Best Time Tracking Software for Landscaping (2026)
- Mike Vidan
- 4 days ago
- 10 min read
After pricing out eight landscaping time tracking tools this month and running my own field crews on QuoteIQ for two years, QuoteIQ is what I'd put a landscaping business on in 2026 — though I'll be straight with you upfront: the GPS time clock itself lives on the Elite plan, not the $29.99 starter tier. If a stand-alone time clock is genuinely all you need, LMN and busybusy both do that one job better. Here's the full ranked list, with real pricing, and where each one actually fits.
TL;DR
QuoteIQ — $29.99/mo flat entry, no per-user fees; the GPS time clock (EmployeeHub) sits on Elite at $299/mo.
LMN — $297/mo Starter; the deepest landscape-specific time tracking and job costing on this list.
busybusy — Free forever, unlimited users; a real GPS clock-in with job costing at no cost.
Connecteam — Free under 10 employees; $35/mo covers up to 30 users on the Basic tier.
ClockShark — $40/mo + $9/user; strong job costing, but every plan carries a 3-year term.
QuickBooks Time — $20/mo + $10/user; the cleanest sync if payroll already runs through QuickBooks.
How I Picked These
I run field crews myself — pressure washing first, then lawn care and line striping, before I co-founded QuoteIQ with Justin Rogers — so I weighted this list the way an operator would, not a software reviewer. First: does the app work standing in a driveway with wet gloves, or does it need a desktop to set up a job. Second: what does it cost once you add the crew size a real landscaping company runs, not the one-user teaser price on the homepage. Third: does it tie hours to a specific property or job so job costing means something, or is it just a punch clock. I pulled every competitor figure from that vendor's own pricing page, checked live in August 2026, and labeled anything unpublished as reported rather than confirmed. This list is for owners running anywhere from a two-person mowing crew to a 20-person maintenance and install operation, in an industry that NALP puts at $188.8 billion and 1.4 million workers, with headcount swinging hard between spring and winter for most crews.
Quick Comparison
Software | Starting Price | Best For |
$29.99/mo flat (time clock on Elite, $299/mo) | One CRM with quoting, scheduling, and time tracking | |
$297/mo, 5 crew licenses | Landscape-specific budgeting and job costing | |
Free, unlimited users | Lean or seasonal crews on a tight budget | |
Free under 10 users; $35/mo to 30 | Time clock bundled with scheduling and chat | |
$40/mo + $9/user | GPS job costing, if a 3-year term works | |
$20/mo + $10/user | Payroll already running through QuickBooks | |
$199/mo, auto time tracking | Time tracking inside a full quoting CRM | |
$189/mo, 5 users, GPS included | Time tracking plus booking and marketing |
1. QuoteIQ — Best Overall for Landscaping Crews
What it is
QuoteIQ is the CRM I co-founded with Justin Rogers after running pressure washing, lawn care, and line striping crews myself. It handles quoting, scheduling, and invoicing on every plan, and adds a GPS employee time clock — EmployeeHub — starting on Elite.
Pricing
Essentials starts at $29.99/mo flat with no per-user fee and a 14-day trial on every tier. The time clock and GPS location tracking live in EmployeeHub, which requires Elite at $299/mo flat. Max, at $699/mo, adds unlimited users on top of that.
Where it fits
A landscaping company that wants quoting, scheduling, invoicing, and a GPS time clock under one login fits QuoteIQ well once the crew justifies Elite.
Tradeoffs
The honest number for time tracking is $299/mo, not $29.99. A crew that only needs a punch clock will pay less pairing a lower QuoteIQ tier with busybusy's free plan than jumping straight to Elite.
"It seems so easy to use and should take the pain away from filling out paperwork when I can do it from my phone any time." — Batman426321 (App Store review)
2. LMN — Best Landscape-Specific Time and Job Costing
What it is
LMN (Landscape Management Network, now part of Granum) is built only for the green industry, and ties its crew time clock directly to budgeted labor hours on each job.
Pricing
LMN Starter runs $297/mo, covering one office/crew-lead license plus five crew-member licenses, confirmed on LMN's pricing page in August 2026. Professional jumps to $648/mo for three office/crew-lead licenses and 15 crew licenses.
Where it fits
A company already running budget-based estimating, or one that wants labor hours to feed straight into job costing and overhead recovery, gets more from LMN's time clock than any generalist tool here — the same logic applies if tree care is part of the mix, which I cover in my best tree service software guide.
Tradeoffs
$297/mo is a real jump above a stand-alone time clock, and LMN is priced for a company committed to its full budgeting system — bolting it on purely for time tracking is expensive.
3. busybusy — Best Free GPS Time Clock for Lean Crews
What it is
busybusy is a construction- and field-service-focused GPS time clock with a free tier that carries no user cap, plus paid tiers that add supervisor tools and reporting.
