Complys vs Clockify

Clockify is one of the best-known freemium time trackers in the world, and its free tier is famously generous - unlimited users, timesheets and reporting at no cost. For freelancers, agencies and general SMBs who need to log hours against projects and clients, it is a deservedly popular, polished tool.

But Clockify is a general-purpose time tracker, not a construction tool, and that shows in two ways that matter on site. Its GPS is limited - location tracking only appears on the paid Pro tier and above, and it has no true geofencing - and it does no compliance whatsoever. Complys is built for UK construction: it captures geofenced GPS clock-in as standard and adds the RAMS, COSHH, inductions, accident book and permits a site is legally required to keep. So for a builder, this is a comparison between a general timesheet app and a site platform.

For a construction site the whole point of a mobile clock-in is proving that a worker was actually on your site. This is where Clockify is weak: GPS location tracking is a paid Pro-and-above feature, and Clockify does not offer true geofencing - so you cannot reliably require or verify that a punch happened at the site, which is exactly the control most site managers want.

Complys captures location, accuracy, distance from site and an on-site, near-site or outside-radius status on every clock-in, on every tier, and flags anyone clocking in from the wrong place. For a business that just needs to log billable hours at a desk, Clockify's approach is fine; for a business that needs to prove attendance on a physical site, the geofencing Complys does as standard is the difference between a timesheet and evidence.

Clockify earns its popularity. Its free tier is genuinely one of the most generous in the market, its timesheets are clean, and its reporting on where time goes - by project, client and task - is strong and flexible. For professional-services businesses billing time to clients, or anyone who needs simple, cheap, reliable time logging, it is an excellent choice and Complys is not trying to be a better version of it.

It is also a mature, well-supported product with a large global user base. If your problem is 'how many hours did we spend on this client's project', Clockify answers that neatly. The question is only whether that is your problem, or whether your problem is running a compliant construction site - because those need very different tools.

Like every time tracker in this comparison, Clockify does no compliance at all. There is no RAMS or method statements, no COSHH, no site inductions, no accident book or RIDDOR flagging, no permits to work, no near-miss reporting and no worker card or qualification tracking. For a construction business, that leaves the entire legal H&S burden to be handled somewhere else.

Complys exists to carry it: generate site-specific RAMS and COSHH in minutes, get inductions signed by QR with location captured, log accidents in a book that flags the RIDDOR position, issue permits with the right precautions, and keep everyone's cards and training in date. A general time tracker records how long the work took; Complys makes sure the work was allowed to happen safely and can be proven so.

Both have a free tier, but they are free at different things. Clockify free is superb for time logging and reporting; its GPS sits behind the paid Pro tier, and it never adds geofencing or compliance at any price. Complys free gives you geofenced time tracking and the compliance tools, with AI RAMS and COSHH generation metered on credit top-ups, and its paid plans are flat and include the whole team.

So a construction firm choosing Clockify to save money still has to buy and run separate RAMS, COSHH, induction and accident-book systems - and pay for Clockify's Pro tier just to get GPS. Add that up and the 'free' timesheet becomes the cheapest part of a much bigger, more fragmented bill. With Complys the geofenced clock-in and the compliance live in one subscription that starts free.

If you have been using Clockify for time and want to move to a tool built for site work, the transition is mostly a step up rather than a like-for-like swap: you gain proper geofenced clock-in that Clockify keeps behind its Pro tier, and you gain the whole compliance platform Clockify does not have. Set up your projects and site radii, add your people, and get the crew clocking in - the RAMS, inductions and accident book are then ready.

If some of your business genuinely is desk-based time logging billed to clients, Clockify's reporting is strong and you could keep it for that narrow purpose while running your sites on Complys. But for the on-site half of a construction business - proving attendance and keeping the site compliant - Clockify was never the right tool, and consolidating onto Complys removes both the fragmentation and the separate compliance subscriptions.

Choose Clockify if you need simple, generous, cheap time tracking and reporting for desk-based or professional-services work, and you do not need on-site geofencing or any compliance. Choose Complys if you are a UK construction or trade business that needs geofenced clock-in plus the compliance a site is legally required to keep, in one UK platform with a free tier.

The bottom line: Clockify is a great general time tracker and a poor construction tool - its GPS is paywalled, it has no geofencing, and it does no compliance. Complys does the site clock-in properly and owns the compliance Clockify ignores. For logging billable hours, Clockify; for running a compliant construction site, Complys is not really the same category of tool.