Key takeaway: $3 per user a month is Zoho People's cheapest paid plan. Its pricing page, read on 26 October 2026, lists Essential HR at US$3, Workforce and Talent at US$5 and Enterprise at US$8 per user a month billed annually, or US$4, US$6, US$6 and US$10 billed monthly. A free edition covers up to 3 users. For 50 employees, Enterprise comes to $4,800 a year on annual billing.
Zoho People is the HR system in Zoho's software suite: employee records, time off, attendance, onboarding, performance and an HR help desk. It is a separate product from Zoho Recruit, Zoho's applicant tracking system, but Zoho sells the two together as Zoho People Plus. Buyers usually weigh it against BambooHR, HiBob and Gusto.
Every price below was read in a rendered browser on 26 October 2026 from a US connection, so it shows US dollars before local taxes. We clicked between Monthly and Yearly on both the Zoho People and People Plus pages and read the full editions comparison, and the arithmetic comes from a script committed with this article.
Two details matter more than the headline price. The annual discount is not the same on every plan, and the add-ons that recruiting and HR teams tend to need (Zoho Recruit seats, premium support, onboarding help) are priced separately from the per-user fee.
How much does Zoho People cost?
Zoho People has four paid plans and a free edition. Prices are per user a month, in US dollars.
| Zoho People plan (checked 26 Oct 2026) | Billed annually | Billed monthly | Per user a year, annual | Annual saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0, up to 3 users | $0 | $0 | Not applicable |
| Essential HR | $3 | $4 | $36 | 25.0% |
| Workforce | $5 | $6 | $60 | 16.7% |
| Talent | $5 | $6 | $60 | 16.7% |
| Enterprise | $8 | $10 | $96 | 20.0% |
The per-year figures and savings are our arithmetic. The billing switch on the page carries the label "Yearly - Save more than 20%," but only Essential HR clears that bar: Enterprise saves exactly 20%, and Workforce and Talent save 16.7%. Organisations with more than 500 users are asked to request a quote.
What does each Zoho People plan include?
The plans are not a simple ladder. Workforce and Talent are two different $5 plans built on the same Essential HR base, and Enterprise bundles both.
| Plan (zoho.com, 26 Oct 2026) | What the plan card adds |
|---|---|
| Essential HR | AI agent, benefits management and compensation planning, onboarding and offboarding, document management, engagement surveys, HR help desk, reports and analytics |
| Workforce | Essential HR features plus time off and vacation planning, timesheets with overtime compliance, attendance for full-time employees |
| Talent | Essential HR features plus OKR and performance evaluation, and a learning management system (LMS) |
| Enterprise | Essential HR, Workforce and Talent combined, plus a sandbox and premium support |
So the real choice is time tracking (Workforce) or performance and learning (Talent). A team that needs both pays $3 more per user a month for Enterprise than for either one alone. Essential HR has no time-off module at all, which surprises buyers who expect leave tracking in a base HR plan.
The comparison grid also shows the limits that scale with the plan: default storage runs from 250 MB on Free to 1 GB, 2 GB, 3 GB and 5 GB per 100 users, and the API allows 5,000, 10,000, 15,000 and 25,000 calls a day on Essential HR through Enterprise.
What does Zoho People cost for 50 employees?
Zoho People charges per user, and its FAQ says "Licenses are applicable only to active users," so a departed employee's license can be reassigned. For an example company of 50 active employees (our illustration, not measured usage):
| Plan (list prices, 26 Oct 2026) | 50 users a year, annual billing | 50 users a year, monthly billing |
|---|---|---|
| Essential HR | $1,800 | $2,400 |
| Workforce or Talent | $3,000 | $3,600 |
| Enterprise | $4,800 | $6,000 |
| People Plus Premium | $4,800 | $6,000 |
| People Plus Enterprise | $7,200 | $9,000 |
Annual billing on Enterprise saves $1,200 a year at this size. Zoho also accepts bank transfer or check, but only "for yearly subscriptions"; monthly plans are paid by card or PayPal.