Pricing
The Free plan costs $0 for unlimited users and includes GPS clock-in/out, job costing, and equipment tracking, confirmed on busybusy's pricing page in August 2026. Pro runs $11.99/user/mo plus a $40/mo admin license, and Premium is $17.99/user/mo.
Where it fits
A small or seasonal crew that just needs an honest GPS clock-in with job costing, without paying per user, gets a genuinely usable free tool here rather than a stripped-down trial.
Tradeoffs
busybusy doesn't do quoting, invoicing, or customer management — it's a time and job-cost tool, full stop, so you're still running a separate CRM alongside it.
4. Connecteam — Best Flat-Rate Value Under 30 Users
What it is
Connecteam is an all-in-one workforce app — time clock, scheduling, and team chat — priced by feature "hub" rather than strictly by time-tracking depth.
Pricing
Crews under 10 employees run the Small Business Plan free for life. Above that, the Operations Hub Basic tier is $35/mo for up to 30 users, confirmed on Connecteam's pricing page in August 2026, with Advanced at $59/mo and Expert at $119/mo.
Where it fits
A company between roughly 10 and 30 employees that wants time tracking bundled with crew scheduling and internal chat, without a per-user bill, fits Connecteam's fixed pricing well.
Tradeoffs
Connecteam isn't landscaping-specific — there's no job costing tied to properties or budgets the way LMN or QuoteIQ handle it, so you're pairing it with something else for estimating and invoicing.
5. ClockShark — Best GPS Job Costing, If the Contract Works
What it is
ClockShark is a GPS time clock built for field crews, with job and task tracking, geofencing, and scheduling aimed at construction and landscaping companies.
Pricing
Standard runs $40/mo plus $9/user/month, and Pro is $60/mo plus $11/user/month, confirmed on ClockShark's pricing page in August 2026. Every plan carries a three-year contract term.
Where it fits
A mid-size company that wants strong GPS job costing and doesn't mind committing long-term gets solid tooling here.
Tradeoffs
That three-year term is the catch — most tools here run month to month, and locking in for three years is a lot to ask in an industry this seasonal. Landscaping accounts for the largest share of H-2B seasonal labor certifications of any sector, over 31%, per the American Immigration Council, so crew size on a lot of these businesses genuinely swings year to year.
6. QuickBooks Time — Best if Payroll Already Runs Through QuickBooks
What it is
QuickBooks Time — formerly TSheets — is Intuit's time-tracking product, built to sync directly into QuickBooks payroll and accounting.
Pricing
Time Premium is $20/mo base plus $10/user/month, and Time Elite is $40/mo base plus $12/user/month, confirmed on QuickBooks Time's pricing page in August 2026 — rates that rose $2 per user on both tiers as of July 1, 2026. A QuickBooks Online subscription is required separately.
Where it fits
A company that already books everything through QuickBooks gets the cleanest payroll sync of anything on this list.
Tradeoffs
You're paying for two subscriptions — QuickBooks Online plus QuickBooks Time — and the per-user rate just rose, so the real monthly bill runs higher than the headline number suggests.
7. Jobber — Best for Time Tracking Inside a Full CRM
What it is
Jobber is a general field-service CRM — quoting, scheduling, invoicing — with manual time tracking on its Connect tier and automatic geofenced timers on Grow.
Pricing
Connect starts at $139/mo for one user, or $199/mo for five, and Grow — the tier with automatic time tracking — starts at $199/mo for one user or $299/mo for five, confirmed on Jobber's pricing page in August 2026. Extra users run $29/mo each.
Where it fits
A company that wants time tracking as one piece of a broader CRM, and doesn't mind paying Grow-tier pricing for automatic timers, fits well here. See my QuoteIQ vs. Jobber vs. Housecall Pro comparison for the full breakdown.
Tradeoffs
Jobber's cheapest Core plan doesn't include real time tracking at all, and per-user fees on top of the tier price add up fast for a crew of 10 or more.
8. Housecall Pro — Best for Time Tracking Plus Booking and Marketing
What it is
Housecall Pro is a home-service platform with online booking, review management, and marketing tools built in, plus employee GPS time tracking on Essentials and up.
Pricing
Basic starts at $79/mo for one user with no GPS tracking, Essentials is $189/mo for five users and adds employee GPS tracking, and Max is $329/mo for eight users, confirmed on Housecall Pro's pricing page in August 2026. Extra users on Essentials run $100/mo each.
Where it fits
A company that wants time tracking alongside online booking, review requests, and marketing automation in the same login gets real value once on Essentials or above.
Tradeoffs
The GPS time tracking you're after isn't on the entry-level Basic plan — you need Essentials at $189/mo minimum, well above the advertised starting price.
