Zoho People
Affordable cloud HR software for employee records, attendance, leave, workflows, performance, compensation, learning and people analytics.
Zoho People covers employee records, onboarding/offboarding, documents, leave, attendance, timesheets, shifts, performance, compensation, engagement, analytics, help desk, learning and Zia AI, with plan depth increasing from Essential HR through Enterprise.
G2 currently shows 4.4/5 from 408 reviews and Capterra 4.4/5 from 367, with Capterra ease of use at 4.2 and customer service at 4.1. Users repeatedly praise day-to-day attendance, leave and employee-data workflows, while advanced configuration, hidden options and support responsiveness are recurring friction points.
Zoho People publishes one of the clearest HR pricing ladders in this category: Free for up to 5 users, then $1.25, $2, $3 and $4.50 per user/month billed annually for Essential HR, Professional, Premium and Enterprise, plus a 30-day trial and a published company-wide refund policy.
Zoho People supports native Zoho and third-party integrations, Zapier/Zoho Flow, OAuth API access, MFA, AES-256 encryption at rest, geo/IP restrictions, audit logs, real-time backups, GDPR controls, ISO 9001 and product-specific SOC2+/HIPAA-oriented security features. Public certification detail is less consolidated than Workday/SAP enterprise trust portals.
Scored by Vishal Singh
Quick facts
- Vendor
- Zoho Corporation
- Pricing model
- paid
- Plan pricing
- $1.25/user/mo billed annually Vendor source checked; not a hands-on review
- Free plan
- Yes — check limits
- Free trial
- Yes — check eligibility
- Last verified
- Not yet verified
About Zoho People
Zoho People is a cloud HR platform for small and midsize organizations that centralizes employee data, onboarding and offboarding, documents, leave, attendance, shifts, timesheets, performance, compensation, engagement, analytics, HR help desk, learning and Zia AI. It also connects with the broader Zoho ecosystem and third-party tools through native integrations, Zapier, Zoho Flow and APIs.
Best for
Small and midsize businesses that want broad HR functionality, strong Zoho ecosystem integration and unusually low transparent per-user pricing.
Zoho People pros and cons
Pros
- Free plan supports up to 5 users.
- Essential HR starts at only $1.25 per user/month billed annually.
- 30-day free trial is available and moves to Free if no paid plan is selected.
- Higher tiers add attendance, timesheets, performance, compensation, analytics, HR help desk and LMS.
- Security controls include MFA, AES-256 encryption, geo/IP restrictions, audit logs and GDPR-oriented privacy controls.
Cons
- −Advanced setup for permissions, forms, workflows and attendance policies can require a learning period.
- −Customer support ratings trail the overall product rating on Capterra.
- −Payroll functionality is region-dependent and often relies on Zoho Payroll or third-party payroll integrations.
- −Some advanced HR capabilities are reserved for Premium or Enterprise.
- −Public security/compliance documentation is spread across multiple Zoho resources rather than one consolidated product trust portal.
Features
Platforms
Integrations
Pricing
Free forever for up to 5 users. Includes employee database management, time off, documents, basic self-service and foundational HR functions.
$1.25/user/month billed annually. Adds onboarding/offboarding, employee database management, document management, leave, HR reports and Zia AI bot. Current paid plans list a 5-user minimum.
$2/user/month billed annually. Adds attendance management, timesheets and roster/shift management on top of Essential HR.
$3/user/month billed annually. Adds performance management, compensation management, employee engagement and advanced HR analytics.
$4.50/user/month billed annually. Adds HR help desk, learning management and sandbox capabilities on top of Premium.
Official pricing / availability source · Checked 5 October 2026. Confirm current taxes, regional terms and allowances. A listed plan is not necessarily the cheapest option.
Editorial verification: Not yet verified. Check the vendor's site for current pricing.