If you have employees working in the field, it’s important to know where they are while they’re on the clock. For this article, I’ve done extensive research on employee tracking apps so you can find the best option for your business.

Keeping track of your in the field employees is critical for safety, helps you bill clients for time spent on their projects, and makes it easier to redeploy employees to where they’re needed most.

The best way to manage employees in the field is with employee tracking apps that offer GPS capabilities, communication tools, and time tracking features. In this article, I’m going over the 9 best apps to track employees’ location and explain how to choose the right tracking app for your business.

Here’s a quick overview of my top picks:

  1. Connecteam
  2. Buddy Punch
  3. Clockify
  4. Quickbooks
  5. Hubstaff
  6. Homebase
  7. OnTheClock
  8. Timeero
  9. Time Tracker by eBility

If you don’t have the time to read through our research, jump down to our quick comparison table.

Our Top Picks

  1. Best all-in-one employee tracking app

Why trust us?

Our team of unbiased software reviewers follows strict editorial guidelines, and our methodology is clear and open to everyone.
See our complete methodology

33

Tools considered

22

Tools reviewed

9

Best tools
chosen

How I Chose the Best Employee GPS Tracking Apps

There are many employee tracking apps on the market, so this is what I looked for while doing my research:

Important core features

  • Real-time location tracking: The app should have GPS capabilities to track employee location while on the job. 
  • Time tracking: Time tracking features allow you to track how long employees spend on specific tasks and accurately bill clients for time spent on their projects. 
  • Attendance tracking: I checked if the app can record employee attendance and handle time-off requests.

I looked for usability features, like:

  • Easy to use: It should have a user-friendly interface and not require much training for employees and staff to use.
  • Cost-effective: The app should be reasonably priced and affordable for most small businesses.
  • Offers a trial period or demo: This allows businesses to test out software to make sure it’s a good fit before committing to purchase.
  • Customizable: The ability to tailor the app to fit the specific needs of your business, such as custom work hours, roles, or permissions.

I also checked for other key product features, including:

  • Employee scheduling: You should ideally be able to create weekly and monthly schedules in the app and assign employees accordingly.
  • Employee time clock: Employees should be able to clock in and out from their phones, activating the GPS location tracking feature. 
  • Team communication: You should be able to maintain communication with your staff no matter where they’re located with in-app chat and updates. 
  • Alerts and notifications: Alerts letting employees and managers know they missed clocking in and out on time as well as alerts for upcoming deadlines, or other relevant events can be very useful.

The 10 Best Apps to Track Employee Location of 2024

  1. Connecteam — Best all-in-one employee tracking app

    Graphic showing employees’ locations on a map and conversation between an employee and supervisor.

    When it comes to tracking employees in the field, Connecteam is the best all-in-one option for businesses. 

    Why I chose Connecteam: The mobile app provides GPS-based location tracking, time tracking, internal communication tools, and so much more.

    Let’s take a look at the specific features:

    Real-time GPS tracking while employees are on the clock

    With Connecteam’s real time GPS tracker, you can see the location of all employees at the same time while they are clocked in. It also tracks location if employees move from job site to job site, so you can make sure they are where they’re supposed to be.

    If an employee is suddenly unavailable for a shift or job, you can view what other team members are closest and send one of them to the site instead. You can even rotate employees between sites to ensure that all work is covered.

    If you want to know where a team member has been throughout the day, you can enable breadcrumbs to display an employee’s full location history. This is a great tool if you want to know whether employees are taking roundabout routes that hinder productivity or whether they stopped by a particular job site before the end of the day.

    You might also want to read our in-depth review of top employee time tracking apps we done this year

    Automatic scheduling alerts reduce confusion

    I like that Connecteam sends automatic alerts and notifications if there are changes in schedules. So, if someone does call out last minute, you can make the adjustments on the employee scheduler right from the app and all affected employees will receive alerts so they know where to go once their shift starts. 

    You might be interested in our in-depth review of the best employee scheduling app.

    Streamlined communication so all employees stay connected

    Connecteam has online team chat so you can message employees directly or create group chats with the app’s Smart Groups feature. 

