Yes, some clock-in apps in Spain have a free plan. Before you pick one on price alone, it is worth checking closely what each free plan actually asks for in return. To be clear from the start: IDClock is not one of them.
Which apps offer a free plan
Clock-in apps on the Spanish market with a free plan include FicharApp (free, made in Spain), INWOUT (a free plan with no expiry), and Jibble (a free plan with unlimited users and facial recognition). Source: registrohorariodigitalgratis.es, “Mejores apps para fichar en el trabajo” (checked 6 September 2026).
The price of a free plan: biometric data
Jibble’s free plan includes facial recognition. As we cover in clocking in without a fingerprint, the AEPD has made clear that biometrics have no legal basis for a workforce’s ordinary clock-in in Spain, and it has fined real cases. A free plan that asks for every employee’s face is not free of legal risk.
What almost every free plan limits
Zero cost is rarely the real cost. Before you roll a free plan out to a whole team, check three points almost no free plan solves.
History and export
A review of free clock-in plans describes a repeated pattern: the clock-in history gets wiped after 30 or 60 days, and reports cannot be exported to Excel or PDF without an upgrade to a paid plan. Source: jorn-ada.com, “Apps de fichaje gratuitas: lo que nadie te cuenta” (checked 6 September 2026). Spanish law asks for the work-hours record to be kept for four years; a plan that deletes it after two months leaves a company with no proof to show the Labour Inspectorate on request.
Support and legal updates
The same source notes that free plans usually skip customer support and give no guarantee that the system gets updated when labour law changes. With a 2026 reform on digital time records in process, a provider that does not flag a legal change passes that risk on to the company on the free plan.
User and feature limits
Free plans also cut corners elsewhere: fewer geofences, fewer work sites managed at once, and features like shift management or absence tracking reserved for the paid plan. A growing company often finds the limit right when it needs it least.
What the law requires, regardless of price
None of this changes the legal duty. As we cover in mandatory time tracking in Spain, every company in Spain must record its workforce’s daily work hours since 2019, keep the record for four years, and make it available to the Labour Inspectorate. The law does not treat a free app and a paid one differently: it asks for a record that is reliable, objective, and accessible, at any price.
What IDClock is, and is not
IDClock has no free plan. The QR and NFC device plan costs €49.99 per month per device, with unlimited users and the device included: a company pays for each door it clocks in at, not for each person it hires. The location clock-in plan, with no device, costs €19.99 a month per company, with unlimited employees. We do not ask for a fingerprint or a face on either plan, and the history is not wiped after 60 days.
How to choose without regret
Before you install any app, free or paid, check four things:
- How long it keeps the clock-in history, and whether it reaches the four years the law asks for.
- Whether the record exports in a format the Labour Inspectorate accepts.
- What it asks for to clock in: a fingerprint, a face, or just a QR code or PIN.
- What happens to the price as the team grows: per person, or per device.
If zero cost is your priority, a free app may fit better, as long as you accept its history and support limits. If you want clock-in with no biometrics, a full history, and no price surprise as the team grows, request an IDClock demo.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a clock-in app that is 100% free with no time limit?
Yes, some free plans have no expiry date, like INWOUT’s. Expiry is not the only limit: also check how much history it keeps and whether it exports the record in a format that holds up to an inspection.
Does a free plan meet the law the same way a paid one does?
The duty to record work hours does not change with price. What does change is the provider’s ability to keep four years of history and to flag legal changes, something paid plans usually cover better than free ones.
Sources
- registrohorariodigitalgratis.es, “Mejores apps para fichar en el trabajo” (checked 6 September 2026)
- jorn-ada.com, “Apps de fichaje gratuitas: lo que nadie te cuenta (y cómo pueden salirte caras)” (checked 6 September 2026)