The best time clock software of 2026

Homebase is built for the kind of business where staff clock in on a tablet by the back door: restaurants, cafés, retail shops and salons. Employees can punch in on a tablet, computer or point-of-sale device, and the time clock is part of every plan, including the free one.

The free Basic plan covers one location and up to 10 employees, with timesheets kept for 90 days. Paid plans are priced per location, with unlimited employees, which keeps the bill flat as you hire. Prices on November 4, 2026:

• Essentials, $30 a location a month: adds location-based mobile clock-in, a photo at each clock-in and longer timesheet history.
• Plus, $70 a location a month.
• The top plan, $120 a location a month: adds labor cost controls, such as stopping early clock-ins and clocking people out when a shift ends.

The page says yearly billing saves 20%. Payroll is an add-on at $49 a month plus $6 per employee paid. The 14-day trial gives you the top plan without a card, and the account drops to Basic if you don't pick a plan.

Choose Homebase if you run one location and want a free clock now, with payroll you can add later. Skip it if you have several small locations, because each one is billed separately.

Connecteam is a phone-first app for teams that rarely sit at a desk: cleaners, landscapers, installers and home care staff. The time clock records a GPS location stamp on each punch, and higher plans add geofences, so a technician can only clock in once they are at the customer's address.

The free Small Business plan covers up to 10 users and includes every part of the app. Past 10 people, the time clock sits in the Operations hub, priced for the first 30 users. Prices on November 4, 2026:

• Basic: $29 a month billed yearly or $35 monthly, plus $0.80 to $1 per extra user. One time clock, kiosk mode and GPS stamps.
• Advanced: $49 yearly or $59 monthly, plus $2.50 to $3 per extra user. Up to 3 time clocks, 10 geofence sites and automatic clock-out.
• Expert: $99 yearly or $119 monthly, plus $4.20 to $5 per extra user. Up to 6 time clocks and unlimited geofence sites.

Yearly billing saves 18%, and the 14-day trial needs no card. The same hub includes scheduling, forms and checklists.

Choose Connecteam if your people start the day at a job site rather than a shop floor. Skip it if you need geofences on a tight budget; they start on the $49 plan, while Buddy Punch includes basic geofencing on Pro.

Buddy Punch does one job well: it records when people start and stop work, where they were, and sends the hours to payroll. Every punch on every plan captures a GPS location, and the hours sync to payroll providers from the cheapest plan up.

All plans carry a $19 monthly base fee plus a per-user charge. Prices on November 4, 2026:

• Starter: $4.99 a user a month billed yearly or $5.99 monthly. GPS on each punch and payroll sync. Scheduling is a $1 a user add-on.
• Pro: $6.99 yearly or $7.99 monthly. Adds basic geofencing, scheduling, multiple pay periods and a webcam photo at each punch.
• Advanced: $12.99 yearly or $13.99 monthly. Adds live GPS locations and single sign-on.

A team of 15 on Pro comes to about $124 a month billed yearly. Buddy Punch also sells its own payroll at $49 a month plus $8 a user. The 14-day trial needs no card.

Choose Buddy Punch if you want proof of where and when people clocked in without paying for a full workforce suite. Skip it if you have 10 or fewer staff and want to pay nothing; Homebase and Connecteam both cover teams that size for free.

QuickBooks Time, from Intuit, is the time clock that makes the most sense for businesses whose books and payroll already live in QuickBooks. Hours flow into the same account your accountant already reads, and the pricing page notes that you need a QuickBooks Online account to use it.

Two plans were listed on November 4, 2026:

• Time Premium: $20 a month plus $10 a user. Includes a time kiosk, scheduling, time-off management, photo attachments, alerts and the mobile workforce app.
• Time Elite: $40 a month plus $12 a user. Adds mileage tracking, project tracking, estimates against actual hours, a project activity feed and timesheet signatures.

Intuit was offering 50% off the base fee, but not the per-user fees, for the first 3 months. Each plan includes one admin and unlimited support. A free trial is advertised with no card, though the trial terms on the page refer to the base price only.

The per-user charge is the highest on this list. Ten users on Time Premium cost $120 a month at list price, against about $69 on Buddy Punch Starter billed yearly.