    You can ask employees for updates on jobs, shifts, and tasks or how long it will take them to wrap up what they’re doing. If you have multiple employees near a job site, managers can start a group chat to see who will be available first.

    The app’s company updates feature is also incredibly useful, with a social media-style newsfeed for shared updates and announcements. Employees can also respond with comments, likes, and emojis. 

    You might be interested in our in-depth review of the best work communications apps.

    Geofencing and GPS enhance the app’s time management capabilities 

    Another great feature of Connecteam is that it’s both a GPS tracking app as well as a geofence time clock in one. That way, your business has better time management. 

    You can set up geofences around project sites, limiting employees to clock in only when they arrive at a job and clock them out when they leave. Geofences are extremely customizable—you can choose how far they extend around a job site and even what hours the geofence should apply.

    And so much more…

    Connecteam does all of this and more! Task and project management features, HR capabilities, document storage, and online training are just a few other features of this app.

    It’s completely free for small businesses with up to 10 employees. Plans for larger businesses start at just $29 per month for up to 30 users, plus $0.50 per month for each additional user.

    Employees spend less time wondering what they should do and where, and more time actually just doing it.

    Rick Peterson
    Director

     

    Pricing

    Free-for-life plan availablePremium plans start at $29/month for 30 users

    14-day free trial, no credit card required

    Start your free trial
  2. Buddy Punch — Good for time off management

    Screenshot of the buddypunch webpage

    Buddy Punch is a great time-tracking option that’s user-friendly and has lots of useful features to track employee work hours.

    Why I chose Buddy Punch: Buddy Punch makes it easy for employees to clock in and out of work right from their phones and allows you monitor your team from anywhere.

    Easy-to-use time clock 

    Buddy Punch’s time tracking feature captures the exact time employees start and finish work. Employees can log in with a 4-digit pin, QR Codes, facial recognition, or a username and password. They simply press the ‘clock in’ button and the app automatically records their hours time onto timesheets. You can also edit timesheets, too, if needed.

    The GPS tracking feature allows you to see where employees are while working, and you have the choice to make this feature optional or required. If you set it to required, your employees cannot punch in unless they share their GPS location.

    Simplified time off management 

    I really like Buddy Punch’s time off management feature because it’s easy to use and customizable. Employees can submit PTO and time off requests right in the app and can mark which type of leave they’re taking: PTO, sick leave, vacation, and any other types you want to include.

    Employees can also write you a note for context. Then, you’ll be notified as soon as they submit the request and can approve or deny it through the app, which automatically adjusts the employee’s leave balance.

    You can also set accrual rates and carry-over rules to fit business needs. 

    Punch rounding for easier payroll 

    The Punch Rounding feature offers a solution for standardizing clock-in and clock-out times. This allows you to set specific rounding rules, such as rounding to the nearest 5, 10, or 15 minutes. 

    For instance, if an employee clocks in at 8:07 AM and the rounding rule is set to the nearest 10 minutes, the system will automatically adjust the time to 8:10 AM. Similarly, a clock-out time can be rounded accordingly, ensuring that the recorded times align with the set intervals. 

    Integrations

    • ADP
    • Quickbooks
    • Paychex
    • Zapier
    • Gusto
    • Paylocity
    • SurePayroll

    The system is user friendly and all my staff say its so easy to use. They love it! Which is a huge improvement from our last solution. I like that time off requests can also be handled within the same system.

    👍 Amanda
    Director of Finance and HR

    Wish the time wasn’t in decimal form so that it’s easier to tell how much time you should work without going into overtime.

    👎 Kelsie
    Content Manager

    Learn more about Buddy Punch

    Pricing

    Starts at $2.99/user/month + $19 base fee/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: No

  3. Clockify — Good for time and location reporting tools

    Screenshot of the Clockify webpage

    Clockify offers simple but effective tools for tracking the location of employees in the field. It works well for a variety of industries including construction and delivery.

    Why I chose Clockify: Clockify comes with tons of useful features to track employee hours and manage your mobile teams.

