People who look past Timetastic usually want firmer controls than alerts, a vendor with no parent group, or a tool whose rota and leave come as one package. The alternatives below include single-purpose planners, rule-based leave engines, chat-first trackers and HR suites that carry time off inside them.
Short answer: The first three alternatives to Timetastic in our absence management software ranking are Leave Dates, LeaveBoard and Absence.io. Ranking order favours the challenger over the household name, so the best-known vendors begin at place 4 where the category allows it. Choose Leave Dates if you want a leave-only planner with overlap rules on higher tiers. Every one of the 11 products below comes from Best Absence Management Software in 2026, with a note on how it departs from Timetastic.
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Pricing: Per user per month in three published plans; 30-day trial, no card
Established in: United Kingdom
Built for: UK offices wanting an uncomplicated holiday calendar with mobile apps
Not for: Buyers who want an owner-managed, standalone vendor
01
Why buyers look past Timetastic
01
Booking limits warn but do not block
Timetastic's Pro plan adds booking limits by leave type, and the comparison table describes them as alerts only, with no hard limit. Maximum absent and locked dates are both marked coming soon. A manager who needs a cap on how many people are off on the same day must still enforce it by hand.
02
Hours and rotas are a separate plan at a higher price
The pricing page lists Business at $1.50, Pro at $2.50 and Rota & Time Clock at $5.50 per user per month, shown with a dollar sign when we read it. Rotas, clock-in, timesheets and payroll export belong to the third plan only. A firm that starts with leave and later needs attendance moves to a different price point.
03
The vendor is part of a larger group
Timetastic's terms of service say Timetastic Limited, based in Wilmslow, is part of the Citation Group of companies. That is a fair business model, and it also means the roadmap and support sit inside a group rather than with an independent founder-owned company. Buyers who weigh vendor independence should read that clause.
your staff are hourly and the schedule is the main tool
#12
03
What each one does differently
1
Leave Dates
United Kingdom · Published
An English private limited company sells this single-purpose planner, with unlimited employees, carry-over, Excel export and bulk upload already in the entry tier. Higher tiers add limits, overlaps, calendar sync and TOIL. It tracks no hours and writes no timesheets, so a firm that also wants attendance has to buy a second product.
Switch from Timetastic if you want a leave-only planner with overlap rules on higher tiers.
Nine employees or fewer pay nothing here, the lowest starting point in this group; above that a flat per-employee rate applies, and firms past eighty-one are quoted. Payment is by card through Braintree, and the pricing page mentions no invoice route. Ownership and country are not stated by the vendor.
Switch from Timetastic if you have fewer than ten staff and want a free plan.
The cheapest tier of this German GmbH already covers absence and leave management, reports and the Microsoft, Google and Slack links, on a 14-day trial without a card. Time tracking, a digital employee file and single sign-on start in the middle tier, while API access and expenses arrive only in the top one.
Switch from Timetastic if you want a German company and a card-free trial.
Rules are the draw: notice periods, maximum days per week and no-overlap teams can be set per absence type, which lands close to the controls Timetastic lists as coming soon. Pricing is by module per employee, published, with a monthly minimum that weighs on very small teams. Attendance, core HR, performance and scheduling are added one at a time.
Switch from Timetastic if you want hard rules on overlaps and notice periods.
Requests and approvals happen where staff already chat, in Slack, Microsoft Teams or Google Workspace. The entry tier caps locations and departments, while accruals, hourly tracking, TOIL and substitute approvals sit in the Complete tier. This Canadian vendor bills a monthly minimum on both tiers, which penalises the smallest offices.
Switch from Timetastic if approvals should live inside Slack or Teams.
Berlin-based Kenjo sells an HR suite counted per employee, where vacation, sick leave and overtime converted into time off sit alongside regional holidays and Slack sync. Labour-law alerts, APIs and shift templates belong to the highest plan, so integration-heavy buyers climb. Shift plans draw on the absence data.
Switch from Timetastic if you want HR records and shift plans fed from absence data.
Absence lives inside the shift plan of this Danish rota product: managers see who is off while placing shifts, and balances accrue on their own. Leave management appears from the Plus plan, there is a five-user minimum and a 30-day trial. A firm without shifts buys more rota than it needs.
Switch from Timetastic if your team works shifts and the rota drives everything.
A Spanish HR suite in which time off is one module, supporting unlimited policies by location or contract type, blocked periods and per-team approvers. Blocked periods are the lock Timetastic lists as coming soon. The starting price applies before modules are added and the final plan is quoted, so the first invoice is hard to guess.
Switch from Timetastic if you need blocked periods and policies by contract type.
Time off, a calendar and unlimited custom policies come in the entry Core plan of this US HR platform, priced per employee in US dollars with a quote step. The whole HR system arrives with it, which exceeds what a firm wanting only absence tracking needs. Three published tiers make the ladder visible.
