Employee Time Tracking Software
Streamline and automate time tracking, payroll, and scheduling with Buddy Punch — the #1 employee time tracking software.
There are hundreds of apps on the market for tracking employee hours, and among them, there isn’t one clear winner that’s best for everyone. What’s best for your organization might be a poor fit for another because of your business’s unique needs.
So to compile this list, we focused on finding options that are truly unique. Our goal is to help you build your shortlist quickly by highlighting the apps that actually have unique features, competitive pricing, and satisfied customers.
After researching dozens of apps in depth, we ended up with this list of the 15 overall best employee time-tracking software.
Whether you’re looking for a platform that’s free, easy to use, built for your industry, or integrates with your other systems, one of the apps below should meet your needs.
The 15 Best Employee Time Tracking Software
1. Buddy Punch
Best for affordability and range of features.
Buddy Punch tops our list for its ease of use, high customer ratings, affordability, and range of features that make it ideal for many different types of businesses.
Buddy Punch is a web-based tool, which means you and your team can use it on any internet-connected device. Access Buddy Punch on a computer that uses any operating system, or download its apps that are available for iOS, Android, and ChromeOS.
This makes Buddy Punch work for you no matter where or how your employees spend their working hours:
- If all employees work in the same location, you can download Buddy Punch onto a tablet and use it as a central time clock kiosk. Employees can clock in/out using a username and password, 4-digit PIN, or QR code.
- If your employees work in the field, they can download the Buddy Punch app for their mobile phones to clock in and out. And if they can’t download the app, they can clock in and out by sending a text message.
- If your employees work in different offices or from home, they can log into Buddy Punch on their computers to clock in at the start of their day and clock out at the end.
Buddy Punch is simple to use for even your least tech-savvy employees. When they log in, there’s a big button they click to clock in or out. This makes it easy to get your team up and running using the system — no training is required.
And for business owners, managers, and admins, Buddy Punch has all of the features you need to run your business:
Automatic time tracking
Employees can easily clock in/out using Buddy Punch’s web and mobile apps. You can then run reports for things like employee attendance and work hours.
Employee scheduling
Use Buddy Punch’s drag-and-drop schedule maker to easily create shift patterns and get full control over your employees’ work schedules.
Time-off tracking
Buddy Punch automatically calculates PTO accruals. Employees can submit time off requests that are sent to managers for approval or rejection.
Overtime management
Create custom rules to calculate overtime based on location, work week, or policies. Plus, get notifications when employees are nearing overtime.
Payroll integrations
Send timesheets directly to your payroll provider. Buddy Punch integrates with platforms like QuickBooks, ADP, Gusto, Paychex, Workday, and more.
Reports
Generate a payroll report, and then download it as an Excel, CSV, or PDF file. Everything you need to run payroll is already computed for you.
GPS tracking
Capture employees’ GPS coordinates when they clock in/out, or use real-time GPS tracking to see where everyone is located on a map.
Photo clock-ins
Capture a picture of employees when they clock in and out to prevent buddy punching, or use Face ID to enable facial recognition identification.
Geofences
Create digital, location-based radiuses that prevent employees from clocking in and out unless they’re on site within the geofence’s radius.
IP address locks
Set it up so employees can only clock in and out when the device they’re using is connected to your company’s IP address, preventing off-site punching.
Project tracking
Create jobs, companies, or any type of label to assign employee time toward. Time spent on each project will be reflected on time cards and in reports.
Automatic breaks
Set up customizable break rules, and Buddy Punch will automatically deduct the unpaid break times from employees’ timesheets.
Add, edit, or delete entries
Administrators can make changes to timecards as needed when employees forget to clock in/out or billed for more hours than they actually worked.
Timesheet approvals
Require administrators or employees’ managers to approve submitted timesheets before sending the work hours data to payroll.
Alerts & notifications
Remind employees to clock in/out, send managers alerts when employees are nearing overtime, alert administrators of approval requests, and more.
The variety of simple and more complex features in Buddy Punch makes it ideal for both single-location businesses with a handful of employees and client-based businesses with hundreds of employees working in different locations.
