Timesheet Software: 10 Compared for Small Business

Recording hours is the commodity part of this category. Every tool on this page does it competently, and most of them do it free. What separates them is the step after: whether a manager can review and approve those hours inside the product, or whether you are handed a raw export and left to sort it out in a spreadsheet.

The second thing that separates them is how they meter. Some charge per user, one charges per location, one charges a flat fee per feature hub, and one adds a fixed base fee on top of per-seat pricing. Run the same 15-person company through all of them and the monthly bill ranges from nothing to about $135 for products that all record the same hours.

This comparison covers ten tools a US business of 5 to 50 employees can realistically buy, states exactly where each free tier stops, models cost at a concrete headcount, and covers the part nobody in this SERP mentions: what federal law requires you to keep regardless of which one you pick.

What timesheet software actually does

A timesheet system runs one loop: capture hours, total them, get them approved, send them to payroll. The capture step is where the marketing goes and the approval step is where the money goes, which is worth knowing before you compare anything.

Two of those decide most purchases. Approval is what turns tracked time into a record you can defend, and it is priced accordingly. Scheduling is what splits the field into project-hours tools and shift-work platforms, which are different products competing for the same search term.

Where every free tier actually stops

Several of these tools are genuinely free forever and several are trials wearing the word. Even among the genuine ones, the ceiling is rarely the user count people expect it to be.

10 timesheet tools at a glance

The table below covers free type, pricing model, and the capabilities that genuinely differ. Pricing model is the column to read first, because it decides your bill more than any feature does.

How we evaluated these tools

We evaluated for a US business of 5 to 50 employees at one or two locations, where whoever approves timesheets also does several other jobs. Four tests, applied identically to all ten.

Tools with permanent free plans

Five options you can run indefinitely without paying, within their caps. For a small team that needs hours recorded rather than a workforce platform, the answer is probably here.

Jibble has the most generous free plan in this comparison and it is not a stripped demo: unlimited users, clock in and out from a phone or browser, automatic timesheets, and integrations that get hours into QuickBooks. For a shop, cafe, office, or any team where the question is simply who worked and when, that answers it at any headcount for nothing, which nothing else here does.

The paywall is consistent and clearly signposted: live location, geofencing, project-level tracking, PTO, and admin controls are paid. That is the right split if you want attendance and the wrong one if you need location compliance or client billing, because both push you straight into paid tiers. Note also that Jibble raised Premium and Ultimate prices in early 2026, so figures in older reviews understate the paid step.

Clockify is the best-known name in free time tracking and the paid ladder is genuinely well constructed: Basic adds administrative controls like bulk editing and adding time for others, Standard adds timesheet approvals, time off, and invoicing, and Pro adds GPS and kiosk mode. For an agency that tracks hours against projects and bills clients from the same data, Standard at $5.49 per user is reasonable value.

Two cautions for a timesheet buyer specifically. Timesheet approvals are not on the free plan, so if approval is the reason you are shopping, the free tier does not solve your problem regardless of the user cap. And the user cap itself is unclear: sources published within months of each other in 2026 describe the free plan as both unlimited and capped at five, alongside reports that billable rates and spreadsheet export moved to paid. Verify before you build a process on it.

TimeCamp is the other genuinely unlimited-user free plan here, and it leans project-first: timesheets, unlimited projects, and web, desktop, and mobile apps at no cost. For a small agency or consultancy that needs to know where hours went rather than who was on site, it covers more at zero than most competitors cover at their first paid tier.

The paid ladder climbs quickly once you want billing rates, approvals, and the wider integration set, and the product is built around project accounting rather than workforce attendance. If your staff are hourly and deskless, the shift platforms below will fit better even though TimeCamp is cheaper on paper. Its brand recognition is also lower than Clockify or Toggl, which matters mainly for the confidence of whoever has to adopt it.

Toggl Track has the best tracking experience in this comparison by a clear margin: the timer is fast, the browser extension works in dozens of tools, and reporting is genuinely pleasant to use. For a five-person team of designers, developers, or consultants tracking billable hours, that quality difference shows up daily and the free plan covers exactly that size.

It is also the most expensive per seat here once you pass five people. Starter at around $9 per user is roughly double Clockify Standard for a comparable job, and at 15 employees that is about $135 a month against $82. Toggl is priced for teams that value the experience and bill their time; for a company that simply needs hours recorded for payroll, you are paying a premium for polish.

Shift and deskless platforms

Three products where timesheets are one part of a workforce platform. If your staff work shifts at a site, these fit the shape of the problem better than a project timer does.