What is Zoho People Plus, and how much does it cost?
Zoho People Plus is the suite version. It bundles Zoho People with Zoho Recruit and, on the top plan, Zoho's expense, intranet, chat and password tools.
| People Plus plan (checked 26 Oct 2026) | Billed annually | Billed monthly | What the plan includes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premium | $8 per user a month | $10 per user a month | Recruit (Standard Corporate HRs), People (Workforce), Cliq (Free) |
| Enterprise | $12 per user a month | $15 per user a month | Recruit (Enterprise Corporate HRs), People (Enterprise), Expense, Connect, Cliq and Vault |
People Plus Premium costs the same $8 as Zoho People Enterprise, but the two are not the same thing. Premium pairs the Workforce edition of People with a standard Zoho Recruit edition, so it has no performance or learning module. Zoho People Enterprise has every HR module but no applicant tracking.
People Plus also has a floor. Its FAQ says: "You should have a minimum of 5 users in a paid Zoho People Plus account." Non-profits and charities can ask for special pricing, and the FAQ describes People Plus as "a pay-as-you-go service" with "no long-term contracts."
What do Zoho People add-ons and support cost?
The editions comparison lists every add-on price. These sit on top of the per-user fee.
| Add-on (zoho.com comparison page, 26 Oct 2026) | Listed price |
|---|---|
| Zoho Recruit Corporate HRs, Enterprise edition | $60 per recruiter a month or $600 per recruiter a year |
| Premium support | $114 a month or $1,128 a year, or 20% of the recurring license fee, whichever is higher |
| Enterprise support (minimum 500 users) | 25% of the recurring license fee |
| Jumpstart onboarding | $1,000 (25 hours) on Essential HR, $2,000 (40 hours) on Workforce, $3,000 (60 hours) on Talent, $4,000 (80 hours) on Enterprise |
| API pack (25,000 calls a day) | $375 a month or $3,750 a year |
| Data backup | $5 a month, listed in the Enterprise column |
The premium support rule has a crossover point. On annual billing, 20% of the license fee passes the $1,128 floor at 59 Enterprise users, 94 Workforce or Talent users, or 157 Essential HR users. Above that size, support costs a fifth of the subscription.
For recruiting teams, the Recruit add-on is the line to watch. Adding Zoho Recruit for 2 recruiters on top of Zoho People Enterprise for 50 employees comes to $6,000 a year ($4,800 plus $1,200). People Plus Enterprise for the same 50 users is $7,200 and includes a Recruit Enterprise edition plus the expense and collaboration apps. If you only need HR and an ATS for a few recruiters, the add-on route is cheaper at this size.
Is Zoho People free?
Yes, within limits. The pricing page offers a "FREE edition, forever free for up to 3 users," covering the employee database, time off and vacation planning, and document management, with 250 MB of storage.
Every paid plan also has a 30-day free trial. On Zoho People, "Once the trial expires, your account will be moved to the Free plan." People Plus works differently: if you do not subscribe after the trial, the FAQ says "your account will be suspended" until you upgrade, and customizations are retained.
How does Zoho People pricing compare to Gusto and BambooHR?
Of the three, only Zoho People and Gusto publish prices. BambooHR's pricing page, read on 26 October 2026, says "Pay per employee, per month. Automatic volume discounts" and asks for a quote through a "Get Pricing" form.
| HR software (checked 26 Oct 2026) | Published price | 50 employees a year | What the price covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zoho People Essential HR | $3 per user a month, annual | $1,800 | Core HR, no time off module, no payroll |
| Zoho People Enterprise | $8 per user a month, annual | $4,800 | All Zoho People HR modules, no payroll |
| Gusto Simple | $49 a month plus $6 per person | $4,188 | Payroll in one state, basic PTO |
| Gusto Plus | $80 a month plus $12 per person | $8,160 | Payroll, time tracking, multi-state |
| BambooHR | Quote only | Not published | HR, payroll and benefits plans |
This is not a like-for-like bundle. Gusto's pricing page prices a payroll product, while no Zoho People plan card lists payroll. What the table does show is that, at 50 employees, even Zoho People's top plan costs less a year than Gusto Plus. For more vendors side by side, see the recruiting software pricing index, Namely pricing and isolved pricing.
