Swadeshi Finance Apps

BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) is India's official UPI payment app by NPCI with 100M+ downloads and 128M active users. Instant peer-to-peer transfers, bill payments, merchant QR scanning, and balance checks linked directly to bank accounts. UPI Lite+ enables PIN-free payments up to Rs 1,000 per transaction. Supports 12+ Indian languages. Completely free with zero transaction fees, no ads. Government-backed PhonePe and Google Pay alternative.

Cashfree Payments is a Bengaluru-based full-stack payments platform for Indian businesses, processing ~$80B a year for 1M+ merchants. RBI-licensed payment aggregator offering a payment gateway, instant payouts and bulk transfers, UPI AutoPay recurring payments, cross-border collections, and KYC verification. 0% fee on UPI and RuPay, ~1.9% on cards, no setup fee, with optional instant settlements. A made-in-India Stripe and PayPal alternative.

Chargebee is a Chennai-founded subscription billing platform powering Calendly, Toyota, Linktree, and Freshworks across 130+ countries. Manages full lifecycle — plans, checkout, invoicing, proration, dunning, and cancellation. Supports flat, tiered, usage-based, and hybrid billing. RevenueStory analytics, ASC 606 revenue recognition, AI Copilot, and 30+ gateway integrations. Free up to $250K billing; 0.75% revenue share after. Stripe Billing and Zuora alternative.

CRED is a Bengaluru-built rewards-based fintech app founded by Kunal Shah in 2018, with 1.7 crore (17M) members engaging monthly by CRED's own June 2026 count. Credit card bill payments, UPI, rent payments, short-term credit (CRED Cash, CRED Flash), wealth management via Kuvera, free credit score tracking, and CRED Store marketplace. Members-only: you need a credit score of 750+ to join. Free for users; revenue from lending and brand partnerships. Credit Karma alternative.

Groww is an Indian investment app from Bengaluru with 4 crore+ users for stocks, mutual funds, IPO, F&O, US stocks, gold and fixed deposits. Zero commission on direct mutual funds, flat Rs 20 (or 0.05%) per equity order, paperless eKYC demat account in a day, SIPs from Rs 100, fractional stock investing from Rs 10. SEBI-registered broker (parent Billionbrains Garage Ventures, listed on NSE/BSE in November 2025 under ticker GROWW). Robinhood and E*Trade alternative.

INDmoney is a Gurugram-built all-in-one personal finance and investing app with 10M+ users — Indian and US stocks (fractional shares from Rs 100), mutual funds, SIPs, IPOs, fixed deposits, NPS, insurance, and digital gold in one app. Net worth tracker auto-pulls from banks, demat, credit cards, and loans. AI-driven advisory for direct mutual fund switches. SEBI-registered. Free with zero account opening charges. Wealthfront and Personal Capital alternative.

Instamojo is a Bengaluru-based payment and e-commerce platform powering 20 lakh+ Indian businesses since 2012 — payment links, embedded checkout, no-code online store builder, inventory, and integrated shipping. Supports UPI, cards, net banking, wallets, and EMI. mojoXpress for shipping and mojoCapital for business loans. No setup or monthly fees; 2% + Rs 3 per transaction. Stripe and PayPal alternative for Indian SMEs.

IppoPay is a Chennai fintech built for small merchants, freelancers and Tier-2/3 shopkeepers — UPI QR, sound-box payment alerts, POS, payment links/pages and merchant lending in one app. Domestic cards, net banking and UPI cost 1.9%, international cards 3.5%, no setup or monthly fee. Its own terms admit it does not itself hold RBI Payment Aggregator authorisation — settlement runs through partnered, RBI-regulated banks. Play Store rating: 4.0 from 1,691 reviews.

Paytm is India's pioneering digital payments app for UPI transfers, mobile recharges, bill payments, online shopping and merchant QR scans. Trusted by 333M+ registered users and 100M+ monthly actives, Paytm bundles a wallet, Paytm Soundbox for shopkeepers, lending, insurance and investments. Now 100% Indian-owned after Ant Financial's exit in August 2025 and an RBI-approved payment aggregator since November 2025.

PhonePe is India's most-used UPI payments app, with 700M+ registered users and roughly 46% of UPI transaction volume (NPCI, June 2026). Use it for instant money transfers, mobile recharges, bill payments and merchant QR scans, plus mutual funds, insurance and lending. PhonePe Pulse publishes free public dashboards on India's UPI traffic. Majority-owned by Walmart; headquartered in Bengaluru.

