Your first HR hire can wait. Your HR system cannot.
Leave lives in a group chat, payday is a founder's Sunday, and the offer letter is last year's file with a new name. ZekoHR replaces all three in an afternoon and costs nothing for a year.
Up to 50 employees free for 12 months. No card, no sales call.
What founders do instead of building
Leave lives in a group chat
Nobody knows who is off next week until they are. Leave types, balances and a team calendar on one record, with approvals from the request itself.
Payday is a founder's Sunday
A spreadsheet, a bank portal, a prayer. Payroll runs with pre-flight checks, effective-dated salaries and PDF payslips published to every portal.
Offer letters from last year's file
Find-and-replace on a Word document, with the old joining date left in. Letter templates with merge fields generate the PDF and keep it on the record.
Everything, free, for a year
Every module is on from day one: leave, attendance, documents, payroll, expenses, recruitment, the feed. India-ready defaults are pre-seeded so setup is an afternoon. After the free year, from ₹10 per user per month, and offboarded people stop being billable immediately.
- Free for 12 months, up to 50 employees, every module included
- After the free year: from ₹10 per user per month
- Offboarded employees stop being billable immediately
- Set up in an afternoon; India-ready defaults are pre-seeded
Illustration of a small team dashboard with leave, payroll and a new hire.
The first month, honestly
Afternoon one
Sign up, rename the pre-seeded departments and leave types, upload the holiday list if you want your own, invite the team.
Week two
Leave requests are in the system, balances are visible, and the group chat goes quiet. Publish the two policies you actually have.
Month end
Assign salary structures, run the first payroll draft, check the pre-flight warnings, finalise and publish payslips.
When ZekoHR is not the right choice
You are under ten people
Honestly, a disciplined spreadsheet still works at that size, and our comparison page says so. Come back when approvals and payroll start eating evenings.
You need ESOP or cap-table management
Salary structures handle fixed and variable pay. Grants and vesting belong in a cap-table tool.
You need performance reviews
There is no review or goals module. Use 1:1 notes and letters for the record until you need more.
Common questions
We are eight people. Is this overkill?
Honestly, maybe. Under about ten people a shared sheet can still work; our spreadsheet comparison says so in writing. ZekoHR earns its keep the week approvals and payroll start eating founder evenings, and the free year means trying it costs nothing.
What happens after the free year?
You pick a plan at ₹10, ₹20 or ₹30 per user per month, billed with a GST invoice. If you do not subscribe, you keep read-only access and your data is retained for 90 days before being purged.
Can we start with just leave and add payroll later?
Yes. Every module is on during the free year, so use what you need. Many teams begin with leave and attendance and switch on payroll when they hire their accountant.
How long does setup really take?
An afternoon. Defaults for departments, leave types and Indian holidays are pre-seeded; you rename what you like and invite the team.