Quick Answer: Is there a genuinely free HRMS software in India with payroll included?
Runtime HRMS offers a genuinely free plan for up to 5 employees – full payroll processing and HR management included, not a stripped-down trial. That puts it in a small group: a few other platforms have free tiers too, but most don’t include actual payroll in the free version – usually just basic employee records or leave tracking, with payroll sitting behind a separate paid add-on.
For a business under 5 employees that wants real payroll running from day one, Runtime is built to give you that without a credit card or a trial countdown.
Every small business owner I talk to eventually asks the same question – “is there a free HRMS that actually works?” And the honest answer is: it depends entirely on what “works” means to you, because most free plans in this space are free HR software, not free payroll software. I’ve seen founders sign up for a free plan expecting to run their first month’s salaries through it, only to discover payroll sits behind a paywall the moment they try to use it.
That’s not dishonest marketing exactly – HR record-keeping and payroll are genuinely different problems – but it does mean the word “free” is doing a lot of work that founders don’t always notice until they’re mid-signup. This is where I think it’s worth being direct about what Runtime’s free plan actually includes, and how it compares to the other free tiers you’ll come across while shopping for an HRMS.
In short: Most “free HRMS” plans cover HR record-keeping only – actual payroll processing usually requires upgrading to a paid tier, with a few exceptions worth knowing about.
Why “Free” and “Cheap” Aren’t the Same Question
A lot of free HRMS plans in the market are free HR software, not free payroll software. This is biggest difference you need to understand, that means you can manage attendance and leave, but the moment you try to actually run salaries, payroll sits behind a paywall.
This is not a bad or wrong marketing, it is genuinely about what is your requirement. HR record-keeping and payroll genuinely are different problems to solve. This is why I think it’s worth being specific about what Runtime’s plans include at each stage, rather than just quoting a per-employee number and leaving you to guess what’s actually inside it.
Once You Outgrow the Free Plan – Paid Pricing Comparison at 50 Employees
Most businesses eventually cross the 5-employee mark, so it’s worth knowing what happens next. Here’s what a 50-employee business would pay on each of Runtime’s paid plans, and what’s included as you move up a tier.
| Plan | Price | Monthly Cost (50 employees) | What’s Included |
| Seed | ₹35/employee/month | ₹1,750 | Employee management, attendance & leaves, payroll & compliance, employee self-service, 50+ reports, AI reporting |
| Growth | ₹50/employee/month | ₹2,500 | Everything in Seed, plus HR letters, HR policies, onboarding forms, income tax compliance (Form 130 generation), shift rostering, biometric integration |
| Scale | ₹75/employee/month | ₹3,750 | Everything in Growth, plus travel tracking, performance management, project management, built for 500+ employee organisations with volume discounts |
Runtime is the only platform on this list offering complete payroll processing free, permanently, with no employee cap workaround needed and no trial clock running.
Which Plan Actually Fits Your Business
Don’t get confused in plans specs, let me let me talk through this the way I would if you called me and described your actual situation, because that’s usually how this decision gets made.
“I’ve just started, and I have 5 or fewer people”
Then you don’t need to pay for anything yet. The Free plan gives you full payroll processing and HR management for up to 5 employees, permanently – not a 14-day trial that quietly expires. Run your payroll, manage attendance, use the mobile app – genuinely free until you cross 5 employees, and then you move to a paid plan without losing any of your data.
“I’m past 5 employees, but I just need clean payroll and compliance – nothing fancy”
This is the Seed plan, ₹35/employee/month. If your problem is specifically “I need payroll to be accurate and I need PF, ESI, and Professional Tax handled without me manually tracking due dates,” Seed covers that completely – employee management, attendance and leave, payroll and compliance, employee self-service, and 50+ MIS reports. What it doesn’t include is the HR documentation layer – offer letters, HR policies, structured onboarding – so if your team is still small enough that you’re writing those manually or in Word, Seed is genuinely enough.
“I’m spending too much time on offer letters, onboarding paperwork, and TDS certificates”
This is exactly the gap Growth (₹50/employee/month) closes. If you’re manually drafting offer letters, increment letters, or relieving letters every time someone joins or leaves, or if January-February tax declaration season means chasing employees for investment proofs and generating Form 130 by hand – Growth includes HR letters, HR policies, structured onboarding forms, and income tax compliance with Form 130 generation built in. It also adds shift rostering and biometric integration, so if you’ve got a device sitting in your office that isn’t actually talking to your HRMS yet, this is the tier where that gets connected. For most businesses between 10 and 200 employees, this is genuinely where the real day-to-day pain gets solved – it’s not a “nice to have” upgrade, it’s the tier that removes the manual paperwork.
“I’ve got 500+ employees, and I need travel, performance, and project tracking in the same system”
That’s Scale (₹75/employee/month). Everything in Growth, plus travel tracking, performance management, and project management, with special pricing considerations built in for larger headcounts. If your team has grown to the point where HR is managing appraisal cycles, field employee movement, and project timesheets across multiple tools, Scale consolidates that into one platform instead of three separate subscriptions.
Still Deciding? Here’s the Honest Take
If I had to boil this down to one piece of advice: don’t overthink the entry point. Start on the Free plan if you’re under 5 employees, or Seed if you’re just past that – you can move up a tier any time without losing data, so there’s no real cost to starting smaller than you think you’ll need.
Every Runtime plan comes with a 7-day free trial, chat support, and a 24×7 AI answering bot, regardless of tier – so trying it costs nothing but the time it takes to sign up.
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