Best Leave Management Software for 2026: Free and Paid Options Compared

Most teams start tracking leave in a spreadsheet. It works until someone miscalculates a carryover balance, a manager approves conflicting time off, or HR spends Friday afternoon before payroll manually reconciling who took what.

If your team is under ten people, a shared Google Sheet might be all you need. But once you pass that threshold, the errors start adding up. According to the AbsenceSoft 2026 State of Leave and Accommodations report, 53% of HR managers saw an increase in time off requests in 2026, with over half reporting increases of 21% or more. Manual tracking breaks down fast under that kind of volume.

This article reviews 16 leave management software tools that handle requests, approvals, balances, and reporting. It covers free options for small teams, paid platforms with payroll integration, and enterprise systems built for FMLA compliance. Each tool is evaluated on feature depth, pricing transparency, and genuine usability, not vendor marketing.

How we evaluated these tools

Picking 16 tools from a category with dozens of options means making cuts. Here is what we weighted:

• Leave-specific feature depth. Does the tool do leave management well, or is leave tracking a checkbox inside a larger HR platform? Standalone tools that automate accruals, handle custom leave types, and generate reports without workarounds scored higher.
• Pricing transparency. If we could not find a price on the vendor’s website, that counted against it. “Contact sales” is fine for enterprise platforms. For a tool aimed at 20-person teams, it signals a pricing conversation most buyers do not want to have.
• Free tier quality. A free plan limited to one user or stripped of core features is marketing, not a product. We looked for free tiers where a small team could actually run their leave workflow without hitting a wall in the first week.
• Integration fit. Payroll sync, calendar integration, and Slack or Teams connectivity. These three determine whether the tool fits into your existing workflow or creates another silo.
• SERP presence. We checked which tools appear in the top-ranking review articles for this category. If a tool does not show up anywhere in the first two pages of Google results for leave management queries, it is either too new or too niche for a general recommendation.

Leave management software at a glance

Best free leave management software

These tools offer free plans for small teams. Most have paid tiers that remove user caps or unlock features like automated accruals and payroll export.

1. actiPLANS

actiPLANS is a dedicated leave management tool, not an HR platform that happens to track leave. The core of the product is a visual team timeline that shows who is off, who is working, and where scheduling conflicts exist. Managers see everything in one view instead of cross-referencing calendars and spreadsheets.

Employees submit requests from the web or mobile app. Managers approve individually, in bulk, or set auto-approval rules for specific leave types. The system supports unlimited custom leave types (vacation, sick, TOIL, bereavement, whatever your policy requires) and can be configured per employee or org-wide.

On paid plans, PTO tracking adds automated accruals with configurable rules for caps, carryover, and yearly resets. Set it once and balances calculate themselves. Reports export to CSV and PDF for payroll reconciliation.

The platform also includes work scheduling and employee location tracking for teams that need to manage where people work, not just when they are off. It integrates with actiTIME for organizations that need time tracking alongside leave management.

Pricing: Free for up to 3 users. Paid plans from $1.50/user/month (billed annually). The Enterprise plan covers unlimited users at $270/month. Every paid plan starts with a 30-day free trial.

Strengths: The visual timeline is the most readable in this category for daily team management. Unlimited custom leave types on every plan, including free. Pricing stays low even at scale.

Limitations: The free plan caps at 3 users and does not include PTO balance tracking or work scheduling. No native FMLA case management. This is a leave tracker, not a compliance platform.

Best for: Teams of any size that want dedicated leave management software with automated accruals, a shared calendar, and room to grow without switching tools.

2. LeaveBoard

LeaveBoard covers the core leave workflow and integrates with Slack for request and approval notifications. The free plan supports up to 9 users, which is one of the more generous free tiers in this category. Employees can check balances and submit requests without logging into a separate dashboard.

The product focuses on simplicity. There is no module for payroll, no compliance engine, no project tracking. You get a leave calendar, employee self-service, balance tracking, and basic reporting. For teams that want exactly that and nothing more, this focus is an advantage: there is less to configure and less to go wrong.

One practical limitation: LeaveBoard does not offer payroll integration or CSV export on its free plan. If your workflow requires getting approved leave data into a payroll system, you will need the paid tier.

Pricing: Free for up to 9 users. Paid plans available for larger teams.

Strengths: Generous free tier. Slack integration keeps leave requests inside the platform teams already use. Fast setup with minimal configuration.

