Clockify is a freelancers, agencies, and small teams needing affordable time tracking tool with a free plan (Free plan now capped at 5 active users (changed April/May 2026). Reports limited to 31-day range.). Clock Deck takes a different approach: flat-rate pricing with unlimited employees on every plan, starting at $29/mo.
What is Clockify?
Clockify has been one of the most popular free time tracking tools for years. Freelancers, small agencies, and startups flocked to it because the free plan was genuinely unlimited. You could add as many users as you wanted, track time across projects, and run basic reports without paying a cent. It was the default recommendation in every "best free time trackers" roundup.
Then 2026 happened. Clockify capped its free plan at 5 active users, a change that frustrated a huge chunk of its user base. Teams that had been running on the free tier for years suddenly needed to either pay up or find something else. The per-user pricing on paid plans, while not expensive for tiny teams, starts to add up fast once you get past 10-15 people.
That's the context behind the growing number of searches for "Clockify alternative." And Clock Deck keeps appearing in those results, especially for businesses that need employee time tracking with scheduling and GPS rather than project-based time logging for freelancers. The two products serve different primary audiences, but there's significant overlap for teams in the 10-50 employee range.
This comparison digs into how each product is priced, what features you get at each tier, and which tool makes more sense depending on how your business actually operates. We'll be specific about costs, fair about strengths, and clear about who each product is best suited for.
Clockify at a glance
Clockify launched as a simpler, free alternative to tools like Toggl and Harvest. Its pitch was straightforward: unlimited time tracking, unlimited users, no credit card required. That attracted freelancers, small agencies, design studios, and software teams who needed a lightweight way to log hours against projects without the overhead of enterprise tools.
The product has matured considerably since its early days. Today, Clockify offers invoicing, expense tracking, scheduling, time-off management, and even GPS tracking across its paid tiers. It integrates with dozens of project management tools through its browser extension and native connectors. The interface is clean and functional, though it can feel cluttered once you have a larger team with many active projects.
Clockify's core identity is still rooted in project-based time tracking. The workflow assumes you're logging time against tasks, tagging entries with projects and clients, and then generating reports or invoices from that data. This works beautifully for agencies and consultancies. But for businesses that need a simple time clock, employee scheduling, and payroll-ready timesheets, Clockify's project-centric model can feel like a mismatch. You end up configuring features you don't need while missing features you do. That disconnect is what pushes many employee-focused businesses toward tools like Clock Deck that were designed for that specific workflow from the start.
Pricing: Clockify vs. Clock Deck
Clockify's pricing model is pure per-user, per-month. There's no base fee. You pay a flat rate per person on your account, and the rate depends on which tier you choose. Annual billing gets you a discount over monthly billing. Let's walk through the real numbers.
The free plan used to be the main attraction. It offered unlimited users with unlimited time tracking. As of early 2026, it's capped at 5 active users. You also lose access to CSV and Excel exports (PDF only), billable rates, kiosk mode, and integrations. For a freelancer working solo or with a couple of collaborators, it's still usable. For a business with employees? It's a non-starter.
The Basic plan runs $3.99/user/mo on annual billing. For 15 employees, that's $59.85/mo. For 25, it's $99.75/mo. This tier gives you bulk editing, time auditing, project templates, and required fields. It's fine for tracking time, but you don't get GPS, scheduling, or approvals.
The Standard plan at $5.49/user/mo adds invoicing, timesheet approvals, time-off tracking, and integrations with QuickBooks and Xero. For 15 employees, that's $82.35/mo. For 25, it's $137.25/mo. This is usually the minimum tier businesses need for anything resembling payroll preparation.
The Pro plan at $7.99/user/mo is where you get GPS tracking, expense management, labor cost analysis, scheduling, and forecasting. For 15 employees, that's $119.85/mo. For 25, it's $199.75/mo. And the Enterprise plan at $11.99/user/mo adds SSO, audit logs, and custom subdomains. For 25 employees, that's $299.75/mo.
Now here's where the comparison with Clock Deck gets interesting. Clock Deck's Basic plan at $29/mo includes unlimited employees, clock in/out, break tracking, scheduling, job locations, CSV export, and offline mode. The Pro plan at $59/mo adds GPS, photo verification, and immutable audit logs. The Enterprise plan at $129/mo adds geofencing, departments, manager role permissions, and QuickBooks integration. At 8 employees, the two products cost roughly the same on the Basic tier. At 15 employees, Clock Deck is half the price of Clockify Basic and a third the price of Clockify Pro. At 25 employees, the gap is even wider. The crossover point is simple: if you have more than about 7-8 employees, Clock Deck's flat rate starts saving you money, and the savings compound with every hire.
Clockify Free has no time tracking limits but lacks GPS, scheduling, and audit logs.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Clock Deck | Clockify |
|---|---|---|
| Unlimited employees | ||
| Flat-rate pricing | ||
| Employee scheduling | Pro plan | |
| Clock in/out | ||
| Break tracking | ||
| GPS tracking | Pro plan | Pro plan |
| Photo verification | Pro plan | |
| Immutable audit logs | Pro plan | Enterprise plan |
| QuickBooks integration | Enterprise plan | Standard plan |
| CSV export | Paid plans | |
| Offline mode | ||
| Mobile app | ||
| Job location tracking | Pro plan | |
| Payroll-ready timesheets | Standard plan | |
| Departments | Enterprise plan | |
| Manager roles & permissions | Enterprise plan | Enterprise plan |
| Geofencing | Enterprise plan | |
| Time-off tracking | Standard plan | |
| Kiosk mode | Standard plan | |
| Invoicing | Standard plan | |
| Expense tracking | Pro plan | |
| Project time tracking | ||
| Billable rates | Paid plans |
Where Clockify shines
Clockify is excellent for project-based time tracking. If your business is an agency, consultancy, or design studio where people log hours against specific clients and projects, Clockify's workflow is built exactly for that. The ability to tag time entries with projects, tasks, and billable rates, and then roll those into invoices, is a well-polished workflow. Clock Deck doesn't do project-level billing, so this is a genuine area where Clockify is the better tool.
