The Best Time Clock Software
Track employee hours automatically, run payroll in minutes, and streamline employee scheduling with Buddy Punch — the #1 employee time clock app.
The best time clock software lets employers abandon Excel spreadsheets, eliminate time theft, access detailed reports on how employees spend their time, save on administrative and labor costs, prevent buddy punching, free your HR team up to focus on more strategic tasks, and much more.
But with hundreds of time clock apps available on the market, finding the right one for your business can be challenging. Many options offer the exact same features as the others, making it difficult to create a shortlist of options to demo or test.
To help, we’ve compiled this list of the best time clock software for work. See side-by-side comparisons of the different apps, explaining what type of business each is best for, what unique features they offer, and how they compare on price.
Whether you’re looking for time clock software that’s free, easy to use, built for your industry, or integrates with your other systems, one of the nine options below should meet your needs.
The 9 Best Time Clock Software
1. Buddy Punch
3. ADP
4. Time Doctor
5. Clockify
6. Timely
7. Toggl Track
8. Paymo
9. BusyBusy
1. Buddy Punch
Best for affordability and range of features.
Buddy Punch sits at the top of our list due to its ease of use for both employers and employees, its wide range of features that make it useful for employers in many different industries, and its competitive pricing in the space.
In terms of features, Buddy Punch has all of the basic and more advanced features you need to manage hours and track your team’s time:
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 work 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.
GPS tracking & geofencing
Log employee GPS locations on clock in/out, track employees in real-time, or set up geofences to prevent clocking in or out when not on location.
Time theft prevention
Capture a picture of employees when they clock in and out to prevent buddy punching, or use Face ID to enable facial recognition identification.
Job costing
Create jobs, companies, or any type of label to assign employee time toward. Time spent at each job will be reflected on employee time cards and reports.
Automatic breaks
Set up customizable break rules, and Buddy Punch will automatically deduct the unpaid break times from employees’ timesheets.
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 clock 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 $4.49 per user per month, plus a $19 per month base fee.
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Stay on top of attendance, time off, and overtime in real-time.
2. QuickBooks Time
Best for companies using QuickBooks Payroll Premium or Elite.
In terms of features, QuickBooks Time is very similar to Buddy Punch. With it, you get basic features like employee hours and attendance tracking, employee scheduling, PTO/leave tracking, and overtime calculations, plus more advanced features like geofencing, photo attachments, and mileage tracking.
Another big feature of QuickBooks’ time clock software is that it integrates natively with Intuit’s QuickBooks payroll products. This eliminates the need to install a separate integration to connect your employee time-tracking tool to your accounting software — the data automatically syncs between the two systems.
With that said, QuickBooks Time comes with a much larger price tag than many of the other options on this list, so if you’re looking for a standalone online time clock app, it might not make the most sense for your budget.
However, if you’re already using QuickBooks Payroll software and pay for either the Premium or Elite package, QuickBooks Time is included as a free add-on product. So unless QuickBooks Time is missing a feature you need, it’s probably the best pick for your business.
Key features
- Mobile apps
- GPS tracking
- Employee scheduling
- Project tracking
- PTO management
Key integrations
- QuickBooks Online
- ADP
- Square Payroll
- Paychex
- Justworks
Pros
- Seamlessly connect time-tracking data to QuickBooks Payroll
- Free for customers on QuickBooks Payroll Premium or Elite
- Ability to track employee drive times and work times separately
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
QuickBooks Time’s plans start at $8 per user per month, plus a $20 per month base fee. There’s also a three-month discount offered to new customers that reduces the base fee to $6 per user.
3. ADP
Best for validating biometrics when clocking in and out.
If security is a major concern for your business — or if employee time theft is a serious problem — ADP offers several unique biometric clock-in/out options that can prevent anyone other than your employees from accessing your building or clocking time.
Using an on-site ADP kiosk, iPad, or Android tablet, ADP’s time clock system can use technologies like facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, and even voice recognition to give employees access to locations or the ability to punch in and out for work shifts.
Additionally, if you’re already using ADP for HR and payroll processing, your ADP time clock software will integrate seamlessly with the other ADP tools you use.
