At-a-glance comparison
The table covers the features that decide fitness for a UK construction SME. Scroll right on mobile.
| Platform | Free plan | GPS geofence | Offline | QuickBooks / Xero | CIS export | UK compliance (CSCS, inductions, RTW) | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AttendIQ | ✓ Foundation (250 workers) | ✓ enforced | ✓ offline-first | ✓ both | ✓ native | ✓ all included | Free, then £4.50/worker/month |
| Jibble | ✓ time tracking only | ✓ enforced | ✓ | ✓ on paid plans | ✗ none | ✗ none | Free; paid from ~£2.50/user/month |
| ClockShark | ✗ trial only | ✓ recorded | ✓ | ✓ both | ✗ none | ✗ none | From ~£8/user/month |
| Deputy | ✗ trial only | ✓ recorded | Partial | ✓ both | ✗ none | ✗ none | From ~£4/user/month |
| RotaCloud | ✗ trial only | ✗ no geofence | Partial | ✓ via export | ✗ none | ✗ none | From ~£2/user/month per module |
Prices approximate at July 2026. Verify on each vendor's website. ✓ = full support. ✗ = not available.
Recommendation by company size
A common shortcut is to match app to headcount: free tools for small firms, construction platforms for larger ones. For UK construction that shortcut is wrong, because compliance obligations (CSCS, inductions, right to work, CIS) apply from the first worker, not the fiftieth. A 12-person groundworks firm has the same legal exposure per worker as a 200-person contractor. The better question is whether you need attendance only, or attendance plus compliance.
| Company profile | Recommendation | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 5-20 workers, attendance + compliance | AttendIQ | Start free on Foundation; Essential is ~£22-£90/month all-in for the crew, with CSCS, inductions, and RTW included. Self-serve signup, live same day. |
| 5-20 workers, basic clock-in only, no compliance needs | Jibble | Free plan covers GPS clock-in. Honest caveat: if you employ site workers in UK construction, you almost certainly do have compliance needs. |
| 20-75 workers | AttendIQ | At this size the cost of running attendance, CSCS tracking, and inductions as separate systems exceeds one per-worker subscription. CIS export matters here too. |
| 75-250 workers, multi-site | AttendIQ | Access rules, supply chain connections (free for SC companies), fatigue monitoring, and scheduled reporting: features generic apps do not have at any price. |
| Heavy job costing focus, PAYE-only labour | ClockShark | Strong time-against-job reporting and QuickBooks flow if you have no CIS labour and no compliance requirements. |
| Rota-first businesses (office, yard, mixed teams) | Deputy or RotaCloud | If shift scheduling is the primary problem and site attendance is secondary, a rota tool fits better than a site platform. |
1. AttendIQ: best overall and best value for UK construction SMEs
What it does
AttendIQ is a UK-built workforce platform designed specifically for construction SMEs and mid-market contractors, from around 5 workers to 3,000. Workers clock in on their own phone with GPS geofencing (or a QR kiosk at the site entrance for workers without smartphones), events record offline and sync when signal returns, and approved timesheets export payroll-ready to QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, or BrightPay with CIS deduction rates and UTR numbers applied.
The difference from every generic app in this list is what comes in the same price: live CSCS card verification via the CSCS Smart Check API, digital site inductions with sign-off records, right to work document checks with expiry alerts, Working Time Directive fatigue monitoring, and an access rules engine that blocks non-compliant workers at clock-in. For a UK contractor these are not optional extras; they are the paper processes you are currently doing badly in a site cabin.
Pricing
- Foundation: free forever, up to 250 worker records, no credit card. Competency and skills management, CSCS tracking, expiry alerts.
- Essential: £4.50/worker/month (annual billing) adds GPS time and attendance, timesheets, payroll export, inductions, and access rules. One-off setup fee applies, with a free onboarding call included.
- Complete: £7.00/worker/month adds the full compliance suite including drug and alcohol management and fatigue monitoring.
- Supply chain companies: always free when invited by a principal contractor.
Because pricing is per worker rather than per user seat, a 15-worker firm pays £67.50/month on Essential. There are no supervisor seat charges, no admin seat charges, and no charge for supply chain companies you connect.