    Time tracking and timesheets

    The time tracking and timesheet features are designed to accurately capture employee working hours. Users can start and stop the timer as they begin and end work, or manually enter their work hours into the digital timesheets. 

    This makes it simple to precisely track how long employees work on various tasks and projects. Timesheets can be customized and categorized by project, client, or task so you have a detailed breakdown of how work time is allocated. 

    You also have access to timesheets for approval processes, making sure that that recorded time is accurate and reflects actual work done. I also really like that the platform can generate reports based on these timesheets so you can monitor team productivity and workload distribution.

    Location tracking

    Clockify comes with a GPS location tracking feature so you can monitor where employees are working from when they clock in and out. The app logs this information so you can review it later, which is particularly beneficial for teams that are mobile or work in various locations. 

    Auto tracker

    The auto tracker offers a hands-free approach to time tracking, ideal for individuals who prefer not to manually start and stop timers. The auto tracker runs in the background, automatically recording how long employees spend on different apps and websites. 

    This makes it easy to capture detailed time logs of work activities without interruption. At the end of the day or a specific time period, users can review the auto-tracked time and categorize it according to projects or tasks. 

    Integrations

    • Basecamp
    • ClickUp
    • Wrike
    • Monday.com
    • Trello
    • Jira
    • Asana
    • YouTrack

    I enjoy being able to easily switch between clients or projects just by clicking into my chrome extension.

    👍 Kristina

    I want see time report of different workspaces, in one calendar view and graphics in dashboard, but Clockify does not have this feature. There could be a multiple workspace monitoring option in dashboard and calendar section.

    👎 Zeynel
    Engineer

    Learn more about Clockify

    Pricing

    Starts at $3.99/user/month Trial: Yes — For PRO features Free Plan: Yes

  4. QuickBooks Time — Good for payroll and accounting integrations

    Available on

    Screenshot of the QuickBooks Time webpage

    QuickBooks Time is a great solution for companies that already rely on QuickBooks for accounting and payroll. With this employee tracking app, companies can locate their field service employees in real-time. QuickBooks Time enables geofencing around project sites, making it easy to keep track of how much time each employee spends on specific projects.

    Another benefit to QuickBooks Time is that it keeps track of how much employees drive. Mileage data can easily be imported into QuickBooks so that you can account for gas and other vehicle expenditures for your business.

    One drawback to this app is that it only tracks employees’ locations when they’re clocked in. If your employees forget to clock in on their way to a job or if they clock out between jobs, you can’t see where they are. You could also end up missing important mileage data.

    Learn more about QuickBooks Time

    Pricing

    Starts at $20/month + $10/user/month Trial: Yes — 30-day Free Plan: No

  5. Hubstaff — Good for no-show and late employee alerts

    Screenshot of the Hubstaff webpage

    Hubstaff is another handy time tracking app with GPS functionality. With Hubstaff, you can set up geofences to automatically clock employees in and out of jobs. If an employee is late or doesn’t show up, their supervisor will receive an alert notifying them of the problem. That’s a big plus for ensuring every job is covered.

    This GPS time clock uses the time data it collects based on employees’ locations to build timecards automatically. That saves a lot of administrative work and eliminates inaccurate timecards.

    The app also uses time and location data to build reports for each job. Project managers can see how much time employees have spent working at a location and make sure a project stays on budget.

    Learn more about Hubstaff

    Pricing

    Starts at $4.99/user/month, 2 users minimum Trial: Yes — 14-day Free Plan: Yes — For one user only

  6. Homebase — Good for reducing time theft

    Screenshot of the Homebase webpage

    Homebase is primarily a mobile time clock app that’s designed to help employees keep track of their hours and make payroll easier. It includes GPS tracking as a way to reduce time theft. Time theft occurs when employees clock in before they actually arrive at a job site or stay clocked out after they leave.

    You can set up geofences around each employee’s work location. If an employee tries to clock in or out outside the geofence, you will receive an alert and must approve the time entry manually. Clock-ins and clock-outs are used to automatically generate timesheets for each employee.