Connecteam is the cheapest structure on this page at mid headcount. Basic is $29 a month flat for up to 30 users, which at 15 employees works out under $2 a seat, and it includes GPS clock-ins rather than gating them. The free plan for up to 10 users is full feature access across every hub, not a limited version, and the mobile app is built for people without a company email address.

The structure to understand is per hub. Time tracking and scheduling live in the Operations hub; team messaging is Communications; training and HR is a third. A company wanting two of them pays two subscriptions, so $29 becomes $58, and the flat-fee advantage narrows. It is also a workforce platform rather than a timesheet tool, so a desk-based salaried team adopts a great deal it will not use.

Homebase is the only product here that charges per location rather than per person, and at a single site with a lot of staff that is decisively cheaper. Essentials at roughly $25 a month covers unlimited employees at one location, against about $82 for a per-user tool at 15 people and considerably more at 40. The free Basic plan covers up to 20 employees at one site, which is a genuinely large free ceiling for a shift business.

The model inverts with multiple sites. Three locations with eight people each means paying the full location fee three times for 24 employees, which per-user pricing would handle for less. HR features and the deeper feature set also sit on the higher tiers, so the entry price does not describe the product you may end up wanting. Scheduling is the centre of the product and timesheets follow from it.

When I Work has the lowest per-user rate on this page at around $2.50 for Essentials, and it is a well-built scheduling product for shift businesses: shift swaps, availability, and coverage alerts all work the way managers expect. At 15 employees, $38 a month for scheduling is competitive with anything here.

Two things to correct before you budget on that number. It has no free plan; older sources claiming a free tier for up to 75 users are stale, and multiple 2026 pricing checks confirm a 14-day trial only. And time and attendance is a paid add-on rather than part of the scheduling plan, so the entry rate does not include the timesheet capability you came here for. Price the combination, not the headline.

Paid and payroll-first options

Three products with no permanent free plan. Each earns its price in a specific situation rather than generally.

Deputy is the most capable shift platform in this comparison. It handles break compliance, labor cost forecasting against sales, and award and overtime rule engines that most competitors approximate. For a restaurant group or a clinic where scheduling rules and labor percentages are managed actively rather than after the fact, that depth is the reason to pay.

For a simpler business it is more product than the problem needs. At 15 employees Core is about $98 a month against $29 on Connecteam Basic, and the features driving that difference only pay back if someone is using them weekly. HR and analytics are separately priced add-ons, so the entry rate understates a full configuration.

Formerly TSheets, QuickBooks Time exists to close one gap completely: hours approved here land in QuickBooks payroll without an export, a file, or a reconciliation. For a business already running QuickBooks, that removes the step where timesheet data most often goes wrong, and the 30-day trial is the longest here by a wide margin.

It is bundled rather than standalone, which is why it does not appear in the cost table below: the practical decision is which QuickBooks payroll tier you buy, with time tracking arriving as part of it. That makes it excellent value inside the ecosystem and a poor comparison outside it, since a business not on QuickBooks would be adopting an accounting platform to get a timesheet tool.

Buddy Punch is built narrowly and well around the hourly punch: photo capture on clock in, IP address and GPS restrictions, rounding rules, and controls against buddy punching that the name refers to directly. Payroll integrations are broad and the approval workflow is straightforward, which is more than several cheaper tools manage.

The base fee is the structural detail. A $19 monthly charge sits on top of per-user pricing, which at 15 employees adds about $1.27 a seat and is barely noticeable, but at five employees adds $3.80 a seat and roughly doubles the effective rate. It is a good fit at 15 to 50 people and a poor one below ten, which is the opposite of how the per-user headline rate reads.

Monthly cost at 15 employees

One company, one location, fifteen people, annual billing. This is the calculation the listicles in this category leave out, and it reorders the field.

The pattern is that pricing model beats headline rate. When I Work has the lowest per-user figure on this page and lands mid-table once you count fifteen of them, before the time and attendance add-on. Homebase looks unremarkable per location and is second cheapest here because the location fee does not care how many people you employ. And Connecteam at $29 flat is under $2 a seat at this size, which no per-user tool approaches.

What federal law requires either way

Software is a convenience here, not a legal requirement, and knowing what the obligation actually is changes how you evaluate one. The Department of Labor states plainly that employers may use any timekeeping method they choose: a time clock, a timekeeper, or workers writing their own hours.

