10 Best Vacation Tracking Software for 2026 (Free & Paid)

When your team is small, a shared spreadsheet handles vacation tracking well enough. Someone fills in a row, someone else checks the tab, and it works.

Around 15 people, the system starts to fail. The file locks because someone left it open. An employee asks how many days they have left and nobody can answer without manual subtraction. A time off request sits in someone’s inbox for a week. Two people book the same week off and nobody catches it until the project is understaffed.

Vacation tracking software replaces those manual steps with automated leave balances, approval workflows, and a team calendar that shows who is out without anyone having to ask.

This article reviews 10 vacation tracking software tools for 2026, grouped by free options, paid standalone trackers, and HR platforms with built-in leave management. Each entry covers what the tool does well, what it does not, and what it costs.

What to look for in vacation tracking software

Leave type flexibility

Most teams track more than vacation days. Sick leave, personal time, parental leave, bereavement, volunteer days — each comes with different accrual rules, different approvers, and different caps. A tool that limits you to three or four fixed categories creates workarounds the moment your policy gets more specific. The one you want lets you create custom leave types and apply different rules by team, department, or location without extra cost.

Automated accrual and balance tracking

PTO balance errors cause payroll disputes and employee frustration in roughly equal measure. The right tool calculates accruals automatically — flat allocations, weekly accumulation, tenure-based progressions, carryover limits, annual resets — without anyone touching a formula each month. If your HR admin is still manually adjusting balances at quarter end, that time is being spent on something automation handles in the background.

Approval workflows

Good vacation request software routes each request to the correct approver automatically. It should support auto-approval for low-risk leave types (a half-day personal day does not need the same scrutiny as a two-week vacation) and let managers bulk-approve a backlog they missed while they were out themselves. Notifications for submissions, approvals, and rejections keep the process visible without anyone logging in to check status.

Team calendar and visibility

A shared team calendar is what makes a vacation tracking system worth having. You need to see who is out, who is remote, and who is available before you commit to a deliverable — not after someone emails asking where half the team went. Overlap detection that flags conflicts before approval saves projects from staffing gaps that nobody saw coming.

Integrations and cost

Your vacation tracker needs to connect to tools your team already uses. Google Calendar, Outlook, or iCal for personal schedule visibility. Payroll or HRIS for accurate record-keeping. On pricing, watch for per-user fees that stack up. A tool at $1.50 per user per month for a team of 20 costs $30/month. Another at $5 per user costs $100/month for the same headcount. That gap compounds every month, and it widens with every new hire.

Vacation tracking software comparison

Free vacation tracking software

1. actiPLANS

actiPLANS is a leave management tool built for teams that want dedicated vacation tracking without paying for a full HR suite.

Two features set it apart from most alternatives: unlimited custom leave types and automated accrual calculations. You can configure vacation, sick leave, volunteer days, sabbaticals, or any other category your team uses, each with its own accrual rules, at no extra cost. Paid plans add automated PTO balance tracking — balances update when leave is taken, so there is no manual recalculation each month.

The visual team timeline shows who is on leave, who is working remotely, and who is in the office, all in one view. For teams spread across multiple locations, the location scheduling feature applies different leave policies by office or region. Reporting exports to CSV and PDF for payroll processing without manual compilation.

• Unlimited custom leave types with per-team or org-wide accrual rules
• Automated PTO balance tracking
• Visual team timeline covering leave, remote work, and office presence
• Location-based scheduling for distributed teams
• Google Calendar, Outlook, and iCal sync
• CSV and PDF reporting for payroll and HR

Pricing: Free forever for up to 3 users with leave requests, approvals, and unlimited leave types. Paid plans start at $1.50 per user per month billed annually and add PTO balance tracking, automated accruals, and work scheduling. 30-day free trial, no credit card required.

Best for: Small and mid-size teams that need a dedicated leave management tool without HR suite pricing.

