TimeTac alternative: €1.30 per user with no base fee, leave tracking without the time clock

TimeTac is a serious piece of Austrian software: a time and attendance system from Graz, on the market since 2011, used by 4,500 companies and 150,000 people a day, with native apps, hardware terminals, payroll exports to DATEV and BMD, and a Leave Management module that handles entitlements, carry-over, leave bans and multi-stage approvals. It does the job. So why do small teams go looking for a TimeTac alternative? Usually three discoveries: the invoice has a base fee, €19.50 a month before the first user (€23 on monthly billing), so a five-person team pays €7.30 a head for leave alone; leave is one module of a time-tracking platform, priced, set up and documented as such, when all you wanted was to know who is off next week; and the approvals happen inside TimeTac, because the Slack integration mirrors presence status and there is no Microsoft Teams integration at all. Here is the honest, point-by-point case for the alternative.

The short answer: Bueggio HR is the TimeTac alternative for small teams that only need leave tracking: one plan at €1.30 per user per month, no base fee and no minimum (a five-person team pays €6.50, not €36.50), everything included, one-click approvals from email, Slack and Teams, and statutory country rules for Italy, France and Spain built in. TimeTac keeps time tracking, project time, terminals and payroll exports, a longer trial (30 days against our month, on a par) and multi-stage approval chains. On data protection the two are peers: TimeTac is an Austrian company hosting in Germany with a DPA; Bueggio HR is an EU company hosting in Frankfurt with a published DPA and self-serve export and erasure. Choose on price and shape, not on GDPR.

At a glance

	Bueggio HR	TimeTac
What it is	Staff leave tracking for small teams	Time and attendance platform with a Leave Management module (see timetac.com)
Price	€1.30 per user/month, everything included (−15% billed yearly), no minimum, no base fee	Leave Management €3.40 per user/month billed yearly (€3.90 monthly) plus a base fee of €19.50 a month (€23 monthly); net of VAT; individual rates above 20 users
Free trial	1 month, no card	30 days, no card
Languages	English, Italian, French, Spanish	Website in English, German and Spanish; the mobile app lists English, German, French, Italian and Spanish
Data hosting	EU only · Frankfurt, Germany · EU company	EU, primary servers in Germany (Hetzner) · Austrian company (Graz) · ISO 27001
Best for	Small teams anywhere in Europe that want dead-simple leave tracking with country rules built in	Companies that need working-time tracking, terminals and payroll exports, with leave as one module

Pricing: a base fee plus a module, against one flat price

Credit first: TimeTac's pricing is public, modular and honest about being net of VAT, and you activate each product per user, so a company can buy the Leave Management module alone. The mechanics are where small teams get caught. Every account carries a base fee for "hosting, maintenance and support": €19.50 a month on yearly billing, €23 on monthly. On top sit the modules: Leave Management at €3.40 per user per month (€3.90 monthly), Employee Time Tracking at €5.20, Project Time Tracking at €9. So a five-person team tracking only leave pays €36.50 a month, €7.30 a head, and a two-person studio pays €26.30. Above twenty users the calculator stops and "individual rates" begin, and the onboarding service is priced on request. Yearly billing gives two months free; the yearly plan renews for another year unless cancelled 30 days before it ends. Bueggio HR has one plan: €1.30 per user per month with every feature included, €1.105 billed yearly, no base fee, no quote at any size, cancel any time.

Bueggio HR · everything included €22.10

TimeTac · Leave Management (20 × €3.40) + base fee €19.50 €87.50

The gap widens as the team shrinks because of the base fee: a five-person team pays €36.50 a month at TimeTac and €5.53 at Bueggio HR on yearly billing. TimeTac's figures read from its own pricing calculator in September 2026. TimeTac is also rolling out a new generation, TimeTac Next, with Free, Essential (€3) and Professional (€5) packages, where absence request workflows sit in Professional: €100 a month for the same 20 people on monthly billing.

Feature comparison

	Bueggio HR	TimeTac
Wall chart / team calendar	✓	✓ annual, department and team calendars
Half-day bookings	✓	Not documented on the leave pages
Interface languages	EN · IT · FR · ES, per user	✓ multilingual (EN, DE, FR, IT, ES listed for the app)
Slack integration	✓ slash command, interactive approvals, daily summaries, auto OOO status	Presence status sync (working, break, absent), set up on request; no approvals in Slack
Microsoft Teams integration	✓ one-click approvals	—
One-click approvals from email, no login	✓	Approvals in the web, desktop or mobile app; requester notified by email
Google / Outlook calendar sync	✓ push sync + iCal feeds, included	Outlook export and online calendar subscription
Country leave rules: Italian ROL, French RTT, Spanish convenios	✓ built in	— holiday models and worldwide public-holiday templates; payroll exports built for DATEV and BMD
Public holidays	✓ 45+ countries, per-person country	✓ worldwide templates
Department absence caps & blackout dates	✓ included	✓ company holidays and leave bans per employee or department
Multi-stage approvals & substitute approvers	Per-person approver override; one stage by design	✓ two- or three-stage workflows, substitute managers
SSO	✓ Google and Microsoft, included	✓ Entra ID, Google Workspace, Okta, Auth0, Ping Identity, JumpCloud
API & webhooks	✓ REST API + signed webhooks, included	✓ REST API (v6); webhooks not documented
AI assistant connection (MCP)	✓	—
GDPR export & right-to-erasure tooling	✓ self-serve, built in, published DPA	Data returned on request within 30 days of cancellation; DPA on confirmation, subprocessors listed
Time tracking, project time, terminals, payroll exports	Deliberately not: leave tracking only (a free working hours calculator lives on our site)	✓ the core of the product: Employee and Project Time Tracking modules, Evo terminals, DATEV, BMD and SAP exports
Mobile	Installable web app (PWA) + push notifications	✓ native iOS and Android apps, offline-capable, plus a Windows desktop app

Five reasons the alternative wins for small teams

1. No base fee: two people pay for two

TimeTac's base fee is fair for a fifty-person company and expensive for everyone smaller: at €19.50 a month before the first user, the two-person studio pays €13.15 a head for leave tracking and the ten-person agency €5.35. Bueggio HR charges €1.30 per person and nothing else. There is no base fee, no module to add, no quote above twenty users, and yearly billing takes 15% off. If your team is under twenty, the price difference is four to ten times.

