Buddy Punch and VacationFlow are different tools that happen to overlap on PTO. Buddy Punch is a time clock — GPS, facial recognition, payroll reports — built for retail, construction, and hospitality. VacationFlow is a leave and presence tool built for office and remote teams. This page is for anyone who found both while searching for PTO tracking.
Where Buddy Punch is strong
If your people clock in and out, Buddy Punch does the whole job: punch clocks with GPS and geofencing, facial recognition to stop buddy punching (hence the name), overtime calculations, scheduling as an add-on, payroll reports, and a payroll add-on that pays employees directly. PTO tracking rides along with the timesheets. For hourly and deskless workforces, that bundle is the point.
Where VacationFlow is different
If nobody on your team punches a clock, you would be paying for a time clock to get PTO tracking — Buddy Punch starts at $4.99 per user per month plus a $19 monthly base fee, with no free tier. VacationFlow is free up to 20 members and is built around the leave workflow itself: multi-step approval chains, custom policies and categories, work modes, blockout periods, and per-office holidays. We also include shift templates and rotations at no extra cost, where scheduling is a paid add-on for Buddy Punch.
Pricing, side by side
Buddy Punch’s published prices as of August 2026, from their own pricing page (annual billing shown; monthly is about $1 more per user).
| Buddy Punch | VacationFlow | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | None | Full product, up to 20 members |
| Entry plan | $4.99/user/month + $19/month base fee (Starter, annual) | $0 up to 20 members |
| Higher plans | $6.99 (Pro) and $12.99 (Advanced) per user/month + base fee | Corporate for 20+: custom pricing |
| Add-ons | GPS $2, scheduling $1, payroll $8/user/month + $49 base | None — one plan, all features |
| Trial | 14 days, no card | Corporate: 3 months free, no card |
A 15-person office team pays Buddy Punch about $1,126 a year on Starter. If they never use the time clock, that budget bought the wrong tool — and if they do punch clocks, we are the wrong tool for them.
- Your team is hourly and needs clock-in/clock-out with GPS or geofencing. We have no time clock and no punch tracking of any kind.
- You run payroll from timesheets. We have no payroll features.
- Your team is Android-first and needs a native Android app today — ours is still on its way (iOS is live).