Finally, Buddy Punch has some of the highest ratings for ease of use and customer support in the entire time tracking software category, with an overall 4.8 out of 5-star rating on Capterra across nearly 1,000 user reviews.
Pricing
Buddy Punch has a free 14-day trial — no credit card required. Its paid plans start at $3.99 per user per month, plus a $19 per month base fee.
Try Buddy Punch for free
Simplify employee scheduling, time tracking, and payroll. Easily track employee time, no matter where they’re working.
2. Insightful
Best for knowledge workers.
If most or all of your employees do knowledge work, Insightful is a great time-tracking platform to consider. It’s built around time and productivity tracking, allowing you to see what employees are working on and when they’re wasting time — as well as compare your performance to benchmarks from other companies like yours.
Insightful captures real-time data on workers’ activities — including active and idle times, applications used, and websites visited — so you can see how employees spend their time and identify potential productivity issues.
As far as its time clock, employees can track time manually or automatically, and they can allocate their hours to specific projects and tasks. Managers and administrators can also create custom rules to dictate what specific activities are tracked for each employee.
Key features
- Time and productivity tracking
- Focus tracking
- Productivity analytics
- Productivity dashboards
- Benchmarks
Pros
- Automatically track time and attach it to projects
- Measure productivity of remote employees
- Great customer support
Key integrations
- Asana
- Zendesk
- Workday
- BigQuery
- API
Cons
- Tracking features must be applied to everyone rather than setting them up for individuals
- No mobile application
Pricing
Customers get all of Insightful’s time clock and productivity features on its Productivity Management plan which starts at $6.40 per user per month.
3. Clockify
Best free time-tracking software.
If you’re just looking for a simple, free employee time-tracking app, consider Clockify.
Clockify is a time- and project-tracking tool that lets you track overall employee hours and the time spent on specific tasks and projects. This is helpful if you run a business that works with clients — Clockify can streamline the time you spend on both payroll for your employees and invoicing for your customers.
Clockify’s free time clock supports unlimited users, and you can create an unlimited number of projects and tasks. You can export your time card data in CSV, PDF, or XLS formats, and you can set custom hourly rates for different projects and tasks.
With that said, most of Clockify’s more advanced features are locked behind the paywall of its premium plans. If you need to do more than be able to track employee hours spent on tasks/projects and export that data into a spreadsheet for invoicing and payroll, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
But if you have a small team and just need basic time-tracking, it’s a great option that doesn’t cost anything.
Key features
- Unlimited users
- Unlimited tracking
- Time tracker
- Timesheets
- Kiosk
Pros
- Offers a free forever plan for simple needs
- Can also be used as a project management tool
Key integrations
- Jira
- Asana
- Basecamp
- Github
- Azure Devops
Cons
- Customers report issues with buggy display
- Paid plans are pricier for their included features than many of the other apps on this list
Pricing
Clockify’s free plan includes unlimited users, projects, and tracking; mobile and desktop apps; reports and exporting; idle detection and reminders; and integrations with 80+ project management tools.
4. Hellotracks
Best for transportation companies.
Hellotracks is specifically built for logistics, delivery, and transportation companies. It not only tracks employee time, it also tracks their location in real-time on a map, capturing employees’ routes across their entire shifts and logging exactly when they arrive at and leave locations.
Where some of the other apps on this list offer employee scheduling tools, Hellotracks takes things a step further with route scheduling and dispatching. 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.
Additionally, the app can collect signatures from customers when deliveries are completed, consolidating all of your data into a single platform.
Key features
- Real-time GPS tracking
- Route scheduling and dispatching
- Route optimization
- Geofencing
Pros
- Eliminates paperwork and streamlines data collection with digital forms
- Dispatching and route optimization are simple
Key integrations
- Google Calendar
- Slack
- Microsoft Excel
- API
Cons
- Lacks certain advanced features found in other fleet management software
- Not very customizable
Pricing
Hellotracks’ base plan starts at $10 per user per month and includes real-time GPS location tracking, geofencing, on-site time recording, and unlimited location history.
5. ClickTime
Best for agencies.
ClickTime is an employee time tracking and resource planning platform that helps agencies stay on top of project work for their clients. In addition to the basic ability to track employee time overall and against specific clients’ tasks and projects, you can also improve your forecasting and make sure projects stay on budget.
