The 7 Best Face Recognition Attendance Systems in 2025

ByEric Czerwonka Last Updated

If time theft is a serious problem for your business, it’s worth investing in an attendance system with built-in facial recognition technology. This ensures that only the right employee is able to clock in to and out of work, completely eliminating the time-theft act of buddy punching (when one employee clocks in/out for another).

In this post, we take a look at the seven best face recognition attendance systems. For each, we’ll review how their facial recognition technology works, as well as discuss any other features the software offers that can help you save time, reduce labor costs, and eliminate time theft.

1. Buddy Punch

Buddy Punch is a time and attendance tracking app that makes it easy to keep employees accountable and eliminate time theft.

Attendance tracking in Buddy Punch starts with creating employee work schedules. You build schedules for your employees using Buddy Punch’s drag-and-drop schedule maker. With features like repeating shifts, shift trades/covers, employee availability, and templates, you’ll be able to create schedules faster than ever before.

Once your schedules are created and published, employees will clock in and out of their shifts using Buddy Punch. Buddy Punch can be accessed on the web from any device, or you can download its apps so employees can have it on their iOS or Android phones. You can even install the app on a tablet to create a central time clock kiosk.

The act of employees clocking in and out allows you to track employee attendance. You’ll be able to see who’s on the clock and who’s off at a glance on the administrator dashboard, and you can set up notifications to get alerted when someone clocks in early, clocks out late, or misses a shift entirely.

Buddy Punch also compiles all clock-in and out data into timesheets. It calculates regular and overtime hours and pay rates for you automatically to make running payroll a breeze. You can also use Buddy Punch as your payroll provider, or you can connect to your existing payroll software using one of Buddy Punch’s integrations.

How facial recognition works in Buddy Punch

Buddy Punch’s facial recognition feature works via an integration with Apple’s Face ID. This lets employees sign in to Buddy Punch using facial recognition rather than a username and password, PIN, or other identification method.

Face ID uses three types of technology for recognizing faces: a dot projector, a flood illuminator, and an infrared camera. These work together to generate a 3D facial map that’s compared to the photos you have on file for employees. It can recognize faces even when employees are wearing glasses or have grown beards, and it adapts to appearance changes over time.

Buddy Punch’s system works best in two circumstances. The first is if you’re using an iPad as a time clock kiosk that all employees clock in and out of. You can set this up in your office, at one of your locations, or in the field at a job site. Employees will all use the tablet to clock in and out of work, signing in to Buddy Punch to clock in and out using facial recognition.

The second is if you’ve provided all field employees with iPhones. Face ID can only be used on Apple devices, so it won’t work for employees with Android phones.

Other employee accountability features

Facial recognition is just one of the ways Buddy Punch helps companies reduce labor costs and prevent time theft. Other valuable features include:

  • GPS tracking: Capture employees’ locations when they clock in and out to make sure they are at the right location when billing time to your business, or track their movements throughout the day with real-time GPS tracking.
  • Geofencing: Set up digital borders around your job sites. When employees clock in/out, the system will see if they’re located within those borders. If they’re not, it prevents them from punching in/out.
  • IP address locking: IP address locking is similar to geofencing but more suited to office workers. It prevents employees from clocking in and out unless they’re connected to the office Wi-Fi network.
  • Photos on Punch: Require employees to take a photo of themselves when clocking in and out. These photos can be reviewed on their timecards. While this won’t prevent them from clocking in and out like facial recognition if the photo isn’t the right employee, it will help you easily identify employees who are stealing time.

Features to help you save time

Beyond keeping employees accountable, Buddy Punch also has features that have business owners, admins, bookkeepers, and HR teams tons of time:

  • Payroll integrations: Buddy Punch automatically tracks and calculates employee hours and overtime for you, and it integrates with popular payroll providers like QuickBooks, ADP, Gusto, Paychex, and more. You can send your time data to payroll in seconds and complete the whole process in just a few minutes.
  • Time off tracking: Stop manually adding time off to timecards and automate the process with Buddy Punch. Employees can see their accrued time off and request time off, managers can approve the requests, and the PTO hours are automatically added to employees’ timesheets and included in their payroll hours.
  • Employee scheduling: Create employee schedules in seconds using Buddy Punch’s drag-and-drop builder. You can let employees set their availability and request shift trades and covers. Then you can view all of that data to build schedules faster than ever.
  • Delegate responsibilities: Assign specific employees to their managers to have managers approve timesheets at the end of the pay period and review time off requests. Managers can also build employee schedules for their own teams.
  • Notifications: Get an alert for everything you want to stay on top of. See when employees are nearing overtime, monitor attendance (tardiness and missed shifts), get updates on shift trade and time off requests, and more.

You can read about all of Buddy Punch’s features here. Or if you prefer, take an interactive tour, or watch a demo video.

Pricing

Facial recognition is included in all of Buddy Punch’s plans. Its base plan starts at $4.49 per user per month plus a $19 per month base fee.

Ready to learn more about Buddy Punch? Start a free 14-day trial — no credit card required — or request a personalized demo.

2. ADP

ADP is a payroll provider that also offers physical and web-based time clocks with built-in biometric identification. In addition to facial recognition, ADP’s systems can log employees in using fingerprint scanning and voice commands.

Like Buddy Punch, ADP’s attendance management system is based on employees clocking in and out. You can set ADP’s software up on an iPad or Android tablet as a time clock kiosk, or you can purchase one of the provider’s mounted devices. 

There are three primary differences between the two options. First, the mounted devices aren’t movable, so you’ll only want to use those when all employees clock in and out from the same location. The tablet version is portable. 

Second, voice commands are only available on the tablet version — not the mounted devices.

