated; AWS India stated.
Right choice whenTerminals, mixed brands, multi-site, wage bill on the punch, any headcount.Payroll filing and leave workflows are the purchase; 50+ staff.

Frequently asked questions

Is AionHRMS a good alternative to greytHR?
For biometric attendance, yes — device push instead of the Astra sync application, no 50-employee base, one flat annual price invoiced after go-live, and shift-wise salary from the punch. For statutory filing, leave workflows, self-service and GPS attendance, greytHR has what AionHRMS does not. Pick by which half is your purchase.
What does greytHR cost compared with AionHRMS?
greytHR publishes ₹2,495 per month for 50 employees on Essential, which excludes attendance, and ₹4,495 per month for 50 plus ₹85 per additional employee on Growth, which includes it (September 2026) — about ₹1,05,000 a year for 100 employees at list. AionHRMS is ₹25,000 a year for up to 100 and ₹50,000 for up to 500, unlimited terminals and sites, no setup fee.
Does greytHR's ₹2,495 plan include biometric attendance?
Not per its pricing page: Essential is "Payroll + Leave + CoreHR Basic", and "Attendance + Advanced HR" arrives with Growth at ₹4,495. If attendance is why you are shopping, compare against the Growth price.
What is Greytip Astra?
greytHR's own admin documentation describes Astra as the application that "captures swipes from your biometric machines to the greytHR application" — software at your site between the machine and the cloud, with a health page and a resync step when swipes are not captured automatically. AionHRMS has no such component; the terminal pushes to our server over its own protocol.
Can AionHRMS feed attendance into greytHR payroll?
Yes — 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, and greytHR for its import format, before you commit.

Related

Keep the machines. Retire the sync PC.

Send a model and serial number and we will confirm the repoint before you change anything — and quote in writing.

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