(650) 332-8623The 7 Best Employee GPS Tracking Apps for 2026
Looking for an employee GPS tracking app for your construction business? We’ve reviewed 7 of the best apps on the market to help you!
Quick Answer
Employee GPS tracking apps help field businesses confirm where work happened. They capture location data during work hours and tie it to time entries, jobsite visits, and travel between stops. The best tools reduce time theft and timecard cleanup without turning GPS into employee surveillance.
Workyard is the best pick for most field teams because its GPS verification is built for jobsite-based work. Hellotracks is a strong option if dispatch and route optimization matter most. Buddy Punch is a good fit if you mainly want attendance controls with GPS proof at clock-in and clock-out.
Employee GPS tracking apps solve a practical problem for field teams: you can’t manage payroll, schedules, or jobsite accountability without reliable proof of where time was spent. When crews move between jobsites or service calls, small gaps turn into misallocated hours, disputed punches, and end-of-week cleanup.
These tools connect on-shift location data to time entries and job assignments, so managers can verify work without chasing updates. The best systems limit tracking to work hours, so it doesn’t feel like surveillance.
In this guide, I compare the best employee GPS tracking apps for 2026 on GPS verification, usability, offline reliability, and reporting:
- Workyard
- Hellotracks
- Buddy Punch
- Timeero
- Ok Alone
- Jibble
- OnTheClock
Top employee GPS tracking apps at a glance
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|---|---|---|---|
Our score |
9.3 |
8.2 |
8.1 |
Best for |
Accurate GPS-verified time tracking for field workers |
Fleet route optimization |
Retail employee attendance monitoring |
Pricing |
Starting at $6 / mo. per user + $50 / mo. company base fee |
Starting at $12 / user per month |
Starting at $4.99 / user per month +$19 base fee |
What is an employee GPS tracking app?
An employee GPS tracking app is a mobile tool that captures an employee’s location during work hours and ties it to time entries and jobsite activity. It helps businesses confirm where work happened, how long employees spent on-site, and how crews move between stops.
Most tools include GPS time tracking, optional geofencing, and basic route or location history to support timecard review and reduce payroll disputes.
Who needs an employee GPS tracking app?
Employee GPS tracking is most useful for teams that work across multiple jobsites and don’t have a fixed “clock-in” location, such as:
- Construction and specialty trades
- Property maintenance and facilities teams
- Home service crews (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, cleaning)
- Delivery and mobile field operations
If location affects payroll accuracy, scheduling, or customer accountability, GPS tracking is usually worth it. If work happens in one location all day, it often adds friction without much benefit.
When employee GPS tracking helps (and when it doesn’t)
GPS tracking helps most when location is part of the job: multi-site work, service calls, and crews that travel throughout the day. It gives managers a clearer way to verify jobsite time and reduce timecard disputes without constant check-ins.
It’s less useful for office roles or fixed-location teams where location doesn’t prove work. In those cases, tracking can create resistance without solving real payroll or accountability problems.
GPS tracking is worth it when you need to:
- Confirm jobsite arrivals and time on-site
- Prevent off-site punches and time theft
- Reduce payroll edits and “where were you?” disputes
- Track travel between stops without manual updates
GPS accuracy and privacy boundaries (what’s useful vs too much)
GPS is usually accurate enough to confirm arrivals, time on-site, and travel between stops, especially outdoors or in vehicles. Accuracy can drop indoors, underground, or in dense areas where phones rely on weaker signals or Wi-Fi/cell triangulation. That’s why GPS works best as verification, not a perfect pinpoint tracker.
For most teams, the most useful data is clock-in/out location, time on-site, and shift-based location history. Collecting nonstop route history for every worker can add noise, trigger pushback, and feel like surveillance. The best apps limit tracking to work hours and stay transparent about what’s recorded.
Top features to look for in the best employee tracking app
The best employee GPS tracking apps don’t just show location. They make timecards easier to trust and approve. Prioritize:
- GPS-verified time entries (not just dots on a map)
- Geofencing controls for jobsite rules and exception flags
- Offline/low-signal support with reliable syncing
- Work-hours-only privacy settings to avoid off-hours tracking
- Easy timecard approvals + reporting for payroll cleanup
- Simple mobile experience for non-technical crews
Final Thoughts
Employee GPS tracking is most useful when it verifies jobsite work, reduces timecard cleanup, and keeps location tracking limited to work hours. The right app should be easy for crews to use, reliable in the field, and clear about what’s being recorded.
