Employee location tracking apps use GPS to help you ensure employees are where they’re supposed to be while they’re on the clock. To help you find the right one for your team, we researched dozens of options to uncover the best employee location tracking apps. Below, you’ll find our top picks, along with detailed reviews of each app’s most unique features and pricing.
What are employee location tracking apps?
Employee location tracking apps are a type of time tracking software that uses the GPS technology built into mobile phones to identify employees’ locations when they’re on the clock.
There are three main types of employee location tracking apps:
- Basic GPS tracking apps: Basic GPS tracking apps collect employees’ locations only when they clock in and out and list those locations on their timecards.
- Geofencing apps: Geofencing apps let employers create virtual barriers around their job sites. When geofences exist, the app checks an employee’s location when they clock in and out to make sure they’re currently located within the borders of an assigned geofence.
- Real-time GPS tracking apps: Real-time GPS tracking apps track employees’ movements in real-time over the course of a workday, showing you all employees’ locations at any time on a map and providing you with breadcrumb trails that show everywhere they traveled.
While some apps only have one of these types of GPS tracking, most have all three.
The benefits of an employee location tracking app
Tracking employees’ locations offers a number of benefits:
- Time theft prevention: Collecting employee location information helps you identify when employees are clocking in/out when offsite or leaving work to run errands while on the clock.
- More accurate invoicing: Being able to see exactly when an employee arrived at and left a customer’s job site lets you create invoices that account for every minute spent on a job.
- Better routing: For logistics, transportation, and delivery companies, location tracking apps can help you design more efficient routes to take.
- Improved profitability: Preventing time theft, creating more efficient routes, and invoicing customers for the exact amount of time spent on site all work together to improve the profitability of your business.
- Better customer service: For service-based businesses, location tracking apps will show you which technicians are closest to a customer so you can get someone there to help as quickly as possible.
- Improved safety: Location tracking apps help you identify where an employee is located quickly in case of an emergency.
In addition to the benefits you get from location tracking specifically, these apps also deliver the benefits you get from time tracking apps more generally. Time tracking apps improve the accuracy of your timesheets and calculate employees’ hours automatically. This improves the accuracy of your payroll and helps you run payroll much more quickly than before.
The 9 best employee location tracking apps
Below, you’ll find our picks for the nine best employee location tracking apps. For each app, we’ve listed what type of businesses/use cases it’s best for, what unique features it offers, what its customers have to say about it, and how much it costs.
1. Buddy Punch – Best overall
When we were running our previous business, we struggled with time theft in a few different ways: employees would clock in before they arrived at work, clock out after they left work, or clock in from the parking lot and then leave.
So when we built Buddy Punch, we set out to build features to help business owners prevent these types of time theft. In particular, we built three location-tracking features that would help business owners prevent time theft entirely and easily identify when it’s occurring: GPS tracking, geofencing, and real-time GPS.
GPS tracking
With GPS tracking, you can capture your teams’ GPS coordinates whenever they clock in/out of work. That data is then added to each employee’s timesheet, which you can review to determine if the punch took place on the job site or away from it.
And as you can see in the screenshot above, you don’t have to turn GPS tracking on for all employees. Buddy Punch is incredibly flexible, so you can make GPS tracking required for all employees, required for only a selection of employees, or optional for all or a selection.
GPS tracking on punch is best for businesses where employees and supervisors work together at the same location.
Since supervisors would likely notice employees disappearing for long periods of time in the middle of the day, it helps prevent time theft in the moments where supervisors would be least likely to notice it — at the beginning and end of an employee’s shift.
Geofencing
A geofence is a digital border you can create around one or more job sites. It works together with the GPS data on employees’ mobile phones to identify when employees are at job sites and when they’re not.
Geofences can be used to prevent employees from clocking in or out when they’re not on site (when they’re outside of the specified geofence). If employees attempt to clock in/out when they’re outside of the geofence, they get an error notification in the Buddy Punch mobile app.