In general, though, ADP is designed to be used by large businesses with complex needs. Its time clock software is part of a full workforce management suite that includes employee time tracking, payroll processing, human resources management, and tax solutions.
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 HR and payroll services
- Offers multiple features that streamline scheduling and make predictions for you, like cost predictions and skill-based scheduling for your employees
Key integrations
- Intuit Quickbooks
- Clock Shark
- TruSaic
- Points North
- Zay Zoom
Cons
- No accessible pricing, making it difficult to compare potential costs at a glance
- Mostly for larger businesses, not of much use to smaller businesses
Pricing
No public pricing is available; contact ADP for a quote.
4. Time Doctor
Best for companies that employ knowledge workers.
Time Doctor is more of a productivity tracking tool than traditional time clock software, helping businesses that employ salaried knowledge workers keep a pulse on how employee hours are being spent.
Employers can use Time Doctor to see things like how much time employees are spending on specific types of tasks, which apps they use for work most often, and which websites they’re spending the most time on.
This helps them identify where time is being wasted, where more help is needed, which apps are not used often and can be removed/canceled, how often hardware or connectivity issues are causing dips in productivity, and which employees struggle with work-life balance by working too many hours or not taking breaks.
This all makes Time Doctor a great option for software and other fully remote companies that are less concerned with tracking the specific hours employees work and more concerned with how employees spend their time while they’re working.
Key features
- Attendance tracking
- Payroll reporting
- Work-life balance metrics
- Identify resource drains
Pros
- Keeps track of employee activity through tracking web and app activity, screen recording and inactivity alerts
- Many features aimed towards boosting productivity and creating reports for better resource management
Key integrations
- Asana
- Github
- Notion
- Slack
Cons
- Many aspects of the employee tracking are only available in the higher-priced plans
- Due to privacy concerns, screen recording may not always be beneficial as some screenshots may be required to be blurred
Pricing
Time Doctor’s plans start at $5.90 per user per month when paid for annually.
5. Clockify
Best free app for basic time tracking.
If you’re looking for simple, free time clock software, Clockify might be the right option.
Its forever-free plan comes with unlimited users and projects and provides basic features like employee time tracking, timesheets, Pomodoro timers, and team activity reports and exports. This makes it a viable option for small businesses with very basic needs.
Other common time clock software features — like GPS tracking, PTO management, payroll system integrations, forecasting, and kiosks — are also available, though only on Clockify’s premium plans.
Overall, Clockify can be used as a combined time-tracking and project-management tool. You can create projects and tasks in Clockify, then when employees clock in, they can select which project/task they’re working on. This helps you connect employee time to tasks and projects easily for accurate invoicing and billing.
Key features
- Unlimited users
- Unlimited tracking
- Time tracker
- Timesheets
- Kiosk
Pros
- Offers a free forever plan for those with 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 and time tracking
- Paid plans are pricier for their included features than many of the other apps on this list
Pricing
Limited functionality is available on Clockify’s free-forever plan; paid plans start at $3.99 per user/month.
6. Timely
Best for agencies and consulting businesses.
Time tracking for agencies and consulting businesses can get very complex because employees may be spending time on multiple clients over the course of the day — and sometimes from minute to minute.
Timely helps solve this problem by capturing every second of your employees’ work days, ensuring no billable time goes unbilled. Employees can select which project, client, or task that each recorded section of time belongs to.
However, Timely also has AI features that limit the amount of manual work employees have to do to track their time. Over time, it learns which projects/clients specific meetings and activities belong to and automatically sorts them into the right categories.
Finally, if an employee forgets what they spent their time on that day, Timely’s memory tracker can be used to see what apps or URLs they were viewing during specific times of the day, allowing them to quickly identify how long they spent on different clients and projects.
Key features
- Exact time tracking
- AI timesheets
- Time-data tracking
- Anti-surveillance time tracking
- Billable hours tracking
- Time planning
Pros
- Anti-surveillance time tracking can put employees at ease when it comes to monitoring them
- Offers a resource planning tool
- Invoising features allow for many different currencies
Key integrations
- QuickBooks
- Office 365
- Google Calendar
- Zoom
- Asana
- Trello
Cons
- Fairly pricey in comparison to other comparable apps
- Customers report that some features require a lot of training with a steep learning curve
Pricing
Timely’s plans start at $9 per user per month when paid for annually.
