Best Free Time Clock Apps (2026): Free Plan Limits for Hourly Teams

For a 12-person hourly team at one location that needs GPS clock-ins, a kiosk, overtime rules and a payroll export, Jibble's free plan covers the whole list at $0/month, verified on Jibble's pricing page in September 2026. Homebase is the practical runner-up once a team wants scheduling and payroll add-ons built in, at $30/month on its Essentials plan after the free tier's 10-employee cap.

Toolradar data: Toolradar, the software directory we run, tracks this category in its free time tracking guide. Of the 9 time clock apps we priced against this page's 12-person, one-location scenario, only Jibble keeps GPS, geofencing, a kiosk and overtime rules inside its free plan; every other vendor either caps its free tier below 12 people or leaves out one of those features until you pay.

At a glance: 12 hourly employees, one location

Every price below was read on the vendor's own pricing page in September 2026.

The arithmetic, shown once

Jibble's free plan already includes GPS tracking, geofencing, a shared kiosk, overtime rules and payroll export for unlimited users, so a 12-person team owes nothing on it, no matter how the headcount is sliced. Homebase and When I Work reach the same monthly total for that headcount by two different routes: Homebase charges its flat Essentials fee per location once a team passes the 10-employee free cap, while When I Work has no free tier at all and multiplies $2.50 x 12 users on its single-location plan to land in the same place. Connecteam's first paid plan is a flat rate for up to 30 users, so a 12-person team pays the same amount a 30-person team would. 7shifts needs its Essentials plan to get a working clock at all, at $44.99 per location. Deputy multiplies $5 x 12 users = $60/month on Lite. Clockify needs its Pro tier for GPS, at $7.99 x 12 seats = $95.88/month billed annually. ClockShark is a base fee plus a per-user rate: $42 + ($9.50 x 12) = $42 + $114 = $156/month.

The ranking flips at 11 employees. Below that headcount, Homebase's Basic plan is still free and ties Jibble's. Past 30 employees, Connecteam's flat rate starts adding a per-user overage, while Homebase and 7shifts stay flat per location until their own headcount ceilings (unlimited and 30, respectively). A team that grows past 60 people outgrows Deputy's and 7shifts' per-user math fastest, since both keep charging per head with no flat-location option.

Hidden costs

• Homebase's payroll is a separate add-on, $49/mo plus $6 per employee paid, on top of whatever plan runs the clock.
• 7shifts' free Comp plan has no time clock, only scheduling, so any team that actually needs to punch in and out has to pay for Essentials at minimum.
• ClockShark defaults to a 3-year contract on both plans, per its pricing page.
• Deputy bills a monthly minimum per invoice regardless of headcount, and its face ID kiosk sits on the $6.50/user/mo Core plan, not Lite.
• Clockify gates GPS behind its Pro tier and TimeCamp gates geofencing and its kiosk behind Enterprise, so their free plans undercount the real bill.
• Connecteam's flat $35 rate breaks once a location passes 30 employees, adding $0.80 to $1 per additional person.

Jibble is free and already has everything on this list

Jibble's pricing page shows one plan today: free, unlimited users, no credit card. The feature pages for GPS tracking, geofencing, a shared kiosk, overtime rules with automatic alerts, and payroll export into tools like QuickBooks and Xero all sit under that same free tier, which is unusual among the tools in this table. The page links to a separate Enterprise option for larger organizations, but it carries no list price, so a 12-person hourly team never has to price it. The catch is depth rather than cost: Jibble is a clock and attendance tool, not a scheduler, so a restaurant or retail team that also wants shift building will still want a second product for that piece.

