TimeTracker vs Vacation Tracker Compared
Vacation Tracker handles leave requests inside Slack and Microsoft Teams. TimeTracker keeps leave, balances, and worked hours in one record instead.
Free to start. No credit card needed.
Our quick verdict on both tools
Pick Vacation Tracker if your team lives in chat and leave is the only thing you need to track. It is cheaper and the request flow is faster. Pick TimeTracker if you also track worked hours, or if you want accrual policies without paying for a top tier.
Start tracking freeWhat this comparison covers
TimeTracker and Vacation Tracker are both time tracking tools, compared here side by side so you can see how they differ.
Anyone deciding between TimeTracker and Vacation Tracker 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
Vacation Tracker
Built to run entirely inside Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Workspace. People request leave with a chat command and managers approve it in the same thread.
- Best for
- Teams that live in Slack or Microsoft Teams and want leave requests handled without leaving the chat window.
- Pricing
- Core $2/user/mo ($1 annual), with a minimum of $50 a month billed monthly or $25 billed yearly. Complete $4/user/mo ($3 annual), minimum $100 monthly or $75 yearly. Accruals need Complete. 14-day free trial, no free plan.
- Leave requests inside Slack and Teams
- Accrual and carryover rules, Complete tier only
- Shared team leave calendar
- Custom leave types and policies
- Departments and locations
- Google and Outlook calendar sync
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 want accrual rules without paying for a top-tier plan.
Accrual, carryover caps, and entitlements come with the regular plan, not a premium upgrade.See how
You track worked hours as well as days off.
Leave sits beside the timesheet, so one record answers both who was out and where the hours went.See how
People are joining mid-year with days already carried over.
Set an opening balance on the policy and every assigned member is seeded with it right away.See how
You need one approval trail that covers both leave and timesheets.
The same approve, reject, and lock flow runs over a week of hours and a leave request.See how
An auditor asks who changed a balance, and why.
Adjustments are recorded with a note against the balance instead of quietly overwriting it.See how
You want to see who is out before you promise a deadline.
Booked leave shows up next to capacity, so a plan is made on the hours you actually have.See how
You want to pull leave, balances, and hours into one export.
Timecards, leave requests, and balances all export to CSV from the same workspace.See how
Choose Vacation Tracker when…
Your team books time off from chat and will not open a second app.
With Vacation Tracker, people request leave in Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Google Workspace and managers reply in the same thread.See how
Leave is all you need, and price per head is the deciding factor.
Vacation Tracker starts near $1 a user a month on annual billing, well under our $15 a user a month.See how
A request has to clear two managers before it counts as approved.
Vacation Tracker supports multi-level and substitute approvers. Our leave approval routes to one approver.See how
Your people sit in several countries with different public holidays.
Vacation Tracker sets holidays per location, so a team in two countries gets two calendars.See how
You want leave data to reach ADP without a manual step.
Vacation Tracker ships an ADP connector. On our side leave leaves the app as a CSV file.See how
You never track working hours and do not want a timesheet in the way.
Vacation Tracker counts days off and nothing else, which keeps the tool small and quick to learn.See how
Popular features
PTO tracking that keeps every balance correct
Staff request vacation or sick leave in a few clicks and managers approve in one. Balances accrue on their own, and booked days show on the team schedule.
Explore PTO Tracking→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→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 this solves
Compare other tools
Frequently asked questions
- Which is cheaper, TimeTracker or Vacation Tracker?
- Vacation Tracker, if leave is all you need. Its Core plan is about $1 a user a month on annual billing. TimeTracker is $15 a user a month, or $12 billed yearly, and that price covers worked hours too. For what the leave side includes, see PTO tracking.
- Is the Vacation Tracker minimum really $25 a month?
- Only if you pay for the year up front. Month to month the Core minimum is $50, and Complete goes from $75 to $100. Most sources quote just the yearly number. The plan gates are laid out in our guide to what Vacation Tracker is.
- Do both tools handle leave accruals?
- Both do, but Vacation Tracker keeps accruals on its top Complete tier. On our side accrual rules, carryover caps, and entitlements come with the standard plan. See how leave and PTO tracking is set up.
- Can I request time off from Slack or Microsoft Teams?
- With Vacation Tracker, yes. That is the whole idea behind it, and we have nothing like it. Requests in TimeTracker are made in the app on the time off screen, where you pick a policy and a date range. If chat is where your team works, Vacation Tracker wins this one.
- Does either tool track how many hours people actually worked?
- Only ours. Vacation Tracker counts days off and does not track working time at all. That means it cannot tell you where the week went. See timesheets for how a week is logged and submitted.
- What about approvals that need two managers?
- Vacation Tracker is stronger here. It supports multi-level approvals and substitute approvers. Our leave request routes to one approver, though overdue requests do escalate. The shared approval flow is covered in timesheet approvals.
- Can I set different public holidays for different offices?
- Vacation Tracker does this per location, and it is a real reason to pick it for a team spread across countries. We keep one company holiday list for the workspace, which is simpler but less flexible. Balances and holidays are covered in PTO tracking.
- How do I move staff over with days already banked?
- Put the number on the policy as an opening balance. Everyone assigned to that policy gets seeded with it, and you can adjust a single person later with a note explaining why. See leave and PTO tracking for the steps.
- Can I get leave data out of either tool for payroll?
- Vacation Tracker has an ADP connector. We export timecards, leave requests, and balances to CSV, which you hand to whoever runs payroll. See data export for what each file holds.
- Should a small team of five pick Vacation Tracker?
- Check the minimum first. Five people on Core pay $25 a month billed yearly, not $5, because the floor applies whatever your headcount. If leave is the only need, it is still good value. Other options are listed on our Vacation Tracker alternatives page.
- Do I have to use the timesheet if I only want leave?
- No. You can set up leave policies and leave them running on their own. The hours side is there when you want it, and most teams turn it on later. Start with PTO tracking and add timesheets when you need them.
Put leave and hours in one place
Set up a leave policy with accrual and opening balances in a few minutes, then add timesheets when your team is ready for them.
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