2. Jibble

Jibble combines time tracking, attendance monitoring, and leave management in one product. The vacation tracking side covers leave requests, approval workflows, and balance tracking, and it is free for unlimited users.

The extras that come bundled at no cost are what set Jibble apart. GPS tracking and facial recognition attendance work for teams with mobile or field-based workers who need location verification alongside leave management. The platform runs on web, desktop, mobile, kiosk mode, and a Chrome extension.

Leave can be tracked in full days, half days, or hours. Custom leave types are supported, and the approval workflow routes requests to the right manager automatically.

Where it falls short: Jibble is a time tracking tool with leave management added on, not a dedicated vacation tracker. Teams that need complex accrual rules, tenure-based PTO tiers, or advanced leave reporting may find the vacation-specific features less configurable than a purpose-built tool.

Pricing: Free forever for unlimited users. Paid plans from €4 per user per month for advanced features including GPS tracking and integrations.

Best for: Growing teams that want time tracking and leave management in one free tool.

3. Day Off

Day Off is a PTO tracker built for simplicity. Employees submit leave requests through the mobile app or web interface, managers approve or reject them, and everyone sees who is out on the shared team calendar.

The tool covers the basics cleanly: custom leave types, automated accrual tracking, calendar sync with Google Calendar and Outlook, and native Slack and Teams integrations for leave requests and approvals. There are no time tracking features, no attendance monitoring, and no payroll integration. That narrow scope is the point — Day Off handles vacation tracking without pulling you into a broader platform you did not ask for.

The free plan covers up to 10 employees with core leave management features including the calendar view and one-step approvals. The Pro plan ($2 per user per month, $20 minimum) unlocks unlimited employees, advanced reporting, and custom approval chains.

The limitation is depth. Day Off tracks leave and nothing else. Teams that need project tracking, HRIS integration, or detailed compliance reporting will outgrow it quickly. It works best as a spreadsheet replacement, not an HR tool.

Pricing: Free for up to 10 employees. Pro plan from $2 per user per month ($20/month minimum). No credit card required for trial.

Best for: Small teams that want a simple, affordable vacation tracker with Slack and Teams integration.

Paid vacation tracking tools

4. Vacation Tracker

Vacation Tracker brings leave management into the tools your team already uses: Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Google Workspace. Employees submit time off requests directly from their chat app, and managers approve them without switching platforms.

Accruals, carryovers, time off in lieu, and brought-forward days calculate automatically. Leave policies can be configured per location, department, or employee category. Leave is tracked in full days, half days, or hours. The team calendar gives managers a live view of availability, and approved time off syncs to Google Calendar or Outlook without manual entry.

Reports cover leave history, balances, and audit logs, with optional scheduled delivery to HR or finance teams. Integrations with ADP and Zapier let leave data flow into payroll without anyone chasing it.

The limitation is scope. Vacation Tracker handles leave management only. Teams that need time tracking, scheduling, or performance management in the same tool will need to pair it with something else.

It’s simple and easy to use; it lets us manage our time off successfully. We’re missing basic features like editing previously accepted absences. — Vacation Tracker user, G2

Pricing: From $2 per user per month, billed monthly. Minimum $50 per month required.

Best for: Teams that want leave management embedded in Slack, Teams, or Google Workspace without a separate app.

5. Timetastic

Timetastic is a UK-based leave tracker with a clean interface and a narrow focus. Each employee gets a personal time off calendar with real-time balance updates and visibility into who else on the team is off.

Calendar integrations with Google Calendar, Outlook, and Slack keep time off data current across tools without manual entry. Managers get daily and weekly email summaries of upcoming absences without needing to log in.

The Pro plan ($2.50 per user per month) adds automated accruals, SSO, Microsoft Teams integration, and a Burnout Board that flags employees who are overdue for leave. For teams that track PTO utilization as a wellbeing metric, the Burnout Board surfaces data that most leave trackers ignore entirely.

