What Is Vacation Tracker? Plans, Prices and the Name Problem

Two different companies use this name, and it is a generic term too. Here is which one ranks first, what it really costs, and what it will not do.

See the alternatives

Plans and prices read off vacationtracker.io, 31 July 2026.

Definition

What Vacation Tracker is, in one sentence

What it is

Vacation Tracker is leave management software that lets staff request time off with a chat command and lets managers approve it in the same thread, without anyone opening a separate HR system. It is made by Vacation Tracker and it sells almost entirely through Slack, Microsoft Teams and Google Workspace, which is where the product is installed and where most of the day to day use happens. It handles leave types, allowances, holidays, a shared team calendar and approval rules. It does not record worked hours at all, so it answers who is away, never where the working day went.

Who needs this

Chat-first companies of roughly 15 people and up that need proper leave policies and already run everything through Slack, Microsoft Teams or Google Workspace.

Read this first

Three different things are called a vacation tracker

This is the most confusing name in the category. Two separate companies use it, and it is also just a phrase people type when they want a spreadsheet.

Vacation Tracker at vacationtracker.io

The one that ranks first, and the one this page is about. Vacation Tracker sells through the Slack, Microsoft Teams and Google Workspace marketplaces, and those two marketplace listings hold their own places in the top ten. Around 3,500 companies use it. Paid only, with a 14 day trial.

VacationTracker at vacationtracker.com

A different company with a near identical name, sitting second and sixth for this search. Its sign-in page outranks most of the category, so people land on the wrong login screen. Check the domain before typing a password. It also advertises worked-hours tracking, which the .io product has none of.

The phrase, meaning a spreadsheet

Half the results for this search are Excel and Google Sheets templates from Smartsheet, monday.com, Wrike and LeaveBoard. If that is what you came for, a template is genuinely fine for three or four people. It stops being fine the moment accrual, carryover or part-time allowances arrive.

Pricing

What each Vacation Tracker plan costs and includes

The per-user rates are easy to read. The minimum monthly bill is the part that catches people out, because there are two of them per plan.

Comparison dimension	Core	Complete
Per user a month, billed yearly	$1	$3
Per user a month, billed monthly	$2	$4
Smallest bill, billed yearly	$25 a month minimum	$75 a month minimum
Smallest bill, billed monthly	$50 a month minimum	$100 a month minimum
Accruals, hourly leave and TOIL	No, Complete only	Yes, all three
Locations and departments	3 locations, 10 departments	Unlimited
Multi-level and substitute approvals	No	Yes
Shared calendars and scheduled reports	No	Yes
Free plan	None, 14 day trial only	None, 14 day trial only
Tracks worked hours	No, leave only	No, leave only

Read off vacationtracker.io/pricing on 31 July 2026. The minimum doubles when you pay monthly instead of yearly, and every source we checked quotes only the yearly figure.

Is it free

No, and the floor is higher than it looks

This is the fastest growing question people ask about Vacation Tracker. The short answer is that there is no free plan at all, and three things push the real bill up.

A trial, not a free tier

Vacation Tracker gives you 14 days with no card asked, and you can ask support to extend it. After that you pay. There is no permanently free plan on any tier, which puts it behind several rivals in the category that do keep a small free tier running.

The minimum beats the headline rate

A team of ten on Core looks like $20 a month at the monthly rate. It is not. The monthly-billing minimum is $50, so you pay $50. You only reach the point where headcount drives the bill at 25 people on Core, and small teams effectively pay a flat fee.

Accrual sits on the dearer plan

If you need leave to build up through the year rather than land in one lump, that is Complete, not Core. Accruals, hourly leave and time off in lieu are all listed under Complete. So the plan most teams actually need starts at $75 a month, or $100 if you pay monthly.

Features

What Vacation Tracker does, feature by feature

The product is narrow on purpose. It does leave properly and does not pretend to do anything else, which is a fair trade if leave is your only problem.

Requests inside chat

Somebody types a command in Slack or Microsoft Teams, picks the dates, and the request goes to their manager in the same place. Approval is a button in the thread. This is the whole reason the product exists and nothing else in the category matches it for speed.

Leave types and policies

Unlimited leave types and policies on both plans, with rules for how much each group gets, whether a balance can go negative, and how much notice a request needs. Holidays can be set per location so a global team is not stuck on one country's calendar.

Accrual and carryover

Leave can build up monthly or by pay period instead of arriving all at once, with caps on how much rolls into next year. Worth repeating because it is easy to miss: this is on the Complete plan, not on Core.

Balance and request reports

Both plans give you leave balance and leave request reports. Complete adds reports that arrive on a schedule and filtering by location, department or label, which is what makes it usable once you pass a few dozen people.

Shared team calendar

A view of who is off and when, plus sync into Google Calendar and Outlook so absences show up beside meetings. Shared calendars are a Complete feature. On Core you get the in-app view but not the shared one.

