Free for up to 10 people
A genuinely free vacation tracker for small teams
Track vacation days, PTO and time off for your whole team — free for up to 10 people. No credit card and no 14-day trial countdown.
Free for up to 10 people · 11 to 50 people: $37.50 a month on Pro
Not ready for an app? Free Excel template
If a spreadsheet is all you need for now, download our free Excel leave tracker template: one row per request, with leave type, dates, working days and status, and no sign-up or email gate. It opens in Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers or LibreOffice, and when it starts to creak you can import your people into Absenca from a CSV file.
Yes — Absenca is a genuinely free vacation tracker for teams of up to 10 people, with no credit card and no trial countdown. Many “free” vacation trackers turn out to be a two-week trial that asks for a card the moment it ends. Absenca's free Starter plan covers up to 10 people with the leave calendar, approvals, accruals and public holidays, for as long as you like. The Slack bot is on Pro and the Custom Pack, not on the free Starter plan.
It's built for small teams who just want to stop tracking time off in a spreadsheet, and to keep the same tool and the same data if they grow past the free tier, when Pro is $37.50 a month for up to 50 people.
What you get
The essentials, free for 10
Calendar, approvals, accruals and reports for up to 10 people, with the limits in the table below.
No credit card, no trial
Sign up and use it for as long as you like. There's no countdown timer and no card required to start.
Your own leave types
Set up 2 leave types on the free plan, such as vacation and sick leave, each with its own allowance and rules. Pro allows up to 20.
Grows with you
Pass 10 people and Pro is $37.50 a month for up to 50, with all your history and settings intact.
What's free and what's on Pro
Here is exactly what the free Starter plan includes and what needs Pro, read from the same plan settings as the pricing page.
| Feature | Included |
|---|---|
| People | Up to 10 free; up to 50 on Pro |
| Leave types | 2 free; up to 20 on Pro |
| Office locations | 1 free; 2 on Pro |
| Shared leave calendar and approvals | On every plan |
| Leave policies with accrual and carry-over | on every plan |
| Half days and hourly leave | On every plan |
| Public holiday calendars | on every plan |
| Google Calendar and Outlook sync | on every plan |
| Reports | on every plan |
| CSV export | on every plan |
| Slack bot | on Pro |
| Bradford Factor analytics | on Pro |
| Scheduled email reports | on Pro |
| Audit log | on Pro |
What you get on the free plan
The basics aren't paywalled: request-and-approve workflows, real-time balances, half days and email notifications cover what a small team needs to run its leave, rather than being crippled to push an upgrade.
Free plan vs a free trial vs a spreadsheet
A free trial gives you everything for a couple of weeks, then stops until you pay, so you set the tool up twice: once to try it and once to decide. A spreadsheet template is free for ever, but it has no approvals, no notifications and no balance that updates itself, and someone has to maintain it.
A free plan sits between the two: the real product, with no end date, for a small team. Compare what other tools charge in our Vacation Tracker alternatives roundup, or start from one of our free vacation tracker spreadsheet templates if a sheet is all you need.
Some tools are free for any number of users. Most of them are time trackers first, so check what their free plan covers for leave before you move a team onto it. Each other tool's entry below links to the page we checked it on:
| Option | Free for | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| A free trial | Everyone, for a couple of weeks | Stops until you pay |
| A spreadsheet template | Everyone, for ever | No approvals, notifications or balances that update themselves |
| Jibble | Unlimited users, free forever1 | A time tracker first: clock-ins and timesheets2. Public holiday calendars not mentioned1 |
| TimeCamp | Unlimited users, for time tracking3 | Time off and attendance start on paid Starter3 |
| Day Off | Up to 10 users4 | Day Off's accruals, carry-over, blockout dates, multiple locations and policies, and integrations come with Pro, not Free.4 |
| Absenca | Up to 10 people, with no end date | The Slack bot and Bradford Factor: on Pro and on Pro |
Is it really free — what's the catch?
There's no catch for small teams. The free plan stays free for up to 10 people, with no card on file. You only pay if you grow beyond 10, when Pro is $37.50 a month for up to 50 people, or $405 a year.
That pricing is deliberate: we'd rather you start free, stay if it's useful, and pay a fair price as you scale — than be funnelled onto a card after two weeks.
Set up in 10 minutes
Create your account, add your people one by one or import them from a CSV file, pick your country so its public holidays load, and set each leave type's allowance. From then on people request time off and you approve it. If you also need accruals, see how the PTO accrual tracker works.
Why teams choose Absenca
- Free forever for up to 10 people
- No credit card and no trial countdown
- The essentials for a small team, not a trial
- Slack bot on Pro
- Pro is $37.50 a month for up to 50 people if you outgrow it
Frequently asked questions
- Is Absenca really a free vacation tracker?
- Yes. Absenca's free Starter plan covers up to 10 people with the calendar, approvals, accruals and public holidays, with no credit card and no time limit. The Slack bot is on Pro and the Custom Pack, not on the free Starter plan.
- How many people can use the free plan?
- Up to 10 people. Most small teams never need to pay. Beyond 10, Pro is $37.50 a month for up to 50 people.
- What happens when we grow past 10 people?
- You move to Pro, at $37.50 a month for up to 50 people, keeping all your existing data, balances and settings — nothing is lost or reset.
- Do I need a credit card to start?
- No. You can sign up and use the free plan indefinitely without entering any payment details.
- Is there a free vacation tracker app for my phone?
- Absenca runs in the browser on any phone, so people can request time off and managers can approve it from their mobile on the free plan, with nothing to install.
Sources
- jibble.io/pto-tracking-software, checked
- jibble.io/pricing, checked
- timecamp.com/pricing, checked
- day-off.app/pricing, checked