Homebase caps its free plan at 10 people

Homebase's Basic plan is free for one location with up to 10 employees, but GPS-based clock-in and overtime-rule customization are Essentials-only additions, confirmed on Homebase's pricing page; Basic covers scheduling and clock-ins from a shared tablet, computer or POS device. A 12-person team crosses the 10-employee cap by two people anyway, which forces the jump to Essentials, a flat fee that covers unlimited employees at that location and adds the location-based clock-in this scenario needs. Running payroll through Homebase is a separate line: $49/mo plus $6 per employee paid, with a limited-time offer waiving that fee on the Plus plan for six months. A single-location team that stays at or under 10 people never needs to pay at all.

Connecteam and When I Work solve the same gap differently

Connecteam's Small Business plan is also free up to 10 users, with every hub included, so it hits the same wall Homebase does at 12 people. Its first paid tier, Operations Hub Basic, billed monthly at the rate in the table above (or $29 billed annually), is flat for up to 30 users, and geofencing is capped at 10 sites on that tier, enough for a single location. When I Work skips the free plan entirely and goes straight to a 14-day trial, then charges per user on its single-location plan; GPS clock-in and custom scheduling rules are included on that entry tier and every plan above it, confirmed on When I Work's pricing page, but kiosk mode is not listed on either of its two plans.

Clockify and TimeCamp are free until this scenario's feature list kicks in

Both tools advertise a free plan, and both fall short of this scenario once GPS, a kiosk or overtime reporting enter the picture. Clockify's Free tier caps at 5 users, already too small for a 12-person team; kiosk mode is available from its Basic tier up, attendance-with-overtime reporting needs Standard or above, and GPS tracking is Pro and Enterprise only. That makes Clockify's real entry point $7.99 per seat per month billed annually, the most expensive per-seat rate in this table once the scenario's features are priced in. TimeCamp's free plan has no user cap at all, and GPS tracking is included free, but geofencing and its Time Clock Kiosk are locked to a custom Enterprise plan with no published price, and overtime tracking only starts on the $3.99/user/mo Starter tier. A team that only needs a basic punch clock can run TimeCamp free; a team that wants the full list on this page cannot.

Deputy and ClockShark start as paid tools

Deputy has no free plan. Lite, at $5 per user per month, covers basic scheduling, timesheets, clocking and labor law compliance, and its geofencing works at that tier, but the biometric, face ID kiosk is available from the $6.50/user/mo Core plan, not Lite. Every Deputy invoice carries a monthly minimum spend, which does not bind a 12-person team on Lite but does matter for a smaller crew. ClockShark also skips a free plan, and its Standard tier combines a monthly base fee with a per-active-user rate, landing at the highest total in this table for 12 people. The bigger catch is contract length: ClockShark's pricing page states a 3-year contract term applies to all its plans.

7shifts' free plan cannot clock anyone in

7shifts is built for restaurants, and its Comp plan is genuinely free for a single location with up to 15 employees, comfortably covering this scenario's headcount. The catch is that Comp only ships basic scheduling, one-way announcements and time-off requests; there is no clock-in feature at that tier at all. Essentials, at $49.99 a month per location billed monthly ($44.99 annual), adds basic time clocking, which is the minimum a 12-person hourly team needs to actually track hours. Location-restricted clock-in, labor compliance tools and overtime alerts sit one tier up, on Premium at $134.99 to $149.99 per location per month.

Which plan actually fits a 12-person hourly team

Take Jibble when the job is a straightforward clock with GPS, a kiosk and payroll export, and scheduling lives somewhere else already. Take Homebase when scheduling, messaging and an eventual payroll add-on should live in the same login, and budget the Essentials fee once headcount passes 10. Take Connecteam when the team already uses its HR or communications hubs, and take When I Work when GPS-verified punches matter more than a shared kiosk. Deputy suits a team that wants labor law compliance and geofencing on a lean per-user plan, so long as the Core tier is priced in if a physical kiosk is required. ClockShark and 7shifts' Premium tier are worth it for construction crews and restaurants that need job costing or labor compliance tools bundled in, but both cost more than every free-first option in this table. For the product comparison rather than the invoice, read the best time clock software and best time tracking software shortlists.