Connections

Beyond the three chat platforms there is an ADP connector, Zapier, an open API and, newly, an MCP server for AI assistants. That is a stronger list than most leave-only tools carry, and the ADP link is the one payroll teams ask about.

Apps

There are iPhone and Android apps, both ranking for this search. Most people never open them, because the chat integration already puts requests where they already are. The web app handles the admin side.

What it leaves out

No time tracking of worked hours, no timesheets, no clock in and out, no overtime maths, no shift rotas. Vacation Tracker is not trying to be any of those. If you need hours as well as days off, you will be buying a second tool.

Fact sheet

Vacation Tracker and TimeTracker side by side

TimeTracker is ours, so weigh this section accordingly. The numbers are not ours though: each one was read straight off the vendor's pricing page.

Vacation Tracker

Leave management that lives in your chat app. Requests and approvals happen in Slack or Microsoft Teams, so nobody learns a second system to book a Friday off.

Best for: Chat-first teams of 15 or more that need real leave policy and do not need worked hours at all.
Pricing: No free plan, 14 day trial. Core is $1 a user a month billed yearly or $2 monthly, with a $25 minimum yearly and a $50 minimum monthly. Complete is $3 yearly or $4 monthly, with a $75 minimum yearly and $100 monthly.

Leave requests inside Slack and Teams
Unlimited leave types and policies
Accrual and carryover on Complete only
Holidays set per location
Multi-level and substitute approvals
ADP, Zapier, open API and MCP
No worked-hours tracking at all

Compare the alternatives

Best fit

TimeTracker

Leave and worked hours in one place. Accrual comes with our one paid plan, not a pricier tier, sitting beside the timesheet for the very same week.

Best for: Teams that need to know both who is away and where the working hours went, without buying twice.
Pricing: Free for up to 3 people, no credit card needed and no minimum bill at any size. Paid is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month when you pay yearly.

Leave policies with accrual on the paid plan
Opening balances and manual adjustments
Requests and approvals for time off
Time off beside the timesheet
Company holidays with per-person assignment
Approved periods lock, edits recorded
No Slack or Teams app

Start free

Head to head

Where Vacation Tracker wins and where it does not

Unlike most tools we write about, this one overlaps our product directly. It still beats us on the thing it was built for, and we will say where.

Comparison dimension	Vacation Tracker	TimeTrackerBest fit
Requests inside Slack or Microsoft Teams	Yes, this is the product	No, web and mobile only
Leave policies with accrual	Complete plan only	Yes, no premium tier needed
Opening balances and adjustments	Yes	Yes, with a note on each change
Multi-level and substitute approvals	Yes, on Complete	Single approver only
Tracks worked hours and timesheets	No, none at all	Yes, in the same system
Free plan	None, 14 day trial	3 people, no card needed
Minimum monthly bill	$25 to $100 depending on plan	None, pay for real people
Cost for 10 people, cheapest route	$25 a month on Core, yearly	$120 a month, yearly
Holidays set per location	Yes, 3 locations on Core	One holiday list per workspace
Payroll connector	ADP, plus Zapier and an API	CSV export only
Approved periods lock against edits	Not published	Yes, every later edit recorded
Shift rotas	No	No

Prices and plan limits checked on each vendor's own site on 31 July 2026. Vacation Tracker is far cheaper for leave alone. The comparison only tips our way if you also need worked hours.

Pros and cons

The real strengths and limits of each

Same rules for both. The limits list is as long as the strengths list, no claim is guessed at, and each price came off the vendor's site on 31 July 2026.

Vacation Tracker

Best for

Companies that already run on Slack, Microsoft Teams or Google Workspace and only need leave sorted.

Pricing

No free plan, 14 day trial. Core is $1 a user a month billed yearly or $2 monthly, with a minimum of $25 a month yearly and $50 monthly. Complete is $3 yearly or $4 monthly, with a minimum of $75 yearly and $100 monthly.

Checked 31 July 2026

Where it wins

Leave requests and approvals inside Slack, Teams and Google Workspace
Unlimited leave types and policies on both plans, not held back for an upsell
Holidays set per location, so a global team is not on one country's calendar
An ADP connector, Zapier, an open API and an MCP server for AI assistants
Month to month with no minimum term, so cancelling costs nothing
Cheap per head once you are past the minimum, at $1 a user billed yearly

Where it falls short

No free plan at all, only a 14 day trial
The monthly-billing minimum is double the yearly one, $50 on Core and $100 on Complete
Accrual, hourly leave and TOIL need the Complete plan, which is where most teams end up
Core caps you at 3 locations and 10 departments
It tracks no worked hours whatsoever, so it cannot answer where the day went
The name is shared with a different company at vacationtracker.com, which causes real confusion

TimeTrackerOurs

Best for

Teams that need days off and worked hours in one system instead of two subscriptions.

Pricing

Free for up to 3 people with no minimum bill. Paid is $15 per user a month, or $12 per user a month billed yearly.