On the Business plan, reporting and approval workflows are basic. Requests go to one designated approver, which keeps things simple but limits flexibility for teams with multi-level or department-based approval chains.

I use Timetastic for holiday and sick leave planning. I love the weekly emails you get to inform you of any absence within the team. — Lisa K., G2

Pricing: $1.50 per user per month, billed monthly. No free plan; free trial available.

Best for: Teams that prioritize simplicity and want a leave tracker with built-in employee wellbeing monitoring.

6. Buddy Punch

Buddy Punch pairs attendance tracking with PTO management. Managers create leave types (vacation, sick, personal, holiday), configure whether each is paid or unpaid, and assign them by team. Accrual rules support hourly, weekly, and annual accumulation based on custom policies.

The shared leave calendar shows scheduled absences across the team, flagging overlap before it causes staffing gaps. During busy periods, managers can block specific dates and automatically reject requests for those days. PTO reports display carryover balances, accrued time, used time, and remaining balances, filterable by date range and employee.

Buddy Punch also handles payroll calculations, including direct deposits and tax filings, which saves small businesses from juggling a separate payroll tool. The drag-and-drop scheduling feature is useful for shift-based teams.

One gap to note: Buddy Punch lacks native Google Calendar, Outlook, Slack, and Teams integrations. Calendar and messaging connections are only possible through Zapier or the API, which adds a step that most competing tools handle out of the box.

Easy user interface. Simplifies the time card process especially when you have a lot of employees. Also, very easy to set up and get employees working with it. — Emily H., G2

Pricing: $4.99 per user per month plus a $19 monthly base fee. No free plan; free trial available.

Best for: Small and mid-size businesses that need PTO tracking and attendance management together.

7. AttendanceBot

AttendanceBot runs inside Slack and Microsoft Teams. Employees request leave by typing a message — “sick today” or “on leave tomorrow” — and managers approve in real time directly in the chat. No separate app or login required.

The tool handles PTO, sick leave, and local holidays across multiple offices. Custom leave types, quotas, and multi-level approvals let you match company policies on the Standard plan. Automated accrual rules and shift scheduling require the Pro plan ($6 per user per month annual). Approved requests sync to Google Calendar and Outlook automatically, and daily summaries show who is out.

AttendanceBot also includes time tracking, timesheets, and shift scheduling, making it a reasonable all-in-one option for teams already deep in Slack or Teams.

The limitation is platform dependency. AttendanceBot requires Slack or Microsoft Teams to function — there is no standalone web interface for leave management. Teams that do not use either platform have no way in.

AttendanceBot’s integration with Slack is a big strength. Being able to manage leave and see team availability directly within a tool we already use daily makes adoption easy. — Kylie D., G2

Pricing: $4 per user per month billed annually. Free for up to 5 users.

Best for: Teams already in Slack or Microsoft Teams that want leave management without adding another tool.

HR platforms with vacation tracking

8. BambooHR

BambooHR includes vacation tracking as part of a full HR management suite. If your HR team already handles hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, and payroll, having leave management in the same platform means one fewer login and one fewer data silo.

Employees request time off through the self-service portal or mobile app and can check their PTO balance without asking HR. The Who’s Out calendar gives managers and team members visibility into upcoming absences. Custom leave policies support different rules by department, location, or employee type (full-time, part-time, hourly, or salaried).

Time off reports help identify PTO trends and flag potential burnout before it becomes a problem. Approved leave syncs with BambooHR Payroll and integrates with external tools like Deel and Xero for teams that handle payroll elsewhere.

You pay for that convenience. At roughly $10 per employee per month, BambooHR costs more per head than any dedicated leave tracker on this list. And some features you might expect to be included, like time tracking and shift scheduling, require paid add-ons on top of the base plan.

What I like best about BambooHR is how user-friendly and organized the platform is. It makes managing employee information, onboarding, time-off requests, and overall HR processes very straightforward. — Elvis Z., G2

Pricing: From $10 per employee per month. No free plan; demo available.