With ClickTime, employees can log their time to either billable or non-billable tasks. Admins and managers can then review those reports to optimize productivity by reducing or eliminating the types of work you can’t bill clients for, such as unnecessary internal meetings.
ClickTime also takes all of your historical data and pairs it with your future plans to help you understand how many employee hours new projects will take to complete, how the hours you’ve worked compared to the hours you estimated you’d need, and how much work each member of your team is assigned.
Key features
- Capacity planning
- Billing goals
- Compare estimates to actual costs
- Workload management
Pros
- Track billable and non-billable hours accurately
- Custom reports are easy to create
- Simple to onboard new staff onto the platform
Key integrations
- Sage
- Salesforce
- Slack
- BambooHR
Cons
- Interface is a little outdated
- It’s difficult to find what you need in the interface
- No direct QuickBooks integration
Pricing
ClickTime’s pricing starts at $12 per user per month for up to 25 users and includes time tracking, reports, and email reminders. However, most of the platform’s more unique resource management and budgeting features are only included as part of its $27 per user per month plan.
6. ADP
Best for biometric identification.
If what you need is a time clock with advanced biometric login features like facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, or voice recognition, ADP is worth considering.
ADP is one of the only tools on this list that offers biometric features natively — most others only offer facial recognition, and even at that, it’s usually done via integration with another app. Additionally, employees can use ID badges to clock in and out on compatible ADP devices.
Other ADP time clock features include GPS tracking and geofencing, employee scheduling, and overtime calculations. The platform also integrates seamlessly with ADP’s payroll services for efficient payroll processing.
Key features
- Mobile apps and kiosks
- Face and fingerprint recognition
- Location tracking
- Employee scheduling
- Real-time cost predictions
Pros
- Integrates quickly with ADP’s other services
- Offers multiple features that streamline scheduling and make predictions for you
Key integrations
- Intuit Quickbooks
- ClockShark
- TruSaic
- Points North
- Zay Zoom
Cons
- No accessible pricing, making it difficult to compare potential costs at a glance
- Mostly for larger businesses
Pricing
No public pricing is available for ADP; you have to talk to someone on their team to get a quote.
7. Hubstaff
Best for healthcare companies.
Hubstaff is perhaps the most feature-rich of all of the platforms on this list. With it, you get accountability features like GPS tracking and geofencing, payroll integrations with major accounting software, and productivity tracking features like idle detection and keyboard/mouse activity monitoring.
This makes Hubstaff usable by any type of company — its features will cover you if you manage field workers or remote workers and if your team works on projects for your business or your clients.
However, where Hubstaff really stands out is that it’s one of the few time-tracking tools that has a HIPAA-compliance feature. This makes it a more compelling option for employers in the healthcare industry who may have timecard entries that include protected patient data.
Key features
- Time tracking
- Productivity tracking
- Employee scheduling
- Payroll
- Billing and invoicing
Pros
- Has employee accountability features for all types of work models (on-site, off-site, fully remote, etc.)
- Easy to use and has good customer service
Key integrations
- FreshBooks
- QuickBooks
- PayPal
- Gusto
- Deel
Cons
- The plan with HIPAA-compliance is far pricier than most of the other tools on this list
- No offline mode for workers without an internet or data connection
Pricing
While Hubstaff’s basic plans start at $4.99 per seat per month with a two-seat minimum, to get access to its HIPAA compliance features, you’ll have to be on the $25 per seat per month Enterprise plan.
8. QuickBooks Time
Best for large businesses.
There’s one big advantage of QuickBooks Time if you’re already paying for the Premium- or Elite-tier packages of QuickBooks Payroll: QuickBooks Time is included for free as part of your subscription.
QuickBooks Time’s features are designed primarily for in-person work. It doesn’t have productivity-tracking features like Hubstaff or Insightful, but it does offer time clock kiosks, GPS and mileage tracking, and geofencing — features that are great for businesses with traveling employees or where everyone works on-site.