Finally, the mounted devices can also be used if you want employees to be able to clock in using employee ID cards. They come with built-in employee ID scanners that you won’t get on the tablet version of the software. This also lets you use ADP as an access control system for your building or other secure areas.

Because they’re both ADP products, your time and attendance data in ADP is seamlessly transferred to ADP RUN — the platform’s payroll processing service. This can help you consolidate multiple systems under one provider.

Pricing: ADP’s pricing is not publicly available. Request a demo on its website to get a quote.

3. Jibble

Jibble’s facial recognition attendance system is one of the only apps on the market that’s completely free. With it, you get facial recognition, GPS tracking, and time tracking for unlimited users at no monthly cost. 

However, it’s worth noting that there are some significant limits to what you can do on the free plan. For example, you can only track time and attendance for one pay period at a time. Many features you may want are only available if you upgrade to one of Jibble’s paid plans.

Jibble’s face recognition technology works using artificial intelligence to detect distinct facial features. When employees download the apps onto their phones or tablets, they start by taking multiple pictures of their faces from different angles. After that, Jibble uses face detection to determine which employee is attempting to log into the system.

In addition to using facial recognition for authentication, Jibble also takes a picture of the employee and adds that picture to the employee’s time card. This gives you an additional layer of protection; if you believe employees are cheating the algorithm, you can review their pictures to validate or invalidate your suspicions.

Time and attendance records are compiled into timesheets and reports in Jibble and can be accessed by administrators and managers anytime. Jibble also integrates with several popular payroll and project management tools to help you pass data across systems.

Pricing: Free for unlimited users for up to one pay period’s worth of time and attendance tracking. The free plan includes facial recognition, GPS tracking, and up to two geofences.

4. Timeero

Timeero is a face recognition attendance system that works almost identically to Buddy Punch. It integrates with Face ID to validate an employee’s face when clocking in and out. Like Buddy Punch, Timeero can only be used on Apple smartphones and tablets, and the app also comes with other accountability features like GPS tracking and geofencing.

The big difference between the two apps in terms of their facial recognition features is that Timeero doesn’t block employees from clocking in if their face isn’t recognized. Instead, it simply sends a notification of the error to an admin. The admin can review the photo that was taken and see if the clock-in was legitimate or not.

This could be a good solution if you don’t want issues with the face recognition technology to prevent employees from being able to clock in and out.

Pricing: Facial recognition is only available on Timeero’s Premium plan, which is $11 per user per month.

5. Truein

Truein’s touchless face recognition attendance system is great for healthcare businesses because it’s built to be able to recognize human faces even if they’re wearing a mask. Additionally, it’s a contactless system, so you don’t have to worry about germs spreading from all of the fingers touching your time clock.

You can set up Truein on an iPad or Android tablet to create a contactless time clock kiosk, or if you have staff working in the field, they can use Truein’s mobile apps to clock in and clock out. Truein tracks employee time and attendance and compiles all of the data into reports that can be downloaded as Excel or CSV files and sent to your payroll provider.

Pricing: Truein’s plans start at $2.50 per user per month and include facial recognition, multi-site management, and customizable policies.

6. AMGtime

AMGtime is another provider that, like ADP, sells physical time clocks that pair with its attendance software. Its physical time clocks offer a number of different options that use biometric technology, including face recognition, fingerprint scanners, and RFID card scanners.

The way it works is that you first purchase the number of devices that you need. Then, you purchase any accessories you might need (such as employee ID cards or fobs). Next, you either purchase or subscribe to AMGtime’s software. If you get the desktop version, you’ll pay a one-time fee. If you choose the web version, you’ll pay a per-month fee.

With both the hardware and software purchased and installed, you can get started tracking employee time and attendance. AMGtime allows you to download reports to send to your payroll provider when it’s time to run payroll, and you can use its Payroll Wizard to create highly customized time and attendance reports.

Pricing: Hardware that includes facial recognition ranges between $391.50-$1995.00 per device. AMGtime’s desktop software starts at $204 (one-time fee), and its web-based software starts at $1 per employee per month plus a $15 per month base fee.

7. Fareclock

Faceclock is a good option if you’re looking to create a point-based attendance system. You can set it up to assign a specific number of points for different attendance infractions, such as arriving late, clocking out early, or missing a shift. It does this automatically, sending admins notifications when employees get points assigned or meet point thresholds.

It also uses facial recognition to prevent employees from gaming the points system by having other employees clock in or out for them. The technology has to validate the employee’s identity before they’re allowed to clock in or out, preventing buddy punching.

Like the other attendance apps on this list, Fareclock can be accessed on computers, phones, and tablets, as well as set up on a central tablet as a time clock kiosk.

Pricing: Faceclock’s plans that include facial recognition start at $1.50 per user per month (with a minimum of five users), plus a $12 per month base fee.

Choosing the right face recognition attendance system

The big decision to make before shopping for employee attendance software that includes facial recognition is whether you want to go with an app or a physical device.

The nice thing about apps is that they’re more flexible. They can be used anywhere, anytime on computers, mobile phones, and tablets. Employees can clock in and out no matter where they’re working. And if you want to have a time clock kiosk, you can set them up for that purpose on a central computer or tablet.

Apps also avoid the high costs of hardware. Even if your employees don’t work on computers, they will have mobile phones — everyone does these days. So you won’t have to fork out hundreds or thousands of dollars for devices before you can even get started.

However, the physical devices often come with more biometric systems than the apps. Apps typically only have facial recognition, whereas devices may also have voice recognition, fingerprint scanning, and badge scanning. So if you want access to those technologies, you’re better off with a physical device and its corresponding software.