- For companies that already hold an Indian entity, the 2026 shortlist is Wisemonk, Rippling, Deel, Remote, ADP India, Paysquare, Husys, PeopleStrong, TeamLease HRtech and Neeyamo.
- Score every provider on statutory execution depth, how many states it can pay in, whether it publishes pricing, what it holds on data security, and what its exit and data-portability terms say.
- Most India PEO providers publish no rate, so the comparison happens in the quote. Three pricing shapes dominate: per employee per month, a percentage of payroll, or a platform fee plus a per employee charge.
- PF, ESI and TDS histories do not reset when you change provider, so plan the cut-over around the year-to-date records and the filing calendar rather than the contract date.
- Wisemonk PEO runs payroll, statutory filings and HR operations under your own Indian entity, priced on a scope-based quote.
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You already hold an Indian entity, so the PEO service providers in India worth your time are the ones that run payroll and HR operations under it. You are not looking for someone to employ your people. You are looking for someone to operate your obligations.
If you do not hold an entity in India, a PEO is not your model, because the provider would have nothing to run payroll under. That case calls for an employer of record, and we set the difference out on our page for PEO services in India.
Below are ten providers scored against the same five criteria, one comparison table, an honest limitation on every entry including ours, and the switching checklist most buyers reach for too late. (Read: hiring through a PEO in India)
What should you look for in a PEO provider in India if you already have an entity?
Score every India PEO on five things: how deep its statutory execution runs across PF, ESI, professional tax, TDS, gratuity and LWF; how many states it can pay in; whether it publishes pricing; what it holds on data security; and what its exit terms say.
Across the entity-holder engagements we run, those five questions are what separate a provider that files on time from one that merely calculates well. Every profile below is scored against them.
How deep does its statutory execution actually go?
The test is whether the provider files, not whether it calculates. Ask who prepares and submits the PF and ESI returns, the professional tax filings, TDS, gratuity records and LWF remittances, and whose login is used.
A provider that computes correctly and then hands you a file to upload has left the work with you, which is the split we set out in statutory compliance in HR in India.
Ask for the filing calendar the provider works to, and check it against your own. See the monthly India payroll compliance calendar.
Can it run payroll in every state where you have people?
Professional tax, LWF and Shops and Establishments registrations are state-level, so India coverage is not one thing. A provider strong in Karnataka and Maharashtra may have never filed in a state where you just hired your third engineer.
Name your states in the RFP and ask which registrations the provider already holds. (Read: multi-state payroll and tax for distributed India teams)
Does it publish pricing, or only a quote?
Neither is disqualifying. Not knowing which you are getting is. A published rate lets you compare before a call, while a quote-only provider can be the better fit for a complex scope, but you carry the work of pinning down what is inside the number.
What does it hold on data security?
Certifications are checkable and marketing language is not. Ask for the current ISO 27001 certificate and the scope statement on it, the most recent SOC report, and the provider's readiness under the DPDP Act.
Bank-grade security is not an answer to any of those three questions.
What happens when you leave?
Exit notice, the format your data comes back in, and who holds the year-to-date records after termination. This is the criterion buyers skip at signature and the one that decides how expensive the next change is.
See who is liable if your India payroll vendor makes an error.
Those five are the rubric, not the whole selection process, and the depth behind each one sits on its own page. (Read: how to choose the best PEO in India)
Who are the top PEO service providers in India in 2026?
Ten providers make our 2026 shortlist: Wisemonk, Rippling, Deel, Remote, ADP India, Paysquare, Husys, PeopleStrong, TeamLease HRtech and Neeyamo. We scored each on statutory depth, state coverage, pricing transparency and exit terms, using their own material as of August 2026.
The market is wider than ten names, and we map more of it in payroll outsourcing companies in India.