Best for: Companies that need vacation tracking as part of a comprehensive HR platform.

9. Deel

Deel is a global HR and payroll platform that includes PTO tracking as part of its broader compliance and workforce management system. For companies hiring across borders, Deel handles the complexity that most vacation trackers skip: country-specific leave entitlements, statutory holidays, and multi-currency payroll in over 100 countries.

Employees submit and amend leave requests through the platform, and the “PTO by Deel” Slack plugin lets them request and approve time off directly in Slack. Slack statuses update automatically when someone is away. Deel recognizes weekends and public holidays according to local law, so those days are not deducted from leave balances — a detail that matters when your team spans jurisdictions.

If your team is in one country, Deel is probably overkill. The platform does more than most small businesses need, and some users report occasional payment processing delays. But for a company with employees in five countries and counting, no other tool on this list handles the compliance side as well.

Great experience overall. Easy invoicing, time off management, and a great platform for communicating with clients. — Sourjesh, Capterra

Pricing: From $5 per user per month, billed monthly. No free plan.

Best for: Distributed teams that need leave tracking with built-in global payroll and compliance.

10. Connecteam

Connecteam is a workforce management platform built for deskless and field-based teams. Leave management is one module in a broader suite that includes time tracking, scheduling, communication, and task management.

Employees request time off from the mobile app, which is the primary interface — Connecteam is built mobile-first for teams that spend their workday away from a desk. Managers approve requests, view the team schedule, and track attendance from the same app. GPS time tracking verifies clock-in locations for field workers.

Custom leave types and approval workflows are configurable, though the leave-specific features are less extensive than what a dedicated vacation tracker offers. The Advanced plan caps time off policies at 9; unlimited policies require the Expert plan ($99 per month annual). The strength is having scheduling and leave management in one place: when someone requests PTO, the scheduler can flag coverage gaps immediately.

The free plan covers up to 10 users with all features included. Paid plans add capacity for larger teams. Connecteam operates as a standalone ecosystem; native Google Calendar, Outlook, Slack, and Teams integrations are not available.

Pricing: Free for up to 10 users. HR Hub from $29 per month billed annually for the first 30 users ($35 monthly).

Best for: Deskless and field-based teams that need vacation tracking alongside scheduling and team communication.

What untracked PTO actually costs

When PTO is tracked manually, errors accumulate quietly. Here is how the math plays out for a mid-size team.

Consider a 50-person company where the average employee earns $30 per hour (close to the Bureau of Labor Statistics median for private-sector workers) and receives 15 days of PTO per year.

Balance errors

With spreadsheet tracking, balance mistakes are common. If each employee’s balance is off by an average of 1.5 days per year — some over, some under — the financial exposure works out to:

That figure is just the direct payroll cost of incorrect balances. It does not account for the follow-on effects.

Coverage gaps

When leave is not visible on a shared calendar, scheduling conflicts go undetected until the day of. Two project leads off the same week can stall delivery. SHRM estimates that unplanned absences cost employers approximately $3,600 per hourly employee per year in reduced productivity and temporary cover.

Admin time

If your HR administrator spends 2 hours per week managing leave requests, updating spreadsheets, and answering balance questions, that is roughly 100 hours per year — the equivalent of 2.5 working weeks. At $35/hour, that is $3,500 per year of admin time that a tool costing $50/month would eliminate.

Sensitivity check: If your team is under 10 people and turnover is low, the balance error rate drops because one person can track it all reliably. Practitioners consistently report that spreadsheets work fine at that size. The inflection point is usually 15 to 20 employees, where the admin burden crosses the threshold and errors start costing more than the tool.

What goes wrong after month three

Most vacation tracking tools are easy to set up. Getting the team to keep using them is the harder part. Here is where implementations typically break down.