Another great feature of QuickBooks Time is its API. The API allows you to make quick, bulk changes to your data — adding or deleting employees, geofences, locations, job codes, and more. This is another benefit for large companies with deep technical resources that can help automate payroll via API.
And while most of the other tools on this list offer integrations with QuickBooks Online or Desktop, because QuickBooks Time is also an Intuit product, the two tools work together seamlessly with no integration required.
Key features
- Mobile apps
- GPS tracking
- Employee scheduling
- Project tracking
- PTO management
Pros
- Seamlessly connect time-tracking data to QuickBooks Payroll
- Ability to track employee drive times and work times separately
Key integrations
- QuickBooks Online
- ADP
- Square Payroll
- Paychex
- Justworks
Cons
- One of the pricier options on the market
- Fewer customization capabilities than other apps
- Not as user-friendly as some of the other apps on this list
Pricing
If you’re already subscribed to QuickBooks Payroll’s Premium or Elite packages, QuickBooks Time is available to you for free. If you’re not already subscribed to QuickBooks Payroll Premium or Elite, QuickBooks Time starts at $8 per user per month plus a $20 base fee after a three-month initial discount period.
9. Paymo
Best for combined time tracking and project management.
If what your business needs most is a single tool you can use to manage projects and track time, Paymo might be just the thing. It comes with all of the project management features you’d expect — Gantt charts, Kanban boards, to-do lists, and task calendars — as well as time-tracking, team scheduling, and timesheets.
With Paymo, you can send online invoices, create estimates from project plans, track expenses, measure employee performance, and see which of your clients is the most profitable. It also integrates with tools like Google Calendar, Slack, Typeform, JotForm, Lambda Test, PomoDone, and Shift.
If you have a small team, Paymo’s free plan may include everything you need from your employee time-tracking software. On it, you can add unlimited employees and tasks for up to five clients and 10 projects, which may be sufficient for small agencies and consultancies.
Key features
- Kanban boards
- Gantt charts
- Team scheduling
- Project templates
- Automatic time tracking
- Client and team collaboration
- File sharing
- Invoicing software
- Profitability tracking
Pros
- Available in 22 different languages
- Provides many ways to keep track of your projects
- Allows for your employees and customers to collaborate on projects easily
Key integrations
- Google Calendar
- Slack
- Typeform
- Lambda Test
- QuickBooks Online
- Zapier
- Pabbly
- Shift
- Xero
Cons
- Limited to the boards mentioned before, so if you don’t work well with them, you can’t really change that
- Some important features are only available in the higher-priced plans
Pricing
Paymo has a free plan that’s available for up to five clients and 10 projects; paid plans start at $5.90 per user/month.
10. Connecteam
Best for combined time tracking and HR management.
While Connecteam can be used solely as a time clock app, the platform really shines when you need those features and human resources management tools in one combined platform.
As far as its time-tracking software, Connecteam has GPS tracking and geofencing. Managers can create and assign shifts, send notifications to employees, and handle shift swaps. The system also supports overtime calculations, break management, and custom workweeks.
Combining time tracking with its HR package gets all of your HR features into a single platform. You can create onboarding checklists, store employee documents, run performance reviews, and create courses for training and certification. Note, however, that Connecteam does not come with an applicant tracking system.
Key features
- Document management
- Onboarding checklists
- Training courses
- Certification tracking
- Performance reviews
Pros
- Get time tracking and HR tools in one app
- Improves company communications
- Great customer support and excellent in-app guides showing how to use features
Key integrations
- Gusto
- QuickBooks
- Paychex
- Xero
- Zapier
Cons
- Only regular hours can be exported to QuickBooks; not overtime or PTO
- Multiple plans across different products makes pricing a little confusing and complex
Pricing
While all of the time clock, communications, and HR tools are part of the Connecteam platform, the different features are packaged into three different suites that all have their own pricing. A free plan is available on each package for up to 10 employees, then paid plans start at $29 per user, per month, per suite for up to 30 users.
11. Time Tracker by eBillity
Best for law firms and attorneys.
As far as time tracking goes, Time Tracker by eBillity has all of the basic time clock features: employee time tracking, GPS tracking, geofencing, employee scheduling, and project tracking. However, as a simple time tracker, it’s one of the more expensive options on this list.
