For startups
HR software for startups
Kuzhu gives a startup the HR system it will need at 80 people, free while it has 15: employee records, offer and appointment letters from templates, hybrid attendance, leave balances people check themselves and a mobile app, with payroll, recruitment, expenses and performance switched on as the company grows. Every module reads the same employee record, so nothing is migrated later, and the employee register and compliance proofs a diligence checklist asks for are already there.
₹0
for life, up to 15 employees
14 days
free trial of any larger plan, no card
1 action
from accepted candidate to employee record
Today
What month end looks like at a startup
The founder is HR
Offer letters are edited from the last one, leave is tracked in a Notion table, and salaries are a bank transfer from a sheet the co-founder keeps. Every HR question interrupts whoever happens to be nearest.
Payroll compliance starts late
PF registration is put off until someone asks, TDS on salaries is handled at year end, and the first diligence checklist from an investor asks for registers, challans and appointment letters that do not exist as a set.
Tools that do not survive growth
The spreadsheet worked at 8 people and breaks at 30. The next tool is chosen in a hurry, the data is retyped, and by 80 people there are three systems that disagree about who joined when.
With Kuzhu
How the modules answer it
Every module reads the same employee record, so nothing below is an integration; it is one system seen from four sides.
Offer letters from a template, not the last one
Offer, appointment and confirmation letters from your own templates with merge fields and your letterhead, issued against the employee record and stored as sent with a timestamped acknowledgement. Consistent letters from the first hire onward.
Documents module
A pipeline before there is a recruiter
Openings, candidates by stage, interview scorecards and offers from the same template engine, with one action turning an accepted candidate into an employee with everything already filled in. Switched on when hiring picks up.
Recruitment (ATS) module
Payroll that is compliant from month one
CTC structures with any component you use, PF with the EPS split, ESI where wages are within ₹21,000, professional tax by state and TDS with declarations, computed in the run with the challans and Form 24Q produced from it.
Payroll module
Hybrid without a policy document
Office, hybrid and remote rules assigned per person or team, web and GPS-tagged mobile punch, and a leave calendar the team sees before booking, so the rules are in the system rather than in a pinned Slack message.
Attendance moduleAsked first
Questions startups ask on the first call
We are 6 people. Why would we need HR software?
Because the employee register, appointment letters and leave records you will be asked for at your first diligence are easier to keep from day one than to reconstruct at 40 people. Basic is free for life up to 15 employees and takes an afternoon to set up, so the cost of starting early is nil.
What happens when we cross 15 employees?
You move to Starter or Growth, priced per employee per month and quoted on your actual headcount, with a 14-day trial first. Nothing is migrated: the same workspace, records and history continue, and the new modules are switched on. Billing follows active employees, prorated as people join and leave.
Do you handle ESOPs or equity?
No. Kuzhu records the salary structure, letters and statutory side of employment; equity grants and vesting are kept in your cap table tool. Custom fields on the employee record can hold grant references so the two stay linked, and the API can sync whatever else you need.
Our team is in three cities and two people are remote. Does that matter?
Attendance and leave rules are per person, so remote employees are not asked to punch at an office. Professional tax follows each person’s work location, holiday calendars can differ by city, and payslips, letters and approvals all happen in the app. Nobody needs to be in the same room for payroll to run.
Also written for
Every industry and city
What HR leaders say about Kuzhu HR & Payroll.
Honest ratings from verified companies running attendance, biometric machines, and monthly payroll across India.
4.9
From 12 customer reviews
“Customer support actually answers phone calls and WhatsApp”
With our previous vendor, raising an issue meant waiting 48 hours in a ticket queue. With Kuzhu, our designated account manager answers within minutes. The migration from our old software took just two weeks with zero data loss.
Bhavna Chawla
HR Director, Zenith Retail Brands
“Expense claims with receipt capture streamlined reimbursement”
Our lab sample collection executives file travel claims with receipts photographed on the spot. Managers approve in real-time, and reimbursements flow straight into the payroll payout. Very clean implementation with exceptional customer support.
Gaurav Tandon
Chief Financial Officer, Apex Health Diagnostics
“Dedicated database per company and clean REST API”
From a security and architectural standpoint, having a dedicated database rather than a multi-tenant shared table was a key factor in choosing Kuzhu. The REST API made it easy to connect our internal engineering tools for single-sign on and onboarding hooks.
Karthik Sundaram
Chief Technology Officer, OmniReach Cloud Technologies
Reviews are from active companies using Kuzhu, published with their permission and verified by month-end payroll execution.
Explore all 12 customer reviews & ratingsSee it on your numbers
Thirty minutes, your payroll
Tell us how HR runs today and roughly how many people you have. We show you the same thing your team would use on Monday, and we say so if it does not fit.
- No card, no contract, nothing installed
- A parallel payroll reconciled before you switch
- Free for life up to 15 employees