Best Hubstaff Alternatives for Small Businesses

You added a few employees, the Hubstaff bill jumped, and suddenly you're paying for screenshot monitoring and keystroke tracking—features that your team hates and that you never asked for. If that's what brought you here, you're in the right place.

Hubstaff works well for remote knowledge workers and freelancers who need to log billable hours and prove they were working. But small businesses with hourly, shift-based employees often find themselves paying for a tool built for a different kind of team entirely—one where per-user pricing gets expensive fast and monitoring features do more harm than good.

This guide covers six Hubstaff alternatives, split by the type of team they're actually built for, so you can find the right fit without wasting time on free trials that don't match how your business works.

Top picks at a glance:

• Buddy Punch: Best for hourly and shift-based teams that need GPS enforcement, flexible clock-in options, and payroll integrations.
• QuickBooks Time: Best if your business already runs on QuickBooks; hours sync directly to payroll without re-entry.
• Toggl Track: Best for remote project teams that want clean, privacy-first time tracking with no surveillance features.

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Why we built this guide

We're Homebase. We make scheduling, time tracking, payroll, and HR tools for small businesses with hourly teams. We have a stake in this topic, so we want to be upfront: Homebase isn't in the ranked list below, and every tool there was evaluated on its own merits. 

We never accept payment or backlinks for a product mention. Our own product appears separately at the end of this page, clearly labeled.

How we chose these Hubstaff alternatives

We evaluated each tool based on the features small business owners actually use: 

• Time tracking accuracy
• GPS and geofencing
• Shift scheduling
• Software integration
• Pricing transparency
• Ease of setup for a team that doesn't have an IT department

We also reviewed current pricing pages and cross-referenced verified user reviews on G2 and Capterra.

The two types of time tracking tools (and which one you need)

Most "Hubstaff alternatives" lists mix two completely different tool categories together. Picking the wrong one is the most common mistake and the most expensive, because it means switching again in six months.

Shift-based time clocks are built to track when hourly employees arrive and leave. GPS and geofencing, break compliance, overtime alerts, attendance records, and payroll-ready timesheets are all designed around one job: making sure the right person showed up at the right place and left at the right time. If you run a restaurant, retail shop, cleaning company, or any business with scheduled hourly workers, this is the category you need.

Project and task trackers are built to log how long work takes against clients or deliverables. Timers, project tagging, utilization reporting, and invoicing are all designed around billing and productivity. If you run an agency, consulting practice, or a fully remote team where everyone bills by the hour, this is your category.

Hubstaff tries to cover both, but it optimizes for neither, and it charges for monitoring features that shift-based teams don't need.

Best Hubstaff alternatives for hourly and shift-based teams

If you manage hourly workers who clock in and out of scheduled shifts, these three tools are built for exactly that: attendance enforcement, overtime tracking, and timesheets that go straight to payroll.

1. Buddy Punch: best for GPS and flexible clock-in options

Buddy Punch is a time tracking and scheduling tool built for businesses that need real location accountability. GPS captures employee location on every punch from the Starter plan, while geofencing, QR code scanning, PIN kiosk clock-in, and facial recognition are available on the Pro plan and above, giving growing teams a clear upgrade path as their accountability needs increase.

Best for: Field service businesses, construction, multi-site retail, and any team where location-verified clock-in matters more than productivity monitoring.

Key features:

• GPS location capture on every punch; geofencing to restrict clock-ins to approved job sites
• QR code scanning, PIN/kiosk clock-in, and facial recognition to prevent buddy punching 
• Overtime alerts and automatic overtime calculations
• Native payroll integrations with QuickBooks, ADP, Gusto, Paychex, Paylocity, and Rippling

Rating: 4.8/5 on Capterra (1,100+ reviews); 4.8/5 on G2 (300+ reviews)

Pricing: Starts at $4.49/user/month (annual), plus a $19/month base fee. No free plan. Free trial available.

What users say:

• Positive: “Buddy Punch is very easy to use and employee friendly for punching in and out. The seamless integration with Quickbooks Desktop Enterprise Edition is best part of all.” — Janice I. (Capterra)
• Negative: “Not able to pull previous check stubs. It is not app friendly for I-phones or androids. Always have to refresh.” — Nichelle C. (Capterra)

2. QuickBooks Time: best if you already use QuickBooks

If your business already runs on QuickBooks, this is the most convenient way to connect time tracking to payroll. Hours sync directly, no re-entry required. The value proposition weakens considerably if you're not already embedded in the QuickBooks ecosystem, as the combined cost of a QuickBooks Online subscription plus QuickBooks Time makes it one of the more expensive options on this list for teams starting fresh.

Best for: Businesses already using QuickBooks for payroll or accounting.

Key features:

• Native two-way sync to QuickBooks payroll and accounting
• Shift scheduling, time off management, overtime alerts, and timesheet approvals 
• GPS tracking, geofencing, and mileage tracking
• Requires an active QuickBooks Online subscription

Rating: 4.7/5 on Capterra (7,000+ reviews); 4.5/5 on G2 (1,400+ reviews)

Pricing: Starts from $8/user/month + $20/month base fee (requiring QuickBooks Online).

