TimeTracker vs Deputy: Full Comparison
Deputy plans the week's rota and clocks staff in against it. TimeTracker does not do rotas at all. It records where the hours went and bills them.
Free to start. No credit card needed.
Which of these two you actually need
Most teams comparing these two want Deputy. It plans the week, applies award and overtime rules, and starts at $5 a person. TimeTracker does none of that. Pick TimeTracker only if you bill hours to a customer, or if you are under six people and do not want to pay Deputy's $30 monthly floor.
Start tracking freeWhat this comparison covers
TimeTracker and Deputy are both time tracking tools, compared here side by side so you can see how they differ.
Anyone deciding between TimeTracker and Deputy for time tracking should start with the quick verdict above.
Compare the two products at a glance
Both tools solve time tracking. Here is what each one includes, side by side.
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
Deputy
Auto-scheduling builds the rota for you from demand, availability, and cost rules, then the time clock checks people in against the shift they were actually rostered on.
- Best for
- Shift-based businesses like hospitality, retail, and care that need to build rotas and control labour cost.
- Pricing
- Per user a month: Lite $5, Core $6.50, Pro $9, with a $30 minimum monthly spend, so a four-person Lite team pays $30 rather than $20. Payroll is an $8/user/mo add-on plus a $49 monthly base fee, powered by Paycor, US only, on annual Core or Pro. Other add-ons run $1.50 to $2/user/mo.
- Auto-scheduling and micro-scheduling
- Shift swapping and availability
- Time clock with biometrics
- Timesheet auto approval
- Award and overtime interpretation
- Payroll add-on
See how they stack up
Pricing, best fit, and top strengths for both tools, side by side.
Pricing checked 2026-07-31. Confirm current pricing on each vendor's site.
Which one fits your team
Choose TimeTracker when…
You bill hours to a customer and the invoice has to match the tracked time.
Approved hours become an invoice in the same tool, so nobody retypes a total into a second system.See how
Somebody checks your hours later and you have to show what changed.
A period locks once it is approved, and anything touched after that is written to the audit record.See how
You round time for billing but still need the exact raw duration.
Round to 6, 15 or 30 minutes and the untouched duration stays stored beside it, so you can show either number.See how
Your team is under six people and you do not want to pay for empty seats.
Free for up to 3 people, then $15 a person a month, with no minimum monthly spend at any size.See how
You need to know if a job made money while it is still running.
Budgets compare cost against price as hours land, so a job going the wrong way shows up in week two.See how
A clock-in from the wrong place should be refused, not just recorded.
Location rules on the paid plan use geofences, IP ranges and accuracy limits to block the punch outright.See how
Your hours split by client, project and task rather than by shift.
Every entry lands on a client, a project and a task, so a report can say what each customer cost you.See how
Choose Deputy when…
You want next week planned for you instead of typed out by hand.
Deputy fills the week from availability, site demand and cost limits, then a manager tweaks it and sends it out.See how
Staff need to swap shifts and set the hours they can work.
In Deputy someone offers a shift, a colleague claims it, a manager approves, and the week updates for everybody.See how
Night, weekend and overtime rates have to be worked out for you.
Deputy reads award and penalty rules as timesheets build, so a manager is not doing that maths by hand.See how
You want one shared tablet at the door instead of personal phones.
Deputy runs a clock with face unlock on Core and above, which stops one person punching in for another.See how
Wage cost against sales is the number you watch every week.
Deputy shows what the week will cost while it is still being built, then compares that to what it really cost.See how
Price per seat matters more to you than billing or budgets.
Deputy's Lite plan is $5 a person a month, though every monthly account still pays at least $30 in total.See how
Popular features
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→Invoicing software that bills from tracked hours
Approved time turns into itemised invoice lines with tax and multiple currencies handled for you. Check it over, then send it.
Explore Invoicing→
Timesheets your team submits on time
Hours build into a timecard as people work. Send the week for approval, lock it once it is signed off, and bill from a number that cannot quietly change.
Explore Timesheets→Use cases this solves
Invoicing From Tracked Time
Build the invoice from the hours that were actually logged and approved.
Explore→Timesheet Approvals
A manager signs off a week, and the period locks before anything gets billed.
Explore→Audit Trail And Compliance
Show what a timesheet said, who approved it, and what changed after sign-off.
Explore→
Compare other tools
Frequently asked questions
- Is TimeTracker a replacement for Deputy?
- For most teams, no. Deputy plans the week and checks each punch against the shift the person was put on. TimeTracker answers a different question, which is where the hours went and what they are worth, see invoicing from tracked time.
- What does Deputy cost for a team of four?
- Thirty dollars a month, not twenty. Deputy's Lite plan is $5 a person, but every monthly account pays at least $30 no matter how small it is. The full plan table is in what Deputy is.
- Does TimeTracker build rotas or plan shifts?
- No, and we are not building one. TimeTracker has work schedules that say the hours a person is expected to work, which is what a timesheet gets compared against. If planning the week is your real problem, Deputy is the right tool and we are not.
- Are approvals free in TimeTracker?
- No. Approving timesheets, timecards, expenses and leave sits on our one paid plan at $15 a person a month. The difference is that there is nothing above it, so approvals are not held back for a higher tier the way Deputy splits features across Lite, Core and Pro. See timesheet approvals.
- Can Deputy invoice a client for hours worked?
- No. Deputy hands approved hours to payroll and till systems, but it does not build a client invoice or hold a project budget. That is the gap TimeTracker fills, see invoicing.
- Which one is cheaper for a team of three?
- TimeTracker, by a lot. Three people cost nothing here, while the same three pay Deputy's $30 floor. Free covers timers, clock in and out, timesheets and on-screen reports, see time tracking. Approvals, exports and invoicing are paid.
- Does Deputy have a free plan?
- No. Deputy runs a trial and nothing else, though plenty of review sites still imply otherwise. TimeTracker is free for up to 3 people with no card. Both plan tables are laid out in what Deputy is.
- Can TimeTracker stop someone clocking in from the wrong place?
- Yes, on the paid plan. Location rules refuse the clock-in using geofences, IP ranges and accuracy limits, rather than logging the spot afterwards. Deputy checks the punch against the rostered shift instead. See timesheets for what lands on the sheet.
- What happens to hours after a manager approves them?
- The period locks and stops being editable. If it is reopened, every change from then on is written to the record, so you can show the before and the after. See audit trail and compliance.
- Can a team run Deputy and TimeTracker together?
- Some do. Deputy covers the week and the attendance, and the same hours get recorded here against a client and project so they can be billed, see billable hours tracking. It is two bills though, so only do it if the billing side is real money.
- What else should I look at instead of Deputy?
- If the week's plan is the real problem, compare Deputy against other shift tools before you look at us. Our list of Deputy alternatives says who each one fits, including the ones that work out cheaper for a very small team.
Billing the hours, not planning them?
If your hours end up on a client invoice or in front of an auditor, start free for up to 3 people and set up your first project in minutes.
Start tracking free