Keka

Keka is a cloud HR, payroll, hiring, and project-operations suite for organizations that want workforce processes connected in one system. It is strongest for teams with India payroll requirements and employees who need mobile access to everyday HR tasks. Its broad coverage is useful, but buyers should match the right plan to their mix of HR, recruiting, and project work.

Overview

Keka combines employee records, organizational structures, onboarding, attendance, performance, payroll, and project operations. Linking lifecycle changes to related workflows can reduce the need to keep separate HR records and processes. The product is a better fit for organizations wanting a connected HR platform than for a business seeking only a narrow leave tracker or applicant-tracking tool.

Key features

Core HR manages employee records and organizational structures, while onboarding connects workforce changes to subsequent processes. The hiring workflow covers job posting, candidate sourcing, interviews, offers, and preboarding, then ties those steps to employee records. That connection suits teams that want recruiting to flow directly into HR administration.

Keka's India payroll capability synchronizes attendance, leave, and salary inputs and calculates TDS, PF, ESI, and PT. Those calculations are a concrete advantage for employers handling these obligations; they do not establish equivalent payroll support in other countries. Attendance can use biometric, GPS, or mobile check-ins, with leave and overtime policies applied automatically, which is useful for distributed and field-based workforces.

Performance management brings goals, reviews, continuous feedback, and one-on-ones together. Project operations add planning, resource allocation, utilization, timesheets, and billing, extending the platform beyond conventional HR administration. More than 100 integrations, including Salesforce, Jira, Xero, and Stripe, plus a marketplace and developer API documentation, give teams options for connecting existing systems.

Employees can use the mobile app for leave, clock-in and clock-out, expenses, payslips, tax details, and helpdesk requests. Security measures include TLS-protected portal sessions, web and network firewalls, DDoS defenses, and hosting providers certified for SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001. Keka also states ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type II or comparable attestations for its services.

The archive utility supports creating 7Z, ZIP, TAR, GZIP, BZIP2, XZ, LZIP, DMG, ISO, BROTLI, ZSTD, LRZIP, AAR, WIM, and other formats, and extracting formats including RAR, ZIPX, APK, IPA, MSI, JAR, WAR, and APPX. Encryption, split archives, and command-line tools are included. These file-compression capabilities sit alongside the HR suite, so organizations should verify whether they are relevant to their intended deployment.

Pricing

Keka uses a freemium model with a free plan and free trials. The US pricing page labels Foundation, Strength, and Pro as “Free Trial,” but no numeric prices are published, so paid tiers require custom pricing.

• Foundation (HRMS & Payroll): Core HR, time tracking, payroll and expenses, and employee self-service. It is the sensible starting point for organizations prioritizing core workforce administration and payroll.
• Strength (HRMS & Payroll): Adds advanced HR, asset tracking, custom reports, and Slack and Microsoft Teams integration to Foundation. Choose it when reporting, assets, or collaboration integrations justify moving beyond the base tier.
• Pro (Hiring): Adds recruitment, candidate management, interview scheduling, preboarding, and offers. It suits employers that need a connected hiring process rather than HR records alone.
• Advanced (Projects & Timesheets): Builds on Pro with project health, surveys, and advanced approval flows. It targets organizations with more involved project governance.
• Pro (Projects & Timesheets): Includes basic features, resource planning, utilization tracking, revenue reporting, and opportunities. It is aimed at service teams that need to relate staffing and project performance to revenue.

Because prices, seat terms, quotas, renewal terms, and free-plan caps are not published, budget-sensitive buyers should obtain a quote and confirm exactly which modules and limits apply during the trial.

Platforms

Keka is available on web, Android, iOS, and macOS, with API and extension support. Mobile access is particularly practical for employees submitting leave, recording attendance, checking payslips, and raising helpdesk requests.

Who it's for

Keka is well suited to growing organizations that want HR, India payroll, recruiting, attendance, performance, and project operations connected. It also fits mobile or distributed workforces that need several check-in methods and employee self-service. A company needing only one focused HR function may find the wider suite unnecessary, while employers outside India should validate payroll coverage before committing.

Pros and cons

• Pro: India payroll calculates TDS, PF, ESI, and PT from synchronized attendance, leave, and salary inputs.
• Pro: Hiring, onboarding, performance, and projects connect to employee records instead of standing as isolated tools.
• Pro: Biometric, GPS, mobile, and employee-app workflows accommodate varied working patterns.
• Con: Paid pricing is custom, with no published numeric prices or stated seat and quota limits.
• Con: The breadth can be excessive for organizations seeking a single-purpose HR or recruiting product.

Alternatives

Zoho People is a better choice for teams wanting a simpler freemium HR product, including a free tier for five users and web, iOS, and Android access.

Teammeter suits organizations focused on check-ins and team monitoring, with a free core version and API, self-hosted, and web platforms.

Cornerstone Learning is the alternative when learning management is the priority and quote-based enterprise purchasing is acceptable.

Cegid Retail is a paid option for retail operations across web, mobile, Windows, and self-hosted deployments.

Oracle Taleo is a paid recruiting and talent option for organizations evaluating an enterprise platform.

PeopleFluent Recruiting fits buyers seeking an enterprise recruiting ATS with pricing on request.

Workday Talent Management is an enterprise talent-management alternative sold through contact with sales.

Korn Ferry Assess is a paid assessment platform with pricing on request.

For focused category comparisons, see HR Software, Talent Management Software, Leave Management Software, and File Compression Software.

Verdict

Choose Keka if you want one platform tying India payroll to HR, attendance, hiring, performance, and project operations, with strong employee mobile access. Look elsewhere if you need transparent pricing, a narrowly focused tool, or payroll coverage beyond what Keka's India-specific calculations support.