Checked 31 July 2026

Where it wins

Leave policies with accrual on our one paid plan, no premium tier to unlock it
Opening balances granted automatically when you assign a policy
Manual balance adjustments carry a note, so the reason survives
Company holidays with colour, recurrence and per-person assignment
Time off sits beside the timesheet for the same week
Approved periods lock, and every edit after that is on the record

Where it falls short

No Slack app and no Microsoft Teams app, which is Vacation Tracker's whole advantage
Costs far more for leave alone, at $15 a user against $1
Single approver only, with no multi-level or substitute approval chain
One company holiday list per workspace, not one per location
CSV export only, so there is no ADP connector
No shift rotas, and we are not building them

Vacation Tracker alternatives

Which to pick

Should you buy Vacation Tracker or something wider?

Choose Vacation Tracker when…

Your team lives in Slack or Microsoft Teams all day.
Vacation Tracker puts the request in the thread. We have no app there.
Leave is the only thing you need fixed.
At $1 a user billed yearly it is far cheaper than us for that job.
You run offices in several countries with different holidays.
Holidays per location is theirs. We have one list per workspace.
A request has to pass two managers, or a stand-in.
Multi-level and substitute approvals are on their Complete plan.
You need leave data pushed into ADP.
They have that connector. We export CSV and stop there.

Choose TimeTracker when…

You need worked hours as well as days off.
Vacation Tracker records no hours at all, so that is two tools.See how
You are under 25 people and hate paying a minimum.
We bill per person with no floor, and the first 3 are free.See how
Leave should build up through the year without a dearer plan.
Accrual comes with our one paid plan. No pricier tier to unlock it.See how
Payroll needs holiday and hours from one export.
Timecards, leave and balances all come out together.See how
Somebody may query a balance months later.
Adjustments carry a note and approved periods lock.See how

FAQ

Common questions about Vacation Tracker

These are the questions Google shows people asking about vacation trackers, plus the ones the ranking pages answer, all answered straight.

How much does Vacation Tracker cost?: Core is $1 a user a month billed yearly, or $2 billed monthly. Complete is $3 yearly or $4 monthly. The figure most write-ups leave out is that each plan has two minimums. Core is $25 a month on yearly billing but $50 on monthly, and Complete is $75 yearly but $100 monthly. Paying monthly doubles your floor.
Is Vacation Tracker free?: No. There is no free plan on any tier, only a 14 day trial with no card asked, which support can extend if you ask. Every plan has a minimum monthly bill on top of the per-user rate. Our pricing is free for up to 3 people with no minimum at all.
Is there a free app to track annual leave?: A few, though most cap headcount hard. Vacation Tracker is not one of them. If you want leave and worked hours together on a free tier, our leave and PTO tracking covers 3 people free with accrual policies included. Past that a spreadsheet is the honest free answer, until accrual rules arrive.
Why are there two websites called Vacation Tracker?: Because they are two different companies. vacationtracker.io is the Slack and Microsoft Teams product that ranks first for this search. vacationtracker.com is a separate vendor, and its sign-in page ranks second, so people regularly land on the wrong login screen. Check the domain before entering a password.
Does Vacation Tracker work with Microsoft Teams?: Yes, and that is the main reason to buy it. Vacation Tracker installs into Microsoft Teams, Slack or Google Workspace, and its Teams and Slack marketplace listings both rank in the top ten for this term. TimeTracker has no Slack or Teams app, so if chat-based requests are the requirement, Vacation Tracker wins outright.
Does Vacation Tracker track working hours?: No. It records days off and balances only, so it can tell you who is away but never where the working day went. That is a deliberate choice, not a gap. If you need both, our PTO tracking sits in the same system as the timesheets for that week.
Does Vacation Tracker do accruals?: Yes, but only on the Complete plan. Accruals, hourly leave and time off in lieu are all listed under Complete, not Core. So if you need leave to build up through the year rather than land as one lump, your real starting price is $75 a month yearly, or $100 monthly, not $25.
How to keep track of vacation and sick days?: Pick one place and make requests go through it. A shared sheet works for three or four people. Once you have accrual, carryover or part-time allowances, every rule turns into a formula somebody must maintain, and balances drift. That is the point to move to a tool that does the maths for you.
Can I track employee vacation in Excel instead?: You can, and half the results for this search are exactly that. Free templates from Smartsheet, Wrike, monday.com and LeaveBoard all work. The break point is accrual: the moment leave has to build up monthly or carry over with a cap, a sheet becomes a maintenance job rather than a record.
Is there an app to track where you have traveled?: That is a different kind of vacation tracker, and Vacation Tracker is not it. This one is workplace software for booking and approving time off. If you wanted a personal travel log of countries visited, none of the results on this page will help, because the whole category here is leave management for employers.

Need the hours as well as the days off?

Vacation Tracker records no worked time at all, so hours mean a second subscription. TimeTracker keeps leave policies, accrual and balances in the same place as the timesheets, and it is free for the first 3 people with no minimum bill.

Start free