Free Time Tracking Apps for Small Business Compared
Free time tracking apps compared for small businesses of 5 to 50, with honest free-plan limits, real cost at 15 employees, and who each free tier fits.
Free Time Tracking Apps for Small Business Compared
Eleven free employee time tracking apps compared for teams of 5 to 50, with the free-plan limits vendors bury, real cost when a team outgrows free at 15 employees, and which free tier actually fits your team
The phrase free time tracking app hides a lot of variation. Whether you call it a free timesheet app, a timekeeping tool, or a time card system, the free tiers behave very differently: some are genuinely free for your whole team forever, others cap the free plan at five users and quietly move invoicing behind a paywall, and a few reserve free for a single person as a demo. For a small business, the difference decides whether you pay nothing at 15 employees or a few hundred dollars a month.
The two changes worth knowing this year sharpen the point. Clockify, long the default for unlimited free users, moved its free plan to a five-user cap in April 2026. Harvest added usage-based fees after its 2025 acquisition, on top of a free plan that is really one seat and two projects. A comparison written a year ago would now send you to the wrong tool.
This guide compares eleven free and low-cost employee time tracking apps for teams of five to fifty, with the free-plan limits vendors tend to bury, real monthly cost at 15 employees when a team outgrows free, and an honest read on which free tier fits which kind of team, whether you need a simple solo timer, a mobile clock-in for a field crew, or free employee time tracking software for a growing office. It also covers where time tracking sits in the wider people-operations stack a small business has to run.
Quick verdict by team type
The right free time tracking app depends less on features than on the shape of your team. Four common cases:
For a growing small business that wants a free tool it will not outgrow, TimeCamp and Jibble win, because both allow unlimited free users while most rivals cap the free tier at five. For an hourly or deskless team that needs mobile clock-in and location proof, Jibble, Connecteam, and Homebase have the strongest free offerings. For a team of five or fewer tracking project time at a desk, Clockify and Toggl Track are simple, clean, and free at that size. For a solo consultant who bills by the hour, Harvest still leads on time-to-invoice, even though its free plan is really a demo.
11 free time tracking apps compared
Nine tools with a free tier, plus two low-cost scheduling-first tools included because small hourly teams often shortlist them alongside the free options. The free user limit column is the one to read first.
| Tool | Free plan | Free user limit | Timesheets | Invoicing | GPS | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TimeCamp | Unlimited free users | Unlimited | Best free for a growing team | |||
| Jibble | Unlimited free, GPS and face | Unlimited | Best free for hourly and deskless | |||
| Clockify | Free capped at 5 users | 5 users | Best free for a team of five or fewer | |||
| Connecteam | Free to 10, deskless hub | 10 users | Best free for a small field team | |||
| Homebase | Free for one location | 20, one site | Best free for a single-site hourly team | |||
| Toggl Track | Simple free timer | 5 users | Best free for the simplest tracking | |||
| Harvest | Free is one seat, two projects | 1 user | Free is effectively a solo demo | |||
| Everhour | Free to 5, no integrations | 5 users | Free is thin; five-seat minimum on paid | |||
| Hubstaff | Free is a single user | 1 user | Free is solo only; monitoring-heavy | |||
| When I Work | No free plan, trial only | None | Scheduling-first; paid from the start | |||
| Deputy | No free plan, trial only | None | Compliance-strong; paid from the start |
The tools in depth
TimeCamp
The strongest genuinely free option for a growing team, because it allows unlimited free users where almost every rival caps the free tier. The free plan covers time tracking, projects, a kiosk, and geofencing, with automatic tracking by keyword or app. Invoicing and deeper reporting sit on paid tiers that start around $1.49 to $1.99 per user, but a team that only needs to record hours can stay free at any size, which is rare in this category.
Jibble
The best free tool for hourly and deskless teams, with unlimited free users and mobile clock-in that includes GPS and facial recognition at no cost. Built for people who are not at a desk, it covers timesheets, kiosk mode, and offline punching, with paid tiers from around $2.49 per user adding deeper features and more geofences. For a small field or shift team that needs to prove presence on site without paying, little else matches it.
Clockify
Long the default free tracker, and still excellent for a team of five or fewer, but its free plan moved to a five-user cap in April 2026, having previously allowed unlimited users. The free tier covers the timer, projects, timesheets, a kiosk, and PDF export for up to five people, while billable rates, invoicing, and Excel export moved to paid plans starting at $3.99 per user. For a small desk team it is clean and capable; past five users, the economics change.