Limitations: No payroll export on the free plan. Limited reporting depth compared to tools like actiPLANS or BambooHR. No FMLA or compliance features.

Best for: Small teams already on Slack that want a leave tracker they can set up in 15 minutes.

3. TalentHR

TalentHR offers a free plan for up to 10 users with no time limit and no credit card required. The free tier includes a surprising amount: custom leave types, accrual policies, prorated allowances, partial-day leave, multiple approvers, and both calendar and matrix views for team availability. Most free plans in this category cut features aggressively. TalentHR does not.

Beyond leave, the free plan also covers an employee database with org chart, onboarding automation, benefits management, and basic applicant tracking (limited to 2 job postings). This makes it more of a lightweight HRIS than a standalone leave tool, which is either an advantage or unnecessary complexity depending on your needs.

TalentHR is built by Epignosis, the company behind TalentLMS. If your organization already uses TalentLMS for training, the native integration lets you assign onboarding courses and track completion from within the HRIS.

Pricing: Free for up to 10 users. Essential plan at $2/user/month; Premium at $4/user/month. Paid plans require a minimum of 15 users, which creates an awkward gap if you have 11 to 14 people.

Strengths: Most feature-complete free tier in this list. No time limit on the free plan. Calendar and matrix views for availability.

Limitations: The 15-user minimum on paid plans means teams of 11 to 14 pay for users they do not have. No API or Zapier on the free plan. Slack integration requires the Premium tier. Several features still in beta.

Best for: Teams under 10 that want a free HRIS with solid leave tracking, not just a leave calendar.

4. Leave Dates

Leave Dates is a focused leave tracker with a clean shared availability chart and tight Google Calendar integration. Most employees can submit their first request without training. The tool stays minimal by design, which makes it fast to set up for teams that have no dedicated HR function.

PTO accrual is available on paid plans. The free plan covers basic leave requests, approvals, and a team calendar. Email notifications keep managers informed without requiring them to check a dashboard.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans from approximately $1.35/user/month.

Strengths: The simplest tool in this list to set up and use. Google Calendar sync works reliably. Low per-user cost on paid plans.

Limitations: No payroll integration. No mobile app (browser-based only). Reporting is basic. Not suited for teams that need compliance features or complex accrual rules.

Best for: Small teams that want the simplest possible leave management software with calendar integration.

5. AttendanceBot

AttendanceBot handles leave requests and approvals entirely inside Slack or Microsoft Teams. Employees type a request in chat; managers approve without leaving the platform. There is no separate dashboard to log into, no new URL to bookmark, no password to remember. For teams whose entire workday runs in a messaging app, this is the path of least resistance.

The tool also handles shift management and basic PTO tracking. Free plan covers the essentials; paid plans add more leave types and integrations.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans from approximately $4/user/month.

Strengths: Zero adoption friction. If your team already lives in Slack or Teams, they will use this without being asked. No separate login.

Limitations: Tied to Slack or Teams. If you switch messaging platforms, you switch leave tools. No payroll integration. Reporting is limited compared to dedicated leave management software.

Best for: Teams that want leave requests handled inside Slack or Microsoft Teams with no additional tool to manage.

6. Connecteam

Connecteam is built for teams where employees do not sit at a desk: retail, construction, hospitality, field services, cleaning crews. The mobile app handles leave requests, time clock, and scheduling in one place. The free plan covers up to 10 users across all features.

Leave management is one module in a broader operations platform. If your team also needs shift scheduling, a time clock, or employee communications, Connecteam consolidates those into a single app. If you only need leave tracking, the platform has more surface area than you will use.

Pricing: Free for up to 10 users. Paid plans from $29/month for up to 30 users.

Strengths: Best mobile experience in this list. Designed for workers without company email or desktop access. The free tier is genuinely usable.

Limitations: The per-team pricing (not per-user) can be expensive for teams of 11 to 20 where a per-user tool would cost less. No payroll integration. No FMLA support. Leave management is not the primary focus of the platform.

Best for: Mobile and deskless workforces that need leave management on a phone, not a desktop browser.

Best paid leave management software

These tools are for teams that have outgrown free plans or need payroll connectivity, deeper reporting, or multi-location support.

7. BambooHR

BambooHR includes leave management as part of its HRIS platform. Time off requests, approvals, balance tracking, and custom leave types are available in the core product. BambooHR recently introduced a free plan for up to 25 employees, making it accessible for smaller teams testing HRIS software.