What users say:

• Positive: “The interface is user-friendly, and features like GPS tracking and timesheet approvals help improve accuracy and accountability.” — Navpreet K. (Capterra)
• Negative: “I dislike that, when I’m building the schedule, I have to select each employee individually instead of being able to add a group. I also dislike that contractors now automatically sync as users to Time when you track 1099 payments in QuickBooks.” — Emma B. (G2)

3. Clockify: best free option for hourly teams on a tight budget

Clockify is the right pick for hourly teams that can't yet justify a paid time tracking tool. The free plan includes a PIN-based kiosk and basic time logging. Attendance and overtime tracking, invoicing, and QuickBooks integration require the Standard plan. But as a zero-cost starting point before upgrading to a more complete platform, nothing in the category comes close.

Best for: Budget-conscious small businesses with hourly workers who need basic clock-in/out before committing to a paid platform.

Key features:

• PIN-based kiosk for on-site clock-in on any shared device 
• Attendance and overtime tracking
• Invoicing and QuickBooks integration
• GPS tracking

Rating: 4.8/5 on Capterra (9,200 reviews); 4.5/5 on G2 (200+ reviews)

Pricing: Free plan available for up to 5 users. Paid plans start from $3.99/user/month.

What users say:

• Positive: “The simple design of the interface lets you follow output trends, group work, and log hours easily.” — Lisa P. (Capterra)
• Negative: “Backdating entries can sometimes be a bit fiddly - searching for the correct project and code, and sometimes it doesn't enter the time correctly on the mobile app.” — Tom H. (Capterra)

Best Hubstaff alternatives for remote and project-based teams

If your team logs hours against clients or deliverables rather than clocking in and out of scheduled shifts, these three tools are built for that workflow: clean time tracking, billing, and productivity visibility without the surveillance features Hubstaff is known for.

4. Toggl Track: best for remote teams that want privacy-first tracking

Toggl Track is a time tracking tool built around trust. No screenshots, no GPS tracking, no keystroke monitoring by design, at any price tier. It's the right choice for agencies, design studios, or distributed teams where invasive monitoring would create more problems than it solves, and where clean reporting on billable hours is the actual job. The interface is polished and fast, and the reporting depth at the Premium tier is strong enough for most agency or consulting workflows.

Best for: Agencies, design firms, marketing teams, consultants, and remote teams where surveillance features would damage culture.

Key features:

• One-click timers, calendar view, Google and Outlook Calendar integrations, and 100+ tool integrations
• Billable rates, project time estimates and alerts, and revenue analysis
• Profitability analysis, timesheet approvals, and Jira and Salesforce integrations
• No employee monitoring features at any tier

Rating: 4.7/5 on Capterra (2,500+ reviews); 4.6/5 on G2 (1,500+ reviews)

Pricing: Free plan for small teams. Paid plans start from $9/user/month; 30-day trial available.

What users say:

• Positive: “It makes time tracking simple and easy without feeling intrusive. It’s quick to use and very straightforward. The interface is the part I like most compared to other tools: it’s clean, and you can start tracking in seconds.” — Mariana V. (G2)
• Negative: “While the time tracking itself works well, it feels somewhat limited beyond that core function. There isn’t a strong way to add detailed context to each entry, so it mainly captures how long was spent rather than what was actually done.” — Chris U J. (Capterra)

5. Harvest: best for client billing and invoicing

Harvest connects time tracking directly to client invoicing, making it the right tool for anyone who charges by the hour. Tracked hours generate itemized invoices broken down by task, person, or project, and clients can pay directly via Stripe or PayPal. The interface is minimal, which suits freelancers and small agencies who want to get in, log their time, and get out.

Best for: Freelancers, small agencies, and consultants who bill clients by the hour and want the billing workflow in one place.

Key features:

• Timer and manual entry across web, desktop, and mobile apps; calendar integration to speed up time entry
• Invoicing directly from tracked hours with client payment via Stripe and PayPal 
• Team capacity reporting and accounting integrations including Stripe, QuickBooks Online, Xero, and Deel
• Profitability reporting, timesheet approvals, activity log, and custom reports

Rating: 4.6/5 on Capterra (600+ reviews); 4.3/5 on G2 (800+ reviews)

Pricing: Free plan available (1 user, 2 projects). Paid plans start from $9/user/month; 30-day free trial available.

What users say:

• Positive: “It's intuitive and easy to get started using the platform. Keeping track of time is pretty straightforward and there's a decent amount of features.” — Sarah C. (Capterra)
• Negative: “I manage payments via Xero and these do not flow through to Harvest. I find the reporting is limited as I would like to see the discounts I provide clients and do a little more reporting on clients billings.” — Debbie M. (Capterra)

6. TimeCamp: best for automatic tracking across client projects

TimeCamp tracks time automatically in the background using keyword detection: it recognizes which client or project you're working on based on document titles, app names, and browser tabs, and logs hours without you touching a timer. It's a practical fit for freelancers and consultants who switch between client projects all day and want accurate timesheets without the discipline of remembering to start and stop a clock.