    Notably, you can’t track employees in real-time with Homebase. The tracking system operates in the background to verify time entries and an employee’s current location is not visible to managers.

    Homebase charges per job site where you set up a geofence rather than per user. So, it can be economical if you have a lot of employees working at just a handful of locations.

    Learn more about Homebase

    Pricing

    Starts at $20/location/month Trial: Yes — 14-day Free Plan: Yes — For a single location & up to 20 employees

  7. OnTheClock — Good for tightly controlling clock-ins

    Screenshot from OnTheClock showing interface for small business

    OnTheClock uses GPS tracking mainly as a way to prevent time theft. With this platform, supervisors can create geofences around work areas and only enable employees to clock in if they’re inside a geofence.

    This works well with one of OnTheClock’s more unique features: biometric clock-ins. Employees must use their fingerprint to clock in, ensuring that it’s really them that’s doing the time entry. The combination of requiring an employee’s location and fingerprint to clock in can dramatically reduce time theft.

    OnTheClock has several other features, including shift scheduling and time off tracking. It cannot be used to track employees’ locations in real-time.

    Learn more about OnTheClock

    Pricing

    Starts at $102/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: Yes — For up to 2 users

  8. Timeero — Good for tracking mileage

    Screenshot of the Timeero webpage

    Timeero is a robust employee tracking app that lets you easily see where all of your employees are at any time. Even better, you can view a breadcrumb trail to see where they’ve been. This is great for managers who want to keep a close eye on employees or want to create more productive schedules with less travel time for each employee.

    Timeero isn’t a full-fledged fleet management software, but it does a nice job of tracking mileage for each of your employees. If you only have a few business vehicles, it works well enough for determining your vehicle expenses when tax time comes around.

    Timeero is also a time clock app. Employees can clock in and out using the mobile app. Supervisors can also set up geofences to keep track of how much time employees are spending on each project.

    Learn more about Timeero

    Pricing

    Starts at $4/user/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: No

  9. Time Tracker by eBility — Good for combined location and time tracking

    Screenshot of the Time Tracker by eBility webpage

    eBillity was built first and foremost as a time tracker for office work, but it has some handy features for field services teams who work outside the office as well. You can see where employees are and see whether they’re currently working, clocked out, or on a break. This makes it easier to contact the right employees when you need a job covered right away.

    eBillity enables you to set up geofences to keep employees honest when they’re clocking in and out. All clock-ins from outside a geofenced area are sent to a manager for approval.

    This app really stands out for its time reporting features. Using location and time data, eBillity offers visual breakdowns of how much time employees have spent on different projects. It’s very useful for project management and even enables managers to check whether a job is staying on budget

    Learn more about Time Tracker by eBility

    Pricing

    Starts at $7.20/user/month + $12/month base fee Trial: Yes Free Plan: No

Compare the Best s

Topic Start for free
Reviews
4.8
4.8
4.7
4.7
4.6
4.6
4.7
4.4
4.4
Pricing
Starts at
Starts at $2.99/user/month + $19 base fee/month
Starts at $3.99/user/month
Starts at $20/month + $10/user/month
Starts at $4.99/user/month, 2 users minimum
Starts at $20/location/month
Starts at $102/month
Starts at $4/user/month
Starts at $7.20/user/month + $12/month base fee
Free Trial
yes
14-day
yes
yes
For PRO features
yes
30-day
yes
14-day
yes
14-day
yes
yes
yes
Free Plan
yes
Free Up to 10 users
no
yes
no
yes
For one user only
yes
For a single location & up to 20 employees
yes
For up to 2 users
no
no
Use cases
Best all-in-one employee tracking app
Good for time off management
Good for time and location reporting tools
Good for payroll and accounting integrations
Good for no-show and late employee alerts
Good for reducing time theft
Good for tightly controlling clock-ins
Good for tracking mileage
Good for combined location and time tracking
Available on
Web, iOS, Android, Windows, Mac

What are Apps to Track Employees?

This type of team management app helps businesses locate employees in the field. Many apps offer employees’ locations in real-time so that business owners and supervisors always know where their team members are. Others use location tracking to ensure that employees clock in and out of job sites accurately.

