Best PTO Tracking Software in 2026

Most HR teams overpay for vacation tracking because they buy a whole people system to hold a running balance. At 25 employees, a leave module that already accrues stays a two-digit monthly bill, which fits when you need days remaining and an approver. An HR suite that includes time off costs several times more.

Toolradar data: Toolradar tracks 33 HRIS tools as of October 17, 2026, and BambooHR is listed as an alternative to 46 other tools on that HRIS ranking. Leave products sit beside that set, so a PTO search returns both a calendar and a full employee file. The file costs more when the only need was the balance.

This page prices the paid plan that keeps a running balance and an accrual rule for one US company of 25 employees. Free caps are a different question, covered in the free PTO tracking guide. Prices below were read on each vendor's pricing page on October 17, 2026.

PTO tracking software keeps a leave balance for each person, applies the accrual rule, sends the request to an approver, and shows who is out. A shared calendar without a balance is only a schedule, so it cannot say whether Friday is still owed.

The split that changes the bill is where the balance lives. Calamari and Vacation Tracker sell leave as the product, which keeps an HR suite off the invoice. Gusto sells that balance inside payroll, so skip it if pay runs somewhere else. BambooHR, Factorial, and Rippling sell it inside the employee record, which means you are buying the file. Buddy Punch sells it inside a time clock, so only hours worked can earn the next hour of PTO.

Hourly clock-in, kiosks, and GPS are covered in the time tracking guide. Use this page when the argument is about days remaining, carry-over, and who approved the Friday off.

A balance that runs one day high approves a trip that payroll later has to reverse, which costs the employee a day and payroll a correction. A balance that drops unused time at year end deletes days people already earned. Switching after that means rebuilding policies, history, and approval chains, which takes longer than the first setup.

The second-year invoice follows the seat rule, not the feature grid. At 25 people, BambooHR still uses a flat monthly rate, and one more hire moves Core onto a per-employee rate. Gusto's per-person line grows with every active employee, and a contractor is billed only in months you pay them, so seasonal help stays off the quiet months. Calamari counts admins as paid seats, so a manager outside that headcount adds a seat the model missed.

If the employee file is still an open choice, read the HR software guide and the small-business HRIS guide before you lock leave into a suite. If pay is the open choice, start with the payroll guide and treat PTO as a line on that bill.

Methodology: we read each vendor's public pricing page on October 17, 2026 and priced one US company of 25 employees. The rank is the cheapest plan that includes an accrual rule and approvals, with quote-only suites last. Annual prices are used when the features match the monthly plan. Vacation Tracker's annual rates are tiered, so its row uses the monthly card. Gusto's scenario assumes 25 employees and no contractors, and Buddy Punch's assumes 25 paid users plus free administrators. Calamari's scenario counts all 25 as active users, which is why one headcount produces three different seat bills.

At 25 people, Calamari Time Off on yearly billing matches Vacation Tracker's Core minimum. Month-to-month Time Off is $62.50, the premium if you might leave before the year is up. Complete, the Vacation Tracker plan that actually accrues, lands on its monthly minimum because 25 times $4 equals that floor, so there is no volume break here. Buddy Punch annual Starter is $143.75 a month, Gusto Simple is $199 a month, and Gusto Plus is $380 a month, while BambooHR Core stays on its flat rate. Those are payroll and HR-file bills, not a leave-only price. Toolradar data: across 107 time tracking tools, the median cheapest paid plan is $6.50 a month, from the 42 that publish a price, as of October 17, 2026. A 25-person leave bill is a headcount sum, not that median.

Sources, read on October 17, 2026: Calamari pricing, Vacation Tracker pricing, Buddy Punch pricing, Buddy Punch accrual setup, Gusto pricing, Gusto time off policies, BambooHR pricing, BambooHR time off, Factorial pricing, Rippling pricing, and Rippling HRIS. Category figures are from Toolradar's HRIS ranking and time tracking ranking. See the Gusto review, the BambooHR review, and the Rippling review before you sign a suite.