What is not optional is the record. Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, every covered employer must keep specified records for each non-exempt worker, including hours worked each day and total hours each workweek. Per DOL Fact Sheet 21, payroll records must be preserved for at least three years, and the records on which wage computations are based, meaning time cards, work and time schedules, and wage rate tables, for two years.

When you actually need a mobile timesheet app

Every tool here has a mobile app and the phrase covers two different needs. For salaried desk staff, a weekly web timesheet is usually enough and the app is a convenience. For deskless and field staff, mobile is the entire product, because there is no desk to put a terminal on.

The point worth extracting is that the free mobile apps handle punching and the paid tiers handle proving where and by whom the punch happened. If your reason for wanting an app is convenience, free covers it. If your reason is a dispute about hours you cannot verify, you are buying location and identity features, and those are paid nearly everywhere.

Before you choose

FirstHR does not do time tracking or scheduling. It has no time clock, no timesheets, and no approval workflow, and for those you need one of the tools above. What it does is the employment record around them: an HR platform for US teams of 5 to 50 covering onboarding, employee files, e-signature, and document management at a flat $98 to $198 a month.

The overlap worth naming is retention. Timesheet tools hold hours; the two-year and three-year obligations above sit alongside employee records that carry their own retention rules, and in most small companies those live in two different places with nobody owning either. Whichever timesheet tool you pick, decide now where the exported record lands and who can produce it in three years.

How to choose timesheet software

Five questions settle this, and the first two remove most of the field before you open a trial.

A closing note on sequencing: run one full pay period through your two finalists before deciding. Both should be free or on trial long enough to allow it, and a real cycle surfaces the things a feature list cannot, particularly whether your staff actually clock in and whether the approval step takes five minutes or an afternoon.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is timesheet software?

Software that records hours worked, totals them by day and workweek, routes them for manager approval, and exports the result to payroll. Also called time tracking software, a timesheet management system, an online timesheet, or a timesheet app. What separates products is not the tracking, which is a commodity, but whether approvals are included, whether it works for deskless staff, and how it prices.

How much does timesheet software cost for a small business?

At 15 employees on one site, from nothing to about $135 a month. Jibble is free at unlimited users, Connecteam Basic is $29 flat, Homebase Essentials is around $25 per location, When I Work Essentials about $38, Clockify Standard about $82, Buddy Punch Starter about $86 with its base fee, Deputy Core about $98, and Toggl Track Starter about $135. The spread comes from the pricing model rather than capability.

Is there genuinely free timesheet software?

Yes. Jibble is free for unlimited users with automatic timesheets, TimeCamp is free for unlimited users and projects, Connecteam is free with full features up to 10 users, Homebase is free for up to 20 employees at one location, and Toggl Track is free up to 5. When I Work, QuickBooks Time, Deputy, and Buddy Punch are trial-only despite frequent listing as free options.

Do free timesheet apps include timesheet approval?

Often not, and this is the detail that decides a timesheet purchase. Approval is what turns tracked time into a record payroll can rely on, and it is priced accordingly: on Clockify it sits on Standard rather than the free tier. If disputed or late hours are why you are shopping, verify approvals are on the specific plan you intend to use.

What records does the FLSA require me to keep?

For non-exempt employees, hours worked each day and total hours each workweek, the basis of pay, regular rate, straight-time and overtime earnings, and deductions. Payroll records must be kept at least three years and the records wage computations are based on, including time cards and schedules, for two years. The DOL allows any timekeeping method, so software is a convenience rather than a legal requirement.

What is the difference between per-user and per-location pricing?

Per-user charges for every person tracked, so the bill grows with each hire. Per-location charges per site regardless of headcount, which is how Homebase bills. At one site with 15 people, per-location wins clearly. Across three small sites it loses badly. Connecteam is a third model, a flat fee per hub covering up to 30 users, which is cheapest at mid headcount and multiplies with additional hubs.

Do I need a mobile timesheet app?

Only if your team is deskless. Office staff are served by a weekly web timesheet. Field and shift staff need mobile because there is no desk for a terminal, and the features that make mobile genuinely useful, meaning GPS stamping, geofencing, and photo verification, are almost always on paid tiers even where the base app is free.

Can I just use a spreadsheet instead?

For a very small salaried team with no overtime exposure, yes, and the DOL permits any method. The risk appears when hours are disputed: where records are inadequate, the burden effectively shifts to the employer to disprove the employee's account. Software helps by producing a dated per-day record made at the time rather than reconstructed later, and by making approval a routine event.