A time clock decision often sits next to a scheduling one. Best shift scheduling software covers the rota side separately, and once payroll needs to plug into whichever clock you pick, how much an HRIS costs and best payroll software price that layer. Rippling versus Gusto and BambooHR versus HiBob cover the platforms some of these clocks eventually feed into, ADP pricing breaks down the enterprise end, and HR software for startups is the wider shortlist for a first HR stack. If the next question is what AI changes in this stack, AI for HR and will HR be replaced by AI cover that separately.

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Methodology: how we priced this

We read Jibble's, Homebase's, Connecteam's, Clockify's, TimeCamp's, When I Work's, Deputy's, 7shifts' and ClockShark's pricing pages in September 2026, for a 12-person hourly team at one location that needs GPS or geofencing, a kiosk, overtime rules and a payroll export. Monthly and yearly totals are our multiplication of each vendor's published list price by that headcount, not a quote any vendor issued, and they exclude tax, setup and any add-on not named in the hidden costs column above.

Nobody paid for a place on this page, and Louis Corneloup, founder of Toolradar and Dupple, edited it. Confirm the current rate and any free-tier limit with the vendor before you commit a team to one clock.

FAQ

What is the best free time clock app for a 12-person hourly team in 2026?

On vendor pages checked in September 2026, Jibble is the only tool in this comparison whose free plan covers unlimited users with GPS, geofencing, a kiosk and overtime rules included, so a 12-person team pays nothing. Homebase is the next-best free option below 10 employees, then its paid Essentials tier once a team passes that cap.

Is there a truly free time clock app with GPS and geofencing?

Yes, with limits. Jibble's free plan includes GPS tracking and geofencing for unlimited users. TimeCamp's free plan includes GPS but not geofencing, which is Enterprise-only there. Connecteam's free Small Business plan includes GPS clock-in for up to 10 employees at one location, two short of this scenario's 12-person team. Homebase's free Basic plan does not include GPS-based clock-in at all; that needs the $30/month Essentials plan.

How much does a time clock app cost once a team outgrows its free plan?

For 12 hourly employees at one location, the paid options in this comparison range from $30/month (Homebase Essentials or When I Work's $2.50/user plan) to $156/month (ClockShark Standard, which also carries a 3-year contract). Clockify's real entry point for GPS and kiosk mode is $95.88/month billed annually, since those features sit on its Pro tier rather than Free.

Does the ranking change at a different team size?

Yes. Below 11 employees, Homebase's Basic plan is still free and ties Jibble's. Past 30 employees, Connecteam's flat rate starts adding $0.80 to $1 per additional person, while Homebase and 7shifts hold a flat per-location price until their own headcount ceilings. Deputy and 7shifts, which bill per user with no flat-location option, get relatively more expensive as headcount climbs past 60.

Which time clock apps have no free plan at all?

When I Work, Deputy and ClockShark all skip a free tier and go straight to a paid plan or a 14-day trial. When I Work's single-location plan starts at $2.50/user/mo, Deputy's Lite at $5/user/mo, and ClockShark's Standard at $42/mo plus $9.50 per active user, the most expensive entry point of the three.

Can a free time clock app export straight to payroll?

Jibble's free plan includes payroll export to tools like QuickBooks and Xero at no extra cost. Homebase's free Basic plan can export data too, but running payroll through Homebase itself is a separate paid add-on at $49/mo plus $6 per employee. 7shifts' free Comp plan cannot export payroll because it has no clock-in feature to generate the data from.

What's the catch with ClockShark's pricing?

Beyond being the most expensive option in this table at $156/month for 12 people, ClockShark's Standard and Pro plans both default to a 3-year contract, according to its pricing page.

Cite this: HRpresso, "Best Free Time Clock Apps (2026): Free Plan Limits for Hourly Teams", September 2026.

HRpresso covers the time clock, scheduling and payroll invoices a people team has to price, in one daily brief. Join at hrpresso.com.