How does Noon fit next to Zoho People?
Zoho People runs HR for the employees you already have; Zoho Recruit tracks the applicants who come to you. Neither goes out and finds candidates. Noon is an AI recruiting platform that does that work: it sources candidates across the whole web, not just LinkedIn, evaluates them against your role, finds their contact details, runs personalised email and SMS outreach and books interviews, with 20+ ATS integrations.
The pricing model is also different from a per-user or per-recruiter fee. Noon sells one plan with unlimited sourcing, unlimited email enrichment, unlimited contacts, unlimited agents and unlimited seats, so adding recruiters does not add seat fees. Noon does not publish a dollar price; the pricing page explains how to get a quote.
Sources and methodology
- Zoho People pricing page, read rendered in Chrome via Playwright on 26 October 2026 from a US connection: the default Yearly view, the Monthly view, the Zoho People Plus tab and the FAQ answers.
- Zoho People editions and pricing comparison, read rendered on 26 October 2026, for annual and monthly prices, storage, API limits, add-ons, support and Jumpstart.
- Zoho People Plus pricing page, read rendered on 26 October 2026 on both billing toggles, with its FAQ.
- Gusto pricing and BambooHR pricing, read rendered on 26 October 2026.
- Demand check: DataForSEO Google Ads volume, US, 26 October 2026: 90 searches a month each for "zoho people pricing" and "zoho people price."
- Per-year totals, savings, the 50-employee examples, the support crossover and the comparison table come from
seo/research/stats/zoho-people-pricing-2026/compute.py. Exact quotes and fetch times are in the committedsources.json.
Limitations
- These are point-in-time US list prices on 26 October 2026, before VAT, GST or other local taxes. Zoho shows regional prices, so readers outside the US may see different figures.
- Per-year totals are twelve times the monthly figure shown; Zoho's checkout may round differently.
- No buyer-reported contract data was available: Vendr has no Zoho People listing, so we cannot say what large customers pay against the 500-user quote threshold.
- The 50-employee and 2-recruiter company is an illustrative size, not measured usage.
- The Gusto comparison mixes a payroll product with an HR system that excludes payroll; it compares published prices, not equivalent bundles.
FAQ
How much is Zoho People per user?
Billed annually, Essential HR is $3, Workforce and Talent are $5 and Enterprise is $8 per user a month, per zoho.com on 26 October 2026. Billed monthly, they are $4, $6, $6 and $10.
Does Zoho People have a free plan?
Yes. The free edition is "forever free for up to 3 users" and covers the employee database, time off and document management. Paid plans also come with a 30-day free trial.
What is the difference between Zoho People and Zoho People Plus?
Zoho People is the HR system on its own. People Plus bundles it with Zoho Recruit, and on Enterprise with Zoho Expense, Connect, Cliq and Vault. People Plus costs $8 or $12 per user a month billed annually and needs at least 5 paid users.
Does Zoho People include payroll?
No Zoho People plan card on the 26 October 2026 pricing page lists payroll, so check payroll separately before you compare it with payroll-first tools like Gusto.
How much does it cost to add Zoho Recruit to Zoho People?
The editions comparison lists Zoho Recruit Corporate HRs, Enterprise edition, as an add-on at $60 per recruiter a month or $600 per recruiter a year.
Does Zoho People charge for inactive employees?
No. Zoho's FAQ says licenses apply only to active users, and an inactive user's license is revoked and can be reassigned.
About the author
Rey Sivji is Head of Growth at Noon AI and checked these prices on 26 October 2026. Spotted a price change or a figure we should add? Email rey@noon.ai.
