Buddy Punch vs. Connecteam

Buddy Punch vs. Connecteam: Side-By-Side Comparison

Buddy Punch vs. Connecteam: Detailed Comparison

While Buddy Punch and Connecteam are both all-in-one time tracking and employee scheduling apps, the two platforms vary wildly in practical application. Read on to determine which option is best for your company.

Connecteam is more affordable for small, single-location businesses

Connecteam has a free plan for businesses with one location and up to 10 users that gives you access to all of its hubs (Operations, Communications, and HR) at no cost. You can have one time clock and one employee schedule on the plan, and you also get access to Connecteam’s messaging app and internal help desk and knowledge base tools.

However, it’s worth noting that if your team ever needs to upgrade to get additional features, add additional locations, or add more than 10 users, you’ll need to subscribe to three separate plans to retain all of the features you had in the free plan. Each of its plans — Operations, Communications, and HR — are sold separately when you upgrade to paid.

Buddy Punch’s pricing is more predictable

Connecteam’s features are spread out across three different hubs, each with four different plans. And each plan has limits on what features you have access to. For example, you can only create 10 geofences on the Advanced plan, you can only create up to three reports on the Expert plan, and you can only create one schedule on the Basic plan.

This can make Connecteam’s pricing look very low at a glance, but you’ll find yourself constantly needing to upgrade to higher-priced plans to be able to do what you need to do in the tool.

Buddy Punch’s pricing is much more straightforward, transparent, and predictable. You get as many PTO policies, locations, and reports as you need on the Starter plan. Create unlimited geofences and employee schedules on the Pro plan. And add as many admin users as you need at no additional cost — the $19 base fee covers the cost of all admin users.

Additionally, customers rate Buddy Punch as having a higher value for your money than Connecteam. On popular software review site Capterra, Buddy Punch has a rating of 4.8 out of 5 in the category of value for money. Meanwhile, Connecteam has a score of 4.5 out of 5 in value for money, its lowest score across the individual category breakdowns.

Connecteam offers a lot more HR features

HR teams can use Connecteam to track time, create employee schedules, build an internal knowledge base, create a help desk for internal support, store documents, communicate with individual teams or the entire company, and even create courses, surveys, and quizzes. Essentially, you can operate your entire HR function (with the exception of hiring) in one tool.

Buddy Punch offers time tracking, scheduling, PTO tracking, payroll, and attendance tracking, but it does not have other HR-specific features. If you’re looking for an all-in-one HR tool, Connecteam might be the better fit. However, the large number of features available in Connecteam also makes it more difficult to set up, use daily, and train employees on.

Customers rate Buddy Punch as the simpler app to use. On Capterra, Buddy Punch has a rating of 4.9/5 for ease of use and 5/5 for ease of setup. In contrast, Connecteam has a rating of 4.7/5 for ease of use and 4.5/5 for ease of setup.

As one Buddy Punch customer writes:

Buddy Punch offers more payroll options

Connecteam only has three payroll integrations: Gusto, Paychex, and ADP. Buddy Punch offers a total of 17, including all major payroll systems. Payroll integrations make it significantly faster and easier to run payroll because instead of downloading reports, formatting them properly, and uploading them to payroll, you simply click a button to send time data to payroll instantly.

Additionally, if you don’t have an existing payroll provider or want to consolidate your time tracking and payroll into one system, you can add payroll to Buddy Punch for $6/user per month. This makes running payroll easier than ever and reduces the likelihood of errors.

Connecteam has more team communications features

Connecteam’s inclusion of team messaging helps set it apart from Buddy Punch. While Buddy Punch users can leave notes for admins when they clock in/out, it does not have a feature for real-time team chat.

Connecteam’s chat allows users to exercise total control over their team members. You can choose who is capable of starting private chats; limit communications based on projects, locations, or departments; and schedule messages to ensure they’re only sent during work hours. Additionally, you can choose if conversations will be able to be saved.

Connecteam also lets business owners and administrators create customized surveys and polls to get feedback directly from employees.

Buddy Punch offers more accessibility options

Both tools offer users a variety of ways to clock in, including with username and password, single sign-on, and PIN codes. But that is where the similarities largely end.

Buddy Punch also offers facial recognition sign-ins, a text message to punch feature, QR code sign in, and even group punch, which lets a supervisor or manager clock in/out for an entire group of people at once.

Who Connecteam is right for vs. who Buddy Punch is right for

Connecteam is the better fit for teams in two scenarios: 1) if you run a small single-location business and need a free tool for scheduling and time tracking, or 2) if you want lots of HR features in a single tool.

If neither of those describe your business/needs, Buddy Punch is likely going to be the better option for your team.

Buddy Punch has more transparent pricing and is easier to use. Customers rate it a better value for your money. It has more features for time tracking and more flexible options for the different ways teams work. And finally, it will help you streamline your payroll and improve its accuracy — either with integrations or its payroll add-on.