Approval bypass. Managers start approving leave by email or chat instead of through the tool. Requests are granted but never logged. Balances drift. After three months, the system shows one reality and the team lives another. The fix is making the tool the only approval channel — if it is not in the system, the leave is not approved.

Stale accrual rules. The accrual configuration set during onboarding reflected last year’s policy. When HR updates the carryover limit or changes the accrual rate for a new fiscal year, nobody updates the tool. Employees see incorrect balances and stop trusting the numbers. Schedule a quarterly policy review that includes checking the tool’s configuration.

Uneven adoption. One department uses the tool religiously. Another still sends leave requests by email. The shared calendar is half populated, which makes it useless for scheduling. Partial adoption is worse than no tool at all because it creates a false sense of coverage. A tool that lives inside Slack or Teams (Vacation Tracker, AttendanceBot) can reduce this friction by meeting people where they already work.

PTO hoarding. Without visibility into who has unused leave, some employees accumulate large balances that become a financial liability. When they leave the company or the fiscal year resets, the payout or forfeiture creates conflict. A tool that surfaces unused-leave data — Timetastic’s Burnout Board is one example — catches this before it compounds.

Policy confusion. Combined PTO policies, where sick days and vacation days come from the same bucket, penalize employees who get sick. The tracker shows the correct balance, but the employee who used five sick days now has five fewer vacation days. This is a policy problem, not a software problem, but the tracking tool surfaces the unfairness that was invisible in a spreadsheet. If your team runs combined PTO, pick a tool with clear leave-type separation so employees see exactly where each day went.

How to pick the right vacation tracking software

Three questions narrow the list.

1. How many people will use it?

Under 10: a free tool (actiPLANS, Jibble, Day Off) covers the basics without adding cost. Between 10 and 200: a dedicated leave tracker with accrual automation and approval workflows is worth the per-user fee. Over 200: an HR platform (BambooHR, Deel) or a flat-rate plan like actiPLANS Enterprise at $270/month for unlimited users avoids per-user fees that keep climbing.

2. Does your team already live in Slack, Teams, or Google Workspace?

If yes, Vacation Tracker or AttendanceBot reduce adoption friction by putting leave management where your team already works. If your team does not have a shared chat platform, a standalone tool with its own interface (actiPLANS, Timetastic) avoids the platform dependency.

3. Do you need leave tracking alone, or leave tracking combined with time tracking, scheduling, or payroll?

Leave alone: actiPLANS, Vacation Tracker, Timetastic, or Day Off give you a focused tool without paying for extras. If budget is the main constraint, see our roundup of free leave management software. Leave plus time tracking: Jibble, Buddy Punch, or Connecteam bundle both. Leave plus global payroll and compliance: Deel covers the full stack. For a broader comparison of absence management systems, we cover additional options there.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free vacation tracker for a small team?

actiPLANS offers a free forever plan for teams of up to 3 users, with leave requests, approvals, and unlimited custom leave types included. Jibble is free for unlimited users and adds time tracking, though its leave-specific features are simpler. Day Off is free for up to 10 users and covers leave requests, a team calendar, and Slack and Teams integration. For larger teams, actiPLANS has a 30-day free trial with full access to all features, no credit card required.

How do most companies track PTO?

Small businesses under 15 people often use spreadsheets or shared calendars. Once headcount grows past that point, most switch to dedicated employee time off tracking software that automates accruals, routes approvals, and maintains a shared team calendar. The trigger is usually a payroll error, a scheduling conflict, or an HR admin who runs out of patience with manual calculations.

What is the difference between vacation tracking software and leave management software?

In practice, the terms are interchangeable. Vacation tracking is the narrower label — recording days taken and days remaining. Leave management includes accrual rules, multi-level approval workflows, compliance reporting, PTO blackout periods, and policy enforcement across teams. Most tools marketed as vacation trackers in 2026 handle all of this. The gap between a basic tracker and a full leave management platform is real, but the marketing labels do not reliably signal which side a tool falls on.