Where Time Tracker shines is with its LawBillity plan that has additional features for lawyers and legal teams. You can use the platform to check for conflicts, run realization reports, use LEDES and LAA invoice formats, add ABA codes, and create trust accounts. Additionally, you can track expenses and attach them to client invoices.
Key features
- Realization reports
- ABA codes
- Legal invoicing format
- Trust accounts
- Conflict checker
Pros
- Quickly provide monthly accrual estimates to clients
- Memorized reports feature speeds up month-end and billing processes
Key integrations
- LawPay
- Clio
- ADP
- QuickBooks
- SAP Concur
Cons
- Can be difficult to learn how to use
- No integration with Microsoft Outlook
- Specific features and reports can be difficult to find and navigate to
Pricing
Time Tracker by eBillity’s basic time-tracking plan is $7.20 per user per month. For the legal-specific features, you’ll need to be on the LawBillity plan, which is $24 per user per month.
12. Hour Timesheet
Best for FAR- and DCAA-compliant time tracking.
Hour Timesheet is a great time-tracking app if your company often works on government or defense contracts. It provides a detailed audit trail of all timesheet entries, including usernames, IP addresses, and date and time stamps. Charge codes can be limited to only the employees approved to work on them.
Automated timesheet reminders make sure everyone remembers to record their time daily, and users can track time for both billable and non-billable tasks. Employees and managers can both sign submitted timesheets.
Finally, supervisors and admins receive alerts when timesheets are edited, and the person editing the timesheet must provide a reason why it was edited.
Key features
- Audit trail of timesheet entries
- Track non-billable time
- Required “reason late” entries
- Timesheet correction process
Pros
- Easy to use with good documentation
- QuickBooks integration works well
- Great DCAA-compliant features
Key integrations
- QuickBooks Desktop
- QuickBooks Online
- ADP
- Paychex
Cons
- The system has occasional glitches and outages
- Reports are slow to load
- Features can be difficult to find in the interface
Pricing
Hour Timesheet has only one plan, which is $8 per user per month and includes all of its DCAA compliance features.
13. BigTime
Best for professional services companies.
BigTime is a professional services automation platform that has both time tracking and everything else you need to run a professional services business. Its time-tracking features connect directly to its project management features, allowing you to easily tie employee hours to billable and non-billable tasks.
As far as project management features, you can create budgets, schedules, and scopes for projects; view project progress on Gantt charts; set project KPIs and monitor progress toward them; track time and expenses toward projects; and identify who on your team is available to work on new projects.
On BigTime’s higher-cost plans, there are also features that allow you to follow FAR and DCAA compliance, track expenses and send invoices in multiple currencies, and set up multi-level approval workflows.
Key features
- Resource management
- Project management
- Invoicing
- Performance modeling
Pros
- Easy to use and very intuitive
- Seamless QuickBooks Online integration
- Great customer support
Key integrations
- QuickBooks
- Sage Intacct
- Salesforce
- Jira
Cons
- Occasionally glitchy
- Some features are released as standalone products that require additional costs
Pricing
BigTime’s plans start at $15 per user per month and include time tracking, expense management, and project management features.
14. BusyBusy
Best for construction businesses.
BusyBusy is built specifically for construction businesses and has lots of features designed to help you manage employee time, keep track of project progress, prevent buddy punching, and reduce labor costs.
Real-time GPS features can show you where all of your employees and equipment are on a map. Geofencing is available to prevent employees from clocking in before they’re on job sites. And location-based reminders will notify employees if they’ve left a job site without clocking out.
BusyBusy can also house documents and pictures. Documents keep all of your critical project files in one place, and pictures let you keep track of the progress of a project.
Your employees can clock in and clock out using an app on their mobile devices (iOS and Android apps are both available), or you can set up a device as a kiosk for punching in and out. Kiosk mode also allows you to set up facial recognition that will notify an admin if an employee clocks in for someone else.