Connecteam
The best free choice for a small deskless field team, with a free plan for up to 10 users that includes the full feature set across time clock, scheduling, and communication. GPS and geofencing are part of the free offering, which suits construction, cleaning, and field crews. Above 10 users it moves to paid hubs at a flat $29 monthly for up to 30, priced per hub, so multiple hubs mean multiple fees.
Homebase
The best free option for a single-site hourly team, with a free tier covering one location and up to 20 employees, including scheduling, a time clock, and team messaging. Paid tiers from $24.95 per location add hiring and labor tools. Because pricing is per location rather than per user, a busy single site with a full roster pays nothing on free or one flat fee on paid, but each extra location is a separate charge.
Toggl Track
The best pick for the simplest possible tracking, with a one-click timer that a solo user or tiny team can start in seconds. The free plan covers up to five users with clean reporting, and paid tiers begin at $9 per user for billable rates and team features. It has no native invoicing and no GPS, so it is a focused desk-based time tracker rather than a full workforce tool, which is exactly its appeal for the right team.
Harvest
Best for a solo consultant who bills by the hour, because time-to-invoice is its strength, but its free plan is effectively a demo: one seat and two projects. After the 2025 acquisition it added usage-based fees on top of the $9 per seat Teams plan, which is the change to watch, since one 20-seat account reported a large jump in its annual bill. For a single freelancer it remains a clean choice; for a team, price it carefully.
Everhour
Aimed at small project teams that live inside a project-management tool, with a free plan for up to five users but no native integrations on free, which undercuts its main selling point. Paid Team pricing is $8.50 per user with a five-seat minimum, so a micro-team pays for five seats whether or not it has them. For a project team already committed to a supported PM tool it fits well; for anyone else the minimum and the thin free tier weaken the case.
Hubstaff
Built around activity monitoring, with a free plan limited to a single user, so it is a solo tool on free rather than a team one. Paid tiers from about $5 per user, with a two-seat minimum, add screenshots, GPS, and payroll. For an owner who wants detailed productivity data on their own work, or a remote team comfortable with monitoring, it is capable, but the monitoring focus and single-user free plan make it a poor free fit for a general small team.
When I Work
Not free, but small hourly teams often shortlist it, so it is here for completeness. It is scheduling-first, with time tracking added on, starting around $2.50 per user monthly plus a time-and-attendance add-on. Its strength is fast, mobile-friendly scheduling that staff adopt quickly, which makes it a common first paid purchase for a team moving off paper. If you need a free plan, it is not the tool; if you need cheap scheduling with a clock, it is a strong option.
Deputy
Also not free, but shortlisted by compliance-conscious hourly teams, so it is included for completeness. It is scheduling and attendance with strong labor-law handling, priced at $5 to $9 per user with a $30 monthly minimum and a 31-day trial rather than a free plan. For a business in a state with prescriptive break rules it earns its cost, but a small team wanting a free tool should look elsewhere on this page.
The free-plan limits vendors bury
This is the section most listicles skip, and it is where the real decision is made. A free plan is only free if it covers your team size and the features you actually use.
| Tool | The catch | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Clockify | Free capped at 5 users | Reduced from unlimited in April 2026; billable rates, invoicing, and Excel export moved to paid |
| Harvest | One seat, two projects | Free is a solo demo; paid added usage-based fees after the 2025 acquisition |
| Everhour | Five users, no integrations | Paid plans carry a five-seat minimum, which penalizes micro-teams |
| Hubstaff | One user on free | Free is solo only; the product leans on screenshots and monitoring |
| Toggl Track | Five users on free | Clean and simple, but the free cap arrives quickly for a growing team |
| Homebase | One location, up to 20 | Free covers a single site only; a second location is a full paid fee |
| Connecteam | Ten users on free | Genuinely full-featured to 10, then paid per hub above that |
| TimeCamp | Unlimited users free | Rare genuine unlimited free tier; invoicing and some reports are paid |
| Jibble | Unlimited users free | Generous free tier; geofences limited on free, deeper features paid |
Read this before the feature list, because a cap you will hit in three months is more expensive than a missing feature you can work around. The pattern is consistent: the tools built for freelancers and project teams tend to cap free at a handful of users and move billing features to paid, while the tools built for hourly and deskless workforces tend to offer more generous free clock-in but less depth on invoicing and reporting. Neither is wrong, but they answer different questions.