Like GPS on punch, geofencing in Buddy Punch is flexible and can be made optional, required, or turned off for specific employees, specific departments/teams, or the entire company.
Geofencing works best when time theft is such a big problem that it’s difficult to monitor GPS punch data on an individual basis. Rather than having to check the GPS location data on individual timesheets, you can rest assured that employees didn’t clock in or out offsite because they simply can’t do so.
Real-time GPS
Buddy Punch’s final location-tracking feature is real-time GPS. It tracks employee locations the entire time they’re on the clock and provides you with GPS breadcrumbs that allow you to see an employee’s movements throughout the course of the workday. You can also view an interactive map that shows every clocked-in employee’s location at any given moment.
Real-time GPS is best used in two circumstances.
First, it’s a helpful feature if you believe employees are leaving work while on the clock. With real-time GPS, you will be able to tell if they’re leaving work to do other things while they’re still on the clock.
Second, real-time GPS is great for traveling employees like salespeople, plumbers, electricians, delivery drivers, truck drivers, and other types of logistics and service industry employees who travel from site to site over the course of a single day.
Like with GPS on punch and geofencing, real-time GPS can be enabled only for the team members you need it for. And Buddy Punch is also a privacy-first application, meaning it only tracks employees’ locations when they’re on the clock and never when they’re clocked out.
Additional time tracking features
Beyond location-tracking, Buddy Punch has a number of additional features that help you save time and keep your employees accountable:
- Photos on Punch: If buddy punching — when an employee clocks in/out for another employee — is a problem for your business, you can use Photos on Punch to require employees to take a picture of themselves when clocking in and out.
- Facial Recognition: Another feature to prevent buddy punching is facial recognition, which uses Face ID on iPad and iPhone devices to validate that the person clocking in is the correct employee.
- Payroll integrations: Buddy Punch integrates with most top payroll providers to automate your payroll processing, including QuickBooks, Paychex, and Workday.
- Track hours by jobs or locations: Generate reports segmented by locations, positions, or departments — perfect for businesses that need to track hours spent on specific projects.
- PTO tracking and accruals: Set up rules for how employee PTO is accrued, and Buddy Punch will automatically calculate available PTO hours for your entire company. Employees can submit time-off requests in Buddy Punch, and approved PTO is automatically added to timesheets.
- Employee scheduling: Create and distribute schedules for your team using Buddy Punch’s drag-and-drop employee scheduler.
Want to learn more? Check out this comprehensive list of Buddy Punch’s features.
Customer reviews
Buddy Punch has an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars across more than 1,000 customer reviews on Capterra. Here’s what some specific customers have to say about its location-tracking features:
- “Buddy Punch provides us with concrete times when our team was present in stores. Not only does it help with time tracking, but it also helps with COVID-19 contact tracing and workplace incident investigations.”
- “We have over 20 jobs going at any one time. All the guys can easily punch in and out on their phone. If they are in the field, at the supply store, on the job site, etc., they use GPS, and we know where they are. You can’t lose with this software.”
- “The use of the mobile app allows employees to clock in at multiple locations but can also show GPS coordinates if you’re questioning an employee’s whereabouts at the time the punch was entered. Compared to other systems, this is a simple solution offering the same functionality but much easier to use!”
Pricing
Buddy Punch offers a free 14-day trial. Its Starter plan includes GPS on Punch and is $4.49/user per month when paid for annually. Geofencing is included on its Pro plan, which starts at $5.99/user per month. Real-time GPS tracking is available as an add-on to any plan for an additional $2/user per month. A $19/month base fee applies to all plans, which covers the cost of all admin users.
Try Buddy Punch for Free
2. Hellotracks – Best for transportation companies
Hellotracks is specifically built for logistics, delivery, and transportation companies. It uses same-second GPS technology to capture employees’ routes across their entire shifts and log exactly when they arrive at and leave locations.
