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Best OnTheClock Alternatives for 2026, Free and Paid

OnTheClock has no free plan, and a $5 base fee sits on top of every seat. Here is what it really costs, and what to move to.

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Why people switch

Why people look for an OnTheClock alternative

What it is

OnTheClock is a solid time clock for small businesses that need GPS, PTO, and scheduling in one place. Some teams outgrow it once they start billing clients by the hour, because OnTheClock has no invoicing and no way to see if a project is making money. Others want payroll built into the same tool, facial recognition for a crew of hourly workers, physical clock hardware for on-site staff, or a free plan for a very small team. Below we compare TimeTracker against four other strong OnTheClock alternatives, so you can pick the one that fits how your business actually works.

Who needs this

A service business that sells its people's time and needs to know, in real time, whether each client project is still making money.

Meet both products

Compare the two products at a glance

TimeTracker and this competitor cover the same job in different ways. Here is what each one includes.

Best fit

TimeTracker

Every task carries operational and financial context together. Tracked time, budget impact, and invoicing live in one connected system, so you know if a project is still profitable before it becomes a problem.

Best for
Agencies and consultancies of 2 to 50 people who bill clients for time and need to see project profit, not just hours.
Pricing
Free for up to 3 people, no credit card needed. Pro is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month billed yearly, with a 14-day trial.
  • One-click task timers
  • Timesheet submission and approvals
  • Effective-dated billing and cost rates
  • Live project budgets and profitability
  • Client invoicing and payments
  • Client portal with a cost firewall
  • Reports and dashboards
  • Expense tracking with billable markup
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OnTheClock

GPS tracking, geofencing, and PTO accrual come standard on the base plan, features most rivals gate behind higher tiers.

Best for
Small businesses that want a simple time clock with GPS, PTO, and scheduling included at the base tier.
Pricing
No free plan, 30-day trial. $4 per employee a month plus a $5 monthly base fee, so 2 employees is $13 a month. Payroll adds $6 per employee plus a $40 base fee, and a one-time $250 onboarding fee.
  • GPS tracking and geofencing
  • Biometric and IP punch verification
  • PTO and leave tracking with accruals
  • Drag-and-drop employee scheduling
  • Project and job costing
  • Tips, bonus, commission tracking
Full comparison

See how the alternatives stack up

Pricing, best fit, and top strengths for TimeTracker and every tool in this comparison.

Comparison dimensionTimeTrackerBest fitOnTheClockQuickBooks TimeBuddy PunchuAttendJibble
CategoryProject time trackingTime and attendanceTime and attendanceTime and attendanceTime and attendanceTime and attendance
Best forAgencies and consultancies of 2 to 50 people who bill.Small businesses that want a simple time clock with GPS.Small and mid-size field service or construction.Small and mid-size hourly or field workforces that want an.Businesses that want physical time clock hardware paired.Small to mid-size teams, especially hourly, field, or.
Starting price$12/user/month$4/user/month$10/user/month$4.99/user/month$29/monthFree
Top strengthTies every time entry to a task, so hours and money are.Clean, intuitive dashboard that needs little trainingDeepest native integration with QuickBooks Online and.Rated 4.8/5 on G2 and Capterra for ease of useReviewers call it affordable for the priceFree tier is unusually full-featured for unlimited users

Pricing checked 2026-07-31. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's site.

Every option, in full

Each OnTheClock alternative, and who it suits

Each tool below covers a different kind of team, so this is not a ranking. We list what each one does badly as well as what it does well, with the date we last checked its pricing.

TimeTrackerOurs

Best for

Agencies and consultancies of 2 to 50 people who bill clients for time and need to see project profit, not just hours.

Pricing

Free for up to 3 people, no credit card needed. Pro is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month billed yearly, with a 14-day trial.

Checked 13 July 2026

Every task carries operational and financial context together. Tracked time, budget impact, and invoicing live in one connected system, so you know if a project is still profitable before it becomes a problem. A service business that sells its people's time and needs to know, in real time, whether each client project is still making money.

Where it wins

  • Ties every time entry to a task, so hours and money are the same record instead of two systems to reconcile
  • Live budget and profitability rollups instead of a month-end spreadsheet
  • Timesheet approval locks numbers before they hit an invoice, so billed hours cannot silently drift
  • No screenshots, keystroke logging, or GPS tracking, by design

Where it falls short

  • Newer product than long-established time trackers, so its integration marketplace is still small
  • No native payroll run; timesheets export for an external payroll tool instead
  • Built for client-project delivery, not a general work OS, so it will not replace a wiki or a sprint board

OnTheClock

Best for

Small businesses that want a simple time clock with GPS, PTO, and scheduling included at the base tier.