2. A tool, not a platform

TimeTac is a time and attendance system first: working-time models, breaks, project hours, terminals, payroll exports, and leave as one of three modules. That is real value if you need to track hours, and a cost you carry in setup and complexity if you do not. Bueggio HR does one thing: request, approve, wall chart, on purpose. Admins configure it in an afternoon, employees book from their phones without training, and there is no onboarding service because none is needed. If simplicity is why you are leaving your current tool, do not replace it with a platform.

3. Approvals where the request lands, not back in the app

TimeTac's Slack integration mirrors presence: a status that says someone is working, on a break or absent, set up by TimeTac on request. Approvals still happen in the TimeTac app, and there is no Microsoft Teams integration listed. Bueggio HR closes the loop where the notification arrives: approve or decline with one click straight from the email without logging in, from the interactive Slack message, or from Teams; employees book from Slack with a slash command, and an automatic out-of-office status shows while they are away. Approvals that take one tap get answered the same hour.

4. Statutory country rules, already built

TimeTac lets you define holiday models, unlimited absence types, carry-over with expiry dates and public-holiday templates for the whole world, and it does that well; its payroll exports are built for DATEV and BMD, which tells you where its rules were shaped. What it does not know are the statutory mechanics of leave in Southern Europe: Italian ROL and ex-festività hour balances, French RTT and jours ouvrables counting, Spanish convenio extras and regional calendars are yours to model by hand as generic types. Bueggio HR ships those rules implemented and applies them automatically from your country at signup. If you employ people in Italy, France or Spain, that is the difference between configuring policies and switching something on.

5. Pricing you can read to the end

TimeTac's calculator is honest up to twenty users; beyond that it hands you to sales for individual rates, the onboarding service is priced on request, and the new TimeTac Next generation puts single sign-on in an Enterprise package sold on quote. Bueggio HR has one public price for everyone at every size, with SSO, API, webhooks, calendar sync and every integration in it. A fifty-person company and a five-person one read the same page and pay the same per head.

Where TimeTac is genuinely strong

An honest comparison cuts both ways. TimeTac has fifteen years of production behind it, 4,500 customer companies and a team of over a hundred people in Graz, and it shows in the breadth of the product: working-time tracking with working-time models, project time down to the second, Evo hardware terminals, and payroll exports to DATEV, BMD and SAP, none of which Bueggio HR does on purpose. Its leave module offers two- and three-stage approval workflows with substitute managers, holiday models with automatic entitlement, and leave bans per department. It has native iOS and Android apps that work offline, a Windows desktop app, single sign-on with six identity providers where we offer Google and Microsoft, and a Personio connector. On data protection it is a peer: an Austrian company, ISO 27001 certified, servers in Germany, a data processing agreement with a published subprocessor list and a named data protection officer. Users rate it 4.6 on Capterra from 394 reviews, praising ease of use and support. If you need to track hours as well as holidays, or run payroll from DATEV, TimeTac is a legitimate pick.

Switching to the alternative takes an afternoon

1. Export your people from TimeTac's reports and import them into Bueggio HR with a CSV, or just invite everyone by email.
2. Set your leave types and allowances. Country defaults (including public holidays for 45+ countries and the statutory rules for Italy, France and Spain) are applied at signup; carry-over balances can be set per person, and department caps and date locks replace your leave bans.
3. Book from day one. Your team requests time off from their phones and managers approve in one click from email, Slack or Teams. The first month is free, no card required.

Want the wider market view first? Read our ranking of the best leave tracking apps.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best TimeTac alternative for a small team?

Bueggio HR: one plan at €1.30 per user per month with no base fee and no minimum, everything included (SSO, API, webhooks, calendar sync, Slack and Teams approvals), an interface in English, Italian, French and Spanish, and statutory leave rules for Italy, France and Spain built in. TimeTac stays the better pick if you also need working-time tracking, terminals, payroll exports to DATEV or BMD, or multi-stage approval chains.

How much does TimeTac cost?

TimeTac is priced per module plus a base fee: the base fee is €19.50 a month on yearly billing (€23 on monthly), Leave Management costs €3.40 per user per month on yearly billing (€3.90 monthly), Employee Time Tracking €5.20 and Project Time Tracking €9. Prices are net of VAT, accounts above 20 users get individual rates, and the 30-day trial needs no card. A 20-person team tracking only leave pays €87.50 a month on yearly billing. Bueggio HR has one everything-included plan at €1.30 per user per month (€1.105 billed yearly), no base fee, no minimum and a 1-month free trial without a card.

Is TimeTac GDPR compliant?

Yes, credibly so: TimeTac is an Austrian company, ISO 27001 certified, hosting on servers in the EU with the primary location in Germany, with a data processing agreement that lists its subprocessors and a named data protection officer. Bueggio HR matches that posture: an EU company with data hosted in Frankfurt and nowhere else, a published DPA, and self-serve GDPR export and erasure built into the product. Between these two, choose on price, simplicity and country rules rather than on GDPR.