If you’re choosing between top options, Workyard is the best fit for jobsite-based teams, with Hellotracks and Buddy Punch better suited for routing and attendance-focused teams.
Workyard offers a free trial if you want to see how GPS-verified time works on real jobsites.
Our Scoring System Explained
Our 8-part scoring system was created to help you understand the potential value of any software we review simply and fairly.
We created it after reviewing dozens of software products, which we covered in depth, but without providing a direct and simple way for readers to compare products on their merits – without spending a lot of time looking through our articles for the information they needed to make an informed decision.
Every app we review will include Customer Support and Company scores, which we’ll explain in more detail below. Many of the factors reviewed in this article will also be consistent across most (or all) of our software reviews, with some differences:
The 8 factors assessed and their contribution to a product’s overall score may differ slightly from product to product based on various factors, such as the use case we’re reviewing for, the type of business these products are tailored to, and other considerations. However, all reviews will feature an 8-part score, weighted and combined to calculate each product’s overall score.
How We Score Software
All factors in our reviews are scored on a 10-point scale – technically 11 points – from 0-10. However, we only give products a score of 0 if it does not include an essential feature at all, and we try to avoid giving out 0 scores if a product can demonstrate any functionality in line with the specific factor being reviewed.
In general, the 0-10 range translates as:
- 9.0 – 10 – One of the absolute best in its category (amazing).
- 7.5 – 8.9 – Very good, but with some minor issues (very good).
- 6.0 – 7.4 – Mediocre performance with notable shortcomings (average).
- 3.0 – 5.9 – This feature is not ready for prime time (borderline).
- 1.0 – 2.9 – This feature actually makes its product worse (unacceptable).
- 0 – The product doesn’t include this important feature at all.
How We Calculate Overall Scores
The 8 factors reviewed are weighted based on an overall total of 100%:
- Ease of Use: 20%
- Time Tracking Accuracy: 20%
- Scheduling Features: 15%
- Job Tracking: 15%
- Integrations: 10%
- Customer Support: 15%
- Company: 5%
Methodology for Each Factor
Ease of Use
We evaluate a product’s ease of use based on three main considerations:
- How easy is it to set up this app?
- How easy is it for managers to use the backend dashboard?
- How easy is it for frontline workers to use the (mobile) app?
These three considerations cover the main ways you and your team would use the software being reviewed – when you first obtain it, when someone (a manager, executive, team leader, or similar role) needs to use it to manage people, money, data, and other things, and when workers you’re tracking use the app (usually a mobile version of the software designed for frontline and/or field team members) to clock in, clock out, record time worked, or address other day-to-day needs.
Time Tracking Accuracy
Every minute matters when you’re trying to control payroll costs. This factor accounts for various features and common needs in time-tracking apps, such as…
- How accurate or precise is its GPS tracking capability?
- How accurate – and how customizable – is its geofencing feature?
- How accurate is its travel and mileage tracking (if available)?
- Can it automatically clock workers in and out based on the above?
- Can you set and/or restrict rules for clocking in and out?
- Can the app continue tracking workers while offline?
- How easy is its mobile app and/or kiosk for frontline workers?
Scheduling Features
Many construction businesses prefer to manage as many aspects of employee labor activity as possible in a single app, which is why many time-tracking apps also include worker scheduling as a core feature.
When we consider a product’s scheduling features, we look at:
- Its dashboard customizability (daily, weekly, or monthly views).
- Its project-based scheduling and visibility.
- Its real-time updates and notifications for workers.
- Its real-time map views of worker locations for best-fit scheduling.
- Its recurring schedule (copies to subsequent weeks, etc.) functionality.
Job Tracking
This factor helps you understand if the software can also provide insight into specific projects, which is particularly handy when your business deals with many customers or clients who generally need shorter-term work. Effective job tracking typically also includes accurate job costing functionality for construction companies.