Hellotracks also comes with route scheduling and dispatching capabilities. You can create routes for your employees, ensure they’re optimized, and then send them to employees. Employees then use the Hellotracks app to guide them on their routes.
When an employee arrives at their destination, the dispatcher receives a notification, and another notification is sent when they leave the location. Hellotracks also logs the employee hours spent at specific locations.
Additionally, the app can collect signatures from customers when deliveries are completed, consolidating all of your data into a single platform.
As far as geofencing, Hellotracks has the most customizable options of all of the apps on this list. It lets you create any geofence shape you’d like — circles, squares, triangles, etc. — so you can be really specific about which areas employees can be in while billing time to your business.
Unique features
- Same-second GPS tracking: Hellotracks pings your employees’ devices every 20 seconds, letting you see exactly where your fleet is located on a map at any moment.
- Route scheduling and dispatching: Use a drag-and-drop tool to create routes and assign them to employees, then dispatch those routes to employees through the app.
- Route optimization: Hellotracks’ technology automatically optimizes your routes for you so you can avoid backtracking and wasted time/hours.
- Customizable geofencing: Create highly specific zones around your delivery areas or locations to make sure employees can’t log time when they’re outside of those areas.
Customer reviews
Hellotracks has an overall rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars across 16 customer reviews. Here’s what customers have to say about its location-tracking features:
- “Amazing experience! I can get a perfect overview of field staff activities in real-time and at a glance. It’s so easy to dispatch and track the work in the field.”
- “GPS tracking of employees in the field allows you to know where they are and track their progress. Also good for uploading jobs to field employees so they get the info right to their phones.”
- “Hellotracks changed the way we control our fleet for deliveries of goods and services. The system as a whole offers all the resources we need to get in control of the jobs and people working on them.”
Pricing
Hellotracks’ base plan starts at $10/user per month and includes real-time GPS location tracking, geofencing, onsite time recording, and unlimited location history.
3. QuickBooks Time – Best for mileage tracking
QuickBooks Time offers GPS on punch, real-time GPS location tracking, and geofencing. These features can be used separately or together.
Its geofencing feature offers some more advanced functionality than the two previous apps we looked at. You can set geofences to automatically clock employees in and out when they arrive at or leave a worksite, or you can send them notifications when they arrive within or leave a geofence to remind them to clock in/out.
Additionally, if an employee leaves a job site while clocked in, a notification prompts them to specify why they’re leaving, letting them select between options like taking a break, clocking out, or switching jobs.
Finally, QuickBooks Time also offers mileage tracking, so if you need to reimburse employees for mileage traveled, it’s a great option for automating that process as part of payroll.
Unique features
- Mileage tracking: Track miles traveled while employees are on the clock so you can file taxes and reimburse expenses.
- Clock-in/out reminders: Send notifications to employees reminding them to clock in or out when entering or exiting a geofence.
- API: Automate the process of creating geofences using QuickBooks Time’s API.
- QuickBooks Payroll syncing: Since QuickBooks Time and QuickBooks Payroll are both QuickBooks products, syncing data between the two products is simple and seamless with no additional integrations required.
Customer reviews
QuickBooks Time has an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars across almost 7,000 customer reviews. Here’s what some specific customers have to say about its location-tracking features:
- “The GPS tracking system has generally been a positive thing to know the whereabouts of personnel. The system also keeps people honest on actual times of arrival and departure.”
- “Great GPS tracking. Great for job costing and helping employees track their time to jobs accurately as they switch between jobs throughout the day.”
Pricing
QuickBooks Time’s plan that includes GPS tracking, mileage tracking, and geofencing is $10/user per month, plus a $40/month base fee (discounted to $20/month for the first three months) that includes one admin user. Note that you must have a QuickBooks Online subscription to use QuickBooks time.
4. Timeero – Best for rural worksites
Timeero offers GPS on punch, geofencing, real-time GPS, and mileage tracking. However, its flexible geofencing features are what encouraged us to include it on this list.
