Payroll and compliance
This is greytHR’s core and it is a real strength. Employee Desk runs monthly payroll with PF, ESI and PT, but greytHR goes further on statutory filing and income-tax handling.
Comparison
Employee Desk vs greytHR
Both are built for Indian companies. greytHR is an HR and payroll platform with statutory compliance at its core. Employee Desk is attendance, work tracking, planning and payroll. The choice usually turns on how much statutory depth you need versus desktop tracking and planning.
- 7-day trial
- No keystroke logging
- INR pricing published
What each product is
Employee Desk
Employee management with time tracking attached
Attendance, leave, holidays, employee records, projects, tasks and daily work reports, with an optional desktop time tracker on top. Available as a cloud subscription. Built in India, priced in rupees.
- Attendance and leave are core, not an add-on
- Per-user pricing: pay only for active employees; admins are free
- No keystroke content is ever recorded
- Employees see everything recorded about them
greytHR
Indian HR and payroll software in the cloud
greytHR, from Greytip Software, is a widely used Indian HRMS centred on payroll and statutory compliance — PF, ESI, professional tax and TDS — with attendance, leave and an employee self-service app around it.
- Payroll with Indian statutory compliance
- Attendance and leave management
- Employee self-service portal and mobile app
- Cloud service hosted on AWS
Feature comparison
Compared on facts that can be checked from public documentation. Where something is genuinely unclear it is marked rather than guessed at.
| Employee Desk | greytHR | |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Cloud | Cloud |
| Payroll with PF, ESI, PT and TDS | PF, ESI, PT; TDS entered manually | Yes |
| Attendance and leave | Yes | Yes |
| Shift roster with late marking per shift | Yes | Check current plans |
| Desktop time tracker | Windows, macOS, Ubuntu | No |
| Projects, tasks and daily work reports | Yes | Not the focus |
| Timesheets: attendance vs tracked vs reported | Yes | No |
| Capacity, forecast, scenarios | Yes | No |
| Pricing currency | INR | INR |
Check greytHR’s own site before you decide. Last checked against greytHR’s public pages on 8 October 2026. Software changes. Everything on this page is written from greytHR’s public documentation and pricing pages at the time of writing, we do not restate their prices here because they move, and we correct this page when we are told it is wrong. If you find something inaccurate, email contact@digitalgeniussolution.com and we will fix it.
Where Employee Desk is stronger
Where greytHR may be stronger
Written plainly, because a comparison page that finds no fault with itself is not worth reading.
Self-service at scale
Payslips, tax declarations and HR letters in a self-service app employees already know.
Track record
A long-established product with a large Indian customer base and published reviews.
Which should you choose?
Choose Employee Desk if
- You already have payroll and need attendance, tracking and planning.
- Your staff work at computers and you need timesheets.
Choose greytHR if
- Statutory filing and income-tax handling are the main requirement.
- You want payslips and tax declarations in a self-service app.
- Cloud hosting is acceptable.
Pricing
We do not restate greytHR’s prices because they change; check their pricing page directly. Our cloud plans are published in rupees, priced per active user per month plus 18% GST.
Cloud
Starter
Core HR, shifts and chat
₹59 / user / month
+ 18% GST
- Employee records
- Attendance
- Leave management
- Holiday calendar
- Custom roles & permissions
- Organization settings
- Session control
- Shifts & roster
- Team chat
Cloud · most chosen
Growth
Projects, tasks, work reports, timesheets and activity tracking
₹99 / user / month
+ 18% GST
- Everything in Starter, plus:
- Projects
- Tasks
- Daily work reports
- Timesheets
- Desktop time tracker (hours, active/idle)
Cloud
Pro
Screenshots, live productivity, planning, payroll and audit
₹149 / user / month
+ 18% GST
- Everything in Growth, plus:
- Screenshots, live board & retention
- Live screen capture, day timeline, browser tab history, top apps & pages, screenshots
- Productivity insights
- Workforce planning
- Payroll
- Audit log
Prices exclude 18% GST. Billed monthly per active user.
Need an on-premise deployment? Contact sales. Full detail on the pricing page.
Using both together
One possible setup: greytHR runs payroll, Employee Desk runs attendance, shifts, tracking and planning, and the monthly attendance and leave export feeds payroll. Neither product has to do the other’s job.
Frequently asked questions
Is greytHR available on-premise?
greytHR is offered as cloud software, hosted on AWS according to its own partner page. We found no confirmed on-premise edition; ask greytHR directly if that matters.
Can Employee Desk replace greytHR?
For many teams, yes. Payroll covers salary components and templates, loss of pay from absences (listed day by day on the payslip), payslip PDFs, loans and advances with EMI, PF/ESI/PT and a bank transfer sheet. TDS is a monthly figure you enter and returns are not filed from the product, so check that against what you use greytHR for.
Can Employee Desk send attendance to greytHR?
Yes, as a monthly CSV or XLSX export. A direct connector is not built.
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Run both for a week
A 7-day trial with your real team is a better comparison than any table. Install the tracker on two machines and look at what the reports actually say.
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