Punchcard and QuickBooks Time solve the same problem from opposite directions: one is source-available software you can own outright for $29, the other is a subscription at $10/user/mo run entirely on someone else's servers.
Head to head
| Punchcard | QuickBooks Time | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $29 once | $10/user/mo |
| 10 employees, 1 year | $29 | $1,200+ |
| Clock in/out + breaks | Yes | Yes |
| Kiosk PIN punch | Yes | Yes |
| Timesheet approval + audit | Yes | Yes |
| Overtime flagging | Yes | Yes |
| Payroll CSV export | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted, data stays yours | Yes | No |
What Punchcard does well
- Clock in / out / break — One-click punch board per employee; daily hours computed from punch pairs with breaks deducted.
- PIN kiosk mode — A big-button PIN pad at /kiosk for a shared tablet or front desk; one tap toggles in/out, no admin session, disable it in settings.
- Weekly timesheets — Hours by day with punch-level detail; edits require an audit note recording who changed what and why, in integer cents.
- Approval queue — Submit, then approve or reject with a comment (required on reject), bulk approve, full decision audit trail.
What QuickBooks Time still does better
There's a real reason QuickBooks Time costs what it does: a bigger team, broader integrations and dedicated support behind it. If that ecosystem is genuinely what you need, it's worth paying for.
Which one should you pick
If your workflow depends on QuickBooks Time's specific integrations or you'd rather not run anything yourself, stay put — that's a legitimate call. If you're comfortable owning the tool and want to stop paying $10/user/mo for a job your own hardware can do, Punchcard pays for itself and then some: less than one month of QuickBooks Time for a 10-person crew pays for Punchcard forever.
Try Punchcard — $29, once
Self-hosted punch clock, PIN kiosk, approval queue and payroll CSV — no per-user fees.