Here is the shortlist at a glance, with the pricing column carrying only what each provider publishes on its own site:
| Provider | Runs payroll on your own India entity | India delivery model | Published pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wisemonk | Yes, this is what the PEO product is for | India-native team, built for entity holders | Custom quote, scope-based | Entity holders who want India HR operations and payroll run end to end |
| Rippling | Global Payroll is built for employers that hold their own entity | Processes payroll itself through its own software; names India as payable | Not published | Teams that want India payroll on one native software platform |
| Deel | Global Payroll is a distinct product for entity holders | Not published for India | $599 per employee per month for its EOR, a different product. No India PEO or global-payroll rate | Buyers already on Deel elsewhere who will confirm India scope with the vendor |
| Remote | India support not confirmed on Remote's own page | Its own FAQ says paying abroad usually needs a local entity and local registrations | $29 per employee per month for Global Payroll | Multi-country buyers who will verify India coverage before shortlisting |
| ADP India | Yes, payroll services and payroll outsourcing for employers operating in India | India arm of the global brand; compliance described as built in | Not published, quote based | Enterprises wanting a global brand with an India delivery arm |
| Paysquare | Yes, payroll processing and statutory filings under your entity | India payroll specialist; PF, professional tax, ESIC and LWF handled in house | Not published. Cost depends on the scope of work defined with the organization | Entity holders who want deep payroll and statutory execution |
| Husys | Yes, but it also sells an entity-free model, so confirm which engagement you are buying | India HR services firm spanning consulting, operations and technology | Not published. FAQ names a percentage model and a fixed service fee model | Entity holders who want HR consulting alongside payroll |
| PeopleStrong | Yes, payroll outsourcing on its own HCM platform | Platform-led, delivered on its own HCM | Not published, demo or contact route | Large India teams that want payroll inside an HCM |
| TeamLease HRtech | Yes, managed payroll outsourcing | India-domestic delivery from Bangalore | Not published, demo or contact route | Teams whose payroll sits entirely in India |
| Neeyamo | Yes, global managed payroll and HR | Multi-country delivery with statutory-compliance monitoring across its footprint | Not published | Multinationals consolidating India into a global payroll contract |
Not published means the provider does not print a rate on its own site, not that the capability is missing. Every cell reflects each provider's own material as of August 2026.
Wisemonk is in the table because we sell India PEO ourselves, so treat our row as disclosure rather than a neutral recommendation.
What no table shows is the handoff line: which obligations stay with your HR team and which move to the provider. That boundary is where most disputes start, and we break it down in which obligations sit with HR and which with payroll.
1. Wisemonk
Wisemonk is an India-native PEO platform built for companies that already hold an Indian legal entity and want payroll, statutory filings and HR operations run under it. Your entity stays the legal employer. We operate what that entity owes.
Here is how the PEO engagement breaks down:
- Best for: Companies that already hold an Indian legal entity and want HR operations and payroll run end to end.
- India delivery model: An India-native team working to Indian filing calendars, with no offshore service desk between you and the people who submit your returns.
- Services in scope: Payroll runs, statutory filings across PF, ESI, TDS, professional tax, gratuity and LWF, benefits administration, onboarding and offboarding, HR support and reporting, delivered as fully managed payroll in India.
- Pricing: From $49 per employee per month, with a scope-based quote where what you hand over is unusually broad, because the work differs sharply between a ten-person team in one state and a two-hundred-person team across five.
- Watch out for: We are an India specialist and expanding to more countries, so a buyer consolidating payroll across many markets needs a multi-country partner alongside us.
We run India operations for 300+ global clients, and the entity-holder engagements are where the filing discipline shows most.
Already have an Indian entity?
We run payroll, statutory filings and HR operations under your own Indian entity.
2. Rippling
Rippling sells Global Payroll as a product for employers that already hold their own entity, and India is named among its local-payroll countries. It runs payroll on its own software rather than through a service desk.
What that means for an India payroll:
- Best for: Teams that want India payroll on one native software platform.
- India delivery model: Rippling states it processes payroll itself in every country through its own software, and names India as a country its native global payroll can pay in.
- Services in scope: Payroll processing on Rippling's own platform for employers that hold their own entity.
- Pricing: No India rate published.
- Watch out for: Rippling does not state anywhere on its own site that it holds its own Indian entities, so get the India delivery model confirmed in writing, and note that its India depth is newer than the domestic specialists'.
For a software-first team already standardized on Rippling elsewhere, the platform argument is real, and the India specifics still need pinning down.
3. Deel
Deel Global Payroll is a product distinct from Deel EOR, and it is aimed at companies that already hold entities. Deel publishes no India-specific detail for it.
What you are buying, and what you are not:
- Best for: Buyers already on Deel elsewhere who will confirm India scope with the vendor.
- India delivery model: Not published for India.
- Services in scope: Global Payroll for companies with their own entities. The PEO product is US only.
- Pricing: No India global-payroll rate is published. The figure in the table above is Deel's EOR price, which is a different product and not a PEO rate.
- Watch out for: Deel publishes no India-specific own-entity payroll detail and no India rate, so the India scope is a sales-call question.
Treat Deel here as a platform question to put to a sales team, not a documented India PEO capability.
4. Remote
Remote sells Global Payroll as a product distinct from its EOR, for companies that already have entities. Its own FAQ is candid that paying people in another country usually means holding infrastructure locally.
How the product lines up for India:
- Best for: Multi-country buyers who will verify India coverage before shortlisting.
