Why Payroll Software Knowledge Is Now a Career Essential
Five years ago, knowing GreytHR or Keka was a nice-to-have skill for HR professionals. In 2025, it is table stakes. Walk into most HR interviews in Pune or Bangalore and one of the first practical questions is: "Have you worked on GreytHR? Keka? Darwinbox?" If the answer is no, you have lost ground immediately — regardless of your theoretical knowledge.
This is not a coincidence. Over 80% of Indian companies with 50+ employees now use a cloud-based HRMS/payroll platform. The days of Excel-based payroll are fading even in mid-sized manufacturing companies. If you cannot navigate these tools, you cannot do the job at the speed and accuracy companies expect.
This guide compares the three platforms that dominate the Indian HR technology market — GreytHR, Keka, and Darwinbox — from the perspective of an HR professional choosing what to learn, not an IT team choosing what to buy.
GreytHR — The Payroll Specialist
GreytHR is the most widely used payroll and compliance software in India for companies in the 50–2,000 employee range. It was built primarily for Indian statutory compliance — PF, ESI, PT, TDS, and gratuity — and it shows. The statutory filing features are comprehensive and regularly updated for regulatory changes.
- Strength: Statutory compliance depth — PF ECR generation, ESI challan, Form 16, Form 24Q TDS return, professional tax across all states. For a payroll professional, GreytHR is the most complete compliance tool.
- Strength: Payslip generation and distribution, FnF calculations, leave management, attendance integration
- Strength: Indian-specific support and customer service that understands compliance queries
- Limitation: Less strong on recruitment and talent management compared to Keka and Darwinbox
- Who uses it: Manufacturing companies (especially PCMC, Chakan, Talegaon belt in Pune), SMEs, logistics companies, BFSI mid-sized firms
- Career relevance: Essential if you are targeting payroll roles or HR Generalist roles in manufacturing and traditional industries
Keka — The Modern HR Platform
Keka entered the Indian market as the "modern, employee-friendly" alternative to older payroll tools. It has a clean interface, strong employee self-service features, and good recruitment and performance management modules alongside payroll. It is growing rapidly among IT companies and startups.
- Strength: Modern, clean user interface — employee self-service portal is genuinely well-designed
- Strength: Strong integration between payroll, recruitment (ATS), performance management, and time tracking
- Strength: Analytics and reporting features are better than GreytHR
- Strength: Growing rapidly — more IT companies and startups are adopting Keka
- Limitation: Payroll compliance depth for complex manufacturing scenarios is less mature than GreytHR
- Who uses it: IT companies, startups, e-commerce, modern professional services firms
- Career relevance: Essential if you are targeting IT sector HR roles, startup HR, or want a modern HRMS skill set
Darwinbox — The Enterprise Platform
Darwinbox is a full-suite HCM (Human Capital Management) platform targeting mid-to-large enterprises. It competes with SAP SuccessFactors and Oracle HCM at the higher end. It has strong capabilities across the full HR lifecycle — hire to retire — including robust analytics, mobile-first design, and API integrations.
- Strength: Complete HCM suite — recruitment, onboarding, core HR, payroll, performance, learning, and analytics in one platform
- Strength: Strong analytics and workforce insights — the most advanced reporting among the three
- Strength: Mobile-first design with strong employee app
- Limitation: Complex to administer — requires more system knowledge than GreytHR or Keka
- Limitation: Primarily used by companies with 500+ employees
- Who uses it: Large Indian companies, MNCs, GCCs, manufacturing companies with large workforces
- Career relevance: Valuable for HR professionals targeting large corporate or MNC roles. Knowledge of Darwinbox signals enterprise HR experience.
Learn Payroll Software the Right Way
Aapvex's Payroll Management course includes hands-on practice on GreytHR and Keka — the two most important platforms for Pune's job market.
Which Should You Learn First?
| Your Target | Primary Platform | Secondary Platform |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing HR in Pune/PCMC | GreytHR | Darwinbox |
| IT Company HR in Hinjewadi/Baner | Keka | Darwinbox |
| Startup HR | Keka | GreytHR basics |
| Payroll Specialist role | GreytHR | Keka |
| MNC or GCC HR | Darwinbox | GreytHR or Keka |
| General HR Generalist Fresher | GreytHR + Keka basics | — |
What "Knowing a Platform" Actually Means
There is a difference between saying "I know GreytHR" and actually being able to run a payroll on it. Interviewers in Pune's manufacturing sector will sometimes ask you to demonstrate GreytHR knowledge during the interview itself. Here is what genuine platform knowledge means:
- You can set up an employee master record — personal details, salary structure, statutory coverage, UAN linking
- You can process monthly payroll inputs — attendance, LOP, new joiners, exits, salary revisions
- You can generate and verify payslips for a sample of employees
- You can generate the PF ECR file and understand how it maps to the EPFO portal upload
- You can generate ESI challans and understand the contribution computation
- You can run FnF calculations for a resigned employee
- You understand where errors commonly occur and how to identify and fix them
This level of competence does not come from watching YouTube videos. It comes from actually running payroll on the platform — which is exactly what we give our students at Aapvex in the Payroll Management and HR Generalist courses. Call 7796731656 to know more about how the software training is structured.