Are you looking for a detailed Kronos vs Replicon vs Time Doctor comparison?
Kronos, Replicon, and Time Doctor are three popular time and attendance software available today.
But which tool fits your needs best?
To help you out, we’ll compare Kronos vs Replicon vs Time Doctor in this article. We’ll highlight their key features and pricing details so you can make an informed decision when choosing your time and attendance software.
This article covers:
(Click on a link below to jump to a specific section)
Let’s jump right in.
Kronos vs Replicon vs Time Doctor: A detailed comparison
Kronos, Replicon, and Time Doctor are powerful productivity and time tracking software that can help workforce management in organizations and professional services.
Giving you the bliss of time and attendance tracking from literally anywhere, they aren’t just functional on your desktop but also on a mobile phone.
But how is each tool unique from the other?
Here’s a thorough look at what each software has to offer.
A. Kronos Time and Attendance: The big player
Founded in 1977 by two MIT grads, Kronos began by inventing the first microprocessor-powered time clock and evolved into one of the leading human capital management players.
It’s now a multinational workforce management software in the US that got rebranded as Ultimate Kronos Group (UKG) after merging with Ultimate Software in April 2020.
Key products
UKG provides end-to-end cloud-based workforce and HR management solutions to manage global work environments across diverse industries.
Its three essential products are:
1. UKG Dimensions Suite
UKG Dimensions offers advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning functionality for performance and time tracking, employee self-service, predictive analytics, and more.
It not only helps with time and attendance tracking but also:
- Assign and schedule tasks based on AI forecasting for easy project management.
- Manage and approve leaves effectively via automated predictions on employee leave patterns.
- Access real-time productivity and labor data through a simple user interface.
- Get various handheld devices, badges, and biometric terminals that offer employee data and reduce compliance risks.
2. Workforce Ready Suite
Offering powerful human resources management features, Kronos Workforce Ready is the cloud platform for end-to-end workforce management.
Workforce Ready Suite helps project managers:
- Set up goals across corporate hierarchies.
- Instantly access goal statuses and annual individual employee reviews.
- Create configurable workflows automating the performance review cycle.
- Receive automated alerts and reminders for streamlining feedback, approval, and project completion processes.
- Monitor and create employee training sessions via customizable reports.
3. Workforce Central Suite
Kronos Workforce Central Suite is an automated software that helps you keep labor costs in check and is well suited to organizations of any size or industry.
This tracking app provides:
- Automated time monitoring and real-time alert via emails and text messages (SMS)to manage overtime.
- Centralized policy management that suits complex compliance requirements, etc.
- Staffing forecasts through advanced optimization algorithms.
- Self-service capabilities for employees, including shift preferences, swapping, availability, etc.
- Instant access to project lists for easy task management.
Pricing
Kronos’ pricing can be difficult to track down, so you’ll need to reach out to them directly for a quote.
Depending on your number of employees, goals, and needs, be prepared to invest anywhere from $5,000 to $1,000,000. I know that’s quite a spread, but with these prices comes an intense support network, as well as a wide variety of specialized products.
Should you use Kronos?
One of the most significant benefits of choosing Kronos is the multitude of products that span the workforce management spectrum. They provide software that will handle hiring, scheduling, labor analytics, along with their time and attendance tool.
Their sales team will help you choose a product or a bundle of products that will help move your organization forward. They also have a cell phone application for tracking progress when out of the office and on the road.
Reporting happens in real-time, and your HR professional can preset company holidays and events to facilitate scheduling.
Finally, Kronos works seamlessly with your existing payroll service.
For small businesses, this is a huge help. It could save valuable work hours, which otherwise could be used for product development.
However, this tracking app has a few downsides.
For starters, Kronos is a Microsoft Windows-based program. This app could be a problem for you Mac lovers out there.
It also means that browser support would only come through Internet Explorer. These would be things to consider if you’re operating a tech company that favors different platforms.
There is no screenshot tracking feature, meaning you can’t verify the productivity of your employees.
While this might not be an issue for companies with deep pockets, we who count every penny to pay the bills may want to see exactly how their employees are spending their time.
Another downside is the lack of a manual time entry system or any offline operations.
Kronos doesn’t allow an employee to actively manage their time if the system was not operating while working. This issue could be a problem with some companies that value that flexibility.
B. Replicon: Counting in the cloud
Replicon is another international company that has taken the lead in employee management — bridging traditional time tracking and cloud-based services.
It’s important to be comfortable with their cloud-based approach, as there is no monitoring software you’ll download, and you are untethered.
Key features
Replicon offers several features, from essential attendance management to tracking billable hours, to suit various business needs.
You can choose to use their employee attendance tracker (formerly known as Replicon TimeAttend), which simply monitors attendance and can be used on a tablet, like any regular time clock.
Replicon’s advanced time clock is an excellent alternative to traditional timesheets or timecards and can be used to clock in employees’ time, manage breaks, and more.
Additionally, itsGPS tracking feature gives you real-time visibility into an employee’s GPS location — which can help manage remote and on-site teams.
This monitoring software also offers a dynamic approvals system to manage timesheet and time off approvals with notifications and alerts.
With their analytics feature, you also get access to easily configurable reports to get the bigger picture of your business’ performance.
Another cool feature that Replicon offers is its ability to customize your workforce needs to incorporate overtime, local legal requirements, independent contractors, etc.
This timekeeping tool comes with the ability to manually set your payroll requirements as defined by your local municipality. This would take away any legal guesswork and ensure you comply with the law.
The layout is softer than the Kronos tracking software. Each feature stands alone and can be accessed through the cloud, generating independent reports.
Replicon’s customer service track record is also excellent for its size.
They are known to resolve 95% of all customer concerns within the same day. This fast customer support could be a significant plus for owners concerned about reliability and support.
