A mechanical punch clock did one job: it stamped a card. Everything after that, adding the hours, spotting the person who punched in 20 minutes early every day, retyping totals into payroll, was yours. Punch clock software does the stamping and the rest of it, and it does not need a card rack by the door.
What replaced the mechanical punch clock
The wall unit is still for sale, and for one site with no network at all it still works. For most teams of 10 to 50 it stopped being the cheapest option a while ago, because the unit only records a punch at one door. It cannot tell you whether the person was on site or in the parking lot, it does not cover a second location or a job site, and the totals still have to be read off it and typed into payroll by hand. Software took over the same job in three shapes.
The phone app
ClockOut Time Clock by Ophy Labs is on the App Store and Google Play, both linked from the app page. An employee opens it, taps punch in, and the entry records the time, the coordinates, and a readable address. This is the shape that fits field, mobile, and multi-site staff, because the clock goes where the work is.
The shared tablet kiosk
Kiosk mode turns a spare tablet at the entrance into the clock. Employees punch in with a 4-digit PIN or by scanning a personal QR badge, which is an opaque random code with no personal data in the code itself. Admins print badge sheets with the QR code and the person's name, and issuing a new badge stops every printed copy of the old one from working. This is the closest thing to the old card rack, and it is the fit for teams who share a device or leave phones in a locker. Kiosk mode is on Starter and Pro. The kiosk and QR badges page has the detail.
The web punch clock
Anyone can sign in from a phone, tablet, or desktop browser and punch in without installing anything. The web app can be added to the home screen, after which it runs from a cached app shell. This is the route for office and desk staff, and for anyone who would rather skip the install.
How the punch flow works in ClockOut
A time clock program earns its price between the punch and payroll. Here is each step, with the plan each control sits on.
Punch limiting stops the early punch (Starter and up)
With punch limiting on, an employee can punch in starting a set number of minutes before their scheduled shift, 15 by default and configurable. An earlier attempt is refused with the shift start time and the time the clock opens. A separate toggle, off by default, blocks a punch from anyone with no scheduled shift that day. There is no upper bound, so a late punch still goes through, and clock-out is never blocked by any punch control. Owners, admins, and managers are exempt. See punch controls.
Geofencing keeps the punch at the work area (Starter and up)
Geofence enforcement refuses a punch from outside the work area. Each fence check adds a 50-meter buffer to the radius you set, and a location's radius can be anywhere from 10 to 10,000 meters. Auto clock-out is optional: when someone is first detected past the leave distance (about 1 mile by default), a 5-minute grace period starts, they get an in-app warning, and returning inside the fence cancels it. The boundary check runs about once a minute and only while a person is on the clock, and that reading is discarded right after the check, so there is no movement trail. Full behavior is on the GPS time clock page.
Photos when you want a second look
Two separate things, on two different plans. Kiosk photo capture (Starter and up, off until a company turns it on) takes a webcam snapshot at kiosk punch-in with a visible live preview and attaches it to the entry, so an admin can eyeball a thumbnail on the who-is-clocked-in view. If the camera is unavailable the punch still goes through without a photo. It is a plain picture, not face recognition, and identity at the kiosk is still the PIN or the badge. Separately, photo proof of work (Pro) lets a worker attach before and after photos to a visit and share them with the client on a private link.
Offline punches queue and sync (every plan)
Punch in and punch out work with no connection on the phone app and the web clock. The punch is saved on the device with the original tap time and syncs automatically when the connection returns, applied in order and flagged as an offline punch so an admin can see it was recorded away from the network. Three limits worth knowing: the app has to have been opened on that device at least once first, a queued punch older than 48 hours is rejected at sync, and breaks need a connection. A punch that could not be checked against a geofence at the time is recorded and flagged for review rather than refused. The kiosk tablet needs a connection at the moment of the punch.
Missed punches surface before payroll (Starter and up)
The most common punch clock problem is the person who forgets to punch out. ClockOut checks every 30 minutes and sends the employee a nudge when they are still on the clock 30 minutes after their scheduled shift ended, or once they have been clocked in for 10 hours with no schedule to compare against. If it still slips through, the employee submits a correction request (missed punch in, missed punch out, or wrong time) with a reason, and an admin approves it, which writes the corrected times onto the entry. The exception inbox collects the rest: no-shows, late arrivals, early leaves, break violations, and automatic clock-outs. There is a step-by-step version in employee forgot to clock out? Fix it in 6 steps.
Timesheet approval before anything exports (Starter and up)
A manager reviews each pay period, fixes what needs fixing, and signs the period off. Employees, groups, and job codes keep the review organized by crew and by the work being done, so a 30-person week is a scan rather than a project.
Payroll CSV at the end (every plan, formatted files on Pro)
Every plan, including Free, exports hours and pay totals as a plain CSV with a job code column. Pro adds payroll runs (draft, approve, lock, export) and files formatted for RUN Powered by ADP, Gusto, QuickBooks Time, Xero, and Sage. ClockOut does not push data into those systems through an API, and it does not run payroll or withhold taxes: you download the file and import it into the system that does.
What punch clock software costs at 5, 15, and 25 people
Both paid plans have a base fee that covers the first 5 active accounts (the owner counts as one), then a flat rate for each extra person. Deactivate someone and the next bill drops.
| Starter | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Base price | $19 / mo for up to 5 | $39 / mo for up to 5 |
| Each extra person | $3 / mo | $6 / mo |
| 5 people | $19 / mo | $39 / mo |
| 15 people | $49 / mo | $99 / mo |
| 25 people | $79 / mo | $159 / mo |
| Annual billing | 20% off | 20% off |
| Free trial | 14 days | 14 days |
| Punch controls included | Geofence enforcement, punch limiting, kiosk PIN and QR badge, exception inbox, timesheet approval | Everything in Starter, plus device locks, IP locks, multiple locations, and payroll-formatted exports |
The free plan covers up to 2 active people with no time limit, and includes GPS-stamped punches, basic scheduling, pay estimates, and the CSV export, which is enough to test the whole flow with yourself and one employee. The pricing page has a calculator for your exact head count.
