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Facto Lite vs Zoho People and Zoho Payroll

By Darshan Shah, Co-founder and CPTO, FactoChecked against the product on

Is there a Zoho People alternative with payroll built in?

Facto Lite keeps attendance, leave and payroll in one module, so an unpaid day reaches the payslip without a second product. Zoho sells HR (Zoho People) and payroll (Zoho Payroll) separately. Zoho is the better fit if you already run Zoho Books or CRM, or want performance reviews.

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Side by side

Facto Lite and Zoho People and Zoho Payroll, row by row.

The marker says which side is better at each row. Where Zoho People and Zoho Payroll wins, it says so.

  • HR and payroll together

    Facto Lite
    Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
    HR is Zoho People and payroll is Zoho Payroll: two products that connect
    Facto Lite
    Attendance, leave and payroll in one module, on one employee record

  • Statutory coverage

    Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
    Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
    EPF, ESI, professional tax by state, labour welfare fund and income tax
    Facto Lite
    PF, ESI and TDS worked out for every employee, and professional tax for Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu only

  • Returns and certificates

    Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
    Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
    Generates the annual TDS certificate with a digital signature, and records TDS challans
    Facto Lite
    Shows what each month owes and flags anything overdue. You pay the challans and file the returns yourself

  • Attendance

    Even
    Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
    On the Professional plan and above: web, mobile and face check-in, and GPS tracking
    Facto Lite
    Phone check-in with GPS, and a selfie if you require one, or a biometric reader. One method per company, set up by us

  • Performance

    Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
    Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
    Performance and compensation on the Premium plan
    Facto Lite
    Not included

  • Tasks and sales follow-ups

    Facto Lite
    Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
    Zoho Projects and Zoho CRM, each its own product and bill
    Facto Lite
    Tasks with an owner, due date and reminders, and recurring checklists with photo steps. Leads with an owner, scheduled follow-ups with reminders, and quotations. All in the same app

  • Accounting

    Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
    Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
    Connects to Zoho Books
    Facto Lite
    No accounting connection. Payroll exports a bank advice file

  • A very small team

    Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
    Zoho People and Zoho Payroll
    Zoho People has a free edition for up to 5 users, and Zoho Payroll one for up to 10 employees
    Facto Lite
    No free plan. Every module is free for 60 days
The bill

What you pay for, and how it grows.

Facto Lite’s own prices, as published on the pricing page. For Zoho People and Zoho Payroll, only how the cost behaves: their prices are theirs to state.

How it is charged

Facto Lite: A flat price per band of up to 10, 50 or 100 users, not per employee. HR & Payroll is ₹2,499 a month for up to 10 and ₹4,999 for up to 50

Zoho People and Zoho Payroll: Zoho People per user a month, with a 5-user minimum on paid plans. Zoho Payroll per organisation a month, including 25 employees, then per extra employee

How many bills

Facto Lite: Tasks from ₹1,499 and CRM from ₹2,999 a month, in the same app and the same login

Zoho People and Zoho Payroll: One for Zoho People and one for Zoho Payroll, unless you buy a Zoho bundle

Paying yearly

Facto Lite: Cheaper by the year on every module

Zoho People and Zoho Payroll: Both offer yearly billing at a lower monthly rate

Trying it first

Facto Lite: Every module free for 60 days, with no card

Zoho People and Zoho Payroll: A 30-day trial of Zoho People and a 14-day trial of Zoho Payroll

See every price

Which one fits

Each is the better buy, somewhere.

Stay with Zoho People and Zoho Payroll if

  • You already run Zoho Books, Zoho CRM or Zoho One
  • You have five people or fewer and the free editions cover you
  • You pay professional tax in a state Facto Lite doesn’t cover
  • You want performance reviews and compensation planning
  • You want the TDS certificate generated with a digital signature

Choose Facto Lite if

  • You want attendance, leave and payroll as one product, set up once
  • You want tasks and sales follow-ups without buying more Zoho products
  • You have under 100 people and want one price per band
  • Your professional tax is in Karnataka, Maharashtra or Tamil Nadu, or you have none

Zoho does HR the way it does everything: as a set of products that connect. Zoho People holds the employee record, attendance, leave and, on higher plans, performance. Zoho Payroll runs the salaries and the statutory side. If your accounts are already in Zoho Books and your sales in Zoho CRM, adding two more Zoho products is the natural move, and this page won't talk you out of it.

If you're not on Zoho, the question is different: do you want HR and payroll as two products, or one?

A Zoho People alternative with payroll in the same module

In Facto Lite, attendance, leave and payroll are one module on one employee record. An approved unpaid leave day is already in the payroll month when you run it; there's no second product to connect and no sync to check. Zoho Payroll's own pricing page lists Zoho People among its integrations, and its top plan adds leave and attendance of its own, so Zoho closes the gap too, in its own way.

One unpaid leave, followed to the payslip

Ravi, a sales executive in Pune, takes 3 days of unpaid leave in Oct 2026. His gross is ₹20,000. Here is what Facto Lite's engine does with it:

StepResult
Days paid28 of 30
Gross earned this month₹18,667
Employee PF₹1,120
Employee ESI₹141
Professional tax₹200

PF and ESI are worked out on what he earned, not his full salary, and Maharashtra's professional tax on the same figure. None of it needed anybody to carry a number from the leave screen to the payroll screen. The LOP calculation guide goes through the arithmetic, and the salary slip generator runs it for any salary.

Where Zoho is the better fit

  • You already use Zoho Books, since Zoho Payroll connects to it.
  • You're five people or fewer: Zoho People has a free edition for up to 5 users, and Zoho Payroll one for up to 10 employees.
  • You pay professional tax outside Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. Zoho Payroll lists state-wise professional tax; Facto Lite covers those three.
  • You want performance reviews and compensation planning, which Zoho People's Premium plan adds.

The shape of the bill

Zoho People is priced per user a month, with a five-user minimum on paid plans. Zoho Payroll is priced per organisation a month, including 25 employees, then per extra employee. That's two bills. Facto Lite's HR & Payroll is one flat price per band, ₹2,499 a month for up to 10 users and ₹4,999 for up to 50, with tasks and CRM as modules in the same app if you want them.

Sources

Everything this page says about the other product comes from its maker's own website, read on 24 Sep 2026:

Products and prices change. Check their current pages before you decide, and tell us if something here has gone out of date.

Questions

Asked often, answered here.

Does Zoho People include payroll?

No, payroll is Zoho Payroll, a separate product. The two connect, and Zoho Payroll’s top plan adds its own leave and attendance. Facto Lite has attendance, leave and payroll in one module.

Is Facto Lite part of Zoho?

No. It doesn’t connect to Zoho Books or Zoho CRM. If your accounts are in Zoho Books, that connection is a real reason to stay with Zoho.

Is there a free plan?

Zoho has free editions; Facto Lite doesn’t. Zoho People’s is for up to 5 users and Zoho Payroll’s for up to 10 employees. Facto Lite is free for 60 days on every module, then paid.

What does Facto Lite add over Zoho People?

Payroll, tasks and sales follow-ups in the same app. With Zoho those are Zoho Payroll, Zoho Projects and Zoho CRM, each bought and set up on its own.

Try it on your own team for sixty days.

Tasks, CRM and HR & Payroll, with no card. Keep the sheet running beside it for the first month and compare. Or see it first on a half-hour walkthrough.

Start the 60-day trialBook a walkthrough