What Operators Say
"QuoteIQ is the best decision I made for business." — Windham_Wilsonz (App Store review)
"Awesome app my brothers and I use this for our landscaping business and it has made it so easy to get quotes to people to increase revenue!!" — BigBearCulture (App Store review)
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best time tracking software for landscaping companies in 2026?
QuoteIQ is the strongest overall pick for time tracking built into the same CRM you quote and invoice from, though the GPS time clock needs the Elite plan at $299/mo rather than the $29.99 entry tier. For a stand-alone punch clock, LMN offers the deepest landscape-specific job costing at $297/mo, and busybusy's free tier covers unlimited users at no cost. The right pick depends on whether you want one login for everything or a dedicated time app running alongside your CRM. See my lawn care CRM roundup for the broader platform question.
How much does landscaping time tracking software cost?
Pricing on this list runs from free to roughly $650/mo, depending on crew size and whether you want a dedicated time clock or a full CRM with time tracking attached. busybusy and Connecteam both offer genuinely free tiers for small crews. Per-user tools like ClockShark ($40/mo + $9/user) and QuickBooks Time ($20/mo + $10/user) scale with headcount, so a 15-person crew pays well above the advertised starting price. LMN starts at $297/mo flat for five crew licenses. Labor is usually a landscaping crew's largest cost — the BLS puts the median hourly wage for landscaping and groundskeeping workers at $18.82 — so even a low-cost tool that tightens payroll accuracy tends to pay for itself.
Does landscaping time tracking software need GPS tracking?
For a crew moving between properties all day, yes — GPS clock-in confirms someone is actually at the job site when they punch in, with no supervisor watching the clock at every stop. Most tools here build GPS in at or near the entry tier: busybusy includes it free, and Housecall Pro adds employee GPS once you're on Essentials at $189/mo. A few, like Jobber's Core plan, skip real time tracking at the cheapest tier, so check the specific plan rather than assuming GPS comes with the brand.
What's the difference between a stand-alone time clock and a full landscaping CRM with time tracking built in?
A stand-alone tool like busybusy or ClockShark does one job — clock employees in and out with GPS and tie hours to a job or cost code. A full CRM like QuoteIQ or Jobber folds time tracking into the same platform that handles quoting and invoicing, so labor hours flow into job costing without exporting a spreadsheet. A dedicated clock is usually cheaper per user, while a bundled CRM means one login and one bill, often at a higher price to unlock the time-tracking piece.
Can landscaping time tracking software track hours by property or job?
Yes, and that's the feature separating a real job-costing tool from a basic punch clock. LMN ties every clocked hour back to a budgeted job so a company can see labor cost against the estimate in real time. QuoteIQ's EmployeeHub does the same on Elite and above. Stand-alone clocks like busybusy and ClockShark also support job- and cost-code-level tracking, which matters if maintenance contracts and one-time installs need separate profitability numbers.
Is there a free time tracking app for landscaping crews?
Yes. busybusy's Free plan has no user cap and includes GPS clock-in/out, job costing, and equipment tracking at no cost, which is unusual since most competitors gate GPS behind a paid tier. Connecteam also offers a free-for-life Small Business Plan for crews under 10 employees, covering time tracking, scheduling, and team chat together. Neither free option includes quoting or invoicing, so you'll still need a separate system for the customer-facing side of the business.
Does landscaping time tracking software integrate with QuickBooks for payroll?
Most tools on this list do, though the depth varies. QuickBooks Time is built by Intuit to sync into QuickBooks Online payroll, but it requires a separate QuickBooks Online subscription on top of its own fee. QuoteIQ, LMN, ClockShark, and Connecteam all offer QuickBooks integration for exporting hours or invoices, though none replace QuickBooks the way QuickBooks Time does natively. If payroll accuracy is the problem you're solving, run the math on both subscriptions together rather than judging QuickBooks Time on its per-user price alone.
How do I start a QuoteIQ trial?
You can start a 14-day trial on any QuoteIQ plan, including Essentials and Max, from the signup page or by booking a walkthrough first at bit.ly/QIQDemo. A credit or debit card is required to start, and you can pick whichever plan matches your crew size — including Elite if the GPS time clock is the feature you're testing. The trial covers the full feature set of the plan you select, so start on Elite if EmployeeHub is what you actually want to evaluate.
Bottom Line
If time theft or guesswork on payroll hours is costing your landscaping crew real money, don't overthink this: pick the tool that matches your crew size and budget, not the one with the flashiest feature list. I run QuoteIQ on my own businesses because I want the time clock, quoting, and invoicing under one login, but if all you need is an honest GPS punch clock, busybusy's free tier or LMN's landscape-specific budgeting will serve you just as well. If your crew also plows in the winter, I've ranked the software for that separately in my best snow removal software guide. You can see QuoteIQ's time-tracking module for yourself at bit.ly/QIQDemo — book a demo and watch it run before you commit.
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