- India delivery model: Remote's own FAQ states that paying employees in another country typically requires a local entity, a local business account, and registration with local tax and labor authorities.
- Services in scope: Global Payroll as a distinct product from its EOR.
- Pricing: Published for Global Payroll, and the figure sits in the table above.
- Watch out for: India is not confirmed as a supported Global Payroll country on Remote's own page, so verify with the vendor before shortlisting.
Remote publishes the clearest rate on this list, which is worth something, but the India question is the one to close before you compare it to anybody.
5. ADP India
ADP India is the India delivery arm and it is distinct from ADP TotalSource, which is the US co-employment PEO. It positions itself as Global Payroll Expertise, Local India Compliance.
What the India arm actually covers:
- Best for: Enterprises wanting a global brand with an India delivery arm.
- India delivery model: India operations under a global brand, with compliance described as built in with an experienced team.
- Services in scope: Payroll services and payroll outsourcing, HR services ranging from payroll outsourcing to full HR management, time and attendance, and global payroll.
- Pricing: Not published. Contact route only.
- Watch out for: The India site does not enumerate which Indian statutes are covered, so scope has to be pinned down in the contract.
If you are buying ADP for the brand and the global footprint, do the statute-by-statute scoping work yourself in the contract.
6. Paysquare
Paysquare is an India payroll specialist that says it has been in the market for the last two decades. Payroll processing and statutory filings under your own entity are the core of what it sells.
Scored against our five criteria:
- Best for: Entity holders who want deep payroll and statutory execution.
- India delivery model: Processes over 450,000 monthly employee records across 3000+ customers globally, with a team of 700+ professionals. Holds an ISAE 3402 (SOC 1 Type 2) report by KPMG and ISO 27001 certification from BSI, and states GDPR compliance.
- Services in scope: Payroll processing, salary disbursement, employee master data, onboarding and exit, leave and attendance, full and final settlement, TDS computation and filing, PF remittances with ECR uploads and UAN generation, state-wise professional tax, ESIC and LWF.
- Pricing: Not published. Their page says cost depends on the scope of work defined between the service provider and the organization.
- Watch out for: Payroll and compliance execution is the core, so broader HR operations and benefits design are thinner than at a full-service PEO.
On the statutory-execution criterion this is one of the strongest entries on the list, and the certifications are the kind you can actually ask to see.
7. Husys
Husys has operated as an India HR services firm since 2002, more than 23 years, and describes its model as 360-degree HR spanning consulting, operations and technology. It sells both PEO and EOR.
Where the engagement lands:
- Best for: Entity holders who want HR consulting alongside payroll.
- India delivery model: An India HR services firm reporting 5000+ clients and 10000+ employees.
- Services in scope: Payroll, statutory compliance and local tax, onboarding and offboarding, benefits administration, and HR operations.
- Pricing: Not published. Their FAQ names a percentage model and a fixed service fee model.
- Watch out for: Husys also sells global PEO across 150+ countries without requiring the client to hold an entity, so confirm in writing that you are buying the with-entity HR operations engagement.
The consulting layer is the differentiator here, and the engagement type is the thing to nail down first.
8. PeopleStrong
PeopleStrong sells payroll outsourcing as a module on its own HCM platform, aimed at large India employers. Its case studies name Larsen & Toubro and Mahindra Holidays.
What that means in practice:
- Best for: Large India teams that want payroll inside an HCM.
- India delivery model: Platform-led, delivered on its own HCM.
- Services in scope: A payroll service module that automatically calculates TDS, EPF, ESI and other statutory numbers, with multiple salary structures, pay periods and payslip formats, a complete audit trail and automated maker-checker.
- Pricing: Not published. Demo or contact route.
- Watch out for: It is built around its own HCM and large-enterprise deployments, so a small India team may be buying more platform than it needs.
The maker-checker and audit-trail controls are genuinely useful at scale, which is also the size of team they assume.
9. TeamLease HRtech
TeamLease HRtech sells managed payroll outsourcing to India employers from a Bangalore base. It claims 200+ clients, 99.8% accuracy and 475k+ transactions every month, and states it processes INR 250 crore in payroll each month.
The scope in short:
- Best for: Teams whose payroll sits entirely in India.
- India delivery model: India-domestic delivery, based in Bangalore.
- Services in scope: Managed payroll outsourcing with auto-computed PF, ESIC, PT and TDS, direct salary disbursement, and regulatory compliance management.
- Pricing: Not published. Demo or contact route.
- Watch out for: India-domestic focus with no stated multi-country coverage, so it will not consolidate payroll beyond India.
If India is your only payroll country, the domestic focus is a feature rather than a limit.