7. Toggl Track
Best for companies looking for a Windows-specific app.
All of the time clock apps on this list offer web-based apps, which means they’ll work on any device that has an internet connection. However, if you have employees using devices that don’t have internet access, you may need to opt for a tool that offers desktop app options.
Toggl Track may be the right option for you as it’s one of the few time clock software systems that offers a Windows desktop app. It can be used whether employees are connected to the internet or not, ensuring they’re able to clock in and out and track their time regardless of where they’re working.
As far as time-tracking features, Toggl Track is another app that’s designed to track employee time and productivity. It has an idle detection feature that can determine when employees are clocked in but not working, as well as alerts that will remind employees to clock in and out when they’re working/not working.
These features can help you save on labor costs and avoid making manual changes to time cards. You can track employee work hours automatically, attach employee time entries to specific tasks and projects, and integrate your time-tracking data with tools like Trello, Asana, Slack, and Google Calendar.
Key features
- Time tracking
- Time billing
- Project tracking
- Employee workload tracking
- Timesheet reports
Pros
- Calculates and predicts future project finances and costs
- Offers many integrations that are easy to set up
- Offers desktop apps for offline access
Key integrations
- Evernote
- Basecamp
- Bugsnag
- Quickbooks
- Dropbox Paper
Cons
- Somewhat pricey for its limited feature pool
- Cannot pause time tracking, only start and stop it, so recordings can pile on as people need to stop recording at times
Pricing
Free plan available for up to five users; paid plans start at $9 per user/month.
8. 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.
Paymo is really a great all-in-one time tracking tool for agencies and consulting businesses. In addition to time tracking and project management, 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.
And if you run a very small professional services business, Paymo’s free plan may include everything you need from your employee time clock 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.
9. BusyBusy
Best for free GPS tracking.
BusyBusy is built specifically for off-site 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
- Viewpoint
- Procore
- ADP
- Zapier
Cons
- Designed solely for construction businesses, making it less useful for other industries
- Always requires location data and personal information for your workers, which can have multiple downsides, but this is how many of its features function
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.
Choosing the right time clock software
In addition to the information provided above, you may want to consider these additional factors to ensure you select the right time clock software for your needs:
- Features: Look for essential features such as clock-in/clock-out functionality, timesheet management, overtime tracking, and reporting capabilities. Additionally, consider if you need more advanced features like geolocation tracking, biometric authentication, or integration with payroll systems.
- Ease of use: The software should be intuitive and user-friendly for both administrators and employees. A clean interface and easy navigation can save time and reduce errors in employee time tracking.
- Scalability: Consider whether the software can scale with your business as it grows. It should be able to accommodate an increasing number of employees and locations if necessary.
- Compatibility: Ensure that the software is compatible with your existing hardware (e.g., computers, tablets, smartphones) and operating systems. Additionally, if you’re planning to integrate it with other systems like payroll or HR software, direct integrations are crucial.
- Mobile accessibility: If your employees work remotely or in the field, mobile accessibility is essential. Look for software that offers mobile apps or responsive web interfaces for convenient employee time tracking on the go.
- Security: Time clock data contains sensitive information, so security is paramount. Make sure the software offers robust security measures such as encryption, role-based access control, and regular data backups to protect employee data.
- Compliance: Ensure that the software complies with relevant labor laws and regulations in your jurisdiction, especially regarding overtime, breaks, and record-keeping requirements.
Finally, make sure to consider both the short-term and long-term costs of the software you’re considering.
When you’re buying time clock software for the first time, free products can be enticing. However, these platforms can be difficult to migrate away from down the line when it’s time to upgrade to a paid plan, and the paid plan may be significantly more expensive than other comparable products.
You’ll be much better off buying the right tool for what you might need a year from now than having to redo your entire employee time tracking and payroll setup later in order to switch to a better tool.