Leave management depth is moderate. BambooHR is an employee records platform first, leave tracker second. The advantage is that if your team already uses BambooHR for employee data, adding leave tracking avoids a separate subscription and a separate login. The disadvantage is that standalone leave tools like actiPLANS or Timetastic offer more configurability around accrual rules and leave types.

Pricing: Free for up to 25 employees. Custom pricing for larger teams (requires a demo).

Strengths: Leave tracking within a broader HRIS means employee data, org chart, and leave records live in one place. The interface is clean and well-designed. Strong brand trust.

Limitations: Custom pricing means no quick comparison shopping. Payroll integration requires an add-on. No FMLA case management. Leave configuration is less flexible than dedicated leave tools.

Best for: SMBs that already use BambooHR or want an HRIS with leave management included.

8. Timetastic

Timetastic is a leave management specialist with 275,000+ users. The product does one thing: track who is off and when. No project tracking, no payroll module, no applicant tracking. The wallchart view gives managers an instant read on team availability, and locked dates prevent leave requests during critical periods.

The Pro plan ($2.50/user/month) adds a Burnout Board that flags employees at risk based on their absence patterns. It is one of the few tools in this category that actively monitors whether people are taking enough time off, not just tracking when they do.

A separate Rota and Time Clock plan ($5.50/user/month) adds shift scheduling and timesheets, though it sits on a different feature track than the Pro plan. You get either analytics or scheduling, not both in one tier.

Pricing: From $1.50/user/month (Business). Pro at $2.50/user/month. No free plan; 30-day trial, no credit card required. 50% discount for charities and B Corps.

Strengths: Simple and fast. The Burnout Board is a unique and genuinely useful feature. Pricing is among the lowest in the category. Strong review scores (4.9 on Trustpilot, 4.7 on Capterra).

Limitations: No permanent free plan. UK-centric defaults (bank holidays, NHS discounts). The feature split between Pro and Rota plans means there is no single tier that includes everything. No payroll sync on leave plans.

Best for: Small to mid-size teams (under 100 people) that want a simple, affordable, dedicated leave tracker.

9. Vacation Tracker

Vacation Tracker is a Slack-first and Teams-first leave tool with a visual calendar that shows team availability at a glance. It operates as a native app inside your messaging platform. Adoption tends to be fast because employees never need to learn a separate tool.

The product handles custom leave types, reporting, and Google Calendar sync. Leave management depth is solid for mid-sized teams. What it does not do is handle payroll, compliance, or anything beyond leave tracking. That narrow scope is the point.

Pricing: From $25/month for up to 25 users ($1/user/month effective rate).

Strengths: Clean integration with Slack and Teams. Visual calendar is well designed. Per-team pricing is cost-effective for teams of 20+.

Limitations: No free plan. No payroll integration. No FMLA support. The $25/month minimum is expensive for very small teams.

Best for: Slack-first or Teams-first teams of 10 to 200 people that want leave tracking embedded in their daily workflow.

10. Calamari

Calamari pairs leave management with time and attendance tracking. The leave module handles custom leave types, absence calendars, and approval workflows. The clock-in module tracks when people start and finish work. Together, they give a fuller picture of attendance than leave-only tools provide.

Integrations with Slack, Google Workspace, and Jira make Calamari a natural fit for technology teams. Data exports via CSV for payroll reconciliation.

Pricing: From approximately $2/user/month per module. You can buy leave management and clock-in separately or together.

Strengths: Modular pricing lets you pay only for what you need. Strong integration library for tech stacks. Combines leave and attendance data.

Limitations: No free plan. No direct payroll sync (CSV export only). No FMLA or compliance features.

Best for: Technology teams and distributed companies that want leave and attendance tracking in one system.

11. GoCo

GoCo is a US-focused HR platform that connects leave management directly to payroll and benefits. When a manager approves a leave request, the data flows to payroll without a manual export step. That integration removes the most error-prone part of leave administration for US businesses.

GoCo includes basic FMLA tracking. Organizations with high FMLA volume will still want a specialist tool like AbsenceSoft alongside it, but for occasional FMLA cases, GoCo covers the basics.

Pricing: From approximately $5/user/month.

Strengths: Direct payroll integration eliminates manual data entry. Benefits administration built in. Basic FMLA tracking included.

Limitations: US-only. Higher per-user cost than standalone leave tools. Custom pricing on upper tiers. FMLA tracking is basic, not a compliance engine.

