Free leave management for up to 15 people
Free leave management software, with nothing important held back
Run requests, approvals, balances, accrual policies, public holidays and absence reporting for up to 15 people — free, no credit card, no two-week countdown. Then a flat $0.75 per user per month.
"Free" leave management software usually means a demo in disguise: one office, one leave type, basic approvals, and a trial that ends the moment HR has actually moved off the spreadsheet. Absenca's free plan is the real product for up to 15 people — the policy engine, the analytics, the integrations — sized for a small team rather than cut down to nudge you onto a card.
It's aimed at the person who owns absence for a growing company: an HR coordinator, ops lead or office manager who needs accurate balances and an approval trail today, and the same tool — with the same history — once headcount passes 15. At that point it's a flat $0.75 per user per month, not the $2–4 per user that comparable tools commonly charge as of 2026.
The full policy engine, free
Accrual rules, carry-over caps, seniority entitlements, pro-rata for joiners and leavers, half-day and hourly leave — not just a calendar with a request button.
No card, no trial clock
Sign up and run absence management indefinitely for up to 15 people. Nothing expires, and you're never asked for payment details to start.
Approvals and an audit trail
Requests route to the right manager and approve in one click, with every action logged — the record HR needs when a balance is questioned.
Honest pricing past 15
Cross 15 people and it's a flat $0.75 per user per month, with all your policies, balances and history intact — no migration, no reset.
What "free" actually includes here
The free plan is the leave management product, not a teaser: a shared leave calendar and wallchart, request-and-approve workflows, real-time balances with automatic accrual and carry-over, every leave type (vacation, sick, personal, parental, unpaid, TOIL and custom), public holidays for 190+ countries applied per office, blackout periods, an in-app notification centre, email notifications, CSV reports, and the Slack and Microsoft Teams bots.
The basics aren't paywalled to force an upgrade. For up to 15 people you get the same engine a paying customer does — which is what makes it usable as your actual system of record rather than a stopgap you'll outgrow in a month.
Why give the whole product away free?
Most leave tools are priced for HR buyers at larger companies, so smaller teams either overpay or stay on a spreadsheet. Absenca's free-for-15 plan exists to be the genuinely better option for that smaller team — and the flat $0.75 per user past 15 keeps it cheap as you scale, rather than spiking the moment you add a second office.
The trade is simple: start free, keep the data if you grow, and pay a fair flat rate per user instead of being funnelled onto a card after a trial. There's no per-feature upsell and no "contact sales" wall for normal absence management.
Free, without cutting corners on accuracy
A free tool is only useful if the numbers are right. Balances reflect accrued-to-date plus carry-over minus what's booked, with part-timers pro-rated and public holidays deducted correctly per office — so an employee on the free plan sees a balance they can actually trust, and a manager approves knowing it's enforced, not estimated.
Why teams choose Absenca
- The full leave management product, free for up to 15 people
- No credit card and no trial countdown
- Accruals, carry-over, seniority, blackout periods and per-office holidays included
- Approval workflows with a complete audit trail
- Slack and Microsoft Teams bots included on the free plan
- Flat $0.75/user/month past 15 — keep all your data and settings
Frequently asked questions
- Is Absenca really free leave management software?
- Yes. The free plan is the full product for up to 15 people — calendar, approvals, accrual policies, carry-over, public holidays, reports and the Slack and Teams bots — with no credit card and no time limit. Most small teams never need to pay.
- What's the catch with the free plan?
- There isn't one for small teams. It stays free for up to 15 people with no card on file and no expiring trial. You only pay if you grow beyond 15, and then it's a flat $0.75 per user per month — among the lowest per-user prices around as of 2026.
- Is the free version feature-limited?
- No. It's the same engine paying customers use — accruals, seniority entitlements, blackout periods, half-day and hourly leave, audit logs and integrations — just sized for up to 15 people rather than cut down to push an upgrade.
- What happens when we pass 15 people?
- You move to the paid plan at a flat $0.75 per user per month, keeping all your policies, balances, history and settings — nothing is reset or migrated.
- Is this a full HR system?
- No — Absenca is dedicated leave and absence management, not a full HRIS, payroll or time-and-attendance tool. It does the time-off part thoroughly and works alongside whatever HR software you already use.