What you actually pay at 15 employees
Fifteen people is the honest test of a free time tracking app, because it is past the point where several free plans stop.
| Tool | Free tier | At 15 employees | How the number is built |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jibble | Free | Free | Unlimited free users; paid only for advanced features |
| TimeCamp | Free | $22 | Unlimited free; Starter at $1.49 per user if you need invoicing |
| Homebase | $24 | $24 | One flat per-location fee, unlimited staff at that site |
| Connecteam | $29 | $29 | Flat to 30 users on Basic, so 15 is well within it |
| Clockify | $60 | $60 | Free stops at 5 users, so 15 needs Basic at $3.99 per user |
| Hubstaff | $75 | $75 | Free is one user, so 15 needs Starter at about $5 per user |
| Deputy | $75 | $75 | No free plan; Lite at $5 per user, above the $30 minimum |
| Everhour | $128 | $128 | Five-user free cap; Team at $8.50 per user, five-seat minimum |
| Toggl Track | $135 | $135 | Free stops at 5 users, so 15 needs Starter at $9 per user |
| Harvest | $135 | $135 | Free is one seat; Teams at $9 per seat, before usage fees |
The spread is the whole story. TimeCamp and Jibble stay free at 15, and Homebase and Connecteam sit near $24 to $29 because their pricing does not scale per user. The per-user tools climb into the $60 to $135 range for the same 15 people, and the ones with a five-user free cap, Clockify, Toggl, and Everhour, are the ones that forced you off free to get there. This is why the cheapest tool at five users is frequently a different product from the cheapest at fifteen, and why headcount, not the free label, should drive the choice.
Deskless and field teams vs desk teams
The other fork is where your team works, because it changes which free tier is even relevant.
A desk-based team tracking hours against clients and projects wants a project timer with reporting: TimeCamp, Toggl Track, and Clockify are built for this, with one-click timers and clean project breakdowns. A deskless, hourly, or field team needs mobile clock-in and often location proof that someone was on site, which is a different feature set: Jibble, Connecteam, and Homebase offer this on their free tiers, with GPS and kiosk clock-in that the desk-first tools either lack or reserve for paid. Buying a project timer for a field crew, or a field clock for a billable-hours agency, is the most common way a small business ends up fighting its own tool.
Simple, mobile, or scheduling-first
Beyond team size and where people work, three specific needs come up often enough to call out directly, because each points to a different free tool.
If you want the simplest possible time tracker, something a solo owner or a tiny team can start in seconds with no learning curve, Toggl Track and Clockify are the easiest to adopt: one button to start, one to stop, and a clean weekly view. For an easy free timekeeping app that a non-technical team will actually use, simplicity beats feature depth every time, so resist the tool with the longest list.
If you need mobile time tracking, where staff clock in from a phone rather than a desktop, Jibble, Connecteam, and Homebase are built mobile-first, with apps designed for people who are not at a computer. A desktop-first timer bolted onto a phone rarely gets used by a field team, so a genuine mobile time tracking app matters more than it sounds.
If you need scheduling and time tracking together, one app that both builds the shift and records the clock-in, Connecteam, Homebase, When I Work, and Deputy combine the two, where the project timers do not. For an hourly team, pairing the schedule and the timesheet in one place removes a whole category of reconciliation, which is why a scheduling-and-time-tracking app is often the right call over a standalone free timer.
How long each takes to set up
One advantage every tool here shares over enterprise workforce platforms is speed to start.
The simplest trackers, Toggl, Clockify, and Jibble, take minutes: sign up, add the team, start the timer, with adoption the only real variable. The tools that layer on scheduling and pay rules, Connecteam, Homebase, and Deputy, take a little longer to configure shifts, roles, and overtime rules, but remain self-serve within a day or two. None require an implementation project or a vendor call, which is a genuine benefit for a small business without dedicated IT or HR. The main risk is not setup but adoption: a tracker only works if the team actually clocks in, so the tool your staff will use beats the one with the longest feature list.
Where time tracking fits in the HR stack
A time tracker solves one slice of running a team: the hours. For a business of 5 to 50 without a dedicated HR person, it is worth being clear about what it does not touch, because that is usually the larger workload.