Pricing
Here’s a quick look at the pricing plans for its time and attendance tool:
- TimeAttend Quick Start: $30/month for five users ($5 per additional user).
- TimeAttend Plus: $8/user per month.
- Workforce Management: $12/user per month.
- TimeOff Plus: $6/user per month.
- TimeOff Enterprise: $8/user per month.
- Global Time and Gross Pay Automation: custom pricing.
Should you use Replicon?
Replicon might be a good fit for large companies that are well integrated into the web.
However, it could be a problem if your business conducts operations offline.
While Replicon has an offline timesheet feature, it requires you to fill out an HTML form and then email it to your computer from Replicon’s web timesheet server.
You’ll have to retrieve the timesheet from the email client (like Gmail), enter the hours manually, and send it back to the server — which can be quite a hassle.
It’s something to consider, especially since there isn’t a way for employees to manually enter their hours without doing so in real-time.
Another drawback is that there is no screenshot option, again leaving the question as to whether the employee’s completed the work or not.
C. Time Doctor (That’s us!): Includes time verification features
Time Doctor is the new kid on the block.
While Time Doctor lacks the history and infrastructure that Kronos has, Time Doctor makes up for it by dedicating its mission to make time management as easy as possible for businesses of all sizes.
Time Doctor’s powerful productivity management features make it a popular tool used by large companies and SMBs to enhance employee efficiency.
Key features
Time Doctor lets you:
- Track task or project time with a simple interactive time tracker.
- Access detailed performance reports for analyzing team productivity.
- See which websites and apps your employees use during the workday.
- Manage payroll for fixed salary or hourly employees and client invoicing with ease.
- Track time across desktop (Windows, Linux, Mac) and Android phone. It also has a Chrome extension for maximum ease-of-use.
- Monitor productivity across project management software like Basecamp, Jira, Asana, and Trello.
While timesheets and reports are easy to see and generate, they also come with a white label feature. So if you’re contracting your services to another company, you can remove any mention of the Time Doctor brand from your reports.
Send data to your clients with your branding, making you look like a superhero. It also makes Time Doctor a perfect time tracking software for agencies.
You can track employees’ work hours pretty easily with the time tracking app, and it has some cool little tricks that Kronos and Replicon don’t have.
For example, an optional feature allows you to take screenshots of your employees’ workstations to ensure they are productive. This feature could be helpful if you’ve noticed a drop in productivity or responsiveness.
Another cool feature occurs if the software recognizes a period of inactivity.
It will prompt you to indicate whether you’re still working. If there’s no response, Time Doctor will assume you’re on break and will leave a note for you until you come back.
Time Doctor’s GPS tracking feature helps track the GPS location of remote or field teams with the Android device app.
By far, one of the coolest options that Kronos and Replicon don’t offer is the ability for employees to manage their own time.
Using the two examples above, we can see how an employee can maintain their workstation ownership.
For example, if the software has taken a time-stamped screenshot while an employee isn’t productive, it can be deleted later. However, the time spent on that page will be deducted from their overall time worked.
Another feature that Time Doctor offers is the manual entry of time spent on projects.
Employees can manually insert their hours into Time Doctor; however, this is represented in the report. This gives autonomy to your staff while still ensuring maximum productivity.
Pricing
Pricing starts at $7/user per month and offers features like time tracking, unlimited screenshots, activity tracking, and more. Time Doctor also offers a 14-day free trial that requires no credit card information.
Should you use Time Doctor?
Whether you’re a freelancer, startup, or a corporate business, Time Doctor can perfectly fit your unique needs.
Besides an online mode, Time Doctor also has an offline mode to track work hours and productivity even when you don’t have an internet connection.
Here are some other benefits of using Time Doctor for time and attendance management:
- Time Doctor tracks activity in real-time on both desktop and Android app. Once you start the timer, it runs in the background without interrupting your work.
- Time Doctor reminds you to track time. It also reminds users to stop the timer when they visit non-work-related websites like social media and Netflix.
- If you go on a break, Time Doctor automatically stops tracking time after a specific period (the default period is three minutes).
- Time Doctor doesn’t allow you to allocate multiple activities to the time slot, preventing overbooking.
- Project managers can set different work schedules for different teams and see when someone is late, partially absent, or fully absent for any shift. This helps with efficient project management.
- Time Doctor offers several employee-friendly settings that can help you avoid privacy issues.
Moreover, Time Doctor provides excellent customer service to every client.
And when it comes to aesthetics, Time Doctor differs from the likes of Kronos by moving away from the classic look to a more modern interface.
Quick comparison
We have put in a nifty graph below indicating each software’s pros and cons to help you get a better understanding of which tool will work best for you.
| Kronos | Replicon | Time Doctor | |
| Website | https://www.kronos.com/ | https://www.replicon.com/ | https://www.timedoctor.com/ |
| Pricing | Custom pricing | Starts at $6/user per month | Starts at $8/user per month |
| Free Trial | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| Website Monitoring | x | x | ✓ |
| Real-time Reporting | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Employee Scheduling | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Screenshots | x | x | ✓ |
| Absence/Leave Management | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Manual Hours Allocation | x | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mobile App | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Live Customer Support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Final verdict
Well, there you have it.
Three great products for the time and attendance needs of your company.
Depending on your size, company infrastructure, and goals, one tool will probably be better than the other two.
Will you take the tried and true Kronos but be forced to part with a large portion of your budget?
Perhaps you like the adaptable Replicon capabilities and can rely on cloud-based systems 100% of the time.
Or will you rely on the handy and mobile Time Doctor to boost your business’ productivity and, in turn, profitability? Why not start by trying out Time Doctor’s 14-day free trial?