Switch from Timetastic if you want a full HR system with leave in the cheapest tier.
Time off sits in the core HR module of this mid-market platform, with policies by location, department or employee group and approved leave syncing to its UK and US payroll. Hour tracking is a paid add-on. No figures are published, only a demo route, so a leave-only buyer cannot price it without a sales call.
Switch from Timetastic if you want policies by group and payroll sync, and accept a demo.
Shift scheduling comes first here, and the product is now sold by TCP, with time-off requests, availability, PTO and custom leave types handled inside the schedule. Two tiers are priced per employee, Enterprise by custom price. Hourly shift teams fit; offices wanting entitlement accrual and policy depth find the page silent on it.
Switch from Timetastic if your staff are hourly and the schedule is the main tool.
Calamari: Notice periods, maximum days per week and no-overlap teams are configured per absence type, with a monthly minimum on the price calculator.
02
You have fewer than ten people on the payroll
LeaveBoard: Up to nine employees run on the free plan, and payment above that is by card only.
03
You want blocked periods and policies by contract type
Factorial: The time off module supports both, though the final plan is quoted after you pick modules.
04
Your staff would rather approve leave in Slack or Teams
Vacation Tracker: Requests and approvals run inside Slack, Microsoft Teams or Google Workspace, with a monthly minimum on both tiers.
05
Your team works shifts and the rota comes first
Planday: Absence sits inside the rota and balances accrue automatically, with leave management from the Plus plan and a five-user minimum.
04
When Timetastic is still the right choice
Timetastic stays a good choice for a small office that wants a shared calendar of who is off, allowance records and approvals at $1.50 per user per month, with unlimited users and departments. Plans are month to month with self-service cancellation, the trial runs 30 days without a card, and its data security page describes UK hosting on Azure with ISO/IEC 27001:2022 compliance listed. If alerts are enough as limits, little else needs replacing.
05
What moving off Timetastic involves
01
Settle the allowance records before the cut-off
Timetastic holds holiday allowance records, leave types and accruals per person. We found no description of a full export on the pages we read, so ask its support what a leaving customer receives. Agree one cut-off date and enter each person's remaining balance in the new tool.
02
Integrations and calendar feeds are set up again
The pricing page lists Slack, Teams, Google Workspace, Sage 50 and QuickBooks links, and the site mentions calendar connections. Staff who subscribe to a Timetastic calendar feed need a new link, and any Slack channel that posts weekly absence will need rebuilding.
03
Monthly billing makes the timing simple
Timetastic charges once a month with no minimum term, and cancelling is self-service without notice periods. You can run the new tool through a full trial month alongside it, then cancel on the day the last booking has moved.
06
Questions about replacing Timetastic
7 answers
How much does Timetastic cost per user?
The pricing page lists Business at $1.50, Pro at $2.50 and Rota & Time Clock at $5.50 per user per month. Each plan has a 30-day trial without a card, and the figures carried a dollar sign when we read the page.
Does Timetastic block overlapping leave?
Not today. Booking limits on Pro are alerts with no hard limit, and maximum absent and locked dates are listed as coming soon. Calamari and Factorial describe rules and blocked periods that act as firmer controls.
Who owns Timetastic?
Its terms of service say Timetastic Limited, company number 09236149, is part of the Citation Group of companies. The site also says it is built in the UK and Canada.
Where is Timetastic data stored?
The data security page says it runs on Microsoft Azure in the UK South and UK West regions. It also says some third-party processors may sit outside the UK or EEA, covered by contracts based on the EU standard contractual clauses.
Is there a discount or a free option?
Timetastic offers 50% off for charities, Certified B Corporations, Fair Tax Mark holders, 1% for the Planet members and NHS Trusts. LeaveBoard is free for up to nine employees, so the smallest firms can also compare that.
Can we pay Timetastic by invoice?
The pricing FAQ lists debit or credit card, plus Direct Debit from a UK bank account, with payments taken monthly through Stripe and a VAT receipt by email. It does not mention invoicing, so ask support if your finance team needs it.
Which alternatives suit a team that works in shifts?
Planday builds absence into the rota, with leave from its Plus plan and a five-user minimum. Kenjo feeds shift plans from absence, and Humanity is a shift scheduler with leave requests added.
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Sources
Checked 8 November 2026
Timetastic pricing: Business $1.50, Pro $2.50, Rota & Time Clock $5.50, 30-day trial, alerts-only limits, coming soon items, payment and discount terms.
Founder of The Knowledge Engineers and of 2 Steps Ahead, an AI search visibility agency. Editorially responsible for every page on this site; research and drafting are AI-assisted.
Written, edited and fact-checked by Sebastiaan Smits. Last reviewed 8 November 2026. How we review.