Pros
- Only platform in this comparison combining GPS attendance with UK construction compliance in one price
- Free Foundation plan to start; self-serve signup; live the same day with no hardware
- Payroll-ready export for QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, and BrightPay with native CIS handling
- Offline-first mobile app built for gloved hands and poor signal
- Free for supply chain companies, so subcontractors never pay to comply with your requirements
- Transparent published pricing
Cons
- Time and attendance itself is on the paid Essential plan, not the free tier (Foundation covers records and competencies)
- One-off setup fee on paid plans
- If you genuinely need nothing but a clock-in log, a simpler free tool may be enough
Best for: UK construction companies from 5 to 250+ workers who need attendance and compliance handled together: groundworks, civils, M&E, fit-out, specialist subcontractors, and principal contractors managing supply chains.
2. Jibble: cheapest for basic clock-in, no construction layer
Jibble is a generic time tracking app with a genuinely useful free plan: GPS clock-in, geofencing, optional facial recognition, and timesheet exports. It deploys in an afternoon and works across any industry, which is exactly its limitation for construction.
Where it fits
If your only requirement is knowing who was where and when, and you have no CSCS, induction, right to work, or CIS obligations to evidence, Jibble's free plan is the lowest-cost option in this comparison and a reasonable place to start.
Where it falls short for UK construction
Jibble has no concept of a CSCS card, a site induction, a right to work document, or a CIS deduction. It cannot block a worker with an expired card from clocking in, cannot evidence induction sign-off to a principal contractor or HSE inspector, and its payroll exports carry hours only, with no CIS fields. A UK contractor using Jibble typically still runs a spreadsheet for cards and tickets, paper induction packs, and a manual CIS process at payroll time. Priced honestly, "free" plus several hours of weekly admin plus compliance risk is not free.
Pros
- Genuinely free plan for basic time tracking
- Good GPS geofencing and facial recognition
- Very fast to deploy
Cons
- No CSCS verification, inductions, right to work, or any UK construction compliance
- No CIS handling in payroll exports
- Per-user pricing on paid plans; construction features never arrive at any tier
Best for: Micro-businesses and non-construction teams needing free basic clock-in. For UK construction SMEs it usually becomes one tool among several rather than a solution.
3. ClockShark: job costing strength, US DNA
ClockShark is a US-built GPS time tracking and scheduling platform popular with trade contractors: electrical, plumbing, HVAC. Its strengths are time recorded against jobs and cost codes, crew scheduling, and a mature QuickBooks integration.
Where it fits
A UK trade contractor whose main pain is labour cost per job, with PAYE-only labour and no site compliance obligations, will get value from ClockShark's job costing reports and QuickBooks flow.
Where it falls short for UK construction
ClockShark was built for the US market. There is no CIS handling (a hard blocker for most UK contractors using subcontract labour), no CSCS or induction features, and per-user pricing that runs higher than AttendIQ's per-worker rate at typical crew sizes. GPS is recorded rather than strictly boundary-enforced.
Pros
- Strong job costing and time-against-project reporting
- Good QuickBooks and Xero integrations
- Crew scheduling included
Cons
- No CIS export, no UK construction compliance
- Higher per-user cost than AttendIQ per-worker at SME crew sizes
- US-centric product and support
Best for: Trade contractors prioritising job costing over compliance, with PAYE-only labour.
4. Deputy: excellent rotas, wrong industry
Deputy is a polished workforce management platform centred on shift scheduling, with GPS clock-in and strong payroll integrations. It is widely used in hospitality, retail, and healthcare.
For construction, the shift-and-rota model is the mismatch. Construction attendance is site-based, not rota-based: workers turn up to a site, potentially for different employers, under compliance rules that Deputy has no concept of. There is no CSCS, induction, RTW, or CIS support, and offline behaviour on remote sites is weaker than the construction-specific tools. If your business is mixed (a builders' merchant with a yard rota, an office team plus site crews), Deputy can serve the rota side well.
Best for: Businesses whose primary problem is staff scheduling rather than site attendance and compliance.
5. RotaCloud: UK rota tool with basic clocking
RotaCloud is a UK-based rota planning tool with a time and attendance add-on. It is affordable, well supported, and a genuine upgrade from paper rotas for very small teams.
Its clocking is designed for fixed workplaces: there is no site geofence enforcement, no offline-first site mode, and no construction compliance or CIS features. For a 10-person building firm replacing a paper rota and wanting basic clock-in records, it works. The firm will outgrow it the first time a principal contractor asks for induction records or CSCS evidence.
Best for: Very small UK teams (5-20) replacing paper rotas, where site compliance is not yet a requirement.
Free vs best value: the real cost calculation
Listicles usually crown the app with the lowest sticker price as "best value". For UK construction that framing hides the real cost structure, because the sticker price only covers one of the three costs an SME actually pays:
- Software cost: the subscription itself.
