Buddy Punch Review 2026: Pricing, Pros and Cons
Reviewed November 1, 2026 by Loïc Joachim
A dedicated time clock with lots of anti buddy punching options, priced with a base fee plus a per user charge.
| Best for | Small and mid sized US businesses that want a dedicated time clock with PTO and overtime rules. |
|---|---|
| How staff clock in | Tablet kiosk, Mobile app |
| Free plan | No |
| 20 staff | $128.80 / month |
| 50 staff | $293.50 / month |
| 100 staff | $568 / month |
| Made in | USA |
| Website | buddypunch.com |
Prices are in US dollars for the cheapest plan that includes a time clock, as of our last review. Check the vendor's site for current pricing.
Our Buddy Punch review
Buddy Punch is one of the few products in this list that is mainly a time clock, which is a point in its favour. It has every clock in method you can think of: web, kiosk with PIN or face recognition, mobile with GPS and geofencing, and photo capture.
Pricing is a $19 monthly base fee plus a per user charge (around $5.50 per user on the Starter plan), so a 20 person team pays roughly $130 a month. There is a 14 day trial but no free plan.
It does the job well, but it is configuration heavy. Expect to spend some time getting the rules right before you roll it out to staff.
Pros
- Focused on time and attendance rather than being a feature of a bigger suite
- Kiosk, mobile, GPS, geofencing, face recognition and photo options
- Overtime, PTO and job codes handled well
Cons
- A $19 monthly base fee on every plan, plus per user charges
- Expensive for very small teams because of the base fee
- No free plan
- Lots of settings to work through on setup
Buddy Punch features
- Tablet kiosk app
- Clock in from a phone
- Desktop app
- Proprietary hardware clock
- Paper card punching
- PIN entry
- NFC cards or tags
- Face recognition
- Fingerprint reader
- GPS location checks
- Cloud based
- Ongoing subscription
- Locks you into their hardware
Looking for something simpler?
Timeclock.Kiwi was built by people who were fed up with time clocks that take three screens and a training session to use. Staff tap their name and a PIN on any tablet, a photo is taken in the background, and hours export straight to your payroll. You pay per kiosk, not per employee, from $5 a month.
Free for 3 months, no credit card required.
Buddy Punch alternatives
- Homebase A broad scheduling, time clock and HR toolkit for hourly teams, with a free plan for small single location businesses.
- 7shifts Restaurant scheduling software with a separate time clock app called 7punches.
- Connecteam An all in one app for deskless teams with a time clock, scheduling, chat and forms, priced with a flat base for the first 30 users.
- Gusto A leading US payroll provider whose time tools and kiosk come with the Plus and Premium payroll plans.