Built for teams of 10 to 50
ClockOut is built for hourly teams of 10 to 50 people, run by an owner or an operations manager rather than an IT department. That size decides most of the product. Setup is an afternoon and there is no implementation call, because nobody at a 20-person shop has a week for one. The controls that matter at that size (stopping the early punch, proving the person was on site, catching the missed punch out) are on the $19 plan rather than an enterprise tier. And the price follows head count one person at a time, so hiring two people in March costs $6 more, not a new contract.
- Under 10 people? It still works, and the free plan covers 2. The time clock for small business page is the shorter read.
- Over 50 and growing? Pro handles up to 20 work locations with their own geofences and scoped roles, so a site lead approves their own team. 100 people is $304 a month on Starter or $609 on Pro.
How the price compares
Punch clock tools mostly price the same way now: a monthly base fee plus a rate per person. The totals separate quickly at 15 and 25 people.
| ClockOut Starter | Buddy Punch | OnTheClock | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price structure | $19 base for up to 5 people, then $3 each | $19 base, then $5.99 per user | $5 base, then $4 per employee |
| 15 people | $49 / mo | About $109 / mo | $65 / mo |
| 25 people | $79 / mo | About $169 / mo | $105 / mo |
| Free trial | 14 days | Check their site | 30 days |
Vendor prices above were read from their own pricing pages on September 9, 2026 and can change. Compare what each tier includes before you compare the totals, because geofencing and kiosk mode often sit on a higher tier than the headline price. On ClockOut, geofence enforcement, punch limiting, kiosk mode with PIN and QR badge, the exception inbox, and timesheet approval are all on Starter, the $49-a-month-at-15-people plan. Feature-by-feature comparisons with the wider market are on the alternatives page.
Punch clock software FAQ
What is punch clock software?
Punch clock software is the digital replacement for a mechanical punch clock. Employees punch in and out on a phone app, a shared tablet at the entrance, or a web page instead of stamping a paper card, and the software records who punched, when, and where, then totals the hours, applies overtime, flags the punches that look wrong, and produces a payroll file. Because it runs in the cloud, staff at a second site or a job site use the same system, and a manager can see who is on the clock right now from anywhere.
What is the difference between punch clock software and a time clock program?
Nothing, in practice. "Punch clock software", "time clock program", "time clock with software", and "digital punch clock" all describe software that records employee punches and turns them into hours and a payroll file. The only real distinction worth making is between software that runs in the cloud, where you open it in a browser or an app and pay a monthly subscription, and an older program installed on one computer at the workplace, where the records live on that machine and someone has to maintain it. ClockOut is the first kind.
How much does punch clock software cost for 15 employees?
ClockOut is $49 a month for 15 people on Starter ($19 for the first 5 accounts, then $3 each) or $99 a month on Pro ($39 for the first 5, then $6 each). Annual billing takes 20% off and paid plans start with a 14-day free trial. Across the wider market the usual shape is a base fee plus a per-person rate: as of September 9, 2026, Buddy Punch publishes a $19 base plus $5.99 per user, which is about $109 for 15 people, and OnTheClock publishes a $5 base plus $4 per employee, which is $65 for 15.
Is there a free punch clock app?
ClockOut has a free plan for up to 2 active people with no time limit. It includes GPS-stamped punch in and punch out, basic scheduling, pay estimates, and the CSV export, so a two-person business can run on it permanently and a larger team can use it to test the whole flow before inviting everyone. Geofence enforcement, kiosk mode, punch limiting, PTO, and timesheet approval need Starter, which is $19 a month for up to 5 people and then $3 per extra person.
Can employees punch in and out without a smartphone?
Yes. A shared tablet in kiosk mode takes a 4-digit PIN or a printed QR badge, so no personal device is needed and nobody has to install anything. Anyone with a basic phone browser can also use the web clock. Kiosk mode is on the Starter and Pro plans, and one tablet covers the whole team at that entrance.
Does punch clock software stop buddy punching?
It makes it much harder, and no tool without biometrics can make it impossible. Every punch carries GPS coordinates and a resolved address, so a punch from the wrong side of town is visible in the record. Geofence enforcement on Starter refuses a punch from outside the work area entirely. Punch limiting stops someone punching in an hour before their shift. Optional kiosk photo capture attaches a webcam snapshot to each kiosk punch-in for an admin to eyeball. On Pro, device locks accept punches only from admin-approved devices, and IP locks restrict web and kiosk punches to the workplace network. ClockOut does not use fingerprints or face recognition of any kind.
Related pages
- Cloud-based time and attendance system is the longer read on the whole system, from punch to payroll file.
- Kiosk mode and QR badges covers the tablet clock: PIN entry, badge scanning, and printable badge sheets.
- GPS time clock explains exactly what each punch records and how geofencing behaves.
- Punch controls covers punch limiting, device locks, and IP locks in detail.
- The ClockOut app has the iPhone and Android download links.
- Pricing has the plan comparison and a calculator for your exact head count.
- Hours to decimal converter turns punch times into the decimal hours payroll asks for.
- Employee forgot to clock out? Fix it in 6 steps is the manager's playbook for the most common punch problem.
- Product facts is the dated, maintained list of what the product does, checked against the code.