Choose QuickBooks Time if you run payroll in QuickBooks and want one less export. Skip it if you don't use QuickBooks Online, or if price per head is your main concern.

Deputy combines scheduling and time clocking for businesses that run on shifts, such as hospitality, retail and healthcare. Its Core plan adds a biometric kiosk that recognizes each employee's face, which helps stop one employee clocking in for another.

Prices were listed in US dollars per user per month on November 4, 2026:

• Lite: $5. Basic time clocking and basic scheduling.
• Core: $6.50. Adds the biometric face recognition kiosk and advanced scheduling, including automatic scheduling.
• Pro: $9. Includes Core, with the Messaging+ and Analytics+ add-ons built in.

Yearly billing saves 10%. Since September 1, 2025, monthly plans carry a $30 minimum spend per invoice, so a team of 4 on Lite still pays $30. Add-ons include HR at $2 a user and payroll (run with Paycor, US only) at $49 a month plus $8 a user on yearly Core and Pro plans.

Lite and Core come with a free trial; the page does not say how long it lasts. Pro has no trial listed; you contact sales for it.

Choose Deputy if you build a new shift roster every week and want face checks at the clock. Skip it if your team is under 5 people; the $30 minimum makes a free plan from Homebase or Connecteam better value.

Jibble's free plan has no cap on users and no time limit, which makes it the cheapest way to put a time clock in front of a 40-person team. Staff clock in from the mobile app, the web or a desktop app, and the free plan includes basic timesheets and connections to Slack, Microsoft Teams and QuickBooks.

The product pages also list face recognition, GPS tracking, geofencing and a shared kiosk for clock-ins on a single device. When we checked on November 4, 2026, the pricing page described only the free plan and showed no paid plan or price, so we could not confirm which of those features are free and which need a paid tier.

That gap is the reason Jibble sits lower on this list than its free plan deserves. Before you roll it out, sign up, invite two or three staff and check that the features you need, such as geofencing, are switched on in your account.

Choose Jibble if you have a large team, a small budget and simple needs: clock in, clock out, export the hours. Skip it if you want a published price for every feature before you commit; Connecteam and Buddy Punch list theirs.

Clockify is best known as a free timer for freelancers, but its paid plans add a kiosk that turns a shared tablet into a punch clock. For a small office or workshop, that kiosk costs less per seat than anything else here.

Prices per seat per month in US dollars on November 4, 2026:

• Free: up to 5 users with unlimited time tracking, but no kiosk, time off, approvals or GPS.
• Basic: $3.99 billed yearly or $4.99 monthly. Adds the kiosk.
• Standard: $5.49 yearly or $6.99 monthly. Adds timesheet approval.
• Pro: $7.99 yearly or $9.99 monthly. Adds GPS tracking and scheduling.
• Enterprise: $11.99 yearly or $14.99 monthly.

Every invited and active person takes a seat, including owners and managers. The free plan includes a 7-day trial of Pro features with no card.

Choose Clockify if you run a small team that clocks in at one place and you want the lowest monthly bill. Skip it if your staff work out on the road; GPS needs the $7.99 Pro plan, and above about 6 users Buddy Punch Starter, which records GPS on every punch, costs less.

OpenTimeClock charges per company, not per person, which makes it cheap for larger teams with simple needs. A 60-person warehouse pays the same as a 6-person office.

The free plan has unlimited users and free support, with every feature except PDF and Excel reports, which you can use for 30 days. The paid plan cost $39 a month or $399 a year per company on November 4, 2026, with prepaid options of $800 for 3 years and $1,200 for 5 years. Schools, government agencies, hospitals and other nonprofits can apply for the paid features free.

Staff can clock in by logging in, by face recognition, QR code, PIN or scanner, or by picking their name from a list, and you can limit where they clock in by device, IP address or GPS. You also get overtime rules per employee, automatic PTO accruals, time approvals that lock records, and a live view of who is in.

The pricing page lists no payroll add-on, unlike Homebase, Buddy Punch and Deputy, so you will export hours to your payroll service yourself.

Choose OpenTimeClock if you have a big team and want the bill to stay at $399 a year. Skip it if you want payroll in the same product as your time clock.