Best for: US small and mid-size businesses that want leave, payroll, and benefits connected in one system.

12. Rippling

Rippling automates leave policy enforcement and syncs approved leave directly to payroll. Leave management is one module in a broader HR and IT platform. The integration library covers 500+ tools, which is broader than most HR platforms at this price point.

Rippling also includes FMLA tracking and global compliance support, making it one of the few mid-market platforms that handles both US leave compliance and international leave policies.

Pricing: From $8/user/month for the core platform. Leave management is a module add-on.

Strengths: Deep payroll integration. FMLA tracking included. Extensive third-party integrations. Works for both US and international teams.

Limitations: Modular pricing means the total cost can climb quickly. The platform has a learning curve; it is not a set-up-in-15-minutes tool. Overkill for teams that only need leave tracking.

Best for: US businesses that want employee leave management software tightly connected to payroll and the rest of their HR stack.

13. Cocoon

Cocoon is a specialist platform for parental leave and family absence management. It calculates state benefits, coordinates FMLA eligibility, and connects directly to payroll to handle the pay continuation complexity that parental leave creates. The platform also provides employee-facing guidance throughout the leave process.

Cocoon reports an average of $12,515 saved per leave in recouped benefits payments. If that number is anywhere close to accurate, the tool pays for itself after one or two parental leaves.

Pricing: Custom pricing. Requires a sales conversation.

Strengths: The only tool in this list built specifically for parental and family leave. Benefits coordination recovers money most companies leave on the table. Employee coaching reduces HR’s administrative load during sensitive leave periods.

Limitations: US-only. Narrow scope: this handles parental and family leave, not general PTO. Custom pricing with no published rates. Not suited as a standalone leave management tool.

Best for: US companies that frequently manage parental leave and want compliance, benefits coordination, and payroll handled in one place.

Best leave management software for compliance and enterprise

For organizations where FMLA compliance, ADA accommodations, or multi-state leave of absence laws are the primary driver, these tools handle the legal and documentation side that general leave trackers skip. FMLA violations can result in back pay, liquidated damages equal to the back pay amount, and attorney fees. The legal exposure is real, and a miscalculated intermittent leave entitlement or a missing notice can trigger it.

14. AbsenceSoft

AbsenceSoft focuses on leave compliance rather than general PTO tracking. It handles FMLA, ADA, PFML, and state-specific accommodations, including the documentation workflows and legally required notices those cases demand. The platform integrates with major HCM systems (ADP, Workday, UKG) rather than replacing them.

One HR team using AbsenceSoft processed 3,084 compliance cases in a year with a team of four. That kind of volume is impossible to manage manually without missing deadlines and generating legal risk.

Pricing: Custom pricing. Enterprise-level.

Strengths: Purpose-built for FMLA and ADA case management. Tracks 200+ leave laws. Documentation workflows generate legally required notices automatically.

Limitations: Not a general leave tracker. Does not replace your PTO tool. Enterprise pricing. Requires an existing HCM platform to work alongside.

Best for: Mid-market and enterprise HR teams in the US managing high volumes of FMLA or ADA cases.

15. Dayforce (Ceridian)

Dayforce handles leave management as part of a unified HCM platform with real-time payroll sync and global compliance coverage. Leave data connects directly to scheduling, payroll, and workforce forecasting without manual handoffs between systems.

Implementation is a significant project. This is not a tool you stand up in a week. Organizations choosing Dayforce are making a long-term platform commitment, which is appropriate when the alternative is managing leave, payroll, scheduling, and compliance across four different vendors.

For organizations evaluating enterprise HCM platforms: UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group) covers similar ground with particular strength in workforce scheduling and forecasting. The choice between Dayforce and UKG typically comes down to which vendor’s implementation approach and regional support model fit your organization better.

Pricing: Custom pricing. Enterprise-level.

Strengths: Real-time payroll integration. Global compliance. Unified platform means one vendor for leave, pay, and scheduling.

Limitations: Long implementation timeline. Enterprise pricing with no published rates. Overkill for organizations under 200 people.

Best for: Large enterprises that want leave, payroll, scheduling, and compliance managed through a single vendor.

16. ADP Workforce Now

ADP Workforce Now handles leave management as part of a full HCM suite with strong US compliance coverage for FMLA and ADA. Leave data syncs directly to payroll. For organizations that already process payroll through ADP, adding leave management to the same platform eliminates the integration complexity that standalone tools create.