10. Neeyamo
Neeyamo sells global managed payroll and HR across 180+ countries, serving large multinationals through to micro-multinationals. An EOR product is available alongside it.
How it fits an India brief:
- Best for: Multinationals consolidating India into a global payroll contract.
- India delivery model: Multi-country delivery, with India handled as one line of a global contract rather than as a standalone engagement.
- Services in scope: Global managed payroll and HR, with statutory-compliance monitoring described as a digital radar for global payroll and HR statutory requirements, helping clients transfer compliance obligations to local payroll, tax and HR laws.
- Pricing: Not published.
- Watch out for: It is built for multi-country consolidation, so a buyer who only needs India may be over-buying.
Neeyamo makes most sense when India is one line on a payroll contract covering many countries.
Three names that appear on US PEO lists are deliberately absent, because ADP TotalSource, Paychex and TriNet are US-only and have no India offering. (Read: best PEO companies for US employers)
Can you use a true PEO in India, or is it always an EOR?
Yes, but only because you hold an Indian entity. Indian law does not define co-employment as a statutory category and contemplates one legal employer per worker, which is you. A PEO runs HR operations and payroll under your entity. Companies without an entity need an EOR instead.
Neither co-employment nor joint employment appears in the definition clauses of the Labour Codes. They are US constructs, and importing them into an Indian arrangement imports a liability model Indian law does not use. (Read: co-employment and joint employment in India)
Indian courts decide who the employer is on control-based tests: who pays the wages, who can dismiss or discipline, and who directs and controls the work.
Where a second entity is involved through contract labour, the OSH Code 2020 attaches specific secondary duties to the principal employer without making that principal employer the workers' employer. Those are principal-employer duties, not shared employment.
For you, this is simpler than it sounds. Because you hold the entity, you are already the single legal employer, and the PEO is your service provider rather than a second employer.
That is also why the same question is complicated for a company with no Indian entity, which has no employer for the arrangement to sit under. See how a PEO and an EOR differ.
Those companies use an EOR, which becomes the legal employer itself. (Read: whether an EOR is legal in India)
All four Labour Codes are in force as of August 2026, and they are the frame every provider on this list has to work inside. (Read: India's four Labour Codes)
How do the top PEO providers in India compare on cost?
India PEO pricing comes in three shapes: a per employee per month fee, a percentage of monthly payroll, or a hybrid of a platform fee plus a per employee charge. Most providers on this list do not publish a rate, so the comparison happens in the quote, not on the website. Wisemonk publishes its PEO rate, from $49 per employee per month.
The three shapes behave differently as your headcount and salaries move, which matters more than the headline number:
- Per employee per month: Predictable, and it scales with headcount rather than with pay. Your cost per person is flat whether you are paying an engineer or an intern.
- Percentage of monthly payroll: Your fee rises every time you give a raise or pay a bonus, even though the provider's work has not changed. Ask for a cap.
- Hybrid platform fee plus per employee charge: Cheapest at scale, most expensive for a small team, because the fixed component does not shrink.
Whichever shape you are quoted, the number to compare is the annual total at your real headcount, not the monthly rate.
Just as important is what sits outside the fee, so put each of these in the RFP as a line item:
- Implementation and data migration: Usually one time, and usually not in the monthly rate.
- Per-state registrations: New states mean new registrations, often billed separately.
- Benefits administration: Sometimes bundled, sometimes a separate module.
- Off-cycle payroll runs: Ask how many are included before they are chargeable.
- Full and final settlements: Frequently priced per exit.
- Statutory audit support: Ask whether responding to a notice is in scope or billable.
Any one of those can move the annual total more than the difference between two providers' headline rates, and we size several of them in the cost of outsourcing payroll in India.
Before you take a quote to your CFO, model the fully loaded cost of the people themselves with our employee cost calculator, then add the service fee on top.
Only two providers on this list publish a rate at all, and both figures sit in the comparison table above. One of the two is not even a PEO price.
Everyone else quotes, which is why the scope document matters more than the rate card. (Read: what a PEO costs in India)
How do you switch payroll and HR providers without breaking compliance?
Switch at a point where the year's contribution and deduction histories transfer cleanly. PF, ESI and TDS records do not reset when you change provider, so the incoming team needs each employee's year-to-date history or the remaining months come out wrong.
This is the part no vendor comparison covers, and it is where we have spent the most time cleaning up after other people's cut-overs. Indian statutory obligations run on the financial year, not on your vendor contract.
TDS is the clearest example. It is computed on projected annual income, so a provider that starts mid-year without the prior months' figures will under-deduct or over-deduct for every remaining month, and the employee finds out in the last quarter.