The browser extension is another strong point. It lets users start timers directly inside tools like Asana, Trello, Jira, Notion, and GitHub without switching apps. For knowledge workers and dev teams, this integration layer reduces friction significantly. If your team lives in project management software and needs to track time against individual tickets or tasks, Clockify plugs in smoothly.
For very small teams of 5-7 people, Clockify's per-user pricing on the Basic or Standard plan can also be genuinely affordable. A 5-person team on Basic pays $19.95/mo, which is less than Clock Deck's $29/mo Basic. If you're confident your team will stay small and you need project tracking more than employee scheduling, the economics favor Clockify at that scale.
Clockify excels at letting users log time against specific projects, tasks, and clients. For agencies and consultancies that bill by the hour, this granularity is genuinely useful and well-implemented.
Starting on the Standard plan, Clockify can generate invoices from tracked time and send them to clients. If you're a freelancer or small agency, having invoicing inside your time tracker saves you a separate tool.
Clockify connects to a wide range of project management and productivity tools, including Asana, Trello, Jira, and others. The browser extension lets users track time directly inside web apps they already use.
For very small teams of 5-10 people, Clockify's per-user pricing on the Basic plan ($3.99/user) can undercut Clock Deck's $29/mo. At that scale, the per-user model works in Clockify's favor.
Where Clock Deck wins
The cost advantage is Clock Deck's clearest win and it gets more pronounced as teams grow. At 15 employees, Clock Deck's Pro plan ($59/mo) costs half of what Clockify's Pro plan does ($119.85/mo), and Clock Deck includes photo verification that Clockify doesn't offer at any price. At 25 employees, you're saving $140/mo. Over a year, that's $1,680 back in your pocket, enough to cover other business tools or just improve your margins.
Photo verification is a feature gap that matters most for businesses managing field workers, hourly staff, or crews at remote sites. When an employee clocks in on Clock Deck Pro, a photo is captured and linked to the time entry. Clockify relies entirely on manual time entries or the timer button, which means there's no visual confirmation that the person who logged the time is the person who showed up. For cleaning companies, contractors, and property management firms, this is often the deciding factor.
Clock Deck's Enterprise plan adds features that Clockify doesn't have at any tier. Geofencing lets you set a radius around each job site and verify that employees are actually there when they clock in. Departments give you the ability to organize your workforce into logical groups and filter timesheets accordingly. And granular manager role permissions mean you can control exactly what your supervisors have access to without giving them the keys to the whole system. Clockify has basic user roles on its Enterprise plan, but nothing close to the department and geofencing functionality that Clock Deck provides.
Clock Deck's offline mode addresses a pain point that Clockify users know well. Clockify's mobile app has documented sync issues, especially in low-connectivity environments. If an employee starts a timer and loses signal, there's a real risk of lost or duplicated entries. Clock Deck stores all punch data locally on the device and syncs it once connectivity returns. The difference sounds minor until you're managing a team that works in basements, rural areas, or buildings with thick walls and no WiFi.
Then there's the free plan question. Clockify's biggest selling point for years was "free and unlimited," and that's gone now. Teams that built their workflow around free Clockify are now staring at per-user invoices and feeling burned. Clock Deck never offered a free plan with unlimited users, but it also never pulled the rug out from under anyone. The pricing has been transparent and predictable from the start. For businesses that value stability and want to know exactly what their software will cost in six months, that consistency matters.
Clockify charges per user per month. At 15 employees on the Pro plan, you're paying $119.85/mo. At 25, it's $199.75/mo. Clock Deck's Pro plan is $59/mo regardless of team size. The bigger your team, the more you save.
Clock Deck's Pro plan captures a photo every time an employee clocks in. Clockify has no photo verification feature on any plan. For businesses managing remote or field workers, this is a meaningful accountability tool.
Clock Deck stores punches locally when there's no network connection and syncs automatically when service returns. Clockify requires connectivity and is known for sync issues on mobile. On a job site with no signal, Clock Deck keeps working.
Clockify gutted its free plan in 2026, capping it at 5 users after years of advertising unlimited free usage. Clock Deck's pricing is straightforward from day one, no surprise downgrades.
Clockify was designed as a general time tracker for freelancers and agencies. Clock Deck is built specifically for businesses that need to track employee attendance, breaks, and job locations. The tools, the interface, and the workflow all reflect that focus.
The verdict
Choose Clockify if you're a freelancer, agency, or consulting firm that needs to track time against projects and clients, generate invoices from that time data, and integrate with project management tools like Jira or Asana. That's what Clockify was built for, and it does that workflow well. If your team is under 8 people and per-user pricing works in your favor, the math can make sense too.
Choose Clock Deck if you're an employer managing hourly workers, field crews, or distributed teams and you need a straightforward time clock with scheduling, GPS, and real accountability features. If your team is over 8 people, Clock Deck's flat rate is cheaper than Clockify's per-user pricing at every comparable tier. You get photo verification that Clockify doesn't offer, offline mode that actually works, and a pricing model that doesn't punish you for growing.
Start a 14-day free trial of Clock Deck with your full team. No per-user fees during the trial or after. If you're coming from Clockify's recently-capped free plan, you might find that paying a fair flat rate for a product built for your actual use case beats paying per head for features designed for a different kind of work.