Best for: Freelancers, consultants, and small teams who bill by the hour and want automatic time logging across multiple client projects without manual timers.

Key features:

• Keyword-based automatic tracking: recognizes what you're working on from app and document names
• Unlimited users and unlimited projects on the free plan; billable time tracking and project budgets from the Premium plan
• Invoicing and timesheet approvals
• Integrations with Trello, Asana, Jira, Slack, QuickBooks, Xero, Google Calendar, and 40+ others

Rating: 4.7/5 on Capterra (500+ reviews); 4.7/5 on G2 (300+ reviews)

Pricing: Free plan (unlimited users, unlimited projects). Paid plans start from $3.99/user/month; free trial available.

What users say:

• Positive: “I tend to bounce between tasks and forget that I need to track my time for each client individually. TimeCamp allows me to work the way I naturally work without stressing about losing track of time. I don't have to worry about "starting the clock," which I'll forget 90% of the time.” — Shannon P. (G2)
• Negative: “The mobile experience and some of the “on-the-go” features didn’t feel as polished — I had bumps like timers hanging, geofencing or offline entries being a bit unpredictable, which is a drag when team members aren’t always desk-bound.” — Dominic Y. (Capterra)

How Homebase compares

The tools in this list all solve specific problems well. What Homebase is designed for is different from most of them, as we group multiple features—managing hourly shift workers across scheduling, time tracking, and payroll—in one platform, priced per location rather than per employee.

Where Hubstaff's per-user pricing compounds as you add staff, Homebase's per-location pricing means your cost stays the same as your headcount grows. A 10-person team and a 25-person team at the same location pay the same monthly rate.

The time tracking model is also different. Rather than monitoring productivity through screenshots or app tracking, Homebase verifies attendance through GPS clock-in, photo capture at clock-in, and geofencing. You know who showed up and when, without surveillance.

The piece owners cite most often is the connection between time tracking and payroll. 

Before switching to Homebase, manually tallying hours and cross-checking them against payroll was a weekly source of errors and anxiety—something Kathleen Smith, founder of Smiling Tree Toys, knew well. “Now our entire team logs in and out quickly and easily with the Homebase app,” she says. "And all I have to do is send their hours to my payroll program with the click of a button.”

Homebase’s key features:

• GPS-enabled clock-in and photo capture at clock-in on all paid plans; kiosk mode available on any device
• Automatic overtime tracking, break management, and late/missed punch alerts across all plans
• Timesheets sync directly to payroll — hours flow without re-entry or manual export
• Shift scheduling, team communication, and time tracking all included in one platform

Pricing: Free plan available (1 location, up to 10 employees). Paid plans start from $20/user/location (unlimited employees). Payroll available as an add-on on any plan.

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Frequently asked questions about Hubstaff alternatives

What is the best free alternative to Hubstaff?

Clockify has one of the most generous free tiers in the category: basic time logging, kiosk clock-in, and attendance tracking at no cost with no expiration. For hourly shift teams, Homebase also has a free plan covering one location with up to 20 employees including scheduling and time tracking, which is a better fit if payroll-ready timesheets are the goal.

Is Clockify better than Hubstaff?

For teams that need time logging without monitoring, Clockify is a better fit, especially at the free tier. Hubstaff has stronger GPS and monitoring features for distributed teams that need proof-of-work visibility. The better choice comes down to whether your priority is simplicity and cost, or accountability and oversight.

What is the best Hubstaff alternative for hourly teams?

For small businesses with hourly employees, Homebase and Buddy Punch are the strongest fits. Both are built for shift-based work with GPS clock-in, overtime tracking, and payroll integration. Homebase's per-location pricing is more cost-effective for single-location businesses that are adding headcount over time.

Can I switch from Hubstaff without losing my data?

Yes, but export your time data from Hubstaff before canceling. Some users have reported difficulty accessing historical records after their subscription ends. Most alternatives support CSV import, and running both tools in parallel for two weeks before cutting over significantly reduces the risk of gaps.

What time tracking app is best for small businesses?

It depends on your team type. For hourly workers clocking in and out of scheduled shifts, a shift-based time clock—Homebase, Buddy Punch, or QuickBooks Time—is the right fit. For remote teams logging billable project hours, a project tracker like Toggl Track, Harvest, or TimeCamp works better; TimeCamp in particular if you want automatic tracking without manually starting timers.

The bottom line on Hubstaff alternatives

Hubstaff isn't a bad tool. It just isn't built for every kind of business. The right alternative depends on one thing: what your team is actually doing. Hourly workers clocking in and out of shifts need a time clock with GPS verification, break tracking, overtime alerts, and a clean path to payroll. Remote teams logging billable hours need a project tracker with strong reporting and no surveillance overhead.

Pick the right category first, then pick the best tool within it. That's the decision that won't need to be remade in six months.

If you manage hourly workers and want to see what a time clock built specifically for small businesses looks like, Homebase's free plan covers one location and up to 10 employees—scheduling and time tracking included, no card required. Get started for free.

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