PolicyBazaar is India's largest online insurance marketplace by Gurugram-based PB Fintech (NSE: POLICYBZR) with 87M+ users, 49M+ policies sold, and 93% digital insurance market share. Compare and buy health, life, term, car, bike, and travel insurance from 50+ insurers with side-by-side premiums, coverage, and claim ratios. Self-inspection for car/bike renewals; PaisaBazaar for credit. Free for consumers. NerdWallet and Policygenius alternative.

ProfitBooks is a Pune-built cloud accounting and inventory software for Indian SMEs serving 100,000+ businesses. GST-compliant invoicing (GSTR-1, GSTR-3B, HSN/SAC codes, e-way bills), expense tracking, bank reconciliation, inventory with low-stock alerts, time tracking with billable hours, 40+ financial reports, and multi-currency. Free under Rs 50,000 annual revenue; SMB plan from Rs 749/month. Tally and QuickBooks alternative for non-accountants.

Razorpay is India's largest online payment gateway from Bengaluru with 8M+ merchants, 55% market share, and 35M daily UPI transactions. Developer-friendly APIs supporting 100+ payment methods (UPI, cards, net banking, wallets, EMI, international), Payment Links and Pages for non-technical merchants, and integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce. RazorpayX for business banking, payroll, and Capital lending. 2% per transaction, no setup fee. Stripe alternative.

Setu by Pine Labs is a Bengaluru-built fintech API infrastructure platform powering Flipkart, PhonePe, and Google Pay with 10M+ monthly BBPS transactions. APIs for UPI payments, BBPS bill payments, Account Aggregator, KYC, and lending. UPISetu (with Axis Bank) covers QR, UPI Autopay, EMI, TPV, dispute resolution, and refunds. Pre-built UI components, mock data, Python and Node.js SDKs. Transaction-based pricing. Stripe Connect alternative.

Shelf (Shelfpay) is India's first shared payments app for flatmates from Bengaluru, Y Combinator-backed (S22). Pooled wallets and Personal Shelf for individual budgeting, physical Shelf Card for group spending with automatic expense attribution, customizable split ratios, automated rent and utility bill payments, up to 5% cashback on flatmate essentials, and brand offers. Completely free with zero hidden fees, no commissions. Splitwise alternative.

Slice started in 2016 as a BNPL-style credit card for young, underbanked users, then did something no Indian fintech had done: it merged into a licensed bank. Since October 2024 it operates as Slice Small Finance Bank, offering a UPI-linked credit card with no joining or annual fee and a savings account paying 5.25% a year.

TallyPrime is Bengaluru-built accounting and business-management software from Tally Solutions, founded 1986 and still owned and run by the Goenka family. Used by 2.5M+ businesses for GST-compliant invoicing, e-invoice and e-way bills, inventory, payroll and TDS/TCS. Windows desktop only — Silver Rs 22,500 lifetime or Rs 750/month, Gold Rs 67,500. Dated keyboard-driven UI and a real learning curve, but the deepest Indian statutory compliance available.

Vyapar is GST billing, invoicing and inventory software built for Indian small businesses by Bengaluru-based Simply Vyapar Apps. It handles GST invoices, e-way bills, payment reminders and stock tracking, and the Android app works offline. The app installs free with in-app purchases; paid annual plans are Rs 4,399 (Silver) and Rs 4,799 (Gold) for Desktop + Mobile, verified on its own pricing page on 28 August 2026.

Kite by Zerodha is India's largest stock trading platform from Bengaluru with 16M+ customers placing 2+ crore orders daily. Zero brokerage on equity delivery, flat Rs 20 per F&O trade, millisecond execution, advanced charting with 100+ indicators (ChartIQ), GTT orders, basket orders, and Terminal Mode multi-panel layouts. Coin for direct mutual funds with zero commission. Bootstrapped, profitable, ad-free. Robinhood and Interactive Brokers alternative.

Zoho Expense is a Chennai-built expense reporting and travel platform automating the full spend lifecycle — AI receipt auto-scanning, GPS mileage tracking, corporate card reconciliation, multi-currency with auto exchange rates, configurable spend policies, and multi-level approvals. Native integration with Zoho Books, People, Payroll plus QuickBooks, Xero, and Sage. Free for 3 users; Standard $4/user/month. Expensify and SAP Concur alternative.

Zoho Subscriptions (now Zoho Billing) is a Chennai-built recurring billing platform — plan creation, automated invoicing, payment collection, dunning, revenue recognition, and self-service customer portal. Multi-currency and multi-language, usage-based billing, configurable cycles, automated proration, and coupons. Native Zoho integration plus Stripe, Razorpay, PayPal, and GoCardless. Standard $29/month, Premium $69/month. Chargebee and Recurly alternative.