- Admin cost: the hours someone spends each week on the processes the software does not cover: chasing CSCS card copies, filing paper induction packs, checking right to work documents, re-keying hours into payroll, applying CIS deductions in a spreadsheet.
- Risk cost: what it costs when those manual processes fail: illegal working civil penalties of up to £60,000 per worker, HMRC CIS penalties, HSE Fee for Intervention at £163/hour, and payroll leakage of 8-15% from buddy punching and rounding on unverified hours.
Worked example: 25-worker groundworks firm
Jibble free plan: £0 software, but card tracking, inductions, RTW checks, and CIS stay manual: conservatively 4 hours of admin a week (~£350/month) plus unpriced compliance risk. AttendIQ Essential: £112.50/month software, with those processes automated and evidenced. The "free" option costs roughly three times as much before any risk materialises.
This is why "best value" and "lowest price" are different answers. Jibble is the lowest price. For a UK construction SME with normal compliance obligations, AttendIQ is the best value, and the free Foundation tier means the entry price is also £0 until you switch attendance on.
QuickBooks, Xero, and payroll export
Most UK construction SMEs run QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, or BrightPay. What matters is not whether a time tracking app lists your accounting package on an integrations page, but what arrives in it:
- Hours-only export (Jibble, Deputy, RotaCloud): total hours per person. CIS status, deduction rates, site-level pay rates, and overtime rules are applied manually afterwards.
- Job-costed export (ClockShark): hours against jobs and cost codes, good for costing, still no CIS fields.
- Payroll-ready export (AttendIQ): approved, two-stage-signed-off timesheets with CIS or PAYE status per worker, UTR numbers, correct deduction rates per HMRC CIS 340, and overtime already calculated: for QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, and BrightPay.
If anyone in your payroll process opens a spreadsheet between the time tracking app and the accounting package, you have an hours-only export, whatever the marketing says.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best time and attendance app for a small construction company in the UK?
For UK construction companies from 5 to 250 workers, AttendIQ is the strongest overall choice: GPS-geofenced clock-in, offline mode, payroll export for QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, and BrightPay, and UK compliance (CSCS verification, inductions, right to work, CIS) in one per-worker price. Jibble is cheapest for basic clock-in only. ClockShark and Deputy are capable generic tools without UK construction compliance.
Is AttendIQ suitable for companies with 5 to 20 workers?
Yes. AttendIQ has self-serve signup, per-worker pricing (a 15-worker firm pays £67.50/month on Essential), same-day setup, and no hardware. The free Foundation plan lets small firms start at £0 with competency and CSCS tracking, then add attendance when ready. The idea that AttendIQ is only for 50-plus-worker companies is out of date.
Does AttendIQ have a free plan?
Yes. Foundation is free forever for up to 250 worker records with no credit card: worker records, skills and competency management, CSCS tracking, and expiry alerts. GPS attendance and payroll export start on Essential at £4.50/worker/month. Supply chain companies invited by a principal contractor always use AttendIQ free.
Does AttendIQ work with QuickBooks?
Yes. Approved timesheets export payroll-ready to QuickBooks (and Xero, Sage, BrightPay) with CIS status, UTR numbers, and overtime applied. Generic apps export hours only, leaving CIS to a manual process.
Is Jibble or AttendIQ better for construction?
Jibble wins on sticker price for clock-in only. AttendIQ wins on value for UK construction because CSCS verification, inductions, right to work, and CIS export are included at £4.50/worker/month, replacing the manual processes Jibble leaves behind. If you have any compliance obligations, which nearly every UK contractor does, AttendIQ is the better fit.
What size company is AttendIQ designed for?
UK construction SMEs and mid-market contractors from around 5 workers to 3,000. Small firms self-serve; mid-sized contractors add supply chain management and access rules; larger principal contractors connect their supply chain free. No turnstiles, no long implementation: sites go live the same day.
Do these apps work on sites with no mobile signal?
AttendIQ is offline-first: clock events record locally and sync when signal returns, with an audit trail. Jibble and ClockShark offer offline recording. Deputy and RotaCloud are weaker offline because they were built for connected indoor workplaces.
Do I need CIS support in a time and attendance app?
If you pay any subcontract labour under the Construction Industry Scheme, yes. The platform should flag each worker as CIS or PAYE, store UTR numbers, and export the correct deduction rate (20% registered, 30% unregistered) per HMRC CIS 340. Of the five platforms here, only AttendIQ does this.