Key features
- Simple clock in and out
- GPS tracking & geofences
- Time cards with signatures
- Document storage
- Budget tracking
- Project progress photos
Pros
- Has required sign-in questions for employees, as well as safety sign offs to make sure employees are tracked and injuries are properly documented
- Provides universal maps so you can see who is working and where they’re located
Key integrations
- QuickBooks
- Foundation Software
- Explorer
- Procore
- Sage 100 and 300
- Viewpoint
Cons
- Designed solely for construction businesses, making it less useful for other industries
- Always requires location data and personal information for your workers
Pricing
BusyBusy’s free forever plan includes GPS time tracking, job costing, and equipment tracking for unlimited users. Its paid plans start at $9.99 per user/month and include scheduling, photos, notes, and supervisor tools.
15. Homebase
Best for restaurants and retail businesses.
Homebase is unique because it’s one of the few platforms on this list that offers direct integrations with point-of-sale (POS) systems like Square, Toast, Clover, and Shopify. This simplifies clocking in and out for employees; they can just use your existing POS to clock in/out for the day.
Homebase also has appealing pricing if you’re just managing one or a handful of restaurants/shops. Its pricing is based on your number of locations rather than your number of employees, so if you only have a few locations, it can be a really affordable option.
As far as employee time-tracking, Homebase offers the basic features you need. You can track employee time, create employee schedules, and run payroll directly or via an integration. Homebase also has communication tools that allow employees and managers to communicate directly within its apps.
Key features
- Time tracking
- Scheduling
- Payroll
- Team communication
- Employee happiness
- HR and compliance
Pros
- Low-cost time tracking for businesses with few locations
- Employees can configure their own notifications
Key integrations
- Square
- Clover
- Toast
- Shopify
- GoDaddy
- Revel
Cons
- Customers report that the Homebase’s customer service team is not very responsive
- Lacking customization and filtering capabilities
Pricing
Homebase offers a free plan that can be used for one location and up to 20 employees. Managers can view timesheet data up to 90 days in the past. Other free plan features include employee scheduling, communication tools, and point-of-sale (POS) integrations. If you have more than 20 employees or more than one location, you can upgrade to the Essentials plan, which starts at $20 per location per month for unlimited employees.
Free employee time tracking apps to consider
If your budget is limited and you just want to move to a more digital time-tracking system, here are 11 free time-tracking apps to consider:
- Clockify: Clockify’s free plan includes unlimited users, projects, and tracking; mobile and desktop apps; reports and exporting; idle detection and reminders; and integrations with 80+ project management tools.
- Jibble: Jibble’s free plan includes unlimited users, GPS tracking, two geofences, facial recognition, screen capturing, and one work schedule.
- Homebase: Homebase’s free plan can be used for one location and up to 20 employees and includes basic scheduling, basic time tracking, and point-of-sale integrations.
- Paymo: Paymo’s free plan can be used for unlimited employees, up to five clients, and up to 10 projects. It includes unlimited tasks, time entries, and invoices.
- Connecteam: Connecteam’s free plan includes full access to all of its hubs and features for up to 10 employees.
- BusyBusy: BusyBusy’s free plan includes unlimited users, GPS tracking, equipment tracking, and job costing.
- Deputy: Deputy’s free plan includes up to 100 shifts and timesheets per month, PTO management and tracking, facial recognition, and GPS tracking.
- TimeCamp: TimeCamp’s free plan includes unlimited users and projects; web, desktop, and mobile apps; and geofencing.
- Toggl Track: Toggl Track’s free plan is available for up to five users and includes unlimited time tracking, clients, and tags; exportable reports; automated time tracking; and Google and Outlook Calendar integrations.
- TrackingTime: TrackingTime is free for up to three users and includes unlimited tasks, projects, and clients; recurring time entries; batch editing; and more than 50 integrations with tools like Asana, Trello, and Slack.
- MyHours: MyHours is free for up to five users and includes unlimited projects and clients, time tracking toward projects and tasks, billable rates, and reporting.
However, keep in mind that the features you have access to in a free time-tracking app are extremely limited. Additionally, if you decide to upgrade later, you often end up paying more per employee per month than you would if you used a different tool.
It can be difficult to migrate to a new time-tracking tool once your entire team, business, and payroll are set up around one, so before making a short-term decision in price, consider what you’ll need long-term and evaluate the potential costs if you think you’ll need to upgrade later.