ADP’s compliance coverage spans multi-state requirements, which matters for distributed US workforces. Implementation requires dedicated setup time and ADP support involvement.

For organizations that need dedicated FMLA documentation rather than a full HCM platform: J. J. Keller Leave Manager is a specialist tool that generates legally required notices, tracks intermittent leave, and handles state leave law variations. Its scope is deliberately narrow, covering the paperwork and compliance side of FMLA that general leave tools skip.

Pricing: Custom pricing. Requires a sales conversation.

Strengths: Deep payroll integration for existing ADP customers. FMLA and ADA tracking included. Multi-state compliance support.

Limitations: Custom pricing with no transparency. Implementation is not self-serve. The platform has more surface area than organizations that only need leave tracking will use.

Best for: US mid-market to enterprise organizations with complex payroll and compliance requirements, especially existing ADP customers.

What manual leave tracking actually costs

The case for software for leave management is not “it has more features than a spreadsheet.” It is that manual tracking has a real cost in HR time and errors that most teams never measure. Here is a worked example using a 50-person company.

Assumptions (illustrative): Each employee takes an average of 15 days off per year. That generates roughly 750 leave events (requests, approvals, balance updates) per year. HR spends an average of 10 minutes per event manually: checking the current balance, updating the spreadsheet, confirming with the manager, and sending a confirmation.

750 events multiplied by 10 minutes is 7,500 minutes, or 125 hours of HR time per year. At $35/hour loaded cost, that is $4,375 per year spent on data entry and calendar management.

Now add errors. A realistic error rate for manual spreadsheet tracking is 3% to 5% of entries: wrong balance, missed carryover, duplicate entry, formula broken by someone editing the wrong cell. At 4%, that is 30 errors per year. Each error takes roughly 30 minutes to investigate and correct (identify the discrepancy, trace the cause, fix the data, notify the affected employee). That adds another 15 hours, or $525.

Total cost of manual tracking: approximately $4,900 per year in HR time alone. This does not count the compliance risk of an incorrect leave balance leading to an overpayment that needs recovering, or an employee returning from FMLA leave to discover their entitlement was miscalculated.

Dedicated leave management software for the same 50-person team costs between $810/year (actiPLANS at $1.50/user/month, annual billing, minus the 3 free users) and $4,800/year (Rippling at $8/user/month). Even the most expensive standalone option in this list pays for itself in recovered HR time.

Sensitivity: If your error rate is 5% instead of 3%, the correction cost rises from $525 to $875. If your HR team’s loaded cost is $45/hour instead of $35, the total manual cost reaches $6,300. The break-even threshold for software gets easier to clear, not harder, as the team grows.

What goes wrong after you buy leave management software

Buying the tool is not the hard part. These are the problems that surface in the first three months after deployment, and most of them are preventable.

Accrual rules misconfigured at year-end. You set up accrual once during onboarding and forget about it. Then January 1st arrives and you discover that carryover caps were not configured, or pro-rated balances for mid-year hires are wrong, or the rollover reset happened a day early because of a timezone setting. One wrong checkbox and 50 employees carry over leave they should not have, or lose leave they should keep. Run a year-end test in November, not December.

Manager approval bottlenecks. A manager goes on annual leave themselves. Their team’s requests pile up for two weeks. Without a delegation or escalation path, employees cannot get leave approved in time. Before deploying, configure backup approvers for every manager role.

Low employee adoption. You bought the software. Half the team still emails HR or walks over to their manager’s desk. The system has data, but it is incomplete, which is worse than not having the system at all. Fix this during rollout: make the leave tool the only accepted request channel. If it is optional, it will be ignored.

Payroll sync not tested before the first pay run. You approve leave in the system, assume it flows to payroll, and discover during the first pay run that the integration was not configured correctly or the leave types do not map to payroll categories. Result: manual corrections on payday. Test the full cycle (request, approval, payroll export) with a dummy employee before going live.

Compliance gaps when laws change. State paid leave laws change frequently. California, New York, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon each have different requirements that update on different schedules. If your leave management software vendor updates slowly, you are the one exposed to a compliance gap. Ask your vendor how quickly they update for state law changes before you buy.

How to choose leave management software for your team

The right tool depends on three things: how many people you have, whether you need payroll integration, and whether leave management is a standalone need or part of a broader HR platform decision.

