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The Best Free Time Clocks and what They Don't Include

If you are searching for a free employee time clock, there are a few available.

But why are you asking?

Maybe it's because we are so accustomed to free online services these days, you know, all those online apps with free plans... There are a ton of them.

That would certainly explain searching for a freebie for employees to clock in and out. I don't blame you for looking, it makes sense.


Please keep in mind a few harsh realities.

If you are looking for time tracking for billing, a free service might be the answer.

But if you have hourly employees, pay payroll taxes, and comply with federal and state laws, why would you trust a free service?

Just to save money? Can't afford one?

If trying to save money, consider using spreadsheets, or maybe pen and paper instead. With that, you won't risk losing legal records to a remote free service.

If it is because you can't afford it, remember we value what we pay for.


The best free employee time clocks

Below are the best free employee time clocks available today. I've tried to sort them by popularity, but honestly, that part is not easy to do.

Most importantly, I've pointed out the features NOT included on each free plan.

Knowing what you don't get is a better indicator of value. It will also show if it can replace an employee time clock for payroll or not.

My comments are limited to free plans only. I'm sure paid plans are more comprehensive, and I have no clue if one company is better than another.



Clockify.me

Clockify describes themselves as "The world's leading time tracker and timesheet software for teams".

Whether that is true or not, I'm not sure, but let's say they are good at what they do. It might be safe to say they are also a popular choice.

For their free plan, they do offer timesheets with unlimited time tracking.

Clockify is located in Palo Alto, California.

What the Clockify free plan does NOT include:

  • Attendance & overtime
  • Rounding
  • Decimal format
  • Time off
  • Breaks
  • GPS tracking
  • Multi-year range
  • Approval
  • Scheduling

Opinion

Clockify does provide a free way for employees to track and report their hours. Whether they can clock in and out is not clear.

Since it doesn't offer even the simplest time clock features, such as overtime calculation and rounding, it can't really be called an employee time clock.

Think of Clockify as a time tracking app (better used for billable hours), not a time clock app for payroll.



Opentimeclock.com

Open Time Clock is simply described as "Free Time Clock Software", which appears to be true.

They claim to have been in business since 1997, but their domain was created on April 14th of 2012.

Regardless, I do know they have been in business for many years now, and have specialized themselves as a basic time clock service.

Open Time Clock is located in Singapore.

What the Open Time Clock free plan does NOT include:

  • Downloading of PDF or Excel formatted reports

Opinion

Outside of not downloading reports, Open Time Clock apparently offers all their other features on their free plan.

So yes, Open Time Clock does offer a way for employees to clock in and out for free.

For someone with no budget, this might be an attractive alternative.

But for compliance, not being able to access reports is probaly not a good idea.

Also, if it matters to you, the company is not located in the US.



Timeclockwizard.com

Time Clock Wizard describes themselves as "100% Free Online Time Clock Employee Scheduling. Time Tracking. Task Management. Payroll Reporting."

That sounds great, however their free plan doesn't include scheduling, task management, or payroll reporting.

Is it me? I'm thinking the headline is slightly misleading.

Anyway, Time Clock Wizard has been around for a long while, I think they were one of the first services to offer free time tracking.

Time Clock Wizard is located in New York City, New York.

What the Time Clock Wizard free plan does not include:

  • Payroll reporting
  • Timesheet reporting
  • Scheduling
  • Task management
  • Paid time off accruals
  • GPS tracking
  • Clock in location restrictions
  • Mobile apps

Opinion

Time Clock Wizard does provide a way for employees to clock in and out for free.

But what is not clear, is the ability to calculate payroll hours such as overtime and PTO.

Either way, the fact it does not offer reporting is a big warning sign.



Joinhomebase.com

Homebase advertises with the headline "Employee Time Clock App - Unlimited Use, Always Free".

That title is certainly interesting, but is it a good alternative to a paid employee time clock? Let's take a look.

I could be wrong on this, but I believe Homebase was primarily built for restaurants using their scheduling, POS integrations, and billing by location.

However they market themselves now, they seem like a good company and offer a variety of services.

Homebase is located in San Francisco, California.

What the Homebase free plan does NOT include:

  • Overtime calculations
  • Pay periods longer than 7 days
  • Break tracking
  • Timesheets storage over 90 days
  • Time off tracking
  • Time off accruals
  • Payroll integrations

Opinion

Homebase does offer a way for employees to clock in and out for free.

From what I can tell, the "Unlimited Use, Always Free part" is probably true, as the service primarily bills for other services you upgrade too.

But not having overtime calculations and the lack of reporting retention is a hindrance to compliance.



Jibble.io

Similar to Open Time CLock, Jibble makes the claim of "100% FREE Time Clock Software". They also claim 90% of their users are on the free plan.

Their claim is probably true for time tracking, but as an employee time clock, not so much.

Jibble seems more focused on time tracking for billable hours (like Clockify). You can see this by their impressive list of integrations.

Jibble is located in London, England (previously Palo Alto, California).

What the Jibble free plan does NOT include:

  • Custom pay periods
  • Pay period timesheets
  • PTO accruals
  • Three or more locations
  • Shift scheduling
  • Attendance reporting
  • Approvals

Opinion

An interesting thing about Jibble's free plan is how they handle timesheet date ranges. It's either daily, weekly, or monthly. Custom pay periods are not supported.

Most companies in the US however are either bi-weekly or semi-monthly, so there is a huge disconnect.

As I'm hinting, Jibble is probably more a time tracking app, and not a time clock app.



Timecamp.com

TimeCamp positions themselves as "Time tracking software that meets your workflow". Probably a more honest description compared to Jibble.

As such, the claim is probably true.

The word Time Tracking means something, it describes a process of tracking billable hours, not payroll hours. TimeCamp doesn't seem to be everything to everybody, which is refreshing.

TimeCamp is located in Walnut, California.

What the TimeCamp free plan does NOT include:

  • Attendance tracking
  • Overtime tracking
  • Time off tracking
  • Time rounding
  • Pay periods longer than 7 days
  • Approvals

Opinion

As you can see from what the free plan is missing, it should not be considered an employee time clock by any stretch.

Sure it's free, but not the tool you need to run payroll.



Connecteam.com

Last on the list is Connecteam who claims "Manage your team in one app". That being an app mostly designed mobile devices such as phones and tablets.

A claim that seems to be true considering all the various upgrades available to manage what they refer to as "deskless" workers.

Although Connecteam offers a free employee time clock using their Small Business Plan, they don't make it center stage as other apps do.

Connecteam is located in New York City, New York (and founded in Tel Aviv, Israel).

What the Connecteam free plan does NOT include:

  • Any employee count over 30 employees

  • More than one time clock (in other words, limited to one kiosk time clock app)

Opinion

With Connecteam, it gets a little complicated. If you have less than 10 employees, you can use their Small Business Plan for free.

Over 10, but less than 30, you have the option of their Limited plan which is also free... But limited.

If you don't mind being limited to one kiosk app on a tablet for clocking, and have less than 10 employees, the Connecteam free plan might be a good choice.



Conclusion

Those are the best free employee time clocks available... At least that claim to be employee time clocks.

Other honorable mentions include

  • Busybusy.com
  • Everhour.com
  • Myhours.com

Generally, with the exception of a couple, most providers claiming to be a free employee time clock, are not time clocks at all.

Instead, they are time tracking apps pretending to be time clocks.

Is all this confusing? Maybe try out our free employee time clock instead.

Just know the free part lasts only 15 days... But it includes everything you need.

Bill Nourse, August 3 2025
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