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Time tracking

The 8 best time tracking and employee clocking-in apps (2026)

A comparison of the best time tracking and employee clocking-in apps in Spain: prices, geolocation, features and which to choose for the size of your company. Free options included.

Published on

Cover photo: several smartphones with clocking-in apps on a table (landscape)

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Choosing a time tracking app ought not to be complicated, but there are dozens of options and they all promise the same thing. We have compared the best employee clocking-in apps available in Spain in 2026 so that you choose the one that genuinely fits your business and your pocket.

What to look at before choosing a clocking-in app

  • The real price: do they charge per employee or a fixed price? Is there a free plan?
  • Clocking in from the phone with geolocation (key to preventing people clocking in from home).
  • Legal compliance: an unalterable record and an export for the Inspectorate.
  • Ease: anyone can set it up, with no IT person.
  • Useful extras: holidays, absences, reports, integrations with your payroll program.

⚠️ Two warnings before the list

  • Cairos is not on this list. We are an interested party, and above all Cairos is not a clocking-in application: it has no clock-in button. It reads the hours from ficheo.app and carries them into the cost of each project. Putting ourselves into a comparison of apps for clocking in would be comparing two different things.
  • This is not an audit. The descriptions are of what each tool advertises, not of any check by us that it complies with article 34.9. Prices and features change: look at their site before you decide.

The most widely used time tracking apps in Spain

Sesame HR

A complete HR solution with time tracking, holidays and document signing. Powerful, but its per-employee price shows when the team grows.

Factorial

An HR suite that is very popular in Spain. It goes beyond clocking in (payroll, documents, org charts). Ideal if you want an “all-in-one”, though it can be too much for anyone who only needs to clock in.

Bizneo HR

Aimed at medium-sized companies, with talent modules. Robust, but with a steeper learning curve.

Woffu

Specialises in time tracking and time management, with a good user experience.

Jibble

It has an attractive free plan. It offers facial recognition: do not turn it on. The Agencia Española de Protección de Datos has concluded that for working time records there is today no rule with the rank of a statute in Spain that lifts the prohibition on processing biometric data, and that the worker's consent cannot lift it either. In Spanish, some features fall short.

Clockify

More focused on project time tracking than on the Spanish legal record, but with a very generous free plan.

Personio

An enterprise HR suite. Excellent for large companies; oversized (and expensive) for a small business.

Paper or your own template

Yes, it counts as an option, and it is the one almost no comparison mentions because it pays no commission. The law imposes no format: a paper record kept daily and signed complies. We go into it in time tracking template.

💡 In summary

  • If you need a complete HR suite: Factorial, Bizneo or Personio.
  • If all you want is to clock in and nothing else: Woffu or Sesame.
  • If you are after zero cost and can manage in English: Jibble or Clockify, with the biometrics switched off.
  • If you have two people and little patience: paper.

Quick comparison

The big difference is in the pricing model. Almost all of them charge per employee per month, which rises fast as you grow: every hire pushes your bill up. Always compare the twelve-month cost against the headcount you expect to have, not today's, and check whether the free plan really covers your size or is just a hook. We give no specific figures because they change every season and age badly.

Note of 4 September 2026: Cairos and clocking in

As of today, 4 September 2026: when this article was written, you still could not see the team's hours in Cairos. Now you can, and it is worth spelling out exactly how, because it is not what people usually assume: Cairos does not clock anyone in. The working time record is kept by ficheo.app and Cairos reads it — read-only — to show those hours next to your invoices and split them by project. A clocking that needs correcting is corrected in ficheo, which is where the record the law requires lives. With your ficheo account connected, that module is not charged separately in Cairos.

See the plans and what they include

Which one to choose for your case?

  • An autónomo with 1-2 employees: paper or a free plan. With two people, setting up a program is more work than the problem it solves.
  • A bar, a garage or a shop with 3-15 people: Woffu or Sesame, or a free plan if your headcount fits.
  • A company of 30+ with an HR department: Factorial, Bizneo or Personio.

If you want to see how to choose the clocking-in method (app, card or terminal), we cover it in this guide.

Frequently asked questions

The one your team will use without complaint and that covers the essentials: a daily record with a start and an end, reliable and impossible to manipulate after the fact, four years' retention and export. And no biometric data.
You do not clock in inside Cairos, and that is deliberate: the working time record is kept by ficheo.app and Cairos reads those hours through its read-only API. You see them next to your invoices and split by project, without duplicating the record in two places. With your ficheo account connected, the module is not charged separately. That is why it is not in this comparison: the clocking-in application is ficheo, not Cairos.
Jibble and Clockify have free plans with limitations. And the zero-cost option there has always been is still legal: a well-kept paper record.
We cannot certify it for you: check in each case that it records the start and the end day by day, that it does not let the past be rewritten, that it keeps four years and that you can show it. And avoid the ones that clock in with a fingerprint or a face.

Your hours, in the same program that invoices

Cairos does not clock anyone in: the working time record is kept by ficheo.app, and Cairos reads those hours to split them by project and keep them next to your invoices. With your ficheo account connected, the module is not charged separately.

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