Tracking hours sits at one end of an employee's time with you. Before any hours are logged, a new hire has to be recruited, offered, and onboarded, with a signed offer, an I-9 within three business days, a W-4, and any required training and acknowledgments. Alongside the hours, someone has to manage employee records, documents and their expiry, policy acknowledgments, and self-service so staff can update their own details. A free time tracking app does none of that, and for a small team those tasks recur with every hire and land on an owner or office manager between everything else.
FirstHR is not a time tracking tool and does not belong in the comparison above. What it covers is the rest of that stack: hiring and applicant tracking, onboarding with deadline tracking, e-signature on the I-9, W-4, and offer letters, document management with retention and expiry tracking, training with completion records, and an employee records system with self-service, at a flat $98 per month up to 10 employees and $198 for 11 and above. The honest split for a small business is simple: pick a free time tracker from this page for the hours, and use a dedicated HR platform for the hiring, onboarding, and records around them. Our guide to time and attendance for small business covers the hours side, and our comparison of employee onboarding software covers the onboarding layer.
How to choose a free time tracking app
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free time tracking app for a small business?
It depends on your team. For a small business wanting a genuinely free tool as it grows, TimeCamp and Jibble stand out because both allow unlimited free users. For an hourly or deskless team, Jibble, Connecteam, and Homebase have the strongest free clock-in and GPS. For a team of five or fewer, Clockify and Toggl Track are simple and free at that size.
Which free time tracking apps allow unlimited users?
As of 2026, the two clearest are TimeCamp and Jibble, both free for a whole small team with paid gates at invoicing and advanced features rather than a user cap. Many well-known tools do not: Clockify moved to a five-user cap in April 2026, Toggl and Everhour cap free at five, and Hubstaff and Harvest reserve free for a single user.
Is Clockify still free for unlimited users?
No. As of April 2026, Clockify moved its free plan to a five-user cap, having previously allowed unlimited users. Core tracking and PDF export stay free for up to five people, but billable rates, invoicing, and Excel export moved to paid. For a team larger than five, TimeCamp or Jibble is the better free choice.
How much does a time tracking app cost once you outgrow free?
For a 15-person team, TimeCamp and Jibble can stay free, and Homebase and Connecteam sit at a flat $24 to $29 monthly. The per-user tools climb: Clockify around $60, Hubstaff around $75, and Toggl, Harvest, and Everhour reaching $128 to $135. Unlimited-free and flat-rate tools barely move as you grow, while per-user tools scale with headcount.
What is the catch with free time tracking apps?
Almost always one of three things: a user cap that forces an upgrade as you grow, a feature paywall on invoicing or reporting, or a single-user free plan that is really a demo. The honest question is whether the free plan covers your actual team size and the features you need, or stops just short on purpose.
Do free time tracking apps work for deskless and field teams?
Yes. Jibble, Connecteam, and Homebase offer free tiers with mobile clock-in, and Jibble and Connecteam include GPS to verify where someone clocked in. TimeCamp adds a kiosk and geofencing free too. A desk team tracking projects is better served by TimeCamp, Toggl, or Clockify.
How long does it take to set up a free time tracking app?
Most are same-day. Toggl, Clockify, and Jibble take minutes to start tracking. Tools that add scheduling and rules, like Connecteam, Homebase, and Deputy, take a little longer to configure but remain self-serve within a day or two. None require an implementation project.
Does a time tracking app handle hiring, onboarding, and HR?
No. A time tracking app records hours; it does not run hiring, onboarding, e-signature on the I-9 and W-4, document management, or employee records. For a team of 5 to 50 without an HR person, that people-operations layer is often the bigger pain, and it recurs with every hire. See our guide to new hire paperwork.
Can a free time tracking app replace a spreadsheet for timesheets?
Yes, and for most small businesses that is the main reason to switch. A spreadsheet cannot stamp who actually clocked in, calculate overtime, or stop duplicate entries, so it quietly produces errors that surface at payroll. A free timesheet app records hours at the source and exports payroll-ready totals at no cost on tools like TimeCamp, Jibble, Clockify, and Connecteam.
Is a free timesheet app the same as a free timekeeping or time card app?
In practice, yes. Free timesheet software, free timekeeping apps, and free time card software are different names for the same category: tools that record hours and turn them into a payroll total. Timesheet leans toward project and billable tools; time card and timekeeping lean toward hourly teams, but the core job is identical. Pick by team type and free-plan limits, not the term.