GPS employee tracking is often a feature of other business apps, such as time management apps and employee scheduling apps. These platforms may also include team communication tools to enable supervisors to contact employees working in the field without changing apps.

Read our in-depth comparison of the best GPS time clock apps of 2024.

How do Apps to Track Employees Work?

Apps to track employees rely on the GPS capabilities on employees’ smartphones. Employees just need to keep the tracking app open and the GPS will run in the background. Most apps are designed to use up very little battery.

GPS employee tracking apps typically offer two key functions. First, most apps show employees’ real-time locations. This enables supervisors to know where their employees are throughout the workday.

Second, they enable supervisors to set up geofences around job sites. These geofences can be used to automatically clock an employee in or out of work, track how much time employees are spending on specific projects, or alert supervisors if an employee does not show up to a scheduled shift.

The Benefits of Apps to Track Employees

These are the primary benefits of using employee location tracking apps:

Improved productivity

Employee tracking apps can help identify and reduce time-wasting activities, leading to increased productivity. Employers can see how time is allocated throughout the workday and make adjustments as necessary.

Improved time management

Employees can use tracking apps to manage their time better, ensuring they allocate sufficient time to different tasks and projects, which can result in better work-life balance.

Better task management

These apps often include task and project management features that help employees stay organized and focused on their responsibilities.

Enhanced transparency and trust 

Employee GPS tracking apps provide transparency in terms of work activities and progress. This can enhance trust between employers and employees and reduce the need for micromanagement.

Attendance tracking

For remote work or field-based employees, these apps can help track attendance and punctuality more accurately, reducing instances of absenteeism and lateness.

Performance assessment 

Employers can use data from tracking apps for performance assessments and evaluations, which can be more objective and data-driven.

Resource allocation

Companies can optimize resource allocation by analyzing employee workloads and making informed decisions about staffing and project assignments.

Compliance and accountability

Employee tracking apps can help ensure that employees comply with company policies and industry regulations. This can be particularly important in fields like healthcare, finance, and cybersecurity.

Cost reduction

By identifying inefficiencies and optimizing processes, companies can reduce operational costs over time.

Field work support

These apps can help employers manage and support remote teams effectively by monitoring their activities and ensuring they have the necessary resources.

Payroll accuracy

These apps automate time tracking and payroll calculations, reducing errors and ensuring accurate compensation for employees.

How Much Do Apps to Track Employees Cost?

Employee location tracking software can vary widely in price. This is in part because GPS capabilities are often integrated into more comprehensive team management apps. 

Most app providers charge a flat monthly fee plus an additional monthly price per user. For example, QuickBooks Time starts at $20 per month plus $8 per user per month. eBillity starts at $12 per month plus $7.20 per user per month.

Connecteam offers the best value for most businesses. It’s completely free for businesses with 10 or fewer employees to track. For larger businesses, Connecteam starts at just $29 per month for 30 employees plus $0.50 per month for each additional employee.

>>Get started with Connecteam for free today!<<

FAQs

Are companies allowed to track an employee’s location?

Employers are allowed to track an employee’s location if they are using a company-owned device. Employers must have an employee’s permission to track their location on a personal device.

Can I track employees for free?

The best way to track employees for free is to use an employee tracking app with a free plan. Connecteam is free for tracking up to 10 employees.

Can I track employees who are off the clock?

Employers are legally allowed to track employees if they use company-owned devices, regardless of whether they are on or off the clock. Tracking employees who are off the clock is a way to see if an employee is on the way to a shift. With Connecteam, employees can only be tracked as long as they are clocked in.

The Bottom Line on Apps to Track Employees

Tracking your employees’ locations plays a key role in day-to-day business operations. Supervisors who know where their employees are can more easily redeploy people when work demands change unexpectedly.

Employee GPS apps also make it easier to accurately track the time employees spend working and on what jobs.

Connecteam is the best app to track employees for most businesses. It lets you see where all your employees are on a single map, supports geofences around job sites, and offers built-in messaging tools.