We assess several things when calculating a product’s job tracking score:
- Its project-based tracking for multiple projects per day/week/etc.
- Its ability to track multiple / many projects simultaneously.
- Its use of (and your ability to customize) construction cost codes.
- Any built-in job costing views.
- Any integrations for cost coding (QuickBooks etc.)
Integrations
No business can operate on a single app, which is why integrations with other apps and tools are such important aspects of modern business software.
To calculate a product’s integration score, we’ll examine:
- How many native integrations (the simplest connection) does it offer?
- How effective and easy-to-use are its integrations with payroll software?
- Does it have robust data import and export features?
Customer Support
Learning how to use a new app can be frustrating, even if it’s meant to be the most user-friendly app around. That’s why great customer support is so essential when considering which time-tracking app to use.
Customer support scores are calculated based on:
- Live support channels available (phone, email, chat, etc.).
- Live support hours (business hours only, 24/7, etc.).
- The strength of the product’s online help center and/or FAQs.
- What other users say about support in online reviews.
Company
A great company with a highly customer-friendly approach can often make up for shortcomings in their software products – at least up to a point.
When assessing this score, we’ll examine:
- Transparency (easy-to-find pricing, etc.)
- Trial period (duration, feature availability, credit card requirements, etc.).
- Subscription flexibility (contracts, required durations, etc.).
- Ease of cancellation or pausing subscriptions.
- Customer perceptions (online product reviews).
- Website (a minor consideration, but great companies tend to have great websites).
Any questions about our scoring system? Have any suggestions on how we could make it even better? Click here to send us your feedback – we’d love to hear from you!
Workyard is the best employee GPS tracking app for most field teams because it gives GPS-verified time records you can actually trust for payroll and job costing. Other tools can work for simpler needs, but Workyard is the strongest option when crews move between jobsites and you need location-backed proof of work.
An employee GPS tracking app records location during work and ties it to time entries. Basic time tracking apps only capture hours, while GPS tracking apps add location proof, like jobsite visits, on-shift movement history, and exception flags, so managers can verify work without relying on manual updates.
Yes, free GPS tracking apps can work for basic attendance checks, especially for very small teams. Jibble is a common starting point, but most free plans limit exports, live tracking, and reporting, so many teams eventually upgrade once payroll cleanup becomes an issue.
Adoption improves when GPS is framed as payroll accuracy and jobsite accountability—not monitoring. Start with a clear policy, explain what’s tracked (and what isn’t), keep tracking work-hours only, and train supervisors first. The easier the workflow is for crews, the less resistance you’ll get.
They reduce buddy punching by linking time entries to location evidence. Instead of “trust me” timesheets, managers can confirm whether someone was actually on-site when they clocked in and flag off-site time before payroll is approved. GPS-verified time tracking works best because it turns location data into approval-ready records.
Yes, good apps can restrict tracking to work hours and job activity. Look for shift-only tracking, jobsite/geofence rules, and clear clock-in/out boundaries so you can verify work without collecting off-hours location history.
Employee GPS tracking is usually accurate enough to confirm jobsite arrivals, time on-site, and travel between stops, especially outdoors or in vehicles. Accuracy can drop indoors, underground, or in dense urban areas where phones rely on weaker signals. That’s why GPS works best as verification and exception flagging, not as a perfect “pinpoint tracker.”
Some apps continue capturing time and location offline, then sync later. This is critical for remote areas, basements, and new-build sites with weak reception. If crews regularly lose signal, offline mode should be a must-have feature, not a bonus.
Most concerns are about privacy and being tracked off-hours. Employees also worry GPS will be used unfairly when signals are inaccurate or when policies aren’t clear. Transparency, work-hours-only settings, and clear rules for exceptions help reduce pushback and keep GPS focused on verification.
Most employee GPS tracking apps cost around $5 to $15 per user, depending on GPS depth, reporting, integrations, and admin controls. Some tools also charge a monthly base fee, while others require upgrades for exports, live tracking, or advanced settings.
If GPS tracking helps reduce payroll waste and timecard cleanup, paying more can be worth it for teams with frequent jobsite movement.