To enable geofencing in Timeero, you simply select the “require geofencing” checkbox when creating a location in the software. After that, you can set the geofence’s radius, which can be as small as 100 meters in diameter or as large as 1,000 meters.
After that, you can choose how your geofence behaves. You can:
- Require employees to be within the geofence to clock in/out.
- Automatically clock employees in and out when entering/exiting the geofence.
- Send employees notifications when entering and/or leaving the geofence’s boundaries to remind them to clock in or out.
Additionally, you can set Timeero up so that employees can clock in and out outside of the geofence even if being within the geofence is required. When this happens, the action is flagged so an administrator can look into it.
This feature is helpful if your employees are working in a location where mobile phone service isn’t available or is unreliable. Instead of being prevented from clocking in or out and having to contact someone in the office for help, they can clock in and out anyway.
Unique features
- Geofence overrides: Allow employees to clock in and out even when their phone data says they’re not within the geofence so employees can still log their hours in rural areas with poor/nonexistent phone service.
- Auto clocking in/out: Instead of having employees clock in manually, set your geofence rules up to automatically clock employees in when entering a geofence and clock them out when exiting it.
Customer reviews
Timeero has an overall rating of 4.4 out of 5 stars across 77 customer reviews. Here’s what some specific customers have to say about its location-tracking features:
- “The geofencing feature allows us to track progress and employee locations for safety, time management, and tracking mileage. Such a great product!”
- “The GPS tracking and geofencing is what really set this app apart from others we’ve tried. Having traveling technicians, it is critical that we are able to track our employees’ time away from the office to ensure they are compensated appropriately.”
- “Easy to use, straightforward for people to follow, simple layout, GPS location is a plus! Allows me to see where my employees are and if they are in the right location when they say they are. Our business is a hire business so there are always different locations.”
Pricing
Real-time GPS tracking mileage tracking are available on Timeero’s Basic plan, which is $4/user per month. However, you can only subscribe to this plan is you will have 10 of fewer total users. If you need geofencing or to add more than 10 users, you’ll need to be on the $8/user per month Pro plan.
5. Jibble – Best free location tracking app
For small businesses with very basic needs, Jibble’s free-forever plan could provide everything you’re looking for. You can use it to log employees’ GPS locations upon clock in and out, as well as to create up to two geofences.
Jibble also offers offline functionality through its mobile time and location tracking apps. If employees don’t have an internet connection through their mobile phones or Wi-Fi, Jibble will simply log the data and then sync it to your system later when a connection is re-established.
Free plan features
- Unlimited users
- GPS on punch
- Up to two geofences
- Facial recognition
- Screenshots
- Employee scheduling
Customer reviews
Jibble has an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars across more than 1,000 user reviews. Here’s what customers have to say about its location-tracking features:
- “I love how it’s so easy to use and the feature which allows me to track location as my work requires tracking the employees who work outside.”
- “The mobile attendance app is excellent and combined with the geolocation and login metering are excellent.”
- “We benefit the most from our remote team management making different working schedule templates and assigning to teams; plus the tool reinforces policies such as working from authorized locations.”
Pricing
Jibble’s free-forever plan includes GPS on punch for unlimited employees and up to two geofences. To get unlimited geofences, you’ll need to be on the Premium plan that starts at $2.49/user per month. For real-time GPS tracking, you’ll need to upgrade to the $4.99/user per month Ultimate plan.
6. Hubstaff – Best for productivity tracking
Hubstaff is unique on this list because it offers both location and activity tracking features. You can use it — like the other apps we’ve reviewed so far — to log GPS on punch, create geofences, and capture real-time GPS breadcrumbs. You can also upload a spreadsheet to Hubstaff to create geofences in bulk.
But Hubstaff also allows you to track employee activity to monitor productivity as well. You can see which websites and apps your employees are using while working, detect when employees are idle while on the clock, and capture screenshots of what they’re working on at regular intervals throughout the day.