Contribution histories attach to the person, not the vendor. A provident fund (PF) record follows the employee's UAN, and gratuity accrues on continuous service that your entity holds and the provider merely records.
We plan every cut-over against this checklist, in this order:
- Fix the cut-over date against the payroll cycle, not the contract date: Switch at a month boundary that also sits cleanly against the filing calendar, never mid-cycle. See the India payroll cycle.
- Get the year-to-date register out of the outgoing provider before you give notice: Per employee, gross, each statutory deduction, tax deducted at source (TDS) already deducted, and the projected annual figure it was computed on.
- Confirm who files the month that straddles the change: Name the party in the contract. This is the single most common gap we find.
- Transfer the statutory identifiers, not just the salary data: UAN, employee state insurance (ESI) IP numbers, PAN, and the state registrations under which professional tax and LWF are being remitted.
- Reconcile the challans already paid: The incoming provider inherits the year rather than a clean slate, so ask for the challans and the matching records behind the India payslip format your employees already recognize.
- Carry the gratuity and leave accruals across as balances: These are your entity's liability and they do not reset with the vendor.
- Run one parallel cycle before you cut over: Same inputs, both providers, outputs compared line by line.
- Get the exit terms in writing at signature, not at exit: Data-portability format, notice period, and who holds the records after termination. This is criterion five from the rubric above, and this is why it is criterion five.
Work through those eight and a provider change becomes a scheduling exercise rather than a compliance event.
Get it wrong and the cost is not the vendor fee. It is correction filings, employee-level tax messes in the last quarter, and a finance team reconciling two providers' numbers by hand. (Read: common India payroll mistakes)
How does Wisemonk deliver PEO services in India?
We operate your Indian entity's employment obligations end to end, from $49 per employee per month. Your entity stays the legal employer and you keep every decision about the team, while the filing calendar, the monthly run and the employee queries move to us.
The practical difference is who holds the login. We prepare and submit under your registrations rather than handing you a file to upload, which is the first of the five criteria above, and the mechanics are set out in payroll compliance in India.
Multi-state work is where the scoping matters, since professional tax, LWF and Shops and Establishments registrations differ by state, and we keep the whole picture in one place for payroll in India.
We currently manage 2,000+ employees and process $20M+ in annual payroll for the companies we work with in India.
We hold 4.8/5 on G2, and the reasons clients give are the unglamorous ones: filings on time and questions answered quickly. Read what our customers say.
If you do not have an Indian entity yet, start with our EOR instead. We become the legal employer, you hire without incorporating, and you move onto the PEO later once your own entity is running.
EOR pricing starts at $99 per employee per month, and you can see the full breakdown before you talk to anyone.
Choosing a PEO partner for your India entity?
Tell us what your entity already handles and we will scope the payroll and HR operations you want to hand over.
Frequently asked questions
Is PEO legal in India?
Yes. A PEO arrangement is valid in India once you hold your own Indian entity, because you remain the single legal employer and the PEO is your service provider. Co-employment is not a statutory category in Indian law, which recognizes one legal employer per worker.
What is a PEO in India, and how does it differ from an EOR?
A PEO runs payroll, statutory filings and HR operations under your own Indian entity, so you stay the legal employer. An employer of record is different: it becomes the legal employer itself, which is the route for companies that have no Indian entity to hire under.
How much do PEO service providers in India cost?
Most PEO service providers in India do not publish a rate, so pricing is settled in the quote. Three shapes dominate: a per employee per month fee, a percentage of monthly payroll, or a platform fee plus a per employee charge. Implementation is usually priced separately.
Who is the best PEO in India for global companies?
Wisemonk PEO suits global companies that already hold an Indian entity and want payroll, statutory filings and HR operations run under it, priced on a scope-based quote. Wisemonk EOR is our separate product for companies hiring in India without an entity.
How fast can a PEO onboard employees in India?
There is no fixed timeline. The sequence is what matters: contract and scope sign-off, employee data and year-to-date records handed over, statutory identifiers mapped, state registrations confirmed, then one parallel payroll cycle before the provider takes the live run.
How do you evaluate and shortlist a PEO provider in India?
Score PEO service providers in India on five things: how deep their statutory execution runs, how many states they can pay in, whether they publish pricing, what they hold on data security, and what their exit and data-portability terms say. Then ask for two client references with your headcount profile.
What are the red flags in an India PEO contract?
Four we see often: no published exit or data-portability terms, no named party for the filings in the month the change straddles, a percentage-of-payroll fee with no cap, and statutory scope described as built in without the individual obligations listed in the contract.
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