Pricing

No free plan, 30-day trial. $4 per employee a month plus a $5 monthly base fee, so 2 employees is $13 a month. Payroll adds $6 per employee plus a $40 base fee, and a one-time $250 onboarding fee.

Checked 30 July 2026

GPS tracking, geofencing, and PTO accrual come standard on the base plan, features most rivals gate behind higher tiers. Small businesses under 100 employees that want straightforward time tracking, scheduling, and PTO with clean payroll exports.

Where it wins

  • Clean, intuitive dashboard that needs little training
  • Strong review scores: 4.7/5 on Capterra, 4.5/5 on G2
  • GPS, geofencing, and PTO included at the base tier, not a premium add-on

Where it falls short

  • Payroll is not included; it's a separate paid add-on
  • Reporting and analytics are more basic than larger workforce platforms
  • Fewer native integrations than bigger rivals like QuickBooks Time

QuickBooks Time

Best for

Small and mid-size field service or construction businesses already running QuickBooks Online or Payroll.

Pricing

No free plan. Time Premium $20/mo base + $10/employee/mo; Time Elite $40/mo base + $12/employee/mo. Intuit now also sells Workforce Premium and Elite alongside these.

Checked 30 July 2026

More on QuickBooks Time

Owned by Intuit and built to sync natively with QuickBooks Online and Payroll, so timesheets and payroll share one data source. A construction or field service company of roughly 5 to 100 employees already on QuickBooks that wants timesheets feeding job costing.

Where it wins

  • Deepest native integration with QuickBooks Online and Payroll of any rival
  • Mature, well-tested GPS and mobile clock-in tools
  • Scheduling is included on every plan, not gated to the top tier

Where it falls short

  • Geofencing, mileage tracking, and project tracking need the Elite plan
  • Base fee plus per-employee pricing makes total cost less predictable
  • Full value depends on already using QuickBooks Online or Payroll

Buddy Punch

Best for

Small and mid-size hourly or field workforces that want an easy time clock with GPS and scheduling.

Pricing

No free plan, 14-day trial only. Billed annually: Starter $4.99, Pro $6.99, Advanced $12.99 per user a month, each plus a $19 monthly base fee. Extras are sold per user on top.

Checked 30 July 2026

More on Buddy Punch

An easy time clock with a lot of ways to prove who punched: GPS on every punch, plus geofencing, PIN and kiosk punching and a webcam photo from the Pro tier up. A 15 to 100 person hourly or field workforce that needs proof of where a punch happened and will pay a base fee for it.

Where it wins

  • Rated 4.8/5 on G2 and Capterra for ease of use
  • Administrator accounts are free and unlimited, so managers do not use up seats
  • More ways to verify a punch than most rivals: GPS, geofence, PIN, kiosk and webcam photo

Where it falls short

  • No free plan at all, unlike Clockify, Jibble, Homebase and TimeCamp
  • The $19 monthly base fee hits small teams hardest. Five people on Starter is $43.95 a month, which is $8.79 each, not $4.99
  • Geofencing, PIN and kiosk punching and webcam photos all need the Pro tier
  • Real-time GPS is a paid add-on unless you are on Advanced, and other extras are priced per user too
  • No client billing or invoicing, so tracked hours cannot become a bill

uAttend

Best for

Businesses that want physical time clock hardware paired with a cloud dashboard.

Pricing

Tiered by employee count: about $29/mo (1-9 employees) up to $195/mo (100+). Hardware clocks sold separately from about $139. A plan covers 2 clocks and 1 admin, with extra clocks $12/mo and extra admins $8/mo. Payroll is a separate add-on from $5 a person a month.

Checked 31 July 2026

More on uAttend

Sells its own line of physical time clock hardware (fingerprint, facial recognition, badge) alongside cloud software, priced by employee count. A brick-and-mortar or field-based small business with on-site staff punching a physical clock and remote staff using GPS punching.

Where it wins

  • Reviewers call it affordable for the price
  • Straightforward to learn, with easy sick and vacation reporting
  • Customer support frequently praised as responsive

Where it falls short

  • Fingerprint scanners sometimes misread, and the mobile app can crash
  • Employee record fields and report options are limited
  • Hardware is an extra upfront cost beyond the software subscription
  • The clocks stop working if the subscription lapses, so the device you bought outright still needs a plan
  • A plan covers only 2 clocks and 1 admin, and both are billed monthly beyond that

Jibble

Best for

Small to mid-size teams, especially hourly, field, or shift workers, who want free attendance tracking.