Under 10 people: Start with a free tool. actiPLANS, TalentHR, or Connecteam all offer free plans that cover the full leave workflow. If your team is already on Slack, AttendanceBot or LeaveBoard let you handle requests without a separate tool. At this size, the goal is replacing the spreadsheet without introducing administrative overhead.

10 to 50 people: This is where leave tracking software earns its cost. Accrual errors in spreadsheets start creating real payroll problems. A dedicated tool like actiPLANS, Timetastic, or Calamari handles the math correctly and gives managers a shared view of who is off. If you need payroll sync, GoCo or Rippling connect leave data directly to payroll without a manual export step.

50 to 200 people: At this scale, look for tools that handle multi-department management, custom approval chains, and compliance support. Rippling and ADP Workforce Now cover US payroll and FMLA. BambooHR works well if you also need a central employee records platform.

200+ people or complex compliance: Enterprise HCM platforms (Dayforce, UKG, ADP Workforce Now) or specialist compliance tools (AbsenceSoft, J. J. Keller) are appropriate when leave management must integrate with payroll, benefits, scheduling, and multi-state compliance in a single system.

Slack or Teams-first teams: AttendanceBot (chat-native) or Vacation Tracker (visual calendar inside Slack/Teams) give the fastest adoption because employees never need to log into a separate tool.

Parental leave and FMLA specialist needs: Cocoon for parental leave benefits coordination. AbsenceSoft or J. J. Keller for FMLA and ADA case documentation.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best free leave management software?

It depends on what you mean by “best.” actiPLANS is the strongest option if you want dedicated leave management with a visual timeline and room to grow into paid features like automated accruals. TalentHR has the most features on its free plan (10 users, accrual policies, org chart, onboarding) if you want a lightweight HRIS. LeaveBoard (free for 9 users) is the fastest to set up if you just need a shared leave calendar on Slack. None of these free plans include payroll integration.

Does leave management software handle FMLA compliance?

General leave management tools (actiPLANS, BambooHR, Timetastic, Calamari) track time off but do not handle the documentation side of FMLA: eligibility calculations, legally required notices, intermittent leave case tracking, or state leave law variations. FMLA violations can result in back pay, liquidated damages, and attorney fees. For organizations with regular FMLA cases, purpose-built tools are necessary. AbsenceSoft and J. J. Keller Leave Manager handle case management, automated notices, and multi-state compliance. Mid-market HCM platforms like Rippling, ADP Workforce Now, and Dayforce include FMLA tracking as part of a broader compliance module.

How long does it take to set up leave management software?

Standalone leave trackers (actiPLANS, Timetastic, Leave Dates, LeaveBoard) take 30 minutes to an hour. You configure your leave types, set accrual rules, import your employee list, and start accepting requests. Mid-market platforms with payroll integration (GoCo, Rippling) take one to two weeks because policy configuration and payroll mapping need testing before going live. Enterprise HCM platforms (Dayforce, UKG, ADP Workforce Now) are implementation projects that typically take several months with dedicated vendor support.

What should leave management software cost for a 50-person team?

A free tool with user limits will not cover a team this size. Dedicated leave tracking software costs between $810/year (actiPLANS at $1.50/user/month for 47 paid users plus 3 free, billed annually) and $1,500/year (Calamari at approximately $2/user/month, plus the attendance module). Mid-market HR platforms with payroll integration run $3,000 to $4,800/year (GoCo at ~$5/user/month or Rippling at $8/user/month). Enterprise HCM platforms are custom-quoted. As the worked calculation above shows, even the most expensive standalone option pays for itself in recovered HR time compared to manual spreadsheet tracking.

Which leave management software should you choose?

If you are reading this article, you probably know your current process is not working. Here is the short version:

• Free, small team: actiPLANS (up to 3 users, strongest dedicated leave tool), TalentHR (up to 10 users, broadest free feature set), or LeaveBoard (up to 9 users, Slack integration)
• Mobile or deskless workforce: Connecteam
• Slack or Teams-first team: AttendanceBot (chat-native) or Vacation Tracker (visual calendar)
• Dedicated leave tracker, paid: Timetastic ($1.50/user/month, simple and focused)
• US payroll integration: GoCo, Rippling, or ADP Workforce Now
• Parental leave specialist: Cocoon
• FMLA compliance: AbsenceSoft or J. J. Keller Leave Manager
• Enterprise HCM: Dayforce or UKG
• HRIS with leave included: BambooHR

To try leave management software without setup fees, actiPLANS offers a free plan for up to 3 users and a 30-day free trial for larger teams.