Quick summary
- OfficePortal Standard is free for the first 5 users, then ₹60 per user per month. Attendance, leave and Indian statutory payroll sit in the same plan.
- Zoho People has a free edition for very small teams. Paid plans (Essential HR, Professional, Premium, Enterprise) cost ₹48, ₹96, ₹144 and ₹192 per user per month on annual billing (₹60 to ₹240 billed monthly), before GST.
- Zoho People does not run Indian statutory payroll itself. PF, ESI, PT and TDS sit in Zoho Payroll, a separate subscription.
- On Zoho People, attendance, timesheets and rosters start at the Professional tier, so the real entry price for a team that tracks attendance is ₹96, not ₹48.
- The real cost gap depends on headcount and on whether you need payroll, so model your own numbers before deciding.
Why teams compare OfficePortal and Zoho People
Both products are built by Indian companies and both cover the core HR basics: employee records, leave, attendance and self-service. Teams usually put them side by side when a growing business outgrows spreadsheets, or when a Zoho user wonders whether a single-vendor HR and payroll tool would be simpler.
The difference that decides most comparisons is structure. OfficePortal sells three plans, with payroll and compliance included. Zoho sells four HR tiers and treats payroll as a separate product. Neither approach is wrong, but they produce different invoices and different setups.
Pricing compared
For a team of ten, OfficePortal Standard costs ₹300 a month, because the first five users are free. On Zoho People's paid plans, a ten-person team pays for all ten seats: about ₹960 a month on Professional, the tier that adds attendance and timesheets, before payroll.
At fifty employees, OfficePortal Standard costs ₹2,700 a month against about ₹4,800 for Zoho People Professional, and Zoho Payroll is still extra. The fair comparison is Zoho People plus Zoho Payroll against OfficePortal alone.
At two hundred employees, OfficePortal is ₹11,700 a month against about ₹19,200 for Zoho Professional. Zoho's Premium and Enterprise tiers add performance, compensation, learning and help desk features, so weigh those against OfficePortal's Premium and Elite plans. The pricing table below shows three team sizes in rupees.
Payroll and statutory compliance
This is the deciding factor for most Indian buyers. OfficePortal's payroll software handles PF, ESI, Professional Tax, Labour Welfare Fund and TDS, generates Form 16, and reads directly from attendance and leave, so pro-rata pay and loss of pay are calculated without re-keying data.
Zoho People is an HRMS. For statutory payroll you add Zoho Payroll, which integrates well with People but is billed and configured separately (third-party trackers report it from ₹1,250 a month for 25 employees). Whichever product you choose, ask the vendor to run one month of your real payroll in parallel and check PF, ESI, PT and TDS figures against your current process.
Where Zoho People may suit you better
- You already run Zoho CRM, Books, Expense or Projects and want everything to connect natively.
- You prefer a large partner and implementation ecosystem, and are comfortable managing HR and payroll as two subscriptions.
- You want a 30-day trial of a higher tier before committing.
- You are a very small team where Zoho's free plan and free payroll offer cover your needs.
Where OfficePortal fits better
- You want HR, attendance, leave and statutory payroll under one price, with one vendor to call on salary day.
- You are a growing team where a free first five users and a flat per-user rate keep costs easy to predict. See how this works for startups and for IT companies.
- You need flexible check-in methods (web, biometric, mobile and selfie) that feed directly into pay runs through attendance tracking.
- You want attendance, shifts and leave from day one, without stepping up a pricing tier.
- You would rather avoid a five-user minimum and pay only for the users you have.
- You would rather choose a plan than assemble add-ons.
How to choose
- Model both prices at your headcount for the next twelve months, including GST.
- List the statutory outputs you must produce (PF, ESI, PT, TDS, Form 16) and ask each vendor to demonstrate them.
- Add the payroll cost to Zoho People before comparing totals.
- Run one month of payroll in parallel before you switch.
- Check data export terms and support hours with both vendors.
- Confirm current prices with both vendors, as published rates change.