Pricing

Free for unlimited users, including GPS, kiosk and face recognition. Paid tiers exist for PTO accruals and multilevel approvals, but Jibble no longer publishes their prices.

Checked 31 July 2026

More on Jibble

The most generous free plan in the category: unlimited users, GPS geofencing, and facial recognition to stop buddy punching, all at no cost. Small businesses and hourly or field teams that need reliable, verified clock-in and attendance reporting without a big budget.

Where it wins

  • Free tier is unusually full-featured for unlimited users
  • Strong, hardware-free buddy-punching prevention via facial recognition
  • Easy to set up, and kiosk mode works well for shared-device clock-ins

Where it falls short

  • Paid-tier prices are not published, so budgeting means asking Jibble first
  • PTO accruals, multilevel approvals, and live location need paid tiers
  • Mobile app dashboard is underdeveloped for on-the-go managers
Why switch

Reasons teams switch

Popular features

Time Tracking

Employee time tracking your team will actually use

One click starts a timer, or people type hours in by hand. Every entry ties to a client, project, and task, so the record stays clean.

Explore Time Tracking→
Billing

Bill for every hour you earn

Mark each entry billable or non-billable while you work. Approved hours roll straight into reports you can bill from.

Explore Billing→
Reports & Dashboards

See where the time really goes

Break hours down by client, project, and team member. Find the work that pays off and the projects that run over.

Explore Reports & Dashboards→
Use cases

Use cases this solves

More comparisons

Compare other tools

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What does OnTheClock not do that businesses end up needing?
OnTheClock clocks employees in and out, tracks PTO, and handles basic scheduling well. But it has no invoicing and no way to see project profit. If you bill clients by the hour, you end up exporting hours to a spreadsheet to build a bill by hand. TimeTracker keeps billing in the same place you track time.
Is OnTheClock free?
No. There is a 30-day free trial, then $4 an employee a month plus a $5 base fee. Their own calculator shows 2 employees at $13 a month, which is $6.50 each. Jibble and Clockify have real free plans. TimeTracker is free for up to 3 people and includes billing. Checked July 2026.
How much does OnTheClock cost?
$4 per employee a month plus a $5 monthly base fee, after a 30-day trial. Payroll is a separate add-on at $6 an employee plus a $40 base fee, and it carries a one-time $250 onboarding fee that is easy to miss. Checked July 2026. Our guide to what OnTheClock is does the headcount maths, since the base fee makes small teams pay more each.
What is the 7 minute rule for clocking in?
It rounds punches to the nearest quarter hour, so minutes 1 to 7 round down and 8 to 14 round up. Federal law allows it only while the rounding stays neutral. Our guide to the 7-minute rule has the chart, the law and a neutrality check you can run yourself.
Does OnTheClock track whether a project is profitable?
No. OnTheClock reports hours and job costs, but it does not compare cost to price as work happens. TimeTracker shows you project profit in real time, so you catch a losing project before it's finished, not after.
Can I send a client invoice straight from OnTheClock?
No. OnTheClock has no invoicing feature, so you export a timesheet and build the bill somewhere else. TimeTracker turns approved hours straight into an invoice. See how invoicing from tracked time works.
How does TimeTracker compare to OnTheClock overall?
OnTheClock is built for attendance: clocking in, PTO, and shift scheduling. TimeTracker is built for billing: turning tracked hours into accurate client invoices with budgets and approvals along the way. Read the full TimeTracker vs OnTheClock comparison for a side-by-side look.
Is switching from OnTheClock to TimeTracker hard?
No. You add your clients, projects, and tasks, then start timing work with the same one-click timer idea your team already knows from a punch clock. Most teams are tracking billable hours within a day.
Does TimeTracker separate billable and non-billable hours like OnTheClock separates job costs?
Yes. Every entry can be marked billable or non-billable as your team works, so nothing needs cleanup at invoice time. See how billable hours tracking works in TimeTracker.
Can I set different bill rates for different clients in TimeTracker?
Yes. You can set a bill rate per client and per person, and change rates over time without breaking invoices you already sent. OnTheClock has no bill rate concept at all. See how rate management works.
What do I give up by leaving OnTheClock?
OnTheClock includes GPS, geofencing, and PTO accrual at a lower base price, and TimeTracker does not compete on price for pure attendance tracking. In return you get live budgets, invoicing, and timesheet approvals built in, not bolted on later.
Which OnTheClock alternative is right for my business?
It depends on what you need most. Service businesses that bill clients and want to see project profit tend to do better with TimeTracker. Businesses that want payroll handled in the same tool often pick QuickBooks Time. See a full side-by-side on the TimeTracker vs OnTheClock page, and check utilization tracking if seeing your team's workload matters most to you.
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