This makes it a great option for businesses that have both field and office employees. It provides you with all of the tools you need to prevent time theft of all types — whether employees are working on jobs in the field or working in the office on computers.
Unique features
- Keyboard and mouse activity: Hubstaff monitors keyboard strokes and mouse movements to gauge activity levels during employee work hours. This data is used to generate activity reports that show how active an employee is during their logged time.
- Idle time detection: Hubstaff can detect periods of inactivity and prompt employees to confirm if they are still working — or to adjust their work hours accordingly.
- Automatic screenshots: The app captures random screenshots showing what employees are working on at set intervals (e.g., every 10 minutes) during working hours.
- App and website tracking: Hubstaff tracks the applications and websites employees visit while working.
Customer reviews
Hubstaff has an overall rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars across more than 1,500 customer reviews. Here’s what customers have to say about its location and activity tracking features:
- “Time tracking, HR features, URL/app tracking, project management, good GPS tracking, great one-on-one customer service.”
- “Whenever my team goes out for fieldwork, this tool provides me a clear picture about their field location, thus I can manage the workload by assigning the task to the nearest team member to visit certain clients.”
- “I like the wide variety of tracking features included that not only let employees register work time but also allow us to see activity such as screenshots and location trackers.”
Pricing
Hubstaff’s plans start at $4.99 per seat per month with a two-seat minimum. That plan includes activity levels, limited screenshots, and limited app and URL tracking. Its location-tracking and geofencing features are only available in a separate add-on package that costs an additional $4 per seat per month, so the base price for Hubstaff’s location tracking is $8.99/seat per month.
Want to learn more about Hubstaff? Read our detailed Hubstaff review.
7. Clockify – Best for agencies
Clockify is primarily designed for agencies and consulting companies that do online work for multiple clients. It’s combined project management and time tracking software that lets you create projects, estimate project hours, assign tasks to employees, and capture accurate time spent on clients and projects.
It isn’t terribly robust in terms of its location-tracking features, but it has basic GPS tracking that logs location data when employees clock in and again when they clock out.
Additionally, if employees leave the office while clocked in, Clockify will add the time and new location to the timesheet, letting you easily identify when employees took breaks or forgot to clock out when leaving work.
Unique features
- Auto tracker: Clockify records what employees are working on all day so they don’t have to clock in and out of projects. They can review their timeline at the end of the day to sort tasks into project buckets.
- Pomodoro timer: Employees can use Clockify’s built-in Pomodoro timer to do their work in focused intervals (e.g., 25 minutes of work, 5-minute break).
- Project management integrations: Clockify offers integrations with popular project management tools like Asana, Trello, Jira, ClickUp, and Monday.
Customer reviews
Clockify has an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars across more than 9,000 customer reviews. Here’s what one customer has to say about its location tracking features:
- “As a hybrid worker, I spend part of my day working from home, part of it at the office, and part at other locations. I’m in several places, both in and outside of the city where I pay taxes. Clockify allows me to track not only when, but where, so my reporting is accurate.
Pricing
Clockify offers a 100% free plan for unlimited employees; however, location tracking is not included in its free plan. Its plans that include GPS time tracking start at $7.99/user per month.
8. TimeTrakGO – Best for small businesses
TimeTrakGo is a basic employee time clock with a unique graphical interface and only the most essential features. As far as GPS tracking, you can capture employees’ locations on clock in and out, and you can create geofences. Unlike the other apps on this list, TimeTrakGo doesn’t offer real-time GPS tracking.
Its graphical interface makes it easy to use for both employees and administrators and can be a good option if your administrators aren’t very tech-savvy. It relies heavily on pictures and big buttons to make the right action to take clear and doesn’t provide too many details in terms of data or reports.
This makes it a great, low-cost option for small businesses with employees who might struggle to use a more robust, feature-rich system. You can track time, view locations, create schedules, integrate with your payroll provider, and track PTO simply without any of the bells and whistles of the other apps on this list.
Unique features
- Simple interface: Big buttons, clear colors, and minimal calls to action makes it easy for less tech-savvy administrators and employees to find what they’re looking for in the app.
- Timesheet locking: When it’s time to run payroll, admins can lock timesheets to prevent any additional changes from being made to them.
Customer reviews
TimeTrakGO has an overall rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars across 133 customer reviews on Capterra. Here’s what customers have to say about its location tracking features:
- “The simplicity of its graphical timecards makes it easy for our team to log hours accurately, and the mobile access with GPS tracking ensures that even our remote employees can clock in without hassle.”
- “Very user friendly, and so simple to set up. Two features that made it our best choice: GPS location and customer service. Someone was always available to assist when needed.”
- “Affordable, easy to use, has GPS capability. You can limited the number of devices used to clock in or out. You can make changes or corrections to hours if an error occurs.”
Pricing
TimeTrakGo’s plan that includes GPS on punch and geofencing starts at $3.30/user per month plus a $16/month base fee.
9. Workyard – Best for contractors
Workyard is fully focused on time tracking for construction companies and contractors. It comes with precise, real-time GPS tracking that tracks your crews’ locations every minute. Because of this, the app can automate many different things: time tracking, clocking in and out, project time, and mileage capture.
Additionally, Workday has a feature that reports on exactly what your project costs are — and see if you’re over- or under-budget — which can help you create more accurate estimates for future projects.
Unique features
- AI timesheet analysis: Workyard has a feature where AI will analyze your timesheets for you to look for and alert you to inconsistencies like early clock-outs, unapproved overtime, or time theft.
- Job documentation: Employees can attach photos, notes, and reports directly to timesheets, allowing for easy documentation of work progress and job site conditions.
- Smart geofencing: The app can detect when employees arrive or leave job sites. It can also send automated clock-in and clock-out reminders when employee arrive at/leave a worksite.
Customer reviews
Workyard has an overall rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars across 88 customer reviews on Capterra. Here’s what customers have to say about its location tracking features:
- “I love Workyard for the GPS tracking, time tracking, and payroll import. It makes my life so much easier.”
- “I like the customization and job cost tracking in Workyard. I have the ability to individualize employee permissions and geofence tracking as needed.”
- “Our company is moving throughout the day to many different job sites. The GPS feature helps us see if employee went on a job site that they employee may have forgotten to report.”
Pricing
Workyard’s plan that includes GPS and mileage tracking starts at $6/user per month plus a $50/month base fee. To gate access to geofencing, you’ll need to be on the $13/user per month Pro plan.
The challenges of employee location tracking
While tracking your employees’ locations can deliver a lot of benefits, there are also some challenges you should consider before you decide to move forward with purchasing an employee location tracking app.
- Legal considerations: Some U.S. states have laws around employee location tracking. Check with an employment attorney to understand any requirements you may need to follow. In general, you should only track employees’ locations while they’re on the clock, and you should get their permission to track their locations before you start doing so.
- Privacy considerations: It’s crucial that the app you choose only tracks employees’ locations while they’re on the clock so as not to violate their privacy in their personal time. Additionally, you should make sure the app you choose has role-based permissions so you have control over which individuals are able to access employee location data.
- Cost: Apps that come with location tracking features tend to be priced slightly higher than those that only offer basic time tracking. However, the benefits you get from reducing labor costs, creating more accurate invoices, and developing more efficient routes generally makes up for the added costs.
- Implementation difficulties: Location tracking apps require more permissions than other time tracking apps, and they may use more data and battery than employees are comfortable with — both of which can make getting your employees to adopt the apps more difficult. Talk to any provider you’re considering to get their help with putting together an effective implementation plan.
Keep in mind, however, that these challenges are relatively easy to overcome with the right information and a good implementation plan. Be sure to lean on your provider’s support team for help navigating these challenges.
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